The Last Airbender

[seriousfic]

So apparently it won't be that much of a temptation to watch The Last Airbender. According to Ebert and pretty much everyone else, M. Night Shyamalan (c'mon, it's been, what, ten years? We should be over how funny his name is if you add a ding-dong to it) changes the story so instead of being set in a fantasy universe, it's set in the far future*, and he removed the humor, and he made all the scenes dark.

So Avatar is now literally set in THE GRIMDARK FUTURE**. Wow.

Well, this was probably a stupid idea from the beginning. Taking ten hours or so of story from Book 1 and cutting it down into two hours an hour and a half? Sure, you could do it, if you cut out all the pirates and penguin-sledding and pai cho games, but... that's kinda the point. We're humans. We watch movies for characters, not for plots. We're not some robot that has to be fed a certain amount of Campbellian tropes for our green light to come on. That's why the Star Wars prequels, the Matrix sequels, and even Iron Man 2 floundered. They were just breathless races from plot point to plot point, with no time to get to know any of the characters or enjoy any of the scenes they were in. All the pod-races in the world can't make up for one scene of Luke Skywalker watching a double sunset, looking for his destiny.

Couldn't they have just given the creators X amount of money, told them to hire Liam Neeson to voice some new character, and just made a big-screen movie? It worked for Mask of the Phantasm. There are just enough loose ends to make revisiting the Avatar universe fun, especially seeing everyone a few years later. Hell, just give that face-stealing dude the Wrath of Khan treatment and work in Azula's redemption/revenge and there ya go.

It's always a shame when a good premise is wasted, but here it's doubly hurtful. In some alternate universe where this thing was a good movie (and not cast with anyone from Twilight), families are getting a quality film full of thoughtful storytelling and free of the Dreamworks face, dozens of young minority actors are getting a break-out opportunity they probably wouldn't get again for years ("Alright, Asians, today on the casting call we need a Yakuza assassin, an otaku computer nerd, and a disgraced prince who subsumes his need for his father's approval into a vendetta he hopes will restore his honor."), and the next movie that wants to be about someone who's black or Hispanic or Asian is having that much of an easier time getting made.

*Really, the grim dark future? Does that mean all the Inuits and Asians were wiped out, since now they're white people? And where'd the Avatar spirit come from? Did some scientists create it in a lab? And what's bending? A mutation brought on by the radiation of all the bombs North Korea drops on us? And will there be a crossover with Futurama?

**Someone pay Katara's VA to narrate "In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war."

Comments

[rap541.livejournal.com]

I assumed the white people killed all the brown? You know how whitey is....

[tgirl78.livejournal.com]

*sigh*. I kind of new it was going to be bad since M. Night Shalamama was writing and directing it. But I was REALLY hoping that I would be wrong. I heard this is worse than "The Happening" and that was just AWFUL...

[modestroad.livejournal.com]

It's a M. Night Shyamalan movie. What did you expected? The man has years to make a decent movie! You know, I was willing to get past the white cast (Prince of Persia anyone?) but if the characters are not the same characters of the cartoon, what's the point?

I think a 'based on the cartoon' would be better. At least the fans would know what to expect.