Avatar: The Last Airbender
 

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/image.../05/Avatar.jpghttp://cache.gawker.com/assets/image...9/05/patel.jpg

M. Night... You have my attention. Keep 'em coming.

So is this series good at all? Sell me on it.

M. KNIGHT SHAMMALLAMADINGDONG MUST BE DEAD BY NEXT YEAR FOR THIS ABORTION!

The cartoon is actually really good, and gets really serious towards the end...but I just don't see it being a good movie. Dunno...would gladly be happy if it proved me wrong.

Well, at least the kid looks like Aang, so it's got that over that shitty Dragonball movie.

Gotta admit I thought the idea was excessive, and I thought the choice of director was even more ridiculous. But maybe he's a fan? Perhaps he really wanted to do it. We'll see.

So after Slumdog Millionaire this was the only role to come across Dev Patel?

The topic doesn't interest me. Not really familiar with it.

Anyways, Shaymalan is awful.

Sixth Sense and Unbreakable are incredible movies. I was one of the split-pot that loved Signs too.

The Village was a massive dissapointment, and Lady in the Water and The Happening are two atrociously awful movies.
Don't know what happened there, but one of the most promising filmmakers of a generation has declined into one of the worst.

I don't see this as a big comeback, but I also don't see how it can get any worse for him. He's at rock bottom. Maybe making kids movies is his new niche.

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Why do directors do well when their kids pressure them into taking a project?

I bet Pier 1 made a fortune by selling all of those candles.

That....actually doesn't look half bad, as far as teasers go.

Also: that big animal of his is in, BTW.

Awesome. Flying giant six-legged buffaloes FTW.

A mate of mine is working for Weta on Avatar. That's all I know :(

Weta's on it? Nice.

I am not looking forward to this movie.

I'm not one to like anything resembling Anime but I have to say the show is really tight. Addictive, simple, and pretty intelligent

I avoided watching this show. Now, I have wiki'd it and am intrigued enough to start looking for some episodes.

I avoided it for a long time as well, until one of my friends practically shoved it down my throat. The show, I mean, not....never mind.

Anyway, the first season starts out pretty kiddy (since it was meant to be a kids' show, after all), until about halfway through when the writers realized that they were getting more fans in their teens and twenties, and started writing the show along those lines instead (while still keeping it family-friendly). The plot's fun, the characters are fairly interesting, the fights are awesome, and the humor is actually funny.

I don't want to hype it up too much, since the movie might suck, but still, you could do a lot worse than to check out the show.

That feeback literally came out of Nowhere, Man.

couldn't resist

bender

My roommate was hardcore into this show and I watched a bunch of episodes with him last year. It's pretty good for "gay china man cartoons" as my other roommate would say. Zuko's character progression and the entire third chapter are insane.

LOL

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Well I'll be damned.

Looks hot.

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Terminator Salvation just got usurped for having the most badass movie trailer.

http://moviesmedia.ign.com/movies/im...9111620120.jpg
http://moviesmedia.ign.com/movies/im...1265409207.jpg

ROFL

AirBender

Sorta sounds like a derogatory gay term.

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cannot WAIT for this movie. loved the series surprisingly, kid show, but still pretty entertaining for adults as well.

I'm going to use it as such now.

It's sad how James Cameron's "masterpiece" prompted them to remove "Avatar" from the movie's title.

We'll live.

Yours are a strong people.

Anyone see this yet? Word on the steet is that it's the worst movie of the year.

That's what I've been reading.

Everyone's better off catching the cartoon.

Word on the street is that every year M. Night makes a movie it ends up being considered the worst of the year.

I haven't seen this yet and don't really want to, so I can't judge, but it looks awful and I don't doubt it does suck from the massive blasting of it.
What the fuck happened to him? He went from top notch and promising to the worst director on the planet.

That, sir, is the $64,000 question.

