Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Avatar: The Last Airbender The Movie

I just watched this movie by M. Night Shymalan (sorry, don't know the correct spelling, a weakness of mine.) and I have to say that it was a fun, enjoyable movie. I've seen a few of the tv shows and they had to compress a lot into this first movie which was obviously set up to be a series.

And if they don't finish it, its a damn shame.

I know the controversy, that he didn't cast a nearly exclusively asian cast and I think that from what I saw, people need to get over it.

This was a very good cast, the actors did a great job, and while this was also a special effects movie, the effects weren't the movie. the fit the story well.

sorry, but the hatred that a certain contingent of fanboys have is really the saddest thing. If it isn't exactly like the base material, then its an abomination in their minds. To me, and this is just my opinion, that is the worst sort of closemindedness. It wasn't a purely white cast, or even a predominantly white cast for the main characters. I saw a wide range of ethnicity in the movie and it worked well. There was something there for everyone that wanted to see it.

And the bashing of the director is nothing short of jealousy. Yeah, the tree movie sucked. Every director can have a bad movie, but the majority of his work, when taken on its on is much better than the average.

Great movie, my five year old loved it, my wife loved it, and I really enjoyed it.

I hope that the series is continued, the story is continued, and that we get to see it in its entirety.

Well, honestly, there are a bunch of wussies out there that really need to get over their outright hatred and bile over anything that doesn't match up EXACTLY as they first encountered it. Its really pissy, is what it is.

I've seen the bitching, whining and moaning over Transformers, Star Trek, etc... and its nothing short of stereotyped feeding into the same old small minded, bile filled, shrivel-hearted twerps.

I even saw one claim that Transformers raped his childhood memories. Really? Hey, New York has an excellent drama school, look into it. Raped? Thats not only overly dramatic, its insulting to people that actually HAVE been raped.

Sorry, but Pissy is all I can think of when i read that stuff. They don't even bother to watch the movie and judge it on its on merits, just start flinging around slurs because of some imagined slight.

I don't think that altering the skin color of every major protagonist in the canon to be White, when there are a million White faces all over the entertainment industry, is a minor alteration or an imagined slight. It's not like having a character drive a Prius instead of a Subaru. It's not like spelling "Jeff's" name as "Geoff," instead. It's a major alteration.

Personally, I completely understand why so many fans were infuriated by this. I understand completely why they felt slapped in the face, and they voted with their feet and stayed the hell away from the film.

Good for them.

And I'm glad the movie crashed and burned commercially. There's the outside chance that whoever green-lighted the decision to give an unwanted, uncalled for, unnecessary makeover while casting will think twice about doing so again-- since they got hit so hard in their wallets. Let's face it: that's mostly the only thing they give a crap about anyway.

The "rape" comment was stupid. I'll give you that. I hate when fans say that kind of thing, but none of the anti-racist boards I saw get mad about Avatar used that kind of rhetoric to complain about the film's casting.

To a certian extent, Rick is right...the vast majority of fanboys out there need to get over themselves when watching movies based on comics.

That being said...I have heard the complaint about Avatar and its casting. I can totally understand the annoyance with this. Taking it to the extent of saying that it raped someones childhood just shows that that person is a disturbed indivual, in my opinion. But ranting about it online is every fans perogative. It would not hinder my personal viewing of the movie at all however.

I have not seen it yet, and my daughter wants to see the movie very badly. I doubt that my daughter will notice if certian characters are different in ethnicity from the cartoon, as she'll just be thrilled to be watching it.

I loved the New Star Trek movieand cannot wait for the next one. It didnothing to change what had happened, they basically winked at the camera and explained that during the movie.

Transformers bugged me for an entirely different reason. Language, and the whole scene at the car lot with Bernie Mac and his momma swearing at each other and flipping each other off. Add in the totally unneeded sexual talk in Sams room with his parents, and you get a movie that I will not show my children. They marketed the movie towards kids and then threw a ton of unnecessary things in there to get a rating that is higher than it needed to be.

