In what is the largest midnight opening of this year’s summer movie season, for a non-sequel, The Last Airbender pulled down $3 Million of the expected $50-60 million total for the 5-day Fourth of July weekend. It tracked very well prior to the release of the film, but response has been very poor among fans and critics alike. It seems that the films’ biggest defenders are those saying that it’s just “bad” and not “completely terrible.”
I liked the movie, for what it’s worth. I don’t think it was bad, but more afflicted by a studio mandate that the movie come in at under 2 hours. That was the real downfall of the film, just as Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven took a real tongue lashing from the critics for having to cut the film to meet a certain number of possible screentimes per day. Since, Ridley Scott’s director’s cut of Kingdom of Heaven was released onto DVD and it was critically praised. It is said to be a massive improvement on the film, with more characters and more backstory with better editing and better pacing.
We all know they shot scenes with the Kyoshi Warriors for The Last Airbender. Is it possible that there is a director’s cut somewhere? I mean, Night’s first outline of the movie had every single character and plot-point from the animated series in it. The creators of the show took his outline and crossed out characters and things that could be skipped. If Night had his way, it would have been a 6 hour epic for each film. He is a fan of the show, remember, and meant no disrespect to other fans of the series. He was just under contract to deliver a movie that was under 2 hours, based on a season that runs for about 8 hours or so, and that’s a tall order for anyone to fill.
Would you be interested in watching a director’s cut that is more faithful to the source material than the studio enforced cut of the movie?
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If the director’s cut is an hour longer than the theatrical version, would you give it a chance, even if you hated the theatrical cut?
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How long should the movie have been, in your opinion, to capture the series?
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