When I saw recent trailers I was really appalled at frankly how painful white the leads look. It's not just the skin or eye color--they're features are simply obviously European, and that's something no tanning effect can change. I just don't know what he was thinking. I also didn't realize the goal was to tell Ang's story in a trilogy, though that makes sense given the complexity of the story arc in the TV series. But even here, it seems, M. Knight wasn't up to the task, as everyone's saying the film has the obvious feeling of being rushed and simply a setup for more to come.
Maybe they can turn the property over to Peter Jackson, Guillermo Del Toro, or somebody more competent? Even the folks behind the first two Narnia pics would do a better job. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mr. Worf" <hellomahog...@gmail.com> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, July 3, 2010 7:31:14 AM Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] "Last Airbender" Widely Panned Maybe he or his bosses thought that it would have more appeal if it were a white cast? I dunno. I wonder how close it was to the storyline or even the anime? Sometimes it is kind of hard to take a story like that and boil it down to 90 minutes. On Sat, Jul 3, 2010 at 4:12 AM, Martin Baxter < martinbaxt...@gmail.com > wrote: I'm really doubting that he looked. Seeing the source material the first time through would drive me to cast other than Caucasian actors. Common sense. On Sat, Jul 3, 2010 at 7:05 AM, Mr. Worf < hellomahog...@gmail.com > wrote: In one of his interviews about the movie he talked about mixed racial casting that he did. He seem proud of the fact that he did that, but I doubt he actually looked at the "big picture." Nor did he look at race relations and Hollywood's history of portrayal race on screen. On Sat, Jul 3, 2010 at 3:52 AM, Martin Baxter < martinbaxt...@gmail.com > wrote: Keith, I wish I could even guess what M Night had on his mind. On Sat, Jul 3, 2010 at 2:10 AM, Keith Johnson < keithbjohn...@comcast.net > wrote: Well, this saves me from a difficult choice. Really irritated at how Asian and Inuit characters were being played by white actors (with the odd exception of the Japanese Prince Zuko being played by an Indian?!) I was seriously debating whether to support "The Last Airbender". I wanted to blow off my anger and just see a good movie, but when I saw trailers, and how Ang and his friends are in Asian/Inuit garb, but are oh-so-painfully Caucasian, I started the hand wringing all over again. I was way along the way to not going to see it, but partially worried I'd be missing something special in terms of a good fantasy flick. Not to worry, it seems. Almost without exception, from old and young, white and Asian and black, fans of the series and newbies alike, I'm hearing this thing is terrible. Dull, plodding, grim, boring---looks like the hoped-for trilogy of films will never become a reality. Some have even compared it to "Battlefield Earth"! I guess that's too bad? I think a lot of Asians and Inuits are not-so-secretly looking at this with grim satisfaction, and can't say I blame them. And despite my anger at M. Knight for whitewashing so many leads in the movie, I almost feel sorry for the guy: what in the hell is wrong with him after the handful of gems he created to burst onto the movie scene?! I dropped a spattering of movie reviews I found below. The last is the closest thing to a good review I could find... *************************************************************** [Rotten Tomatoes] http://beta.rottentomatoes.com/m/last_airbender/ Consensus: Despite flashy special effects, The Last Airbender squanders the potential of its popular source material on an incomprehensible plot, laughable dialogue, and a joyless sense of detachment. *********************************************************** [slashfilm] Read more: The Last Airbender Review: The Last Straw for This Shyamalan Fan | /Film http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/07/02/the-last-airbender-review-the-last-straw-for-this-shyamalan-fan/#ixzz0sZmBJgQu With the release of The Last Airbender , M. Night Shyamalan’s gradual metamorphosis into George Lucas is complete. Just like the Star Wars director, Shyamalan burst onto the scene with a couple innovative films ( The Sixth Sense , Unbreakable ), and displayed a talent for visuals early on. And just like Lucas, Shyamalan’s screenwriting deficiencies, and his inability to properly take criticism from others, have led to his downfall. *********************************************************** [E! Online] http://uk.eonline.com/uberblog/b188788_last_airbender_worst_movie_ever.html Is Last Airbender the Worst Movie Ever? Today 12:47 PM PDT by Joal Ryan Paramount Pictures The Last Airbender is " dull ," " dreadful ," and, lowest of low blows, " like a Care Bears movie ." Well, all right, hardly any movie gets perfect reviews. But has any film ever gotten so many bad reviews? The short answer is Battlefield Earth —meaning, yes, other films have been blasted good by critics. But, boy, oh boy, in Hollywood's summer of unloved movies, The Last Airbender , which opened Thursday, is getting some historic hate. As of this morning, its Metacritic rating stood at 20, "good" for a spot on the review-crunching site's all-time low scores list. ( Airbender 's down there between Digimon: The Movie and the Lisa Kudrow rap classic, Marci X .) Worse, outside of Ashton Kutcher 's and Katherine Heigl 's Killers , Airbender is the only 2010 wide release on the Metacritic's list of shame. Things are no better at Rotten Tomatoes, where its Tomatometer reading is a barely there 9 percent , which is actually up from yesterday's 6 percent. (For the record, our own Luke Y. Thompson assigned the " most boring summer-action epic in ages " a D+.) **************************************************** [Beyond Hollywood] http://www.beyondhollywood.com/the-last-airbender-2010-movie-review/ ... It’s not so much that “The Last Airbender” is a bad movie, it’s just that … well, it just kind of exists for the sake of existing . I’ll be perfectly honest with you, I had a hard time trying to decide if the film is bad, or if it is just mediocre. One thing I can safely say with 100% certainty is that the film is never outstanding. Not once in the entire two hours. It’s as if M. Night Shyamalan spent so much time with the little things – getting all the details of the water city stronghold just right, the nooks and crannies of the Fire Nation ships, the colorful outfits of the various tribes — that he forgot to make the film good . Oh sure, the sets are huge and the CGI is always outstanding, and all the “bending” effects are seamlessly integrated into the scenes with the live characters, but … well, what else is there? Not much, I’m afraid.... -- "If all the world's a stage and we are merely players, who the bloody hell wrote the script?" -- Charles E Grant http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik -- Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/ -- "If all the world's a stage and we are merely players, who the bloody hell wrote the script?" -- Charles E Grant http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik -- Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/
