Showing posts with label The Last Airbender. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Last Airbender. Show all posts

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Positively Schlocking: Worst Films of 2010

It was a pretty depraved year at the movies in 2010, and so it was relatively easier to fill out this list than the list of the best films of the year. We had so many colossal disappointments this year, I didn't even get the chance to see them all. Sure, I did have the anything-but-unique opportunity to see Alice in Wonderland and Nightmare on Elm Street, but I missed out on Jonah Hex, Marmaduke, and most recently, Yogi Bear. I'm not about to say that I've suffered most, but I have suffered. So, to get it all out of the way, here is my list of the worst films of 2010!

5.
The Other Guys

For most of the films on this list, there was never any reason to believe that they would be the slightest bit good, mostly due to their reputation or director. The Other Guys didn't really have any of that bad blood going against it. I've liked everything Adam McKay has put out so far, so I'm dismayed that this film ended up being so bad. On the way back home from seeing this one, the dread filled in of how disappointing this project was. One of the most important things to holding a film together is a coherent narrative, and I wasn't able to understand any of what happened in this film. If you asked me to give you a quick recap of the plot, I honestly would fail miserably. Mark Wahlberg gives one of the most irritatingly self-explanatory performances of his career, the screenplay is so poorly made with the run-on gags that take up most of the time and just aren't funny. I wish Will Ferrell's performance could redeem it, but this was quite simply a train wreck.

4. The Wolfman

You can be forgiven for not remembering this film, as it feels like so long ago since it was released. Or maybe you forgot because it's just so forgettable. This horror remake had mixed responses when it came out, with some despising it with a passion for the same reasons I did, and some liking, or even more amazingly loving it for the simple reason that it's a gothic horror film. I for one hated it, because it was so damn corny and trashy. With a score by Danny Elfman and a powerful cast behind it, I still don't quite know how it failed so badly. They had Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, and Hugo Weaving, but none of them managed to impress. The makeup job they did on the Wolfman made him look like Chewbacca. It's hard to believe in a tragedy when the lead character is so dull and wooden. This is the main reason why I'm so worried about the Captain America film, because Joe Johnston is directing it just like he directed this. I actually believe Thor is going to end up being the solid view of the two.

3. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Unless Bill Condon turns out to be some sort of God who is able to turn something rapidly unappealing into something enjoyable, there will always be a Twilight film on this list until the series ends. I do try my best to avoid films that have a likelihood of sucking, but I manage to make an exception for this series. So what's to hate about this chapter of the series? The characters, to start with, are two-dimensional figures who could only find a happy home as cardboard cutouts. If I found one for an affordable price, I would snatch up a Taylor Lautner cutout in a heartbeat. The story is a simple rehash of New Moon, which is a simple rehash of Twilight, so if you've seen either of those films, you've seen this film already, only better. The thing that frustrates me the most about this film is that it doesn't care about what we care about. Towards the end of the film, there is a 10 year old girl who was just turned into a vampire. And "our heroes" stand aside as her short life is brutally ended for no reason. Nobody cares about the leads if they're so quick to sacrifice the lives of the weaker. This is a series about sad things happening to pretty people, and I just couldn't care less about it. And how does the film end? Well I honestly can't tell you, because I left the theater enraged before the final scene.

2. Saw 3D

The Saw films have had a standard going on for a while, and it's a standard that I've been more than alright with. Don't expect any narrative quality. Don't expect any quality acting. Don't expect any supreme technical advantages. All you're ever going to get is blood and gore delivered in style (kind of). The latest, and apparently last, Saw film didn't deliver any of that, and so it made all the faults of the film shine through so much more. The cinematography is quite literally the worst cinematography of any film made this year. I can't really comment on the music, because it was utterly forgettable. The acting was stale as a cracker, the direction was a non-factor, and the screenplay was dumb as all hell. Even the traps managed to disappoint. One of the traps was just a bunch of foot tall spikes with a good two feet in between each other, and a man tangling just a few feet above them. Instead of just landing, he flails around like an idiot, which is pretty much what this film does.

1. The Last Airbender

You can sit through endless pointless schlock and never reach the level of disappointment or dread that this film instilled in me. Never before has a film with so much potential failed in such a disastrous fashion. M. Night Shyamalan already had one foot in the grave before he made this film, but if studios allow this man to continue making films, they're only hurting themselves. Personally, I was so excited to see a feature film made out of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the anime television show that I devoted a good amount of my childhood to. I was never able to quite understand why people were so aggressive against the new Star Wars trilogy and the fourth Indiana Jones, though I can't deny that The Phantom Menace was painful to sit through. However, now I truly know what those men in their forties meant when they said that George Lucas raped their childhoods, because Shyamalan just raped mine.

This film failed in almost every aspect possible. The cinematography, which was simple and uninviting to begin with, had been glossed over with poor color conversion, to the point where it looked like they just put blue cellophane on the camera. The visual effects felt unrealistic and like a ripoff of D-War, which is just a new low. The action actually managed to make my adrenaline plummet, because it was just plain boring and stupid. The acting is perhaps the worst in any film I've ever seen, even from the Slumdog Millionaire kid. The direction was aimless and almost bent on making this the most difficult film to ever sit through. The script took any important and emotional moments of the first season of the show, and either threw them out or gave them two minutes of screen time with the most cliche dialogue you'll ever hear. They somehow even managed to mispronounce every single name in the series, especially the name of the main character. I must beg you never to subject yourself to this, because it will literally make your brain cells die within seconds. This is the worst of the worst, and gives the audience nothing in return for their time and money.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Box Office Report: Inception Holds Up Phenomenally!

Excuse my enthusiasm, but I'm just so happy that Comic Con is (almost) over. I can finally get back to my two to three post a day quota, instead of the frenzied flood of news that's come in the past few days. Now I can calmly break down the movie events that happened outside of San Diego with this week's Box Office Report. Inception took first for the second week in a row with 43.5 million, dipping just 30%. The film currently has over $140 million after just ten days, so any speculation that Chris Nolan's mindbender wouldn't register with audiences was completely unfounded.

As for the competition, Salt came in second with $37 million, a decent opening, but nothing spectacular. Expect the thriller to end up with $100 million at the end of its run. Ramona and Beezus opened in sixth with $8 million. That's really all that can be said about that. Were we really expecting something different? Despicable Me had another small dip of 26%, leading to $24 million this weekend, adding to its total of $161 million. The animated film will likely hold up for the rest of its time in theatres, leading to a hault at about $220 million.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice didn't fall quite as much as I predicted, and took in $9.6 million over the weekend. The fantasy film currently has $42 million in the bank. Meanwhile, Toy Story 3 continued its phenomenal summer with $9 million coming out of this weekend. The animated epic now has $379 million, and will definitely be passing $400 million before the summer is over. I'd also like to inform people how successful the worst films of the summer have been. Grown Ups currently has $142 million, Twilight: Eclipse is sitting pretty at $279 million (I hate it when small budget films make a ton of money), and The Last Airbender has reached $123 million.

In limited release, The Kids Are All Right took in $2.6 million from 200 locations. The film has almost $5 million so far, and is almost guaranteed an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. Winter's Bone took in $0.3 million, adding to a total of $3.5 million. Overall this weekend was a 10% lift from the same weekend last year when G-Force opened, but a 10% drop from the same weekend two years ago.