The Last Airbender

[Dave (imported)]

From MOVIE MOJO

http://boxofficemojo.com/

1. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse $69,000,000

2. The Last Airbender: $40,650,000

3. Toy Story 3: $30,174,000

[Paolo]

I'd say with the Airbender fanbase so pissed off, the numbers for it will tank this week.

God, I hope he doesn't try to butcher Book 2 as well.

[JesusA (imported)]

The final two sentences of the review in the latest issue of the Christian Science Monitor: "'The Last Airbender' is like a Care Bears movie that got waylaid in the fourth dimension. It's insufferably silly." That's the most negative review I've ever read in the CSM.

[Dave (imported)]

The final two sentences of the review in the latest issue of the Christian Science Monitor: "'The Last Airbender' is like a Care Bears movie that got waylaid in the fourth dimension. It's insufferably silly." That's the most negative review I've ever read in the CSM.

And for summertime light-weight entertainment in a cool, air conditioned space, with snacks and soft drinks, "Insufferable silliness" is a winner. That's why it did 60 Million over the weekend.

[Dave (imported)]

I just watched it (this is now December 11th, 2010) on cable.

Shyamalan should never make another film. How can any writer/director take a story and adapt it into nothingness? Do everything wrong to the story. It's like he never watched the TV show.

I thought Paolo was angry because they screwed up the kid's side of it. Hell no.

The acting was non-existent and when they did act, the cinematography stepped on it and ruined it.

[twaddler (imported)]

Shyamalan should never make another film.

He seriously should have quit film-making altogether after Signs.

[Dave (imported)]

My criticism is far deeper than just -- he did a bad job...

The goofiness and ignorance the writers put in transformers (both movies) with the asshole parent and babyfied humor was overshadowed by the story and the action in the end. That can be forgiven. That can be overcome with a strong fan base.

Shyamalan simply destroyed a successful story. He somehow took a success and wrote it into failure by stripping out the best elements.

The action scenes work but there is so little appropriate buildup to the climax of the girl's sacrifice and the Avatar raising the water wall. The cartoon show writers handed him a perfect story and he chose to ignore all that they had done.

What did we learn from the adaptations of 300 and WATCHMEN? I can tell you for sure that Shyamalan learned nothing. Even the relatively awful adaptation of CS Lewis's Narnia which treats each adventure as an epic (they aren't and they come off as overblown and overbearing) but at least the Narnia movies can be enjoyed as fodder for the eyes. Shyamalan didn't even do that -- simply take the story and put it on the screen with earnest actors and well-written epic grandeur. It's what the old westerns had that we rarely see today - bubblegum and popcorn watchability.

There is a point in all drama where one character hits an emotional point with the audience and says something or does something that brings home the drama. It's the Brando line it ON THE WATERFRONT -- "I could have been a contender".

It's the Christine Vole line in WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION -- "And that is why I became a witness for the prosecution".

I just saw Talley's Folly by Lanford Wilson on the stage and there are two huge emotional moments. It's only got two actors on stage and the first big audience hush is when the man relates his families death at the hands of Nazis in WW2 and his belief that the world is so evil he will never bring children into it... and the second when the woman relates her history and reveals she is barren. And the audience understands why these two people stood on stage and talked of silliness and nothing for 97 minutes and why they should be together.

The Last Airbender contains big emotional moments and Shyamalan flubs all of them...

[BossTamsin (imported)]

What did we learn from the adaptations of 300 and WATCHMEN?

See, I really hate to see The Last Airbender compared to Watchmen. I really liked Watchmen, and thought it was an appropriate adaptation. (Giant squid aside.)

If anything, Watchmen suffered from trying to be TOO close an adaptation to the comics. They tried to please the comic fanboys by including every single element they could from a very densely written 12 issue comic. (This may be why fans decried the non-squid ending, while non-fans didn't understand everything leading up to it.) The extended DVD release version even has an option to interweave the Black Freighter storyline, to even more closely resemble the comic. It was a movie written by fans, for fans, that tweaked the ending for non-fans.

I do know what I'm getting Paolo for Christmas though. The extended cut of The Last Airbender.

[Dave (imported)]

See, I really hate to see The Last Airbender compared to Watchmen. I really liked Watchmen, ...

That's not quite the comparison I meant for anyone to take away from my writing. T

he adaptations of 300 and WATCHMEN

and a few other stories I didn't name were reasonable good. AIRBENDER suffered because it was a bad adaptation. It didn't satisfy the people who knew the story and it didn't satisfy the people who never saw the cartoon.

[PheonixStar (imported)]

I think everyone is striking at the wrong people for the movie as being a bad movie. Who financed this flick? What do the financiers see when they put up money for a movie?? The bottom line, of course. How much will this movie make for us. That is what the people with the money look at, not the movie.

So it had bad acting, a bad plot, a bad story line, and lots of funny stuff in it.

Personally, I liked it, and look forward to part 2, and then part 3; cause those parts will be made - especially since there is money to be made turning out - made for kids movies. As for the other movies the director was involved in, I have seen them all, and while I reserve judgement on several, they aren't as bad as the "Chuckie" films - or the "Saw" series - or the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series - or others along that line I can think of, but don't wish to spoil it for those who like those sort of movies.

But in defense, I don't go to see a movie, just to sit down later and nit pick it to death. I go for the pleasure of going to a movie, and if it is bad, but I like it, I will go back. If it is good, and I like it, I will see it again.

and regardless as to whether it was good or bad, if I like it, I will get a copy of the movie and save it for enjoyment.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it!:dong: