M. Night Shya.'s The Last Airbender

Y'know what movie I just saw today? The Last Airbender. And I loved it (despite it seemingly getting amazingly negative reviews). And I have never really cared for an M. Night movie in my life. Perhaps because this movie was all "WHAT A TWIST!"-y.



So here's the deal: There's this kid who was born as the reincarnation of the "Avatar" (not to be confused with the all flash and no substance James Cameron movie of the same name... which is the reason it's not called Avatar: The Last Airbender like the show it's based on that's I've never actually seen an episode of in my life). He's capable of "bending" all four elements, which, from what I could gather, is like manipulating elements to use as methods of attacking and defending. Except that he can only "bend" his element that he was born into: air. And the movie is basically about him learning to bend the second element water, with potential sequels apparently having him learn to bend earth and fire, in that order).

Btw, there's this fire tribe (did I mention those four elements are four different tribes?) who is chasing him throughout they movie. They don't want to kill him, since he'll just be reincarnated again, but it's never really clear what exactly they want to with him instead of killing him. Especially since he seems so strong that he can apparently kill everybody, except that he doesn't kill, or even really want to harm others. But yeah, it's an epic and, and he gathers a crew of supporters with weird names that I can't remember, and, well, you just have to see it.

Anywhooo, the first thing you notice about this movie is that it was definitely made for 3D. It's evident from the very first scene. Even though I saw it in 2D, I could definitely tell why it was meant to be watched in 3D. And you'll realize it, too, if you see the movie. It's very obvious.

The action in this movie is amazing. I loved watching all of the fight sequences, which were filmed beautifully. My one gripe with the action itself is all of the hand motions. Like I said earlier, I've never seen the show itself so I don't know if this was taken from the series, but the hand motions often seemed far more extensive, to the point that they're kind of distracting from the awesome attack that is about to happen. It's appropriate for a really big climactic attack or training, but not for just fighting some random Fire Tribe goons.

The acting was... decent. Not the most amazing cast, but I think that, at the very least, the key roles definitely fit. Noah Ringer was solid in his role of Aang. And I applaud M. Night for not wanting to make this movie without the actree who played Katara. Some of the dialogue seemed rather... dry at times. Partly due to the writing just being rather simple, and partly due to the way to the way the scenes were delivered. The very rushed romantic subplot felt more forced than truly romantic.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this movie. It's enjoyable, and I do hope it does well enough to warrant a sequel!

Clash of the Titans (2010)

So two days ago, I went to see the movie "Clash of the Titans" (the regular version, not in 3D). It was promoted as a remake of the original 1981 movie of the same name, though I would more appropriately say it was inspired by the original movie of the same name, as the 2010 movie seems to, for the most part, be a very different movie. Aside, of course, from the few major events of the movie, like slaying Medusa and the Kraken being the beast of the movie that needed to be killed. Any who, on to the movie itself.



Right away, the first thing you notice about "Clash of the Titans" is that it is going to be a visual spectacle. The movie certainly delivered on all levels, visually. Everything from the appearances of the Gods of Olympus to the seamless transition between CG and live action in regards to the flying horse, Pegasus. I thoroughly enjoyed the visual effects of the film.

The pacing of the movie moved quite nicely. It certainly wasted no time getting to the point of the story, thankfully. The universe was established very quickly, especially setting up and embracing the fantasy of the world, while not descending into the ridiculous as it could have done (the mechanical owl Easter egg was certainly a nice shout out, though).



Some of the action scenes certainly could have been directed much more effectively. At one point, the heroes are fighting giant scorpions. It is never made very clear that they are fighting multiple scorpions at first, which left the impression of "I thought they just cut off that scorpion's tail, so why did she just injure his full tail a couple of minutes later?" I think at some point, it got so chaotic that even the director forgot who was fighting which scorpion, as it seemed the target of the scorpion(s) seemed to shift between parties. As a plus, though, the music during this fight was amazing, and the best in the entire movie.

I was also confused by the essential lack of reaction to deaths in the fight with Medusa. Perseus delivers a rousing speech about how brave and amazing his crew is, yet during and after the fight, he is essentially the cold, uncaring and unfeeling warrior who doesn't seem to care about anyone but the female lead, Io.

I'm not particularly good at "reviewing" characters and actors, but I can say that most of the roles were casted fairly well. Liam Neeson was born to play Zeus. But then, I've always loved Neeson as an actor. I've never seen Sam Worthington in anything before (I know he was in the Avatar movie, but I still refuse to ever see that movie), but I'd say he gave a decent performance as Perseus, given the script. The rest of the roles seemed to be mostly people I've never heard of (foreign actors, mostly). Some of which certainly delivered, like Mads Mikkelsen in the role of Draco. Others could certainly have been better, i.e., Alexa Davalos as Andromeda.

In conclusion, "Clash of the Titans" was certainly a good popcorn flick, and a fun way to spend an afternoon if you want to go to the movies and see a pretty good action movie with a fairly straightforward plot (and not much else). I'd give it a pretty fair 8 out of 10 stars for what it was. It certainly could have been better, but I was not really disappointed by the movie.

And now on to the confirmed sequel for 2012!