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[Avatar: the Last Airbender]: you DO always come back!
Since I started hearing the awful, awful response a couple days ago, I've been thinking in my head how I would have put the movie together, you know, if I had any experience at it. God help me...I actually am starting to want to see it if only to see how far from my idea Shyamalan's vision is.
If your idea is deemed, by a panel of your peers, to be too close to Shamamalam's, you risk excommunication from this forum, your home. Are you willing to take that chance?
Two eskimos find this happy go lucky dude in an iceberg with his adorable giant flying bison. He's the avatar and has to save the world, first by going north and learning water bending. First he stops by his former home to face the destruction, then maybe do something like the kyoshi warriors or the aborted fire bending learning or some such, then just do the seige of the north. You could fit that into two hours easily.
Edit: someone should post that Youtube video. It's 10 minutes of Batman and Robin, and it's called "Batman and Robin is the worst movie ever." The video is the best use of evidence to prove a claim that I've ever seen.
Warner Bros probably removed it from youtube by now. Here's a consolation prize.
Two eskimos find this happy go lucky dude in an iceberg with his adorable giant flying bison. He's the avatar and has to save the world, first by going north and learning water bending. First he stops by his former home to face the destruction, then maybe do something like the kyoshi warriors or the aborted fire bending learning or some such, then just do the seige of the north. You could fit that into two hours easily.
It kind of baffles me that he cut Kyoshi Island out but kept the earthbender prison. Every bit of exposition you could get from the prison you could also get from Kyoshi, while also introducing Suki early enough to fit her in easily to Book 2, and giving a bit of backstory to the Avatar cycle. It's like, storytelling 101.
Two eskimos find this happy go lucky dude in an iceberg with his adorable giant flying bison. He's the avatar and has to save the world, first by going north and learning water bending. First he stops by his former home to face the destruction, then maybe do something like the kyoshi warriors or the aborted fire bending learning or some such, then just do the seige of the north. You could fit that into two hours easily.
It kind of baffles me that he cut Kyoshi Island out but kept the earthbender prison. Every bit of exposition you could get from the prison you could also get from Kyoshi, while also introducing Suki early enough to fit her in easily to Book 2, and giving a bit of backstory to the Avatar cycle. It's like, storytelling 101.
But then you don't get earthbending. That's the reason they chose it, so they could show off all bending styles in the movie.
You know, one of the weirdest thing about this whole fiasco is the damn pronunciation changes. How fucking weird is that?
See, this is the weirdest thing, and ties into how ridiculous the whitewashed casting was. He changed the pronunciations to closer reflect actual Asian names, which means he clearly realizes the Asian influences and themes inherent in the setting and characters...and then casts a bunch of white people.
Blackjack on
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
0
DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
edited July 2010
They could have just added random badass Earthbender into the movie who helps the adventurers along the way instead of skewering it like that.
Two eskimos find this happy go lucky dude in an iceberg with his adorable giant flying bison. He's the avatar and has to save the world, first by going north and learning water bending. First he stops by his former home to face the destruction, then maybe do something like the kyoshi warriors or the aborted fire bending learning or some such, then just do the seige of the north. You could fit that into two hours easily.
It kind of baffles me that he cut Kyoshi Island out but kept the earthbender prison. Every bit of exposition you could get from the prison you could also get from Kyoshi, while also introducing Suki early enough to fit her in easily to Book 2, and giving a bit of backstory to the Avatar cycle. It's like, storytelling 101.
But then you don't get earthbending. That's the reason they chose it, so they could show off all bending styles in the movie.
Kyoshi is the former home of the last earth avatar. They could easily have a couple villagers show off earthbending while defending from the fire nation attack. Plus you'd also get some non-bending martial arts in from the Kyoshi Warriors, to show that sufficiently talented non-benders still can fight benders.
Two eskimos find this [strike]happy go lucky[/strike] dude in an iceberg with his adorable giant flying bison. He's the avatar and has to save the world, first by going north and learning water bending. First he stops by his former home to face the destruction, then [strike]maybe do something like the kyoshi warriors or the aborted fire bending learning or[/strike] some such, then just do the seige of the north. You could fit that into two hours easily.
It's kind of silly how much overreaction there is.
