![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
As You Know, Aang
2/7/10 08:53Okay, I don't know the source material for The Last Airbender or feel any loyalty to it. And while I've heard rumors on the edges of the "how could they have cast people who aren't people of color as people of color" debate, again, I'm not invested in this, and I don't know much so I'm staying out of it.* It's very pretty**, with seamless effects. It's very loud, and the music is wretchedly prescriptive. There are huge tracts of exposition, plopped shamelessly to stall the otherwise, um, well, stately pace of the movie. Most of the kids sound like they go to Avocado's middle school--not the dialogue (except in the case of Sokka, who all but says "dude!") but the delivery. Only Dev Patel errs on the side of drama, but at least that makes him the most sympathetic character in the film. But the dialogue itself--coming home from Skywalker last night the Spouse and I finally figured it out. It sounds like...well, kinda like the sort of thing that was badly translated from the original language. Maybe that's how Shyamalan experiences anime (it's how, I have to confess, I experience some anime). Which made me wonder if he wanted it to sound this way.
On the other hand, the glacial pacing and logic flaws are all on him.
*maybe Shyamalan could not find people of color who were sufficiently wooden in their delivery to suit his vision. I'm not kidding; I really began to wonder if this was an attempt at something stylistic, rather than, like, early onset senility on his part.
**the costumes, in particular, are often very handsome. The costumer had to take her lead from the series, but that can be a harder task than it looks--you can draw something that looks reasonable but cannot be made to look reasonable in real fabric (why there's never been a really good Superman outfit). But I had to wonder where all the color coded tribes were getting their dyes from. Yes, I know. I'll go away quietly now.
On the other hand, the glacial pacing and logic flaws are all on him.
*maybe Shyamalan could not find people of color who were sufficiently wooden in their delivery to suit his vision. I'm not kidding; I really began to wonder if this was an attempt at something stylistic, rather than, like, early onset senility on his part.
**the costumes, in particular, are often very handsome. The costumer had to take her lead from the series, but that can be a harder task than it looks--you can draw something that looks reasonable but cannot be made to look reasonable in real fabric (why there's never been a really good Superman outfit). But I had to wonder where all the color coded tribes were getting their dyes from. Yes, I know. I'll go away quietly now.