I think the problem is probably that he has a massive ego and has to write everything he directs. He's not a good writer anymore.
He had some very good concepts at first, but he exhaused them and now that success has gone to his head and he insists on having 100% control over everything he does, and it ultimately ends up being 100% shit.
He is pretty good behind the camera. His career would probably be far better off if he took some good scripts from other people and put his talent to them, but he seems hellbent on making pretentious movies full of exposition and facepalm moments, that more often than not revolve around him.

It's a shame, because Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs are three movies I adore, while everything since then has been some of the worst big budget moviemaking I've ever seen.

He's great at making trailers. He could probably make more money just making trailers for other people's movies.

Guys I saw it with my little brother and sister. Needless to say, when my brother turned to me and said "this sucks", I knew Shymalamadingdong had failed. There were literally so many things wrong, I honestly have no idea where to start.

Aside from the fact that alot was cut out (which I suppose could be justified but remained annoying), many little things were changed for little to no reason that made it hard to endure for those who enjoyed the show.

For those who didnt know the show and were new to it were pretty much left for dead thanks to the flat script and two dimensional acting.

I'm not sure what happened during Lady in the Water, but I had heard that Disney got wind of how bad the movie was and they essentially told him that it sucked too much to put out under their name, and he was told to change it, and he left.

It got made elsewhere (WB I think?), but that was pretty much his undoing. The word at the time was pretty much that he'd lost his mind and it was the beginning of the end. I think I also heard there was a book about the whole ordeal released around the time of the movie.
I am going to look into it.

I swear to God, I think Lady in the Water is the worst real budget movie that I have ever seen in theaters.
I have seen worse movies in my life, but they are either B-movies, low budget crap, or straight to television/dvd garbage. Or they are flops I have happened to see years later.
As far as I can remember, it's the worst movie I have ever gone and seen in a movie theater.

He is also getting killed, because he didn't cast any Asians in the movie.

Started watching the cartoon the other night after I got tired of the queerfest that is Legend of the Seeker. It's certainly a fun and entertaining show, and it's a shame to see the movie get hammered this hard. Then again, with M Knight Sherman Tank onboard, I kind of expected it.

Did anyone catch that Rufio was talking a boycott of the movie?

He did but they were minor characters, literally showed up in half of a scene. GOD THE DIALOGUE WAS SO BAD

I'm curious where his career goes from here though. I can't believe he was allowed to make this after the last few movies.
After Lady in the Water, he tried to go for an R rated picture, after that he tried to go for the children's movie genre. What is next?
I'm curious if there reaches a point where studios just stop hiring him to direct movies.

When it rains it pours.

I see on IMDB "Signs" is rated 6.9. That's not a bad rating on Imdb, but that was a pretty good movie. Maybe even better then a pretty good movie. That deserves better then 6.9.

That's just M. Night backlash.

Signs has a lot of detractors too. Not near the movies that came after it, but it seems like people either really loved it or really hated it.
I know a few people who think it sucks. I don't see why. I think it's fantastic

Then The Village had a lot of people who hated it, and some who liked it. I was really disappointed in The Village. It wasn't an awful movie like Lady in the Water or The Happening. It was interesting, well made and creepy for about 3/4 of the film. Then the obligatory twist undercut the whole thing and killed the movie. That's why it's really disappointing, because there was a good movie in there that was lost.

Normally I don't pine about how the story should have gone, as long as it's a good story and well executed. The twist was so assinine and damaging though. It changed what the entire enjoyment of the film was about. That's part of the deal with twist endings. If you're going to do them, you have to be prepared for people to have an opinion on the story because you're changing it on them once they're invested, rather than just telling it your way.
In that respect, I think it's more warranted for audiences to speak out on "what they would have done"
If you pull a bait and switch you have to make sure the switch is better than the bait.

I always wished that movie continued to shine all the way through.
For those who remember the plot, I always sort of felt that having the creatures in the woods end up being real and even scarier than the ones the elders posed as would have been incredible. It could have turned out that the elders were posing as them just to keep the people from actually going into the woods.
Someone should have told him that he had a good story there and didn't need to force an awful twist.

