The Sphere
General Garbage => Tropical Paradise of Hard Shelled Fruits => Topic started by: B E C K on Feb 11, 2010, 04:45:01 PM
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This is where I bitch and moan and whine about M. Night Shyamalan's latest fuck-up, The Last Airbender. This is a live action film based on the Nickelodeon animated series "Avatar: The Last Airbender". [NOTE: it could not be called "Avatar" anywhere in the title for the movie due to James Cameron. I may call the TV series Avatar here so don't get confused.]
Here's a bit about the series in as few words as possible --
Avatar: TLA was divded into three books: WATER, EARTH, and FIRE. Each one of these was a season of the show, so yeah, three seasons. The Avatar is a single being that appears once a generation or so. They are born with the ability to master all four elements AIR, WATER, EARTH, and FIRE. The world is also divided into nations that match the four elements. The Avatar is born to one of these nations (each one gets a turn basically) and must venture to the other countries to learn the other three elements. Not everyone in the A:TLA universe can use elemental magic, but some people can. These people can only use their own country's element:
The AIR nomads: Based off of Tibetan monks. Unlike the other three, every AIR nomad is an air bender. The Fire Nation killed all of them but missed Aang, who happens to be his generation's Avatar.
The WATER tribe: Based off of Inuit people, these are generally dark-skinned people who live in ice dwellings at the North and South poles. In the North, the women water benders heal and the men water benders fight and they have an enormous ice city. In the South, both genders fought but the Southern people were nearly decimated.
The EARTH kingdom: The largest country and most diverse group based off of China, Korea, and some of Japan and India. Ruled by the Earth King. Not affected as much by the war as the AIR and WATER people.
The FIRE nation: A small but powerful, semi-industrialized, and colonial nation influenced primarily by China. Ruled by the Fire Lord. They had the last avatar, Avatar Roku. After Roku's death, the Fire Lord ordered the Air Nomads destroyed in order to kill the next avatar and end the cycle. They are on a campaign to take over the world.
This is someone's fan art but it gives a nice over view of the characters, their costumes, and how freaking Asian they are.
Also, some Water Tribe folks.
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Here's how they casted most of the primary characters. Light characters turn dark, dark characters become white people, and there's not one slanty eye in the bunch.
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Behold, the Fire Nation becomes Indian overnight:
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Soon after the casting was announced, co-creater Bryan Konietzko drew the following picture:
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And not even one hot guy!
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And not even one hot guy!
I call this lacking The Hot Guy Quotient or Dismissing The Boone Factor. I think too many movies and shows ignore the need for a hot guy. Also, Chris Pine and Channing Tatum are not hot. They are douches. The Heroes guy playing Spock was hotter than Chris "Asshat" Pine.
Common fan crush Fire Nation Prince Zuko should've been someone hot. At first they casted Jesse McCartney and people were all "FTW, everyone's white".
Then he mysteriously dropped out and Slumdog kid Dev Patel is casted as Zuko, when it's glaringly obvious not only is that even more wrong than casting Jesse McCartney, but that fun-loving Dev is a better fit for Sokka, one of the other male leads. Merla, a confirmed Zuko fan, was in much disappoint.
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The Martial Arts
In A:TLA, Aang, the hero and avatar, must master the other three elements in order to be powerful enough to face the Fire Lord. As I said in the other thread, all of the bending from the four nations was based on real martial arts coordinated by real martial artists, Sifu Kisu and his friend Sifu Manuel Rodriguez, and brings in Northern Shaolin, Southern Praying Mantis, Hung Gar style Kung Fu, Tai Chi, etc. Instead, the movie producers said "No, thanks." From the looks of footage, the martial arts looks like ass. Sifu Kisu posts at AvatarSpirit.net (http://forums.avatarspirit.net/index.php?topic=17315.0) and some other places as lokhopkuen.
M. Night originally wanted me to train the actors and help with the Martial Arts in the film but well it didn't work out that way....
The length of time to create the battles depends first on what the script for that particular show calls for and how many beats of action are in a particular sequence. To map it out we meet several times over a three - Four week period while the director and the storyboard artists map out the various framing and camera angles. When all of this is set I come back in and they film the active martial art movements from the required angles framed in the manner selected by the director then the boards are sent away to the Korean animation houses for "tweens" and final animation. When all is said and done we have spent over $1,000,000 dollars per each episode from start to finish.
No not really. I had a breakfast meeting with the director at the Bel Air hotel
where I explained my philosophies about bending and how it's manifestation was built on "coming from and going to" not just appearing out of thin air for no reason. That it required impetus flowing from beginning, middle to an end. If you look at your favorite characters and their bending styles you'll see how it all starts from the breathing. Breath was a tricky concept for the animators because unless it is highly exaggerated it just does not register on screen. I was tickled later to read an article in some magazine where M. Night quoted me word for word. (no credit given LOL!)
M. Night considers himself a martial art enthusiast as he has studied Kenpo for many years and he thinks outside the box as you can see from his body of work in film. One of the last conversations I had with one of his underlings was that "they decided to go in a different direction martial art wise"....
M. Night sticks his foot in his mouth (http://www.ifmagazine.com/feature.asp?article=3413), again:
What is funny is that you can see so many influences in the cartoon with scenes almost copied entirely from martial art movies, but I wanted the live action film to be truly original with action scenes you had never seen before.
WRONG.
Well when I first saw the trailer I got excited because the special effects looked great (barring the ((less than polished)) martial arts staff sequence which I overlooked with sympathy 'cause I told them "how" to make it right and apparently the martial art is not priority...) the more I hear about elements related to the film, the fact the guy lies about the silliest things, the race issue (sad) all puts it way on the back burner of my movie go see list.
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BTW, The Last Airbender is supposed to be one of three movies, with each movie representing a book/TV-season of the show.
FOOTAGE
First Trailer - feature=related
Behold the poor stick work, among other things. This looks like a kid who got into the props closet. The character of Aang is not a novice martial artist. This fails. Visuals are gorgeous at least.
Superbowl Spot - feature=related
Notice the oddly placed white folks in an Inuit village.
Second Trailer - If only the casting was decent, costumes weren't a little less off, and the martial arts competent (1:12, I'm looking at you) because again the visuals are stunning. How did they get the sets so perfect and the people so terrible? Too bad.
Also, the chick playing the female lead, Katara, is the bratty daughter of Wendy's owner billionaire Nelson Peltz. I don't know what I hate more about her as Katara: that goldfish stare or her simpering during her one line in the trailer. I call bullshit and bet daddy bought her the part. Fuck them and fuck their chicken nuggets. A self-serving blurb about Nicola Peltz. (http://justjaredjr.buzznet.com/2010/02/03/nicola-peltz-the-new-envy-of-all-girls-everywhere/)
Executive Producer Frank Marshall had the balls to say casting white folks as the main characters was meant to promote "diversity" or some bullshit like that.
Among those who disagree are Roger Ebert in his Answerman column:
The original series Avatar: The Last Airbender was highly regarded and popular for three seasons on Nickelodeon. Its fans take it for granted that its heroes are Asian. Why would Paramount and Shyamalan go out of their way to offend these fans? There are many young Asian actors capable of playing the parts.
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Merla adds that Zuko is not properly scarred. It looks better up close but the distance shots create a bit of a problem, especially since they gave Zuko a head full of hair when he's not supposed to have one yet.
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I know little of the show other than the hilarious antics of Zutara psychos, the ED page and basic characters, but holishit what's with that fucking cast list? o.o No Asians? Why the changes ?
This movie will be fail and make Avatar fans super rage.
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The ED page including what happened to Sifu Kisu? Something about people shipping him with Avatar characters like he was a fictional character himself? Or did they draw him in pr0n? I don't remember much about that, but Sifu Kisu came to mind when you mentioned ED.
