The Last Airbender

Image via Wikipedia

I have much to say.

I liked the movie. I didn’t love it, but I liked it. I’m really happy that the kid who played Zuko in the series got his part in the movie. The rest of the actors: meh. I like seeing Jackson Rathbone in more movies, since he was horrible in Eclipse and I really want to like him. In this, he was good. Again, not great, but good.

If you’ve seen the show, don’t bother watching the movie. Nothing new. It was fun to see a live-action film of the great story, but I expect a lot more when I see “written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan.”

The fights were well-choreographed, the bending was well-done, and the movie kept pretty well to the plot of the show. But there was very little character development. Bottom line: the plot was too much story for a two-hour movie. I feel like this was a six-hour epic that got hacked down to two hours. I hope that’s the case, because then when the DVD comes out, there will be a director’s cut with all the character development and Apa’s and Momo’s names back in.

As it stands, this was a movie about Zuko that focused a bit on Aang. What little character development there was focused on the prince, but the Avatar had more screen time (I think).

It was cool in 3D, and it added a bit of fun to the film without any of the gliche gimmicks.

I’d say see it, especially if you’re a fan of the series, but it felt a bit like watching the third Harry Potter movie. There was nothing new, and all the good stuff was pulled out to make it fit into two hours.

SciFi Channel's Alice

I don't know if anyone else saw Alice on the SciFi channel this week, but it was pretty disappointing. It's not that it was in any particular way bad, so much as it was uninteresting. It was basically the same premise as their previous miniseries, Tin Man. Alice takes place in what we would call the future of Wonderland, the original story having taken place in the almost-distant past. There might be people alive who still remember it, but probably not.

Again, it's not bad. It's just nothing new. It feels like the same writers, casting director and production designers had fun with Tin Man and decided to have the same fun with Alice. It's not poorly-written, poorly cast or poorly-designed. Quite the opposite. It's brilliant. It's just the same as Tin Man.

The casting is, in point of fact, pretty near perfect. Colm Meaney as the King of Hearts was brilliantly bumblesome, and the guy who plays Hatter was fun and plucky. The light comedy was as good as Tin Man, the clever interpretation of the characters and themes was equally fun.

The acting was... well... less than brilliant for the most part, but that's not to say bad. There were enough seasoned actors to pick up the slack when the inexperienced ones dropped it. The director was a bit below par for a SciFi Channel series, but the visuals were good enough that you really didn't notice his (or her) shortcomings.

So... As I said, all in all, not bad, just nothing new. If you saw Tin Man, you'll probably be a little disappointed with Alice, just because you've seen it already. If you didn't, you'll love it.