Change Your Image
CHernobog123
Reviews
The Last Airbender (2010)
The last Airbender, a movie hated for wrong reasons
So by now everybody who read a bit about this movie has learned that the general consensus is that the movie sucks. Well heads up, the movie isn't very good, but is it a very bad movie? no. The biggest problem with the film is the source material. The TV show has a huge following for a good reason, it is the best TV show ever made for ages 10 to 18. It had a huge epic scope with great action and everything worked. The characters all had terrific back stories, the pacing was perfect and the series was filled with enough filler episodes to make it all worth while and let's the characters breath while increasing the size of the world and the story.
Now the movie, it is short, bland and horrible paced. This is because it wants too much of all the things the show had. There are tons of small references to the back stories which don't do anything because the characters don't breath or feel very naturally. It basically skips around the stories with about 10 episodes worth in 15 minutes and the other 10 over the remaining 70 minutes. But the basic plot of the first season is there.
The acting is what I expected after seeing the previews. The best parts are Zuko and Iroh, with especially Iroh being the best actor in the movie. Aang, Katara and Sokka all just don't have enough gravitas too make it work in the short amount of time. The other part which sucks, besides missing Suki, is the amount of story lines crammed next to each other. First Katara and Sokka, Then Aang joins them. So they all become 1 story. Then Zuko and Iroh. Then Admiral Zhao, then the fire lord and then princess Yuu, who splits off with Sokka, so as you understand way too many story lines for 90 minutes.
Now the reason I'm complaining about Suki is the fact that she was an anchor to the story. It showed other characters trying to make it in the world and made the entire war feel more personal. Plus she gave rise to character development which is missing in the movie. so all the development ends up being narrated to us by Katara instead of being seen and that just doesn't work The action of the movie is reasonable but it's not enough for what it should have had. While the effects are good characters like Appa and Momo are not really in the movie, there just the five shots and that's it. Which is the biggest problem of the entire flick, they want to show everything of the show but it just doesn't fit in movie format and that's why everything we see is slightly out of place.
While all this is said I have to say the design is excellent and the music is great. So the thing needed to make the movie work is change the story. Make it more like a movie and less like a show. Make it a lot longer with slightly better acting and the movie will fall in place a whole lot more.
Smallville: Absolute Justice (2010)
Smallville, the past and future secrets
The latest smallville outing was a major 'motion picture' epic about a group of former heroes who come out of retirement and help our current heroes. There will be spoilers.
The episode, what it really is, is a great one. let met start with saying that. I loved it. best thing they did so far. But in order to appreciate it you have to know DC lore. And that was what the episode about, giving the fans what they want.
The episode started off slow. The directors took a lot of time to introduce the characters and the justice society. This was some of the best moments of the entire episode. The complete society lore was amazing, wild cat, Green lantern, atom, flash (Jay Garrick, not the Bart Allen already introduced in the show) They were all there. The black canary in the painting was the mother of the black canary in the show already introduced and this connection should have been used in my eyes. Though ill be satisfied if they reference it in future episodes.
The characters introduced properly were Hawkman. Micheal shanks did a great job of bringing him to the screen, though the batman voice was a bit too much in the end, but besides that it was very good. Stargirl, unfortunately this character, created by Johns in the comics, worked less well. Britt Irvin played it too childish. The role as a protégé who lost her mentor could have been a lot better. And last and definitely the best was amazing. Ben Strait is doctor fate. None of the camp i expected from the photos. This is fate as i hoped and was the best it could have been.
The checkmate storyline hopefully will be better in the rest of the show because they will be back. Project cadmus in the comics, are a notoriously suspicious of superheroes and are a pain in the behind. It worked as an introduction, but barely.
Icicle was the worst character, definitely, over acted, ugly to look at and annoying. Mostly the actor because in my eyes he worked on paper. The idea of getting back at your fathers killers is a classic super villain story and could, no should have been portrayed better. The effects were good for an ice villain but the idea of an entire society of heroes needed to get him was a bit much. It would have been better if there were 2 or maybe even 3 villains.
The way the current league interacted with the society was the best part. Hawkman and green arrow should have gotten more screen time, and a sitcom spin off. Fate and Clark worked really well, especially about the destiny, with the cape, Lois and Lex Luthor. and of course the amazing return to form of the martian man hunter. Great to see his martian form and the costume works the magic, we missed you Phil.
The effects were not as good as it could have been, hawk man was a blur through the air while the wings didn't move. The costumes looked slightly too plastic in some scenes and the action, in classic smallville style, a lot of build up with a minimal delivery.
Overall id give the episode 9 out of 10, for me because I adore DC lore and love the way it worked on screen. I couldn't have hoped for better. But as none DC readers will say, it was about too many characters with too many references which they wont get. But as a smallville movie it worked.
I hope the characters will be back and be seen more often. hopefully they will be seen often before the apokolips comes.