Ha! I wound up seeing a matinee yesterday. I went through all my booze just making it through the previews. Holy hell they were awful. It's LOTR! with OWLS! Thanks Zack Snyder.
Anyway I agree with you. I went in expecting a lot worse and it really wasn't anywhere near that. I went with a friend who had seen ATLA and knew nothing of any controversy and we both agreed that while not great, it was not the worst movie we had ever seen. The dialogue was at times a little stilted and the voice over was too expository. I think that all of the professional reviewers' venom for Night is because he has the potential to be a great filmmaker yet doesn't manage to do it. Aside from the fans' problems with the casting, I think a lot of *their* venom is from how much the movie is not like the series. It is patently obvious that the movie was never intended to be identical and the touches that they made in the changes imply to me that they respect the source material no matter what the fandom says.
From a martial arts perspective I was a little disappointed but there were scenes that it was obvious who was experienced and who was not. Noah has excellent body control for his age and I wish his movements were more truly bagua in origin but the earthbenders looked a lot like hung gar which I enjoyed. If they make the next two, Nicola needs some quality time with some taiji instruction. I know a lot of people slammed the movie for saying Noah didn't do any of his stunts but it was obvious to me where they used him and where they didn't. They used a stunt woman in the Blue Spirit fight sequence and I totally understand why. That choreography was quite good (and I really hope they make those dual dao. the only dual dao I have been able to find are these crappy wushu ones) but incredibly dangerous for a 12 year old to perform.
I loved Iroh and to be honest I liked Ozai as well. I don't need Ozai to be Steamboat Willy buff (grease me up, woman!) but he needs to have the voice and the menace which Cliff Curtis has in spades. My personal head canon for why the firebenders require a source of fire is that over the time of war they've lost their way. They don't understand how to utilize their chi so they have lost the ability to create fire. But Iroh hasn't because he's been to the firebending masters. And Zuko has the potential because he can heat himself using his chi.I can see Iroh not teaching him this because Zuko is too angry. Firebending being the only spontaneously generating form of bending didn't make internal sense to me. Arguing that fire is a chemical process as opposed to the physical elements is a very western bias. The elements are all aspects of each other from a chi perspective. Put an earthbender on sand or a metal prison and they're screwed, take away an average waterbender's water same thing. Toph and Katara were supposed to be masters at their bending, which was not the norm. Not everyone becomes a master.
I liked the little touches of Gyatso and Aang near the finale. It annoyed me that these tiny little flashes were perfect and why couldn't the rest of the movie be like that but that's how it goes.
I also think Aang was too skippedy doo dah in S1. He doesn't have to listen to Linkin Park and start cutting himself but he has about 10 seconds of grief for his people then off he goes. The change I liked the most is that Aang didn't wipe out a fleet of firebenders like he did at the end of S1 as Koizilla in a fit of rage. That was one of the things that bothered me the absolute most about S1 particularly since they make a point of Aang saying he refused to kill in S3. Capsizing a bunch of boats in freezing water would have meant many dead metal armor wearing fire nation soldiers sinking to the bottom of the ocean.. His bending to create the wave that pushes the fleet back is very serene and not done in fury like S1.
Silly Iroh. Zuko has no interest in girls because he likes *boys*. Though Iroh likes his foot massages.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2010-07-03 08:18 am (UTC)Anyway I agree with you. I went in expecting a lot worse and it really wasn't anywhere near that. I went with a friend who had seen ATLA and knew nothing of any controversy and we both agreed that while not great, it was not the worst movie we had ever seen. The dialogue was at times a little stilted and the voice over was too expository. I think that all of the professional reviewers' venom for Night is because he has the potential to be a great filmmaker yet doesn't manage to do it. Aside from the fans' problems with the casting, I think a lot of *their* venom is from how much the movie is not like the series. It is patently obvious that the movie was never intended to be identical and the touches that they made in the changes imply to me that they respect the source material no matter what the fandom says.
From a martial arts perspective I was a little disappointed but there were scenes that it was obvious who was experienced and who was not. Noah has excellent body control for his age and I wish his movements were more truly bagua in origin but the earthbenders looked a lot like hung gar which I enjoyed. If they make the next two, Nicola needs some quality time with some taiji instruction. I know a lot of people slammed the movie for saying Noah didn't do any of his stunts but it was obvious to me where they used him and where they didn't. They used a stunt woman in the Blue Spirit fight sequence and I totally understand why. That choreography was quite good (and I really hope they make those dual dao. the only dual dao I have been able to find are these crappy wushu ones) but incredibly dangerous for a 12 year old to perform.
I loved Iroh and to be honest I liked Ozai as well. I don't need Ozai to be Steamboat Willy buff (grease me up, woman!) but he needs to have the voice and the menace which Cliff Curtis has in spades. My personal head canon for why the firebenders require a source of fire is that over the time of war they've lost their way. They don't understand how to utilize their chi so they have lost the ability to create fire. But Iroh hasn't because he's been to the firebending masters. And Zuko has the potential because he can heat himself using his chi.I can see Iroh not teaching him this because Zuko is too angry. Firebending being the only spontaneously generating form of bending didn't make internal sense to me. Arguing that fire is a chemical process as opposed to the physical elements is a very western bias. The elements are all aspects of each other from a chi perspective. Put an earthbender on sand or a metal prison and they're screwed, take away an average waterbender's water same thing. Toph and Katara were supposed to be masters at their bending, which was not the norm. Not everyone becomes a master.
I liked the little touches of Gyatso and Aang near the finale. It annoyed me that these tiny little flashes were perfect and why couldn't the rest of the movie be like that but that's how it goes.
I also think Aang was too skippedy doo dah in S1. He doesn't have to listen to Linkin Park and start cutting himself but he has about 10 seconds of grief for his people then off he goes. The change I liked the most is that Aang didn't wipe out a fleet of firebenders like he did at the end of S1 as Koizilla in a fit of rage. That was one of the things that bothered me the absolute most about S1 particularly since they make a point of Aang saying he refused to kill in S3. Capsizing a bunch of boats in freezing water would have meant many dead metal armor wearing fire nation soldiers sinking to the bottom of the ocean.. His bending to create the wave that pushes the fleet back is very serene and not done in fury like S1.
Silly Iroh. Zuko has no interest in girls because he likes *boys*. Though Iroh likes his foot massages.