The Last Airbender - M. Night's latest

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If the trees came alive at the end of the happening it would have been better. I mean LITERALLY came OUT OF THE GROUND and started chasing the cast through the field with HUGE ANGRY EYES, and it'd be even better if they were BURNING. I know this sounds stupid to some of you. I like this movie right up until the end, and then NOTHING, NOTHING HAPPENS AT ALL. Remember how in LOTR the poo pooing TREES WALKED AROUND. That how the happening should have been.

I mean, the movie sucked, why not do something from left field and have the tree's chase the main characters into the city or something. c'mon would have been a lot better than what we got. Which was Mark Wahlberg running away from AIR. Who wouldn't want to see a bunch of pissed off, burning trees? It'd be a good message on global warming, and going green.
 
Richard J. Johnson said:
I love the cartoon. Hopefully he will do it right.
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I'm usually 100% against anime. Typically the stories and acting suck.

I'm not sure if this series is handled by an American studio or what, but episode after episode I find myself drawn in. It completely perplexes me since usually I'm not watching anything animated that doesn't have webspinning, battarangs or a big fat red X in the title.

This is an awesome cartoon. The premise, however, is as dumb as anything anime has ever produced. It's in SPITE of the premise that the dialog, acting and animation are so good. This movie, I think, is going to have a lot of problems as it relies on a video game kind of weak martial arts voodoo for it's entire premise. If people couldn't even get behind Final Fantasy with all of its Gaia-rich themes, Avatar: The Last Airbender is going to struggle to win any kind of audience outside of the martial arts enthusiast crowd. (Strictly second-week speaking. I'm sure the opening will be strong since it's an action movie).
 
A little too much epic for my taste, but the beginning was quite nice.

Let's hope the script is good on this one.

M. Night really needs to publicly apologize for making The Happening.
 
Chamber005 said:
I'm usually 100% against anime. Typically the stories and acting suck.

I'm not sure if this series is handled by an American studio or what, but episode after episode I find myself drawn in. It completely perplexes me since usually I'm not watching anything animated that doesn't have webspinning, battarangs or a big fat red X in the title.

This is an awesome cartoon. The premise, however, is as dumb as anything anime has ever produced. It's in SPITE of the premise that the dialog, acting and animation are so good. This movie, I think, is going to have a lot of problems as it relies on a video game kind of weak martial arts voodoo for it's entire premise. If people couldn't even get behind Final Fantasy with all of its Gaia-rich themes, Avatar: The Last Airbender is going to struggle to win any kind of audience outside of the martial arts enthusiast crowd. (Strictly second-week speaking. I'm sure the opening will be strong since it's an action movie).
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I'm sorry... but, I'm inclined to believe you don't and have not watched enough anime to make that statement.

Anime has inspired SO MANY current Western Media Properties. Come on, THE MATRIX is a mish-mash of some of THE most groundbreaking Anime series and OVA's of all-time. Scenes ripped RIGHT out of Ghost In the Shell.

Furthermore, Avatar is NOT Anime, it's americanized toonage. Nowhere NEAR the same class as what they're aspiring to emulate. This might be why it's sucking you in so deeply...

Final Fantasy: Spirits Within is a total deviation from what the Final Fantasy series truly is, but we're talking strictly cinema here? It had NOTHING to do with Anime being weak, merely the fact that it should not have been called Final Fantasy and perhaps should have had a completely different set of writers.

There are a host of Eastern Animated Properties (Japanese, Korean, etc) that are several light years ahead of the popularized American drivel on television. Even the dubbed IPs like FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST (and this is FAIRLY new material) are so far beyond the mental capacity of typical "good guy bad guy" garble it puts most live action, long-running prime time shows to shame.

Anime sucks... wow.
 
I admit to being a fan of The Last Airbender and am looking forward to this release.

I am curious, from fans of true anime, what are some series/movie titles I might check out for a taste?
 
thartley said:
I admit to being a fan of The Last Airbender and am looking forward to this release.

I am curious, from fans of true anime, what are some series/movie titles I might check out for a taste?
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I don't know if you're specifically looking for something similar to Avatar: The Last Airbender, but here are some of my favorites:

Ghost in the Shell
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (anime TV series)
Vampire Hunter D
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (sequel -- also, there are a ton of great Vampire Hunter D novels that have finally been translated from japanese into english)
Cowboy Bebop
Akira
Golgo 13: The Professional
Patlabor 1 & 2 (there is also a TV series, though I've only seen the films)
Appleseed
Appleseed: Ex Machina
Gantz
Ninja Scroll
Wicked City
Amon Saga
The Five Star Stories
Princess Mononoke
Howl's Moving Castle
Armitage III
Cyber City Oedo
Darkside Blues
Demon City Shinjuku
Doomed Megalopolis
Big Wars
Serial Experiments Lain
Texhnolyze
Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade
Karas: The Prophecy & Karas: The Revelation
Vexille
Escaflowne
Macross/Robotech
Record of Lodoss War
Blue Gender
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Battle Angel Alita - which is the anime adaptation of the comic book series, and is out of print, so you might as well watch if here -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMKle5if-80
 
If anyone see's the ad during the superbowl I'd be surprised, shutter island might take both spots, the decision is being made right now. ha ha ha ha
 
Avatar is drawn Anime style, while in US cartoon animation tradition. It's very well made totally different animation technique

as someone who has been in the animation industry, avatar outclasses most of animes out there in terms of animation.

