avatar

Avatar: The Last Airbender was a pretty big deal for Nickelodeon. So, of course, they wanted more of the series from its creators, who had only planned as far as the story they told. Instead of writing new adventures for the existing characters, they've advanced the universe 70 years, and a new Avatar has stepped forward - a waterbender named Korra. The show will take place in the diverse Republic City as Korra perfects her bending techniques. It seems the plot will somehow involve anti-bending sentiment. The rest of the available information is after the jump, but be warned, it containers spoilers!

So I saw Avatar today, in IMAX 3D.

There's a lot of hype around the movie, as you know, and a lot of people, such as myself have been skeptical. I realize I number among the few who waited this long to see it, but I will post this for those of you who haven't yet. To start, I admit the hype and power marketing made me feel really pessimistic about the movie. The content presented by the trailers just doesn't seem like an interesting story, and there is very little rationale provided for it being a good movie other than its "ground-breaking" visuals.

The reality of the movie is that, while motion capture has come a long way to avoid making CG models look fake, it still hasn't reached a point where every single motion can be considered completely realistic. There are moments that seem to lack tactility, although few and far between. I wish my eyes weren't looking for them with this pessimistic approach, because I think otherwise I could probably call this movie the best of the decade, along with the other thousands of people heaping praise onto it. In fact, my mother loved the movie, and we generally have similar tastes. She reckons my more active involvement in fantasy settings dulled my imagination a bit when it came to interpreting the movie's setting. I found myself much more interested in the plot, with the sometimes-headachey-3D as a secondary feature.

But hey, I did like it. More after the jump.

Seriously, why haven't you done this yet? There's talk of some smurf movie lately that has taken Avatar: TLA's shortname and smeared it across the heavens, but in my book, there is only one Avatar. And he is the last of the airbenders. You see, 100 years ago, the Fire Nation waged war upon the lands, wiping out the Air Nation, and nearly completely subjugating the rest. Tribes of the Water Nation and strongholds of the Earth Nation remain as thorns in the Fire Lord's side. Then, the mystical Avatar, thought lost for 100 years, re-emerges months before a critical moment in the Fire Nation's plans. This Avatar, master of all the elements, is a LITTLE BOY, named Aang. He's gotta get ready to kick some ass. And guess what? He does.

This amazing little cartoon series is quite possibly the only recent American-made animation worth your time. Despite its often "kiddish" themes and jokes, much of those aspects work into its charm. There's a sense of humor there that is simply so blunt and corny that it works magically. The series does suffer from a low budget, which makes for some choppy frame rates through otherwise very cool animations, but as the series progresses, they fill in those little issues more often. By the series finale, the fluidity of the animation is like eye sex.

M. Night Shamwow is adapting this show into a movie trilogy, with one movie based on each season, wherein Aang masters each element. The cast has been announced, meeting some criticism for avoiding a cast with Asians in it. After all, Avatar has a particularly Asian theme, and it would only make sense for Asians to be in the movie... but it seems Shamalama went in a different direction. I know it sounds cruel, but I find myself rather indifferent on the subject, only wanting the series' furry magical flying bison, Appa, to be magnificent.

So are you sitting on your hands right now, wondering if there's something you should be doing? Maybe you have some itunes gift cards and you don't know what to get. Or, maybe, you're just feeling like you should be more awesome. Go watch this show in its entirety. You won't regret it.

This weekend saw the premiere of James Cameron's long-awaited film Avatar. The film opened up to a whopping $73 million domestically, and $159.2 million from overseas markets. James Cameron wrote the script to Avatar in 1994, and held off further production until 2005, when the technology to fully meet Cameron's standards was available.

The movie industry expected at least $85 million from Avatar, however $73 million is not an upset considering there are reports from many theatres in the northeast that had to close down because of the snow, which FOX pointed out affected the intake.

In second this weekend is Disney's The Princess and the Frog, with $12.2 million, dropping 49.5% of its audience. The snow storm up north could also have factored into this low number.

The Blind Side comes in at 3rd, with another $10 million, and bringing the total gross of the movie to $164.7 million. The Blind Side opened up last month, competing against the monster that is New Moon. Overall, despite the competition The Blind Side has gained a great amount of intake and continues to do well, while its competitor drops farther farther.