Perhaps he felt that's what he had to do everytime he made a movie? Or perhaps he became addicted to the idea of working the audience? Either way it was a mistake. He took the suprise ending thing one movie too far, and he became kind of a joke at that moment.
I think that's probably what led him to try to get away from his style, and slowly get worse and worse. That and supposedly being batshit crazy.

That right there is all the proof I need that Newsweek is full of shit.

lol

Seriously that cover is the funniest thing I've seen in days

signs was an 8 out of 10. It was smart, dramatic and had build and mystery behind it.

Six Sense was a 9 out of 10. Love this movie and could watch it again any time.

The Village was a 4 out of 10. Miserable film with very little redeeming qualities

Lady On The Water was also a 4 out of 10. Blah. Paul Giamatti didn't even save this shite.



The Happening was also a 4 out of 10. Not at all what it looked like and not at all good.



I wanna see Airbender but I would be even more excited if he wasn't the director...I really did love him in the 90's and early 00's but since then he has done shit movies.

ahahaha this was soooooooooooooooo bad. Acting was the worst I've ever seen, but hard to blame them with the terrible dialogue they were given. The other stupid part was that EVERYTHING was narrarated and explained instead of actually showing it through good writing.

Finale was pretty cool though.

so it is another Star Wars Episode 1 then according to your analysis.

Far far worse.

Not sure why The Happening gets ripped so much of his latest movies I thought it was definetly one of the better ones sure it wasn't anything special but I was watchable a least I thought.

Also schlomey, you forgot Unbreakable. Awesome movie.

Unbreakable was awesome.

The Happening gets ripped because it was horrendous, just to clear that up.

This wasn't very good...they change the pronunciation of names too for no reason whatsoever. If the source material was a book or something I can understand, but the source is a cartoon so there should be no misunderstanding.

It's fantastic as long as you don't stop to think.

I imagine The Last Airbender is similarly fantastic as long as you don't stop to think.

Are you one of those people who bitches that the aliens want to take over earth but are allergic to water?

There's also a difference between a movie being poorly made, and having a problem with the logistics of the premise

i forgot it because I have yet to see it :(

I don't bitch. I was actually amused. But is that really the only thing you can think of that was logistically wrong?

And can you really not find elements besides logistics?

I'm sure you could make the same arguments with TLA. I mean, just because the script is poor and they left things out doesn't mean it was "poorly made."

Hell, I'm half-tempted to watch "The Lady in the Water" now to see if I could apply it there.

I found Signs interesting and suspenseful for a thriller about alien invasion, and quite liked the premise examined from the POV of a family rather than a large scale world event.

I thought LIW was a droning, pretentious, awfully paced, boring and convaluted movie that was horribly made and written.

It's a matter of taste I guess

What a goofy fucking movie. Many hilarious moments though. And lol at Aasif Mandvi as one of the main villains.

I just finished The Last Airbender's entire series and I'm interested in seeing a) if the movie is actually as bad as people say or if it's prejudice against a director with a 50-50 failure chance and b) if it is bad, how in the blue Hell M. Night turned quite possibly the greatest American contribution to animation into a terrible movie. Probably gonna watch it next weekend.

I haven't seen the series but I feel like the greatest American contribution to animation would probably be Steamboat Mickey, or Snow White, Toy Story, or something like The Simpsons.

That's fine.

I say that just based on influence on animation and importance, not really taste or quality (although they're all awesome.)

But anyways, everyone seems to love the cartoon of this so much though that I'd like to see it. I can't believe it's a "Nicktoon"

It's 'wtf' good. Sort of like JLU where you wonder why more cartoons aren't this good. Season 3 has gimmick episodes (as most shows do in their end points), but Avatar's end game gimmicks are fuckin entertaining and awesomely random. You will not believe they used the typical 'beach' episode to homage a Breakfast Club-like 'share feelings' scene; and that's not even a spoiler by the time you get there it will work.

Season three also has Indiana Jones, superhero, and horror story gimmicks - and they all work. Season 1 and 2 owns, of course but S3 blew me away by taking a common weakness and rocking with it.

