quote:“What’s great about doing something like that is that let’s say your instinct is to distill me down into three characteristics: thrillers, scary, twist. Let’s just say, ‘Oh, that’s what he does,’” Shyamalan explained. “Then when they come see ‘Last Airbender’ – which has none of those three things in there - and yet, you’ll be able to tell in 30 seconds that I directed it.
posted
Aw man... I was hoping Samp could have his hat eating fun kinda like Werner Herzog had his shoe eating fun.
Posts: 1295 | Registered: Jan 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Herblay: Can anyone tell me why there are so many charges of racism? This is an American cartoon, Aang looked white, and both Katara and Sokka had blue eyes (if they were moderately tan).
It isn't like it was a real anime, though I'm inclined to believe that many people mistakenly think that it is. Why do they have to be Asian? I always figured that Katara and Sokka were Eskimo. . . .
The series was based in an obviously Asian-inspired world, using elements of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Inuit, and Southeast Asian cultures to weave the background of the story. The creators took great care in making this representation as authentic as possible: they used authentic Chinese handwriting whenever writing is seen on the show, they used Eastern martial art styles for the different kinds of bending, and had several cultural consultants guiding their production decisions. Additionally, most of the animation team was from Korea, so the actual work of the show was produced by Asian artists.
In spite of this, Paramount made conscious decisions throughout the production process that excluded actors of Asian decent in the leading roles. When they held casting calls for the four leads, they called for "Caucasian or any other ethnicity". It wasn't about getting the best actors for the role, or trying to represent the original idea of the story, but about defining an arbitrary standard for Hollywood success. The four leads, who were supposed to represent three distinct cultures, were all initially cast by white actors. Dev Patel was cast when the original actor backed out, but since his role for the majority of the series is the main antagonist, it didn't do much to assuage concerns in the Asian American community.
The Last Airbender isn't really unique among American films. This was business as usual for Paramount, and reflect a long-standing habit of institutionalized racism that still exists today. Asian-American actors are, for whatever reason, not considered as bankable as white actors, and so never have the opportunity to take on leading roles in major films.
The difference was, though, that TLA fans already cared deeply about the show, and were able to use the internet to promote recognition of the unfair casting practices and activism efforts. The lj group "Aang Ain't White" led to the formation of Racebending.com, which provides a lot more information than the little bit I'm giving here on the issue, especially as it pertains to TLA.
In spite of this, it appears that racially insensitive casting might be the least of TLA's problems, but there you go.
Posts: 4089 | Registered: Apr 2003
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quote:Originally posted by El JT de Spang: I'm not aware of any other ways to see movies in theatres, so no, I don't think I'm crazy.
1. You sneak in. 2. You pick up a stub from someone on the way out, then wave it on the way in. 3. You buy a ticket to another movie, then walk over to it.
or my chosen method
4. be buddy-buddy with management at a cineplex.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:I felt bad for him after Lady in the Water. I thought that movie was the one where his ego got bruised and so he took a step back and figured out what had happened.
Now this movie has happened and he has to take more beatings. I hope he won't give up, but now I don't know who is going to trust him with a movie now.
What if the opposite is actually happening? Everyone, myself included, tends to think he is a brilliant director because of Sixth Sense but is having a string of bad luck coupled with an over inflated ego.
What if he truly is a mediocre/bad director at heart? What if he is no better then any other average person off the street, but sometimes in a fluke even the Average Joe can make something brilliant?
I am beginning to think it is unfair to expect greatness from him because he doesn't have it in him. To be fair I haven't seen this movie yet. If it is as bad as I am led on to believe then I think my opinion of him will be cemented in him being a truly horrible director who had found the right synergy to make one great movie and a few mediocre movies.
quote: “What’s great about doing something like that is that let’s say your instinct is to distill me down into three characteristics: thrillers, scary, twist. Let’s just say, ‘Oh, that’s what he does,’” Shyamalan explained. “Then when they come see ‘Last Airbender’ – which has none of those three things in there - and yet, you’ll be able to tell in 30 seconds that I directed it. Now you’ll have to go, ‘Wait, I realize there are other things that define him. [Things] I knew, but was never really acknowledging them on the same level as these other characteristics.’”
At least I agree with him; he is being redefined. It is sad to see him compare his potential Airbender Trilogy to Shakespeare and The Lord of the Rings. I watched it on Rotten Tomatoes go from 0% to 10% to 08% and now at 07%.
