The Last Airbender

[Blade X]

I'm African American too, and don't bring up what's happened to Black and Native Americans being played by Caucasians. That hasn't happened in decades. I do understand that other races have the same problem. I really hated the casting for Prince of Persia and felt it was wrong. Where was the big controversy there?

I brought up blacks and Native American characters being played by white actors to show that Hollywood had a history of doing this kind of thing.

But that's the thing, there is no concrete proof that the characters of Avatar non-white. If anything, the only castings I was the least iffy about were the water tribe castings, but I wasn't too bothered about it. Like I said in a previous post, I don't feel like the show's creators even put up a fight against the casting. I believe the feeling is that they were deadset on finding the best actors for the roles (and in this case, especially of Ang, Sokka, and Zuko, they did imo).

Maybe the reason why the shows creators didn't put up a fight is because they knew they couldn't win the fight and that they could risk being branded as being "troublemakers" and being blacklisted within the industry. The voice actor who voiced Zuko in the TV series did criticize the casting decisions.

Hell, the director is Indian and "claimed" to be a fan of the show. Racebenders love to say that he probably didn't have control over casting, but that's BS too. He's the director, writer, and (most importantly) producer of the film! He definitely had control over casting and casted who he felt was best suited for the role.

Considering that his last several films have been flops, I don't think that M Night can throw his weight around. However, he has gone on record as saying that he did look for the best actors to play the roles, but that still doesn't make the casting right.

And about John Carpenter. I've seen too different documentaries about directors that focused on him on Reels Channel (The Directors and Hollywood's best directors) and I've never heard him mention that or any mention of it. Do you have any proof that this ever happened?

I can't recall where I've seen the interview about BTILC where they talked about the studio have a problem with the casting of Asian actors in the Asian roles. If I ever come across the interview are post a link.

 

[louiebling$]

Thanks for the correction. I guess that explains why a white actor was cast to play Goku in the crappy DBZ movie. I recall seeing at least one interview or documentary about BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA where it was mentioned that the studio was against casting actual Asians to play the Asian roles.

You do know that Goku is an Alien Therefor has no race?

And how the hell am I being racist for criticizing the casting? Am I racist for criticizing the casting of Sam Jackson as Nick Fury?

There is a Black Nick Fury in the comics

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Considering that his last several films have been flops, I don't think that M Night can throw his weight around. However, he has gone on record as saying that he did look for the best actors to play the roles, but that still doesn't make the casting right.

Doesn't make it wrong either.

You do realize that the fire nation is played by nearly all Asian actors right?

 

[Antrax255]

Ok just finish watching The Last Airbender. I shall begin with the pros I enjoyed the score the set pieces and the fighting whenever it was Oong and Zuko. Now on to the review and cons of this movie.

Script: The script was horrible I mean dialogue was crazy. It felt like M. Night just turned a first draft. It gives the actors nothing to work with.

The Fire Nation: Wow they are really not intimidating at all. They are a joke I mean majority of the actors seemed to be laughing at themselves. The throne for the Fire Lord was empty was he redecorating? Needing a source of fire creates a huge plot hole. There could be no reason for them to take over the Earth Kingdom. There sources of fire could easily be extinguish by dirt. When Er-ron showed them he could bend naturally they ran in fear. Sozin's comet will give them the ability to channel their chi and bend fire naturally. How will they show Azula blue flames if their is a second movie?

Actors: There is everything called acting classes. My god the line delivery and facial expressions throughout this movie was ridiculous.

Katara: Horrible every line of dialogue was terrible she had a crying face expression the entire movie.

Oong:Never acted a day in his life can not even blame him.

Sokka and those other people : Blah nothing special.

Uncle Erron: The best one you could tell he tried with what little he was given and actually took from the show.

Zuko: In the beginning he was trying to hard but came into his own.

There was too much exposition in the movie what should have been seen was only heard huge mistake. The bending was not interesting at all except the air. All others were too quick with too much Kata's and not enough bending.

M. night's diverse world was weird the Southern Water Tribe Katara Sokka and their Grandma were the only white people thier everyone was Eskimo/Inuit. Compared to the Northen tribe who were all white except Princess Yue. The Earth Kingdom were East Asian with one section of blacks random. Fire Nation completely South Asian. The Air nomads you could see a mixture of all. Which M. Night should have did for all the nations. The name pronunciations were crazy they take you if you watch the show right out of the movie.

They should have included Kyoshi Warriors, Avatar Roku, and the Fire Nation staring the war and various aspect of it.

