Dharma-Burger! Is “Airbender” mindbendingly bad?
It would seem that way. Few had high hopes for this new M. Night Shyamalan movie — least of all Arun from Angry Asian Buddhist — and it seems that said few will in fact never be considered gifted prognosticators. Via Defamer:
“The Last Airbender is the tale of, oh, who the hell knows. It is basically Star Wars with a Buddhist ‘theme,’ and it stars Aasif Mandvi from The Daily Show. You may remember when this movie was being made there was a fair amount of controversy about the cast being largely white, when the characters in the source material were Asian. Attention, Asian community: You seem to have dodged a bullet.”
Yikes.
And: Defamer reports that TLA has a 4% rating on RottenTomatoes.com. That’s out of 100 percent. (Meaning: very, very bad.) Defamer has also collected some of the stunning words of hate, which have to be seen to be believed, already racked up by the film. Update: the Rotten Tomatoes rating is now up to a staggering 6%! But then again, as punk godfathers the Minutemen once posited, “The roar of the masses could be farts.”
(Sorry. But Right Speech, it seems, is not a factor when people discuss this movie.)
But don’t get too discouraged, Mr. Mandvi — you’ll still have a career. Being in intentionally laughable projects suits you better anyway.
If you’ve seen the film yourself, leave a review. And do try to be nice.
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July 1st, 2010 at 10:40 pm
Saw it with my son tonight. My thoughts:
1. Acting could have been better in many places. Some really good moments, too.
2. Special effects were great. Love the elemental bending. Nothing happens in an instant, and it felt weighted and real. And the different martial art styles were apparent.
3. My theater had it on a huge screen in 3D, but only twenty people showed up. I hope it makes enough money so we get the next two movies.
4. The avatar is committed to nonviolence. He has opportunities to hurt, but chooses not to. That was my favorite part of the cartoon, too.
Overall it was good. Not great, but the series has potential, and I think the acting will improve with the aging of the actors.
I like the movie. Love the original cartoon. My son feels the same (he’s 10).
July 4th, 2010 at 12:36 am
just saw it today. oof. its really bad. the only way i could get through it was by me and a friend cracking jokes the whole time and laughing. pretty sure everyone in the theatre hated us.
July 9th, 2010 at 9:35 am
I saw it last week. I was apprehensive about the casting, and about the potential to screw up one of my favorite TV shows, but I thought it was decent. Not amazing, but pretty darn good. I’m not sure where all the hate is coming from, aside from justified complaints about the lily white casting. I thought it was much better than most of the drivel that passes for summertime entertainment.
July 10th, 2010 at 4:59 pm
I am a fan of the tv series. The only reason I went is because of my 6 year old daughter who is a fan of the original. (I was planning to avoid it because of the non-Asian cast)
Everything they changed was for the worst. It was hard to evaluate the acting since the lines they make the cast speak are extremely bad. There is absolutely no character development, (a strong point of the original series). No sense of humor. The bending was done very poorly with the special effects.
All the explanations are doe using voice overs instead of letting the action speak for itself. No drama, they cut out important characters from the original story. it is the worst movie i have seen in a long time.