Netflix now.

Yeah, but they're not Animu style so Kal won't fap over them.

The cartoon's pretty damn good, I must say. I started watching it recently, whcih had less to do with the movie and more to do with it being near the top of my Netflix Instant Queue now. As it is, I'm only seeing the movie in theaters if I can go with friends.

But they did good with this. It's cute, sometimes overly so, but it's got well developed characters, an engaging story, depth and heart. And while I'm not going to go all "fanboy" on the movie, it took me all of four episodes to figure out that there was no way they could do a solid translation of each "book" of the series in a 1:1 format.

One of the big complaints about the movie is the characters were largely left on the cutting room floor. Their personalities, their backstories, their motivations. And while the faux kung fu is cool, without the characterization of the show, it's not going to be all that charming.

Granted, I'll probably rent it for the HD Kung Fu factor. I just can't see it being good because most of the things that make it good won't happen in a 90 minute movie. The episodic nature of the cartoon works pretty well for it, as opposed to benig a Simpsons-esque "The Status Quo Is God" deal (not to pick on the Simpsons, since they parody, you know, every sitcom ever).

That being said, There was bound to be nerdrage over a believed cartoon, even if the movie was good and M Nuit Sherbert wasn't attached to it. It's a common problem with translations, period. It's just that it looks like they may have missed the mark here entirely.

I can see this being like the "His Dark Materials" series.

The Golden Compass was actually a pretty entertaining book with a unique premise and a hell of a twist ending. The first sequel was decent, but not nearly on par with the original. The third book was terrible and I only finished it out of a hope that at some point he could fix the damage he'd done. Then, it was released as a film, which was absolutely horrid and left out the twist at the end that made the sequels happen in the first place. The movie was so bad, that was the last we've heard of the proposed trilogy. I doubt we'll ever see the other two movies get made unless somebody steps in and "reboots" them (since that seems to be the trend). Why bother making sequels from inferior source material when you can't bother to make a good movie out of the one great story in the bunch?

"Avatar: The Last Airbender" was an incredible series. As has been mentioned, the third season wasn't quite to the level that the first was, but it wound up building to an incredible climax that satisfactorily wrapped up a very well-done cartoon. And then M. Night Shyamalan made the movie... I don't think we'll see sequels.

Or, rather, I won't see sequels...

There'll be sequels, it made dough. M. Night may not return. They want the trilogy trust me, this is Nick's big blockbuster series.

I see what you're saying, sort of, but TLA did thus far about a million less than what The Golden Compass did total. And that's not factoring in this weekend. It has less to do with the later, possibly inferior books than it does with the box offices being shite. Sometimes, it's for the best that we won't see sequels (Hitchhiker's Guide, Eragon, possibly TGP) and others will probably kill any hope of a franchise (Though if The Seeker is the best they could do with the Dark Is Rising, it deserved to die), but it's mostly about the money.

If TLAcontinues to make money, we will. See. A sequel.

In fact, we'll probably see one anyway.

Personally, I think the lack of imagination in the movie hurt TGP more than the lack of the "twist ending." Either way, it could be as bad as Eragon, and still get a sequel if it did as well as say, the Narnia movies.

http://i45.tinypic.com/bg2r0n.jpg

That's Earthbending in the Last Airbending which just kills me. 7 guys to float one little rock? Seriouslly?

Just no...NO!

Worst. Hadoken. Ever.

Yeah, I was at least expecting cool fight scenes, but besides the finale, they were all pretty lame. I'm the type of person who can relax his criticisms, and enjoy these movies for what they are. So for me to have enjoyed this so little, is pretty telling.

I mean I enjoyed Transformers 2 ffs.

Also, nice to see kalyx making bold statements about the animation, bordering on retarded. Never change, guy.

"Bordering on."

The cartoon was awesome, what of it?

Ok, don't really have much to say about this movie or the cartoon, but Signs...

