Sokka saves the day

[secondlina]

Oh, 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.

Comments

[starmetal-oak.livejournal.com]

I'm going to see it. I'm not someone who really watched the series but I think the movie looks fun and I frankly don't care who they cast. I think the boy lead looks exactly like the cartoon version. I don't care what race is family is from.

If this was an Asian-made anime that was changed in American hands, it would be different. But this anime is American and I think they have the right to chose how the characters look. It's a fantasy world, and to assume that since they do martial arts and live in an area that looks slightly asian in appearance and therefor they must be asian is just as stereotypical.

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

People who knew the original series are the ones who are the most affected by the "racial" issues. Because the series was very clearly asian oriented. They had a chinese language and a ancient clothing specialist as part of the development team. For a kids shows. And all the signs in the background are written in flawless ancient chinese. In the tv series, it was more then a "slightly asian setting". It was fully a magical version of ancien asia.

Though I can see why this debate can seem ridiculous to someone who doesn't know the series and goes "what gives?" But it's about the same type of debate as the one that surrounded the "all white" cast of the "Tales of Earthsea" miniseries. If you haven't read the books, you don't care. But if you read the books and know that that world is suppose to be uber-diversified, you feel somewhat hurt or insulted by the changes.

As for the last Airbender, The casting itself is not the thing that really bothers people I think. It was the pure insensitivity of the casting crew who told people to come in ethnic garb with sentences such as "If you're Korean, wear a kimono!" (sic). Of course, that's their own lack of research speaking.

I think my point is, I see both sides of the debate, both the "who the hell cares?" side and the "racist movie" side.

And yeah, the movie looks kinda fun. The bottom line is, I want to see it and make my own opinion.