Zutara is nuts. I like the pairing myself, but I can't even look for pics of the single characters without some fantasy art popping up.
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Some pics:
Noah Ringer as Aang. Little Texas boy with an empty soulless stare, which is weird since Aang is a relatively joyful character. I think I could've lived with him being casted as white through it's hella weird to have him basically be a Tibetan monk. Asian boys into martial arts, are these really in short supply? Not to sound even more superficial, but does he look fat to anyone else? Maybe he should've taken up Aang's vegan habits.
Also, he apparently knows some karate or some unrelated shit.
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Nicola Peltz and Twilight douche Jackson Rathbone (he plays a Jasper Hale, whoever the fuck that is) as Southern Water Tribe siblings Katara and Sokka. Katara is the last waterbender of her tribe. Her brother can't bend at all and has to use his boomerang and other mad skillz to compensate.
I think these two are the most insulting parts of the casting. These two roles HAD to go to people of color. They HAD to. WTF.
Jackson Rathboner's response: All I needz iz a tan!!111
If you look carefully in the last trailer I posted above, you'll see they actually had the cajones to go and make most of the other villagers Inuit.
Common excuse seems to be that these two were the best ones for the job? ORLY? Neither one has much in the way of credits. Certainly not enough to argue they should be allowed to carry the movie over an unknown person of color. Neither one has a martial arts background either. Better qualified my ass.
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Prince Zuko was originally Jesse McCartney but then M. Night farted or something and everyone became brown. Why just look at the pictures. The resemblence is truly.... truly... TRULY!
If you see any on the net when he has hair, DISMISS them. Those come later. Zuko has that one topnot for the entire Water Book of Avatar:TLA so he should've been the same in the first movie... which I hope will be the last movie.
Also, his costume looks like he raided fucking Bed, Bath & Beyond.
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Uncle Iroh makes me weep. Uncle Iroh travels with his nephew Zuko, taking care of him and seeing him as his own son. He is a happy, jolly guy: Like Asian Santa Claus except he can kick your fucking ass. Although he helps his nephew, he still operates under the important tenet that balance must be maintained in the world and thus also supports the mission of the avatar. He should NOT scare small children with his appearance.
You can also see him in the bottom left of the second pic.
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From: http://youbentmywookie.com/entertainment/m-night-reinterpreting-instead-of-adapting-the-last-airbender-franchise-6803
M. Night Reinterpreting Instead Of Adapting ‘The Last Airbender’ Franchise?
Posted by WebMonkey on August 8th, 2009
While promoting the TV show “Trauma,” Cliff Curtis who plays Fire Lord Ozai in Paramounts’ “The Last Airbender” spoke to the press at the Television Critics Association summer press tour saying, “I’m kind of like the Darth Vader character for that [The Last Airbender] franchise.”
Based on the popular Nickelodeon series “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” M. Night Shyamalan’s upcoming fantasy movie is seemingly more of a reinterpretation inspired by Star Wars than a faithful adaptation of the animated series.
“I think that M. Night’s a really interesting filmmaker, and when he spoke to me about it, he said that one of the most influential films he ever saw was Star Wars,” Curtis said. “For him, this was his Star Wars that he wanted to make, so I thought that’s a really interesting way to have a look at this kind of franchise.”
According to Curtis, he has not watched the original show for reference or research. “I haven’t watched the TV series to get confused by it,” Curtis said. Instead, he will take directions and pointers directly from the vision of Shyamalan. “I wanted to take his lead on what way he wanted to take the franchise. He’s had to condense, I don’t know how many episodes, but two or three years’ worth of television episodes into three movies.”
Curtis adds that his character “The fire lord loves fire,” and that “He’s responsible for it. He’s sharing it with the rest of the planet.” (Eh????)
When speaking about his costume, Curtis had nothing but high praises, despite it deviating heavily from the Asian inspired costume of the original show. “Outstanding, the most beautiful costume I’ve ever had in my career, actually.”
“It’s sort of like a cross between Roman and kind of Greek, [a] gold, Roman and Greek military/samurai military [uniform]. It’s really, really beautiful.” (Sokka slaps forehead)
Wow, they threw in three cultures into those Fire Nation uniforms and still managed to get NONE of them right.
SW is just EW. If that were the case, it wouldn't get shitty until he decided to tack on three prequels.
The Firelord does not want to share fire. He's a genocidal overlord, not a fucking hippy.
BTW, bolding inside the article mine but internal comments are not.
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Also the show uses Chinese calligraphy and through I can't find a source right now, I hear it's to be reduced to stylistic giberish. This one's really stupid because the people on the film don't even have to translate much of anything. The staff for the show already did the hard work for the cartoon. It was just a matter of copying the damn signage.
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Snipped from promotional material at their website. Should you like these images enough to want the full wallpaper, they're there at the offical movie site: http://www.thelastairbendermovie.com/
The funny thing with heavy shadow and gratuitous black is that either it's so bad you need to cover it up or it's so cool that it's too badass for proper lighting. I'm going with the former.
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Omg all these pics make it look like its going to be as much as a failure as DB. I expect the same for when CB comes out. And yes the characters don't look alike at ALL. And fuck Shamyalan for trying to cast indians for parts they shouldn't even been doing (cause they don't look like the characters).
Ahh, c'est Hollywood
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At least the costume department is doing a pretty good job.
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What are you talking about, none of the costumes in the anime/cartoon still look like (or are the same color as) the ones real people are wearing in the pics.
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Omg all these pics make it look like its going to be as much as a failure as DB. I expect the same for when CB comes out.
Has there even been any word on that aside from Keanu being cast? Maybe it'll die in Production Hell. And Akira is also taking a long ass time and I'm still undecided whether or not possible direction from the Book of Eli's Hughes Bros. (http://www.deadline.com/hollywood/hughes-bros-move-from-book-of-eli-to-akira/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter) is encouraging or not.
And yes the characters don't look alike at ALL. And fuck Shamyalan for trying to cast indians for parts they shouldn't even been doing (cause they don't look like the characters).
I would've done:
AIR: Asian, emphasis on peoples of Tibet, India, or China. They're based on monks anyway. From a Hollyweird standpoint, most of the Air Nomads are dead so there wouldn't be a hell of a lot to cast other than Aang, Monk Gyatso, and Avatar Yangchen for flashback purposes.
WATER: Native American, Inuit, island people like the Maori and Tongans, possible some Latino.
EARTH: This is the hugest, most diverse set of people. The ruling people I would go with Korean and Chinese and other East Asian people, specifically the Earth King, the Dai-li and Long Feng*, the officials like Ju-dee, and the elite rich like Toph Bei-fong. (Who, as you note, all have freaking Asian names!) Japanese for the Kyoshi Island people. There's a character called Guru Patik who's clearly Indian, who would likely be in a third movie should it be made. Sandbenders would be Middle Eastern, African peoples, etc. However, there's refugees, merchants, side characters like Bumi and the Boulder, and a vast array of other people who could be cast as almost any ethnicity.
*Long Feng was voiced brilliantly by Clancy Brown, however I'm certain if they get to a second movie, god forbid, they will be certain to make him Asian because he's BAD and therefore can't be white in this universe. ::)
FIRE: Chinese and East Asian for the ruling class, including every brown guy in this freaking thread. For the army, generals, and such, it could probably be mixed. Especially for those away from home, since the Fire Nation has multiple colonies. JASON ISAACS as Zhou goddammit. Sifu Kisu should play Master Piandao, since the character was freaking modeled after him. The archers looked different than the ruling class, so they could probably be any race. The Sun People are clearly Native American types, prime for Latino casting.
There's also some dragons and spirits who could really be anybody.
