This past weekend was a blast to end all blasts for me, with a lot of fun, swimming, fireworks, and general funzies.
One particularly interesting part of the whole thing was when I took my girlfriend out to see a movie I had been looking forward to for many, many months, based on a show I loved a good deal and watched at any chance I could get. It is the recent film release The Last Airbender, directed by the unfairly criticized Shyamalan.
First of all, I was worried walking into it for one thing and one thing only. I had heard the movie was less than two hours long, which really worried me when I heard that it was all about season one, which is twenty episode's long. Cramming twenty twenty-two minute episode's of pure gold (I kid you not, not a single episode disappoints) into the time for only three episode's, it means either a lot is going to get left out, or that it's going to be gloriously rushed and almost spammed. But, I walked in pleasantly surprised.
Avatar, the last airbender is a modern epic with the same class of storytelling as film classics like Star Wars. It played for 3 years, with three seasons, and it was all perfect. Many criticized it because it was a. drawn like anime even though it was all american (which is a great thing, it breaks a lot of barriers. And in Japan, everything animated, no matter where from, is anime. They even consider the show South Park an anime) and b. because like anything anime, there are a bunch of aryan 'fan-gurls' that ruin the seriousness of the show, when in reality you could spend hours just studying the character dynamics, plot lines, and symbolic real world references. The movie. . .well. . .
Truth be told, my opinion is , 'not bad, wanted a lot more.' It was obviously written by a fan, for the fans, but it suffers a bit from a bit too much of that, truth be told. It left a little too much unexplained to someone who knew nothing, but it wasn't as bad as many Shama-lama haters would say. Most critics I think are a little bitter with him because he kinda slapped them in the faces in Lady in the Water when he slammed archetype study and plot commonality by a critic getting killed by a monster. Shyamalan writes his films in a very real world way, which is a strength and a weakness in film.
I didn't hate it, compared to the film for Eragon a few years back it was pure gold. The martial arts were very legit, the acting was a tad stiff, but several of the characters were acting on film for the first time so I can forgive it, I know full well acting isn't easy the first time. The characters were well portrayed, the racial angst for the film is complete bullhonky, and the sets were near flawless. Plus, Appa and Momo. 'Nuff said.
From what I know there are two more films in the making, based on season's two and three. This should prove to be better, the first season is very 'all over the place' while the other two are much more plot driven, so the next ones should be a lot better. Plus, the best characters in the entire series, Toph and Azula, come about in season two, so please give it a chance.
Being a pretty passionate fan of the show, I would say to watch the cartoon over the movie, though. The show is much better in every way. Here's where I watch it: http://www.animeultima.tv/watch-anime.html if you're interested. Just pick the seasons and watch the episode you choose, they've got them all and I know because I watched them all recently.
That's all for now, I don't feel like giving a lengthy review and you all really just need to see it for yourselves before you can judge because not doing that makes you a hypocrite. 'Till next time.
SHAMA-LAMA rocks! Thanks so much m'dear for taking me out on that wonderful date....you've no idea what it meant to me! That movie was great too...and of course I'll watch those old cartton episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender with you. :)
ReplyDeleteI likes your playlist! That is all. :)
ReplyDeleteSo, you want to be an author, and on DA you say that you want critiques, but you ignore constructive criticism?
ReplyDeleteWell, at least you've developed a better understanding of the meaning of hypocrisy. ;)
I did not ignore the criticism, I simply decided that I didn't have to post it when I could just take note and move on. And please, I am not the type that is afraid of knowing who critics are.
ReplyDeleteSorry about that slightly heated reply, person who wishes to keep their privacy intact. It was just a bit of a buzzkill to an otherwise good evening and I didn't like it, but I don't want you to think I simply ignored it. This is the internet, the land where anonymity is arbitrary after all, your 'anonymous-ness' attests to that. I just didn't want to bother working on an old entry again when I could simply move on and do more important things. Plus, I am a pretty private person in my home life, which I don't intend to change when I can help it, so I typically keep things under the nose until I decide to do otherwise.
ReplyDeleteFrankly, though, I didn't care for that subtle slap to the face you pulled, but I won't tell you to change the opinion you hold. I just hope I can prove you wrong and we can put this behind us.
I appreciate that you didn't ignore it, and I would hardly classify your response as heated.
ReplyDeleteHowever, you should know that neither of my comments, (I'm not sure to which of the two you are referring), was intended as "a slap in the face". If something so simple and innocuous bothers you enough to put a damper on a pleasant evening, you should be advised that, should you continue on to a career in writing, you will need to toughen up considerably. Creative writing is a competitive field. Many people will critique you and reject your work, and they may or may not bother to be nice about it.