Excedpt that that's not Asif, that's Dev Patel, an accredited drama actor who appeared in Slumdog Millionaire.Blue-State said:
Escape to the Movies: The Last Airbender
- Thread starter MovieBob
- Start date
I was a fan of the show. I kinda lost interest by the the big finish of season 3, mostly because I felt that the show was trying too shoehorn too many jokes into some of the more serious stuff. Given how this was supposed to be the big finale, I felt it was just out of place. Other than that, I loved it and I will give this one a look.
Out of curiosity, then, why do you think it was a good move to cast white actors in roles that were originally ethnic in the series? I'm not being snarky, but genuinely curious. Usually the answer is, "because they did a great job acting the role," but it sounds like the acting was terrible. I don't think anyone is calling anyone a bigot, but the fact remains that there seems very little *good* reason to whitewash the cast, and plenty of rather uncomfortable *bad* reasons...T.J. Mccabe said:
EDIT: To put it in a geekier context, would we be comfortable if, in the Star Trek reboot, Uhura was cast as a white woman? Or Sulu white? Or heck, let's put the shoe on the other foot; if Kirk or McCoy were changed to an entirely different ethnicity, wouldn't we go, "Hey, wait, that's not how Kirk/McCoy look!" It's the same sort of thing here, with the added sadness that many of the fans in question are children who really enjoyed seeing a child hero that looked "like them".
Signs? Really?
I felt Signs was were he tanked. I mean, as soon as you KNEW the aliens were there (about halfway through), it ceased to be a thriller that kept you guessing about whether the folks were just making too many assumptions about what could have been explainable circumstances, but NO, we get shown that it's all true, and so we spend the rest of the movie watching a bad sci-fi monster movie with a cheap-ass ending that makes no sense, and seems like they were just building up for this one tie-in to the beginning that also makes no sense.
Yikes, Last Airbender gets 9% on Rotten Tomatoes. Nine percent...
I felt Signs was were he tanked. I mean, as soon as you KNEW the aliens were there (about halfway through), it ceased to be a thriller that kept you guessing about whether the folks were just making too many assumptions about what could have been explainable circumstances, but NO, we get shown that it's all true, and so we spend the rest of the movie watching a bad sci-fi monster movie with a cheap-ass ending that makes no sense, and seems like they were just building up for this one tie-in to the beginning that also makes no sense.
Yikes, Last Airbender gets 9% on Rotten Tomatoes. Nine percent...
"Oh no, Ebert didn't like a movie I liked, therefore his opinion always sucks"yoyo13rom said:
Please, if you're going to complain about the guy, at least come with valid arguments.
Also, I saw Kick-ass, and I didn't think very much of it. I totally understand why Ebert gave it 1 star.
Whoops, sorry, my bad. I haven't actually seen the series or the movie, but I have a lot of friends in fandom who are heavily into Racebending.com and all the whitewashing issues, so I know roughly who the main characters are, and a lot of the issues therein. Thus I assumed that the comments about Aasif were referring to Zuko. If I was mistaken, my bad.Blue-State said:
EDIT: And yes, I know that Zuko isn't a "villain" per se, but I suspected that the movie would be somewhat "dumbed down" and presenting him as a villain until later.
your actually wrong, it was supposed to be an all most all asian, innuit cultured world, not raced world.Blue-State said:
Yeah, count me as another fan who's surprised at how nice Bob with on this one. Let's make some comparisons here. Fine, Ebert's dead to us; I'm cool with that. Anyone who would give Knowing four stars is fair game on that. But consider this, this movie is nearly universally scorned by critics. If Moviebob was on the Rotten Tomatoes critics list and this was a positive enough review to count it as fresh, he'd be one of ten critics to do so. Out of a hundred. If he was in the top critics list, he would be one in three to like this movie. And we're talking a qualified like here. The best reviews (like Bob's) praise the visual effects enough to look past the horrible story. The worst are declaring it an abomination, the worst movie of the year in a year with Jonah Hex. Most are even attacking things things Bob praised; the special effects are little more than bubbly water, the action sequences nothing but a lot of bullet time, the fight choreography nothing but people standing in place and shooting elements at each other.
