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Delectable tea or deadly poison?

Rabbit, rabbit. In re M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender (2010), which opens today:

The first fatal decision was to make a live-action film out of material that was born to be anime. The animation of the Nickelodeon TV series drew on the bright colors and "clear line" style of such masters as Miyazaki, and was a pleasure to observe . . . After the miscalculation of making the movie as live action, there remained the challenge of casting it. Shyamalan has failed. His first inexplicable mistake was to change the races of the leading characters; on television Aang was clearly Asian, and so were Katara and Sokka, with perhaps Mongolian and Inuit genes. Here they're all whites. This casting makes no sense because (1) It's a distraction for fans of the hugely popular TV series, and (2) all three actors are pretty bad.

Thank you, Roger Ebert.

Now go and watch the original.

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Rabbits rabbits! (and here I thought my father and I only did that. We prefer to use the plural, though. "Rabbit rabbit" is reserved for when you're sitting at the campfire and the smoke is blowing in your face.)

I had no idea the critical reaction to this film would be so vehemently abrasive. I thought the thing just looked mediocre. But man, Ebert's in fine form with this bad review. He probably won't the only critic to use something like this in his review, but closing with "...the hope that the title proves prophetic" is a brilliant over-the-shoulder kiss-off.

Someday I ought to drag out the argument or theory or assertion that Ebert is the Damon Runyon of this generation or century or whatever time period we choose.(Maybe one was not so prolific with the short story as the other, but them's quibbles.) I am too tired to present the full details, but it really gets good when you learn that throat cancer also robbed Damon Runyon of his voice, and that he too communicated solely through the written word for the last few years of his life.

Edited 2010-07-01 08:50 (UTC)

gaudior says, "Rabbits!" but she is my cousin and therefore I think doesn't quite count.) Do you have any idea where it comes from? Nobody seems to know.

I had no idea the critical reaction to this film would be so vehemently abrasive. I thought the thing just looked mediocre.

Read Metacritic; even I'm a little stunned.

Someday I ought to drag out the argument or theory or assertion that Ebert is the Damon Runyon of this generation or century or whatever time period we choose.

Please do. I'm not sure Ebert has yet inspired any musicals (although he co-wrote Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, which has to count for something), but I should like to hear the full story.

I am too tired to present the full details, but it really gets good when you learn that throat cancer also robbed Damon Runyon of his voice, and that he too communicated solely through the written word for the last few years of his life.

For starters, I did not know that.

I thought "rabbit rabbit" was what one said on the first of the month?

I thought "rabbit rabbit" was what one said on the first of the month?

It is, in my family; I'm trying to figure out why or where the custom originated. Any thoughts?

It's quite baffling, on a business sense alone, why someone would take a hugely successful formula and... hack it to pieces. It's also sad.

Apparently it's extra fail-y on gender too.

It's quite baffling, on a business sense alone, why someone would take a hugely successful formula and... hack it to pieces.

Yes. I didn't understand it at the time and the finished product hasn't done much to help me. I genuinely don't know what happened.

Apparently it's extra fail-y on gender too.

I have heard this. And I'm sorry; I don't need M. Night Shyamalan to crash and burn—The Sixth Sense remains the only one of his films I really care about, but I'd much rather he'd done a faultless reworking of Aang's world for the big screen, because who knows what that might have turned into? (Even if it really wasn't designed for live-action. Oh, God, what if Miyazaki had done the film version? Stop me before I depress myself further.)

Oh, God, what if Miyazaki had done the film version?

I'd have been overjoyed if the original creators had done an animated movie, but, man, Miyazaki. I'll, uh, join you in trying not to get depressed.

I've recommended this elsewhere to the afflicted, but why settle for an unintentional travesty when a much funnier one already exists?

why settle for an unintentional travesty when a much funnier one already exists?

*snerk*

"Fly, you logic-defying beast of burden, fly!"

(He doesn't do a bad Sokka, actually.)

That review was great! Glad to hear a mainstream voice getting on his case for the casting failures--and it's great justice that the film stinks, to boot.

Glad to hear a mainstream voice getting on his case for the casting failures--and it's great justice that the film stinks, to boot.

