Avatar: The Last Airbender
polycounter lvl 10
Greatest show or greatest show?
I just wrapped up 6th time watching series, and I'm honestly considering the 7th go right now.
For those of you who might have seen a few episodes and thought it was garbage, I assure you that no group of episodes could give the show justice out of context. I know I certainly had no interest in it from the few scattered episodes that I saw...but once I started it fresh with a buddy, I can honestly say that it has changed my life.
It beats out any game, movie, book, or other show that I have seen, and is really just a great experience.
I will say as a word of caution, the writing on the first few episodes is pretty bad, but there is some important character background in them, and they are necessary to watch. You just have to bear with the awkward humor and you'll soon be right into the meat of the story.
That being said, the movie coming out (The Last Airbender, trailer here: [ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W1dhqc-JBs[/ame]) is pretty much destined to fail.
I'm not blaming the director, the actors, or even the strange casting choices (i.e. entirely Indian fire nation...), but simply the fact that there is no way to cram 20 episodes into 2 hours and have a satisfactory result.
Anyway, who else enjoyed the show?
I just wrapped up 6th time watching series, and I'm honestly considering the 7th go right now.
For those of you who might have seen a few episodes and thought it was garbage, I assure you that no group of episodes could give the show justice out of context. I know I certainly had no interest in it from the few scattered episodes that I saw...but once I started it fresh with a buddy, I can honestly say that it has changed my life.
It beats out any game, movie, book, or other show that I have seen, and is really just a great experience.
I will say as a word of caution, the writing on the first few episodes is pretty bad, but there is some important character background in them, and they are necessary to watch. You just have to bear with the awkward humor and you'll soon be right into the meat of the story.
That being said, the movie coming out (The Last Airbender, trailer here: [ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W1dhqc-JBs[/ame]) is pretty much destined to fail.I'm not blaming the director, the actors, or even the strange casting choices (i.e. entirely Indian fire nation...), but simply the fact that there is no way to cram 20 episodes into 2 hours and have a satisfactory result.
Anyway, who else enjoyed the show?
Replies
Some very awesome characters in the series.
Toph is AMAZING!
Zuko has some real character development going for him, something rare in American cartoons.
And Uncle is beyond awesome. (RIP Mako. The tribute episode with him remembering his son was very touching.)
Plus one of my fave comic artists, Aaron Alexovich, did some character designs.
The Last Airbender movie.... umm... yeah... we'll see.
(I've had a couple BIG rants about it on this forum and another, wont repeat here
For those of you who don't know, casting director was torn a new asshole for selecting a mostly-Caucasian cast for the movie. This, however, is totally ridiculous when the opposing argument is heard.
The waves of sheep jumping on the bandwagon of complaint were stating that the show bears a heavy asian influence, and all characters should therefore be portrayed by Eastern Asian actors. They even went so far as to say that Americans are so frightened to see anyone who is not whitewash typical caucasian in a leading role, that we are just too uncomfortable with the idea of an asian lead.
If I may jump in, I just think that is absolutely ridiculous. Nobody cares. In an adaptation of a book with description, the character should simply match the description. Nothing more, nothing less. From a show, the adaptation has the additional requirement of meeting an already-existing visual concept. If there is a visual match, then there is suspension of disbelief and a more comfortable experience for the audience.
That being said, the actor's race is totally irrelevant. If they look the part, they are an appropriate match. The only racism to be found in that process was (in this case) to be found on the part of the accusers, who were stating that caucasians were unfit to play roles in this movie. This is foolish not only because they'd completely pidgeonhole the casting director to eastern asians, but because there isn't even anything contextual that suggests the characters were asian at all.
Regardless, as a backlash to all the complaining, the casting director went apeshit and cast the firenation exclusively with an Indian cast. That certainly settled down the accusations of a racist casting director... but lo, the cast now looks absolutely nothing what they're supposed to look like.
anyway, /end rant.