The vast majority of props, writing, architecture, martials arts, philosophy, etc takes from China, Korea, Indian, and Native peoples. The majority of the characters were designed based off of the Korean animators themselves, their friends and family. They should've been 80-90% of the casting.
Also, when this movie was casted, lead roles and such specifically asked for Caucasian. When it was time for extras, everyone else was invited and told to wear their headscarves, kimonos, and lederhosen. (I'm not being sarcastic either! That really happened!)
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At least the costume department is doing a pretty good job.
It's decent in general, but it fails in comparison to what it should've been. You can tell they really rejected the predominate Chinese-influences in the costuming for the Fire Nation, especially in the armor. Zuko's looked like he was cold and stole rugs and sheets from Target. Aang's shirt looks straight from a catalog and I don't know what the hell's going on with his wrists, calves, and feet, but it's all wrong. I'll pass the Water Tribe costumes, however. Except for that necklace of Katara's. It's a betrothal necklace and they should've made it less obvious that I can go buy one at Kohl's.
EDIT: Granted, that's not a good look at Suki's costume (the girl in the green picture) but that side view looks like they went to the Goodwill and bought a green sheet to throw over her.
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Well nothing is going to be 100%, but really the lack of Chinese themes might be more because of the fact that so many non-Chinese where cast for those parts.
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No, nothing is 100% but there shouldn't be a lack of Chinese themes. Reducing 100% to 30% because M. Night wanted to make slighty Asian-looking magic Star Wars is appalling. The show was filled with Asian influences. No matter how much or how little they scale back, Chinese aethetics should still be in the costumes. Zuko's an exiled prince and a main character who should have a better made, more accurate costume. Those armored dudes are full regalia Fire Nation army. Giving Zuko Ranma Saotome's shirt is just being ignorant. Throwing the soldiers into Greco-Roman inspired armor is also ignorant. Aren't there enough American movies with Greco-Roman armor being used? Aren't there also enough faux Samurai? The other East Asian nations have their own histories and their own armor. Especially China. It screams of laziness and dismissal of the cultures that had actually been given a great deal of thought and research for the show. It does, however, sound sadly in line with people who would ask Koreans to wear their kimonos (instead of something that's actually Korean, like a hanbok) to an audition.
Posting various examples of Chinese-style East Asian costumery: (I'm aware the armor is a little tin foil looking, but disregard the finish.)
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Well I'm not saying that's right, just saying that was probably the thinking. And really I hope this movie fails miserably for your sake, but after seeing what they did to Transformers and G.I.Joe and then looking at this I can't help but think it could be a lot, lot worse.
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I've only seen like 15 minutes of Transformers, because I couldn't continue with it. Keep in mind, I watched all of Dragon Ball Evolution even though that was a pile of shit.
I never liked Avatar, sooooooooo I have no opinion of this. I'll cheek it out on TNT in a few years.
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I feel like even touching or looking at the DVD cases for any of those movies gives me ebola. And what does that do? Leave at the mercy of Dustin Hoffman and Cuba Gooding Jr.!
This article brings up a good point: The trailer and spots so far emphasize ZOMG DRAMA and not the funny slapsick or cuter moments of the series. (http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/02/last-airbender-trailer/) I have a feeling Sokka is gonna seriously lose his sense of humor for Twilight-esque moments of poutery.
<a href=">Also, Jackson Rathbone can not say "Sokka"[/url]. It's "Sock-uh". He keeps saying "Soak-uh". Also, he screams of <a href=">d-bag[/url]. Hey Jasper, Johnny Depp wants his look back!
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I've only seen like 15 minutes of Transformers, because I couldn't continue with it. Keep in mind, I watched all of Dragon Ball Evolution even though that was a pile of shit.
I never liked Avatar, sooooooooo I have no opinion of this. I'll cheek it out on TNT in a few years.
Well like I said when I saw Dragonball, it actually stays closer to it's source material then Transformers does.
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M. Night Shyamalan had a sense about 'Airbender': 'This would make a killer movie' (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2010/01/m-night-shyamalan-had-a-sense-about-airbender-this-would-make-a-killer-movie.html). Why link this? Because IT COMPLETELY IGNORES THE RACE ISSUE, to many lulz. The comments blow up at this. I don't think every article about it needs to center on the topic, but it should be acknowledged somehow. Then in the following article for that column on Percy Jackson (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2010/02/will-percy-jackson-fans-embrace-hollywoods-older-version-of-the-boy-herootingage-hero.html), it has the balls to prefix:
Rachel Abramowitz stirred an avalanche of reader comments last week with her post on "The Last Airbender" and she may do the same with this update on the Hollywood treatment of a certain half-god.
As if she did it with her cutting-edge journalism and not for her head-in-the-sand, I've-got-a-fist-up-my-ass approach to touchy issues.
Also of note in that first column:
Shyamalan sees similar spiritual motiffs in “Star Wars” and “The Matrix."
God, can we stop trying to remake these movies already. ::) Hey, Shyamalan, give SW its color scheme back!
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Promo image. This has actually been floating around for a while, but may as well post it for completion purposes.
Re: The guy in the lower right, I have no idea who that's supposed to be. They should've just used Suki again despite the fact she's not an earthbender.
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Well it's a good thing that I haven't seen the cartoon series as I might actually be able to enjoy the movie a little bit.
I agree that the actress that plays Katara looks like she can't act worth shit. Article say she's 15. FIFTEEN? She looks and acts like a bratty 9 year old bitch who overemotes and overacts her parts, crying and wimpering and getting crotch-bleeding emotional when it's not required. In any case, isn't the lead female supposed to be tough and a fighter, not a whiny submissive bitch who expects the guy to save her every time?
Also, there are too many white people in this film. I would expect an Indian director to know better, considering he's a minority in the USA, and not pull the "Let's cast only white people" racist bullshit that Hollywood always pulls, but apparently even minorities can be racist, and he only casts whites and Indian people. Between the female lead being weak and the all-white cast (except for Indians, who are all villains), Shamalamadingdong comes off as acting like a racist WASP. Maybe he wasn't even in charge of casting, maybe it was some old white exec who did it.
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Ha ha, someone in one of those articles said:
Keep in mind that they had to find actors that can work with Martial Arts. It is not something easily learned.
If Keanu Reeves could be taught Kung fu for the Matrix, any kid can be taught martial arts. Who's to say the kid playing the main character or his emo female lead knows any martial arts to begin with?
Then the other little fact is someone that speaks clear English. Sorry, but do you want a movie where you need subtitles to understand the characters or a movie that has good writing, action, and drama with good spoken English?
The USA is a fucking melting pot. Becka is a hispanic that speaks fluent english, Fayewhore is a peruvian who speaks fluent english, and there are plenty of asian-looking people in, of all places, CALIFORNIA, who were born here, first generation, speak fucking fluent english.
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Oh, and here's my response to him.
(http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2010/01/m-night-shyamalan-had-a-sense-about-airbender-this-would-make-a-killer-movie.html?cid=6a00d8341c630a53ef0120a8a36ace970b#comment-6a00d8341c630a53ef0120a8a36ace970b)
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The kid playing Aang knows some completely unrelated karate crap. I think most people, actors especially since it's their craft, can pick up basic martial arts. It's like people in this country think martial artists just pop out of wombs in China doing kung-fu.
If Keanu Reeves could be taught Kung fu for the Matrix, any kid can be taught martial arts.
QFT.
I did hear a rumor that possibly Shyamalan didn't have powet over some of the cast. That one article I posted earlier where he sings rich white girl's praises doesn't leave me convinced on this.
