I think I can safely say that M. Night Shyamalan is the most unfairly-treated director in the history of the medium. After The Sixth Sense turned into a giant hit, he was basically doomed. Despite the fact that the movie’s twist ending was never its point (or the reason it was good), every single one of his subsequent movies was seen only in terms of twists, even when there weren’t any. And his every single movie gets trashed, no matter what it’s like. Remember when it was fashionable to bash Ben Affleck, no matter whether his performances were good or not? That’s what it’s been like for Shyamalan, movie after movie after movie.
Not that all of them were equally good – The Happening was a good B-movie, with some truly excellent scenes, but it was certainly a lesser film. It does tell you something about the irrational hatred people are carrying in them these days, though, that the most derided scene from that movie (“talking to a plant”) is actually a fairly clever joke about the entire premise of the movie- something which people, in their desire to bash Shyamalan, seem to completely miss.
The Last Airbender was also trashed to within an inch of its life, and I don’t really see why. It’s not a great movie by any means, but it’s also not the garbage reviewers make it out to be. It has some major flaws: the female protagonist is played by an unbearably bad actress, the story is so obsessed with keeping as much plot from the TV series as possible that it becomes episodic and slightly incoherent, and the voiceover narration is extremely amateurish. There are also writing problems, many of which stem directly from the TV series. But there are also good actors of refreshingly diverse cultural backgrounds (the people accusing this movie of being racist are insane*), beautiful photography, great music, and a couple of really nice fight scenes. It’s an enjoyable couple of hours, especially for children.
The Last Airbender may not be as brilliant as The Village or Lady in the Water, but it’s a decent little fantasy movie that does not deserve the critical scorn it got. Certainly not in a world where Solomon Kane and its army of bald stormtroopers are praised to the heavens and there’s another Transformers sequel coming. Even when The Last Airbender fails, at least it’s trying to do something good, something a little more meaningful and elegant. That it doesn’t always work is a shame, but let’s keep things in perspective here.
*Some more up-to-date thoughts on that subject here.
Interesting links:
It’s a relief to hear someone else say it, truth be told. I thought the reviews of The Last Airbender had been really unfair. It’s not a great movie, but it was enjoyable (and yes, I have seen at least some of the cartoon!).
YES. This. Thank you!
Apparently I fail at code. The last comment was about the statement on racism in the movie.
No worries. Fixed.
Use the “blockquote” HTML tag for quoting.
What writing problems come from the TV series? For a kids show, ATLA had great and clever writing.
The silliness of some of the names, especially place names and the names of the various peoples, are a good example. Also, from what I’ve read and seen, the use of voiceover that often duplicates exposition.
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Hi, people from the LJ hate group. Since I can’t comment on your post, I’ll leave my comments here:
You can go on about “Shyama-wank” and find anyone who likes the man’s work infuriating, but I’m not allowed to dislike Michael Bay, or to assert that it’s sad that Bay’s soulless nonsense is still successful when much more individual directors like Shyamalan are not? I don’t want anyone to blindly worship Shyamalan, I just find it rather sad that he attracts all this hatred when at least he believes in his work and has a clear directorial vision (whether you enjoy his work or not is a different question) – in an age where so much generic nonsense in produced.
And what exactly is wrong with saying that the cast is culturally diverse? Yes, it was fairly silly to cast the main protagonists as they did, but racist? In a movie with this cast? Sorry, I disagree. Casting mistakes? Definitely. Racism? I honestly don’t think so. (And please don’t start with the business of labelling people who disagree with you “privileged.” You don’t know the first thing about me.)
As for the silliness of the names, I was referring to the names of the tribes and a few other elements (they simply never sounded real to me, both in the series, of which I have seen the beginning, and in the film – but perhaps I am simply sensitive to such things), not to the rather straightforward character names.
My problem isn’t that you don’t appreciate Shyamalan’s other movies, or that you think The Last Airbender is a weak adaptation (as I said, I don’t think it’s particularly special either). My problem is the sniggering hatred that is so openly on display here.
you are the most butthurt fanboy I have ever seen. Go back and finish sucking on M.Night dick.
Oh it’s was racist on the fact that the cast was white washed and any Asian cast was in the background. Waaay to be a white person and miss that.
Well done, Mr. Homophobe. How exactly can you be posing as the great defender of equality? All you have is hatred.
I agree that casting whites as the leads was a silly thing to do, but surely that does not prevent the rest of the cast, including several main parts, from being more racially diverse than most movies we see? A movie being badly cast does not necessarily make it racist.
Not racist? Really?
So let’s ignore the Southern Water Tribe in the movie, where only Sokka and Katara (note, main characters) are white, when clearly the rest of the people cast as tribe members are brown. Hm.