3 out 10

 

[craigdbfan]

I'm still haunted by the scene in which several Earthbenders do an elaborate tai chi like dance to throw a small rock at a terribly low speed towards nothing. It was just so horribly shot and conceptualized that I can't believe it wasn't contested by anyone else involved in the production.



I'm seriously wondering if M.Night put an ounce of effort or any at all to make a good movie. Everything is so slap and dash.

 

[Krod2]

Considering that his last several films have been flops, I don't think that M Night can throw his weight around. However, he has gone on record as saying that he did look for the best actors to play the roles, but that still doesn't make the casting right.

I don't get why people continually say this amount Shyamalan. His last few films weren't flops. The Village made $250 million, The Happening made $160 million and it looks like Airbender is going to make a decent amount, too, especially after international gross. His only film that was even close to a "flop" was Lady in the Water, but that's one film out of seven that wasn't a hit (even that film broke even, not too bad). 87% hit rate. Find me another director who has that track record.

 

[Timstuff]

I've little doubt that this movie will make money in the long run, but the question is whether or not Paramount and Shyamalan will be man enough to admit that there's anything wrong with the movie and do anything to change it. Even Michael Bay eventually admitted to what was wrong with Transformers 2 and apologized for it, so I am hoping M. Night comes clean eventually too. They need to fix this movie on DVD with a decent Extended Edition that has the 25 minutes of last-minute cuts restored, and promise that the next film will have more character development, more humor, and less exposition.

 

[Timstuff]

And what really pisses me off about this movie, is that the marketing department clearly knows what the audience wants to see, and what is wrong with the movie. Everyone complains about Sokka being a boring stick and there being no Kyoshi Warriors, so in the commercials they have Sokka being funny in scenes that were cut from the film, and they show the Kyoshi Warriors fighting and being awesome. It's almost like the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. The Marketers show people what they want to see, while the movie only shows them what Paramount wants them to see. And that's just ******ed.

They should fire whoever signed off on this film's final cut and replace them with whoever is in charge of marketing it.

 

[craigdbfan]

Even an admittance of incompetence from M.Night wouldn't be enough to excuse this films grueling existence.

As bad as ROTF is I have to say that Airbender is still worse (can't believe what I'm writing). Just because all the potential for a great movie are there but weren't utilized to any effect.

At least with Bay he had the first Transformers film which for all sense and purpose is actually a pretty good film. It gave the audience a sense of awe when seeing these transforming pieces of machinery and the tension to the fight sequences were actually built up properly allowing for a thorough enjoyment of much of the action and to some degree parts of the plot.

With M. Night this was his first attempt at a franchise with a great source material as reference and missed the mark completely for the exception of ILM and the other aesthetically responsible crew (costume/set designers etc).

 

[Octoberist]

^I've always admitted to being easy to please

and have always held the opinion that a lot of you on this board are too damn difficult when it comes to films. The movie could be pure gold and I guarentee half this board would find some way to trash it

it's been done plenty before

and also, a movie doesn't have to be flawless in order for me to enjoy it. As along as it has a couple of things I like, I'm straight. Yes, the acting was atrocious, that was the first thing I noticed when I was watching it, fortunately for me, that was the ONLY flaw (thanks to never having seen the show). I loved the score, loved the actors, loved the action/visuals, and that's enough for me to sit through a viewing here and there

If you like it, that's fine. but you can't go 'why doesn't anyone like this movie?' because I've liked or enjoyed movies openingly and knew they were imperfect or not well received.

I love Indiana jones and the Temple of Doom and that tends to get a mixed response. I enjoyed 2012 but knew it wasn't a great movie.

But like what you stated in your first sentence, you're a person easy to please and that's what exactly what I wrote in my review. And that's fine. I'm not saying it's a bad quality. But I just don't see how the movie was that entertaining as a whole package. Some scenes were well done but it didn't come together.

 

[Joker's Lackey]

I have yet to see this film. I'm kinda lost interest from all the reviews. But I'm wondering something. Would this movie be better serve, if they split each book into two parts?


for example.
1st movie -> Water part One: Would deal with the first 8 episodes, ending with Aang going to see Roku at the Fire Temple. 2nd movie -> Water part Two: Would have been last 12 episodes, with Aang learning water bending and protecting the Northern Water Tribe.
3rd movie -> Earth part One: Would be the first 14 episodes. Dealing with the Library and the Drill. 4th movie -> Earth part Two: Would be the remaining 6 episodes where Ba Sing Se falls to the Fire Nation.
5th movie -> Fire part One: Combine episodes 4, 9-13. The last movie -> Fire part Two: Would start with Boiling Rock, and end with Sozin's Comet.

