The Last Airbender - Grading & Discussion

They'll be very lucky if they make back the cost of production.

Bomb.

 

Could the title of this movie be the most accurate title in movie history?

 

From Captain Craig: "This will be its first normal weekend and if it should have a typical summer drop of 60% based on the $53m for the 3-day opener it'll draw in around another $21million give or take." (Italics added.) The man is right, most movies drop over 50% after the first week. A typical drop is not a bomb exploding.

Atypically holding steady is what makes big hits. Plus, in the end most movies make 50-60% of revenue from foreign box office. Last Airbender is not opening wide abroad, those returns will be a while coming. Unless Last Airbender is one of those movies that appeal to US audiences more than foreign audiences (unlikely, despite the racebending,) there's another 150 megabucks coming.

It is extremely unlikely the movie won't make back production costs by the end of its theatrical run, and will make money for broadcasts rights sales and DVD releases. It seems to be a stinkbomb, which will hurt merchandising but a lot of that was an upfront gamble by merchandisers and they're the ones taking the haircut.

It is a safe bet that a big box office means a movie is doing something well. That does not mean it was worth doing in the first place. And it does not mean that pronouncing something a "bomb" when it is isn't is a criticism.

 

We haven't seen the international numbers yet. I'm still hoping for a sequel. (One without MNS) Just think of the toys they're selling!

 

Yeah, I thought as soon as I saw the first weekend numbers that this won't be a bomb; now, depending on how it performs overseas, it could go down as a disappointment (given that Hollywood studio standards for that sort of thing), but only the studio can really judge that right now.

 

Not ouch. Do you haters ever follow boxoffice results?
A 58% drop is not unusual at all for summer season second weekends. Anything less than 60% is good.
Placing 5th when two of the other spots are from new releases means TLA had the 3rd best holdover from prior weeks. The others being TS:3 and Eclipse so not bad company.

Now had TLA dropped 65% and placed 8th, yeah then it'd ouch-ville.

 

Can you stop calling everybody haters? I can't take a damn word you're saying seriously.

Someone who doesn't agree with you is not automatically a "hater."

 

Ro it's not about agreeing with me.
Just correcting the hyperbole from those quick to indicate they don't like MNS and want to say BOMB.
You tell me the term you'd like me to use. Idiots, Morons, Fools or another word. Hater seems appropriate cause they are basing their response on emotion and I can't say if its due to lack of understanding on how the process works.
Don't be so thin.

 

Being one of the people who won't watch the damn movie because of the suspicious casting, you'd have to call me a Last Airbender hater, I suppose. I'd be more pleased than not if foreign box office were unusually low. But there is very little likelihood that Last Airbender is going to lose the studio money, regardless of any disappointment over not matching the other Avatar. So, I'm not going to cry "Bomb!"

It sure seems the bomb talk is because people hate M. Night Shyamalan. Why is that? Don't insult my intelligence by claiming to dislike his crappy movies. That's when I draw my own conclusions, which is not often flattering.

 

How about no word at all? You could have made your point without resorting to name-calling.

I don't disagree with any of the points you're making. I just don't see why you feel the need to use the tone you're using. I feel like you're getting overly defensive about a movie that you didn't even like that much.

 

RE: STJ
I think you understood me.
I'm not upset at all if a poster doesn't like his movies.
Not upset at your reason, I don't share it but ok.

All I've done the last few posts is correct the hyperbole of those shouting. BOMB. OUCH. Another MNS failure, when those are incorrect and seem based on not the quality of this work(TLA), but their perception of his other work that they didn't like.

Then I have to replace a word with a phrase. Hater vs To all those misusing BOMB or somesuch.
I said it was a B/B- movie. Do I need to rank it an A to correct the misuse of terminology?

I'm just being equally firm, no real tone need be read into it, even when reading "haters". I'm not typing it with grit in my teeth.

 

All I'm saying is you can correct people without being rude.

 

I'm not a hater, but I'll give the question a shot anyway... Maybe because he's a writer-director of mostly genre flicks, who gets to keep making whatever movies he wants, regardless of quality, and we're all pants-wettingly jealous of that? I know I am. And that he then abuses that extremely rare power by making crappy movies, when he seems to have the talent to do better?

 

I don't know that jealousy has anything to do with it, but it's definitely annoying. We've seen him make really awesome movies, but it seems that each new movie he makes just gets crappier and crappier. Either he's a one(two?)-hit wonder and needs to stop being allowed to make movies, or he needs to step up his game and actually start making quality films again.

 

Where's the fun in that?

