Oh I forgot to add this and editing would not bump it to the top...M. Night should cast himself as the cabbage guy...

That is genius Haissan!

I am glad you agree

So, has anybody seen this yet? It looks great. My daughter saw it and, for the most part, liked it. I've seen a lot of bad reviews, so let me know what you thought.
Slick

I've been debating on posting this for a while, but I saw a midnight showing on Friday. I have to say that I've never been so disappointed in a movie ever. This even surpasses Clash of the Titans.

The biggest problem with the movie is time. This was a huge sweeping fantasy epic. There is a lot of story to fit in. Unfortunately, it seems they cut it down extensively to make it more tolerable for children to sit through. In the process, a lot was lost. They moved through a half dozen Earth Kingdom villages, including Kyoshi, in less than 15 minutes. In short, it was all way to rushed. It need another 45-60 minutes to flesh everything out better.

There were a couple upsides to it. One was the 3D. Even though this film was originally made for 3D, it still came out pretty well. In fact, it was better than some of the movies I have seen that were actually produced in 3D, and it's one of the better live action 3D movies I've seen. There was no "blurriness" at any point in the movie, unlike other movies that were converted like the before mentioned "Clash of The Titans."

Also, the actors they choose look, felt, and even sounded like their characters. They cast people that fit them in almost every aspect. Hell, when Katara starts narrating at the beginning of the movie, the resemblance of her voice to that of Mae Whitman's is almost spooky. There was a cost to that though. They clearly cast on looks and resemblance, so the actors were rather green. The acting in the beginning of the film was amateurish at best, though it clearly improves throughout the film.

The ending battle at the Northern Water tribe was also pretty well handled, though they changed many things quite extensively. Also, one of the most emotional scenes from the whole series that occurs here was completely botched. The visual effects here were neat, but the emotional toll was completely lost. It didn't help that they completely skipped over the build up of Sokka and the Princess's courtship. They fell in love over a span of about 10 minutes.

Ang's kick ass scene at the end of the battle was also heavily altered as well. It was still pretty cool, but the over all mood and feel was altered due to the change. There was also no mention of the avatar state or how it works yet.

Also, M. Night felt the need to change the pronunciations of almost everyone's name. "Ang" is now "Ong", "Sokka" is "Sohka", etc. It wasn't a major change, but an annoying one. The pronunciation of "Ong" in particular seemed quite out of place, and many in the theater either laughed or cracked jokes every time it was pronounced as such.

It should also be noted that Sokka's character was altered heavily for the movie. He is often silly and goofy in the show and makes frequent jokes, albeit bad ones. The Sokka in the movie was dead pan serious. He hardly ever cracks a smile, except once or twice when courting the princess. In fact, he is so serious, he seems to be suffering from hyperthyroidism or perhaps severe constipation. His eyes appear ready to pop out of his head at any moment.

Overall, the movie suffered from very poor writing and adaptation. I don't know if this was caused by Paramount and Nickelodeon attempting to keep the movie in a certain time frame, or if M. Night just royally botched it. It was rushed and far too much was cut out. The Warriors of Kyoshi are completely absent from the movie, which means that if further movies are made, there will have to been even further dramatic alterations to the story line.

Pros: Some cool 3D visuals, strong special effects, actors resemble their characters quite closely

Cons: Well, just about everything else. Rush story, poor plot line and adaptation, often mediocre acting from obviously inexperienced actors

This had the potential to be an amazing fantasy film, perhaps even on par with Lord Of the Rings. But a dumbed down plot line, obviously done to appeal to impatient children, and unnecessary cuts kill it before it can get out of the gate. M. Night Shymalan royally screwed this one up. It's not his worse movie ever, but it's damn close.

This is probably the biggest disappointment of the year (so far at least.)

Wow! That sucks, but movies seem to always go that way. Horrible conversion process. So what would you rate it?

Honestly, that's a bit hard. It's a pretty botched movie, but I still enjoy the characters and over all story (what they left of it anyway.)

I'd give it maybe a 4 or 5 out of 10. So, about a C- . The ending battle, minus the Princess's big moment, would be a 6 or 7.

dragonrider_cody wrote:

Wouldn't a 4 or 5 out of 10 be an F? xD

Anyways, I originally planned to see this. I pulled out at the last minute though after reading some of the reception it had received. I'll say that generally I'm willing to watch a movie if it gets mixed reviews, but this was just panned pretty much across the board. No matter how objective a moviegoer I am, it's just hard to ignore that.

I work hard for my money and I certainly am not willing to drop about $9 to see a movie that generally appears not to be very good. =(

I grade on a curve...lol

I usually equate a 2 or 3 to an F. For instance, that's what I would give M. Night's "The Village."

Unfortunately, I paid $11 for this because of the 3D charge. And that was actually a dollar off, because it was a late night showing. **rolls eyes** At least there were no sparkling vampires in it....

fuck I posted this great long ass reply and the fucking thing, and I have a right to use f word in this case slow, did not post it dropped it...

in short,

the expectation that a movie which was timed to be the most tolerant for children of about 10-12 years and their parents who had to be dragged to this thing to fully condense very detail the 12 hour season held is unreasonable.

second, movies are rarely shot in order from start to finish, normally it is based off of what set is up at the studio, or what the location they are shooting at. you could have the beginning and the end shot within a week of each other and you haven't even got the costumes for the middle ready yet.

third, I went into this movie with the expectation that the movie would differ from the show. I went in with the mindset of an observer and one to take the opportunity to enjoy the show. Those who go in with a critical ye thinking, "How is it screwed up?" Will only find disappointment as in their mind thy have already decided that the movie was a flop and they were going to pick it apart.

fourth, I was disappointed King Boomie and jet were not included, but both play bigger roles in the second book anyway. Tsuki was not a really critical character and can be met up with on the way to ba sing se. The pronunciation was off, but at the same time other characters announced those same characters differently.

The whole green horn idea was a good move, those actors will work for a lower pay and they wont detract from the goal of the movie which is to tell the story. if Angelina Jolie was in it it would not be about aang, or the war or ending it, it would be about her and her boobs. Not only that how many movies were actually good that cam out that told a decent story? I can tell you that Movie she was in with the brother hood of assassins deal was based off of a comic book in the DC vertigo line, it wasn't even following the story all that well.

As far as the story being a little different from the tv show, it was one that shifted from the journey to the main mission, a regrettable sacrifice, but at the same time, important to allow 12 hours of story to be told in 107 minutes, 5 key events used, south pole, southern air temple, kyoshi village, Zhao's fortress, and the north pole. tells the story with mainly key events and gets the job done.

Well it was not exactly in a nutshell but this is the nutshell

I liked it and those who go into the movie expecting crap will only see crap, those who go in to see a story may actually enjoy seeing the story told with special effects.

You have to admit there weren't any deviations that were all that major. those that were there only moved the plot along without detracting from it. Oh and think about this one, if sokka and yue didn't have time to form a relationship, then aang and katara are the fastest learning water benders on earth as they were both performing spectacularly. That was the implication, they had been there for a while and studying and preparing for the arrival of the fire nation.

BTW didn't Zhao's actor look like M. Night? I got a kick out of it, I am still hoping M. Night makes an appearance as the cabbage guy.