Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Darth Shoju" data-source="post: 5231682" data-attributes="member: 11397">I saw it last night. It wasn't good.&nbsp; First off, I couldn't find a theatre playing it in 2D, and there&nbsp; isn't a single 3D effect in the damn movie. This felt like extortion to&nbsp; me. The 3D effect only served to screw up the focus of several scenes.&nbsp; The dialogue is awful. It exists only to relate exposition, and often&nbsp; without any context. There is almost no character-building done in this&nbsp; movie. Writing 101 says that when you start a line of dialogue with &quot;As&nbsp; you know...&quot;, you are setting up for a cumbersome info dump, and this&nbsp; should be avoided. This happens several times in this flick.&nbsp; The plot is a haphazard mess. Clumsy voice-overs are used to bridge&nbsp; scenes that make little sense on their own, or to fill in gaps right in&nbsp; the middle of a scene. Flashbacks are used in the wrong places, and are&nbsp; usually silent. The movie is a prime example of telling instead of&nbsp; showing. The naration could easily be covered with visual clues and&nbsp; character-building dialogue, or proper flashbacks. &nbsp; The editing is incomprehensible. Some scenes have no setup at all,&nbsp; and are totally confusing (this coming from an avid fan of the cartoon,&nbsp; who knows the story. I can only imagine the confusion of newcomers).&nbsp; The acting is wooden, but is far from the worst part of the movie. I&nbsp; actually think it could have been serviceable in the hands of a better&nbsp; director.&nbsp; As far as the ethnicities are concerned, the Southern Water Tribe&nbsp; seemed to be entirely inuit, except for Sokka, Katara, and their&nbsp; grandma. The Northern Water Tribe was all caucasian. The Earth Kingdom&nbsp; was thoroughly Chinese, while the Fire Nation was Indian. The Air Nomads&nbsp; were a mixture.&nbsp; Appa and Momo are barely in the movie. Fire Lord Ozai is basically a&nbsp; talking piece of scenery.&nbsp; Visually the movie was quite good. The sets, locations, special&nbsp; effects, costumes -- all were well done and pretty accurate to the&nbsp; cartoon. The bending used the same martial arts as the cartoon. The&nbsp; fight scenes were solid, though kind of sparse.&nbsp; Ultimately, it was like they gave a 280 million dollar budget and a&nbsp; solid special effects team to a high-school A/V club and drama class and&nbsp; told them to make a movie. Since M. Night Shyamalan took credit as&nbsp; writer, producer, and director, I'd say it all falls squarely on his&nbsp; shoulders.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; I should also add that the theatre I went to was sold out,&nbsp; and the audience seemed to enjoy the movie (except for the two kids&nbsp; behind me), and even laughed at the weak attempts at humour. Now this could be because it's Canada Day and 31 celcius here (38&nbsp; with the humidex), so people have the day off but are reluctant to go&nbsp; outside for the celebrations. It's also the first night for the movie.&nbsp; Frankly, I'm not really sure how it's going to do financially.&nbsp; Then again, I'm not sure how I want it to do. As bad as the movie&nbsp; was, there were moments where I was reminded how good the cartoon was,&nbsp; and how amazing this movie could have been. I'd say my ideal scenario at&nbsp; this point would be for it to do well enough that they want to make the&nbsp; next two, but Shyamalan can't do them due to scheduling problems or&nbsp; something, and they end up giving them to a better director.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Darth Shoju, post: 5231682, member: 11397"] I saw it last night. It wasn't good. First off, I couldn't find a theatre playing it in 2D, and there isn't a single 3D effect in the damn movie. This felt like extortion to me. The 3D effect only served to screw up the focus of several scenes. The dialogue is awful. It exists only to relate exposition, and often without any context. There is almost no character-building done in this movie. Writing 101 says that when you start a line of dialogue with "As you know...", you are setting up for a cumbersome info dump, and this should be avoided. This happens several times in this flick. The plot is a haphazard mess. Clumsy voice-overs are used to bridge scenes that make little sense on their own, or to fill in gaps right in the middle of a scene. Flashbacks are used in the wrong places, and are usually silent. The movie is a prime example of telling instead of showing. The naration could easily be covered with visual clues and character-building dialogue, or proper flashbacks. The editing is incomprehensible. Some scenes have no setup at all, and are totally confusing (this coming from an avid fan of the cartoon, who knows the story. I can only imagine the confusion of newcomers). The acting is wooden, but is far from the worst part of the movie. I actually think it could have been serviceable in the hands of a better director. As far as the ethnicities are concerned, the Southern Water Tribe seemed to be entirely inuit, except for Sokka, Katara, and their grandma. The Northern Water Tribe was all caucasian. The Earth Kingdom was thoroughly Chinese, while the Fire Nation was Indian. The Air Nomads were a mixture. Appa and Momo are barely in the movie. Fire Lord Ozai is basically a talking piece of scenery. Visually the movie was quite good. The sets, locations, special effects, costumes -- all were well done and pretty accurate to the cartoon. The bending used the same martial arts as the cartoon. The fight scenes were solid, though kind of sparse. Ultimately, it was like they gave a 280 million dollar budget and a solid special effects team to a high-school A/V club and drama class and told them to make a movie. Since M. Night Shyamalan took credit as writer, producer, and director, I'd say it all falls squarely on his shoulders. I should also add that the theatre I went to was sold out, and the audience seemed to enjoy the movie (except for the two kids behind me), and even laughed at the weak attempts at humour. Now this could be because it's Canada Day and 31 celcius here (38 with the humidex), so people have the day off but are reluctant to go outside for the celebrations. It's also the first night for the movie. Frankly, I'm not really sure how it's going to do financially. Then again, I'm not sure how I [I]want [/I]it to do. As bad as the movie was, there were moments where I was reminded how good the cartoon was, and how amazing this movie could have been. I'd say my ideal scenario at this point would be for it to do well enough that they want to make the next two, but Shyamalan can't do them due to scheduling problems or something, and they end up giving them to a better director. [/QUOTE]

Verification