Posts: 2445 | Registered: Oct 2004
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Wow... I am so annoyed that he ruined a perfectly good series. Dude should have gone all miyazaki and made it animated! Or at least he should have picked some Asian Main Actors with contacts because they have eyes based on elements. but noooooo. He did not do those things. I think I will stop watching any movie based on something I like to avoid frustration.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
M. Night is difficult to discern, but personal accounts of working with him are helpful (hint: he's got an ego and obsessivity issue)
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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So I'm sitting in the theater waiting for the movie to start. Already had two margaritas and I've got a large daiquiri sitting next to me.
There's a girl in front of me with a blue arrow painted on her forehead. A group of 40- and 50-something women are sitting behind. Should be an interesting audience.
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Shanna: So I'm sitting in the theater waiting for the movie to start. Already had two margaritas and I've got a large daiquiri sitting next to me.
There's a girl in front of me with a blue arrow painted on her forehead. A group of 40- and 50-something women are sitting behind. Should be an interesting audience.
Oh is it 3d? 3d is said to be a total scam
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:Originally posted by El JT de Spang: I'm not aware of any other ways to see movies in theatres, so no, I don't think I'm crazy.
1. You sneak in. 2. You pick up a stub from someone on the way out, then wave it on the way in. 3. You buy a ticket to another movie, then walk over to it.
or my chosen method
4. be buddy-buddy with management at a cineplex.
1. I'm not in high school 2. I'm not in high school 3. I actually have done that in the past, but only to get matinee pricing for a showing that started 20 minutes after matinee time was over. 4. That does sound like the best option, though not the simplest.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
Okay. That movie was NOT BAD. I mean, I appreciate all the lowering of expectations. But at the end of teh day? It was enjoyable.
It's not the cartoon series that we all love, but it was fun, and even moving, at times.
The most infuriating thing of everything is that they had the AUDACITY and ARROGANCE, to change the freaking PRONUNCIATION of the names of our favorite characters!!!!
Did they forget that it wasn't a book? It was a TV SHOW!!! We pronounce Ang, Sokka, Iroh, not Ahng, Soka, and eeroh. Jeez.
Posts: 1604 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
quote:Originally posted by Herblay: Can anyone tell me why there are so many charges of racism? This is an American cartoon, Aang looked white, and both Katara and Sokka had blue eyes (if they were moderately tan).
It isn't like it was a real anime, though I'm inclined to believe that many people mistakenly think that it is. Why do they have to be Asian? I always figured that Katara and Sokka were Eskimo. . . .
What sarcasticmuppet says.
However I am still optimistic. I prefer a bad-but-not-macabre adaption to no adaption.
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Ya. That irked me too. How the fire nation is Indian. Totally not in line with the movies. At all. And kinda racist.
Posts: 1604 | Registered: Mar 2003
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So I just got back from the movie and figured I'd post my thoughts before I head off to bed.
In short...it was bad. Really bad.
To put it in perspective, it made the first Harry Potter movie look like Oscar material. I can also honestly say I had more fun watching "Grown-Ups" this week. The whole movie plays like an hour and a half version of the dance scene in Spiderman 3.
Get the picture?
I was so ready to like the movie. I've had my doubts. I knew from the get-go that it would not be the next Lord of the Rings. And I was okay with that. I hoped for a post-Columbus Harry Potter level of awesomeness. I would have even settled for a Narnia level of decency. Alas...
I commend the actors for doing the best they could with such a horrible script. Most of the lines were soundbites. Characters often spoke only to reiterate what was already happening on screen. They spoke to the audience rather than to each other.
I feel bad for anyone who hasn't seen the show before. M Night didn't give anyone a reason to love Aang, sympathize with Sokka, admire Katara, or pity Zuko. The show gave him all the pieces he needed but he did nothing with him. There was no emotional attachment to anyone. I never got sucked into the drama. Never cheered with the bad guys got their butts handed to them.
The whole time I watching it, I'm thinking, "if only he'd given this scene five more minutes." An hour and half is not nearly enough time to get to all the important stuff, especially when he uses what precious time he has to repeat the same information over and over again. I get it, Zhao stole a bunch of scrolls from a secret library. I don't need to hear about it five times!
Going into this, I figured the bending and the action scenes would be the film's saving grace. Action films, no matter how terrible the plot and the dialogue, make alot of money and get lots of sequels. However, the bending is sad and the special effects look a decade old. We see atleast two scenes of Katara and Aang practicing water-bending forms without any actual water-bending going on. In the fight scenes, a long martial arts form is required to move the smallest rock or just a handful of water. Non-benders like Sokka would seem to have the advantage in any fight. He could easily smack anyone with his club before they get halfway through with their choreography.
