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Thread: "The Last Airbender"

  1. #1
    Oliphaunt Rube E. Tewesday's avatar
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    Default "The Last Airbender"

    I haven't seen the movie. I probably won't see the movie. I'm curious though: Is there any way anything called "The Last Airbender" can be any good?

    Opinions, please.

  2. #2
    I've had better days, but I don't care! hatesfreedom's avatar
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    The cartoon series is really good, but it's pretty long so I can't imagine how they're going to touch even a fraction of the material. But yah if you wanna just chill out and watch a cartoon series good enough for adults you won't do wrong by renting the last airbender.

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    Elen síla lumenn' omentielvo What Exit?'s avatar
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    A friend just called me about going to see this. I had no interest but he thinks the previews look great.

    It is based on a show on Cartoon Network I believe which is based on probably a Japanese cartoon.

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    The Queen Zuul's avatar
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    From what I understand, it's a huge disappointment to fans of the cartoon series. A couple friends of mine saw it last night and they were all pretty displeased.

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    Oliphaunt
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    Quote Originally posted by What Exit? View post
    It is based on a show on Cartoon Network I believe which is based on probably a Japanese cartoon.
    Nickelodeon. It's not based on any Japanese show, just influenced in style by anime.

    The cartoon is fantastic. I've been Netflix-ing it for a few months, and it is seriously one of the best genre TV shows I've ever seen. The world-building, plot set-up, and characterization are all surprisingly well thought out, and on top of all that, it's funny.

    The fact that the movie is getting such rubbish reviews makes me sad; I was kind of looking forward to it.
    Last edited by Orual; 02 Jul 2010 at 10:50 AM.

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    The Queen Zuul's avatar
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    So was I, Orual. I'm still going to see it even so, but from all accounts it's probably going to leave me wanting to kick M. Night Shamalama in the face even more than I already do.
    So now they are just dirt-covered English people in fur pelts with credit cards.

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    Elephant terrifel's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Rube E. Tewesday View post
    I haven't seen the movie. I probably won't see the movie. I'm curious though: Is there any way anything called "The Last Airbender" can be any good?

    Opinions, please.
    Word on the street is that the cartoon the movie is based on was called "Avatar," but that title couldn't be used because some fly-by-night movie production was coming out with the same name.

    I think the movie could be good as long as it treats airbending with respect. In this modern age of impersonal, mass-produced air processing technology, it's worth looking back at the days when air was bent totally by hand. True, the air of today is far cheaper and more convenient, but the skill and craftsmanship of the village airbender has been lost. What have we really gained?

    Of course, Hollywood being what it is, the odds are that the airbending is completely overshadowed by a romantic subplot or something like that.

    Then again, if M. Night Shamalayan is involved, perhaps it will be revealed at the end that
    Spoiler (mouseover to read):
    no air was ever really bent. It was all some other mixture of gases the whole time.

  8. #8
    Elephant artifex's avatar
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    It has a 9% rating on rottentomatoes. That is SO bad. I have a couple friends who are really irritated about the allegedly racist casting.

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    Aged Turtle Wizard Clothahump's avatar
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    I've seen it twice. It's a good movie. I think that most of the bad ratings came from the same kind of people who whined about Peter Jackson's leaving Tom Bombadil out of The Lord of The Rings.
    Political correctness will be the death of our country.

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    The Queen Zuul's avatar
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    So you're saying What Exit? wrote all the reviews.

  11. #11
    Elephant terrifel's avatar
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    I am going to go out on a limb and suggest that whatever fanbase the original Nickelodeon cartoon had probably does not extend so far as to encompass 91% of professional film critics everywhere.

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    The Queen Zuul's avatar
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    Kids might still get a kick out of it but I imagine the hardcore fanboys of the cartoon (yes, it has hardcore fanboys) are frothing. The names are pronounced wrong, the characters are wildly different and, oh yeah:


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    Oliphaunt
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    To be perfectly fair, it's probably a little challenging to find dark complected people with bright blue eyes, unless there's a whole bunch of Persian or Afghan actors I don't know about.

    Turning the Fire Nation into South Asians just doesn't make any frigging sense though.
    Last edited by Orual; 09 Jul 2010 at 10:33 AM.

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    Elen síla lumenn' omentielvo What Exit?'s avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Clothahump
    I've seen it twice. It's a good movie. I think that most of the bad ratings came from the same kind of people who whined about Peter Jackson's leaving Tom Bombadil out of The Lord of The Rings.
    Quote Originally posted by Zuul View post
    So you're saying What Exit? wrote all the reviews.
    Well to be fair, I knew that would happened but there were plenty of other changes I complained about. Mine were mostly involving Arwen and Elrond.

