AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER Movie Tidbits

Though I never watched the Avatar Nick Toon, THE LAST AIRBENDER is definitely up there on my anticipation list for this summer. I’m a huge fan of M. Night Shyamalan, from THE SIXTH SENSE through the VILLAGE, and, while I didn’t dig his last couple movies, I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt that he was just going through a slump and this is a return to form. The totally kick-ass trailers and Super-Bowl spots have been bolstered my confidence even further so.  Though I’m not a fan who can judge the authenticity of the translation, these tidbits he shared with UGO during a recent round table questionnaire are nevertheless very exciting.

• The Last Airbender is very much the first in a planned trilogy. Night compares it to Lord of the Rings in that it is all one story not, "more adventures" with your favorite characters. The three films will mirror the three seasons of the series, with some tweaks.
• Night plans to direct all three, but before the second one he wants to bang out a smaller-budgeted thriller.
• The thriller is *not* Unbreakable 2, though he still hopes one day to get to that. And he knows Bruce Willis feels the same way.
• Momo is absolutely in the movie. Night still hopes to find a moment where Momo does something really important and somehow saves the day, but for the first one he's in there "just for fun."
• That said, our expectations for the amount of comedy in the films has been managed. Night warns that "what works in the show won't always work in the film" and some of the broad comedy has been cut.
• During one enthusiastic moment discussing the CG effects, the phrase "Master Pakku using water like nun-chucks" was used. Everyone in the room responded, "Coooooool."
• Night hopes the CG in The Last Airbender will be unique in that there isn't as much quick-cutting as in commonly seen in CG-heavy films. Go back and look at his other films and you will see a lot of long takes. This means the CG is going to have to be really top notch, because it can't be hidden away with cutting.
• The writing in the film (in, say, the Waterbending Scroll or Aang's "Wanted" poster) will not be Chinese calligraphy as in the show, but an Asian-inspired pictorial language created just for this movie.
• Perhaps most importantly, Night eloquently and deliberately addressed the so-called "racebending" issue, dealing with what some feel is a specific effort on his part to bleach the Asian origins of the film.

While I do think it’s cool that this is being planned as trilogy, I hope Shyamalan keep this first movie self-contained.  I’m as a big a fan of serialized stories as they come, but it’s irked me to see so many movies recently are supposed to be “the first in planned trilogies” that usually never happen, because they leave a lot of loose ends rather than resolving their own plots. I’m sure he’s aware of that, but still…

I’m also really glad that he’s going to be doing longer takes for this, as overly-fast cuts are another pet peeve of mine. We’ll get a chance to see that kid just wreck people as Ang a lot more clearly this way and I’m excited. Too much time has passed since 3 NINJAS when we got to see kids just knocking adults around. Also, everybody's been telling me that it ABSOLUTELY MUST check out the show. Is there anywhere online I can watch it, people? Point me in the right direction!

What do you think, oh Tae Kwon Do-practicing Anime Vice community? Can any of you who were Avatar fans vouch for Shyamalan’s statements and their trueness to the toon’s spirit?

-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Comics and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia Comics.   Watch out for the HYBRID BASTARDS! hardcover collection this March - - available for pre-order now on Amazon.com.