The Last Airbender

[Panch]

Ok, let me ask this: Did you or did you not like the kid who played Aang (is that how it's spelled)? I really liked that kid and want to know what else he's in.

[The NZA]

ill say this much for him: in my laundry list of things wrong with this film, he's not really high up on it.

didn't really get a feel for him, it felt like some of the other child actors were bombing hard to help his career out, which was nice of them.

[Reverend Jax]

Ok, let me ask this: Did you or did you not like the kid who played Aang (is that how it's spelled)? I really liked that kid and want to know what else he's in.

He was fine enough, but he wasn't give a whole lot of material to perform that reflects Aang's (yes, that is who it's spelled) personality, but it's not his fault. This was his first acting job. He was the winner of many state and national Tae Kwon Do tournaments, and got the role on the strength of his martial arts skills and his natural personality. He will be in Jon Favreau's next movie, Cowboys and Aliens with Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig.

 

I think that if a sequel gets made, he should definitely stay on, as I think with a little more acting experience, and a good script and good direction, he would be a perfect Aang. Guillermo Del Toro has risen to the top of many Airbender fanboys' and fangirls' lists of directors they want to see take over this franchise.

[Mr. Hakujin]

I think that if a sequel gets made, he should definitely stay on, as I think with a little more acting experience, and a good script and good direction, he would be a perfect Aang. Guillermo Del Toro has risen to the top of many Airbender fanboys' and fangirls' lists of directors they want to see take over this franchise.

I think a sequel is pretty much a pipe-dream, unless it rakes in some major money w/ the 3D internationally. And del Toro does have a track record for coming in on sequels of franchises (Blade, Hobbit--although he dropped out of the latter), so that may not be so far fetched if a sequel is miraculously greenlit...

[Reverend Jax]

Well, the opening weekend numbers were pretty good, though the numbers could drop of big time next weekend, but you never can tell with kids/family movies. And in the end, if Viacom sees this properties as full of potential, they will want to tap into it, and make the changes they think will bring people back into the theaters. Hollywood is funny like that, it's not always the movies that deserve sequel that get them.

[The NZA]

 

$580,000,000 well spent.

 

http://splashpage.mtv.com/2010/07/02...deleted-scenes

 

Along with the removal of the Kyoshi Warriors, Shyamalan also admitted to cutting much of the slapstick humor of the story.

 

"I did it naturally in the first draft, and as the drafts went on, I kept on doing it more," he said of cutting out the jokey side of the trio's adventure. "Then when we shot it, I did it even more, and then when we were editing it, I kept on reducing it."

 

"What I found was... the audience wants to take this seriously," he explained. "They want this to be real and important to everyone, and if a character is being too silly, they go, 'Okay, I guess he's not very upset. I guess there's not a big threat. I guess the fact that an entire culture's been wiped out is not a big deal.'"

 

"When everyone has the same threats and value systems going on, you really start to lean in more," continued Shyamalan. "You have to be really careful — a slapstick moment can really drain a movie."

[Thelogan]

Fuuuuuck. 8% on Rotten Tomatoes. This may be the nail in the Shyamalyan coffin.

[Keth]

what the fuck happened? did it end with the movie taking place on Mars or something? Or would that have made more sense?

[Mr. Hakujin]

 

Ugh. That was one of the scenes that best showcased everything wrong w/ the film.

Acting: wooden

Dialogue: Hokey and heavy handed

Martial Arts: Overly showy. Seriously, at one point I expected Indian Jones to stroll on screen and casually shoot someone with a revolver as they did five minutes of movements before a rock flew or something.

Premise: Idiotic. Um, lets imprison every single earth bender (you know, those people that are masters of controlling the EARTH) in a prison made of earth instead of on an isolated prison made of metal like the TV show did.

Directing: Almost nonexistent. "Let's keep the take where she pushes him and the hat-pony-tail dohickey flies in his face. You, guy with the giant honking spear-thingy. Um, you just stand there and look around when she pushes him. Yeah, that's good. Action!"

[Drifter]

Yeah, I didn't like the bending in the movie, it was too hokey. A bunch of guys do a little dance and a rock floats by; the bending in the series was suppose to be more innate and the users would incorporate it into their martial arts, maybe that's me asking too much from the effects department, but what the hell...

[The NZA]

 

yeah, i love the reaction on the guard on the right when the other one gets pushed.

 

Premise: Idiotic. Um, lets imprison every single earth bender (you know, those people that are masters of controlling the EARTH) in a prison made of earth instead of on an isolated prison made of metal like the TV show did.

 

jax, after the film: "...so instead of a metal ship, they put them in a valley! there's earth on like 3 sides of them. laziest rebels ever!!" (paraphrased)

[MetalHeart]

'Last Airbender 2' Will Be 'Darker,' M. Night Shyamalan Says

 

Sauce

 

If a $53.3 million holiday weekend proves successful enough to keep M. Night Shyamalan around for a "Last Airbender" sequel, he knows what he wants to do — and he wants to do it darkly. Asked about his intentions going forward, the "Sixth Sense" and "Signs" director confirmed that he has much of "The Last Airbender 2" already mapped out.