I always get a crack out of archaic folks who somehow imagine every other minority struggles with English. In fact, it seems to be a common excuse to not cast Asian people in productions. Barring the several minorities that do speak English here, they don't all exactly speak the same language over there either. Michelle Yeoh, for example, can't read Chinese characters and did not know any Mandarin for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", speaking her lines phonetically. These sorts of instances are not uncommon. And not that her role in Miami Vice was exactly brilliance, but Gong Li also spoke her English lines phonetically.
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http://cityfile.com/dailyfile/5478
Hmmmmm............
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Ha ha, thanks for posting that. I read that a while back and wanted to link it, but couldn't think of where I found it. Also, I'm sure his wife Claudia is with him because she really, really loves him. :lol:
This comment summed it all up for me: I still recall an article about a decade ago (regarding him ticking off neighbors with his helicopter) which made a comment in regards to the prior owners of the estate, Wallace and Lila. They loved the estate and had their ashes placed in a most special place - the rose garden. After the property was sold for $6M to Peltz he intentionally tore it up to make a playground for his kids. What a class act.
Supposedly, Nicola was the one who got the nanny sacked.
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In <a href="feature=player_embedded">this video[/url], they mention that the role of the previous Avatar, Avatar Roku of the Fire Nation, has been casted white EVEN THOUGH every other Fire Nation main character gets to be dark-skinned. So because Roku is GOOD he gets to be white? FTW?
Also, the chick playing Princess Yue of the Northern Water Tribe, who Paramount stressed was an “actress of Italian, French, and Mexican heritage” in a letter to MANAA after the latter bitched about lack of Asian, actually self-identifies as white. Total Inuit Fail.
This film manages to get more insulting as each day goes by. I didn't realize that was actually possible.
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shit I thought this was a still from Starship Troopers and that was Denise Richards lol
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That guy really needs to start using Puffs.
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I can not wait to watch this movie just to make someone mad. Nah, I am not going to watch it.
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shit I thought this was a still from Starship Troopers and that was Denise Richards lol
Oh, damn! Girl, you're right! I knew that reminded me of something! Boo hoo!
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Hopefully this girl shows her tits too
What?
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Nice sentiment but I assure you it won't be happening. Tits could have only helped this movie at this point.
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Tits or GTFO.
Seriously, before I had the interwebs, I've watched so many shitty movies for the promise of tits. Mmmmmmmm.
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@derrick: me too, man, me too.
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And you're telling me you don't anymore? I call shenanigans.
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This movie looks like ten pounds of fail in a five pound bag. Eeeesh.
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Oh, I hope so. I certainly hope so.
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LOL I'm soo going to be in Nuri's place when the CB comes out. Then again I'm going to have mixed feelings about it cause Keanu Reeves is hot
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Perhaps he'll be older and uglier by the time the movie gets made.
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So this movie is going to make ten bajiziliion dollars
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Yet they won't make a Big O movie with Keanu Reeves as Roger Smith.
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And where the hell is Bill and Ted 3 damnit!
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Can Keanu still do Ted? Or was he Bill? Fuck it they were basically the same.
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He was Ted. And yeah I'm sure he could...but it would be kinda sad to see those two guys acting like it was still 1987, but also might be funny.
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Snipped from an interview someone posted an excerpt of over at Toonzone:
M. Night Shyamalan: Exactly. Now, the other big change is the pronunciation of some of the names. Now this is, for me, because, at the end of the day a South Indian guy directed the movie. It’s a personal thing. So “Aang” is not [like Tang] but “Aang” [like Tong.] It’s “Ang Lee.” See, my first name is Manoj [as Man-oh-j] and everyone mispronounced it in school and butchered it as “Man-ahhj.” So, this is coming from a specific place, from a multicultural appreciation.
M. Night Shyamalan: Wooter! Wooterbending! Okay, so there are four words that are effected. "Aang" is one. Also, it isn’t “Avatar” like aaah, it is “Avatar” like “Of-Atar.” That’s a subtle difference, though. I don’t want it said with an Indian accent – you know, it is a Sanskrit word – but I want it with a gentle accent. So that one is blurred. We had a linguist come in to discuss all this, by the way, this isn’t just me doing all this.
Jordan Hoffman: Gotcha.
M. Night Shyamalan: The other changes: “Sokka” [pronounced Sock-Ka] is pronounced “Soh-ka” (“soh” as in “sew”) and Iroh, Uncle Iroh, isn’t “Eye-Row” but “Eer-Row.” Everything else is the same. Iroh comes on the screen and says “My name is Iroh, and you have my word.” And the first thing Shaun Toub, the actor playing him, asked was, “why is it pronounced this way?” because Shaun is Persian. And I’m like, “Dude, I’m on it!” Because this show, this film, is inspired by these cultures. And most directors wouldn’t care, but this is something I’ve been living with my whole life, this is really important to me. But not just the names, the caligraphy, the drapery, the machinery, this all creates a world that is specific and personal and resonant.”
Jordan Hoffman: Is one of these other choices paring back the humor?
M. Night Shyamalan: Hopefully there is enough that you will still see characters that you love. But there is so much latitude with an animation that you don’t get with live action. I mean, look at Up, which is fantastic – if you had a little girl pop in and say “You wanna join my club?” it wouldn’t work the same way it works in that movie.
Changing pronounciations that have been in practice for three years for the sake of authenticy on the backdrop of such racist casting is fucking mind-boggling.
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Good lord, fucking Sokka and Katara... damn. And this is a legitimate product btw, not a shoop.
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Is that Krillin?
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Hell, it might as well be now. Duder in the back getting all screamy can be teen Gohan.
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LOL I like the image name btw
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The Fail keeps piling on. Jesus.
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Remove the first period and the resulting sentence is funnier.
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Jesus can take it. And then Mel Gibson'll make a movie about it.
In other news:
Frank Marshall can suck it. (http://www.racebending.com/v3/featured/frank-marshall-we-did-not-discriminate-against-anyone/) Here, I'll paraphase: "Derrrrr, we didn't mean ta." Racebending.com then shows that Frank Marshall lives with his head firmly lodged either in the sand or up his own ass.
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Similar to the last trailer w/ a few differences. Man, the bending looks cheesy. They just have people move in one direction and then animate fire or water or whatever to try and hide the fact that the bending had basis in real martial arts. The part where they show Aang and then a bunch of Asiany Asians bowing down to him made me lol for all the wrong reasons. Also, the way they're selling this is as Zuko wanting to stop the world being in balance when Zuko just wants daddy's love. Boo hoo hoo. Those sets look cheap, too. Looks like all the money went to the CG. That means this movie should be a huge hit since that's all 90% of the movie-going audience seems to give a damn about.
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If it is not in 3D, it will fail.
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3D is a fad anyway. Big money now, but I doubt it's here for the long run.
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TAKE IT BACK!
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It's true. It's not like all movies are ever going to be in 3D. I mean why would someone want to see Sex in the City 2 in 3D? They won't. And after the new wears off people are going to get tired of having to wear the glasses and pay extra for the right to see something in 3D. And the technology that they are using has been around for a long time. I remember seeing a movie in 3D back in like 97, but it has only been recently that Hollywood big wigs have started to push this tec. for mainstream movies. When they move on to the next big thing, 3D will die off and just be a novelty they break out from time to time to milk out a few more sales.
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Yeah, isn't this just another resurgence before the envitable ebb? Of course, what do I know? I thought Avatar would be a stink for sure. (Not this one, which deserves to be a stink, but the blue one... which deserves it too but less.) 3d makes me sick. Literally. Thirty minute 3d films added with something else as a double feature sounds kinda cool. The thing is if they had wanted to do it in 3D, The Last Airbender would've been cool with all of the elements and all. But they got virtually nothing else right, so I wouldn't expect them to do that right either.
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Technology and entertainment are cyclical.
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Your butt is cyclical.