Well, I saw the "firelord" was clearly NOT caucasian, and neither were his armies. His son was clearly not as well. The villagers in the Earthbender were clearly not caucasian, and Aang's teacher clearly wasn't.

The other two children leads were, as well as the girl from the waterbending village and some of the villagers.

The main lead character, Aang, was clearly not caucasian.

Now, as a rough estimate, half the major casting, and half to 2/3's of the minor casting was not caucasian, and neither was the director.

Given hollywoods past in changing major portions of movies, changing characters racially (Nick Fury, anyone), even changing the nationality of characters (the american version of James Bond in the Playhouse theatre was amercian named Jimmy Bond) I think that given the movie was made for an american market, they did pretty dang good.

In the past we've had blond wonder women, bi-racial Superman, English Batman... I can understand that some folks might not like it, but take out the agenda, and its a pretty good movie that some folk might think about looking at on its own merits.

And Cle, that original post wasn't directed at you, but the rather insane at times segment of fandom that are patently absurd in their fanatacism. I happen to think you are a very intelligent, passionate poster. Shame that so much of what I post seems to set you off so much lately.

Rick,

While the character of Aang didn't look caucasian, the actor was. And that is the whole point of that criticism.

Back to the movie itself. It did seem like a lot was crammed into it story-wise and was being set up as a series. So we didn't get a definitive ending. One thing that took me out of the movie was Aasif Mandvi. He played the firebender commander hunting for Aang. I know him from the Daily Show and so I kept thinking about the Daily Show whenever he was on screen and speaking. Still it wasn't a bad movie as movies go and I can see that kids would like it a lot as well as adults who are into fantasy but haven't seen the anime series.

Whelp, if the casual observer can't tell a difference, I'd say they did a pretty good job with it, wouldn't you?

^ 'Good' if one still has the mind-set of someone from the 1950s. White actors made-up or pretending to look like people from different races is considered a bad thing now Rick. Especially when someone from that character's actual race could have easily played the role.

I wouldn't lump in the criticisms of Airbender with things like Transformers or Star Trek either Rick. The (main) complaints regarding these movies are about totally different things.

The Star Trek complaints did seem (in my mind) to be mainly coming from militant fans who weren't happy with the changes (but that might just be my biased opinion because I really enjoyed the remake). While I can't remember any Transformers complaints other than that they weren't very good movies.

The Airbender complaints are about a much more serious issue - the white-washing of roles in Hollywood. It seems perfectly reasonable to me that people from a certain race/culture would be upset when some of the few characters/heroes in popular entertainment/Hollywood that represent that race/culture are changed to white (and whatever the other racial changes were).

It's great that you enjoyed the movie. But it's a sad testament to Hollywood/America(?) that the executives decided that the public probably wouldn't enjoy the movie enough if there weren't more white people in the film.

And I can completely agree with that, Blacula. But what a lot of people forget, is that it wasn't just the actors that worked on the movie. There were people behind the scenes, the film crew, the music crew, the special effects crews, hell, even the food service crews. All these people worked and contributed to make a pretty good movie that was shut out. Not saying for no good reason, but a lot of what I saw wasn't based on the actual film. That seems lost in there.

to be fair i blame every single person on that film for how horrible it is.

the acting was bad.they picked the little white kid beacuse he could do martial arts. and they did plan at the start to cast all white, only after fans made huge outcry against the first three they backed of the fourth white (jessi micarthy) and got the guy from slum dog. they told the people who could act to tone it down so they don't over shadow the other actors who weren't as good.

the whole move is about saying whats happening instead of showing, and the direction of some of the seens gave me a headache when they changed camera angle after every one said their line

personally the only thing i thought was any good with the movie was how pretty it looked, and am some one who doesn't give a pass on that.

to each his own. I thought it was pretty good and the rest of my family did too.

I ended up seeing this with my brother and nephew while my sister-in-law and niece went shopping. I'd seen maybe an episode or two of the series years ago, but didn't really remember details.

I enjoyed the movie- particularly the visuals and the way elemental powers were used (foot stomping earth powers, etc.). I did think it lacked the quirky sense of humor that I vaguely recalled from the TV series.

