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The Last Airbender

vacantlook

Super Moderator
As many of you know, I'm a huge fan of the tv show Avatar The Last Airbender. You may not know, but the three seasons of the show are being adapted into three theatrical films by M. Night Shyamalan. The first film comes out July 2nd. After seeing the new 30 second tv spot that's going to be airing tonight during the Super Bowl, I'm excited. If you want to see, it's on the official website. Just click on "Watch The Big Game TV Spot".
 
Saw a trailer for this a while ago... haven't seen anything since then. looked good though.
 
Looks really cool, can't wait to see all the effects as live action.

Anyone have any concerns about M. Night Shayamalan helming it?
 
Anyone have any concerns about M. Night Shayamalan helming it?

While I still have some apprehension, I'm a lot less worried now than I was when I first learned he was at the helm. The co-creators/co-executive producers of the show Mike DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko gave their approval of the script Shyamalan wrote for the film, and both of them are credited as executive producers of the film, so I'm hoping that that's a good sign.
 
In other Avatar The Last Airbender news, a 184-page book of artwork from the show is going to be released June 2nd.
 
Three movies? That's ambitious...especially if the first one bombs. Then its not likely there will be others.

I also heard they wanted to rename it to just "The Last Airbender" (Taking the Avatar part out of the name) since Avatar by James Cameron is ripping it up all over the world. I guess they figured it would either confuse people, or make it seem like a copy or a sequel or something.

Either way, never heard of this, but I like just about all of MNS's movies so I may check it out. This does seem different than his other flicks though...
 
Three movies? That's ambitious...especially if the first one bombs. Then its not likely there will be others.

The plan is to do three movies because the tv show that the films are adaptations of had three seasons.

I also heard they wanted to rename it to just "The Last Airbender" (Taking the Avatar part out of the name) since Avatar by James Cameron is ripping it up all over the world. I guess they figured it would either confuse people, or make it seem like a copy or a sequel or something.

The decision to name the film just "The Last Airbender" does seem to have been made as a result of Cameron's Avatar film, but that decision was made quite some time before Cameron's Avatar came out in theaters. It bugged me at first, but I've come to accept it.

Either way, never heard of this, but I like just about all of MNS's movies so I may check it out. This does seem different than his other flicks though...

This film is different than all of his other films because those films were original works of his, whereas this film is an adaptation of a tv show.
 
Anyone have any concerns about M. Night Shayamalan helming it?

While I still have some apprehension, I'm a lot less worried now than I was when I first learned he was at the helm. The co-creators/co-executive producers of the show Mike DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko gave their approval of the script Shyamalan wrote for the film, and both of them are credited as executive producers of the film, so I'm hoping that that's a good sign.
That's good to know. I liked Shayamalan's first 3 movies (Signs, Unbreakable and "I see Dead People") but, the Village left me cold, as did the water one. MNS has an affinity for "twist endings", and I wasn't sure what he might do with something that already had a firm beginning, middle and end, where it wasn't appropriate to go throwing in a twist ending. 'Course, I suppose the 3rd movie, could have some kind of twist ending that would leave to a furthering of the story. When I finish up Inuyasha, I may have to pull "Avatar: The Last Airbender" out, and have a second watch through.
 
Ooo, another trailer. I must watch... over and over and over and over. I wonder why this particular trailer isn't up on the official website.
 
I saw a trailer on TV last night too, it looks like it's going to be great.

So, VL, what are your "Critical" plot points you consider make or break to the movie? I've only seen the series once, and it was in rapid succession, but, I think all the air Temple scenes and the Nothern Water Tribe scenes are pretty essential to be covered in full, and Zuko's uncle and his relationship, I believe needs to be covered in proper depth.
 
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Monkeyfeathers! I can't get this new trailer to load, either on the link Demonn provided or on the Yahoo site itself. Hooray for dialup once again, I guess. It took quite some time to get the ones on the official site loaded, but once they finished downloading they got stored in my browser's cache for fun repeated viewing. But for some reason the Yahoo supplied trailer doesn't even seem to want to download for me.

Sindatur said:
So, VL, what are your "Critical" plot points you consider make or break to the movie? I've only seen the series once, and it was in rapid succession, but, I think all the air Temple scenes and the Nothern Water Tribe scenes are pretty essential to be covered in full, and Zuko's uncle and his relationship, I believe needs to be covered in proper depth.

