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Film:Reception to The Last Airbender

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The Last Airbender has received negative responses from critics in the United States for Shyamalan's poor direction, pacing, and screenplay. It currently holds a 7% on the tomatometer from Top Critics and a 6% from All Critics,[1] and a consensus of "Despite flashy special effects, The Last Airbender squanders the potential of its popular source material on an incomprehensible plot, laughable dialogue, and a joyless sense of detachment".[2] Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film a half a star, stating that the film "is an agonizing experience in every category I can think of and others still waiting to be invented".[3] It was also panned by the Huffington Post's critic Scott Mendelson, who gave it a D+;[4] A. O. Scott of the New York Times ("The Last Airbender? Let's hope so!");[5] and Christy Lemire of the Associated Press, who called it a "muddled, messy bore".[6]

The film's 3D conversion was also poorly received, with critics calling it unnecessary and poorly done. David Roark of Relevant Magazine gave a positive review claiming that many other critics are bias to the director (Shyamalan); he praised it for using fighting scenes that worked in a children's film. They also claimed its special effects and storyline out-weighed the rushed script and noticed how Shyamalan was succeeding against all odds.[7]

Contents

Accolades Edit

The Last Airbender was nominated Choice Summer Movie for the 2010 Teen Choice Awards[8] but did not win.[9]

The film won five out of eight nominated Razzies. Russell Peters accepted a Razzie on behalf of M. Night Shyamalan
WikiaBotAdded by WikiaBot

The film was also nominated nine times for the Raspberry Awards,[10] or Razzies for short, including: Worst Picture (Paramount and Nickelodeon Movies), Worst Director (M. Night Shyamalan), Worst Screenplay (by M. Night Shyamalan, based on the TV series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko), Worst Supporting Actress (Nicola Peltz), twice for Worst Supporting Actor (Dev Patel and Jackson Rathbone), Worst Screen Couple/Ensemble (the entire cast), Worse Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel (a combined Category for 2010), and Worst Eye-Gouging Mis-Use of 3-D (a brand-new category for 2010). It tied with The Twilight Saga: Eclipse film for the most number of nominations.

On February 26th 2010, the film won five out of eight possible awards:[11] Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, Worst Supporting Actor for Jackson Rathbone, and Worst eye-gouging misuse of 3-D. The Worst Sequel and Worst Screen Couple/Ensemble were lost to Sex and the City 2, while Worst Supporting Actress went to Jessica Alba. Razzies founder John Wilson said of Shyamalan "He managed to take a cartoon property and make it even less lifelike by making it with real actors".[12] Canadian comedian Russell Peters accepted the worst picture Razzie on Shyamalan's behalf.[13] Peters joked that, despite his South Asian heritage, he did not know how to pronounce Shyamalan's name any more than most people in North America and said "That brown bastard has made six movies and hasn't cast me once". Peters also said "So on behalf of my community, which spans the globe — in India alone at 1.3 billion people — way to disappoint over a billion people".[14] Jackson Rathbone later on MTV's The Seven, thanked the "wonderful people at the Razzies" for considering him and letting him take home the "amazing award", but he wanted to know if "the golden statue comes with golden whipped cream..."[15]

James Newton Howard was nominated with five awards from the International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA), two of which are related to his work for The Last Airbender: Best Original score for a Fantasy/Science Fiction/Horror Film (The Last Airbender, music) and Film Music Composition of the Year (The Last Airbender, 'Flow like Water').[16] On February 24th, those two awards were won respectively by Daft Punk for Tron: Legacy and by Danny Elfman for "Alice's Theme" in Alice in Wonderland.[17]

Noah Ringer and Seychelle Gabriel were nominated in the 32nd Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film for Leading Young Actor and Supporting Young Actress, respectively.[18] On March 13th 2011, the first award was won by Jaden Smith in The Karate Kid and the second award was jointly won by Diandra Newlin in Dreamkiller and Stefanie Scott in Flipped.

For the 2011 MTV Movie Awards, Dev Patel was nominated for the Best Villain, Nicola Peltz for Best Female Breakout Star, and Noah Ringer along with Jackson Rathbone for Best Male Breakout Star.[8] On voting day, May 3rd, they were eliminated from the final nominee lists.

