Movie Review: "The Last Airbender"
Jul. 5th, 2010 09:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jpskewedthroneSo, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pbray and I went to see The Last Airbender this afternoon. This was not on our "must see" list for the summer (I'm dying to see Inception), but since it was like 100 degree out and neither of us have AC, we decided the movie price might be worth the cost of two hours of air conditioning.
It wasn't.
The movie sucked like you cannot even believe and I'm not even certain I can competently describe it. The acting was bad, starting with the first lines of the movie. The writing was bad, which was not a surprise since, as I discovered at the end of the movie, it was written by M. Night himself. I had gone into the movie thinking that someone ELSE had written this one and so there was hope that M. Night hadn't screwed it up. He did. The plot was horrible and had HUGE GAPING plot holes. And all of this came together in a convergence of sheer stupidity that I nearly walked out of. I only stayed for the AC and the many, many snide comments Patricia and I made to each other throughout the movie.
I think the major problem (besides having M. Night attached to it; why do they keep giving this guy money?) was that it didn't know what it wanted to be. Is it targeted toward the kids? Adults? Somewhere inbetween? I can see some of the horribleness coming from the desire to appeal to the kid market. But then they also seemed to want the adults to take the plot seriously, and in that there was epic fail. NONE of the kids could act. There were brief sparks or moments where I thought we saw the REAL character, the one that was supposed to be on the screen, but they were rare. The only actor who was actually good was the guy who played the uncle. HE was good. And his character should have gotten more screen time, since he became important to the plot AND was attached to the most interesting character out of the entire ensemble: the banished prince.
Aside from those two, everything else sucked, sucked, sucked, sucked, sucked. There are obviously supposed to be two sequels to this movie HOWEVER if there are, if the studio actually decides to fork over more money to this thing, they ABSOLUTELY MUST get someone different to write and direct them. If they don't, there is NO WAY I'll be dragged to the theater to see them.
Not even to escape 100 degree heat.
pbray and I went to see The Last Airbender this afternoon. This was not on our "must see" list for the summer (I'm dying to see Inception), but since it was like 100 degree out and neither of us have AC, we decided the movie price might be worth the cost of two hours of air conditioning.It wasn't.
The movie sucked like you cannot even believe and I'm not even certain I can competently describe it. The acting was bad, starting with the first lines of the movie. The writing was bad, which was not a surprise since, as I discovered at the end of the movie, it was written by M. Night himself. I had gone into the movie thinking that someone ELSE had written this one and so there was hope that M. Night hadn't screwed it up. He did. The plot was horrible and had HUGE GAPING plot holes. And all of this came together in a convergence of sheer stupidity that I nearly walked out of. I only stayed for the AC and the many, many snide comments Patricia and I made to each other throughout the movie.
I think the major problem (besides having M. Night attached to it; why do they keep giving this guy money?) was that it didn't know what it wanted to be. Is it targeted toward the kids? Adults? Somewhere inbetween? I can see some of the horribleness coming from the desire to appeal to the kid market. But then they also seemed to want the adults to take the plot seriously, and in that there was epic fail. NONE of the kids could act. There were brief sparks or moments where I thought we saw the REAL character, the one that was supposed to be on the screen, but they were rare. The only actor who was actually good was the guy who played the uncle. HE was good. And his character should have gotten more screen time, since he became important to the plot AND was attached to the most interesting character out of the entire ensemble: the banished prince.
Aside from those two, everything else sucked, sucked, sucked, sucked, sucked. There are obviously supposed to be two sequels to this movie HOWEVER if there are, if the studio actually decides to fork over more money to this thing, they ABSOLUTELY MUST get someone different to write and direct them. If they don't, there is NO WAY I'll be dragged to the theater to see them.
Not even to escape 100 degree heat.
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no subject
Date: 2010-07-06 01:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-06 01:57 pm (UTC)From what I've heard of this film, they did touch on all the major notes (specific events) but put the wrong spin on just about all of them (getting rid of all the humor, which wasn't silly in the show, it showed that although these kids were forced to deal with adult responsibilities they were still kids, and so the humor became poignant; giving all of the girl's triumphant moments to boys -- battles, heroic speeches -- and writing her as losing fights that she'd won in the series; letting all the major happenings be covered by voiceover; toning down the impact of the violence.)
no subject
Date: 2010-07-06 09:03 pm (UTC)Once I knew about the whitewashing I knew that I wouldn't be seeing the movie, but this confirms all of my worst expectations for the film.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-06 11:48 pm (UTC)novelists can't get away with doing that kind of "Telling not Showing". How can a movie?
And Katara's awesome.
It's Sokka that has some trouble at the beginning.
Additionally - the humor was what made the more angsty parts (like when Aang finds his mentor's bones) more tear-jerking.