Would that be a better way of adapting the Last Airbender story? or having each book as one movie better?

 

[Spidey-Bat]

Don't be a jackass. I don't have to work in Hollywood to know that there is still racism within the industry. By using your flawed logic, someone had to live in Nazi Germany in order to be an "expert" on the Holocaust.

The Holocaust isn't the equivalent to racism, that's anti-Semitism which had existed hundred of years before Nazi Germany.

BULLCRAP. The series was based entirely around Asian culture, so those characters were indeed Asian and Inuit.

It was inspired by many cultures. And that doesn't mean the characters were only of those ethnicities. Many characters had no clear race: Aang, Ty Lee, Suki, Bumi, Earthbender wrestlers, Jet (as well as many of his gang members), the Mechanic, his son, and a bunch of others.

And how the hell am I being racist for criticizing the casting? Am I racist for criticizing the casting of Sam Jackson as Nick Fury?

You're saying white people can't play racially ambiguous characters.

Because voice acting is one of the few acting gigs that you can do "color blind" casting. That being said, I would love to have seen more Asian actors be given voice acting roles in the animated series.

 

[craigdbfan]

I have yet to see this film. I'm kinda lost interest from all the reviews. But I'm wondering something. Would this movie be better serve, if they split each book into two parts?


for example.
1st movie -> Water part One: Would deal with the first 8 episodes, ending with Aang going to see Roku at the Fire Temple. 2nd movie -> Water part Two: Would have been last 12 episodes, with Aang learning water bending and protecting the Northern Water Tribe.
3rd movie -> Earth part One: Would be the first 14 episodes. Dealing with the Library and the Drill. 4th movie -> Earth part Two: Would be the remaining 6 episodes where Ba Sing Se falls to the Fire Nation.
5th movie -> Fire part One: Combine episodes 4, 9-13. The last movie -> Fire part Two: Would start with Boiling Rock, and end with Sozin's Comet.

Would that be a better way of adapting the Last Airbender story? or having each book as one movie better?

No.

A longer running movie, a good script, and a director capable of handling the scope of the film while understanding that making the characters sound like humans and not exposition robots would have been suffice.

This movie needed a director that could have balanced the lore and character development equally something M.Night proved he wasn't able to do in spades with TLA.

I know Guillermo Del Toro often is the cliche default director for fantasy adaptations but he really could have done wonders if he wasn't working on the troubled production that is The Hobbit at the time.

Peter Jackson was able to condense and re imagine 398 pages worth of material into The Fellowship of the Ring which arguably has even more events occurring than that of Book 1 of A:TLA.

Jackson just can't get enough credit for what he did with LOTR. TLA is a great display in showing how hard its actually to pull off a successful fantasy film.

 

[Lighthouse]

Because the first film wasn't dreary enough....

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1643066/20100706/story.jhtml

'Last Airbender 2' Will Be 'Darker,'
M. Night Shyamalan Says
Sequel has not been green-lit, but writer/director already has two scripts in the works.
By Brian Warmoth

If a $53.3 million holiday weekend proves successful enough to keep M. Night Shyamalan around for a "Last Airbender" sequel, he knows what he wants to do — and he wants to do it darkly. Asked about his intentions going forward, the "Sixth Sense" and "Signs" director confirmed that he has much of "The Last Airbender 2" already mapped out.

"I do," Shyamalan told MTV News. "The third is more ambiguous, but the second one, I've written a draft that I'm really happy with and is darker and richer, and it has a wonderful antagonist in it in Azula, who's kind of like our only real, pure antagonist in the series, so I'm excited about that."

 

[craigdbfan]

He might be excited but I'm sure as hell not.

Either Paramount needs to grab a hold of the reigns and give this to someone capable or just scrap the entire franchise altogether.

Its unfair to the animated series for them to exhaust its cinematic potential on something like M. Nights "vision" of the series.

All of this is better kept in M.Nights head not the screen.

 

[Octoberist]

i'm sure he said that prior to the release or press screening. so no, i doubt he'll do it.

 

[TNC9852002]

I'm still haunted by the scene in which several Earthbenders do an elaborate tai chi like dance to throw a small rock at a terribly low speed towards nothing. It was just so horribly shot and conceptualized that I can't believe it wasn't contested by anyone else involved in the production.



I'm seriously wondering if M.Night put an ounce of effort or any at all to make a good movie. Everything is so slap and dash.

I could've swore I saw something similar in an episode...I didn't like how it was shot either, but I remember a short scene like that in the show..

