I just saw the Last Airbender, and when it ended, revealing that there would be a sequel, I shuddered at the idea that you would make a sequel, and that you actually had the audacity to PLAN to make a sequel.
I pray to God that you never make another film again.
EVER.
Here’s what I bet happened.
You saw a few episodes of the cartoon with your kids. You were interested in it’s philosophic and spiritual undertones, since we all know you love stuff like that with “hidden meanings.” You contacted the creators. You said “Hey guys, I wanna make a live action version of this!”
They said “Um….we’ll think about it.”
Really they wanted to see if they were on the same page of NOT trusting you with their creation. They didn’t trust you. So they didn’t get back to you. Then you hit them up a few times and said “Hey guys, come on! Let me make it!”
And they said “We don’t think a live action version will convey well.” Really they didn’t think YOU would do it right. So you bugged them over and over and said “Hey guys the story is already done, all I have to do is adapt it to be a film, direct it…I got money! I can do it! Come on guys!”
Now, I’m expecting this deal went down sometime before The Happening came out. If they had seen that, then they would have said “Oh hell no!”
So in the middle of it, you rushed to studios to get the green light and hurried to get it made before anyone would change their minds. You watched all the episodes as fast as you could, and just wrote one draft of the script, which explains why it was so juvenile. Or maybe you wrote multiple drafts, dumbing it down as much as possible because, after all, “the masses are stupid”.
Then the studio said “You know what…we need you to cast some white people so we can guarantee the majority population of America will see it.” And you said “OK!” and casted damn near EVERYBODY white. But of course, you didn’t want to look like a complete sell-out so you casted some East Asian folks.
By the way, why the hell would you cast the reigning villains as being of your Indian ancestry? Should I read into your subtext as it being some self-hate?
So when the creators saw your casting choices they had to come to their own defense and said “We didn’t choose this casting!” Yes I know Indians are Asian, but you didn’t even try the vast array of Pan-Asian looks! But what’s really crazy is the mind boggling weirdness of your casting actually falls back on how BAD you made this movie!
You took an awesome show, and ruined it. It was as if you made it bad on purpose. You did everything a film is not supposed to do and more.
Sokka (holding hand out)- Katara, do not break that magical sphere that just appeared out of the ice with a little boy and strange beast in it! (*Katara breaks sphere*)
Katara- It’s just like father told us before he disappeared some years ago, and before our mother died in that horrible raid by the Fire Nation villagers just 3 years ago on this very day! Don’t you remember?
Every line was back story. You tried to cram entire episodes of the show into 5minutes.
I thought you were JUST directing the film. That made me figure “Oh, well then it won’t be that bad.” No…you WROTE it too!?
You are clearly one of those overconfident artists that thinks you can’t make anything good without complete creative control. HOW you get studios to grant you that, I will never understand.
Then you had the nerve to put it in 3D. I’m sure the studio told you to do that because they saw how bad the film was and said “We gotta get as many dollars out of this as we can before people tear it apart…M. Night! Convert it into 3D!” *clap, clap*
And you said, “OK!’.
I’ve liked a couple of your films. Apparently your swan song was Sixth Sense, which I have never seen fully ’cause I kept falling asleep (don’t worry, I already know the twist).
Then you made Unbreakable (which was weird). Then Signs was redeeming (but really, the aliens die with water!? Couldn’t you have chosen something a little more unsuspecting!?). Then The Village (don’t get me started). The Lady In the Water (which I found to be pretty good). The Happening (WTF is wrong with you?) and now you took an AWESOME story and made it worse than your worst movies!?
I’d call you a one trick pony, but that’s a disrespect to the hard work put in by ponies that have to perform acts. At least a pony doing one trick over and over will be more interesting than The Last Airbender.
How did you possibly make fight scenes so boring?!
I’m on a one man mission to make sure you NEVER make another film, and that you DO NOT make a sequel to The Last Airbender. Even as an adult I still watch some cartoons because many of them are better than films being made for adults. You took a great fantasy and destroyed it to the point where I’m afraid that people won’t go see the original series.
