• Kyle
  • Kyle
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  • From: Carmel, Indiana
  • Registered: 2010-04-20
  • Posts: 284
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Re: Airbender: how not to adapt a series

IT WASN'T IN FUCKING 3D.

Listen.  Fuck you for the terrible plotting.  Fuck you for the terrible casting.  Fuck you for the terrible dialogue.  Fuck you for allowing the terrible, unwatchable acting.  But when I pay an extra 3.50 for the first time to see what this stupid new 3D nonsense is all about AND THE ONLY THING IN 3D IS THE MOTHERFUCKING TITLE CARDS, YOU CAN SUCK MY STUBBY WHITE DICK.

I'm going to give the series a shot now, because DESPITE everyone involved making their best attempt at ruining everything about not only the source material but CINEMA IN GENERAL, I could see some interesting concepts that could only come from the source material.  But I'm just so glad I had no previous exposure to the series and was not emotionally invested in it, or I might have gone on a murderous rampage after seeing this thing.

When.

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  • From: Buffalo, NY
  • Registered: 2010-01-08
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Re: Airbender: how not to adapt a series

It was suppose to have been converted to 3D, same as the recent Alice in Wonderland film. It's like going to a movie that has been colorized and bitching that this whole Technicolor thing is a fraud smile

I write stories! With words!
http://www.asstr.org/~Invid_Fan/

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  • Registered: 2010-01-26
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Re: Airbender: how not to adapt a series

Post-production conversion to 3D: When dioramas aren't quite cool enough.

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  • Kyle
  • Kyle
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  • From: Carmel, Indiana
  • Registered: 2010-04-20
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Re: Airbender: how not to adapt a series

Well, no, not really.  Because colorized movies are in color.  You can't say you made a 3D movie when the only thing that looks to be at a slightly different depth than the rest of the screen is the text you throw on the bottom of the frame.

Also, I've seen some really crazy IMAX stuff in the last ten years that was 3D.  One Nascar documentary in particular was fucking crazy in 3D, and I don't even watch Nascar or have any interest in it.  But even as a 10 year old kid watching that kind of stuff I KNEW why they didn't do it in real movies- because it was dumb, and gimmicky as shit.

I saw Avatar (blue cats) not-in-3D, and thought everything looked extremely CG and extremely dumb- and was told that was because I saw it in the oh-so-outdated 2D.  So now I go and see a movie that IS dumb, but from trailers appears to have very cool visuals that should look awesome in 3D, and I think it actually made it look worse.

I know Avatar was shot for 3D and Airbender wasn't, but between the two experiences I'm kind of soured on 3D movies.

When.

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  • From: Gardena, California
  • Registered: 2009-11-26
  • Posts: 1,598
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Re: Airbender: how not to adapt a series

I just finally saw this this weekend.

Holy shit I cannot wait until we get the chance to hate-fuck this thing on-air.

I watched and loved the cartoon series and even knowing what the basis was, even knowing the longer version, the film's plot made no sense to me.

The interesting thing was that, based on said knowledge, I have to admit that I think Shyamalan made a few smart choices in how he chose to condense action (making Aang's reawakening be what alerts the Fire Nation), or change/clarify stakes (I actually kind of like that the Fire Nation, aside from the most powerful, can't generate their own flame until Sozin's Comet comes), but most of the alterations were arbitrary and dumb, dumb, dumb. Half the time he'd cut a setup but leave the payoff, or vice-versa, and I can't even...I can't even English what I think about the tragicomic attempts at Eastern "philosophy."

Not an exaggeration: this movie is literally as incoherent as THE ROOM. That scene where they show up in an alleyway, have dialogue about stuff that's already happened or unimportant, toss the football around and then leave, having accomplished nothing in story, plot, or character? That is this entire movie.

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  • From: Farmington, CT
  • Registered: 2010-05-08
  • Posts: 2,451
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Re: Airbender: how not to adapt a series

I hated the new loophole about the Fire Nation and flame. It makes them so much less of a threat. In the show, it was "When the comet comes, all of the villains will become super powerful!". In the movie, it's "When the comet comes, all of the villains will be able to generate their own weaponry, while previously they would have had to either carry it with them (not difficult) or find it (not difficult), and only a few people could do this before!". Those stakes are horrible.

But yeah, the movie was laughably stupid. Literally, laughable. I saw it at midnight with some friends who were also fans of the show. 15 minutes in, I started to throw out riffs, MST3K style. A few minutes later, the rest of the theater joined in. There was absolutely nothing redeemable about the film, and that's really rare.

"The Doctor is Submarining through our brains." --Teague

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  • From: Buffalo, NY
  • Registered: 2010-01-08
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Re: Airbender: how not to adapt a series

It's bad enough the movie is bad, but Shamalamawhatshisname refused to put on the DVD the cut scenes, either in the extras or as a directors cut. He FILMED quite a bit, including the Kioshi Warriors, but won't let us see it so he can "re-introduce" them in the second movie. That's being optimistic... What the movie needed was room to tell the story, and the extra adventures on the way north could only help the film.

(You can briefly see the Kioshi in one of the included extras, after Aang talks to some sort of fortune teller. As the kids board Appa, the warriors are there then aren't in the crowd)

I write stories! With words!
http://www.asstr.org/~Invid_Fan/

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