Time snarks rather effectively, too:

The dearth of racially appropriate casting in the U.S. simply means that fewer Asians were humiliated by appearing in what is surely the worst botch of a fantasy epic since Ralph Bakshi's animated desecration of The Lord of the Rings back in 1978. The actors who didn't get to be in The Last Airbender are like the passengers who arrived too late to catch the final flight of the Hindenburg.

I suspect this movie is generating a lot of snark. I just hope it redirects attention from the movie back to the series, rather than scaring potential viewers away from anything with "Airbender" in the title—at this point I do not wish Shyamalan ill, but that particular outcome could change my mind.

Yeah, it would be a shame if the bad movie put people off the original show.

*facepalm*

We'll probably go see the movie if only to be informed when we say how bad it is.

As soon as they announced a live-action film both the hubby and I groaned. Why mess with a faboo animated show, especially when you're not known for doing anything with/for children?

*sighs*

We'll probably go see the movie if only to be informed when we say how bad it is.

I send my condolences in advance to your brain.

As soon as they announced a live-action film both the hubby and I groaned. Why mess with a faboo animated show, especially when you're not known for doing anything with/for children?

The worst part was that every single fan-casting I ran across on the internet would have resulted in a far more intriguing live-action view of the characters than what we got, even if (somehow) you can leave the racial issues aside. Dev Patel as Sokka, for example: a gift from the dramatic gods. And all the actors I'd never heard of before with wonderful faces, male and female. I'd at least have been interested to see how they interacted with the world.

Ah -- when Ebert gets his ranty pants on, he really gets entertaining. The fine art of verbal flensing knives.

---L.

The fine art of verbal flensing knives.

I must confess that sometimes I go for his one-star reviews first.

I was standing in a bookstore one day, and this sweet young thing came up and asked the bookseller if there really was a book made out of the movie Coraline, and if they knew anything about it, or if it was just a rumor.

I never underestimate the audience.

this sweet young thing came up and asked the bookseller if there really was a book made out of the movie Coraline, and if they knew anything about it, or if it was just a rumor.

*deskpalm*

I never underestimate the audience.

I was trying once to find a DVD of Hiroshima mon amour (1960) at a local video store. It happened to be Armistice Day, but I imagine the conversation would have gone equally well on any other national holiday: first the clerk asked me if the movie was by Miyazaki, and then wanted to know how to spell "Hiroshima."

I was at a B&N with friends, and I asked the clerk to look up if they had the new hardback by Douglas Preston, and the cute perky clerk looked up on the computer and then informed us, they had nothing titled Hardback in the store.

I cant make this shit up.

"Really, I’ve got winking-Jesus postcards that look better."

Heh.

Nine

I for one can't understand why directors/producers think it's a good idea to go from the much more flexible medium of animation to film. (All right, I admit it; I can understand--they want to cash in. But that doesn't make me feel any better about their butchering something I enjoy.) And soon I'll have Keanu Reeves as Spike Spiegel and I may just throw up in my mouth a little bit.

(All right, I admit it; I can understand--they want to cash in. But that doesn't make me feel any better about their butchering something I enjoy.)

Is live-action cheaper? Or is it just seen as more authentically cinematic and therefore real art, as opposed to cartoons?

And soon I'll have Keanu Reeves as Spike Spiegel and I may just throw up in my mouth a little bit.

. . . What is this?

"Is live-action cheaper? Or is it just seen as more authentically cinematic and therefore real art, as opposed to cartoons?"
--Probably not. I only meant that they wished to cash in by making some sort of film and assume that those involved don't actually have the animation prowess to pull off what the original did.

As for my rant about Keanu Reeves as Spike Spiegel, that's all about news of a live-action Cowboy Bebop movie (which actually cropped up almost 2 years ago). I hope you are already familiar with Cowboy Bebop as it is easily my favorite anime ever. It's mind-blowingly good (which is not something I say lightly, and certainly not something I say about many anime--it's in good company with pretty just FLCL, Akira, and Grave of the Fireflies). But yeah, I'm not thrilled with the casting thus far.

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