So, I was perusing TvTropes' "So Bad It's Horrible" section and came across the entry for The Last Airbender. By and large, it was the same, save for a link to this article.

Now, I want to believe that maybe some of my anger at Shyamalan is misguided, that he suffered from the same Executive Meddling as many directors and creators have (*cough*Mike and Bryan*cough*). On the other hand, it is on a Shyamalan fansite, so maybe some stuff was doctored to make him out as more of a victim (a bit of a stretch, but still a possibility.

Then again, he still ended up making the thing without protesting against the executive meddling.

Thoughts?

3865171

He still screwed up the names. And he was on record that he knew the "proper" pronunciation of names that don't actually exist (ok except for Katara but Mike and Bryan didn't know). Executive meddling or not he still wrote the damn thing

"I'm such a fan of the show, yeah let me make a 20 season episode into a hour and a half movie, misguide the names, pick a newbie actor to play aang (sorrY "oong"). write exposition and use white actors only."

I still blame the guy

3865193 From what I heard, his original script clocked in at nine hours and covered every episode in Season 1. He chopped it down to three hours for the sake of convenience (I think), then chopped it down even further because... damned if I know

3865199 He was still the director, he should have directed the not katara, not sokka, not aang, and indian zuko. All I could think of when I first watched this movie was "If this shit gets to the third book, how the fuck will white as snow gaang, mix with the firenation?". I mean "my name is oong!" (and I swear, when watching this movie in a hd rip on my tv, because fuck me if I'm going to pay for a legit copy, and I wanted to see how bad it was) I could hear someone shouting the correct pronunciation at him.

3865203 Very true.

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Did the aritcle mention why Shamaldingdong messed up the Bending Arts like he did? You know the whole have 20 something earthbenders make the movements to do something awesome and only life a rock that Toph could lift with her pinkie?

And ILM was rushed despite most of the movie’s look being left up to them. And you had novice directors hired by producers to oversee that process. That’s how come the pebble dance happened. Sadly at that point M Night was just tired of arguing with the overheads, gave up, and collected his paycheck. If you look at the movie’s premiere and red carpet footage you can tell his excitement and happiness is fake. Bryke had little say in the film despite being listed as executive producers. That title was a fancy way of saying that they created the show it was based on and they’re still alive so they need some kind of nice credit. The actual producers didn’t know what they were dealing with and were only interested in a quick buck. Bryke and M. Night gave up on the film around the same time for same reasons. The other people working on the film were a pain to deal with and Nickelodeon themselves only wanted the final product as quickly as possible and the money it would presumably make them. - See more at: http://www.mnightfans.com/the-true-story-of-the-last-airbender-revealed/#sthash.AuRRhJmy.iIybOCiQ.dpuf

Apparently you blame the special effects teams and not the man, who gave up.

I say we blame him still, I mean, he collected his paychek, didn't he?

3865243 answered your question

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That doesn't really answer my question

3865291 The site blames "novice directors" oveerseing the bending, so a pebble dance. Why a man who is such a fan of the show didn't oversee the most important part of the fight scenes personally, I couldn't tell you, but

3865171 No he screwed up. I mean even if there WAS corporate meddling, I HIGHLY doubt it would screw things up THAT much. The Shamhammer(What I call him) has done.... At least a FEW good movies, but the thing with that was he's never done fantasy, HIGH fantasy that is and Avatar is a high fantasy series. Honestly, the ONLY movie I've seen of his that is REALLY good, almost no mistakes(In my opinion) is Unbreakable. Call it the superhero nerd in me, but I fucking loved that movie.

Now you take a director that uses supernatural or fantasy concepts in real world scenarios like superheros and villains, ghosts, aliens, etc.... And you put him behind the production of a movie that is going to be NOTHING BUT supernatural and fantastical, and you clearly see the problem with this.

3865171 I still blame him for trying to take the concept onto the big screen. Most movies are around two hour, give or take, so he should have known not to work with a story that lasts 20 30-minute episodes, especially when there are so many plot points to go through. I think it would've been better if he didn't try cramming so much with so little time. I honestly don't know how you'd make a movie with this (maybe work out the comics? They're kinda shorter, at least in comparison), but a whole season in one movie is just an atrocious idea. I don't know what made M. Night think he could take this on.

Nostalgia Critic made an excellent point in his review that the movie is all exposition, and no heart or emotion. It's a live-action representation of the season one wikipedia page. Because there's so much story to tell, that the heart is tossed aside in order to tell you all the plot points that are endlessly told. I don't care if corporate meddling was involve, as he should have simply realized from the start this idea was an inch from impossible to pull off in any decent way.

There's also the "Earthbenders, use your bending, because unlike in the show you're in the middle of the fucking dirt!"

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YES THERE WAS! YOU CAN'T JUST IGNORE EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED OUTSIDE THESE WALLS!