This is all kind of spoilerific too, for those like the Rev who haven't yet seen the cartoons.
― kkvgz, Tuesday, 29 June 2010 12:58 (thirteen years ago) link
The trailers make the movie look awful. The cartoon is humorous and has loads of Miyazaki-influenced whimsy, whilst the movie looks so po-faced and angsty. Shamwow ruins everything he touches.
― ô_o (Nicole), Tuesday, 29 June 2010 13:05 (thirteen years ago) link
Yeah, the humor is actually my biggest concern.
― kkvgz, Tuesday, 29 June 2010 13:12 (thirteen years ago) link
One thing I also fear will be changed in the movies is the fact that the heroes don't kill anyone in the cartoon. Of course this was at least partially because it was a kid-oriented show, but it was still refreshing to see fantasy epic where the main hero is a pacifist, for whom not killing your enemies is actually a big issue.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 29 June 2010 13:28 (thirteen years ago) link
superman!
― ,,,,,,eeeeleon (darraghmac), Tuesday, 29 June 2010 13:30 (thirteen years ago) link
xp: Aang's pacifism was clearly a huge part of his character. I'd hate to see that compromised too.
― kkvgz, Tuesday, 29 June 2010 13:34 (thirteen years ago) link
Actually, IIRC Aang is both a pacifist and a vegetarian. Not very common for heroes in fantasy fiction.
(x-post)
Yeah, Superman (and other superheroes) are the big exception, though that comes from the "no killing" tradition in the original comic books. If Batman was a film-only character, I'm sure he'd be killing bad guys left and right.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 29 June 2010 13:35 (thirteen years ago) link
true
― ,,,,,,eeeeleon (darraghmac), Tuesday, 29 June 2010 13:36 (thirteen years ago) link
Ah, here Shyamalan addresses the race thing:
http://insidemovies.moviefone.com/2010/06/29/is-the-last-airbender-racist/
― kkvgz, Tuesday, 29 June 2010 13:36 (thirteen years ago) link
Of note in re bad/good guys:
In fact, Shyamalan claims it's his critics who are racist for assuming that the dark-skinned Patel is, in fact, the villain. (Over the course of the cartoon series, Zuko evolves into a more heroic character; Shyamalan is hoping to make two sequels which would explore his character arc.)
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 29 June 2010 14:09 (thirteen years ago) link
also, earth nation = asian. they are good characters.
― ampersand (remy bean), Tuesday, 29 June 2010 14:39 (thirteen years ago) link
this entire issue is ridiculous and stupid. the end.
Okay, I kinda see Shyamalan's point of trying to be inclusive, but the fact still is that there are three main characters we follow from the beginning to the end of the story, and just by coincidence the two tribes they come from happen to be white (or "mixed race", as he says the Air Nomads are, though the kid playing Aang is still white - and there aren't any other prominent Air Nomads in the story, what with Aang being the last of them). If Shyamalan wanted to include white people in the story, couldn't he have, for example, made the Fire Nation white? That would've added to the story some interesting parallels with European colonialism, and it might've given more depth to Zuko's and Iroh's redemption too.
Also, while the other nations in the story are based on different parts of East Asia, they're still vague enough that changing their ethnicity might not be super problematic. But the Water Tribe are very obviously supposed to be Inuits, so turning them into "white Eskimos" still feels more like whitewashing than being inclusive to me.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 29 June 2010 17:09 (thirteen years ago) link
I would be missing out on some of my life's highest-quality friendships if insane fandom of anime and pseudo-anime was a dealbreaker.
― Mr & Mrs The Devil (Abbott), Tuesday, 29 June 2010 20:55 (thirteen years ago) link
"the last airbiscuit"About 411 results (0.56 seconds)
― buzza, Tuesday, 29 June 2010 21:03 (thirteen years ago) link
too damn much to ask for asian lead actors in an obviously asian-themed movie, i guess. just too much.
― Nhex, Tuesday, 29 June 2010 21:17 (thirteen years ago) link
http://www.avclub.com/articles/aasif-mandvi,42627/
The Last Airbender (2010)—“Commander Zhao”
Aasif Mandvi: Night called me on the phone while I was at the airport getting ready to get on a plane to go shoot a piece for The Daily Show. He just started chatting about this character, and I had no idea where the conversation was going. I just thought, “Oh, M. Night Shyamalan is bored and wants to talk to me about The Last Airbender.” [Laughs.] It was really just like that. He called me and was like, “Tell me, what do you think about…” as though he were just discussing it with me. And toward the end, I was getting ready to board the plane, then I was on the plane and they were telling me to shut off my phone, and I was like, “So, what do you want to do? We’re having this great conversation, and I love having this conversation with you, but what’s the purpose of this?” And he was like, “Oh, yeah, do you want to do the role?” And I was like, “Yeah! But I gotta go! We’re going to take off!” So it was kind of a bizarre way to get a job. But I find that I get all of my jobs in kind of bizarre ways.
