Off Topic The other Avatar (Last Airbender/Legend of Aang)

[Geoffrey Taucer]

So what do you all think of the upcoming movie?

I'm waffling back and forth over whether I want to see it. On the one hand, I absolutely LOVED the TV show. On the other hand, I'm not a particular fan of M. Night Shyamlanlnalanalnan, and even if I was, this sort of movie doesn't strike me as something that would fit his style.

Watching the trailers, some of the action scenes look cool, but none of the actors look right for the parts.

What do you all think?

(honestly, for me it may well come down to whether or not I like how they portray Iroh, since he's my favorite character in the cartoon)

 

[Cynical-Chick]

Watching the trailers, some of the action scenes look cool, but none of the actors look right for the parts.

Link Removed for that, mate.

I don't watch the show, but it does sound interesting.

 

[Linsul]

I totally agree about the actors looking badly cast. It's like they threw all ethnicity and culture out the window. I'm also nervous about the director.

I watched the full animated series, I loved it. My favorite character is Tof(sp?) the earthbender. My favorite episode in the series is 'The Fire Island Players' where a play is put on depicting the story of Aang & the gang. It was hilarious! If M. Night messes up the movie by using only effects and taking liberties with the story line I hope he never directs again.

@Cynical Chick: good links. Pretty much sums it up.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

I totally agree about the actors looking badly cast. It's like they threw all ethnicity and culture out the window. I'm also nervous about the director.

I watched the full animated series, I loved it. My favorite character is Tof(sp?) the earthbender. My favorite episode in the series is 'The Fire Island Players' where a play is put on depicting the story of Aang & the gang. It was hilarious! If M. Night messes up the movie by using only effects and taking liberties with the story line I hope he never directs again.

@Cynical Chick: good links. Pretty much sums it up.

I'd say Toph is my second favorite character.

Iroh is THE MAN.

 

[Linsul]

I'd say Toph is my second favorite character.

Iroh is THE MAN.

I love Iroh too, his tea obsession was great. Zuko would've been terrible without Iroh in the story. His insights really rounded him out and added complexity to his character. Azula was great too, terrible in a very entertaining way. Did you watch all the tv series? There's another episode that stands out as awesome too, about bloodbending. It's like waterbending gone darkside! Katara with that master was like Luke with the emperor lol!

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

I love Iroh too, his tea obsession was great. Zuko would've been terrible without Iroh in the story. His insights really rounded him out and added complexity to his character. Azula was great too, terrible in a very entertaining way. Did you watch all the tv series? There's another episode that stands out as awesome too, about bloodbending. It's like waterbending gone darkside! Katara with that master was like Luke with the emperor lol!

Got the whole series, and in fact I'm watching it again right now (just finished the the day of black sun part 2).

My feelings about Zuko are mixed. On the one hand, he has perhaps the deepest and most compelling backstory of any of the characters, and sometimes this really shines through in the way his character is developed. Other times, though, he sounds like his dialogue was written by a 12-year-old. The scenes with him and Mae were, I thought, especially cringe-worthy.

 

[Linsul]

Oh man, Mae was the biggest waste of space annoying character in the series!! I guess she sort of served to show why Zuko and Azula were so messed up. With friends like her how could you not be? Her voice drove me up the wall. She reminds me of eeyore from winnie the pooh, just way less cute and with a whole lot less reason to be consistently in the dumps. It was mildly entertaining to watch Azula go back and forth treating her like a friend and minion.

The Zuko scenes were dumb beyond belief though. They spend all this time developing his character just to have him with the least interesting person. As a good guy, her apathy should have made her repulsive. As a power hungry fire nation heir, she's just a political puppet arm-charm. Either would have been better than taking the 2 of them seriously together. The series creators tried WAY too hard to legitimize that lameness, and it diminished both. Zuko the angsty teen and his rich obnoxious girlfriend....yay :vomit:

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Oh man, Mae was the biggest waste of space annoying character in the series!! I guess she sort of served to show why Zuko and Azula were so messed up. With friends like her how could you not be? Her voice drove me up the wall. She reminds me of eeyore from winnie the pooh, just way less cute and with a whole lot less reason to be consistently in the dumps. It was mildly entertaining to watch Azula go back and forth treating her like a friend and minion.

The Zuko scenes were dumb beyond belief though. They spend all this time developing his character just to have him with the least interesting person. As a good guy, her apathy should have made her repulsive. As a power hungry fire nation heir, she's just a political puppet arm-charm. Either would have been better than taking the 2 of them seriously together. The series creators tried WAY too hard to legitimize that lameness, and it diminished both. Zuko the angsty teen and his rich obnoxious girlfriend....yay :vomit:

True.

