What a shame a great animated series had to get adapted by the man who penned the line "Be scientific, douchebag!" 
Last Airbender getting EVISCERATED by critics
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Monterey Jack
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Last Airbender getting EVISCERATED by critics
Right now the Rotten Tomatoes rating is hovering around SIX PERCENT. What a shame a great animated series had to get adapted by the man who penned the line "Be scientific, douchebag!"
What a shame a great animated series had to get adapted by the man who penned the line "Be scientific, douchebag!" -
AndyDursin
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AndyDursin
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No surprise. Another CGId bunch of nonsense that would have been better off as a cartoon.
James Newton Howard turned in a nice score, though. At least that's the one thing we can count on from a Night film: A good score from JNH.
M. Night is a three hit wonder in my eyes and I just don't see that ever changing.
Three hits: Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs up to the ending sequences. After that? Forget it.
Certainly not surprising that we have ourselves another crappy movie in general.
But it's in 3D!
James Newton Howard turned in a nice score, though. At least that's the one thing we can count on from a Night film: A good score from JNH.
M. Night is a three hit wonder in my eyes and I just don't see that ever changing.
Three hits: Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs up to the ending sequences. After that? Forget it.
Certainly not surprising that we have ourselves another crappy movie in general.
But it's in 3D!
Until next year. I'm sure in a year it's going to be nothing but CGId 3D garbage. I'll make you a bet right now next year will be even worse if you can even imagine it.Andy Dursin wrote: Worst. Summer. Movie. Season. Ever!
MNS has been on my crap list for a while now....his first four films are his best (with SIGNS being tops on my list). I did like THE VILLAGE (and think that's one of JNH's best scores). After that though, I think MNS got a bit full of himself and his career has been on a steady decline ever since.
LITW was terrible in my opinion. I also found it really arrogant that he would take the part of the writer who saves the world...I walked out of theater complaining to my friend. TH was a joke; the dialogue was silly and banal (Calculus...Calculus...lol...), the movie was unscary, and the ending was unimaginative...so much so that I forgot how the movie ended! JNH's contributions have been the only consistently good thing about his movies (I agree Eric).
This news is frustrating and disappointing, but I will have to wait until after I see the film to give my final opinion. However, if it's as rotten as everyone is making it out to be, MNS will continue to fail miserably until he puts his ego aside and either directs someone else's script or co-writes with someone. At least that was his biggest problem in his last two films (IMO). His schtick isn't working anymore and his films are becoming bad parodies of his better work.
I plan on seeing TLA this weekend, so if it's better than people are making it out to be I'll gladly admit I'm wrong.
LITW was terrible in my opinion. I also found it really arrogant that he would take the part of the writer who saves the world...I walked out of theater complaining to my friend. TH was a joke; the dialogue was silly and banal (Calculus...Calculus...lol...), the movie was unscary, and the ending was unimaginative...so much so that I forgot how the movie ended!
JNH's contributions have been the only consistently good thing about his movies (I agree Eric).This news is frustrating and disappointing, but I will have to wait until after I see the film to give my final opinion. However, if it's as rotten as everyone is making it out to be, MNS will continue to fail miserably until he puts his ego aside and either directs someone else's script or co-writes with someone. At least that was his biggest problem in his last two films (IMO). His schtick isn't working anymore and his films are becoming bad parodies of his better work.
I plan on seeing TLA this weekend, so if it's better than people are making it out to be I'll gladly admit I'm wrong.
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AndyDursin
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Nah, it won't be. Honestly. It can't get worse than this summer!Eric W. wrote:NUntil next year. I'm sure in a year it's going to be nothing but CGId 3D garbage. I'll make you a bet right now next year will be even worse if you can even imagine it.
I think we've hit rock bottom this year -- I think on paper Summer 2011 is a LOT more interesting, even if we're still talking sequels and such. At least the "recycled material" is more intriguing than this year.
PIRATES IV - I am betting this one is going to be an entertaining throwback to the first movie. The cast is great, they've dumped Knightley and Bloom, the source material/story is already superior. Hopefully they won't blow it.