It was a great movie right until the end. Sorry Jerry, but I was drunk when I saw the shit and even then I was like "are you shitting me? How would they not burst into flame just stepping out of their ship? Humidity is a motherfucker!"

I dunno, I still think Signs was pretty mediocre. The "Family perspective" would have worked better if any of them had personalities, or a real dynamic. Almost everything in the movie was flat, understated, subdued, and muted. I mean, you can say "that was the intent," but that's totally bad for a suspenseful movie.

I mean, ignore the logical constraints, and I still think it's retarded to say that a movie that is supposed to build like this should divorce itself from logic, by the climax, I didn't give a shit whether or not anyone lived or died. You don't even need to get into the fuckers running through damp crops at night. It's all predicated on bullshit.

Never said it wasn't. But "awesome" and "greatest contribution to American animation" are two very different things.

Okay.

Haters gonna hate

Do you care to share any reasons for your stance Kalyx?

Actually I caught what may have irked a few of you the wrong way but it would be pointless to explain myself beyond my original point. I feels how I feel, that's it. Sure that's a far cry from my VG forum antics but I pick my battles outside of that region.

If I were to list the top ten cartoons I feel added to the overall scheme of things, I'd be adding Avatar to the list. Placed rather high. Perhaps I phrased it wrong before, and if that makes you feel better than go with it.

I think Avatar's important overall.

I'm not asking you to prove the validity of having an opinion. I'm just curious to hear actual reasons. That doesn't seem like the type of claim one would throw out without having an actual argument, I'd think.

Well it goes into the culture of animation, but first some personal history...

I first heard about Avatar when everyone else did. I saw a commercial and figured, "Nick's licensed anime? Odd." Paid no mind that season. I first saw a few episodes in the second season and while completely lost story wise, I seen enough to find out not only was it American, but a damn good show. This was also the time I stopped watching TV so I didn't follow from there - figured I'd catch up via DVD someday. I heard about the awards and the rabid fanbase years since. When the movie was announced I was doubly interested; a cartoon adaptation made by M. Night. So I figure the cartoon's on Netflix and I could get the first season out of the way before I see the movie and be 'in the know' as far as source material goes. I ended up finishing the series.

Years ago when I was pleading with my friend to give Avatar a chance I tried to coax him by likening it as "American-Anime". I was wrong in hindsight; Avatar is very American 'toon, but also anime... And now that I finished the series, I can say trying to label it either is foolish. Without even mentioning overall quality, I was simply impressed with how the many influences the creators drew together meshed so well. The tropes of both cartoon and anime combined to be something rather transcendent, and greater than both. I last felt this way about JLU, and I thought about how all the great cartoons seemed to have qualities of both media to help it ascend beyond the bullshit flash animation cash-in vest that is current animation.

Or maybe it's just a good show.

Anyway I feel Avatar joins the ranks of the great animated series, rubbing elbows with the likes of Samurai Jack and Batman TAS, because you can't quite nail what it is. And then you feel silly for trying. It just is. It just works. And I'm proud that a few Yanks put it together on a personal level because our shit-to-awesome ratio is lopsided as fuck. For this alone I rank Avatar as one of the most important American contributions to animation in general. It's a modern cultural thing, I try not to subscribe to the notion that all the best examples are the old ones. The Black Cauldron and The Lion King were great, I get it.

Sorry if any of this seemed "bold", I meant no attention grabbing hyperbole. This is just how I view things based on what I know.

I'm definitely going to check it out sooner or later. I usually loathe most modern animation styles, but Avatar looks pretty good, and I hear good things about the quality of the show itself.

A lot of new cartoons seem too stylized, to the point where they seem like they're trying to be different for the sake of being different. Either that or they're incredibly bland.
Perhaps it's just my tastes being dialed into the styles I grew up on. With older cartoons, a lot of them are refreshing in their colorful simplicity. Others feel unique and creative without coming off as trying too hard.
This does look nice though. I also liked the art from Samurai Jack and the Clone Wars cartoons, as far as modern stuff goes.