For the 3rd Annual Coming of Age Movie Awards, Noah Ringer was nominated[19] and won the award for Best Actor for his performance in M. Night Shyamalan's film The Last Airbender.[20]

British slang for 'bender' Edit

The film was received poorly in Great Britain due to a difference in American English and British English.[21] Unfortunately, the word "bender" is British slang for "homosexual". Dialogue, such as "There are some really powerful benders in the northern water zone" were often met with childish giggling. Dev Patel, who played Zuko, is British himself, but chose not to mention this language difference to director M. Night Shyamalan because the word was "too integral to the movie".[22]

Casting controversy Edit

Main article: Casting controversy

There is ongoing controversy in the Avatar fan community over the casting choices, in part because some of the actors were Caucasian, and the original cartoon is based on Asian culture.

Demands for a reboot Edit

Main article: Readapting Avatar: The Last Airbender

Many fans of the original Avatar: The Last Airbender series are unhappy with Shyamalan's film adaptation, so some of them have demanded a remake or reboot of the film. These aspiring fans can work on a fanon reboot using this page as a starting point, as well discussing ideas for a readaptation.

Miscellaneous Edit

  • For some fans of the original series, the negative fan reactions for the movie that were anticipated in the episode "The Ember Island Players" were spot on. A fan had demonstrated the prophetic nature of the episode through this video.
  • Some viewers had compared this movie to a more "creative" adaptation, Dragonball Evolution (2009). A typical response is to quote from a video by MybasementReviews: "If this movie was anything like Dragonball Evolution, then Aang would be a 16-year-old high school student living in the city with Monk Gyatso, the apartment complex would be named the Air Temple, and they would have a cat named Momo. Appa would not have been mentioned and Katara would have been Aang's high school sweetheart who could bend magic water. Zuko would be a bully at school; instead of being a prince, he would actually be a rich kid whose father owned a comic book company called Sozin's Comics".

References Edit

  1. ↑ [The Last Airbender (2010)http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/last_airbender/], Rotten Tomatoes
  2. ↑ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/last_airbender/
  3. ↑ http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100630/REVIEWS/100639999
  4. ↑ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-mendelson/huff-post-review-the-last_b_630795.html
  5. ↑ http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/07/01/movies/01last.html
  6. ↑ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100630/ap_en_mo/us_film_review_the_last_airbender
  7. ↑ http://www.relevantmagazine.com/culture/film/reviews/22137-the-last-airbender
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Gil Kaufman, 'Twilight Saga: Eclipse' Leads New Teen Choice 2010 Nominees, MTV News, Jul 12 2010 11:57 AM EDT
  9. ↑ MTV News Staff, 2010 Teen Choice Awards Winners List, MTV News, Aug 9 2010 10:00 PM EDT
  10. ↑ The 31st Annual RAZZIE® Awards: Sequels, Remakes, and Rip-Offs Dominate This Year's RAZZIE® Nominations
  11. ↑ The Razzie Awards: "The Last Airbender" is the best winner, er, loser LA Times , February 26, 2011 7:31 pm
  12. ↑ David Germain, 'Last Airbender' rules Razzies as worst picture, Associated Press, Feb. 26, 2011 10:34 PM ET
  13. ↑ Bruce Kirkland, Shyamalan cleans up at Razzies, Toronto Sun, February 27, 2011 1:49am
  14. ↑ Bryan Lufkin, Razzies on-the-scene: M. Night Shyamalan 'wins' big at last night's camp-fest, Entertainment Weekly, Feb 27 2011 09:42 AM ET
  15. ↑ Jackson Rathbone - Secrets from Breaking Dawn, MTV: The Seven, March 1st 2011
  16. ↑ IFMCA announces its 2010 nominees for scoring excellence IFMCA Press Release, 11 February 2011
  17. ↑ IFMCA announces its 2010 Winners for scoring excellence, IFMCA Press Release, 24 February 2011
  18. ↑ 32nd Annual Young Artist Awards - Nominations / Special Awards, March 2011
  19. ↑ 3rd Annual Coming of Age Movie Awards. TheSkyKid.Com (2011-04-08). Retrieved on May 5, 2011.
  20. ↑ 3rd Annual Coming of Age Movie Awards Recipients Named. TheSkyKid.Com (2011-05-03). Retrieved on May 5, 2011.
  21. ↑ http://www.screenhead.com/reviews/british-audiences-laugh-at-last-airbender-due-to-mistranslation/
  22. ↑ http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2010/08/british_slang

165 comments

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  • Thank the Spirits Mike and Bryan created Korra, because if they didn't, this terrible, disgusting, and disgraceful movie would have tarnished the Avatar World.

  • yeah definitly a bad movie,,"an incomprehensible plot, laughable dialogue, and a joyless sense of detachment" summed it up nicely...felt they had tried to cram too much into too short a time frame and as a result it lost a lot of the humour/story that attracted the original audience to it...i dont think they can do the story justice within the standard timeframe...its like watching the short version of lord of the rings - why would u bother?