And shame on you, for single-handedly ruining the possible futures of people like Noah Ringer. He’s talented, but now his name will be tarnished. I pray he doesn’t get made fun of at school. You even made a great actor like Dev Patel look like an amateur.
Get over yourself, and stop making films.
I think you’d be better at writing children’s books….but please do it under a pen-name. Any other mention of your name now is going to have people running away in fright.
This is Unbelievable . I want to Cry . We only have… what… Fifteen Good Story Lines made in the Last Ten Years? And the One Story that Incorporates the Idea of Balance, Harmony, Anti-Imperialism, and Integrates so much Research of Chinese Culture, Martial Arts and Philosophy- get turns into a Steaming Feces-Filled Apple Turnover?! Yer Right . He can’t make another Film . Ever Again .
“I’d call you a one trick pony, but that’s a disrespect to the hard work put in by ponies that have to perform acts.” hahahaha truth.
I wrote this earlier on fb and it pretty much sums up my thoughts on this…
“It was just unspeakably horrible. M Knight made every possible bad decision and more. He invented new forms of terribleness. Horrible writing. Horrible sequencing. Boring fight scenes. Good actors were made amateur at best. It is a tragic life experience at any price.”
I’m working hard to make sure that no one that I love consumes this trash.
@Mnightsson The only joke here is that it was actually made. If you see it, please report back your thoughts. People are now going to see it just to see how bad it is to make fun of it.
LMAO! damn Merc, M. Knight has you peeved! I can only imagine how bad this movie is, he’s been doing film fuckery for some time now. And the casting? Wow, what people will do for money, another soul, SOLD, to the devil!
I haven’t seen it, and won’t.
This was ether at its finest. I keep hoping that he’ll make another great film but ever since Signs, the critics have been ruthless. Haven’t seen one since then and it’s a shame. Dude made one of the greatest thrillers of the last 15 years and bought in his own hype instead of make better movies.
I just saw this piece of shit tonight. I don’t even watch the show so my bone to pick has nothing to do with fidelity to the source material. It was just a terrible movie. Nearly every line of dialog was exposition. It’s like the screenplay was written for people that go to the bathroom every five minutes. What the hell?
My family and I went to watch this movie with somewhat high hopes, we feared with M. Night Shymalan’s name in the title that it would be a bad movie but gave him the benifit of the doubt. Because seriously with everything that Avatar: The Last Airbender had to offer how could you go wrong? right? WRONG!! This man is utterly insane, he took a story that was written for him already, a show that had a loyal following already, and a plot that was flawless in it’s design and some how to the fans utter dismay managed to desicrate it destroy it. My family and I are huge fans of the show I doubt you would find bigger fans than us out there, and we were really looking forward to this movie, I have personally read about 210 reviews to this movie today and I am amazed to see people actually defending this clown claiming that it is soo hard to cram 13 episodes into a movie, thats not it poor writing is poor writing no matter how you slice it. The acting felt like it was red from a cue card on an infomercial, if anyone here watches nickelodeon watch the avatar revealed and youll see what aang is supposed to act like. Noah had potential behind the scenes he is Aang, But Shymalan directed his actors to act that way like in the Happening when he has nearly every actor or actress speaking with high inflections at the end of every sentence whether there was danger or fear all the lines were read the same. Thats just one of many. I have no problem with propper pronounciation of asian names or phrases, but this is pre-existing material how do you justify doing such a diservice to the fans by changing everything in such an annoying fashion. Appa had no character he might as well have been falcor from the neverending story just an air taxi thats it where was the connection between him and Aang they grew together serioiusly? no hug? no love? not even a simple aknowledgement on his part to appa, and momo wasnt even named he just showed on screen all misscolored finding things like the water scroll honestly you must have fast forwarded these episodes and came to your own conclusion, that or you really do just hate fans that much. You have no right to call yourself a fan of the series and i take it with a huge grain no mountain of salt that you claim that the