This thread is mainly intended to be about the show, not the movie
yup man, the characters are what make the show. Zukos evolution is just a great reflection of the struggle that happens in all of us. I mean you can take his honor/pride vs. his destiny and use it as a metaphor for any struggle you face, so he's a really great character to connect to.
And yes, Iroh is hands down the greatest character in my opinion. (I maybe cry a little bit at Mako's passing....kind of sort of every time
I think the problem here is that they are trying to make a cartoon, which for the most part is fairly colourful and lighthearted (although I think it gets darker towards the end), into some epic-like movie. Don't forget that most of the moves and stuff in the cartoon is kinda over-the-top, and when man tries to replicate that kind of thing on the silver screen it just looks ridiculous like Power Rangers.
haha ever read a book that became a movie later?
I like how hes not looking like yet another McCauleyCulkin / youg Vader / 6th sense kid.
Despite this, I would highly recommend the series. It is a bit of a slow starter, but once you get into it, you won't be able to quit.
The ethnicity of the actors in the film doesn't bother me over much. I don't mind some of them being caucasian. It will bother me slightly if almost all of them are caucasian, though. The series presents a world inspired by eastern culture, but with its own diverse ethnicities. Two of the primary protagonists are clearly supposed to be Alutian. (Eskimos) If those characters are cast as a couple of white kids, it would definitely take me out of the experience a little bit.
Another thing to consider is that there are not many english speaking Asian actors in hollywood.
http://www.slapyo.com/wp-content/NintendoNerdLord.jpg
Anyone?
That's why they are making three movies.
http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2008/11/05/shyamalan-eager-to-transform-image-with-last-airbender-franchise/
Fox is doing it? Shitballs.
The problem with airbender's casting was that NONE of the actors looked like good choices for the characters of the show regardless of ethnicity, which was a horrible way to start when the source material is pretty good. Then they reversed all their choices and now we've got a korean guy as the father of an indian guy for a nation of indian people who were primarily influenced by china/japan/korea. This works how? Is it going to be a bunch of indian people pretending to not be indian or are we just completely changing the entire culture to be indian? That's kind of a big freaking change.
There are legitimate reasons to change source material to make a good movie. Completely changing perfectly decent characters is not one of them. That's just marketing and typical hollywood bullshit casting. Is it really so hard to find an asian actor to play a character who looks asian? Seriously.
20 episodes IS the first movie. there are 61 total i believe, 20 per book and the 3rd is a bit long
It's based around China's Forbidden City... honestly it would look quite goofy to have a mass of non-Asian actors dressed in Chinese styled clothing in a very Chinese styled city.
I mean seriously... Jasper from Twilight (though I like him) is Sokka... Talk about being far from a dark skinned Alutian. :P
They took a multicultural world and completely homogenized it for the sake of ease. Let's re-cast Shaka Zulu or Seven Samurai with white people while keeping them in their original settings and see what happens.
(That was a joke, calm down.)
It speaks volumes about the current state of Hollywood.
Oh and there was an article on the Bebop movie that said it had to be re-written because it was, and they were serious about this, TOO EPIC. http://www.cartoonleap.com/2009/09/23/cowboy-bebop-live-action-movie-needs-rewriting/
ya this is the kind of flawed logic to which i'm referring. The jedi knights, are for instance, largely inspired by the samurai. as the connection between the two became clearer, i wouldn't expect the casting of a jedi to become more and more japanese. I would still accept the jedi as a completely separate entity, and simply expect them to meet their physical description.
Now, in regards to you very cliche statement about the state of hollywood, i just don't see the same world you do. people in hollywood are fuckers, sure, and there are plenty of movies that are likely to be as generic as possible (i.e. a romantic comedy is likely to fit this bill). however, fantasy really has no problem branching out. like i said, there is already a multiethnic cast, which was set to shut people like you up...and yet you continue to cry. the result of the multiethnic casting now is that they chose the cast BECAUSE of their race, to combat the "whitewash" accusations.