Later, I looked up info on it to see if there was a sequel planned and only then learned of the casting controversey. I feel kind of like I should now dislike the movie, but I don't and won't. I hope there are future installments, maybe with new castmembers that are more in line with what fans expected? Is that even a possibility?

I understand and sympathize with the disappointment over whitewashing the cast, but isn't it also possible that the director and casting people thought they picked the best actors for the roles? Does color blind casting only reflect one end of the spectrum?

I ask this with awareness of American moviedom's track record and the perhaps contrasting thought that the makers of this particular movie should not be held liable for everything that preceded their work.

After paying to see this steaming pile of dog doo-doo, my wallet felt raped!!

it was crappy!! *and i won't even get into the whole thing about Shyamalan's choice of how he cast the film.* i was soo looking forward to it, but after watching it i felt like it was incomplete.
i'm guessing because of the time he was allotted he could only cram in certain *what he thought were essential* parts. but basically it was an abridged version of Book one. Rick you should really go and get the complete animated series watch it with your wife and kid, then compare.

John, I've seen some of them. Look, you weren't getting the animated version done on film with live actors, you were getting the condensed version, set up to be several movies. That's what, maybe eight hours compared to how many seasons of the animated. Of course they couldn't put everything in it, just like they couldn't with the harry potter movies.

I judged the movie on its own, with no comparisons. Therefore, I didn't have any preconcieved notions of what should be because I had only seen maybe three episodes. I wasn't expecting Citizen Kane, nor was I expecting Porky's. I was free to enjoy the movie based on itself.

The real problem is MNS. He hasn't made a movie worth watching in 10 years. He likes to write, direct, and produce; making stuff is so predictable it's a bit of a joke.

Case in point, over the summer one of the trailers at a showing I was watching was for 'Devil'. The trailer was actually quite compelling and the theater seemed interested.

Then the voice over said the name "M. Night Shamaylan" and there was audible snickering in the theatre. I asked other people that had seen the trailer and the told me that the same thing happened in the shows where they saw the trailer.

M Night Shamalyan is a younger version of George Lucas.

Alls I know is, it sure made me laugh when Marky Mark started talking to that artificial tree in THE HAPPENING.

The Happening and the Village are hysterical!

I unwittingly took my mom to see the Avatar movie because she likes action movies ... I didn't know it was M. Night Shyamalan's until I was sitting there watching it.

I was really uncomfortable with the casting in the movie. the elementals basically being divided by racial groups and ... one group is evil. it's almost funny.

I have been curious why M. Night Shyamalan is still making movies after at least three flops and five critical flops? does he fund his own projects? but it looks like his movies still make money compared to others.


I'm saving Lady in the Water for a rainy day when I need a good laugh .... maybe it's on netflicks so I don't contribute to the revenue.

Copied from Wiki:

The Last Airbender was made for $150 million and marketed with a budget of $130 million, making total costs at least $280 million. Premiering in New York City on June 30, 2010, it opened in the United States the following day, grossing an estimated $16 million. The Last Airbender opened at the top of the box office, and eventually grossed $131 million domestically and $318 million worldwide. Critical reception was very negative, criticizing the writing, plot, acting and the low quality of the 3D conversion.

So the film made about 38 million profit from box office alone.

I have neither desire nor intentions to see it, but I do wonder if this is enough profit to encourage the 2 sequels.

Okay, here's the thing...


http://www.slashfilm.com/thor-boycotted-southern-fundamentalists/


so, it's racist to want white people in "white" roles, but it isn't racist to want asians in asian roles?

No, not looking to restart this here, just saying... gotta be consistent for an arguement to hold up.

Dude, you are trying to start it up again, so let me help you.

You can't take a situation in which one group is far ahead of the other in terms of privilege and proclaim that both must get "equal" treatment for things to be fair. That is, you can't use the same criteria in both situations and expect an imbalance to be redressed.

That's like the old joke about how both the children of CEOs and the children of homeless people both inherit the right to sleep under bridges.