"THIS IS EASILY THE WORST MOVIE I HAVE EVER SEEN!"
As a man who has seen Batman and Robin, Transformers 2, and all of/at least 3 of the Resident Evil movies, I cannot, in good conscience, say it's the "worst movie ever".
The second two movies were at least created for the sake of entertainment value. They took some ideas and they ran with them.
Why was Last Airbender created?
Clearly to make you react like you have been personally assaulted.
I mean it doesn't get much more hilariously sad than this.
Really, in order to make an adaptation, here's what you have to do:
1) Fight to make every movie at least 2.5 hours. Honestly, the third movie should be in two parts.
2) Figure out where you want every movie to end and what the arc to be.
3) Make a list of all the important characters and what their respective arcs are.
4) Go through the series episode by episode, and see how well each particular storyline fulfills one of the two things above. For instance, you don't need the fortune teller episode. OTOH, some storylines don't pay off until much later.
5) If two or more storylines accomplish the same thing, then combine them, or figure out which ones maximize the available drama. We don't need a lot of storylines where Aang mediates a dispute, but we should have at least one.
I think the studios should give M. Night Shyamalan just 30 or 40 more chances to make another good movie – then THAT’S IT.
Tim Calhoun: I propose a harsh 20-strike law for criminals. After 20 strikes, the criminals only get 3 more strikes. But, after 3 strikes, that's it. One more strike.
Really, in order to make an adaptation, here's what you have to do:
1) Fight to make every movie at least 2.5 hours. Honestly, the third movie should be in two parts.
2) Figure out where you want every movie to end and what the arc to be.
3) Make a list of all the important characters and what their respective arcs are.
4) Go through the series episode by episode, and see how well each particular storyline fulfills one of the two things above. For instance, you don't need the fortune teller episode. OTOH, some storylines don't pay off until much later.
5) If two or more storylines accomplish the same thing, then combine them, or figure out which ones maximize the available drama. We don't need a lot of storylines where Aang mediates a dispute, but we should have at least one.
One of these movies can be 2.5 - 3 hours, but they don't have to be. I agree on point 4 in particular, though. In fact, I just finished doing exactly that!
Let's start with the most grandiose possibility; a minute by minute remake of the entire damn season. This ridiculous idea will take us about 400 minutes. From there, I cut out the entirety of the King of Omashu, Imprisoned, The Waterbending Scroll, the Great Divide (duh,) the Fortuneteller, Bato of the Water Tribe, the Deserter, and the Northern Air Temple. Some of these are important points, but most of them can wait until movie 2, like Bumi. Already we're at 260 minutes, less than four hours. Next, I'd cut all but minimal bits of the Kyoshi Warriors and The Spirit World. Most of their plots will pop up in other stories, and Suki can't have much screentime or she'd interfere with Yue. So lets say we lose all but eight minutes of those two episodes, and we're down to 208 minutes.
Only ten episodes left. I'd cut The Boy in the Iceberg, the Avatar Returns, the Storm, the Blue Spirit, and the Waterbending Master in half, more or less. The first two make for a decent Act 1, The Storm loses its arching story and just features the flashbacks, the Blue Spirit similarly loses the sickness half and just features Aang's escape with Zuko's help, and The Waterbending Master just functions as an introduction to the setting of Act 3. After all this, we're down to a slim 158 minutes already, the two and a half hours we originally wanted.
But any non-episodic story will features cuts from an episodic one, since we don't have to re-introduce and conclude each story individually or set up other act breaks for the commercials. We could probably cute the Siege of the North episodes into a single half-hour Act 3 and then turn Act 2 (traditionally the longest Act in a movie) into a series of crucial events; the arrival at the Southern Air Temple and Aang learning the truth about his people, first meeting Avatar Roku and learning the overarching goal of the series, and Aang's subsequent escape from his imprisonment (in this movie, he gets captured directly at the Fire Temple.) We toss in Jet for something for our other two protagonists to do while Aang is captured and escapes along with introducing a popular character and setting him up for the sequel. In this version, Suki and some other Kyoshi warriors are part of a much larger rebellion Jet is leading, though they are unaware of his fanaticism.
So let's say we keep about 3/4 of those last five episodes, and we're down to 133 minutes, pretty slim really. We could knock it down to an even two hours without trouble. More than that, and we would lose Jet and even The Blue Spirit, but there's no reason to condense it to much less than two hours.