And that's the vibe of the whole movie. Nothing makes sense. In the series, earthbenders are captured and kept on a giant all-metal barge where they can be easily controlled. In M Night's version of the universe, a whole army of earthbenders sit sadly in a quarry surrounded by dirt, rocks, and eight fire nation soldiers. When the fire nation invades the North Water Tribe, they have to bring a source of fire with them in order to bend so they use these giant metal balls that are catapulted over the walls. But in a city made almost entirely of ice, not a single waterbender thinks, "hey, maybe we should just douse their fire so they can't attack us."
Grr.
Oh, and there is an M Night twist. The twist is that he changes the ending to give us a sappy Hollywood climax.
As the credit rolled, a few people in the back applauded but the majority seemed stunned and rushed towards the parking lot. On the way out I heard:
"I can't believe I waited a year for this movie!" "With such great characters, how'd he'd end up with this?!" And the eloquent but painfully true: "Well, that sucked!"
If anyone has any specific questions about how scenes or events were handled, let me know. I'd love to save you the money it'd cost to see it yourself. All week I've been telling fans to go out and support the movie in hopes that a sequel would be better. Right now, I'm hoping a sequel will never be made. I really don't think I could handle watching M Night destroy Toph and Azula on film. It would break my heart. It was bad enough watching my beloved Sokka have his name mispronounced, given the smallest handful of lines, and be shoved to the side until it was time to make out with Princess Yue.
I plan the spend my day off tomorrow marathoning the first season and pretending the movie never happened.
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
I don't plan to see it first-run. If curiosity really gets the best of me, I'll see it at the dollar theater. On fifty cent night.
I'm getting paid this week, and I'm tempted to order the complete series off of Amazon, just to show my support for what the story should have been.
Posts: 4089 | Registered: Apr 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Shanna: To put it in perspective, it made the first Harry Potter movie look like Oscar material.
Actually, the first Harry Potter film got 3 Oscar nominations: Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, and Best Original Score. Didn't win any, but someone thought it was Oscar material.
quote:Originally posted by Armoth: Ya. That irked me too. How the fire nation is Indian. Totally not in line with the movies. At all. And kinda racist.
From what I'm seeing, it's racist if the characters are white, and racist if they're not?
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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m_p_h: it is racist if you make the good guys white (when they weren't in the original material), and the bad guys not white (when they were the closest to white in the original material).
You should at least check out the ad for the main character. It read "Caucasian or any other ethnicity". That speaks volumes.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
It's down to 6% on Rotten Tomatoes. That's not something I recall seeing very often, that a bad movie gets a bad initial response, peaks, and then steadily declines. But I may be misremembering. Anyway, wow, it's looking just plain awful. I'm beginning to debate whether to use this free ticket I got for being a member on the movie.
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
I can only assume that sort of thing must be pretty common in Hollywood movies? Because if it weren't, I just have a hard time imagining any experienced professional dealing with media putting that sort of thing out there without thinking, "Hey, this looks kinda...what's the word...racist!"
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
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quote:Originally posted by Armoth: Ya. That irked me too. How the fire nation is Indian. Totally not in line with the movies. At all. And kinda racist.
From what I'm seeing, it's racist if the characters are white, and racist if they're not?
posted
I've looked around, and so far the examples people have posted either completely specify the ethnicity, or specify all ethnicities (with no specific one called out).
There's nothing inherently wrong with wanting a particular ethnicity in a movie part; though I hope the practice declines, sometimes you need a particular appearance to fit a character. But what's been done with ethnicity in this movie looks pretty deplorable.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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Every roll for a good guy main character asked for "Caucasian or any other ethnicity" (including Zuko, who's a good guy by the end).
This, in spite of the fact that the casting calls for Fire Nation members specified "NEAR EASTERN, MIDDLE EASTERN, FAR EASTERN, ASIAN, MEDITERRANEAN & LATINO ETHNIC GROUPS" and asked people show up wearing "ethnic attire"!
They were planning on casting everyone in the fire nation as non-white . . . and Zuko as white! There wasn't even an attempt to be consistent.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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Every roll for a good guy main character asked for "Caucasian or any other ethnicity" (including Zuko, who's a good guy by the end).
This, in spite of the fact that the casting calls for Fire Nation members specified "NEAR EASTERN, MIDDLE EASTERN, FAR EASTERN, ASIAN, MEDITERRANEAN & LATINO ETHNIC GROUPS" and asked people show up wearing "ethnic attire"!
They were planning on casting everyone in the fire nation as non-white . . . and Zuko as white! There wasn't even an attempt to be consistent.