Kiyoshi warriors were your favorite characters because im sorry i dont care how much screen time my favorite character gets at least he gets screen time. In the credits Suki remains so does Roku but never once are they in the film. The lazyness of your editing and your rush botched job of this film just goes to show that you really dont care what anyone says i read what Shymalan said about the huge negitive outcry from the fans and you werent even sorry. I take offense you dont deserve to make a sequal personally i think this movie should be pulled from theaters now while there’s still a chance to get more avatar fans interested in the series, because anyone who watches this trite is never gonna set foot in a room with the dvd’s of the series in them. Boos and outcrys of hatred for something that fans love soo much and hold so close and dear to their hearts ruined by one man who cant work as a team with anyone else. Shymalan is a greedy power hungry self righteous pretentious padantic bastard who really has no right to make movies at all i dont care if you have money to make the sequals i hope that mobsters children watched this movie and told their parents on you just so that the mobsters can hunt you down torture you just like you tortured us and break your kneecaps just like you broke our spirits. We hate you with every fiber of our being i thought that street fighter the chun li remake was bad i thought superman returns was the worst but you had to go and make this thanks alot. I hate you shymalan your ugly and you smell and i hate you for all time. Even your special effects sucked and what the hell was with the 3d movie being in half d? really? not even 2d it was blurry d. Missplacement of story inacurate lines given to wrong people just all around bad and if anyone who likes shymalamadingdong reads this please tell me how much you love him and love his twisted perverted version of Avatar and then jump on the same boat that hes on and sink with it.
im a die hard fan! at the end of the movie i burst in anger because i been waiting for this movie forever and this is what i got….a few hours or pure put together bullshit…..i hate him for this…..if someone else directed the movie, it might have a chance to redeem the fuckery M. night did….
@hoosh: lol! at merc80: so true about the ponies. i actually really liked signs and unbreakable had a unique premise to me, but after that, it was like seeing your once amazing husband sitting on the sofa all day in his whities drinking beer all day ad belching. you just wanna leave and never look back.
on another note, you liked lady in the water? woooooow….
Watch now…M Night’s trick is to limp to the 3rd movie and then go all out. He has even said the 3rd film will pretty much be the meat and potatoes. To me its the same as ruining a good joke by simply hurrying to get to the funny punch line, but the thing is “it all has to fit in order to make since.”
As for M Nights casting taste, check out the film “Make Me White 2009 BBC film”. The majority of the people are Indian. Its like a really bad thing to be dark over there. So maybe subconsciously thats why he cast the way he cast.
Sorry to offend anyone, but Night laid it out and I’m putting it back together the way it seems to fit.
I watched the atrocity last week and was upset with how it turned out. Like almost all other hardcore Avatar fans, I waited anxiously for the movie, but had a deep down fear that MNS was going to ruin it. Unfortunately, our fears were founded.
I would sign a petition to send to MNS to keep his horrible paws off of future Avatar films. He really did ruin a great book/first season of a fantastic show. I would hate to see how he creatively manages “The Drill” or even “Sozin’s Comet”.
Thank you for announcing this. There’s no doubt that M. Night Shyamalan has truly created a disaster. To be honest, I would be more than willing to protest so that he can never touch the avatar series again. Only within a few hours, he somehow miraculously tarnished the name of the show. M. Night Shyamalan, please…. stop.
Funny story: the other day a bunch of my friends and I went to see Inception. Before the movie began, there was a trailer about a group of people stuck on an elevator and all these weird things started happening. As soon as M. Night’s name appeared, there was a collective GROAN from the whole audience, I’m not making this stuff up!! I can’t believe he’s making more movies!! No one wants to watch anything this man makes again. Here’s hoping there aren’t any more Airbender movies!!
I made a promise to never see any more of this man’s movies after The Village. He’s a horrible director.
No no…this was MUCH WORSE than the Village, and I despise that movie.