    • You guys need your facts check the sad thing is the studio is the one who drop the ball big time. M. Night did make a two hour movie but the studio made him cut it to 103 minute in order to save $ for 3-D covertion. Now the reality is that all NICK movies are under a 107 minute time limit. Don't believe me? Check the wiki page on the nick studios and you see for yourselfs. Now if there is a time limit of 107 minutes then what good is it to reboot it anyway. Instead of bitching of how horrible this movie is we should force the studio to realize the extended cut of the movie. Also to make sure the sequels get a two hour running time. PEACE!

  • Sozin's comics... that made my day :D

  • Why are there ppl that take good tv shows to make a movie that turns to crap. Waste of money and 2 hrs of my life. I kinda notice something, tv show good, video game ok, movie sucks. Game good, movie/tv show sucked. Its some kinda of weird karma going on with Hollywood and Video game companies.

  • 9 nominations for razzies and 5 won..Thats cold.But the movie deserved them-it never should have been made like this.

  • Bad Movie?

    I agree, most horrible movie of all time.

  • I was to offended to watch the movie, but didn't it leave out Jet and Suki? They later became VERY imprtant characters.

    • They left out Suki because Shyamalan thought he was focussing too much of the movie on her... but I agree, it is stupid.

    • No that was an excuse that M. Night made to cover the studio's mistakes. They force M. Night to cut 25 min of film to save money for the 3D conversion. But do you think he is going to say that in front of the cameras?

    • There is an idiom: "don't bite the hand that feeds you." Also, Frank Marshall let it slipped out in an interview (Aug 10, 2010) that they cut out the Suki and her Kyoshi Warriors due to time limits.

    • What time limits? They cut the movie like kids playing with scissors until the movie was totally short, at levels of movies like Prehysteria or similars. If they want cut a scene, they should be cutted the entire earthbending camp scene and maintains the Suki one.

    • As far as we know, 107 minutes for a Nick movie, and 103 minutes to maximize time slots for 3D screens at the time but nowadays there are plenty of screens available to economically push a 3D movie longer than 2 hours. Also, Conrad Buff edited the movie with the time constraints, and he is no kid.

    • "Hopefully we [won't]."

  • I'm generally polite on the internet with my posts, but ...

    This movie was endlessly horrid.

    I pray somebody else will make a film, but that dream is crushed with a poisonous mortar and pestal.

    • I would love to make a remake of this film. I could make a play of it (more my ally), and I bet I could write a better script than M. Night could and still keep up with the original series story line without cutting too short or make something disappointing. I am a forever Avatar fan and I love the show so much.

  • I tried really hard to love the film, but in the end its just painful. It needs to be remade.

  • Okay, I really, REALLY hope they don't make a sequel. If you are as much of an Avatar: The Last Airbender fan as I am, you would know that the first movie kinda...Nope it did suck. And it had nothing to do with the actors, (okay maybe some of the actors,) but the script. Lets start with pronunciation; they pronounced words AND names wrong! News flash, Avatar was written by Americans. Sure the animation was done in Korea, but It was two Americans that actually wrote it. Secondly, they took the fun and goofy out of the movie. Since when was Sokka ever truly serious, where's his sarcasm? Um, hello in the second season he even says he's the, and I quote; "That's me, the Meat and Sarcasm guy." Not to mention Aang was serious and mellow at times but, like he said in the first season; "He's right, I'm just a goofy kid." He was twelve for cripes sake! What twelve year-old is always serious? That would be NONE. Another thing that irked me was; some of the important scenes were skipped. Not to mention, it does NOT take Aang until the Northern Water Tribe to accept who he is. Plus, ya know, where's the relationship between Aang and Katara, it was like non-existent. Truth be told, I could go on and on, even more than I have already, on why it was so bad but I will stop for now. But I really, Really, REALLY hope they don't make a third one. I LOVE this series and M. Night Shyamalan did Not do it justice! Though I would love to see a reboot by someone who knows what they are doing.

    • Oops...I meant second one....HAHA, my bad.

    • I WANT TWO AND THREE!!!!!

    • Reboot, please!