What they should have done is simply ignored the masses, and looked for people that fit the role.
Zuko, for instance, looked eastern asian. Aang does not. Sokka and katara look northern, sure, but i happen to think rathebone fits pretty well with a tan. Zuko ended up being cast as Asian (Indian) and is a terrible terrible terrible fit. In the show, HE looks eastern asian, as with the majority of his family, and now they are all a bunch of mismatched terrible choices. it's infuriating.
Jesse mccartney was a very strange choice, and not a good one...yet i assume you largely prefer dev patel for zuko. while neither one are at all appropriate matches, mccartney looks infinitely more like zuko, yet people were satisfied with the change to patel because he wasn't caucasian. that is just so racially focused it undermines the purpose of fantasy...and has ultimately destroyed the spirit of what could have been a pretty enjoyable movie
Yes, we may be caught up on race a little much but...
Avatar is set in a VERY ASIAN world. The race of the actors is the only thing that changed. Nothing else from what I have seen is being changed.
The clothing, cities, the martial arts and the very concept of the elements and bending are entirely Asian. There are elements present that have cultural meaning, symbology and certain connotations behind them.
These are still Americans dressing and living in an Asian world.
I wouldn't care if this were someone's original movie, but the fact that it is using established IP and characters of specific ethnic origins and changing them because they possibly could not find Asian actors (bullshit) changes things.
*goes to find his last rant on the subject*
This was in reference to the Dragonball movie:
EXACTLY!
And they did NOT do this, either time.
Fantasy movies are ALL about casting.
Good casting can elevate a decent fantasy movie into a really good one. Great casting will make it live forever. Bad casting can take me out of a movie faster than anything (George Clooney, great actor, TERRIBLE Batman).
Take the American Revolution... don't change the story or setting now cast all the main actors with Persians, Nigerians or Native Americans... doesn't fit does it? People are going to look at it and be like "By George, something about this moving picture is a bit queer!"
Normally, I don't care about changes to a character's race or whatever, UNTIL it is a direct confrontation with the established setting/culture.
The reverse is true too... I have a major problem when a Caucasian character enters into another ethnic culture, learns their ways, becomes one of them (usually in a few days or weeks) and eventually becomes their savior or whatever.
It's one of my pet peeves.
Sure it may still turn out to be a pretty good movie, and I hope it does!... but no one has seen that yet, so we are only left with speculation and surface appearances to debate.
And by George something about this moving picture is a bit queer!
At any rate, it's good to see I am not the only one who likes the show!
I've built up a lot of respect for other cultures and tend to get a little worked up at times.
You should see me with Native American stuff!
'Kokopeli isn't supposed to have a flute! It's his penis, he's a symbol of fertility!'
And definitely don't get me going on 'how did ancient cultures build this! type deals'
lol
roger ebert's review: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100630/REVIEWS/100639999
rottentomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/last_airbender/
The only good review on rottentomatoes basically still calls the movie trash.
At least so far its gotten a decent first review in Nintendo Power.
sucks considering how good the cartoon is (or so I hear)
spoilers, especially if you have not seen the series:
I think if you are dying to see some live-action bending, it is probably worth checking out, but while a lot of the stuff reviewers have said is bullshit, other parts are totally spot-on.
Also the screened.com review pretty much buried this one. I guess I won't be seeing it any time soon.
i just hope that the movie doesn't destroy all chances of there being another cartoon series.
one of my favorite shows of all time. right up there wth House, SVU, Voyager, and X-Files.
a Kinect fighting game would be interesting...
Man this sounds horrendous from the reviews...am I the only one who wants to see it MORE now?
I mean, if it were so-so bad, like most bad movies, then eh, who cares...but this sounds gloriously bad. A movie this terrible only comes along once a decade! I need to see it in the theaters!