Sokka saves the day
Jun. 30th, 2010 11:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
secondlinaOh, yes, it's the time for summer movies again.
This weekend, the dreaded "Last Airbender" movie comes out. The movie is dreaded by many fans for being an silly, over-angst-y , potentially racist re-make of a pretty darn good youth tv series called "Avatar the Last Airbender".
For those of you who don't know, this is basically a movie where 4 nations themed by elements are at war, mainly the nation of "fire" is kicking everyone's collective ass. In every nation, you have "benders", people who can manipulate the elements using martial arts moves. And you have one spirit, always reincarnated, the avatar - the only person that can use all four elements. And his job is to keep things in balance. War is not balance apparently. So basically, this plot mixes adventures, action, martial arts and "magic". The tv series also had a good dose of humor, which I found might be lacking in the movie.
I have been debating whether I wanted to see this movie or not.
On one side, the terrible racist attitude towards the casting, the costumes and the apparent lack of humor make me NOT want to go.
On the other side, the martial arts seem excellent and respected (everyone went to boot camp), I love the idea of an Hindou inspired firenation (Devi version of Azula.... My god. I'm in love), and the special effects look computastic.
So this weekend, will I go see "The Last Airbender?"
Not this weekend. But the next one? Yes.
Why?
I guess you could say my curiosity got the best of me. And I want to see if this movie is truly as awful as the fans make it to be. I can at least agree with everyone that the costume feature horrible mistakes (like being folded the wrong way, indicating that a character is "dead").
The main thing that convinced me to go was this TV spot. Because in this spot you see Sokka being funny, as he should be. Sarcasm and a giant yelling of "WOO-HOO". And i'm thinking, if they kept that instead of turning Sokka in pure angst, I mgiht as well give the movie a chance. Yeah, I have a soft spot for Sokka.
So, fan friends who are less curious then me and stick to your boycotts, i'll be glad to inform you later if this movie is fail or win. Though i'm thinking, it's probably going to be neither. Somewhere smack in the middle. Like so many fantasy movies these days, it's going to be neither good or bad.
Fantasy movies nowadays seem to generalize the "magical country". See Narnia and Tim Burton's Alice. The country doesn't seem to have any specific cultural elements other then "generic fantasic medieval setting à la King Arthur miniseries". And this movie seems to be going the same way (due to several asian elements being "americanized"). Countries on the same WORLD are dramatically different. I don't know why fantasy lands are so darn similar to us. Needs work, people.
- Isa
EDIT : GAAAH The reviews so far are painful.
This weekend, the dreaded "Last Airbender" movie comes out. The movie is dreaded by many fans for being an silly, over-angst-y , potentially racist re-make of a pretty darn good youth tv series called "Avatar the Last Airbender".
For those of you who don't know, this is basically a movie where 4 nations themed by elements are at war, mainly the nation of "fire" is kicking everyone's collective ass. In every nation, you have "benders", people who can manipulate the elements using martial arts moves. And you have one spirit, always reincarnated, the avatar - the only person that can use all four elements. And his job is to keep things in balance. War is not balance apparently. So basically, this plot mixes adventures, action, martial arts and "magic". The tv series also had a good dose of humor, which I found might be lacking in the movie.
I have been debating whether I wanted to see this movie or not.
On one side, the terrible racist attitude towards the casting, the costumes and the apparent lack of humor make me NOT want to go.
On the other side, the martial arts seem excellent and respected (everyone went to boot camp), I love the idea of an Hindou inspired firenation (Devi version of Azula.... My god. I'm in love), and the special effects look computastic.
So this weekend, will I go see "The Last Airbender?"
Not this weekend. But the next one? Yes.
Why?
I guess you could say my curiosity got the best of me. And I want to see if this movie is truly as awful as the fans make it to be. I can at least agree with everyone that the costume feature horrible mistakes (like being folded the wrong way, indicating that a character is "dead").
The main thing that convinced me to go was this TV spot. Because in this spot you see Sokka being funny, as he should be. Sarcasm and a giant yelling of "WOO-HOO". And i'm thinking, if they kept that instead of turning Sokka in pure angst, I mgiht as well give the movie a chance. Yeah, I have a soft spot for Sokka.
So, fan friends who are less curious then me and stick to your boycotts, i'll be glad to inform you later if this movie is fail or win. Though i'm thinking, it's probably going to be neither. Somewhere smack in the middle. Like so many fantasy movies these days, it's going to be neither good or bad.
Fantasy movies nowadays seem to generalize the "magical country". See Narnia and Tim Burton's Alice. The country doesn't seem to have any specific cultural elements other then "generic fantasic medieval setting à la King Arthur miniseries". And this movie seems to be going the same way (due to several asian elements being "americanized"). Countries on the same WORLD are dramatically different. I don't know why fantasy lands are so darn similar to us. Needs work, people.
- Isa
EDIT : GAAAH The reviews so far are painful.
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no subject
Date: 2010-06-30 04:56 pm (UTC)I think regardless of how the movie really is, it's never going to be quite as good as the television series since it doesn't have the gift of time. The movie is going to have to wrap the plot up in three hours or less, while the television series goes on for a lot longer than that. I'm curious to see the movie, but at this point I want to finish the first season at least. I might have seen the first Harry Potter movie before diving into the books, but it seems wrong to scratch the surface of the cartoon, only to plunge headlong into its movie version.
Question though: Have you read the Narnia series? It may all seem to be generalized in the movies, but given they've only showcased two cultures (Narnia itself is a country within a world), it seems a bit unfair to classify it as just "magical country". I don't know if the movies will ever go so far, but the world Narnia inhabits has quite a few different countries with vastly different cultures. But given how one is very heavily influenced by Middle Eastern/Islamic culture, we might never see that culture on the big screen...
no subject
Date: 2010-06-30 06:19 pm (UTC)In the world of Avatar though, it seems people are suppose to stay in their element-themed nation or something. I never really got why the nations were so separated. I guess to keep it simple for kids?
Yeah the Narnia books present a more diversified version of Narnia, but i'm sorry - in the movie, Prince Caspian didn't really seem all that different. Just darker-skinned. And about a 100 years passed for narnia and the clothing and technology seemed virtually the same. They didn't really illustrate the differences and the evolution of the land so well.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-01 01:50 am (UTC)The nations would thrive wherever the elements they can control exist, hence why water benders are at the poles, earth benders live in mountainous regions, airbenders live high in the mountain peaks, etc. Plus, it does break things down and make it easier for kids. Also, it would be far easier for a specific race of benders to be killed off if they were conveniently in one area instead of being spread throughout the entire world population.
Hee hee, I have to laugh. They actually added to the culture of Prince Caspian's people (gah, brain, the Telmarines?) for the movie since they originally were white Anglo-Saxons, blonde hair, blue eyes, etc. Having the more Spanish influence and darker skin and hair made them stand out much more against the Pevensie children than they would have otherwise. And you can blame C.S. Lewis for things staying the same. In Narnia alone, the inhabitants seemed content to stay close to basics and worship Aslan than to try and develop the world as ours is. Really, if you look at our own world history, up until the past couple of centuries, there was very little change in how the world was. Something has to trigger change.