Also, did they really have to use a voice actor with a lisp? I mean, I don't want to seem cruel, but when you have a character named Zuko who has a sister named Azula and a father named Ozai, it's kind of hard to take him seriously if he struggles with z's.

SPOILERS IN WHITE TEXT: HIGHLIGHT TO VIEW
That said, he had his moments, mainly during the second season. The way they developed him during the second season made it truly devastating when he sided with Azula in the catacombs beneath Ba Sing Se. Too bad he went downhill from there. (I was also annoyed that we never actually found out what happened in the end to his mother)

Despite the awkwardness of the romance between Zuko and Mae, I found the romantic tension between Aang and Katara to be pretty natural and genuine; hard to believe both appeared in a show by the same writers.

EDIT: as for Azula, it's hard to pull off a character that evil without it feeling like a cheesy stock evil-for-the-sake-of-evil villain. But they did an excellent job of making her truly loathsome without really pulling the viewer out of the story. While powerlust as a motive usually makes for generic villains, I thought Azula was very well done.

EDIT 2: After giving it a bit more thought, I sort of get what they were going for with Mae and Ty Li -- one eternally cheerful and fighting using only close-range combat techniques, and the other eternally downcast and fighting with only long-range projectiles. Obviously, they're supposed to balance each other out, but it really just didn't work in my opinion. Both came across as shallow, irritating and pointless.

 

[Linsul]

Also, did they really have to use a voice actor with a lisp? I mean, I don't want to seem cruel, but when you have a character named Zuko who has a sister named Azula and a father named Ozai, it's kind of hard to take him seriously if he struggles with z's.

LOL I totally agree, what gives with that?!

SPOILERS IN WHITE TEXT: HIGHLIGHT TO VIEW
That said, he had his moments, mainly during the second season. The way they developed him during the second season made it truly devastating when he sided with Azula in the catacombs beneath Ba Sing Se. Too bad he went downhill from there. (I was also annoyed that we never actually found out what happened in the end to his mother)

Doing the white text thing too. I couldn't even believe the catacombs betrayal!!! I thought he was over it, but Azula talked a good game. I think he needed to give the fam a last chance, or maybe test his newfound realizations vs their values. He came from a pretty serious heritage, and his dad did a good enough number on him that he probably felt compelled to go back. Reunification or going out in a blaze of glory were probably both good options to him. The betrayal put him in control of both options, which made it more understandable as the story played out. I'm annoyed at the mom story left hanging too!! The whole time I was expecting her fate to be some big reveal...maybe explain why Azula was so crazy. Nope!

Despite the awkwardness of the romance between Zuko and Mae, I found the romantic tension between Aang and Katara to be pretty natural and genuine; hard to believe both appeared in a show by the same writers.

I agree, they did a really good job making that believable. Though....Katara and Zuko could've bought us a new season I bet lol. Fire and water nation alliance through marriage? There's drama there!

EDIT: as for Azula, it's hard to pull off a character that evil without it feeling like a cheesy stock evil-for-the-sake-of-evil villain. But they did an excellent job of making her truly loathsome without really pulling the viewer out of the story. While powerlust as a motive usually makes for generic villains, I thought Azula was very well done.

I think her character was really amazing. Generic is a danger for straight up power hungry, but she was more than that. Clearly a disturbed kid that grew up with a mess of issues. Watching her try to interact without guile or contempt was great. Eventually even she would be disgusted with it and go back to being nuts. Her brand of megalomania combined with her young age made her normal seem vulnerable. Well done!

EDIT 2: After giving it a bit more thought, I sort of get what they were going for with Mae and Ty Li -- one eternally cheerful and fighting using only close-range combat techniques, and the other eternally downcast and fighting with only long-range projectiles. Obviously, they're supposed to balance each other out, but it really just didn't work in my opinion. Both came across as shallow, irritating and pointless.

Ugh they book ended two bad characters. Bad!

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

More white text:

Just finished watching the series (for at least the third time), and for all my complaints about Zuko, the scene near the end where he's reunited with Iroh makes me tear up every single time.

Of course, everything about those final four episodes is amazing. The visuals, the characters, the music (ESPECIALLY the music) are all at their best in those final four episodes.

One other loose end that never gets tied up; what happens with Azula? I mean, it seems like a bender that powerful can't really be imprisoned.

Also, this is only a minor question, but I want to know what happens in the end to the cabbage salesman.

 

[Linsul]

Pro at the white text thing!

