Dreams Of Noise

That's the biggest thing for me. Part of why A:TLA works is the sense of fun and adventure balanced with the drama. When it's serious, it gets very serious... and so much of the rest of it has a light touch. The animated series actually sets the tone perfectly in the opening, when Aang manifests his power into an air sphere that he can ride... and then he rides it around, laughing, until he smacks into a statue.

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When I read that they decided that Sokka should be serious all the time was when I decided that my chances of going to see this had gone from slim to none.

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...

...

... Sokka's sense of humor is a plot point.

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Yeah, the "meat and sarcasm guy" should be I R SRS WUR-E-R!" now.

Pardon my language, but fuck that noise.

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batyatoon

... what?

WHAT?

I'm sorry, I meant WHAT?????

Dammit, I want a TOPH SMASH icon now.

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ypawtows.livejournal.com

Whiskey
Tango
Foxtrot?

I know Shaymalan doesn't do comedy...

Thought: Where's Appa?

Edited Date: 2010-03-26 07:14 am (UTC)

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skemono.livejournal.com

Thought: Where's Appa?

Appa has shown up (for like a split-second) in one of the trailers. And they're making toys of him. So he's definitely in the movie, at least.

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wrenn.livejournal.com

Yeah. The live action version of an anime...

And Shyalaman, from what I've seen, he tends to do dialog well, not action.

I'm ambivalent, but I'll probably go and see it.

In other notes - Tom, see you in early July at InConJunction. (Keith's asked me to go... and with you, AND the Loony Labs folks there, it should be fun.)

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redneckgaijin.livejournal.com

In my book, Shyalaman does NOTHING well.

And his name in the credits is sufficient for me to avoid any film like the plague.

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I really enjoyed both The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. But Signs was enough to put me off M. Night for years. And nothing I've heard about The Village and The Lady In The Water inclines me to change my mind.

I think the problem is, we already have a director who's really good at tension-ratcheting dialog scenes. Problem is, his name is Quentin Tarantino.

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redneckgaijin.livejournal.com

The only Shlaymedirector movie I've watched clear through was Unbreakable, and that only because I was a guest in someone else's house and didn't want to be rude. Without exception I find his movies dull, tedious, and pretentious- each a half-hour Twilight Zone episode padded out with three hours of kewl trendy cinematographic tricks.

Example: in Unbreakable, should it really have taken Glass ten minutes to fall down a damn flight of stairs? In fact, why have that whole sequence AT ALL- it adds precisely zip to either plot or characterization.

For me a movie is for telling a story- nothing more. Special effects, cinematography, and the like are all garnishes. Hacks like M. Night try to make them the main course- and then pat themselves on the back for doing so.

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I can't disagree with that notion. Part of what makes a good director is how well they can tell whatever story it is they're telling... and whether the time they take seems just right, too much, or too little. I thought a lot of the little touches in Unbreakable were just fine, but the movie does suffer on re-watching.

Actually, my all-time champ for what you're describing is Ridley Scott. Alien could've been an hour with commercials.

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kilbia.livejournal.com

Heh. Your bit about a "good director" reminded me of my friend

theonetruetiny. He once said that he knew Ron Howard was a good director because Apollo 13 was emotionally engaging. Dave's had the opportunity to MEET one of the astronauts who flew on that mission - he KNEW how the movie was going to end! - and the fact that Ron Howard could still tell that story in a way that made Dave fear for the characters was a testament to his skill.

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bryanp.livejournal.com

Unbreakable was utter crap.

Granted, part of my problem with it is that I know someone who has the disease Mr. Glass is supposed to have. Her comment was "You don't get to be 6' tall if you have that!" (She's 4'1" )

The Sixth Sense is well worth watching. Damned good movie.

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markbernstein.livejournal.com

Speaking as someone who hasn't watched the anime . . . meh. Other than the elemental mythology that the whole thing is based on, there's nothing the slightest bit original here. And the girl's line readings are horribly overwrought. Plus, I'm somewhat bothered by the all-white main cast.

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annathepiper

Nobody at the Murk is even bothering with this. Partly because we're annoyed that the principles are all white (especially Katara and Sokka), partly because we no longer trust M. Night to deliver a good film in general, and partly because we have a very hard time buying that the things that make the original cartoon great can be condensed well into a two-hour movie.

Me, I'd just as soon go back and re-watch the cartoon. :)

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Well, remember that the intention is one film per animated season. But still.

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annathepiper

Hrmm, I don't think I'd actually heard about the "one film per season" thing, mostly because I've avoided information about the movie since I decided I wasn't going to bother.