I'm not a great fan of naruto in terms of animation. its mostly consists of characters talking with their mouth covered, lots of hold/still frame, cycling animation, etc. etc.

Im a big avatar fan, I think its one of the few well made cartoons out there. Great story, well made animation (no hold frames or cycles, fight scenes are well thought out), researched well, great Voice actors, great music, great character development

Im also a big M Night Charlatan detractor after seeing the casting in the last airbender. and ofcourse watching his past films
 
The teaser first made me say ok. Then the super bowl ad was like wow! But really right now he's bringing in some great effects but I'm still not sure for a good storyline? Scared to watch from watching the happening. I really hope he pulls all this back together. I'll still be seeing it.
 
Nathyn said:
I won't be watching any films where white folks are strategically substituted for Asians. Love David Carradine, but he's past on friends and it's 2009. Screw this film as well as "Dragonball Evolution" and any other film where a bunch of white people (not one, not two but almost all) play Asians simply because some white people are sad little narcissist who can't get over the fact other races exist in America and the world. Screw this film and it's producers. I hope it fails like "Dragonball Evolution".

Screw Hollywood! Make you your own movie F&%$ Hollywood racism! By the way, the idea that "white people can't watch Asian leads" is a lie after close to fifty years of Martial Arts movies and many starring people with names like Lee, Chan, Li and Jaa. ALL FREAKIN' ASIAN!

http://contexts.org/socimages/2009/08/16/hollywood-discomfort-with-asian-lead-characters/
http://www.racialicious.com/2009/01/22/avatar-get-a-tan-become-asian/
http://community.abcfamily.go.com/forums/shows/samurai-girl/whiteout-asian-characters
http://www.racebending.com/v2/2009/07/31/aang-is-white/

An Asian character could have his own cartoon and be loved world wide by fans all over.
aznaang.jpg


Until that character starts making money, then we have to whiten him up a bit.
whiteaang.jpg


I know you're reading this going, what is the angry black man made about this time, but yea, that's the truth in your face. I hope I never have to sell out to the point of replacing a whole cast of non-white ethnics with whites.

-Nate
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just to be clear, the first image is not how Aang is drawn in the tv show. He's drawn like this.

avatar-the-legend-of-aang-ps2.jpg
 
Really good word of mouth from the trailer, you'll see it during the bowl, possibly more than once, I hope. It's tests are very positive.
 
thartley said:
Thanks Nektonic. Some of those are avail on Hulu so I will check them out.
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Here are a few on YouTube as well if you want to take a gander.

Cyber City Oedo -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKTlJuj-WuA&feature=related

The Five Star Stories (trailer) -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LtgxcfLPlM

Also, one I forgot to mention, Black Lagoon. I haven't seen it yet, but I hear good things about it. Black Lagoon (trailer) -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej65bjDu1Es

You might also want to check out some of Satoshi Kon's anime: Perfect Blue, Paprika, and Paranoia Agent.

Another I forgot to mention is Memories, which is a compilation of three short anime pieces. It's pretty good.
 
A Poll came out this morning about the most remebered Super Bowl movie add, here are the results, I'm surprised to see only 28% of people remember seeing The LAst Airbender 12 hours prior.

1. Alice in Wonderland (81%)
2. Robin Hood (67%)
3. Shutter Island (63%)
4. The Wolfman (63%)
5. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (56%)
6. The Last Airbender (28%)
7. The Back-up Plan (23%)
 
Nathyn's post reminds me of the Chappelle's Show sketch where Paul Mooney is complaining about "The Last Samurai" with Tom Cruise, and wants to make "The Last [black guy] on Earth" starring Tom Hanks... :D

And Chip, perhaps people remember the trailer, just not the title. I know I shall forever think of the film as "ESKIMO NINJA!!!"

Can somebody please tell me why this kid has a turn signal on his head?
 
It's his brain saying "I'm with stupid...?"

All the race-stuff is a little bit much when you consider that one of the hallmarks of anime character design is big huge rounded eyes that are non only distinctly un-asian but in fact too big to comfortably fit into *anybody's* skull no matter what "race" they are.
 
Sad Max said:
All the race-stuff is a little bit much when you consider that one of the hallmarks of anime character design is big huge rounded eyes that are non only distinctly un-asian but in fact too big to comfortably fit into *anybody's* skull no matter what "race" they are.
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Someone told me the anime eyes are an exaggeration of how the Japanese view Americans, with our big round eyes in comparison to theirs. Makes sense to me.
 
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