Whites and minorities in the movie biz are not currently on equal footing. You thus can't redress inequality by proclaiming that a Black dude being cast as a Norse God is No Fair.

Particularly since the flap over Thor is over ONE NON-WHITE face in a sea of White faces in the film, as opposed to Avatar in which every lead was originally cast with White performers, and in the end-- only one major character (an antagonist) was re-cast in response to a huge outcry from fans.

Please. You might just as well look at a full glass versus an empty glass and proclaim that both have equal content, and thus you could quench your thirst equally well drinking from the empty glass as you could drinking from the full one.

Nope,true equality is everyone judged the same, in the same circumstances, and NO ONE gets special treatment. Holding one group back to advance another one, even though you are trying to address a problem, is yet another problem. When do you stop "addressing" the inequality?

Growing up, there were no real great, grand "black" villians because everyone was afraid that to show a black person in a villianous role would be inflamitory and racist.

That effectively denied a segment of our population equal representation. It just did. The single biggest "black" villian I remember growing up was Kananga from James Bond.

And argueing "amount" is a hollow arguement. If its wrong, its wrong. If its right, its right. It just is.

I disagree.

As for a lack of Black villains, I direct you to films like Birth of a Nation, which still is studied as a classic work of cinema.

Also, am I wrong in remembering that at least one archetypal Bond villain was a Black dude?

It's very easy for you to sit on a mountain of privilege that you don't even recognize as such while telling others that you alone are the arbiter of how much they can have from your stash. Well, it's easy on most of the internet. But I'd advise you to never go to any of the anti-racist fan boards out there with that attitude. They'll rip you a new one, and you'll deserve it.

Yes, Cle, the villian was Kananga, the one I mentioned.

Birth of A Nation...filmed in the 70's like I mentioned? No.

Mountain of privledge? seriously?

Lets see, my wife gets stopped for a license plate light out. The cop that takes her to JAIL refuses to roll up the window on a cold november night, and she has no coat. We didn't cry racism, we simply said he was an ahole.

I went to get a small loan for a business and was told point blank that since I wasn't a minority, the program wasn't intended for me. But, if I took on a minority partner that would be the majority owner, I would be able to get the loan.

I've been stopped more times recently for seatbelts than I care to think about.

I don't get help just for being an illegal alien.

I am the single most hated guy in America... straight, white, southern, male, married, with a child. Doesn't matter that I believe in true equality, that everyone should be judged on what they do, how they act, and not the color of their skin or their sex or sexual proclivity.

I don't do guilt I haven't done anything to earn, and I don't do favortism. I have a public school education, and I've been passed over for jobs even with a college degree for lesser qualified that fit a quota (female, not racial).

I don't go to those boards because even thought they are in favor of something I agree with, the ending of discrimination of ALL KINDS, they don't really believe it. They just want and end to discrimination against themselves.

And my stash? Its high taxes in a crime ridden town where the cops take drugs and go sell them on the street, the mayor gets arrested for harboring a fugitive and counterfeiting, and even the thought of stopping the drugs and gambling in it will get people unceremoniously voted out of office, if not actual death threats. I have a mortgage I had to basically peform oral sex to get on the mortgage company, and I drive a fifteen year old truck with over half a million miles on it because I can't afford anything better.

I don't get two free months of phone connection paid for by the government (read, me and you and everyone else), I don't get extra unemployment, I don't get quite a bit.

So, please, tell me, as I report illegal marijuana crops on the tracts I have to find and buy to support myself, and the cop takes to saying I was the one that planted it and I have to spend an afternoon losing work and fending off his suspicions, please, tell me, what do I have that others don't? As I'm driving down the street in my beat up old truck and have the cops fall in behind me, checking my plates because my old truck in an affluent area and clearly "doesn't belong there"... I'd really like to know.

Sorry, you can disagree, but true equality means that all are judged equally, and have the same opportunity. Not one segement is held back through no wrongdoing of their own to advance another.

Equal is equal, not more equal is equal.