Airbending FAIL

So, went and saw The Last Airbender (part 1) last night. It had some pretty visuals, which is about all that can be said for it. Because, sadly, the movie sucks. It hews too blow-by-blow closely to the (awesome) Nickelodeon cartoon it's based on, which means it takes the ~440-minute season one and squishes it into a ~103-minute movie. In doing so, it loses all sense of character (Iroh and Sokka were the only ones who seemed remotely like actual people), character development, world background, and personal arcs. It's filled with unnecessary close-ups that are actually painful to watch, and as a sin of sins, it tells not shows the storyline. How many years of English classes did we all have where our teachers pounded it into our heads not to do that? Flat dialogue and info dumps abound, starting with Katara voice-overing the scrolling text at the beginning. Because audiences, you know, can't read or anything. Things happen solely because the plot demands it, not arising from any natural sequential action or character motivation. Appa looks like a refugee from Where The Wild Things Are, and Momo isn't even given a name. If season 2 gets made into a film, I shudder to think what Toph will end up like.

So, if you liked the cartoon? Go watch it again and don't even bother seeing this movie unless you're bored and it's hit a $3 theater near you.

Anime Expo 2010

Spent the morning Doing Stuff (petrol, bank, three jalepeno plants to my mother, Sushi to the vet for booster shots, Advantage'ing the cats, dishes, lunch).

Then I went to AX. Managed to find covered parking for only $5 about a mile away. Picked up badge and registration packet... which didn't include anything like a map or program because they'd apparently run out. But the signage on the way to the Dealer's Hall assured me that I could get it all if I wanted to buy the iPhone app for the con for only $1.99.

Um, so they want me to buy the program and map for the con? Nevermind the fact that I don't even HAVE an iPhone, you'd think those kind of things would be complementary.

Trawled the entire Dealer's Hall, buying a Totoro for Wonderful Husband (who was at home doing all the responsible stuff today, like laundry and cleaning areas of the house that desperately need it) and two art prints for myself from Artist's Alley. Met up and hung out with Annu from my writing class and her sister and friends. Found a large standee of the program down in the lobby and discovered that there was nothing on the programming I wanted to attend for the rest of the day. Came home.

Am coveting three very old and very expensive books from Dealer's Hall. Must look to see how much they would cost elsewhere and decide tonight....