Winners (or Losers) of These Year’s Razzies

            Keeping up with tradition, the Razzie awards were announced yesterday on the day before the Oscars. Generally the Razzies tend to be as predictable as the Oscars, and this year was no exception. The overwhelming winners (or losers) of this year were M. Night Shaymalan’s The Last Airbender, which took both Worst Picture Worst Director and the new category Worst use of 3D, and Sex and the City 2 taking Worst Actress, the Four “Gal Pals” although, and Worst Cast, the entire cast. Without much further ado here are these year’s worst of the worst:

           

The Last Airbender New Trailer

Here is the new trailer for The Last Airbender. While I remain hopeful for the film to be amazing it is unfortunate that the studio has opted to release it in 3d. I really hope that the film is easily available in 2d, unlike the recent How To Train Your Dragon. One of the reasons I believe M. Night was a wonderful choice of director was that his work is generally free of visual gimmicks. Knowing that this is being released in 3d feels as if we are loosing one of the last classicist active directors working in Hollywood.

On the bright side there is a brief sight of Appa, a Fire Nation Lizard Mount, and Roku's dragon. They all look really good.

Enjoy:

M. Night's The Last Airbender: New Trailer

So I just saw the trailer for The Last Airbender and I have to say it made me very happy. Like most fans of the animated series I was a bit shocked by the studios choice of director; that is until I re-watched some M. Night films (most importantly Lady in The Water). The truth is that M. Night has something most filmmakers involved in summer blockbusters nowadays lack: a balance of aesthetic and thematic values, a balance that comes from having a unique artistic vision. The combination of M. Night’s artistry and the adaptation that is not originally his own might result in one of the most refreshing Hollywood blockbusters in recent years (a good thing since last years sucked). Here is why:

First and foremost, it will not look like Speed Racer. From the trailer alone you can tell The Last Airbender is free of visual gimmicks. Yes, the settings look epic, which you expect from a fantasy movie like this. Yes, there will be special effects (they look pretty good). But pay close attention to how Sokka and Katara run through the ice: they move slowly and cautiously like human kids. This is because M. Night is a traditionalist; He rehearses with the actors for weeks, shoots on film, edits manually, and tries to use as little CGI as possible. I think Signs is his only movie with CGI but I might be wrong. In an M Night movie visuals are meant to compliment the story and characters not viceversa. And that is how it should be.

Secondly M. Night knows character. He is not the best in story but even in his most recent failures the focus is always on the characters. In every of his movies there is a scene or two showing the characters in their family and work environment. Just think about how in Sixth Sense he’s got you worried about Bruce Willis’ marriage. You think his wife is depressed because the marriage if failing and you think Willis is an ass for not trying to fix it. But in the end we realize the truth; the whole movie is about coping with death. All his other movies (except The Village) have a similar dynamic. There is a large happening (sorry for the pun) that the characters must undergo just to solve a small personal matter. In Sixth Sense is the marriage, as it is in Unbreakable; Lady in the Water is about being a father while Signs and The Happening has elements of both. The show Avatar is also about family, or rather about forming a new one and in the case of Aang (as in the case of Bruce Willis’ in both Sixth Sense and Unbreakable) it is about believing and forgiving yourself. Furthermore the character’s personal lives particularly relationships play as important a role as the main quest. Here M. Night is right in his territory. Unfortunately for M. most of the audience is not paying attention because they are looking for a twist, which is usually not there (his only two movies with pay off are Sixth Sense and The Village).

A third good reason is the fact that this is the first time M. Night works with an outside source. This is good since his most recent original ideas haven’t really been that good. Let’s see what he does with someone else’s. All his movies have been stand alone single pieces; it will be interesting what he does with a three-part trilogy. Interviews say he is keeping everything in. The trailer looks quite complete (there is a small shot of Jet and Suki is shown in one of the posters).

Finally the casting another thing that everyone complained about does not look bad (in fact it looks quite fitting) once you see it in context. Having said all of the above, I leave it for you to decide. Here is the trailer enjoy:

Teaser Trailer: The Last Airbender

HAHA! The teaser for M. Night Shyamalan's take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, is here. Tell me this movie doesn't look awesome.




Can it be Summer 2010 yet?

First Look: The Last Airbender

Photos popped up from the teaser of M. Night Shyamalans The Last Airbender popped up on the internet.

Here we see Noah Ringer as Aang in an Air Nomad Temple striking a badass pose. If you look closely, you can see the arrow on his forehead.

The only other picture released was of Slumdog Millionaire star Dev Patel as the Fire Nations Prince Zuko. The shot released doesn't show the side of his face that would be scarred, but hopefully it is for continuity sake as it is very important in the series.

An interesting note, both of the stars pictured have a background in martial arts, though not the styles that their "bending" forms are based off of. 

The teaser trailer will be played with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen which opens later this summer and The Last Airbender opens July 2nd 2010.

Yip Yip!

The Last Airbender: Cast Revealed! Is Zuko a No Go?

Slashfilm.com was the first to break the news that the main four characters of M. Night Shamalamadingdong's adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender were cast! That's about where the excitement stops.

Older fans of the series can easily tell on which civilizations the tribes were based. The Water Tribe has an Inuit influence, yet both the kids cast as Sokka and Katara aren't, one of them was even in Twilight. It did make me happy to see that they found Aang at an open call in Texas, but that was tampered at the casting choice of the antagonist, Prince Zuko. I am not saying that he is a bad actor, I rather enjoy his work, but Jesse McCartney does not seem to exude the, for lack of a better word, "dickness" of Zuko.

Was this the BEST picture to show Jesse's Zuko-ness?

For those of you that don't know, I'm a video game fanatic *coughshamelesspromotioncough*. My favorite RPG franchise is Kingdom Hearts, a co-production of Disney and Square-Enix. Jesse portrayed Roxas, a character linked to the main protagonist, Sora. This character is meant to provide the player with a new character to sympathize with and give more depth to the "Nobody" storyline. This character and storyline will be expanded upon more in the upcoming Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, but my point is that for all of the roles in which he doesn't play himself, they are mostly characters that are on the side of good. So in the big picture, Zuko doesn't seem like a stretch, but in this first "book" of the series, Zuko is quite the evil guy.

I have hope for this movie, but I will not pass my next judgement until the announcement of Iroh is made. As a fanboy of this series, there is no reason for you to listen to me, but if you are unfamiliar with the Avatar series, I hope that these films can do the series justice.

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