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Do not make an ass of yourself.
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Do not make a cyclical ass of yourself.
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Good advice.
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Dear god every time I see that whining, sniveling, puppy-eyed, emo brat of a girl, I want to punch her fucking face in.
Does that make me a future wife beater? Wanting to beat up on some 14-year-old girl because she's a shitty actor and every time she appears on screen I want to hit her several times?
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Who?
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The pudding-face brat chick they got to play Katara.
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I have to apologize, I am not really paying attention.
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This is going to be the highest grossing movie of all time.
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I have to apologize, I am not really paying attention.
You don't have to apologize. In fact, I would prefer if you and millions of others would actually completely ignore this movie all together.
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Anybody notice that no one other than Apa speaks in the trailer?
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So apparently my roommates parents' neighbor's nephew is Aang.
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No...that's not true. THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!!!!!
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Yeah well my grandfather's cousin played George Jefferson Mother on The Jeffersons! I WIN!
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So what does that make us?
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Absolutely nothing!
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*ring falls through a vent*
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You know, after seeing the trailer for this before Ironman 2, I'm quite looking forward to it. It looks fun.
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Noooo! *kicks you* If you have to support racism, stick to Prince of Persia.
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Why are all the Arabs speaking with British accents?
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Ahahaha, that disturbed me to no end. I'm getting sick of British accents everywhere. Like in Clash of the Titans. Is it so hard to get a dialogue coach and find something more passable? Must we try to trick dumbasses into thinking they're watching lost scenes from Lord of the Rings?
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Why are all the Arabs speaking with British accents?
Cause like the indians, they had the luck of being trained/educated by the british, didn't you know?
whateva.
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She is right on that point. After WW1 the Brits got big sections of the former Ottoman Empire. So a lot of Arabs that spoke English were either educated in England, or by the British. There are still British schools there to this day.
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But they do not sound and look British in the SIXTH GOD DAMN CENTURY!
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Tally-ho! The name's Ali, guv! Pip pip, cheerio and all that rot.
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My ex bf went one year to London to get a master degree and now hes back and whenever he posts in his wall on fb or comments on something, he ALWAYS uses british lingo. I feel embarrassed for him. It's like he thinks hes british now
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That is how the mind works. Surely you use lingo that you did not use in Peru.
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Uses Brit Lingo? What is he daft? Sounds like a git to me.
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It's like he thinks hes british now
Your ex-boyfriend was Madonna?
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lol
That is how the mind works. Surely you use lingo that you did not use in Peru.
I've been here for 9 years. And its a complete different language. Believe me, if I was living in Peru and went to Argentina for one year and then go back, I would not use argentinian lingo. One year is not enough.
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Not everyone has a mind that works like yours.
I start speaking in a slight version of the accents I hear around me, and I do this subconsciously, and then I realize I am doing it and I worry that I offended someone.
Like around Mexicans (the most common occurrence here in Dallas), I start to talk the way Mexicans around me speak English. My girlfriend told me about it one time, and she said it was kind of obnoxious. I do not do this on purpose (but maybe I should).
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Next time you realize you are doing it, just break out "DON'T YOU KNOW I'M LOCO!!!" and you'll be fine.
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Only if it is with Mexicans. I have done with Sudanese and Irish and people from the north.
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Like around Mexicans (the most common occurrence here in Dallas), I start to talk the way Mexicans around me speak English. My girlfriend told me about it one time, and she said it was kind of obnoxious. I do not do this on purpose (but maybe I should).
haaaaaaaaaaaaahahahaha
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Robert Ebert tackles another Last Airbender related ques, primarily concerning film casting in general and race/gender.
http://www.racebending.com/v3/news/ebert-takes-on-another-airbender-question/
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Even if they were the right race, most of them look nothing like who they were cast as. Aang's actor actually kind of looks like him at least, but the rest? Fucking shit casting.
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Anyang?
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/me waves
Anyang!
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Why are all Fiero's actions as red as a period?
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Why not try a /me at the beginning of a post and see what color yours are?
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Because I don't want my actions to be period red.
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Well, that is the only way.
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/me thinks that this is gay
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btw i just noticed i have one pellet left?? i hate you all.
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It was not me. In fact, I just gave you one.
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proof
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pssssh, I have no idea, but here is another.
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I don't want to hear either of you complain. I've lost more pellets then either of you have had, well at least up till now. At one time I had 114. No idea who took them all, but I'm not losing sleep over it either.
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/me looks sheepish
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thanks fiero <3
Rama is acting like he's 2 COOL 4 PELLETZ
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He is too cool, he is as cold as ice!
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To cold. To cold.
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/me looks sheepish
/me shears that sheep
/me makes doo doo
/me bakes brownies
Ha, I had no idea such a thing existed.
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I thought you built this forum from scratch? No?
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To cold. To cold.
How does one perform the action, "to cold." Is it like fanning cold air at someone?
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It involves "Words to your mother."
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To or too
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tutu.
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Touche
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douche
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la douche
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I thought you built this forum from scratch? No?
No, it is not Nuri's German Chocolate Cake. It's Nuri's Lemon Cake. I did add a feature here and there, but not that one.
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So you didn't make this place from your rib? The lies just keep getting deeper and deeper.
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It is my rib. I just added rims, spoilers, and hydraulics. That's right. Spoilers. One on top of the other, doing it spoiler doggie-style.
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Gold windshield wipers?
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Pu-lease! I'm no pimp or gangsta, son. :fingershake:
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But the gold makes them look refined!
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/me wonders when the hell this forum turned into IRC.
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/me wonders if the forum has other IRC code
/nick RSIxidor
/kick Rama
Hmm. Not either of those at least.
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/me laughs as Fiero fails
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I've never been so glad to be a beloved franchise fail... at least in the reviews. Too early to tell the box office numbers since they appear kinda solid so far, but I'm hoping they'll plummet soon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Airbender#Critical_reception
From: Is The Last Airbender the worse movie ever? - http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b188751_last_airbender_worst_movie_ever.html
Is Last Airbender the Worst Movie Ever?
Fri., Jul. 2, 2010 12:47 PM PDT by Joal Ryan
Paramount Pictures
The Last Airbender is "dull," "dreadful," and, lowest of low blows, "like a Care Bears movie."
Well, all right, hardly any movie gets perfect reviews. But has any film ever gotten so many bad reviews?
The short answer is Battlefield Earth—meaning, yes, other films have been blasted good by critics. But, boy, oh boy, in Hollywood's summer of unloved movies, The Last Airbender, which opened Thursday, is getting some historic hate.
As of this morning, its Metacritic rating stood at 20, "good" for a spot on the review-crunching site's all-time low scores list. (Airbender's down there between Digimon: The Movie and the Lisa Kudrow rap classic, Marci X.) Worse, outside of Ashton Kutcher's and Katherine Heigl's Killers, Airbender is the only 2010 wide release on the Metacritic's list of shame.
Things are no better at Rotten Tomatoes, where its Tomatometer reading is a barely there 9 percent, which is actually up from yesterday's 6 percent. (For the record, our own Luke Y. Thompson assigned the "most boring summer-action epic in ages" a D+.)
Even before the bad reviews came along, it's been a rough ride for The Last Airbender, which couldn't call itself Avatar: The Last Airbender, like the animated series it's based on, because of some little James Cameron project: Avatar-something.
The film's also been dogged by criticism that director M. Night Shyamalan cast too many non-Asians in Asian roles. Time magazine's Richard Corliss tried to disarm the controversy with perhaps the film's most devastating review. In it, he argues that "actors who didn't get to be in The Last Airbender are like the passengers who arrived too late to catch the final flight of the Hindenburg."
