Benders. Will. Fail.

[shadydave]

Bah. There's a new trailer for The Last Failbender. On the plus side, it appears to have been cut by the people who did the last Clash of the Titans trailer, right down to the random metal "Unleash the Guitars of War" soundtrack. On the down side, it actually looks pretty cool, which just makes me mad they were such bastards about the casting and ruined the whole thing.

The narration is still kind of faily, but I suspect it's actually being provided by Roku (which might make it kinda in-character). Also, I find it VERY INTERESTING you don't get any close-ups of the main characters.


I notice we didn't have any problems correctly reproducing the SET DESIGN.

"You are the only one --"

The Boy in the Ion Cannon?

"-- of your kind, -- "

I like to think that's the Great A'Tuin back there.

"-- the last hope for peace --"

And we can recreate a minor shot from the intro to the series, but we can't cast the main characters with anyone remotely connected to their real-life culture equivalents.

"-- in a world consumed by darkness."

Err, "fire", yes. "Darkness", no.


Maybe by "darkness", he means "blue".


"Fire Nation jazz hands, go! Maraca Guy, provide backup! Prepare the Russian pirate dance!"


Earthbending. These are all action scenes; I guess it's to make it appropriately Super Bowl-y.


Airbending.


Now you're making me invoke "Demon Buffet Limbo"! SHAME.


Waterbending. I can't decide if it looks cool, or like someone waving a firehose around.


Warrior. Legend. Seabiscuit Generic Subtitle.


Hey, his outfit actually looks saffron here. That's new.


Avatar state, yip yip!


And the Fire Nation tries to set the movie on fire again.

In conclusion: as Clash of the Titans so succinctly put it,

Comments

[naturalblue208.livejournal.com]

1. love the commentary XD

2. you know, i actually was surprised at how much the special effects in the new trailer underwhelmed me; there is an essence that is captured in the animation of speed and force that the CG, for all its detail, misses, and the speed/force is what i think is so cool about the artistic concept of bending. when toph stamps down, the rock comes up at a speed pretty much equal to that at which her foot went down, and there's a feeling of solidness to it that the CG didn't catch. the equal and opposite reaction doesnt happen-- the CG feels like they're flinging up a smokescreen rather than hurling something solid or forceful. the anime, strangely enough, is better with dimension than the dimensional CG XD

thanks for sharing it-- i have no qualms about not seeing it now XD

[shadydave.livejournal.com]

Dude, you're totally right about the bending SFX. To give ILM some credit, these might be the first ones completed -- they're probably still working on it, since the movie doesn't come out until July. On the other hand, ILM also did the SFX for The Mummy, and we all know how that turned out :D

[naturalblue208.livejournal.com]

haha! but to discredit ILM, the first frame images should have the forcefulness-- it's not the detail that's the issue, but the basic shapes and the speed at which they move-- which are already done. If the first grey animated blob does not express the essence of what it's trying to animate, the finished product also will not. waterbending in the animation is FWOOM BWAFF!! not here i am turning a hosepipe on you-- even when Katara moves it in a flowier way, it moves as a unit in sync with her movements. the water moves as a unit, not as a flow. same with the fire, and earth-- they tried to make everything fancy and flowy and in doing so missed the point ;) and that would show with the first experiments as much as the final product :D

And it's not like they CAN'T do it; even though it's not serious, Pixar caught that kind of bending force and movement PERFECTLY with Frozone in the Incredibles.

also, making the air invisible just makes airbending look hilarious in the grand tradition of Gandalf vs. Saruman :D

[shadydave.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the basic coding should allow for that forcefulness, but what I meant by these being the first shots completed is that they might not have quite worked out that aesthetic yet. So it's possible that other SFX shots in the movie will match that better. Or not!

The airbending's actually not invisible; it's kind of a blue mist, like in the show, but looks much funnier live action :D

[naturalblue208.livejournal.com]

haha! it still just looks off, though... i don't think we'd be missing much ;)

[libraflyter.livejournal.com]

And we can recreate a minor shot from the intro to the series, but we can't cast the main characters with anyone remotely connected to their real-life culture equivalents.

This is my mantra whenever the shinyness starts seducing me. Because seriously, argh.

Thank you for your commentary. It helps. :)

[shadydave.livejournal.com]

This is my mantra whenever the shinyness starts seducing me. Because seriously, argh.

OMG I KNOW. I'm like "Hey, it looks really cool, maybe M. Night should start rocking the SFF action movie thing!" and then I see the Sparkle Tribe and go "GODDAMMIT WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY." It's very upsetting.