The Last Airbender - Book 1

[Ya Mu]

Saw this last night. Focus on the main actor and this movie is fun. Watch anyone else and it is extremely disappointing (to me). Overall I enjoyed it because I like the theme, because of the main character, and because they said "Qi".

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

Maybe they said 'cheese' instead of 'qi'?

 

 

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/last_airbender/

[Ya Mu]

Maybe they said 'cheese' instead of 'qi'?

 

 

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/last_airbender/

Can't disagree with that rating. SO MUCH theme potential that did not manifest due to poor writing, acting, directing, and low budget. I thought the kid did well.

[VCraigP]

Can't disagree with that rating. SO MUCH theme potential that did not manifest due to poor writing, acting, directing, and low budget. I thought the kid did well.

 

I wanted to like it so much. My kids and I LOVE the animated series. the movie has none of the humor of its predecessor.

 

Perhaps its an insurmountable obstacle to take the many hours of the series and try to fit in the key elements into two hours. IMO it would have been better to add a 1/2 hour to develop the characters a bit more and maybe have a laugh here or there? On the other hand maybe more of the dialog in this case would have made things worse considering the lack of quality of what was done.

 

On the action side the bending scenes were - ponderous - in comparison the the speed of the animated series. Also I was hoping to see Aang do some Bagua as in the series, but I couldn't see much at all that even tried to represent that art, unlike the series which definitely has Aang doing Bagua techniques.

On the water bender side they were doing something somewhat representative of Taiji (single whip for example). But the bending mostly happened so slowly you could have run up and punched someone in the nose before they got finished summoning up their attack.

 

Also, watching it in 2D the action scenes often got blurry when a lot was going on. I assume this was because of it being shot in 3D. I haven't seen other 3D in 2D films do this ,as I can recall, so I can only assume that the criticism of 3D done on the cheap may be accurate.

 

Of course my kids (9 and 11) liked it alot. As far as positive messages I would have to say the Jackie Chan Karate Kid movie was far superior in that area.

 

My kids are eager to have the whole story told on film, but with the reviews I am seeing this seems somewhat unlikely now.

 

Craig

[Raymond Wolter]

Also, watching it in 2D the action scenes often got blurry when a lot was going on. I assume this was because of it being shot in 3D.

 

A big fan of the series here, watch it on Netflix every now and then. I was planning to watch the 2D version but it seems like a bad idea

 

Thanks Craig

[Qlites]

My friend and I was hurting emotionally everytime they pronounce Aang (Ong). I don't get it. The animated clearly pronounced it correctly why did they mess that up in the movie? And when Katara asked Aang for his name, she already call him by it. That was totally funny.

 

I think that they mispronounced Katara's brother name wrong too.

 

Agree, some of the movement scenes were blurr. Camera work was bad. The story felt very rushed.

 

Katara did the tai chi part really well. Aang is okay, but katara's actress did it pretty well.

 

There were two kids that were 6 and 7 behind us. They were so excited, especially when the Basin show up. Then we did not hear from them anymore. They were asleep when the movie ended. I am not sure when they lost interest. We could felt the energy of the audiences was not impress at all.

 

The new Twilight got better response.

Edited July 3, 2010 by Qlites

[effilang]

Holy crap, only 8 tomaters... A movie THAT bad hasn't been out in a long time.

 

Oh well, guess i have to watch Karate Kid for the 10th time.

Edited July 3, 2010 by effilang

[Trunk]

There were two kids that were 6 and 7 behind us. They were so excited, especially when the Basin show up. Then we did not hear from them anymore. They were asleep when the movie ended.

 

*yipes*

That's telling.

Haven't seen it, but from all this *ugh*, what an opportunity wasted: the source material really handed success on a platter.

 

p.s.

I read the reviews at Rotten Tomatos, wow. Spectacularly bad.

[Sloppy Zhang]

Hm, yeah, I'm a big fan of the series, and when I saw the previews

 

I'd say the animated series was near perfect as it was, but noooo, we can't have a "cartoon" be popular.... gotta make it "live action"....

 

There are just some things you can do in animation that you can't do in real life, or that are hard to do in real life, or that just look cheesy and stupid in real life.

 

I thought the animated series had great continuity when it came to the bending and keeping everything very stylistic, but really cool.

 

The whole series just fit together really nicely. It's sad that greed ruined another good thing

 

So I had no intention of seeing it in theaters, and now, probably never will see it at all.

Edited July 3, 2010 by Sloppy Zhang

[Aetherous]

Just saw it today.

 

The criticisms are accurate: bad acting from most of the cast, plot was rushed, lack of humor...

 

However these things didn't stop me from enjoying it! I give it a B-.

[Cloudhand]

Saw this last night. Focus on the main actor and this movie is fun. Watch anyone else and it is extremely disappointing (to me). Overall I enjoyed it because I like the theme, because of the main character, and because they said "Qi".

 

 

I saw it in 3d it was a real kick great movie and alot of fun for kids and I loved it too. Cloud

[voice]

My son (11) and I saw it, knowing that it would be bad, because we love the TV series so much. It was very bad. But, my son insists that it was better than "Toy Story 3"! Strange, because reviewers give TS3 99% at RT and give Airbender 8%! He insisted that TS3 was too childish for him. So, children can have a different way of looking at movies!

[Mal]

A shame, but at least I can still watch the original TV animation

 

I think TS3 does so well because my generation grew up with the characters and are now taking along their own children to watch #3

[Brian]

...

[Owledge]

The series is the masterpiece, so what did you expect? The movie is merchandise. Seems to happen more and more often these days in cinema. Money is everything that counts. The business sheds the last remains of what it originally was supposed to be - a service to the people.

 

 

P.S.: What do you expect from a movie directed by a night-shy himalaya?

 

P.P.S.: I'm sure the movie wouldn't be much worse in 1D.

Edited July 6, 2010 by Hardyg

[Sunya]

This movie sucked. I really enjoyed the series but the movie was just plain bad. I paid 14$ for a ticket to see it in 3d..ugh. The 3D wasn't really worth it.. and the movie itself has horrible script writing, not to mention terrible acting. If you're under 12 you might enjoy this.

[-O-]

A shame, but at least I can still watch the original TV animation

 

I think TS3 does so well because my generation grew up with the characters and are now taking along their own children to watch #3

 

 

MAL!!! - YOU'RE A PUPPY!!

 

 

The series is the masterpiece, so what did you expect? The movie is merchandise. Seems to happen more and more often these days in cinema. Money is everything that counts. The business sheds the last remains of what it originally was supposed to be - a service to the people.

 

 

P.S.: What do you expect from a movie directed by a night-shy himalaya?

 

P.P.S.: I'm sure the movie wouldn't be much worse in 1D.

 

 

Anyone know where to get at the original series?

 

My wife wanted to see it tonight until I reminded her that night-shy... whatever's movies always seem super interesting and generally result in a let-down. We decided to stay in instead. (ooo la la!).