But before you write off the reputedly $150 million behemoth as a disaster, two things: (1) At the fan-review site Flixster, the film's a hit; and, (2) At the box office, the film's a non-bomb, scoring a solid, if non-Eclipse-ian $16 million opening day.
So, maybe the Care Bears thing was meant as a compliment?
Protestors Picket 'Last Airbender' - http://rafu.com/news/2010/07/protesters-picket-%E2%80%98last-airbender%E2%80%99/
On the plus side, a new animated series Avatar: The Legend of Korra is supposed to be in the works. Maybe the fact this fuck-up of a film wasn't allowed to use the name Avatar was a God send.
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From: http://www.racebending.com/v3/general/the-last-airbender-film-changes-from-the-cartoon-series/
This made me rofl.
ORIGINAL:
The Air Nomad elders sit before Aang. They inform him that he is the Avatar and that he must be sent away to begin his training in the four elements. Aang makes the decision to run away.
FILM:
Aang stands before the Air Nomads as they inform him he is the Avatar. They kneel before him. He is told that as the avatar, he is not allowed to have a family. He decides to run away because he is afraid of not having a family.
This is different from the original series, where Avatars were allowed to have families. Avatar Roku’s descendants, in particular, have a dramatic impact on the lineage of important characters in the Airbender television series.
Y CANTZ I HAVE A FAMBLEE!!!11rlmgg That's retarded. I'll spoil this without tags because it's already fucking old. Fire Nation Prince Zuko's now-lost mommy was Roku's granddaughter and one of Zuko's paternal great-grandfathers, Fire Lord Sozin--Roku's best friend voiced by fucking Ron Perlman (hell, yeah)--killed him! Shyamalamadingdong writing a screen play for a show he apparently never watched. Asshat. His daughter's supposedly a fan. He should've gotten her help on this thing.
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A review by a fan on IMDB:
Shyamalan just bent me over a table and raped me, 1 July 2010
Author: JMAN-8
I don't think I've ever left a theater angry in my entire life. Disappointed? Sure. Frustrated? Absolutely. Bored out of my skull? Just last week! But never actually ANGRY with the film I just saw.
That changed tonight. After stumbling out of a midnight screening of Airbender, I couldn't even believe what I had just seen. This movie (if one could even call it that) fails on every possible level.
As a film? Awful.
As a 3D film? I will never see a post-converted 3D movie again. EVER.
And as an adaptation? It fails so spectacularly that there is a crater left in its wake.
I loved the animated series deeply. I felt connected to the characters, the plot, and the story. It was well-written, wonderfully conceived, and beautifully executed. Shyamalan has taken one of the best animated series I have seen and destroyed it. He tore it to shreds, set it on fire, and then urinated on its smoldering corpse.
While many movies have an actor or two that was miscast, for Airbender it is easier to mention which actors HAVEN'T been miscast, and off the top of my head I can't think of any. It seriously concerns me that Shyamalan, who did such great work with Sixth Sense and a good job with Unbreakable and even Signs (which was about 3/4 of a great movie), could continue to worsen after the abortion that was The Happening, and yet here we are. I wonder if he has some kind of tumor growing in his head that is sapping whatever creative spark he once had, leeching his inventiveness and abilities into a dark hole in his mind. What happened to him? I used to say, despite the fact that his writing has gotten more meandering and horrid over the years, that he was still a fine director (ignoring The Happening). But no more. He has lost even that skill.
Character names were mispronounced from the series for inexplicable reasons (Ahng instead of Aang, SO-kah instead of SOK-kah) [Nuri Note: They also turned EYE-ROH into EE-ROH], ages were rearranged for no particular purpose, and every single one of the child actors annoyed the living crap out of me. He gave little to no time for the characters to breathe, rushing them from one locale to the next in some mad attempt to pack the entirety of the first season of the show into a two-hour film, and he failed miserably.
Narration, which should be used rarely if ever (and even then only to add to the depth of the story), was instead used to fill in gaps of knowledge in the plot. Whole sections that were some of my favorite parts of the show were excised in favor of one poorly-written scene after another.
And as for Mr. Shyamalan: You should be ashamed with what you've done here. The absolute worst part of it was what you did to the fans, and I don't just mean me. At the screening there were perhaps a dozen people dressed as characters from the series, and they were so animated and bubbly by the time the lights went down that I knew we had the perfect audience. When the titles came up, they cheered and applauded with such enthusiasm that I couldn't help but smile. Then the movie actually got going, and as it went on the crowd became quieter and quieter, until eventually there was nothing left but silence, and that was only about 20 minutes in.
The disappointment, the utter and complete hopelessness that I saw on their faces as they left was the worst part. They were children, ostensibly the audience this film was made for, and you ruined it for them.
I am ashamed of you, and if you never make another movie again, it will be too soon.
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PostPro 3D is ALWAYS fail, except maybe for animated features.
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You could tell they were really desperate for those extra 3D dollars.
Dante Basco's blog post on The Last Airbender. Basco, a Filipino American actor, voiced Zuko (the character played by Dev Patel) in the original animated show:
http://dantebasco.wordpress.com/2010/07/01/the-last-airbender-to-boycott-or-not/
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M. Night Shmuckalan is officially full of fail.
Quoting from this site - http://www.cinematical.com/2010/06/28/shyamalan-rants-about-airbender-and-racism/
For those suffering from tl;dr syndrome, basically he claims he casted color-blind... Except all the heroes are white, the one bad nation is full of darkies, and nobody's black (which doesn't make sense if you're oh-so-friggin' color blind).
Indie Movies Online has shared a very long rant from the filmmaker at a recent round table, where he slaps the racist label back on the detractors. Shyamalan boils much of the controversy down to people not understanding the progression of the series: "when we get to the second movie (hopefully), since its based in the Earth Kingdom, suddenly the movie will seem entirely politically correct Asian, and the accusers will feel like they won. YOU DID NOT WIN! YOU DID NOT WIN!" To the director, this feature is the "most culturally diverse movie series of all time," and he describes how he came to cast the nations:
"There are four nations, and I had to eventually make a decision about what nationality each of them are. What happened was, Noah Ringer walked in the door – and there was no other human being on the planet that could play Aang except for this kid. To me, he felt mixed race with an Asian quality to him. I made all the Air nomads mixed race – some of them are Hispanic, some of them are Korean. Every monk you see in a flashback, in that world, are all mixed race because they're nomadic. I felt that really worked as a culture. OK, so that's one-quarter of our world population. The second group is the Fire Nation; when Dev was cast as Zuko, I said, OK, I have to cast an Uncle Iroh that looks like his uncle. We're going to go from Indian/Persian to Mediterranean, all that group with all its darker colors including Italians.
Moving on to the third group, which is the Earth kingdom (which is the biggest kingdom in this fictional world): I liked a bunch of the people who happened to be Japanese, Korean, Philippine, so I decided to make the Earth kingdom Asians. Now we're at three-quarters of the world. Now I have the brother and sister left. If you don't have an edict of "don't put white people in the movie" then the Water tribe can be European/Caucasian. So that's how it ended up. So now we're at one-half of the population of the movie which is not white."
He later continues: "I had complete say in casting. So if you need to point the racist finger, point it at me, and if it doesn't stick, then be quiet." He doesn't, unfortunately, discuss the extras casting call, and the attitudes that went along with that, which producer Frank Marshall blamed on the local casting company. But he does play his own race card: "You're coming at me, the one Asian filmmaker who has the right to cast anybody I want, and I'm casting this entire movie in this color blind way where everyone is represented."
First of all, if the Water Nation is supposed to be white, why is everyone else in their village but the main characters freakin' Asian? The two heroes and their white granny live with a bunch of Eskimos? FTW. Why did he bother with Asian extras if he wanted them all Nordic and shit? Since he didn't do this, I don't frickin' believe him.
