The Last Airbender - Grading & Discussion

The way you latch onto a beard as supposed evidence that Katara and Sokka aren't meant to be Inuit, despite everything about their entire culture clearly being Inuit, is kind of silly.

This sort of casting is part and parcel of a particularly pernicious pattern (let's see how long I can keep this going) in Hollywood, one that has offended quite a few people, particularly Asian-Americans for whom this series was a very significant deal.

 

Well, the issue with the casting is that everyone in their village is clearly inuit, while just Sokka, Katara, and her grandmother are white. I understand that there are spoilery reasons for it being this way, but just watching the movie it looks dumb as hell if it's not explained. I don't mind the races being different, I thought it was really cool that the fire nation was made indian and the earth nation was made asian while the air nation was some kind of latino/black culture. But why make just the poor souther water nation inuit, while the main characters from that same village white? It would have made a million times more sense to have the southern water village also be filled with white people.

It seems to be a symptom of a larger problem with this movie, which is that no on knew what the fuck was going on. The horrible dialog and acting being the other two big hints. Where was the voice of reason on set to tell them that this was an extremely retarded idea.? If I saw this type of thing in a parody film I would have thought it was a pretty clever joke about how stupid the level of white washing in films can get. Here it's presented straight faced because the creators are just to stupid to figure out what's wrong with the picture.

Oh yeah... and the pronunciation. If you're going to fucking change the pronunciation of the names (and even some stuff that like Avatar which is just a word), at least be smart enough to not randomly change the pronunciation back. Also that final shot of that kid... what was he supposed to show as he did his inexplicable pose? What were we as the audience supposed to feel seeing this pose? Which wasn't even explained since they said he had to bow back to accept his role as the Avatar. All we get is some pathetic kid looking like he got diarrhea while doing jazz hands. That shot was the perfect bird shit cherry on this dog shit sundae of a film.

I can accept a movie as a stand alone apart from a series, I actually enjoyed Aliens 3 as a stand alone thriller. But even as a separate movie... TLA is horrible. I don't remember the last time I wanted to actually walk out of a theater. I don't remember the last time I watched a movie and laughed so much at a parts I wasn't supposed to, and cringed during the supposedly funny parts. The 2nd half of the movie wasn't as bad as the first half, but overall it was just a horrible horrible film. This film reminded me of Troll 2, except it doesn't have the excuse of being made by amateurs on a tiny budget without a pre-existing story. It's really an irredeemable piece of garbage.

I used to wish that they'd continue the Unbreakable series because I really enjoyed the first film and ranked it as one of the best super hero films ever. Now I hope a worm hole removes Shamylan from our timeline so we can live in a better world where TLA is actually a decent film.

But I suppose we're just not getting his style right?

 

I'll check back for sure and lucky for me regardless of how its done 21 days later I'm right you are wrong.
Simply cause you don't know how to define a box office bomb.

 

Sounds like you're just generally upset with the overly cynical nature of online reviews. I don't think you meant it directly personal but rather generally speaking.

I can empathize and not offended in any way.

 

It allowed women & the disabled join the NYC Firefighters.
A job they were both discriminated and denied entery into even if they did pass the written & physical exams. After 9/11 and the loss of so many Firefighters, they could no longer afford to limit themselves to make up those numbers lost.

 

That is it in a nut shell. I didn't mention any poster here by name just noted the negatives being tossed at the movie don't relate to the movie itself by and large. A few instantly took offense and I let it go. Thanks!

 

These racial terms shouldn't be a big deal. Demo or Consertative...we've been through the racial issues. It's the on line community that is bring it back and up over and over again.

I remember the criticism of the blind side on the internet is that it was racially deep. I rather think that the Blindside represents our leaving behind those racial issues as things we need to talk about.

 

No, not at all. Race is still a pervasive factor in society; not talking about it just benefits the status quo.

 

So now you are backing away from your trolling.

I could have started a review of a movie on a complete tangent on how Republicans are drooling morons who hide beneath their mattresses with their guns held firmly against their neither regions, but that would be a gross mis-characterization that would only serve to troll Republicans on this board and one that I think actually is only a pertinent description in one case in this thread.

