The Last Airbender - Grading & Discussion

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Agent Richard07, Jul 1, 2010.

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Grade the movie...

  1. Excellent

    2.7%
  2. Above Average

    18.9%
  3. Average

    18.9%
  4. Below Average

    18.9%
  5. Poor

    40.5%
  1. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Well, sure. Casting, say, John Wayne as Genghis Khan would obviously be wrong. To offer a more hypothetical scenario, casting Laurence Fishburne as the founder of the Ku Klux Klan would be a non-starter.

    But when we're talking about, say, the Kingpin or Nick Fury or Felix Leiter, the character isn't defined by a specific ethnicity.


    What I find interesting is that the new ST cast is a lot more international than the original. In TOS, the main seven cast members included two Canadians and five Americans, of whom three were the children or grandchildren of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, one was the child of Irish immigrants, one was Asian-American, and one was African-American. In the new cast, you have an Anglo-American, an Irish-Italian American, an Afro-Latin American of Caribbean parentage, a New Zealander of German parentage, an Englishman, a Korean immigrant to America, and a Russian Jewish immigrant to America.


    Well, first off, the animated series was created by two white guys from the United States, one with an Italian name, one with a Polish name. Second, as I've pointed out many times now, the movie's cast is just as diverse as that of the animated series, if not more so; all the animated characters are various Asian or Native American types, but the movie has Indian, Iranian, Maori, Latina, Asian-American, African-American, and Caucasian actors. Nothing has been "scrubbed," just rearranged.

    Also, if we're talking about actual actors as opposed to characters, the majority of the main "Asian" characters in the animated series were voiced by white actors. Of the core cast, only Dante Basco (Zuko), Mako (Iroh in season 1-2), and Jennie Kwan (Suki) were Asian, though there were various supporting roles played by other Asian actors such as Sab Shimono, Brian George, Takayo Fischer, etc., and the Earth King was played by Phil LaMarr, who's African-American.
     
  2. stj

    stj Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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  3. darthraidr

    darthraidr Commodore Commodore

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    you'd think the "racebending" complaints would stop now that the movie is out. no actor of any race could salvage the poor pacing, writing, directing and editing of that film.

    i saw it yesterday, and though not the trainwreck i was expecting, it was bad. it felt like a fan edit of a live action version of the first season. the major events of season 1 are touched upon, and if you have seen the show you can place them in context. if you havent seen the show, i imagine you'd just be confused by what is going on.

    some of the changes introduced, felt good. fire bending requires fire, fine, makes total sense and sets up iroh (and all really powerful firebenders) and the comet pretty well. the fact that the comet will show up in 3 years is a much better change. Yue entering the pool to die is better. and honestly it was nice to see some black people in the world.

    its neat that mns decided to take lines and scenes directly from the series. but it's awful that he forgot you still need a central and cohesive narrative.
     
  4. LaxScrutiny

    LaxScrutiny Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    This at least makes a kernal of sense. Sokka and Katara's mother was NWT and fled south. So Katara and Sokka would be naturally paler than their neighbours.

    Having Inuit in the south and Russians in the north isn't inherantly illogical, what race would you put in the South Pole, since no one lives there in the real world?

    Having two races makes the bending spectrum culturally based instead of genetic, which was arguably implied in the tv show (and I believe I remember commentaries on the dvd's explaining this.)
     
  5. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Admiral

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    Me.

    Took my wife who is a huge fan of the series. She seemed to enjoy the film and I loathed it. There seemed to be a good idea in there somewhere but it didn't show itself on screen. The acting was wooden and the editing of the film was terrible.

    Might take a look at the TV series to see how the story was suppose to be.
     
  6. M'rk son of Mogh

    M'rk son of Mogh Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Thank you, sir. Yours is the first non-fan response I have come across that isn't "it sucked because it wasn't a literal translation frame for frame of what I love about the cartoon".

    Nice to see there are non-biased ways to think it's a stinker. :)
     
  7. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Then you haven't been reading the pro reviews. It seems pretty clear from them that lack of fidelity to the show is the least of this movie's problems.
     
  8. Kegg

    Kegg Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Seems atypical for her being (allegedly) an Amazonian and such, but I could see it working. Perhaps a trifle obvious given her genre cred, but eh, obvious is good.

    After watching him play Stringer Bell on The Wire, my main issue with Idris Elba as Heimdall now is he's possiby too good for this stuff. But hey, I won't begrudge an obviously talented man his money.

    As observed, white guys still get the lead positions most times. Idris Elba might play a sidekick type role, but George Kirk himself in all his soap opera glory is going to be Thor.

    Awesome wrong. The Conqueror is one of my favourite bad movies of all time.
     
    Last edited: Jul 4, 2010
  9. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    First off, the Amazons of the DC Universe were assembled from women of all races, and there is at least one prominent ethnically African Amazon in the comics, Phillippus by name. Second, Diana was molded from clay and magically endowed with life by the gods, so conventional ideas of heredity are pretty much moot.

