Last Airbender getting EVISCERATED by critics

[Monterey Jack]

Now, I'm not saying this is some sort of misunderstood classic or something, but the critical backlash against it is WILDLY overblown, mainly for three reasons:

1.) M. Night Shyamalan is coming off a string of movies that have ranged from disappointing (Signs, The Village) to soul-scarringly terrible (Lady In The Water, The Happening), and everyone wanted to be first in sharpening their blurb-worthy poison pen barbs.

2.) The animated series is so beloved by its many fans that any deviation from the show was destined to ruffle a lot of feathers, from the weird, pointless name mispronounciations to the whole "racebending" controversy to the horrible decision to compress 20 episodes' worth of densely-layered storytelling into ninety-five minutes of screentime. Now, these elements bugged me as well, but there are countless examples of poor adaptations of good books/TV shows/stage plays/what have you, so why this particular film is getting singled out for so much venom is perplexing.

3.) The decision to do a poor, quickie conversion to 3D, which is a trend that many critics and movegoers are getting deeply sick of, and thus The Last Airbender got the brunt of pent-up criticism for just being the most recent example of this egregious trend.

Honestly, had Last Airbender been an original screenplay, had it not been directed by one of the most widely disliked filmmakers working today not named Michael Bay, and had it been presented only in 2D, I doubt the Tomatometer rating would have dipped much below the mid-40s at the lowest. I mean, the Twilight movies are critical whipping boys, and the latest one only got a modest spanking with a ranking in the mid-50s (and those movies are legitimately terrible). Last Airbender is not one of the worst movies of all time, it'll just be remembered (if at all) as one of dozens of would-be franchise-starters that never made it past their first installments (remember Lemony Snicket? The Golden Compass? Percy Jackson?). I was disappointed with the film, but it's not going to haunt my nightmares the way films like Domino, Seed Of Chucky and Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen have.

[AndyDursin]

e). Last Airbender is not one of the worst movies of all time, it'll just be remembered (if at all) as one of dozens of would-be franchise-starters that never made it past their first installments (remember Lemony Snicket? The Golden Compass? Percy Jackson?).

It's certainly not a guarantee, but I wouldn't be so fast to discount a sequel. It's already grossed more than Golden Compass and Percy Jackson domestically, and ought to pass Lemony Snicket easily next weekend. (Of course 3-D helps!)

If it gets up to around $150 mil domestic and does well internationally you may well see another installment. The film was expensive, which is why it needs an influx of foreign cash, but if it does well there -- and on video -- they may well think about a follow-up.

It's doing well on weekdays with kids out of school so it could play over the next few weeks. We'll just have to wait and see, but it certainly isn't a bomb.

[Monterey Jack]

I mean, I'd kinda like to see a sequel because the show's best character (the blind Earthbender Toph) is first introduced in the show's second season (or "book"), but if Shyamalan were still attached, I'd be very leery about his ability to do justice to her. The show's humor is a big part of its appeal, and the first movie had precious little of it (and what was there was so awkwardly staged and delivered it was unintentionally funny). Toph is a kick-butt, wisecrack-spewing girl, and if the second film were as glum and humorless as the first, her character would be completely ruined.