Don't worry, there will be no spoilers.
M Night Shyamalan, what happened? You used to be a director with promise? Now? You direct duds. The Happening was funnier than this movie; albeit the we were laughing at the film, even after we had to abandon our hope that you had produced something worthwhile. Lament is over.
The film is the first installment of a trilogy; assuming it grosses enough at the box office. A big assumption, given the following factors.
Forget inconsistencies, who cares? But there's no humor. I mean zip, none, nada. Not one single joke, and the only time the audience laughed was during two fight scenes. The anime series had a rich narrative, this one was exposition and action-scenes. Whereas the plot twists were carried on Nickelodeon by fortuitousness, revelations that develop the characters, engagement with the world on their journey, and common sense; this one relied on deus ex machina (like I said, no spoilers). As mentioned, I don't mind the inconsistencies; liberal licences should be encouraged. However, all they did was strip the show's mythology and personalities of any substance. I don't know why Sokka and Katara are in the film, except as incompetent guardians and cause they're main characters in the show. The Eastern philosophy implemented is hokey and pop culturish; any tangential contemporary issues like the Water Tribe's misogyny is dropped as no one has any personality flaws. Oops, I forgot, the bad guys are Arabs. Admittedly, the fighting was cool and creative. Then again, they shouldn't pat themselves on the back too much as all they had to do was copy the show. The styles though are divorced from their Eastern thought.
This boils down to the film's weakest characteristic, one that any kid I'm sure can tell you. It wasn't fun. I loved the animated TV show. Would give it a 4.5/5 and would argue with the critic it deserves at least a 4. This film? 1.5 maybe 2.
Watching the trailers, Bethany and I both said that we worried about the lack of laughter... When you think of Aang, you think of laughter, at least until the late in the series. I had really high hopes for this but am beginning to lean towards not even seeing it.
ReplyDeleteHas Spoilers:
ReplyDeleteDude, Aang? What about a mature, responsible, protective Sokka w/ no insecurity issues? Whose only indication indication that he wanted to "get some Fire nation folks" is scenes with his hand reaching for his boomerang. As for Aang, beyond not laughing or smiling once; the avatar is supposed to be and encouraged to be non-lethal from the get-go (they call it non-violent). His "plan" is to start insurrections among the occupied Earth people by avoiding all settlements, except for the one labor camp (w/ plenty of earth) that is Kyoshi Island meets Haru's village, (no Suki; hopefully, they'll bring her in later), while making his way to the Northern Tribes to learn waterbending. I can't remember, but I think his dragon spirit told him to do it.