CAPTAIN AMERICA and THOR have me cautiously optimistic, at least neither one of them is a sequel. Good casts, capable filmmakers -- hopefully one or the other (or both) will be strong.
RISE OF THE APES -- ok, who knows, but while it's a remake it's something a bit different at the same time. Certainly more interesting to me than "The Karate Kid" or "A-Team." The concept, and the cast, have some promise there.
X-MEN FIRST CLASS - Sure, a prequel, but with Matthew Vaughn writing/directing, I'd wager it's going to be terrific.
COWBOYS AND ALIENS - Here's hoping.
HARRY POTTER - Big ending to the whole series.
Add in TRANSFORMERS 3 (which I could care less about), and I think on paper, 2011 is going to fetch much higher box-office grosses than this year. It's not just the economy that's down -- this roster of films is just horrific. Easily the worst summer, ever.
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AndyDursin
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I definitely agree that, to date, this is far and away the most pitifully bad summer I've ever seen in my 34 years of life.AndyDursin wrote:I'm trying Eric. I make no guarantees, lol -- but just looking at those movies, I can see myself paying to see a few of them anyway. That hasn't been the case this summer.Eric W. wrote:^^ Hmmm...you actually raise my hopes up a little bit with that. Thank you.
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AndyDursin
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Not a horrible opening for midnight screens...
Hard to believe but there's another movie opening this weekend besides the Twilight Saga's Eclipse. It's Paramount's The Last Airbender 3D from M Night Shyamalan, and I've just learned it quietly opened to $3 million in Thursday midnight screenings because of the studio's counterprogramming strategy. Unfortunately, the studio is stuck with a high price tag of $145M, including the 3D conversion costs, and what rival studios are telling me is at least a $50+M marketing campaign. But the pic has been tracking well with males of all ages and now looks to break M Night's recent drought at the box office. It should come in 2nd this weekend neck and neck with Disney's Toy Story 3 but far behind Summit's Eclipse with between $40M and $50M for the 5-day July 4th holiday thanks to help from higher 3D ticket prices. Remember that Sunday's theatrical grosses will be way down because that's when Independence Day falls this year. But The Last Airbender is expected to make the predominant share of its money internationally.
http://www.deadline.com/2010/07/last-ai ... midnights/
Hard to believe but there's another movie opening this weekend besides the Twilight Saga's Eclipse. It's Paramount's The Last Airbender 3D from M Night Shyamalan, and I've just learned it quietly opened to $3 million in Thursday midnight screenings because of the studio's counterprogramming strategy. Unfortunately, the studio is stuck with a high price tag of $145M, including the 3D conversion costs, and what rival studios are telling me is at least a $50+M marketing campaign. But the pic has been tracking well with males of all ages and now looks to break M Night's recent drought at the box office. It should come in 2nd this weekend neck and neck with Disney's Toy Story 3 but far behind Summit's Eclipse with between $40M and $50M for the 5-day July 4th holiday thanks to help from higher 3D ticket prices. Remember that Sunday's theatrical grosses will be way down because that's when Independence Day falls this year. But The Last Airbender is expected to make the predominant share of its money internationally.
http://www.deadline.com/2010/07/last-ai ... midnights/
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AndyDursin
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Well there's not much to it, just that certain films tend to do better foreign than others. As much as people may not have liked SPIDEY 3 and PIRATES 3, those films are some of the biggest foreign moneymakers of all-time, doubling/tripling their grosses outside the U.S. THE MUMMY is another franchise that did well here, but even better overseas.Eric W. wrote:That seems to be another trend I'm not quite sure what to make of.AndyDursin wrote:N But The Last Airbender is expected to make the predominant share of its money internationally.
/
To put it in perspective, SPIDER-MAN 3 grossed more than THE DARK KNIGHT outside the U.S., because Batman has never been a big draw internationally. Batman does better domestically than foreign -- just has always been that way. Same deal with Superman. Those films play better in North America and make most of their box-office in-come here.
But Spider-Man? Spidey is HUGE around the world.
