The Last Airbender

[Surlyboi]

Yeah, really early. But this just popped up on my radar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zc1fmeVe1g

I dug the sit out of the series. Will M Knight Shamalamadingdong fuck this up too?


Edit by Trippy: next time trim out all that extra crap from the URL

[Aez]

Looks good but every very time I hear "the chosen one" a piece of my soul die.

[RhyssaFireheart]

That trailer does look really good, but it'll be interesting to see how things play out with all the uproar over casting that's gone on/is going on.

[HaemishM]

Pika? Shamalamadingdong is doing a movie based on a cartoon? I'm sure it couldn't be worse than the (Nothing)Happening.

[Tebonas]

So the series worth watching?

I filed that under "kids cartoon" (it was running in the children program over here), but that trailer makes it sound interesting.

[gryeyes]

Cartoon is excellent regardless of your age. Dubious but hopeful about the movie.

[Wasted]

The series is great, I watched it with the kids and loved it.  The choreography for the fights and the bending is about the best you will see anywhere and though most of the tone is young and somewhat humorous when it gets serious it does it extremely well.  Some of the episodes are very poetic and moving.

The movie is going to destroy everything good about the series. I cry a little every time I'm reminded about who will direct this.

[Riggswolfe]

They had a preview for this before Transformers 2 and one thing I noticed was that people goraned when M. Night's name came on the screen. He needs to pray that this is a blockbuster.

[Lakov_Sanite]

If this makes money, it'll be quite a twist!

[Surlyboi]

I see what you did there...

[SurfD]

the one thing i am very concerned about is the treatment of the tone of the series, when converted to the movie.

Avatar always had a strong running current of light humor through most of the episodes, and if the movie goes and takes itself too seriously, that will probably be the thing that ruins it the most for me.

[Khaldun]

The series is fantastic, and well worth the time even for adults who don't have kids.

M.  Night Shamwow is almost 100% guaranteed to fuck it up. He has zero demonstrated facility with light or humorous material, which as others have noted is a crucial part of the mix in the stories. He's got no demonstrated facility with action, which is equally important. The casting so far is unimpressive. The people who have developed the show have had a very sure hand with it, so I was really surprised to see M.Night being given the nod to make the film--imho, about the only worse choice would have been Uwe Boll or Michael Bay.

[MrHat]

I'm pretty sure it's on Netflix Online currently.

[Samprimary]

Oh, the comic series was great, which is weird, because it starts out as something for little kids, but then it hooks all the adults.

I mean, real nice shit. Wish I had stuff this cool when I was a kid.

M. Night. Shahamahuahalmahrwefnnowsifh4 is going to turn it into a festering pile of dogshit.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Personally I preferred lady in the water to the village.  Lady had a fairy tale quality to it and not much of a twist, it was just a bit odd and not terribly interesting.  I think it would have worked better as a short story/film on a lower budget.  The village however was an ending I saw coming from the very beginning and it's only redeeming quality was opie's daughter who is a Goddess.

[UnSub]

The series is fantastic, and well worth the time even for adults who don't have kids.

M.  Night Shamwow is almost 100% guaranteed to fuck it up. He has zero demonstrated facility with light or humorous material, which as others have noted is a crucial part of the mix in the stories. He's got no demonstrated facility with action, which is equally important. The casting so far is unimpressive. The people who have developed the show have had a very sure hand with it, so I was really surprised to see M.Night being given the nod to make the film--imho, about the only worse choice would have been Uwe Boll or Michael Bay.

M. Night did the screenplay for "Stuart Little" based on the original book; he's got some history in adapting 'light comedy' to screen.

Of course, this was a while ago - 1999.

[Fordel]

I just want to echo everyone else and say the Cartoon Series is definitely worth watching. They really crafted a entire world and mythos with it and I am told that the fighting is fairly 'accurate' or however you want to put it. A lot of thought was put into the entire series and it shows. It's also rather clever and just fun to watch 


As to this movie, I am so afraid 

[HaemishM]

Lady in the Water was shit from the moment the director cast himself as the most important character in the movie. God, I wanted to punch bunnies in the throat after watching that movie.