Second, where the fuck did he get it in his head that he had to make a decision on what nationality people were? It was already made! There is as much room for Scarlett Johansen in the Avatar:TLA world as there is for Bill Duke and the freakin' cast of Jersey Shore. There is not a single black guy or blonde person or Snooki in the damn cartoon. Everybody's Asian! They use real Asian martial arts, wear Asian clothing, use predominantly Asian architecture, write and read in Chinese calligraphy, eat Asian food (I don't even think they have forks in their world), and echo the sentiments of Asian spirituality and lore. The main dude went to the Spirit World and met a dragon and panda. How Asian can you get? Did it really have to be beaten into Shymalangaga's head?
Third, M. Night's an asshat. He wants a finger? He's got a finger.
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lol poor Night Shamalyan. He'll never make another movie again
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I bet you he will.
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Yeah...because the American zombie movie public went and saw this in droves, thus insuring it was a hit. At least it got beat by Eclipse. Although I'm still not sure what is the lesser of those two evils.
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Following article edited to curb tl;dr...
THE LAST AIRBENDER Fared Worse Than Estimated on Monday: Box Office (http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/the-last-airbender-box-office-less-than-estimated/)
Zac Gille | Jul 6, 2010
.........
Paramount, on the other hand, overestimated The Last Airbender‘s Monday take by more than 10%: $1.2m to be more precise. M. Night Shyamalan‘s adventure/fantasy/sci-fier ended up earning $11.47m at no. 3 spot — or nearly $1.3m less than Toy Story 3. (Original estimates had their positions reversed on the box-office chart.)
.........
[TLA] cost a reported $150m to produce plus another $130m to market. If it is to recover its production costs alone in the North American market, The Last Airbender would have to collect approximately $300m.
The only three 2010 releases that have thus far taken in more than $300m — Tim Burton‘s Alice in Wonderland, Jon Favreau‘s Iron Man 2, and Lee Unkrich‘s Toy Story 3 — all scored more than $110m on their first weekend out. In five days, The Last Airbender has pulled in the aforementioned $69.3m.
Compounding matters, The Last Airbender had the third-lowest Monday surge (+23.1%) among the top twelve movies on Box Office Mojo’s chart. Only Jake Gyllenhaal‘s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (+10.6%) and Tom Cruise‘s Knight and Day (+18.9%) fared worse in that regard.
I can't believe that ass-movie Alice in Wonderland made so much fucking money.
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Article that talks about all the shit the production went through to film key scenes in Greenland. (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-onlocation-20100707,0,2228201.story) I liked the single comment better though:
starblight at 3:16 PM July 06, 2010
Good on this production, constructing igloos and filming in the Inuit town of Ilulissat--using Inuit people as set dressing while hiring white actors to play the movie's Inuit-inspired heroes.
If only they had taken the same efforts to cast Inuit or Native American actors to play the heroes.
Applause for cultural appropriation.
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I can't believe that ass-movie Alice in Wonderland made so much fucking money.
I can. It was horrible though, and I love Burton's earlier work, so it pains me to say it.
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It's like Good God, this AND Avatar. The recession's fucking over if people have money to throw away.
I liked this review. Kinda a long read, but thar's pichures!
M. Night Shyamalan Finally Made A Comedy (http://io9.com/5576076/m-night-shyamalan-finally-made-a-comedy)
You giggled at The Happening. You snorted at The Village. But now, for the first time ever, former indie auteur M. Night Shyamalan has set out to make a gonzo comedy on purpose, with The Last Airbender. Spoilers ahead!
M. Night Shyamalan has always been fascinated by playing with genre conventions. His famed love of twist endings is really an obsession with tweaking his audience's expectations, and his best film, Unbreakable, is a superhero movie that comments on the superhero genre. It was inevitable that he would slide into full-on genre pastiche.
And The Last Airbender is a lavish parody of big-budget fantasy epics. It's got everything: the personality-free hero, the nonsensical plot twists, the CG clutter, the bland romance, the new-age pablum. No expense is spared — Shyamalan even makes sure to make fun of distractingly shitty 3-D, by featuring it in his movie.
This is the part where I would insert a quick plot synopsis of the film, but it's really unnecessary - Shyamalan has boiled every epic heroic story of the past 20 years down to its most basic, primal soup-y essence, so he can spray it all over the audience, in a kind of Hero's-Journey bukkake.
More at the link...
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You mean there's a movie worse than Eclipse? I guess female critics were too busy drooling over Taylor's oiled abs to say anything bad about it.
(speaking of that I was watching a review of both Eclipse and Airbender and god damn Robert is a fucking shitty actor. The expression on his face made him look like he was going to spontaneously vomit fucking rainbows.)
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Someone on some other comments thingy commented that at one point--and I don't think this has changed since--The Last Airbender actually has a lower Rotten Tomato score than fucking Marmaduke. Stinkeroo.
Also, the Time guy in this interview with M. Night Shasfow;lrgn is kinda funny. More specifically, his reaction to M. Night's BS reply about the mixed raced Air Nomads. He kinda did his "HUH, WUT?" face. Funnier than that, it seems like TIME can't count because there certainly aren't 10 questions in this:
<a href="feature=player_embedded">TIME 10 Questions: 10 Questions for M. Night Shyamalan [/url]
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Also, the Time guy in this interview with M. Night Shasfow;lrgn
Lets call him Manoj. Thats his real name anyways
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Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan. Now say it three times fast!
At some Paris photocall... My God, the two white guys in the middle (Rathbone and, uh, perhaps Frank Marshall?) look like such d-bags. Manoj-jojo looks too damn serious. I had no idea Dev drawfed everyone (there's actually other shots that show him, Rathbone and Peltz side by side and he is the tallest). The Peltz girl looks cute here. I like her dress and shoes. She should go be a model and stop ruining potential movie franchises.
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The girl is hot. Do noodz, plz. When legal of course. (CYA)
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Semi OT....
Here's a story on Noah Ringer. (http://www.courier-gazette.com/articles/2010/07/14/news_update/324.txt) It's actually a cute story primarily from the pov of his taekwondo instructor. It mentions Ringer has a role in Cowboys and Aliens.
Also, this is coming out: Devil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_Chronicles:_Devil), co-produced and based on a story by M. Night Shyamalan BUT NOT written and NOT directed by him. This genuinely has me curious. Perhaps Manoj-jojo's better through a filter.
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Just watched the trailer for Devil. Looks interesting. (Saw it on the official website for the film.)
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I'm just forgetting the movie exists and instead rewatching the series again. About halfway through season 1 right now.
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Probably the best policy. I hope the movie hasn't killed any chance of a film being made though. I'd really like them to try it again because it has the material to be a bitchin' film.
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Also posted this on my FB. This is great. It's a two minute YouTube vid:
<a href=">FANS UNLEASH EPIC HATE FOR THE LAST AIRBENDER[/url]
Fans fresh from a midnight premiere of M. Night Shymalan's THE LAST AIRBENDER weigh in on the film's quality. As you can see, it appears Shymalan just didn't care.
Video Credit: ReelzChannel
Apparently, the hate was too much for Reelz and was pulled off of their website.
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M. Night's should consider bring back the Twilight Zone. His stories would work better as 30 minute episodes rather than 2 hour long movies.
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Have you guys seen the trailer for the new movie directed by Manoj? I think its called Devil or something
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Yeah, about five or six posts above yours. Some website claimed when it played before Inception, the audience lol'ed when Manoj's name came on screen.
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And now I've finished season 3 again. Still as good as I remembered it.
First of all - fuck all those shallow twits who are obsessed with who gets together with who. One, there are far bigger themes and messages to get from the series than 'OMG, they would make the BEST couple." Two, they're goddamn teenagers. Practically no one finds true love in the first person they date when they're 15 years old or some shit.