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AndyDursin
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I'll be giving LAST AIRBENDER a fair shot on video. A lot of these reviews have savaged it but a few from critics I typically go along with thought it wasn't bad for kids and had some worthwhile elements. So those mixed reviews, at least, seem more in line than the dozens of "worst. movie. ever" type of snarky reviews from most critics looking to generate clever lines about how awful Shyamalan is.
At this point I'd believe anything because Shyamalan has been in the tank for consecutive movies running, and I think critics were gunning for this movie before it even opened. Nobody has really loved it, or liked it, but at the same time, I find it IMPOSSIBLE to believe its RT rating is lower than THE HAPPENING. It cannot be that bad, which is why I'm guessing the movie isn't entirely horrible and probably is a mixed bag.
And regardless, the film looks like a big hit. Nearly hit $6 million on Tuesday alone -- it seems clearly to be playing better with audiences than the press. It's entirely possible it might go beyond $100 million this coming weekend, so drop or not, this flick is going to be a success either way.
At this point I'd believe anything because Shyamalan has been in the tank for consecutive movies running, and I think critics were gunning for this movie before it even opened. Nobody has really loved it, or liked it, but at the same time, I find it IMPOSSIBLE to believe its RT rating is lower than THE HAPPENING. It cannot be that bad, which is why I'm guessing the movie isn't entirely horrible and probably is a mixed bag.
And regardless, the film looks like a big hit. Nearly hit $6 million on Tuesday alone -- it seems clearly to be playing better with audiences than the press. It's entirely possible it might go beyond $100 million this coming weekend, so drop or not, this flick is going to be a success either way.
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Monterey Jack
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Hey Mikey, I...didn't hate it! 
Honestly, I don't know what stick was up the butts of the majority of film critics, but rating this film as worse than Lady In The Water and The Happening smacks of sour grapes. While it's far from satisfying, it's also far from the baby-eating monster it's been made out to be, with some great work from ILM and a superb James Newton Howard score. The lack of the show's humor and characterization is the most damning thing I can say about it (plus the bizzare choice to deliberately mispronounce pretty much every character name). I can think of dozens of movies within the last few years I would rank as far worse than The Last Airbender, which I would catergorize best as a missed opportunity.
Honestly, I don't know what stick was up the butts of the majority of film critics, but rating this film as worse than Lady In The Water and The Happening smacks of sour grapes. While it's far from satisfying, it's also far from the baby-eating monster it's been made out to be, with some great work from ILM and a superb James Newton Howard score. The lack of the show's humor and characterization is the most damning thing I can say about it (plus the bizzare choice to deliberately mispronounce pretty much every character name). I can think of dozens of movies within the last few years I would rank as far worse than The Last Airbender, which I would catergorize best as a missed opportunity.
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AndyDursin
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Thanks for the comments MJ -- you confirmed what I suspected, that this couldn't possibly be as bad as they said.
It's another reason I find the "Tomato Meter" so deceiving -- and a waste of time as far as verifying a film's supposed lack of quality goes. This movie might have a high "rotten" count but I'm not surprised by your reaction, I saw a few mixed reviews (including one from Michael Medved who gave it 2.5 stars) and I figured they were more on the mark than everything else.
The fact it didn't die last weekend is proof positive of that -- audiences seem to like the film.
I just think this is just more proof "critics" have axes to grind. Honestly, as critical as I've been of Shyamalan's last few movies, I always give every film I see a fresh slate and it does not appear most critics did that with this film.
It's another reason I find the "Tomato Meter" so deceiving -- and a waste of time as far as verifying a film's supposed lack of quality goes. This movie might have a high "rotten" count but I'm not surprised by your reaction, I saw a few mixed reviews (including one from Michael Medved who gave it 2.5 stars) and I figured they were more on the mark than everything else.
The fact it didn't die last weekend is proof positive of that -- audiences seem to like the film.
I just think this is just more proof "critics" have axes to grind. Honestly, as critical as I've been of Shyamalan's last few movies, I always give every film I see a fresh slate and it does not appear most critics did that with this film.