Spoiler for for the first season (and similarly the first film given that the first film is based off of the first season of the show) of Avatar The Last Airbender:
Well, the most distilled description of the plot of the first season is that Aang, found by Katara and Sokka frozen in ice at the South Pole, travels with their company to the North Pole to find a waterbending master to teach him waterbending, and as they do so, they're pursued by Zuko, who seeks to capture the Avatar to "restore his honor" in the eyes of his father. So, adhering to that would be the utmost minimum of requirements.

The characters I've seen confirmed as being in the film are: Aang, Katara, Sokka, Zuko, Iroh, Zhao, Suki, Yue, and Ozai. Given that it's a film and doesn't have anywhere near as much time as the show did, I won't condemn them for not having other smaller, yet significant characters; that's not to say that they don't have them and I just don't know about it yet. Characters like King Bumi, Haru, Jet, Bato, June, Jeong Jeong, the Mechanist and Teo, and Pakku are significant in the show, but I wouldn't be too disappointed if we don't see them.

Finding Aang is important, and the trailer has that, so that's there. The realization of how badly the Fire Nation has torn up the world in his absence is critically important, so I hope to see Aang's return to the Southern Air Temple. Suki's in, so a stop by Kyoshi Island is in. Aang needs to learn about the return of Sozin's Comet, so I would hope a stop by the fire temple is in the film. We'd need to know why Aang was frozen in the iceberg and how Zuko got his scar, but we wouldn't necessarily need to have that information presented the same way that it is in the show. I would think that the Blue Spirit would have to be included in order to provide the basis for events to come in the second and third films, but if they work it differently, as long as it works logically within the film's structure, I'd be ok with that. As much as I like Jeong Jeong, I could see them leaving him out. Given the way the events of The Day of Black Sun unfold, it would be difficult to leave out the Mechanist, but I guess they might could find a way to get around him. And the big damn ending of the season during The Siege of the North is so damn big, I can't imagine that they'd leave out much of the three final episodes of the season.

One of the biggest, most important elements to the story is the way the characters interact with each other. Aang and Katara; with Katara finding Aang, Aang's feelings toward Katara, Katara placing her hope in Aang, and Katara's eventual position as Aang's waterbending teacher. Katara and Sokka; their relationship as brother and sister, Sokka's dedication to protecting Katara and Katara's having filled the void left by their mom dying. Zuko and Iroh; Iroh considering Zuko to be his surrogate son given how Zuko's father treats Zuko and how Iroh lost his own son, and Zuko's progressingly realization of how important Iroh is to him. Aang and Zuko; Zuko's relentless pursuit of Aang and Aang's ability to care about Zuko's safety/well being despite Zuko's attempts to capture Aang. I think those character interactions are the most important to keep intact regardless of any specific plot adjustments for the sake of adapting the story to the movie medium.
 
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Squee! I just finished getting the new trailer loaded from the YouTube source posted on the Avatar wiki that I linked to earlier. Hearing Gran Gran's voice at the end of the trailer got me excited (not that the rest of the trailer wasn't excitement-inducing too)!
 
Three movies? That's ambitious...especially if the first one bombs. Then its not likely there will be others.

Since when has that stopped them.

Avatar: Airbender 2- The Squeequel, Electric Boogaloo


A bit of controversy here with casting white people as Asian characters.
 
Having rewatched the new trailer with greater concentration and focus, it looks to me that the following are indeed in the film:

Spoiler for :
There's a shot of a mountain top building with big metal rigging around some of the exterior, so that's probably the Northern Air Temple with all the Mechanist's modifications. Also, there's a shot of a masked individual pulling Aang's hood off; that's probably the Blue Spirit.
 
A bit of controversy here with casting white people as Asian characters.

Personally, I don't have anywhere near the problem with the racial makeup of the cast as apparently a sizable number of other fans do. My desire is for actors who can portray the characters well. For me, the show was always a blend of East and West, which for me makes racial adherence unnecessary.

I reacted with a lot of unease when I read that Jesse McCartney was originally cast as Zuko because I just don't see McCartney as being able to act with the attitude that Zuko would need. So, I'm glad that the role was recast with the dude who played in Slumdog Millionaire.
 

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