Why M. Night Shyamalan why?
2010-08-10 01:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chiisanahito
^ Zuko is not amused.
His Uncle is, but that's only because...well, yeah just because.
I watched The Last Airbender movie the other day.
Just as any other adaptations, The Last Airbender is generally disappointing.
I really like the Avatar series, and to see even the bending effects were so-so, I felt kinda mad for some reason. I mean, come on -- controlling elements, man! IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE COOL, not looking half-assedly done! SRSLYYY.
I saw the trailer for this movie some months ago, and when I saw the casts didn't quite follow the story's 'ethnicity' (I don't remember Katara and Sokka being so...fair-skinned), I tried not to judge too hardly on the overall film.
"Probably the whole movie would be better, we'll see." : was what I thought.
Plus, for adaptation movies, honestly I've never put up high expectations for them to actually follow the original story; instead I'll watch the movie mainly for special effects, the visuals, you know, those things.
BUT THEN.
Even the bending effects failed to amaze me.
The background, scenery, buildings are all nicely done though, I admit; although that's the only positive points about the movie.
To make it simpler, I'll just list the stuff that made the movie less than good :
- The way they pronounce 'Aang' is Aah-ng, which I guess is their way of preserving the 'original Asian' feel; but it feels weird to us Avatar fans, since we're used to hearing Aay-ng, as in the A for apple sound.
- Also Iroh is pronounced Ee-roh, not Eye-roh like in the series. Another Asian-ized pronunciation I think.
- The bending movements are okay, but the elements don't follow smoothly! Like, when the bender moves his hands, the elements are supposed to follow the hand movements, right? That way, the fighting scenes would be much more bearable. I feel super irritated when, in the Earth Kingdom isolation place, the group of Earthbenders managed to display a really cool bending action in sync, but the resulting Earth element that was controlled was only a single rock. COME ON -- a group of TOUGH GUYS, controlling only one fist-sized ROCK? I really wanted to punch anyone who's in charge of the effects. I still want to.
- The Water Tribe people are not supposed to be white people! And this is not racism -- this is just a matter of doing movie adaptations properly!
- The same goes to the Air Nomads! Why is Aang a white kid, but the rest of the Air Nomads are...well, dark-skinned? Monk Gyatso is supposed to be an old man with long, white moustache typical of monks (well, typical in my view anyways); not a middle-aged man with dark hair and dark skin!
- AND OH MY GOD THE FIRE NATION. When 'Zhao' turned out to be NOT the typical 'Zhao-image' I had in mind, I constantly thought : "Are you kidding me? Who are they trying to fool with this...this character?!" Again, NOT to be racist; prolly they just want to portray cultural diversities in the movie, but still, make it realistic at least -- Zhao is so obviously a Chinese name!
- "The reason I don't want to be the Avatar is because the Avatar can't have a family." WHAT KIND OF DIALOGUE IS THAT?! Did M. Night Shyamalan did NOT watch the series?! Furthermore, would a 12-year-old really say that?
- The movie moves weirdly. I asked my dad what he thought of it, and he said it's confusing. And to tell the truth, if you don't know what's going on in the series, then the chance is you might not get what the movie is about. I know it's hard to condense a 20-episode series into a 2-hour movie, but either you do it properly so people could actually understand it, or you can extend it to be a 3-hour movie (LOTR anyone?), which would consume a bigger budget, but more probably could get a better audience, no?
- Zuko doesn't have that many hair to begin with. And his scar should be more obvious =_=AND he should be way better looking!
- Also Iroh is pronounced Ee-roh, not Eye-roh like in the series. Another Asian-ized pronunciation I think.
- The bending movements are okay, but the elements don't follow smoothly! Like, when the bender moves his hands, the elements are supposed to follow the hand movements, right? That way, the fighting scenes would be much more bearable. I feel super irritated when, in the Earth Kingdom isolation place, the group of Earthbenders managed to display a really cool bending action in sync, but the resulting Earth element that was controlled was only a single rock. COME ON -- a group of TOUGH GUYS, controlling only one fist-sized ROCK? I really wanted to punch anyone who's in charge of the effects. I still want to.
- The Water Tribe people are not supposed to be white people! And this is not racism -- this is just a matter of doing movie adaptations properly!
- The same goes to the Air Nomads! Why is Aang a white kid, but the rest of the Air Nomads are...well, dark-skinned? Monk Gyatso is supposed to be an old man with long, white moustache typical of monks (well, typical in my view anyways); not a middle-aged man with dark hair and dark skin!
- AND OH MY GOD THE FIRE NATION. When 'Zhao' turned out to be NOT the typical 'Zhao-image' I had in mind, I constantly thought : "Are you kidding me? Who are they trying to fool with this...this character?!" Again, NOT to be racist; prolly they just want to portray cultural diversities in the movie, but still, make it realistic at least -- Zhao is so obviously a Chinese name!
- "The reason I don't want to be the Avatar is because the Avatar can't have a family." WHAT KIND OF DIALOGUE IS THAT?! Did M. Night Shyamalan did NOT watch the series?! Furthermore, would a 12-year-old really say that?
- The movie moves weirdly. I asked my dad what he thought of it, and he said it's confusing. And to tell the truth, if you don't know what's going on in the series, then the chance is you might not get what the movie is about. I know it's hard to condense a 20-episode series into a 2-hour movie, but either you do it properly so people could actually understand it, or you can extend it to be a 3-hour movie (LOTR anyone?), which would consume a bigger budget, but more probably could get a better audience, no?
- Zuko doesn't have that many hair to begin with. And his scar should be more obvious =_=
...phew that was a lot.
- - - - - - -
It's funny when I'm so interested in someone, I suddenly feel really awkward to just even look at the face; more so into the eyes.
Why is thisss?! XD;
A Reason to Smile today :
Denjiro-sensei!
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Date: 2010-08-09 07:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-10 07:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-10 07:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-28 02:42 am (UTC)My sister got really disappoint in that movie That's not match to series on tv show. She saw that movie but i not see it yet to me I don't care for kind of different no matter what to me xD *shrugs* and "Directed" He really screwed series to move too mess up. :s that's shocked to me Zuko not have all too scar on eye but too light scar but that's suck. :B that's fail to me. >.>; That's make fans gonna WTF. xD
I know you are not trying to be "judge against races skin" for a a movie. ^^; But i don't understand why choose too bright people
like mein that movie by Director's opinion. :/That movie.. BLAME on The Directed M. Night Shyamalan. :) If I were he need fix up from mess movie try follow re-watching series all every ep. and trying re-air movie try make some fans happy.. :I