SethTheHuman on
You know what? Nanowrimo's cancelled on account of the world is stupid.
0
DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
I'd argue that you can let Roku wait until the spirit journey at the North Pole. The main conflict of Book 1 comes from Zhao and Zuko, and a lot of the impetus just comes from the fact that Aang needs to escape and learn how to defend himself. At the North Pole is when Aang learns what his real power is, and is the perfect time to introduce the audience to the larger scale of the war as a whole, and the necessity of Aang going on the offensive against the Fire Nation. Which then leads perfectly to Book 2, where Aang starts taking his duties seriously, and we see the devastation the war has wrought.
Jet I think could probably wait for Book 2, but then there's a lot that needs to fit in there, so maybe not.
I'd argue that you can let Roku wait until the spirit journey at the North Pole. The main conflict of Book 1 comes from Zhao and Zuko, and a lot of the impetus just comes from the fact that Aang needs to escape and learn how to defend himself. At the North Pole is when Aang learns what his real power is, and is the perfect time to introduce the audience to the larger scale of the war as a whole, and the necessity of Aang going on the offensive against the Fire Nation. Which then leads perfectly to Book 2, where Aang starts taking his duties seriously, and we see the devastation the war has wrought.
Jet I think could probably wait for Book 2, but then there's a lot that needs to fit in there, so maybe not.
You can, certainly, but I chose not to in my synopsis for two reasons. One, I wasn't planning on even giving Aang a spirit journey at the North Pole. That was one of the ways it would be cut from 40 minutes to 30, and while Koh the Face Stealer was cool, he didn't really contribute anything to the series from then on. Second, simply put, SOMETHING has to happen between Acts 1 and 2. If we move Avatar Roku and Jet to elsewhere or the chopping block, what will happen here? Of the two classic narrative stories, Airbender is of the Journey variety, so it requires steps of a journey. We can't just go from "Let's go on a quest to the north pole," to "here we are at the north pole!" And if not episodes that are more action-packed and relevant to the long-term story, like Blue Spirit and Jet, then what? The Fortuneteller?
SethTheHuman on
You know what? Nanowrimo's cancelled on account of the world is stupid.
Posts
If your idea is deemed, by a panel of your peers, to be too close to Shamamalam's, you risk excommunication from this forum, your home. Are you willing to take that chance?
Two eskimos find this happy go lucky dude in an iceberg with his adorable giant flying bison. He's the avatar and has to save the world, first by going north and learning water bending. First he stops by his former home to face the destruction, then maybe do something like the kyoshi warriors or the aborted fire bending learning or some such, then just do the seige of the north. You could fit that into two hours easily.
Like, maybe I'd get an average review of like 30-40%. But that's still at least in the double digits, so I'd count it as an improvement
Warner Bros probably removed it from youtube by now. Here's a consolation prize.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLZQ3OLEJWE&feature=related
It kind of baffles me that he cut Kyoshi Island out but kept the earthbender prison. Every bit of exposition you could get from the prison you could also get from Kyoshi, while also introducing Suki early enough to fit her in easily to Book 2, and giving a bit of backstory to the Avatar cycle. It's like, storytelling 101.
But then you don't get earthbending. That's the reason they chose it, so they could show off all bending styles in the movie.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
It's quite good. Rave reviews and all that. Go see it straightaway!
it was at 10% earlier!
Kyoshi is the former home of the last earth avatar. They could easily have a couple villagers show off earthbending while defending from the fire nation attack. Plus you'd also get some non-bending martial arts in from the Kyoshi Warriors, to show that sufficiently talented non-benders still can fight benders.
Pssst, That was the movie.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
Only ran like 100 minutes.
Clearly to make you react like you have been personally assaulted.
I mean it doesn't get much more hilariously sad than this.
Okay Zutara but still.
1) Fight to make every movie at least 2.5 hours. Honestly, the third movie should be in two parts.
2) Figure out where you want every movie to end and what the arc to be.
3) Make a list of all the important characters and what their respective arcs are.
4) Go through the series episode by episode, and see how well each particular storyline fulfills one of the two things above. For instance, you don't need the fortune teller episode. OTOH, some storylines don't pay off until much later.
