Last Air Bender vs Karate Kid

I went to see the Last Air Bender yesterday and loved it. I have to admit I watch the cartoon so I was really looking forward to this release. :-)

Anyway, my wife made a comment that she thought the last air bender blew away the Karate kid. I wanted to see whatever elses thoughts were. I am definitely in agreement with her on this one. And it floored me because she really was never into the Last Air Bender. At least with the Karate kid she grow up on that.

The Last AirBender stars Dev Patel, who came to fame in the mutiple Oscar winning SlumDog Millionaire. He is a BB in Chang Hon or ITF style TKD under Mr. Stuart Anslow, a regular contributor, noted author (with a new series of 3 books out) & accomplished martial artist!

I look forward to seeing this movie.
Thanks for the heads up!

I hope TLAB is better than the Karate Kid remake. That said, it wouldn't have to try too hard to be better than the Karate Kid remake!

Again, it was a movie I enjoyed.

However, I was floored by the lack of asian actors. At least it was my understanding that most if not all the charcters were of asian decent.

Interesting article on this from the person that does the voice of zuko in the animated series.

http://www.hollywoodnews.com/2010/07/01/...lm-controversy/

Honestly, as I did enjoy I would like to see another director get it and not N Night.

I think any Anime that gets turned into a live action movie faces a very tricky task in casting, because Anime and manga artists tend to draw their characters as unmistakably Asian, but with westernised features, particularly the eyes and nose.

So what do you do? The pool of Eurasian actors is not that great, and either 100% caucasian, or oriental actors will not fit the bill accurately.

I think in such circumstances, the only healthy way to approach it is to cast who they think will play the role the best regardless of their ethnicity.

Can anyone else comment on The Last Airbender movie? Is it good or not? The critics are slamming this movie and nobody seems to be saying anything good about it.

Yesterday however, I was in Taco Bell and a group of teens came in raving about it. But they seemed to be into both the cartoon and the actual movie and the way they were speaking I wasn't sure about which. They were really bringing up scenarios in which only real fans of cartoons could have known and so I didn't bother to ask them about the movie. Scenarios like I think Toph and Saka wold make a cute couple.

About the actor who played Zuko. Personally I would have liked to see him play the role of Zuko, after all his voice was what I am used to when I saw the series. Just like I would have loved to see actor Mako play General/Uncle Iroh. But in every movie Dante Basco has acted in he has never been able to replace his hood like accent and mannerisms. An example would be the 1991 movie 'Hook', he plays the character of Rufio the boy who led the Lost Boy's after Peter Pan went away. Or the movie the Perfect Weapon when he plays the street kid named Jimmy Ho. As a matter of fact there's even a movie out called 'Fakin Da Funk' in which Basco plays a Chinese kid who was adopted and raised by a black family. In the movie he has sort of an identity crisis because he thinks of himself as black or African American. And the people around him thinks he's nuts.

I enjoyed both movies. With Karate kid, I read a bad review about it first before I saw the movie and I think the movie was not that bad.

With Last Air Bender - I like this better. They put a lot of good animation into the fights. I would have preferred to see more Asians but yeah Cord is right Eurasian actors are not that great ...Anyway, acting was alright but Noah's acting was the best. Sokka was the comic relief in this very serious movie. However, I was hoping that Aang's character was more playful. There were some breathtaking scenes and the graphics were amazing. I like very much the bending and the action!

I am sure that was a challenging thing for Knight. At least in the cartoon Aang grows up through the episodes. Knight had to do it in a short period of the movie.

Ok I saw both. I can not see how the 2 can be compared, other than the fighting. Now I know nothing of the story of Air Bender & did not want to research it 1st. I simply went to see it as 1 of the stars is Dev Patal who I loved in Slumdog Millionaire. He is an ITF/Chang Hon BB student of Mr. Stuart Anslow.
As to the movie I really enjoyed it. I am looking forward to the next chapter.
I have several categories of movie reviews:
Awesome (1 of the best)
Great
Enjoyed It
Ok (It was a nice diversion)
Ouch (Couldn't stand it)
Worst Ever

So I really did enjoy Air Bender, but thought Karate Kid remake was great, due to the facxt I saw it with a bunch of young students, several groups & loved it, as did they. Maybe the group effort enhanced it or maybe my enjoyment was enhanced as they loved it so much.

Other than some fight scenes & emphasis on goodness, the movies were totally different for me, but I would recommend both

I am not familiar with Air Bender at all (either the animated version or the movie). However, my son saw it last week as he did follow the animated version and he said he was REEAALLY disappointed. He said it was like they tried to cram the whole animated series into the 90 minute plus movie.Though he did say the special effects were pretty good.

VDJ

The Best !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBktYJsJq-E&feature=related

I haven't seen the movie yet, and I've only gotten mixed reviews.

I might not have gone to see partly because of the casting...The whole culture and world of the animated series is in an Asian world. Yet all the main characters look nothing like them, even though they have plenty of Asian American actors out there.

was the action good at least?? I'm hoping there was at least good kungfu on the screen (Bagua, Taichi, and Northern Shaolin in particular).

I personally liked the kung fu and action. However I am not a kung fu guy. I still think Knight wasn't the best choice as director and I was dissapointed at the casting. Even thought I thinK Aang was a good choice.

ok let me introduce myself, I am a traditional (mostly southern) kung fu practicioner and have been performing tai chi. so if that means anything to anyone good for them. lol.

Karate kid.... kung fu kid? because that was wushu. only problem I had with that.

Airbener: I started watching the tv show with my little cousin and, to my surprise, started to really love it. funny, well thought out and complex characters. extremely mature for a kids show. From there I was very happy to see the movie was comming out. I was ok that they were using a tae kwan do student in a kung fu movie... "fine they will choreograph it in kung fu".

after changing the pronounciation of the names which was useless, they destroyed firebending. in the show their source of fire was the sun and could create it at will. I would've used kids who had a basic understanding and legitimate background of any kung fu. the effects were visually good but detached from the martial arts. at the last part aang was flipping around and kicking while waterbending a wave... it would've been better to have him kick and the wave shoots out or something. the acting was aweful, the kung fu was almost non-exsistant. it just made me sad.

I believe I could make a better movie in my backyard. :P