This film is gonna be awful

[DallasEast]

I never really understand all the M. Night hate. Not everything he's done has been awesome or anything, but at least his movies are different.

Everybody complains that there's no originality in Hollywood, then when a writer or director makes movies that are different everyone says that they're weird or dumb. When someone's being experimental not everyone is going to love every finished product. Would it be better if he turned out the same Hollywood filler that most others come out with all the time, especially in the genres he works in?

Some things do not require much tinkering. Avatar|The Last Airbender's 61 television anime episodes are practically a blueprint for a Lord Of The Rings-type, multi-part saga.

Shyamalan has already underwhelmed Water (Book 1) for his first movie. I can only cross my fingers and hope like heck that he doesn't do the same with the Earth (Book 2) and Fire (Book 3) as well. Or worse ...

 

[MonsterD]

M Night's work hasn't declined, it slammed down into Earth with the force of the asteroid/comet that created the Chixalub (sp) crater in the Yucatan peninsula.

Lady in the Water was a piece of garbage. Absolute garbage..//////////

Pretty much this. I saw Sixth Sense thought, ok that was fine , like it enough. Unbreakable, not so much but it was palatable. Then Signs came out, and I hated it with a passion, that is where I stopped watching his movies. Lady in the water was atrocious and Paul Giamattti has said he was embarrassed to be in that film. I only watched like 30 mins of it and literally had to change the channel.

I remember when it was announced he was doing Avatar the Last Air Bender and I just slumped and thought of all the poor loyal fans.

I simply cannot stand him as a director. How he continues to make this crap I have no idea.

 

[Kevinicus]

I think the new one has quite a few things that are better than the original. Obviously visually it's a huge improvement, both in the scenery, and how it was shot. And I'd say the acting for the most part is better too. Jaden was hit and miss with some absolutely terrible moments mixed in with some solid bits as well. The fighting was also much better in the newer version.

The newer version doesn't have quite the charm or the nostalgia factor of the original, but it does have some things going for it.

Of course, the new version is much improved in the fanedit more aptly titled, The Kung ** Kid. It's about 32 minutes shorter removing much of the "romance" element and some parts of the annoying mom character as well as other bits here and there.

 

[MarionBarberThe4th]

Is this thread about Arthur?

As for M. Night Shlongamam, he has always sucked. He ripped The Sixth Sense from a Nickelodeon show and everyones mind was so blown that they overrated it and him.

Signs was way better and that has its obviously underwhelming ending

 

[CliffnDallas]

The only movie M Night Shyamalan has made which was worth a damn was The Sixth Sence. The rest were absoult garbage, totaly unwatchable trash. T truly wich a camera would fall on him.

 

[JohnnyHopkins]

Pretty much this. I saw Sixth Sense thought, ok that was fine , like it enough. Unbreakable, not so much but it was palatable. Then Signs came out, and I hated it with a passion, that is where I stopped watching his movies. Lady in the water was atrocious and Paul Giamattti has said he was embarrassed to be in that film. I only watched like 30 mins of it and literally had to change the channel.

I remember when it was announced he was doing Avatar the Last Air Bender and I just slumped and thought of all the poor loyal fans.

I simply cannot stand him as a director. How he continues to make this crap I have no idea.

He ruined Avatar. My seven year old loves the cartoon and was so excited to see it. He stopped watching it about mid-movie (not sure exactly when because I had already stopped by that time).

 

[DallasEast]

He ruined Avatar. My seven year old loves the cartoon and was so excited to see it. He stopped watching it about mid-movie (not sure exactly when because I had already stopped by that time).

Both of your reactions are understandable in my opinion. I still shake my head about Shyamalan's interpretation to this day.

For example, A|TLA was the first true American made anime created primarily for an English speaking, American audience (even though the series has since been translated into dozens of languages throughout the world). The title character's name is pronounced Aang.

For five years, all viewers of the show knew the Avatar as Aang. Then, Shyamalan gets his hands on the project and POOF! He changes the main character's name for the movie's primary audience to Onng.

From practically the very start of the movie, I'm sitting there in the theater asking myself, "Who the blue hell is Onng?" I'm gauging initial reaction to folks sitting nearest to me on my row and they're shaking their heads in disbelief as well.

It's obviously an intended change by Shyamalan. The question is why? Maybe he wanted non-English speaking audiences to hear the name differently. Perhaps 'Aang' is an insult in another language. That doesn't make sense. You can prevent misinterpretations during the movie dialogue translation process, so that non-English speaking audiences could hear it pronounced differently.

You can go on and on. Aang is a kid with world-like responsibilities. The anime addresses that by showing how the weight of the world hangs on his shoulders, but understands that a kid will act like one when he doesn't feel like the world is doomed. Shyamalan? His Aang is foreboding throughout the movie.

Katara is a young teenager, proud and strong. Shyamalan's Katara is timid and confused.

Sokka is a teenaged boy, loyal to a fault and funny as hell, Shyamalan's Sokka is a damn man who wonders why he doing with the Avatar and is practically humorless.

Zuko is a young man deeply disturbed by his father's lack of love for him, who seeks the Avatar in order to win it back. Shyamalan's Zuko is the closest match to the actual character, but he hasn't (yet) projected the the constantly unending inner torment which rages within Zuko's soul.

There's time for Shyamalan to get things right in the sequels, but I'm just not confident that he wants to. The characters Toph and Azula (she made a brief appearance in the first movie) should be introduced in the next sequel of Earth: Book 2.

If he craps those two characters up in particular, his future work will be dead to me. I mean, seriously. How the heck can any director get Toph wrong???

/rant