Also, for the secondary role casting calls, they said that if you're Korean, you should come in a kimono. So, not even an attempt at cultural sensitivity, it seems.
quote: “What’s great about doing something like that is that let’s say your instinct is to distill me down into three characteristics: thrillers, scary, twist. Let’s just say, ‘Oh, that’s what he does,’” Shyamalan explained. “Then when they come see ‘Last Airbender’ – which has none of those three things in there - and yet, you’ll be able to tell in 30 seconds that I directed it. Now you’ll have to go, ‘Wait, I realize there are other things that define him. [Things] I knew, but was never really acknowledging them on the same level as these other characteristics.’”
The actual end result of the movie should have deflated his head a little bit.
Posts: 2302 | Registered: Aug 2008
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quote:“We want you to dress in traditional cultural ethnic attire,” [Deedee Ricketts, the casting director for the film] said. “If you’re Korean, wear a kimono. If you’re from Belgium, wear lederhosen.”
"If you're Korean, come wearing a traditional Japanese garment. If you're Belgian, come wearing some weird German thing."
edit: oh god
quote:One middle-aged black woman, clad in a denim jacket and black slacks, raised her hand. “Are you at a disadvantage if you didn’t wear a costume?” she asked, evidently concerned about her “non-ethnic” outfit.
“Absolutely not!” Ricketts reassured her. “It doesn’t mean you’re at a disadvantage if you didn’t come in a big African thing. But guys, even if you came with a scarf today, put it over your head so you’ll look like a Ukrainian villager or whatever.”
quote:Originally posted by Parkour: I walked out and got my money back.
The movie was beyond words bad.
When did you walk out? I was sufficiently entertained throughout.
I am impressed that something as totally bad as this can entertain you. I left during the numbingly dull battle between water girl and fire guy, after a long line of other dull painfully badly acted things. The three d was such a scam I just took the glasses off and texted while waiting for this travesty to end. Eventually I could not be bothered to do even that.
Posts: 805 | Registered: Jun 2009
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posted
That's pretty far into the movie. I'm assuming you haven't seen the TV series. If that's the case, then I can understand why you walked out.
For me, it was interesting to see a bit more reality to a world I had only seen in cartoon.
/TV Spoilers
It's like in the 3rd book where the fire nation was putting on goofy plays about the Avatar, and the gang snuck in to watch themselves? It wasn't the original, but it was pretty entertaining.
That's how I felt.
/End TV Spoilers
Also, I thought the 3D was pretty cool. Except when the camera panned. Then, it made me kind of dizzy.
Posts: 1604 | Registered: Mar 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Armoth: That's pretty far into the movie. I'm assuming you haven't seen the TV series. If that's the case, then I can understand why you walked out.
People who are fans of the series are gonna be more annoyed at this movie and more likely to demand their money back, I'm guessing.
If you're not a fan of the series, you don't care. It's just some dumb movie with a bunch of (apparently) bland, two-dimensional characters.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
I'm trying to read this thread without reading too much.
I'm seeing this movie on Saturday and depressed at the fact that I will probably be disappointed.
But some of the criticism is just...ugh.
The charges of racism are absurd. Seriously, I've had it with people using the "r" word so lightly.
I have a tendency to disagree with most people at Hatrack, and I'll continue that trend here. I love M. Night Shyamalan's movies. I don't feel he's mainstream enough to make movies that everyone is going to like, however. With the exception of Sixth Sense (one of my least favorite films of his, because it had too much mass appeal), I don't think he can tell stories that interest the mainstream.
Leave that job to Stephanie Meyers. (<--Okay, below-the-belt, I admit.)
Initially, my only reason for seeing The Last Airbender was because of M. Night. However, in anticipation of the film, I started watching the animated series. *Le Sigh* So now I'm emotionally involved, with high expectations, which is always a bad place to be when it comes to adaptations.
I'm prepared to be disappointed. I'm also prepared to take into account that, even if the movie is okay, it's going to get bad reviews from the critics. They hate M. Night Shyamalan and will always hate his movies.
But, yeah, my expectations are really high. It's going to be a disappointment.
At least there's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows to look forward to....
Posts: 407 | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
1. The charges of racism are not absurd. The casting demonstrated a more egregious example than most of the current industry standard for what is a known quantity.
2. The critics don't hate this movie because it was made by M. Night Shyamalan. They hate it because it is bad and a waste of time and money and horrid to have to sit through. Apparently. I saw over 20 reviews on RT and Metacritic where the author of the review said "I keep wanting to give M Night the benefit of the doubt, but" or "I am stubborn in my continued support of M Night but" and they all invariably conclude that the movie is terrible.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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This video is hilarious but also alittle sad. Some of the fans are over the top but there's also quite a few faces of disbelief and disappointment.
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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