 

Frankly, I think you been posting here long enough for enough folks here to know you meant nothing personal by it..................or at least, I know you well enough to know that.

 

Theres nothing wrong with level headed talk. But movies don't talk they provoke.

 

No I'm latching onto a a beard to show that the characters were not depicted as the races you seem to be obsessed with. The cartoon characters didn't look like Innuit, why are you so concerned that the live action ones do?

You're reading something into the tv show that isn't there, and you're reading a level of racism into the casting that isn't there.

That you are more concerned with a "pernicious pattern" as your evidence as opposed to anything shown onscreen shows your own bias.

The fact that the characters looked nothing like Innuit but you are pigeonholing them racially because they lived in igloos (had nothing to do with living at the pole of course) is your own racial profiling.

You see the show and need to slot races into cultural profiles and of course you can't look in the mirror and see the conceit in that.

 

Except they do look like Inuit. And Hakoda has a beard, which may or may not be in keeping with that; that one single potential divergence does not outweigh everything else. They're fantasy-Inuit. The creators have said as much, just as all the other Nations (and subgroups within them) have clear cultural counterparts.

 

Okay. I've now seen it. My opinion?

I love the show. Adore it. Consider it to be the best animated series ever, and one of the greatest shows ever. It has action. It has comedy. It has spirituality. I even took the movie's release as an excuse to rewatch all of Book One before seeing the film.

Well, that was a mistake.

The movie needed at least another hour just for the sake of making the plot coherent. Frankly, I was surprised Shymalan didn't just make Katara and Sokka Northern Water tribe just so he could get there even faster and make a 45 minute movie. The man should not be allowed to write a film. I'll admit that his art direction is gorgeous and atmospheric. He just can't write.

What was up with the pronunciation of "Aang", "Sokka" and "Iroh"? Or "Agni-Ki"? Why change it? There was no point to that. it was change for the sake of change. It's like going to a Star Trek movie and having them say "Mr. Spoke". And where was Avatar Roku? Aang needs that "Obi-Wan"-like guidance. And not from a big, smoky, poorly-animated dragon.

The acting was a bit on the stiff side, I'll admit. But that was the least of the movie's flaws. It lost the humour, the spirit of the show.

In the end, sad though it makes me to say, part of me is glad this is probably going to be the last movie...

I don't want to see the travesty Shymalan would make of Toph.

 

Here's an explanation from racial issues website Racebending about why they objected to the movie:

An Open Letter to Racebending.com Detractors

 

As I've said many times, I agree with the principle of the protestors such as Racebending.com, and I initially shared their concerns about this movie, but I think the facts that have since come out demonstrate that the concerns in this particular case were exaggerated. The film's cast is actually reasonably diverse, and the actors getting the most praise are South Asian while two of the three main white actors are barely a significant presence in the film. So I don't think this film will make nonwhite viewers feel marginalized. Not to mention that this film is likely to disappear quickly from the cultural landscape and not have that great an influence anyway.

Vigilance is good, but continuing to criticize in a case where the criticism turns out to be undeserved is a misuse of energy. Indeed, I'd say making too much of a fuss over this movie one way or the other is a misuse of energy. Let's just let it fade away and refocus our attention on the brilliance that was the animated series.

 

TLAB was actually anything but racially monotone. Just because there wasn't a rhyme or reason to who was what in the movie is the fault of our own expectation. I expected this to be a Live action representation of the Series in realistic proportion.

Instead this is an almost child like view of people in this universe where it simply doesn't matter what race are. It's as though a drama teacher casted not based on look but ability.

 

Wiser words have never been spoken; wish that the hyperactive, hypercritical, and hyper fanatical bunch at Racebending and at Racialcious would wise the frack up, calm down, and listen. But of course, they won't.

 

^Just to be clear, I'm not saying that the concerns they raised weren't legitimate. It's an important issue that needs to be addressed, and the early, incomplete information we got about the film did raise questions that it was right to ask. I'm just saying that the answers we eventually got to those questions were reassuring. The goal should be to get to the truth, not to cling inflexibly to one's initial position and close one's mind to new information. After all, that's how we overcome racial prejudice and mistrust: by opening our minds and listening.

 

It made enough money openning weekend that they probably will push forward w/ book 2.