 

"I do," Shyamalan told MTV News. "The third is more ambiguous, but the second one, I've written a draft that I'm really happy with and is darker and richer, and it has a wonderful antagonist in it in Azula, who's kind of like our only real, pure antagonist in the series, so I'm excited about that."

 

His description of the story implies that Summer Bishil's character from the film currently in theaters has plenty left to do onscreen as Aang (Noah Ringer) continues his fight against the Fire Nation.

 

As far as what the story will be about and which characters could enter or exit the cast, those decisions may have to wait for Paramount's decision on the franchise's fate. If things proceed, Shyamalan has already shared a few details that could play into his intentions. The elite female Kyoshi Warriors, for instance, will likely play a larger role.

 

"I probably won't show the Kyoshi Warriors because I want to save them for the second movie, because I'm going to have to introduce them all over again," he said while explaining what would and would not show up in the "Last Airbender" DVD and Blu-Ray's deleted scenes.

 

The characters were initially included in the first film, but circumstances and editing decisions eventually moved them out of the spotlight.

 

"We shot [the scene] and [the Kyoshi Warriors] were amazing, and we spent an unbelievable amount of time choreographing them," he said. "And they just distracted from the movie, because the movie wasn't about them."

 

Given that he became much more comfortable with filming in 3-D during his first "Airbender," another round of 3-D filming with the same crew would make sense unless Hollywood's affection for the evolving medium changes overnight.

 

In the meantime, Shyamalan sounds like he's ready to go if and when an "Airbender" sequel gets the go-ahead.

[Reverend Jax]

$580,000,000 well spent.

It was $280M spent. The $580M is the estimated worldwide gross it would need to make a profit. Even if it makes a profit though, Paramount may conclude that enough of the people that paid to see the first one won't be willing to pay to see a second one, and that a sequel wouldn't be a wise choice. They may also find (through their research) that x percentage of people would be unwilling to see a sequel helmed by Shyamalan, but a certain portion of that x percentage would be willing to give a sequel helmed by someone else a chance. Who knows.

[Mr. Hakujin]

I don't know, Jax. Maybe if the contract Night likely made to have first refusal at directing sequels doesn't exist a sequel may happen w/out him. However, it'd still have to become an "international hit" before we see any sequel let alone one NOT directed by Night. At this point I lean more towards no sequel period. However, it is a franchise and Nickelodeon/Paramount might still consider it viable. And they keep giving movies to the guy that directed Van Helsing. So who the fuck knows w/ Hollyweird...

[Iambaytor]

I don't know, Jax. Maybe if the contract Night likely made to have first refusal at directing sequels doesn't exist a sequel may happen w/out him. However, it'd still have to become an "international hit" before we see any sequel let alone one NOT directed by Night. At this point I lean more towards no sequel period. However, it is a franchise and Nickelodeon/Paramount might still consider it viable. And they keep giving movies to the guy that directed Van Helsing. So who the fuck knows w/ Hollyweird...

 

They've made a Cats and Dogs 2. Never say never.

[C_U_SPACECOWBOY]

Ahhh, Cracked.com.

 

This is the Evolution on an M. Night Shyamalan Fan

[Keth]

Lady in the Water should've been replaced with The Village up there

[Iambaytor]

They are both sins against film

[The NZA]

haha, i can empathize with that image...i loved sixth sense, signs & unbreakable. i dug the village, too...never saw lady in the water, but my roomates were laughing for days at the happening.

 

i still dont think he's a bad director, but he needs to operate within his scope - junker once pointed out how he does well on pulp-esque plots: ghost stories, aliens, comics (when you've got an awesome cast, anyway) apparently not insects etc. put him on a character piece and he drops the ball hard.

[Yahve]

For shits and giggles, I saw TLA last night, again. Having a mid season 2 perspective, as predicted, it hurt. I did see it with someone who came in with fresh eyes, and left blinded by the sheer might of the acting sheen. At least she is willing to watch a sequel, so ..... yeah. It was great!

 

I think I see what he intended with all that bad directing. An attempt at creating a fantasy dialect and cadence akin to that seen in LOTR or Underworld. Said attempt falls flat on its face but at least I can now see it. I can honestly say that I doubt most of the cast even saw the cartoon, for fear of ruining their art.

 

I hope they learned their lesson and plan on watching Book 2 before filming resumes.

[Reverend Jax]

So Airbender made a little over $17M in it's second weekend, a 57% drop, which is not bad. Generally for wide releases, a 30% drop is considered good, 40% so so, and over 50% not good, but coming off the 4th of July weekend, one of the biggest weekends almost every year, into a non-holiday weekend, plus losing alot of 3D screens to Despicable Me, and it's actually much better than experts thought it would do considering how critics (rightfully) panned it. Plus it came out in Russia and India and pulled another $10M, also considered good, boding well for it's prospects in the foreign releases in the next several weeks. So a sequel is looking more likely than it did the night I watched

my favorite TV show get raped

the movie. I'm hoping for a sequel with new creative control, but I'm not too invested one way or another, just curious.