 

The one trailer I saw was so silly, it just reminded me of that Star Wars Kid. Is it any good?

 

Greetings, about TLA (not three-letter acronym),
Did not correctly enter info earlier and lost it... Special effects (creatures) could be 8 out of 10. Character development (other creatures) could be about 3 out of 10. New multiverse could be 8 out of 10. Contextualization of magic (is it really magic?) could be about 3 out of 10. Overall, an underachiever. Hey! I'm there too. Endgame.

 

Well, I finally saw this. I'm a big fan of the cartoon. This wasn't the worst movie ever. However, it wasn't very good.

Things I did like:

The actors that played Aang, Zuko and Iroh were good. Aang was probably a little too serious, but I don't think he should've have been as goofy as his cartoon version. Zuko was decent, and the actor actually seem to be trying. Iroh was great whenever he was with Zuko. I wish he had been more fat like his cartoon version though.

The actor that played Aang looked good when fighting. Too often, actors that are picked look terrible whenever they fight.

The visual effects were nice. Seeing the opening with the four benders in shadow was great. It was cool seeing people finally using bending in live action.

The Northern Water Tribe was great. I love seeing the city.

Princess Yue was pretty.

Appa and Momo were cool. Too bad we didn't get more of them.


Things that I didn't like:

I didn't like Katara, Sokka, Zhao in his. They were nothing like the characters from the cartoon. Katara is fearless and is an amazing waterbending in the show, but in the movie the actress looked scared all the time. Her fight with Zuko at the end was too one sided. Sokka has no sense of humor. The actor might be good at playing a Civil War vampire, but not a funny Sokka. I was waiting for him to make jokes, but he never did. Zhao wasn't menacing at all. It felt like the actor was in the wrong movie.

The pacing was really bad. It felt like they were jumping from place to place. This movie badly needed to be thirty minutes longer.

Katara's constant narration was quite annoying. Enough already.

Firebending requires a fire source. Dumb. It makes the Fire Nation into one of the weakest people.

The Earthbendering scene made no sense. In the show, the prisoners were imprisoned on a rig made of metal, which they couldn't manipulate. Also the Earthbending was too weak. One rock? In the show, Toph easily throws around boulders twenty times that size.

The name pronunciation. It really took me out of the movie whenever Aang, Sokka, Iroh's names were used. I'm too used to how the names sound in the show.

The ending with the water wall. Aang should have actually done some damage.

Everyone bowing to Aang at the very end, especially Katara and Sokka. It felt wrong. Aang is supposed to be their friend, not their god.

No Suki. She is one of my favorite supporting characters from the show. They were even on Kyoshi Island and they showed Koyoshi's statue! But no Suki. I heard M Night filmed her scenes, but got rid of them.

I thought that it was okay, but it should have been much better. I wish that they had picked a better director for this. M Night seems to have no clue on how to direct an epic fantasy. They should have gotten a director like Peter Jackson or Gore Verbinski. Now that would have been awesome.

 

Well, he was hired partly for his martial-arts experience. However, there are a number of shots where it's not actually Noah Ringer but a female stunt double whose face has been digitally replaced with Ringer's. There's a shot in one of the early trailers where you can clearly see the stuntwoman because they hadn't done the digital replacement yet.

Oh, you mean Zhao! I was wondering who Zaho was. Yeah, the idea of a Daily Show correspondent playing the film's big bad always struck me as bizarre. I was hoping Mandvi was hiding some amazing chameleonic skill as an actor and could pull off a tough, menacing villain, but from what I've heard, he didn't.

Does it? The other three bending skills require a source of material as well. It's easy for Airbenders and Earthbenders because the raw material is always around them (unless an Earthbender is on, say, a metal platform in the water), but what about a Waterbender who's in the middle of a desert and doesn't have a full canteen?

Of course, Katara always carried a flask of water with her for bending. But a Firebender could, say, always carry a small lit lantern, or at least a flint and some kindling. People have always had ways to carry sources of fire with them, even before lighters and matches were invented.

 

Damn you for ruining the illusion for me!

Seriously, I didn't notice that. I was just geeking out at the airbending.

Wow, they got a Daily Show correspondent to play Zhao? That certainly explains how horrible he was!

It felt too much like a needless change for me. A fire source can be put out so easily by air, water, and dirt. I've spent so long thinking of firebending used in a certain way, it was hard to see it used so differently. I guess I can almost accept that the Fire Nation got so far in the movie because of their superior technology.

I'm glad this movie was made though. It got me to finally check out the much superior cartoon.