But yes. Even trying to pack one season of the story into a single two-hour movie concerns me, and it certainly isn't enough of a difference to make me go see it anyway. I'll stick to recommending the DVDs of the actual show to any friends who might be interested. Friend of mine and

solarbird's in Norway has a young daughter who found the first DVD of the show quite groovy. :)

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Just reading

cleolinda's Movie's In Fifteen Minutes

m15m summation/parody of "The Happening" has convinced me that he's a 2 hit wonder who only knows 1 note.

The Village made me want to punch something in the head, there was a choice made in the first 10 minutes that made me immediately realise what the twist was.

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See? I completely blanked The Happening from my mind.

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annathepiper

cleolinda does bring the win. <3

M. Night lost me before The Village; I think the last movie of his I actually saw was Signs.

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I skipped Signs, but saw it on TV. The stupid in that was ratched(sp) up pretty high too.

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chaosdancer.livejournal.com

It is hard to say for sure, but the tone really feels all wrong. Some of the actors look good and it really is gorgeous, but it feels so earnest and grim and depressing, none of which were elements of the series. I hope it isn't awful.

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pandoradeloeste.livejournal.com

Yes. Thank you. The palette and the tone are much more like the season they spent in the Fire Nation than when they went cruising around the world to the North Pole on Appa's back.

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skunktaur.livejournal.com

I want them to show me what they did with Uncle Iroh first.

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pandoradeloeste.livejournal.com

We saw a brief clip of him. He looks like that guy on the Clash of the Titans billboards. DDD:

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skemono.livejournal.com

He's played by Shaun Toub, and according to preliminary reviews is about one of only two good actors in the movie (the other being Dev Patel, playing Zuko). I think you get a glimpse of him in the trailer... he's standing next to Zuko saying something about destinies being intertwined, or something.

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pandoradeloeste.livejournal.com

Aang, Katara, and Sokka are white. Fire nation is Asian. Everyone else is some variation on black, brown, or red.

Let that marinade for a moment. The saviors of the world are white, the bad guys are Asian, and the victims* are pretty solidly POC. Doesn't take a genius to see that's some pretty damn problematic casting.

*I know they don't stay victims, but at least for Book 1 the Earth Kingdom is fighting a losing war.

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Hollywood continues to be incapable of admitting that Asians are capable of performing in any kind of movie except as the heavy or the designated butt.

The only exceptions to that rule I've seen so far have been "The Forbidden Kingdom" and "The Phantom of Chinatown".

Two. TWO GODDAMN MOVIES THAT DON'T SUGGEST THAT THE WHITE GUY IS AUTOMATICALLY SUPERIOR BECAUSE THEY'RE WHITE.

Why yes, I'm bitter.

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What did you think of Gran Torino?

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That I actually didn't see, so it may be another exception. Sight unseen, however, I question the need for the Vietnamese boy to try stealing the car, as described in IMDB, but that may not be a fair assessment.

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Well, I did see it, and the attempted theft is crucial to the plot. I thought all the actors did a great job. The vast majority of them weren't professional actors, from what I read Eastwood wanted Hmong people to play Hmong people, so they had open auditions for anyone who wanted to try out. I never would have guessed for any of them that it was their first professional work.

One of the claims I read for the whitewashing of Avatar was that getting all the actors needed would have been to hard. BFS. And getting rid of the Chinese Calligraphy because it would be 'to confusing' and replacing it with made up symbols, and ARGH! This whole screwing over of the creators obvious respect for the cultures they based A:TLAB just makes my blood boil.

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I'd have to see the movie to decide if it was necessary to have the theft occur in order to achieve the desired goal. It could go either way, I think, depending the details. That Eastwood actually wanted real honest-to-the-maker Hmong speaks well for him.

RE Avatar: Much of my hatred for all the various doofy things they keep doing is the defensiveness with which they respond to complaints. But I've long since decided to ignore the damn thing, to the point of waiting until it shows up in the library before pointing and laughing at it. Having seen "Slumdog Millionaire" now, I think Dev is going to do a fine job as Zuko. But he's the only one in there I trust, and that's a sad statement.

I really need a Teal Deer icon.

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skemono.livejournal.com

I recall reading a complaint of Gran Torino stating that it was another "white savior" movie... the white man teaches the Hmong how to survive and thrive. Of course, I haven't watched the movie either, so I don't know how valid a complaint that is.

(And from your original list, didn't The Forbidden Kingdom cram a random white boy in as the lead?)

Also, preliminary reviews tend to indicate that Patel and Shaun Toub (Iroh) are both good actors in the movie, but that's about it.

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gardnerhill.livejournal.com

Dude, you totally forgot "Shanghai Noon." (I've got two hard and fast cinematic rules: Never go to any movie in which Liam Neeson dies, and never go to any movie in which Owen Wilson lives.)

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