I LOVE the Zuko/Iroh reunification scene too! It was perfect after watching all they went through separately and together. I'm going to get the soundtrack now, or maybe watch the final season again. I was too caught up in what was going on to pay a lot of attention. I did the same thing with Battlestar Galactica and was blown away by the music! Cabbage salesman LOL. I wonder if he has his own song at least I think Azula just goes nuts in a incapacitating kind of way. She was losing it pretty bad by the end! If they return the series ever I hope they get into that. Oh and maybe more of Zuko/Azula growing up instead of just isolated scenes. Only seeing bits was annoying! They should've made their dad scarier as well. The final battle could've been built up more I think, but I still loved it.

I REALLY hope they do the Northern Water tribe battle in the movie! Looks like they do, so I'm stoked! I hope they do it justice!

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

There doesn't appear to be a soundtrack available for the cartoon series. If there was, I'd buy it instantly.

 

[BlairBob]

I know virtually nothing about the show as I never got around to watching it much though my friend loves it.

It is Kung Fu. Nuff said.

M Night was supposedly doing this because his son loved the show I read.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Anybody seen this yet?

I hear it's terrible, but I'm probably going to see it anyway.

 

[CoachGoofy]

Anybody seen this yet?

I hear it's terrible, but I'm probably going to see it anyway.

Even if you overlook the whitewashing (which I can't. Seriously, where are all the Asian people?!?!?! It's an Asian SHOW), it's abominable.

 

[Linsul]

I saw it last night, and the whitewashing is even more ridiculous than the previews let on. Everyone but the main characters are Asian, so they stick out pretty badly. Pretty funny considering they were supposed to be traveling in secret at the beginning. The effects were cool, I wont say more on it so I don't spoil it but this: They decided to pronounce nearly every name differently than in the series. It was incredibly annoying. If you make a movie based on a popular series, shouldn't you keep the names the same just for the sake of continuity? Guess what Shamalamanight...your movie isn't original so quit being convoluted and tryhard with the characters names to seem unique, and stick with the series pronunciations!!

 

[Cynical-Chick]

Linsul, the Tomatometer has it at 8% from critics and 44% from the RT community.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Saw it.

I went in thinking "this couldn't possibly be as bad as everybody says it is, could it?"

*sigh*

Let me get the good stuff out of the way first: special effects and costumes were spot-on. With the exception of the whitewashed cast, everything looked exactly as I thought it should.

Nicola Peltz and Dev Patel both strike me as excellent actors whose ability would no doubt shine given a good script and good direction.

The earthbender had a certain snakes-on-a-plane-appeal. It's so hilariously bad that it's awesome. I burst out laughing at the synchronized earthbending dance; that was for me the highlight of the movie, for all the wrong reasons. I know it's an homage to similar scenes in the cartoon, but with cartoons there's a certain suspension of disbelief that makes such things acceptable. But when, in a live-action film, a group of five people suddenly form up and perform a perfectly synchronized dance in the middle of a battle, the effect is so jarring it's absolutely hilarious. If it were deliberate parody, it would be a stroke of genius.

Sadly, the rest of the movie proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Shyamalan does not possess such genius, and the awesomeness of that scene was purely by accident (which of course makes it even funnier).

The following people need to be banned from having anything to do with Hollywood ever again:
-Whoever decided that the leads should be played by white actors, but the extras should all be asian
-Whoever thought Asif Mandvi should be cast as a villain
-Whoever decided that any time somebody talks, the camera should zoom in close enough to allow us to count the pores on their faces
-Whoever wrote the script

Wait a second, that's all the same person, isn't it?

The scripting was terrible. The acting was, for the most part, terrible. The direction and cinematography were terrible. The fight scenes had too many random switches into and out of slow-mo. I know I already mentioned the acting, but Noah Ringer's acting was especially atrocious.

Also, I know this is a minor complaint, but why do civilians keep showing up in the middle of the battles? This was especially apparent in the siege of the north pole -- every single scene had children and other obviously-not-warrior characters randomly wandering around. If they knew the fire nation was coming, wouldn't the civilians retreat into a more remote part of the city? Did they all just stand around waiting for fire nation soldiers to come right up to them before realizing they were in danger? People seem to be going about their daily lives as usual, completely oblivious to the siege.

I'll probably rant even more about how awful it was in the morning.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

[youtube]iwccNqklC_k[/youtube]

2:04 = best part of the whole movie.

So hilariously bad.

 

[Sunobo]

That's such a shame. I had such high hopes for this movie and really wanted it to be good. Guess my kids knew better when they said it was all wrong and they didn't want to see it.