And it's not just reviewers. Most of the forums I read are full of people giving it a chance and returning with warnings to avoid this movie like the plague. Hell, there are people that walked out half an hour in! And these are fans of the show pissed off at the inability to pronounce characters' names right, getting personalities wrong, even cutting out major characters completely. This youtube video sums it up nicely: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhUkp-4l6rc
And yes, the racist casting is an issue and should be acknowledged, even more than Prince of Persia's did. Why take the only notable Asian protagonists in recent history and whitewash all of them? They even planned on doing the same to the villains until one of the actors had to drop out and the first wave of backlashing hit.
I guess I'd have to say that I'd suggest people do the opposite of what Bob suggested and avoid this movie. At least wait a few weeks so you don't contribute to its opening box office numbers or get it on netflix. Yeah, the people had big ambitions, but why reward it when they treat the source material like this. It's not like we all went to see Eragon just so Eragon 2 had a chance of existing.
And it's not just reviewers. Most of the forums I read are full of people giving it a chance and returning with warnings to avoid this movie like the plague. Hell, there are people that walked out half an hour in! And these are fans of the show pissed off at the inability to pronounce characters' names right, getting personalities wrong, even cutting out major characters completely. This youtube video sums it up nicely: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhUkp-4l6rc
And yes, the racist casting is an issue and should be acknowledged, even more than Prince of Persia's did. Why take the only notable Asian protagonists in recent history and whitewash all of them? They even planned on doing the same to the villains until one of the actors had to drop out and the first wave of backlashing hit.
I guess I'd have to say that I'd suggest people do the opposite of what Bob suggested and avoid this movie. At least wait a few weeks so you don't contribute to its opening box office numbers or get it on netflix. Yeah, the people had big ambitions, but why reward it when they treat the source material like this. It's not like we all went to see Eragon just so Eragon 2 had a chance of existing.
I'll just go ahead and post this for all possible future replies to my posts on this topic.
But this movie is complete trash and just barely follows that story with most of the source material as scarlet said eviscerated and left to bake in the sun, changes to scenes that never needed to be made, not including scenes that could have been included, the fact this type of movie should have been 2 hours at least or 2 and a half instead of 1 hour and 43 minutes it would have been better with a 2 hour or 2 and a half hour length they could have added far more scenes from the animated show then they did.
Acting is bad, its bad from nearly every single actor except 2, Dev Patel as Zuko, and Shaun Toub as Iroh, but even their characters were crap they were nothing like the animated series characters but then again no character in this movie matched the animated characters and for no reason at all, the acting was bad but the characters were written different then they were in the animated series. Ong (or ongalongabeen bang, instead of Aang) is not a happy carefree character like he was in the animated series with a load of responsibility on his shoulders and him growing up, Katara is not happy just sad and emo, the same with Sokka who is just a useless character here but had at least some value in the animated series, Zuko isn't an angry angst filled teenager betrayed by his father or any thing, and Iroh is not the happy, peace loving wise cracking tea loving old man hes just there...with a little anger and no cares for whats happening around him. Fire lord Ozai is just...angry face...I'm the fire lord...angry face instead of being a sadistic psycho...The animated series...made for CHILDREN has more emotional range then this movie with each characters having their laughs, and loves, and angers and hates...and violence...something unseen in this movie.
Effects are complete and total crap, along with the choreography...going to this movie is much like going to see Sorcerers Apprentice and each person casts a single spell the entire movie, you don't make a movie where the concept is there are people capable of controlling the elements then do so few scenes with this actually occurring, and the martial arts *choreography* are complete and utter crap with most of the characters doing very little in these departments and the stuff they do do being total crap...Dev Patel and a few background characters and extras being the only ones note worthy in this area. In the animated series it was a short set of movements that produced elemental bending...in this a whole dance routine before even a single thing happens often without any force it should have had...the moves often look exactly the same, yet the animated series each nations bending was based on unique and different martial arts. What was up with the fuzz? whats up with the close ups? I noticed this whether it was my theater *not a chance my theater has never failed me* that the entire movie had a fuzz to it...and often scenes that needed no close up had them...there was an entire scene of Katara Sokkka and Ong are talking and it switches from an extreme close up of Sokka and Katara to an extreme close up of Ong...back and forth...in a scene where they could have just between standing together face to face talking...without the individual extreme close ups.