This is Unbelievable . I want to Cry . We only have… what… Fifteen Good Story Lines made in the Last Ten Years? And the One Story that Incorporates the Idea of Balance, Harmony, Anti-Imperialism, and Integrates so much Research of Chinese Culture, Martial Arts and Philosophy- get turns into a Steaming Feces-Filled Apple Turnover?! Yer Right . He can’t make another Film . Ever Again .
hahahaha
“I’d call you a one trick pony, but that’s a disrespect to the hard work put in by ponies that have to perform acts.” hahahaha truth.
I wrote this earlier on fb and it pretty much sums up my thoughts on this…
“It was just unspeakably horrible. M Knight made every possible bad decision and more. He invented new forms of terribleness. Horrible writing. Horrible sequencing. Boring fight scenes. Good actors were made amateur at best. It is a tragic life experience at any price.”
I’m working hard to make sure that no one that I love consumes this trash.
I actually want to see this movie now.
Are you guy sure it wasn’t a comedy in disguise as was The Happening?
and the sixth sense was overrated.
@Mnightsson The only joke here is that it was actually made. If you see it, please report back your thoughts. People are now going to see it just to see how bad it is to make fun of it.
i said this last night, and i’ll say it again.
it sucked. the only thing they got right was Zuko’s snow outfit.
LMAO! damn Merc, M. Knight has you peeved! I can only imagine how bad this movie is, he’s been doing film fuckery for some time now. And the casting? Wow, what people will do for money, another soul, SOLD, to the devil!
I haven’t seen it, and won’t.
This was ether at its finest. I keep hoping that he’ll make another great film but ever since Signs, the critics have been ruthless. Haven’t seen one since then and it’s a shame. Dude made one of the greatest thrillers of the last 15 years and bought in his own hype instead of make better movies.
I just saw this piece of shit tonight. I don’t even watch the show so my bone to pick has nothing to do with fidelity to the source material. It was just a terrible movie. Nearly every line of dialog was exposition. It’s like the screenplay was written for people that go to the bathroom every five minutes. What the hell?
My family and I went to watch this movie with somewhat high hopes, we feared with M. Night Shymalan’s name in the title that it would be a bad movie but gave him the benifit of the doubt. Because seriously with everything that Avatar: The Last Airbender had to offer how could you go wrong? right? WRONG!! This man is utterly insane, he took a story that was written for him already, a show that had a loyal following already, and a plot that was flawless in it’s design and some how to the fans utter dismay managed to desicrate it destroy it. My family and I are huge fans of the show I doubt you would find bigger fans than us out there, and we were really looking forward to this movie, I have personally read about 210 reviews to this movie today and I am amazed to see people actually defending this clown claiming that it is soo hard to cram 13 episodes into a movie, thats not it poor writing is poor writing no matter how you slice it. The acting felt like it was red from a cue card on an infomercial, if anyone here watches nickelodeon watch the avatar revealed and youll see what aang is supposed to act like. Noah had potential behind the scenes he is Aang, But Shymalan directed his actors to act that way like in the Happening when he has nearly every actor or actress speaking with high inflections at the end of every sentence whether there was danger or fear all the lines were read the same. Thats just one of many. I have no problem with propper pronounciation of asian names or phrases, but this is pre-existing material how do you justify doing such a diservice to the fans by changing everything in such an annoying fashion. Appa had no character he might as well have been falcor from the neverending story just an air taxi thats it where was the connection between him and Aang they grew together serioiusly? no hug? no love? not even a simple aknowledgement on his part to appa, and momo wasnt even named he just showed on screen all misscolored finding things like the water scroll honestly you must have fast forwarded these episodes and came to your own conclusion, that or you really do just hate fans that much. You have no right to call yourself a fan of the series and i take it with a huge grain no mountain of salt that you claim that the Kiyoshi warriors were your favorite characters because im sorry i dont care how much screen time my favorite character gets at least he gets screen time. In the credits Suki remains so does Roku but never once are they in the film. The lazyness of your editing and your rush botched job of this film just goes to show that you really dont care what anyone says i read what Shymalan said about the huge negitive outcry from the fans and you werent even sorry. I take offense you dont deserve to make a sequal personally i think this movie should be pulled from theaters now while there’s still a chance to get more avatar fans interested in the series, because anyone who watches this trite is never gonna set foot in a room with the dvd’s of the series in them. Boos and outcrys of hatred for something that fans love soo much and hold so close and dear to their hearts ruined by one man who cant work as a team with anyone else. Shymalan is a greedy power hungry self righteous pretentious padantic bastard who really has no right to make movies at all i dont care if you have money to make the sequals i hope that mobsters children watched this movie and told their parents on you just so that the mobsters can hunt you down torture you just like you tortured us and break your kneecaps just like you broke our spirits. We hate you with every fiber of our being i thought that street fighter the chun li remake was bad i thought superman returns was the worst but you had to go and make this thanks alot. I hate you shymalan your ugly and you smell and i hate you for all time. Even your special effects sucked and what the hell was with the 3d movie being in half d? really? not even 2d it was blurry d. Missplacement of story inacurate lines given to wrong people just all around bad and if anyone who likes shymalamadingdong reads this please tell me how much you love him and love his twisted perverted version of Avatar and then jump on the same boat that hes on and sink with it.