This is my first sort of real… I mean, I did Spider-Man 2, but I had a very small part in it. This is the first time I’ve been really involved in an action film, and it was fun. Movies are always a lot of sitting around and doing nothing, that kind of “Hurry up and wait” situation, and yes, there were days when we sat around, but it was a really fun experience. The cast got along really well. We all became very familial, because we were all in Philadelphia, and when you’re in Philadelphia, there’s not a lot to do. So we all hung out, went to eat together at night. We stayed at the same hotel. It was kind of like a summer camp.
The A.V. Club: What’s your take on the casting controversy? About not having Asian actors in the main roles?
AM: Not to get into it too much, but I think Night’s tried to create a world that’s overall more culturally diverse, and draws from more backgrounds and ethnicities and traditions than the Last Airbender TV show did. It’s an interesting story, because unlike Lord Of The Rings or something like that, where it’s set in an imaginary world with hobbits and gnomes, this is set in a world populated by humans. And so in order to represent humanity, you need to represent all of its various cultures. Even though a lot of the martial arts obviously are based in Eastern tradition, I think over the course of the trilogy, you’ll see that Night’s vision includes the entire spectrum of cultures.
― kkvgz, Wednesday, 30 June 2010 12:02 (thirteen years ago) link
I love Aasif Mandvi.
― Mr & Mrs The Devil (Abbott), Wednesday, 30 June 2010 13:42 (thirteen years ago) link
In other words, cultural diversity is OK, as long as white people are the stars, right? God, what would we Americans do if we had to deal with more lead actors of color... riots everywhere!
― Nhex, Wednesday, 30 June 2010 18:54 (thirteen years ago) link
It's kind of hilarious seeing a bunch of white people react indignantly to a non-white person's decision to hire some white people
― based on logical thinking (HI DERE), Wednesday, 30 June 2010 18:58 (thirteen years ago) link
I'm not white.
― Nhex, Wednesday, 30 June 2010 18:59 (thirteen years ago) link
Tuomas is.
― based on logical thinking (HI DERE), Wednesday, 30 June 2010 19:00 (thirteen years ago) link
Even if he is, it doesn't make the casting any less ridiculous. Have you seen this show? I mean, if they're not going to cast Asian actors for THIS movie... come the fuck on, Hollywood.
― Nhex, Wednesday, 30 June 2010 19:02 (thirteen years ago) link
the Onion's recent string of interviews with character actors (John Hawkes, Danny Trejo, Aasif Mandvi) has been pretty excellent
― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, 30 June 2010 19:02 (thirteen years ago) link
Where have I been that I didn't know Aasif Mandvi was in this??
― VegemiteGrrrl, Wednesday, 30 June 2010 19:03 (thirteen years ago) link
(don't answer that)
I've never really been indignant, just a little sad.
― kkvgz, Wednesday, 30 June 2010 19:04 (thirteen years ago) link
― ampersand (remy bean), Tuesday, June 29, 2010
QFT. Taking gift horse to dentist imo.
― all yoga attacks are fire based (rogermexico.), Wednesday, 30 June 2010 19:07 (thirteen years ago) link
If white people can't complain about race issues, that would delete 72% of ILX discussions.
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 30 June 2010 19:09 (thirteen years ago) link
And just because Shyamalan is non-white doesn't mean the casting of white people to play Asian/Inuit characters can't be questioned, plus it seems unlikely for a movie of this size that the casting choices were his and his alone.
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 30 June 2010 19:11 (thirteen years ago) link
If white people can't complain about race issues, that would delete 72% of ILX discussions.― Tuomas, Wednesday, June 30, 2010 7:09 PM (5 minutes ago)
― Tuomas, Wednesday, June 30, 2010 7:09 PM (5 minutes ago)
this is what we in the business call "a good start"
― AESTHOLE (jjjusten), Wednesday, 30 June 2010 19:18 (thirteen years ago) link
In the business of ILX deleting?