 

[Nathan]

He might be excited but I'm sure as hell not.

Either Paramount needs to grab a hold of the reigns and give this to someone capable or just scrap the entire franchise altogether.

Its unfair to the animated series for them to exhaust its cinematic potential on something like M. Nights "vision" of the series.

All of this is better kept in M.Nights head not the screen.

I haven't seen the film yet, but from what I'm reading it's nothing but an angst fest with serious people. Something like Pirates of the Caribbean or Forbidden Kingdom, is probably what Movie should have been like, as far as quirkiness and humor go.

 

[Downhere]

Either Paramount needs to grab a hold of the reigns and give this to someone capable or just scrap the entire franchise altogether.

Seriously, this movie is making money and I can see Paramount going for a sequel and if they do they need to get rid of M. Night. He will destroy the awesomeness of the second book and this franchise may be able to be saved if they get someone else on board.

 

[Nathan]

Don't let him ruin Toph.

 

[Paradox1]

I've been reading some of the of the comments and I really thought it would be a love fest coming. Because this movie was awesome I can't understand how anybody could dislike it. My biggest gripe about this movie was that he followed the cartoon a little too closely. There were so many scenes that were exactly like the cartoon. The kid who played Ong was dead on that seen at the Airbender temple where Ong is all happy then realizes he's been gone for over a hundred years is beautiful. I understand why the cartoon never really dug into that deep of emotion with Aang after all its a cartoon. It made me laugh it made me want to cry sometimes all in the same scene. At the end everyone is thanking Ong and the look on his face was like someone shot his dog beautiful!!! Being the avatar is responsibility he doesn't want and thats a theme he stuck too.

Book two being darker is a must because it ends in failure at Ba Sing Se with Aang nearly dead. Btw the dragon of the West (General Iroh) was awesome I just need more of him. The guy who played Zuko was good too he was angry in the beginning then somewhere in the middle you start to feel compassion for him. At that dinner they threw for him where that piece of crap General was being so disrespectful. Seriously that dude was such a *****e bag I wanted to punch him myself more than once. All in all I gotta say it lived up to the hype for me it was great needed to be longer though. You know its a good movie when you don't want it to end.

 

[louiebling$]

Like I said previously... Stephen Sommers could do a better job than M Night.... not that he would be my choice just saying... he could do a better job.

 

[craigdbfan]

Seriously, this movie is making money and I can see Paramount going for a sequel and if they do they need to get rid of M. Night. He will destroy the awesomeness of the second book and this franchise may be able to be saved if they get someone else on board.

Hope it makes enough sort of like the way G.I Joe: Rise of Cobra managed to make and warrant itself a sequel.

Only with TLA they honestly need to hire a pair of good writers and a director who understands adapting the scope and knows how to develop a proper story arc structure that doesn't feel that its been through a meat grinder and developing characters relationship so they don't feel so goddamn wooden. This director doesn't even have to be familiar with the animated series but at least have the ability to familiarize and re imagine accordingly.

Someone like Gore Verbinski who can possibly add some much needed fun and right balance of comedy and seriousness, which is very much so possible but Night tries making this entire idea of balancing the two impossible. Which may be the case but just exclusively to his own abilities or rather limitations as a director.

 

[Nathan]

Has Shy ever done a Movie that was fun?

 

[Downhere]

Hope it makes enough sort of like the way G.I Joe: Rise of Cobra managed to make and warrant itself a sequel.

Only with TLA they honestly need to hire a pair of good writers and a director who understands adapting the scope and knows how to develop a proper story arc structure that doesn't feel that its been through a meat grinder and developing characters relationship so they don't feel so goddamn wooden. This director doesn't even have to be familiar with the animated series but at least have the ability to familiarize and re imagine accordingly.

Someone like Gore Verbinski who can possibly add some much needed fun and right balance of comedy and seriousness, which is very much so possible but Night tries making this entire idea of balancing the two impossible. Which may be the case but just exclusively to his own abilities or rather limitations as a director.

Yeah, I kind of see this going the way of G.I. Joe, making around $300 million worldwide which would green light a sequel.

The unfortunate part will be if they continue on with M. Night at the helm. He will just continue to make a mockery of the source material and further create an uninteresting and disjointed mess of a sequel. The animated series has always been serious yet extremely humorous and there can be a balance of both on film if someone skilled would be in the director's chair.

Honestly, I think back to the movie and am still amazed that there are people actually enjoying this soulless, lifeless, mess of a movie. It's just a slap in the face to the awesomeness of the animated series.