5) If two or more storylines accomplish the same thing, then combine them, or figure out which ones maximize the available drama. We don't need a lot of storylines where Aang mediates a dispute, but we should have at least one.
So how do you feel about the current ad campaign (Marcus PSP)?
I still contend that Supermodel College was the biggest insult, with the twins a distant second.
But you know what, I'd sooner watch that three more times than another Shyamalan movie.
Blog||Tumblr|Steam|Twitter|FFXIV|Twitch|YouTube|Podcast|PSN|XBL|DarkZero
It's amazing how long Weird Al has managed to be awesome. At least six times longer than M. Night at least.
Tim Calhoun: I propose a harsh 20-strike law for criminals. After 20 strikes, the criminals only get 3 more strikes. But, after 3 strikes, that's it. One more strike.
MNS said that he couldn't handle making a movie longer than his other movies. It was too hard.
One of these movies can be 2.5 - 3 hours, but they don't have to be. I agree on point 4 in particular, though. In fact, I just finished doing exactly that!
Let's start with the most grandiose possibility; a minute by minute remake of the entire damn season. This ridiculous idea will take us about 400 minutes. From there, I cut out the entirety of the King of Omashu, Imprisoned, The Waterbending Scroll, the Great Divide (duh,) the Fortuneteller, Bato of the Water Tribe, the Deserter, and the Northern Air Temple. Some of these are important points, but most of them can wait until movie 2, like Bumi. Already we're at 260 minutes, less than four hours. Next, I'd cut all but minimal bits of the Kyoshi Warriors and The Spirit World. Most of their plots will pop up in other stories, and Suki can't have much screentime or she'd interfere with Yue. So lets say we lose all but eight minutes of those two episodes, and we're down to 208 minutes.
Only ten episodes left. I'd cut The Boy in the Iceberg, the Avatar Returns, the Storm, the Blue Spirit, and the Waterbending Master in half, more or less. The first two make for a decent Act 1, The Storm loses its arching story and just features the flashbacks, the Blue Spirit similarly loses the sickness half and just features Aang's escape with Zuko's help, and The Waterbending Master just functions as an introduction to the setting of Act 3. After all this, we're down to a slim 158 minutes already, the two and a half hours we originally wanted.
But any non-episodic story will features cuts from an episodic one, since we don't have to re-introduce and conclude each story individually or set up other act breaks for the commercials. We could probably cute the Siege of the North episodes into a single half-hour Act 3 and then turn Act 2 (traditionally the longest Act in a movie) into a series of crucial events; the arrival at the Southern Air Temple and Aang learning the truth about his people, first meeting Avatar Roku and learning the overarching goal of the series, and Aang's subsequent escape from his imprisonment (in this movie, he gets captured directly at the Fire Temple.) We toss in Jet for something for our other two protagonists to do while Aang is captured and escapes along with introducing a popular character and setting him up for the sequel. In this version, Suki and some other Kyoshi warriors are part of a much larger rebellion Jet is leading, though they are unaware of his fanaticism.
So let's say we keep about 3/4 of those last five episodes, and we're down to 133 minutes, pretty slim really. We could knock it down to an even two hours without trouble. More than that, and we would lose Jet and even The Blue Spirit, but there's no reason to condense it to much less than two hours.
Oh, I'm okay with the little kid smack talking.
Jet I think could probably wait for Book 2, but then there's a lot that needs to fit in there, so maybe not.
You can, certainly, but I chose not to in my synopsis for two reasons. One, I wasn't planning on even giving Aang a spirit journey at the North Pole. That was one of the ways it would be cut from 40 minutes to 30, and while Koh the Face Stealer was cool, he didn't really contribute anything to the series from then on. Second, simply put, SOMETHING has to happen between Acts 1 and 2. If we move Avatar Roku and Jet to elsewhere or the chopping block, what will happen here? Of the two classic narrative stories, Airbender is of the Journey variety, so it requires steps of a journey. We can't just go from "Let's go on a quest to the north pole," to "here we are at the north pole!" And if not episodes that are more action-packed and relevant to the long-term story, like Blue Spirit and Jet, then what? The Fortuneteller?
i just thought of them as robots and squirrels
not signs of racist bigotry. weird.