    Gina Torres did do the voice of Wonder Woman's evil counterpart Superwoman in the recent Crisis on Two Earths movie. It was a reallllly sexy performance.


    With exceptions such as Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Keanu Reeves, Vin Diesel, etc. And I'm debating whether to add Jackie Chan, since he tends to do only martial-arts roles.
     
  10. Kegg

    Kegg Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    This is where the 'allegedly' comes in. I figured there'd be some tomfoolery that screwed over the concept, but damned if I'd know what.

    He passes though, no?

    At any rate, I had no idea about him being biracial until I read about it on the internet, but I am a trifle thick about these things.
     
  11. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Even so, it's progress. The more the lines between ethnicities are blurred, the more people will realize it's just not a big deal. And the percentage of Americans who are multiethnic is on the rise, so they should count just as much as everyone else.
     
  12. M'rk son of Mogh

    M'rk son of Mogh Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Correct, I have not been reading the pro reviews.

    I want to know what a more average movie goer would think, one of "me", since I'm the farthest thing from a movie pro! (Masters of the Universe is one of my favourite movies. 'Nuff said? :lol:)
     
  13. Captain Craig

    Captain Craig Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Above Average

    I stopped reading through the thread cause it was a 'Debbie Downer' from nearly 90% posting here. For a board dominated by Democrat Libs who like to claim tolerance, acceptance and other hand holding "lets all get along" and "Peace, Peace, Peace" movies like this show the true colors.

    No one was supposed to be mad Michael Clarke Duncan was Kingpin. Jessice Alba as Invisible Woman was touted as a barrier breaker and who knows what other examples lurk those just pop to mind.

    If your not bitching about PC bullshit then your mad its not a straight up honest to god frame by frame adaptation. God, you people should just stay the fuck home, play Call of Duty 4 and watch the Daily Show on a damn loop. Let the rest of us enjoy life.

    As for the movie itself I found it enjoyable. Not a home run, Above Average or B/B- grade. Starts slow but in hindsight its due to Ang not being fully versed as the Avatar and all the 'bending' he can do. Good set up for a saga. As each book comes out, which I hope it does, the action and drama should kick up as Ang grows more powerful(I assume it does in the cartoon). Does the flying Neverending Story creature have a power beyond flight and brute strength?

    I saw it in 3-D but didn't think it warranted it, see it in regular cinema if you can. That is more of a gripe than anything else I have.

    I think M.Night put out a good movie and I hope it does well enough to warrant Book Two: Earth.
     
  14. RoJoHen

    RoJoHen Awesome Admiral

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    Wow, that attitude was totally necessary. :rolleyes:

    You say that as if it's been getting good reviews anywhere else. It's still only got an 8% on rottentomatoes. That's pretty shitty. It's not just fans of the cartoon that are disappointed. The general public seems to really dislike the movie.

    Good for you for enjoying it, but you don't need to insult the people who didn't when you're clearly in the minority.
     
  15. M'rk son of Mogh

    M'rk son of Mogh Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    ^^^
    I dunno, I found his thoughts on the movie kinda refreshing. :p

    So much so that now I'll actually think about seeing the movie instead of avoiding it!
     
  16. RoJoHen

    RoJoHen Awesome Admiral

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    His thoughts on the movie are fine. It was his thoughts towards other posters that were rude and insulting.
     
  17. Captain Craig

    Captain Craig Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Riiight cause the other attitudes were appropriate. :lol: Perhaps cause they are the majority opinion you let it pass?
    Critics opinions never sway me. The general public can be fooled, I give you Obama in the White House and Avatar(Camerons that is). So Rottentomatoes may as well be a blocked site on my computer.

    Ever think others get tired of so much gripe for the sake of gripe? Too many of these same posters complaining now will tell others to chill out over something equally mundane Ro.
     
  18. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Admiral

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    Let's see... I'm a liberal who neither plays 'Call of Duty 4' nor watches The Daily Show. But I don't see what that has to do with my opinion of this particular pile of shit that I paid twenty bucks for me and my wife to see.

    I'm sorry... but that is exactly what it was, a pile of shit. Poor acting and editing are a kiss of death for any film for me.
     
  19. RoJoHen

    RoJoHen Awesome Admiral

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    Their attitudes were towards the film. Your attitude was towards the people who didn't like it. There's a big difference.

    I'd love The Last Airbender to be a good movie, and I'm glad you enjoyed it, but that doesn't mean everybody who didn't like it is being a snob or overly obsessing about minuscule details. There are probably legitimate reasons they don't like it.
     
  20. Kelthaz

    Kelthaz Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    What an oddly out of place comment. This is a topic for a movie about a bald kid bending elements and you throw in a dig against Obama. Perish the thought, but you weren't trying to get a reaction out of people now were you? ;)