I didn't have high hopes for 'The Last Airbender', but I still had some hope, somewhere. Now that hope is gone, as the film turns out to be as impressive as the 'Mortal Kombat' movies, which were awesome when I was six. The good news is, the effects are great. The bad news is, the acting and elementary-school-level dialogue is more than likely going to turn you off, that is of course unless you are in elementary school. But of course you're not because you're reading film reviews.
Why did I have high hopes? It's not like M. Night Shyamalan is still a good director. I guess I was just all caught up with the overload of "realistic" adaptations of just about every franchise there is. I think I kind of expected them to somehow make the 'Avatar' series (he couldn't call the movie that because of James Cameron's cockblock) realistic, but instead we get a very close adaptation of the show, which isn't what most people will want to see.
The actuality is that Shyamalan definitely had little control over this movie, although it's not like we really trust him anymore anyway. It's basically like asking a cook to make the best steak ever with dogfood. You can tell that he put his all into the film, but Nickelodeon's control is too apparent, as this is obviously targeted at the children who are able to sit through the animated television series, which is also as mind-numbingly lame, at least in the case of the dialogue.
My advice is to skip it, unless you don't mind Disney-channel-worthy acting and a choppy story (that we're somehow expected to just understand even though it is barely explained; remember, it's for kids) as long as you get those state-of-the-art, epic special effects. Like, he totally lifts these giant waves and it's all like this epic orchestra music is playing and it's totally epic. Catch my drift?
Why did I have high hopes? It's not like M. Night Shyamalan is still a good director. I guess I was just all caught up with the overload of "realistic" adaptations of just about every franchise there is. I think I kind of expected them to somehow make the 'Avatar' series (he couldn't call the movie that because of James Cameron's cockblock) realistic, but instead we get a very close adaptation of the show, which isn't what most people will want to see.
The actuality is that Shyamalan definitely had little control over this movie, although it's not like we really trust him anymore anyway. It's basically like asking a cook to make the best steak ever with dogfood. You can tell that he put his all into the film, but Nickelodeon's control is too apparent, as this is obviously targeted at the children who are able to sit through the animated television series, which is also as mind-numbingly lame, at least in the case of the dialogue.
My advice is to skip it, unless you don't mind Disney-channel-worthy acting and a choppy story (that we're somehow expected to just understand even though it is barely explained; remember, it's for kids) as long as you get those state-of-the-art, epic special effects. Like, he totally lifts these giant waves and it's all like this epic orchestra music is playing and it's totally epic. Catch my drift?
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