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 30 June 2010 19:18 (thirteen years ago) link
i was thinking more the business of worthwhile discussion but yours works too
― AESTHOLE (jjjusten), Wednesday, 30 June 2010 19:21 (thirteen years ago) link
Ebert gives it a half star
― Gee, Officer (Gukbe), Wednesday, 30 June 2010 19:24 (thirteen years ago) link
Exactly. Basically, this is what looks like happened: this show does pretty well on Nickelodeon, attracts a wide fanbase largely because of its adoption of Asian culture, not despite it, where the studio thinks they can make money on a live-action adaptation - enough to sink $150M into it. But when it comes to casting, it's for likely embarassing, "politically incorrect" reasons than they can't find Asian-American kids for the leads. There's a message that Asians can't lead movies, which of course leads to a cycle where they won't get cast for them (also see the whitewashing of 21). Then after the outrage came out, it was announced that Asian actors would be cast for the villains and secondary roles.
I understand that some of you won't care at all about this (it's just a kids movie rite? and media representation issues rank pretty low in this horrible world), but I find this shit to be deeply embarassing. All right, I'll stop now.
― Nhex, Wednesday, 30 June 2010 19:27 (thirteen years ago) link
which asian-american actor could conceivably lead a big-budget movie, though?
― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 30 June 2010 19:50 (thirteen years ago) link
Considering that all the three lead actors are unknowns, I don't see why they couldn't have picked unknown Asian/Inuit actors instead of unknown white ones. It's not like this movie is sold on star power.
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 30 June 2010 19:54 (thirteen years ago) link
I am patiently waiting on our own Shyamalan expert-in-spite-of-his-wishes s1ocki to give us the lowdown.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 30 June 2010 20:00 (thirteen years ago) link
yknow the problem w/that whole tactic is that arguing in favor of non-colorblind casting taken to its eventual conclusion = 99% of big budget film adaptations end up being cast out of solely white peeps xpost
― AESTHOLE (jjjusten), Wednesday, 30 June 2010 20:00 (thirteen years ago) link
The Onion AV Club gives it a rare F. http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-last-airbender,42682/
― Phil D., Wednesday, 30 June 2010 20:09 (thirteen years ago) link
ha see, the main reason I'm not caring particularly much about casting controversies with regards to this movie is that I'm really not at all convinced that no amount of casting Asian/Asian-American actors would have fixed its biggest problem, namely being directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who seems to have forgotten how to make movies
― based on logical thinking (HI DERE), Wednesday, 30 June 2010 20:13 (thirteen years ago) link
I haven't seen it, but I'm guessing the unknown leads end up being generic, charisma-free drones in this movie,so I can understand why after-the-fact, one could feel like since the bar was not set that high, why nottake a risk, but judging from the few roles afforded to asian-americans, who among them have broughtsomething to the game to show that they might be capable of something more?
If I needed to cast a big-budget US movie with asian faces in the main slots, I'd be looking overseas for talent, frankly.but for direct-to-video stuff like street fighter: legend of chun li, yeah, there's pretty much no excuse.
― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 30 June 2010 20:15 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah frankly if i was an inuit actor id be thanking my lucky stars that my big break didnt lead to this piece of shit dragging my career down titanic style when it tanks in the first weekend xpost
― AESTHOLE (jjjusten), Wednesday, 30 June 2010 20:16 (thirteen years ago) link
quick, how do we get shyamalan to cast reese witherspoon in his next colossal masterpiece
― AESTHOLE (jjjusten), Wednesday, 30 June 2010 20:18 (thirteen years ago) link
he'd do a pretty awesome sequel to Election, i'd bet -- his movies recently have all been pretty good if you thought of them as wry comedies.
― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 30 June 2010 20:20 (thirteen years ago) link
I'm really not at all convinced that no amount of casting Asian/Asian-American actors would have fixed its biggest problem, namely being directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who seems to have forgotten how to make movies
ITA -- even if it had had Asian leads, Shyamalan doesn't really seem to understand the story and is only picking up on the portentous and angsty parts of it. Or at least that's the way it seems from the trailers and other clips, I'm not going to bother watching it to confirm my suspicions.
― ô_o (Nicole), Wednesday, 30 June 2010 21:06 (thirteen years ago) link
maybe the twist at the end is THE LEAD ACTORS WERE ASIAN-AMERICAN ALL ALONG
― AESTHOLE (jjjusten), Wednesday, 30 June 2010 21:07 (thirteen years ago) link
Argh
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 30 June 2010 21:08 (thirteen years ago) link
hahaha
― based on logical thinking (HI DERE), Wednesday, 30 June 2010 21:17 (thirteen years ago) link
Ebert half star & AV Club F not portending well imo
― got you all in ♜ ♔ (dyao), Wednesday, 30 June 2010 21:19 (thirteen years ago) link