    • That would probably (possibly) be me. I am a devoted fan, much like yourself, and I for one tried to like the movie, but in the end just couldn't accept it. I've seen the series so many times it's not even funny. You are absolutely correct. Sokka is the funny awesome sarcastic meat-loving guy we fell in love with; that's why the show was so interesting (well, one of the reasons). But we loved the characters. Iroh wasn't the funny guy either. The Iroh in the movie wasn't funny, nor did he seem the wisest. Sure, he said some stuff but none of it really portrayed Uncle at all. There were so many parts that didn't even need to be in the film, but the ones that were didn't really give the show credit (Something like that, I couldn't think of the way to put it). If at all the movie brought down the show instead of bringing it up. I'm sure every fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender that saw the movie were very disappointed. I agree with you 100% that they left out some parts or just made the characters seem more serious and plus that KatAang wasn't even there! (I'm more of a Zutara fan myself though). I loved all the random characters like the refugee in the Cave of Two Lovers episode. He cracked me up. Like yourself, I could go on and on with a bunch of things that were left out and things that could've been added. I think once I'm done with my musical that I am currently writing, I will definitely make a screen play or a play script of the show (although it'll be WAY better than the actors in "The Ember Island Players lol).

  • This movie was the most pathetic piece of **** I ever watched! EVER!!!!!!!

  • terrible acting, terrible casting ,rushed scenes, important scenes and characters missing, movie runs on non stop no time to think about wtf is going on, useless scenes added instead, skips to random scenes ,random fight scenes, the martial arts moves did not match the elements, too much unnecessary movement, bending was wayy to slow, characters are out of character e.g. aang is to serious.

  • Should the blow-by-blow quotes from reviews really go at the top of the page?

    by Caswin
  • Why was it soooo bad? I mean, I liked it, but I haven't watched that much of the beginning of the show. Was it because it was very off of the show? (I know people thought there was bad acting, too)

    • I didn't mind it either, probably because it was different from the show in some ways. The only thing that really bugged me was how they said their names, Aang=ung

    • Its not just that it was different from the show (which it is VERY different, to the point where it was almost unrecognizable) it's that, even standing by itself, it was horrible. I asked my friends who didn't know avatar (who I dragged to the movies with me) and they said it was garbage. (except they chose to use more "explicit" language). The acting, the writing, the camerawork, the pacing, ect. And actually, my friends were lost at some points because it wasn't very good at explaining things either. I could only understand it because I watched the show and my brain kinda automatically filled in the blanks.

  • At least, like the original series, this movie won some awards, not the awards who the director wants but awards after all.

  • Characters reveiw of the movie: Aang: why is my name ung? and what happened to my lovable amount of joy and humor. Katara: I don`t have any emotion, whats up with that. soka: do I look serios to you. Suki: what happened to me an the other kiosii worriors.

  • long ago, the nation of avatar fans lived together in harmony. then everything changed when M. Night Shyamalan terrible writing and directing attacked. only the original creators, masters of all forms of media could stop him but when the world needed them most, they soled film rights. 1 year has passed and i hope they don`t let him make another movie. And although one person thought the movie was great, he still has a lot to learn before he`s ready to direct any thing. But I belive, Shyamalan will fail the world. (bum ba buta bum bum bum)

    • The nation of Avatar fans wasn't quite living together in harmony until Shylaman's writing came about (*coughs*The Shipping Wars *coughs*). The movie may have actually made things better in regards to that for a little bit, as it provided a common rallying point for most Avatar fans to group themselves around against a common enemy.

    • Good point. Nothing unites people like a common enemy.

    • So M. Night actually saves the fandom becoming in the villain for unite us? WHAT A TWIST!

    • I WANT ANOTHER MOVIE

    • lol. so great. Yes we need another movie. I think the fanbase should organize so we can get a well made version of the avatar story out of hollywood.

  • I just spent the whole time laughing at this movie. Ung? Ovotar? Soak-uh? *SPOILER ALERT* Zhao frozen by random waterbenders? Ung makes a big wave in the Avatar State, no Koizilla. Only highly skilled firebenders can make their own fire, like Iroh. No emotion("They took Ung again." Katara didn't even sound a little sad.) You get to see Ozai's full face. All in all, I give this film 1 star(for effort). If you're going to see it(and watched the series), you'll either be laughing your head off,watching in shock, or just confused.

  • I haven't seen it yet. But just seeing all of this is already making me cringe. So I don't think I will be seeing it.

  • I think the problem of this movie, the real problem, is that the director doesn't know how direct a movie in which the core of the story are childs, yes he added kids in their other works, but they're not the core of the story, they simply are supporting cast for the adults and the director was lost in a movie in which the three central characters are alone with no adults (well, except when they meet some). He only know direct children when they was only to support the adult character story.

    • Exactly. In fact, the movie is way too serious and dark. It's source is pretty cartoonish, but still!

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