I think it’s important to first note that this film was not finished for this test screener. It still needed some extra special effect polish, and sound design, but other than that it was close to done. So with that said the reviews so far are not that great. Most enjoyed the fight scenes and said that the special effects were amazing, but other than that they needed some improvement. Here are some examples of what was said (also, Spoilers):
And another more negative one.I'll start with the good, don't want to be too much of a downer. First off, the elemental effects (which were… 60% finished?) are fucking sweet. They strike a great balance between realistic and cool. The action sequences are filmed well (though the non-action parts contain some questionable shots) and everything has a very satisfying weight to it. However, once things start to go Helm's Deep in the last third of the movie, they bring in those "300" slow-motion zooms from the Super Bowl spot. I thought they were overused and strangely out of place, since the action up to that point had been shot rather "traditionally," but I suppose it's the current trend in action movies so I'll suck it up and won't hold it against them. For the most part, the action in the movie is pretty good.
The movie opens in July, so there are some things they can do to fix some of the problems stated during these test screeners. Check out the full reviews here.There is so much wrong with this movie that I can just sum it up with this: Shyamalan is done. He is creatively spent. The film bares little to no visual distinctiveness to set it apart from Percy Jackson or any other generic Harry Potter wannabee. Shyamalan has maintained his trademark shitty dialogue. While Peltz and Rathbone are unforgivablely bad actors, everyone from Dev Patel to Cliff Curtis have no choice but to overact to match the hammy, heavy handed, telegraphed dialogue. And while my wife thought Aasif Madvi was good as the villainous Zhao, he just fell flat for me. When you cast a funny comedic actor from The Daily Show as your primary villain you cannot expect to be taken seriously as a movie.
You know, the guy who was killed by the ocean spirit La/Aang during a fusion of sorts. Also he sucessfully captured Aang more than once.
Hmm
The comedy was taken out????
true.
I just don't know how we expected a Shyamalan movie to convey human humor.
Still going to see it.
@sora_thekey:
I think the idea is that he made the movie so serious that the humor is an afterthought.
Awwwwww, Man! Do I have to be enraged by THIS movie, too?!?!
I hereby put forth this solemn blood oath: If Airbender sucks, I will thereafter and in perpetuity swear off of movie adaptations entirely.
There.
Of course, we don't hang out or anything, so you won't be able to hold me to it...
But I feel good about it; I stand by it.