More importantly, I'm left again with the question - "Ok, now what happens in 400 years or so?" There'll need to be an airbender around once the cycle comes around again.
I keep reading people saying how all air nomads were air benders who lived in those 4 monasteries we saw. Is this based on people just being too stupid to realize that there's more happening than what is seen on screen, or did the creators actually say something that stupid? It makes sense neither in a practical sense (after all, not everyone who lives in Vatican City is a priest), nor in regards to what we actually see in the show.
1. Aang said something about being taken away from his parents to go live with the monks.
2. Those are big islands. If everyone lived in 4 towns, that's a pretty poor use of land.
3. If they *do* all live in those four monasteries, Air Nomads is the biggest misnomer ever.
Assuming then, that there are people of that ethnicity still hiding in little pockets around the world, little arrow dude's going to be busy over the next few decades rounding them all up, finding a new generation of benders, and rebuilding the civiliation.
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did the creators actually say something that stupid?
They really did. Aang really is the last one left. He had the gift of airbending at a young age and was actually the youngest Air Nomad to master airbending. He was also born during the time the Avatar was due for reincarnation. He could've been taken away to be trained by the higher order of monks for either of those reasons.
Little air dude's gonna be busy all right... busy making sum babiez.
Also, I don't like Katara and Aang together. They are 14 and 12 respectfully. 14 barely passes but 12's too damn young to be all mouth-kissing at the end. Hooking them up was very weird imo. I would've liked to see Zuko with Katara but I was fine having him with Mai.
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so,there's a new series in the works called 'The Legend of Korra' that takes place 100 years later. I'm willing to bet that Aang never had any kids and Korra is first air bender born in 212 years.
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Or Korra could be the name of the water bender that is the next incarnation of the Avatar.
Well that brings up the question of whether bending is a genetic thing, specific to certain ethnicities, or if it's simply something that can manifest in anyone anywhere, and only the "right" kind of benders are recognized, encouraged, and trained, depending on the culture. Like, if someone in the water tribes has the inate skill to fire bend, they'll never know it because, fuck that, there'll be no fire bending there - you'll be a water bender or nothing, mister, and you'll like it.
I have to believe it's more cultural than anything else, as they're all pretty obviously the same species. In which case, I'd have to assume Aang amd subsequent avatars would be travelling the world, seeking out possible airbenders anywhere they could find them. You sure aren't going to establish a viable breeding population based on the genetic material of one little dude.
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Word of God says Aang really is the last one. (http://kyatto.livejournal.com/284921.html#cutid1) There are NO hidden airbenders. Just one. He better get bu-say. Giggity.
I'm also pretty certain the bending arts are not cultural. It doesn't matter if they're the same species or not 'cuz it's, like, bloomin' magic, mate.
As for Korra, I suspect a waterbender, too. Lots of people on teh nets were pointing out that the name, at the very least, is likely a female watertribe member if not a waterbender and the next Avatar.
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Word of God says Aang really is the last one. (http://kyatto.livejournal.com/284921.html#cutid1) There are NO hidden airbenders. Just one. He better get bu-say. Giggity.
I'm also pretty certain the bending arts are not cultural. It doesn't matter if they're the same species or not 'cuz it's, like, bloomin' magic, mate.
As for Korra, I suspect a waterbender, too. Lots of people on teh nets were pointing out that the name, at the very least, is likely a female watertribe member if not a waterbender and the next Avatar.
Well if it's not cultural and is instead somehow genetic, then good job, guys, you just screwed up your own pretend world. It's a little disappointing that the air tribes seemed to have gotten the short end of the stick, as far as development. It's like the creators decided to not even fully think things out in regards to them since you'd barely see them in the series.
As for the new series:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nickelodeon-greenlights-new-series-from-the-creators-of-the-animated-television-hit-avatar-the-last-airbender-98925659.html
The Legend of Korra takes place 70 years after the events of Avatar: The Last Airbender and follows the adventures of the Avatar after Aang – a passionate, rebellious, and fearless teenaged girl from the Southern Water Tribe named Korra. With three of the four elements under her belt (Earth, Water, and Fire), Korra seeks to master the final element, Air. Her quest leads her to the epicenter of the modern "Avatar" world, Republic City – a metropolis that is fueled by steampunk technology. It is a virtual melting pot where benders and non-benders from all nations live and thrive. However, Korra discovers that Republic City is plagued by crime as well as a growing anti-bending revolution that threatens to rip it apart. Under the tutelage of Aang's son, Tenzin, Korra begins her airbending training while dealing with the dangers at large.
Sounds like it could be fairly interesting.
[/quote]
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As for the new series:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nickelodeon-greenlights-new-series-from-the-creators-of-the-animated-television-hit-avatar-the-last-airbender-98925659.html
The Legend of Korra takes place 70 years after the events of Avatar: The Last Airbender and follows the adventures of the Avatar after Aang – a passionate, rebellious, and fearless teenaged girl from the Southern Water Tribe named Korra. With three of the four elements under her belt (Earth, Water, and Fire), Korra seeks to master the final element, Air. Her quest leads her to the epicenter of the modern "Avatar" world, Republic City – a metropolis that is fueled by steampunk technology. It is a virtual melting pot where benders and non-benders from all nations live and thrive. However, Korra discovers that Republic City is plagued by crime as well as a growing anti-bending revolution that threatens to rip it apart. Under the tutelage of Aang's son, Tenzin, Korra begins her airbending training while dealing with the dangers at large.
Sounds like it could be fairly interesting.
[/quote]
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v470/blanktoe/korra.jpg)
Sounds like the new show is going to have a little X-men vibe to it.
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Here's a short interview with the creators. Not that they needed to but they also confirm that, yes, Tenzin's mommy is Katara.
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/07/21/legend-of-korra-the-creators-of-avatar-the-last-airbender-on-the-new-spinoff/
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McDonald's Last Airbender Toy Dangerous If Wrapped Around Neck? (http://consumerist.com/2010/07/mcdonalds-last-airbender-toy-dangerous-if-wrapped-around-neck.html) *SIGH*
The consumer alleged that "The Last Airbender Katara" figure and bracelet given out in a McDonald’s Happy Meal could injure or kill a child if used inappropriately. She indicated that her son was playing with the toy, when he took the bracelet and put it around his neck. The hard plastic ends of the bracelet allegedly cut off blood circulation to his arteries, and he began to lose consciousness. When the parent saw what the boy had done, she removed the bracelet from his neck, averting serious harm.
“As you can imagine, I am very concerned that this type of incident will happen again,” Farrell wrote to Chairperson Tenenbaum. “If a child is playing in an area away from a responsible caretaker, I believe that tragedy could strike. I do know that your agency is in receipt of the complaint and samples of the product. I hope that your agency will move on this complaint expeditiously. “
"This particular complaint struck close to home for me, as my three-year old son also had this toy in his possession," Farrell said.
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How old is this kid that he's already suicidal?
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3. The big stink being "well the toy is supposed to be safe for kids 3 and up so I shouldn't have to actively monitor what my child plays with".
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The American parent: If I give my kid something, there should be no fucking way he can use it to hurt himself, no matter how stupid or imaginative my kid happens to be.
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Another brief interview. Mentions that Korra is to be a mini-series. I wonder how mini. http://www.ugo.com/tv/comic-con-2010-legend-of-korra-interview
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12 episodes mini.
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The American parent: If I give my kid something, there should be no fucking way he can use it to hurt himself, no matter how stupid or imaginative my kid happens to be.
And kids, despite the best efforts of society and tv, are pretty imaginative. And they've always been pretty stupid.
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12 episodes mini.
Sounds like a regular season back in 1993.