I suppose you haven’t taken a course in Asian American history? It’s been very difficult for Asian actors to land main roles in the mainstream movies… background roles are where you’ll find us. Or comedic roles, or ones related to martial arts–so no one would take us seriously. I was hoping that Shyamalan, being a member of a minority, would understand the difficulties that other minorities go through, the stupid stereotypes that we face, the racism that so sneakily rears its ugly head nowadays. Here he has a movie that is based (albeit loosely) on a television show that has clear Asian influences. Wouldn’t it make sense to cast Asian people in an Asian-themed movie? However according to Shyamalan, he didn’t think the American audience would be able to ‘connect’ with a leading Asian character.
Bullocks.
Racism is alive and well!
Some critics of The Last Airbender might simply be hating on the director, I’ll give them that, but this adaptation is really just piss-poor. I went in the theater (HA! to think I paid!) with an open mind, but when I left I understood painfully and perfectly why even the creators of the television series refuse to talk about it. It’s too shameful.
I’m sorry but “it’s also not the garbage reviewers make it out to be”? You obviously did not see the same movie I did because you are completely wrong. That movie failed at the most essential element of film; conveying a story. Not only were there thing in it that simply put failed logically (like how the hell firebenders would be able to take over the world if they could only bend from a source of fire that anyone could easily put out, or the fact that the firenation would imprison earth benders in a place surrounded by earth, or Zhao’s continous travels to and from the firenation which should actually take him a considerable amount of time) but the dialouge was atrocious, a long with the acting, and the casting in general. The racist casting would have been so much more acceptable if they had hired only talented actors, while I do admit some of the actors are actually good at their job, Jacson Rathborne and who ever played katara really should NOT be in this industry, they suck at acting.
Also “And what exactly is wrong with saying that the cast is culturally diverse?” a lot of things, actually. First off, it IS racist, no matter what you say, that casting did show and obvious pro-white, anti-asian bias. For starters, the casting call asked specifically for caucasins while looking for the main actors, actually M. night originally cast Jesse McCarteny for the role of prince Zuko, but only changed to Dev Patel after learning that Jesse had something conflicting whith filming and that the fans of the show were throwing a complete shitfest over the white-wash. But then there is an obvious problem, all the heros in the movie are white, and all the vilans are dark-skinned, and all the poor little victims who need protecting are non-white. Can you honestly tell me that there isn’t something wrong with that?
Also, with the M. Night hate? Have you never read his interviews? Have you never been exposed to what a pompus ass this guy is? Or how fucking inflated his head is? How he acts like his movies are god’s gift to cinema? How he completely refuses to take any critisism? He is an asshole, and he took a really good show and raped it. And he acted like that was not only okay, but better than the original. M. Night deserves the hatred he gets, that movie did a damn good job of sucking and it deserves hate too.
I will say I agree with The Bard though, you’re just a butthurt M. Night fanboy who can’t take the fact that most people actually don’t like watching utter crap, especially when it rapes their favorite TV show. DEAL WITH IT.
It would, and I’ve said in multiple places that I think this is a major failing. I simply felt that the movie’s overall tone wasn’t racist, especially with the ethnically diverse cast (which I found to be a very pleasant feature of the film). It’s still a problem, and I think it’s a problem that does deserve highlighting, but the hysterical tone in which this is mostly done doesn’t lead anywhere, particularly because I think the problem is more complex than “it’s racist.” There’s an obvious attempt here to make the movie somehow globally inclusive – with problematic results that deserve analysis and criticism.
Or I just have what is called a different opinion.
That’s actually what I said, too.
I disagree with the notion that all the villains are dark-skinned; Prince Zuko is portrayed as a tragic anti-hero and Uncle Iroh is a highly sympathetic character (in fact, the character I enjoyed the most).
I have. He never struck me as anything but a director who takes his work seriously. Maybe that’s because I wasn’t projecting my hatred onto him.
You mean how he refuses to listen to you, so you have to throw a fit? Just like you’re doing here because one person dared to express the notion that the movie, while not great, is not the worst movie ever? Have you ever considered that you have a really big issue with allowing others to have their own opinions?
I deeply dislike Peter Jackson’s adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, but I don’t hang around TheOneRing.net and scream at people.
So you complain about racism, but you’re a homophobic bigot. Fantastic.
So calling someone a fanboy is now makes me a homphobic bigot?
Fan + male + annoying = fanboy
You’re a dumbass.
No, calling someone a “butthurt fanboy who sucks dick” makes you a homophobic bigot. Calling me a dumbass neither proves your arguments nor keeps you from being homophobic.
More up-to-date thoughts here: http://www.jonas-kyratzes.net/2012/12/22/a-summary-of-shyamalan/