im a die hard fan! at the end of the movie i burst in anger because i been waiting for this movie forever and this is what i got….a few hours or pure put together bullshit…..i hate him for this…..if someone else directed the movie, it might have a chance to redeem the fuckery M. night did….
Um…I liked the Sixth Sense.
Holy shit. That bad huh…..? I’ve always believed that people gave him a bad rap. But i might have to defer to you on this one.
Actually, M. Night S is one of the producers of the animated series. Which is the reason why he was able to create the movie. Sad but true.
“I’d call you a one trick pony, but that’s a disrespect to the hard work put in by ponies that have to perform acts.”
Awesome letter.
@hoosh: lol! at merc80: so true about the ponies. i actually really liked signs and unbreakable had a unique premise to me, but after that, it was like seeing your once amazing husband sitting on the sofa all day in his whities drinking beer all day ad belching. you just wanna leave and never look back.
on another note, you liked lady in the water? woooooow….
Watch now…M Night’s trick is to limp to the 3rd movie and then go all out. He has even said the 3rd film will pretty much be the meat and potatoes. To me its the same as ruining a good joke by simply hurrying to get to the funny punch line, but the thing is “it all has to fit in order to make since.”
As for M Nights casting taste, check out the film “Make Me White 2009 BBC film”. The majority of the people are Indian. Its like a really bad thing to be dark over there. So maybe subconsciously thats why he cast the way he cast.
Sorry to offend anyone, but Night laid it out and I’m putting it back together the way it seems to fit.
I watched the atrocity last week and was upset with how it turned out. Like almost all other hardcore Avatar fans, I waited anxiously for the movie, but had a deep down fear that MNS was going to ruin it. Unfortunately, our fears were founded.
I would sign a petition to send to MNS to keep his horrible paws off of future Avatar films. He really did ruin a great book/first season of a fantastic show. I would hate to see how he creatively manages “The Drill” or even “Sozin’s Comet”.
He needs to move to India, and make Bollywood movies. At least on a subcontinent of 1 Billion people at least one or two people might like his shit.
Thank you for announcing this. There’s no doubt that M. Night Shyamalan has truly created a disaster. To be honest, I would be more than willing to protest so that he can never touch the avatar series again. Only within a few hours, he somehow miraculously tarnished the name of the show. M. Night Shyamalan, please…. stop.
Funny story: the other day a bunch of my friends and I went to see Inception. Before the movie began, there was a trailer about a group of people stuck on an elevator and all these weird things started happening. As soon as M. Night’s name appeared, there was a collective GROAN from the whole audience, I’m not making this stuff up!! I can’t believe he’s making more movies!! No one wants to watch anything this man makes again. Here’s hoping there aren’t any more Airbender movies!!
LOL. insanely true. you should all check out this spot on movie review. http://io9.com/5576076/m-night-shyamalan-finally-made-a-comedy