  15. #15
    The Queen Zuul's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Orual
    To be perfectly fair, it's probably a little challenging to find dark complected people with bright blue eyes, unless there's a whole bunch of Persian or Afghan actors I don't know about.
    Eyes like that occur in a number of Middle Eastern and North African populations. I think Rami Malek would be too old to play a fifteen year old, but he's a dark complected actor with blue eyes and I'm sure there are a lot more who would have come out in droves to audition for a part that lets them play something other than a suspiciously tan white person.

  16. #16
    Oliphaunt
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    Quote Originally posted by Zuul View post
    Eyes like that occur in a number of Middle Eastern and North African populations. I think Rami Malek would be too old to play a fifteen year old, but he's a dark complected actor with blue eyes and I'm sure there are a lot more who would have come out in droves to audition for a part that lets them play something other than a suspiciously tan white person.
    Well, if there's one, there are probably others, you're right. (This Rami Malek fellow - why didn't they cast him as the Prince of Persia*?)


    *blah blah Persians are not Arabs blah

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    The Queen Zuul's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Orual View post
    Well, if there's one, there are probably others, you're right. (This Rami Malek fellow - why didn't they cast him as the Prince of Persia*?)


    *blah blah Persians are not Arabs blah
    He's not an Arab either, but ethnic Egyptian. And he's played a Persian before. Oh, casting.

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    Elephant terrifel's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Orual View post
    To be perfectly fair, it's probably a little challenging to find dark complected people with bright blue eyes, unless there's a whole bunch of Persian or Afghan actors I don't know about.
    If only there were some form of technology available to change the color of an actor's eyes for theatrical purposes.

  19. #19
    Oliphaunt Rube E. Tewesday's avatar
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    Well, if blue eyes are the only issue...if John Rhys-Davies can play a dwarf, probably an Asian can be given blue eyes through the magic of movies.

  20. #20
    The Queen Zuul's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by terrifel View post
    If only there were some form of technology available to change the color of an actor's eyes for theatrical purposes.
    That's crazy talk. We'll simply have to paint a blue eyed white person brown. Or...wait, nah. Let's be lazy and not even give him a tan. Nobody'll notice.

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    Elen síla lumenn' omentielvo What Exit?'s avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Rube E. Tewesday View post
    Well, if blue eyes are the only issue...if John Rhys-Davies can play a dwarf, probably an Asian can be given blue eyes through the magic of movies.
    Not to mention his most famous pre-Gimli character as Sallah from the Indiana Jones movies.

  22. #22
    Oliphaunt
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    Quote Originally posted by Rube E. Tewesday View post
    Well, if blue eyes are the only issue...if John Rhys-Davies can play a dwarf, probably an Asian can be given blue eyes through the magic of movies.
    Why Asian though (assuming you mean East Asian)?

    While there are many characters in Avatar that look like they should be played by East Asians, to me Sokka and Katara are not among them. Aang? Yes. Zuko? Well in my head he looks like Rufio because that's who does his voice.

    I won't say that the casting of the movie isn't fucked up, because it clearly is, but of any characters in the show to be cast as white people, the Water Tribe bothers me the least.
    Last edited by Orual; 09 Jul 2010 at 11:16 AM.

  23. #23
    Oliphaunt Rube E. Tewesday's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Orual View post
    Why Asian though (assuming you mean East Asian)?

    While there are many characters in Avatar that look like they should be played by East Asians, to me Sokka and Katara are not among them. Aang? Yes. Zuko? Well in my head he looks like Rufio because that's who does his voice.

    I won't say that the casting of the movie isn't fucked up, because it clearly is, but of any characters in the show to be cast as white people, the Water Tribe bothers me the least.
    I meant Asian in its broadest sense. I really know nothing about the cartoon (when I'd seen references to it, I'd assumed it was spun off from the Cameron movie), and I started this thread out of genuine (if idle) curiosity about the odd title.

  24. #24
    Oliphaunt
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    Quote Originally posted by Rube E. Tewesday View post
    I meant Asian in its broadest sense. I really know nothing about the cartoon (when I'd seen references to it, I'd assumed it was spun off from the Cameron movie), and I started this thread out of genuine (if idle) curiosity about the odd title.
    Ah. Apologies for the excessive nerding.

    (You might want to Netflix the show, though. It's definitely worth watching.)

  25. #25
    A Groupie Marsilia's avatar
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    So, for several years, Zuul would roll her eyes at me (I could hear it through the phone, okay?) every time I saw a movie in the theater. No matter what the reviewers had said, no matter what kind of crap she'd heard it was from other people, no matter what she'd heard about it, I always had something good to say about it.

    Well, on Tuesday, I saw The Last Airbender.

    The visuals were very pretty.

    Did the casting bother me? Not really, but I was never a fan of the cartoon. I was much more bothered by the clunky exposition in the poorly written dialogue. I actually felt sorry for the cast, which consisted of some pretty decent actors who really seemed to want to believe in what they were saying. I found the "bending" choreography downright laughable at times (including the earth bending scene that made me want to burst into a West Side Story number).

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