Mispronouncing simple names with all ready set pronunciations...the largest offense here is Ong instead of Aang there was literally no logical reason for him to be called ong instead of Aang Aang works, Its how you pronounce that, it was set forth in the animated series? why change it...there are other problems but I'll get to another problem now.
Racial Ambiguity...the animated series had it, except for a few characters it was not obvious what race the characters were...so what do they do? they make the entire southern water tribe except 3 people Inuit (eskimos) the entire north tribe is whites, the entire fire nation is indians, and the entire earth kingdom is a mix of Asians.
the animates Series was racial Ambiguous. they were clearly able to get the races hired they could have hired more races then they did as actors and just mixed them up, with different races comprising up the different nations so as to convey the Racial Ambiguity...but they didn't and that made the movie suck even more.
This movie sucks, it killed the inner child in me that liked Avatar the last airbender.
P.S: One of the major problems with Martial arts is Noah Ringer, Noah Ringer is an unknown this is his First movie, he was plucked up at a casting call For airbender, In real life he has been practicing Taekowndo for years he holds a first degree black belt in it in real life. yet all of his actions and martial arts in the movie are stilted and jerky with obvious hesitation from him on what hes doing here and there, you would think someone trained as he is would do better.
But this movie is complete trash and just barely follows that story with most of the source material as scarlet said eviscerated and left to bake in the sun, changes to scenes that never needed to be made, not including scenes that could have been included, the fact this type of movie should have been 2 hours at least or 2 and a half instead of 1 hour and 43 minutes it would have been better with a 2 hour or 2 and a half hour length they could have added far more scenes from the animated show then they did.
Acting is bad, its bad from nearly every single actor except 2, Dev Patel as Zuko, and Shaun Toub as Iroh, but even their characters were crap they were nothing like the animated series characters but then again no character in this movie matched the animated characters and for no reason at all, the acting was bad but the characters were written different then they were in the animated series. Ong (or ongalongabeen bang, instead of Aang) is not a happy carefree character like he was in the animated series with a load of responsibility on his shoulders and him growing up, Katara is not happy just sad and emo, the same with Sokka who is just a useless character here but had at least some value in the animated series, Zuko isn't an angry angst filled teenager betrayed by his father or any thing, and Iroh is not the happy, peace loving wise cracking tea loving old man hes just there...with a little anger and no cares for whats happening around him. Fire lord Ozai is just...angry face...I'm the fire lord...angry face instead of being a sadistic psycho...The animated series...made for CHILDREN has more emotional range then this movie with each characters having their laughs, and loves, and angers and hates...and violence...something unseen in this movie.
Effects are complete and total crap, along with the choreography...going to this movie is much like going to see Sorcerers Apprentice and each person casts a single spell the entire movie, you don't make a movie where the concept is there are people capable of controlling the elements then do so few scenes with this actually occurring, and the martial arts *choreography* are complete and utter crap with most of the characters doing very little in these departments and the stuff they do do being total crap...Dev Patel and a few background characters and extras being the only ones note worthy in this area. In the animated series it was a short set of movements that produced elemental bending...in this a whole dance routine before even a single thing happens often without any force it should have had...the moves often look exactly the same, yet the animated series each nations bending was based on unique and different martial arts. What was up with the fuzz? whats up with the close ups? I noticed this whether it was my theater *not a chance my theater has never failed me* that the entire movie had a fuzz to it...and often scenes that needed no close up had them...there was an entire scene of Katara Sokkka and Ong are talking and it switches from an extreme close up of Sokka and Katara to an extreme close up of Ong...back and forth...in a scene where they could have just between standing together face to face talking...without the individual extreme close ups.