[Mr. Hakujin]

That CRACKED pic was hilarious, but I agree w/ the befuddlement over excluding The Village from that list.

 

i still dont think he's a bad director, but he needs to operate within his scope - junker once pointed out how he does well on pulp-esque plots: ghost stories, aliens, comics (when you've got an awesome cast, anyway) apparently not insects etc. put him on a character piece and he drops the ball hard.

That's pretty ironic b/c he always emphasizes he writes characters and would likely say ALL his films are character pieces. Which is true to a point, but MOST of his films are really shitty character pieces (of shit).

 

So Airbender made a little over $17M in it's second weekend, a 57% drop, which is not bad. Generally for wide releases, a 30% drop is considered good, 40% so so, and over 50% not good, but coming off the 4th of July weekend, one of the biggest weekends almost every year, into a non-holiday weekend, plus losing alot of 3D screens to Despicable Me, and it's actually much better than experts thought it would do considering how critics (rightfully) panned it. Plus it came out in Russia and India and pulled another $10M, also considered good, boding well for it's prospects in the foreign releases in the next several weeks. So a sequel is looking more likely than it did the night I watched

my favorite TV show get raped

the movie. I'm hoping for a sequel with new creative control, but I'm not too invested one way or another, just curious.

 

Well, it broke the magic "$100million" mark. But who knows if that guarantees a sequel. Hopefully so, but, as you wrote, under new creative control. Hell, ANY creative control would be nice.

[The NZA]

That's pretty ironic b/c he always emphasizes he writes characters and would likely say ALL his films are character pieces. Which is true to a point, but MOST of his films are really shitty character pieces (of shit).

 

...really? maybe i'm misusing these therms, then.

when i think of "character", i think of a few writing styles: one would be dialogue pieces (obvious examples here are say mamet and tarentino), the other might be the more minimal way of sort've letting the plot (and the characters actions therein) speak for him. im vastly oversimplifying here, granted, but neither of these apply to his stuff.

 

look at some of his films im a fan of: did i really know Bruce or the kid by the end of 6th Sense? not really, but it wasnt so much about them as they (specifically willis) were vehicles to move the plot along. same can be said for Signs, only its also not as noticeable for me there 'cause Gibson's an accomplished actor. I was all about Unbreakable (and will watch pretty much anything with Sam + Bruce since Die Hard 3, haha) but again, more of the same.

 

i dont mean to shit on the method he's taking here - this comes up in comics too, writers who think the plot should be advanced by the characters and what they would do vs the method of tossing them into your sandbox of choice (space/hell/etc) and working backward from there - i just dont get where he'd think he was the former. im not saying avatar should be written by Mamet and everyone should be played by Ed Norton necessarily, but...yeah, the more i think about it, the more he was a total mis-match.

 

you gotta admit, that'd be an awesome movie... "A...B...B.

ALWAYS...BE...BENDING."

[Keth]

[Mr. Hakujin]

^^Nice one axel!

 

...really? maybe i'm misusing these therms, then.

when i think of "character", i think of a few writing styles: one would be dialogue pieces (obvious examples here are say mamet and tarentino), the other might be the more minimal way of sort've letting the plot (and the characters actions therein) speak for him. im vastly oversimplifying here, granted, but neither of these apply to his stuff.

 

look at some of his films im a fan of: did i really know Bruce or the kid by the end of 6th Sense? not really, but it wasnt so much about them as they (specifically willis) were vehicles to move the plot along. same can be said for Signs, only its also not as noticeable for me there 'cause Gibson's an accomplished actor. I was all about Unbreakable (and will watch pretty much anything with Sam + Bruce since Die Hard 3, haha) but again, more of the same.

 

i dont mean to shit on the method he's taking here - this comes up in comics too, writers who think the plot should be advanced by the characters and what they would do vs the method of tossing them into your sandbox of choice (space/hell/etc) and working backward from there - i just dont get where he'd think he was the former. im not saying avatar should be written by Mamet and everyone should be played by Ed Norton necessarily, but...yeah, the more i think about it, the more he was a total mis-match.

 

you gotta admit, that'd be an awesome movie... "A...B...B.

ALWAYS...BE...BENDING."

I'm pretty sure I've heard him say this in interviews before--that he writes characters or "character pieces." But I don't care enough to look it up. I agree w/ you though that he doesn't really write "character pieces" (although Unbreakable, 6th Sense, & Signs all center around characters coming to grips w/ fear, pain and loss as much as they do their supernatural plots); however, I'd say Shymalan DOES think he writes these. I was just pointing out a (possible) aspect of his nature that could hopefully account for how he turned such an awesome show into such a shit movie.

 

And a Mamet Airbender re-make couldn't hurt things. . .

 

Zuko: What's your name?

 

Aang: Fuck you. That's my name. You know why, mister? 'Cause you drove a Hyundai to get here tonight, I drove a one of a kind, sky bison. That's my name.

 

Zuko: I don't gotta sit here and listen to this.

 

Aang: You certainly don't, pal. Because the good news is...you're fired.

[hurls ball of fire at Zuko]