[Merusk]

I mean, real nice shit. Wish I had stuff this cool when I was a kid.

We had Mysterious Cities of Gold, which was cool but not nearly as good as Avatar.

I just want to echo everyone else and say the Cartoon Series is definitely worth watching. They really crafted a entire world and mythos with it and I am told that the fighting is fairly 'accurate' or however you want to put it.

Yeah, it is.  There were a few specials/ short clips about the series as each season started up.  IIRC they did several of these that illustrated which styles and Martial Arts forms they were using for the various 'benders.' 

[Tebonas]

Thanks to this thread, I immersed myself into the series (which I would never have seen otherwise).

Regardless of how crappy the movie might turn out to be, that was worth it.

[gryeyes]

The end of the movie will be Aang waking up inside his iceberg, realizing it was all a dream.

[Mrbloodworth]

Cartoon is excellent regardless of your age.

Not so much.

[gryeyes]

BZZZZZZT wrong answer

[Grimwell]

Time to necropost!

I just finished watching this series with my family, and it's damn good. The movie isn't that far off so I think the necro is fair treatment.

The handling of plot/story was done amazingly well for a US based cartoon. It's far better than anything from my childhood that was US based. No, really, I checked. My memories of a lot of the old shows are far better than the realties.

Airbender was as good to me now as Star Blazers was to me as a kid (and that one still holds up for me, campy but good.).

I'm going to give Mr. Shamalamadingdong a try, because my kids won't care if it isn't quite as good. With any luck this will be his exception film. He needs a change of pace. :)

[RhyssaFireheart]

Well, not sure how well M. Night is going to handle the humor, but the action is look pretty darn good in the Super Bowl trailer.  The bending effects look really nice and I like that the firebenders seem to need a source (the campfire in one case) rather than just creating fire out of thin air.

There are some teaser posters up as well:

[Pennilenko]

If mister shamalamadingdong messes up The Last Airbender, I hope that we get to fill the streets around his home with a mob and lynch him.

[UnSub]

I think we are still trying to get that Bay posse organised for "Transformers".

[Pennilenko]

I think we are still trying to get that Bay posse organised for "Transformers".

I don't honestly think transformers ever should have been brought to the big screen, it needed to stay a bad cartoon. The Last Air Bender, has quality writing, and was very entertaining. It can be made into a good movie I think. Shamallama is the worst possible person to give this to.

[shiznitz]

I think we are still trying to get that Bay posse organised for "Transformers".

I don't honestly think transformers ever should have been brought to the big screen, it needed to stay a bad cartoon. The Last Air Bender, has quality writing, and was very entertaining. It can be made into a good movie I think. Shamallama is the worst possible person to give this to.

I am not so sure. The guy needs a serious career reboot. At least he isn't creating the story from scratch which seems to be his doom since Sixth Sense.

[Vision]

I talked with a friend that went to a pre-screening.

[RhyssaFireheart]

Full trailer is out.

My hype meter is rising.  I'm tempted to go see that Percy Jackson movie just to see the trailer on the movie screen.  But that's just me. 

Why does Sokka sound like he's British/Irish/Australian/NZer (it's one of those accents.  I have no clue, I'm a lazy American) though?  Katara's voice worked for me for the tiny bit I heard it, we see more of Zuko and Iroh (the scar doesn't show up well enough, IMO from what I can see in the trailer), and Aang's still not talking. 

[Fordel]

I'm not feeling this at all, it's just not translating into live action well for me.

[Vision]

Damn the main characters looks like the kid who bends the spoon with his mind in The Matrix.

[veredus]

My only problem with the trailer etc is that every one looks so serious, thats not avatar to me. Hopefully they get the humor conveyed, we'll see though. Having said that I'll see this in the theater for sure. This is one of my favorites to watch with my kids.

[sickrubik]

I dunno. I think M Knight Shamalamadingdong does great at comedy. That's the only way I can explain The Happening.