Mispronouncing simple names with all ready set pronunciations...the largest offense here is Ong instead of Aang there was literally no logical reason for him to be called ong instead of Aang Aang works, Its how you pronounce that, it was set forth in the animated series? why change it...there are other problems but I'll get to another problem now.
Racial Ambiguity...the animated series had it, except for a few characters it was not obvious what race the characters were...so what do they do? they make the entire southern water tribe except 3 people Inuit (eskimos) the entire north tribe is whites, the entire fire nation is indians, and the entire earth kingdom is a mix of Asians.
the animates Series was racial Ambiguous. they were clearly able to get the races hired they could have hired more races then they did as actors and just mixed them up, with different races comprising up the different nations so as to convey the Racial Ambiguity...but they didn't and that made the movie suck even more.
This movie sucks, it killed the inner child in me that liked Avatar the last airbender.
P.S: One of the major problems with Martial arts is Noah Ringer, Noah Ringer is an unknown this is his First movie, he was plucked up at a casting call For airbender, In real life he has been practicing Taekowndo for years he holds a first degree black belt in it in real life. yet all of his actions and martial arts in the movie are stilted and jerky with obvious hesitation from him on what hes doing here and there, you would think someone trained as he is would do better.
I was surprised with this review. Just about every other critic bashed the movie, and as somebody said it has a terrible rottentomatoes rating. I know critic ratings aren't everything, but when that many bash it and the people I talk with say it was crap, I think it's probably crap. I have to agree, though, it most likely is better than Eclipse which somehow almost got a 50% on rottentomatoes.
See, here's my problem with all this; everyone's so damn twitchy and sensitive that people are all too willing to toss down the race card at any fucking chance they get.Usagi Vindaloo said:
Shouldn't we be teaching our children better, anyway? Why does it matter what the color of their skin is if they're a good and positive role model? Should I not look up to Dr. King or Gandhi or the Dali Lama simply because they have different color skin than me? Should I only find positive role models in my fellow whites? NO. Doing shit like that and encouraging that sort of mentality is stupid and racist(a term I hate with a fucking passion).
To pull on your Star Trek analogy, I wouldn't give two shits since I hate Star Trek. But let's say I didn't hate all things Star Trek, for the sake of argument. If Kirk was suddenly black I wouldn't care, so long as he retained the CHARACTER. If Han Solo was to be recast as a jive talking black guy with an afro and had nothing in common with the original other than name I think THEN I would be pissed. It doesn't matter what color their skin is, it's their character and personality that counts. When they go and fuck that all up then you're 100% within your right to complain, but if you're bitching and moaning because suddenly "baaaaaawwww, they're a different color" then you just come across as whiny.
I was expecting this movie to be at least decent, but to see a full-on M. Night crucifixion? YIKES! Moviebob is probably the NICEST critic to the film as tons of other critics have already labeled this as the final nail in Shyamalan's career. The series was great (even if Season 3 left a few too many plot threads open) though it seems that this movie is doomed. The summer so far has been a failure for movies and it looks like Inception (and Toy Story 3) is the only thing worth seeing at this rate.
I never said it was a good move. I know nothing about the TV show and there are times I wish a movie cast the right Ethnic persuasion for a part. I guess I was just talking in generalities. Just sick of people throwing the race card out when there is nothing remotely racist about the issue at hand. Maybe my post was a knee jerk reaction to yet another ?Race card Referee?. I do find it funny that the people of ?Hollywood? are looked at as the ?enlightened ones? of our culture and yet they are usually the most close-minded and bigoted people on the planet.Usagi Vindaloo said:
So! MovieBob!
Are you wanting to see the Rocketeer fly onto the big screen once more for a new era, or was that just for the sake of the visual pun? What would you expect from an update of the character? What would you prefer to see in one?
Are you wanting to see the Rocketeer fly onto the big screen once more for a new era, or was that just for the sake of the visual pun? What would you expect from an update of the character? What would you prefer to see in one?
I just look at this as an example to all the fan crying that goes on with established franchises being made into movies. Every time something gets cut or changed or blended together fans cry out in rage and missery that "It was too important to leave out!" This is what happens when they listen to you.