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Yes, I Have Seen the Airbender Trailer

Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 10:06 am by Jamie

No, I will not be linking it. You’ll be seeing it during the Super Bowl this weekend anyway so you’ll be able to make your own judgment.

For me, this is not a true Airbender movie. It doesn’t at all represent a true translation of the film into live action. It’s sort of bad remix done by an over-hyped hack, sort of like when Puffy does a remix of a song, more a tribute gone horribly wrong than an actual translation. The spirit of the show is completely lost glossed over with shiny ‘splosions, glowy things, and that water alien creature from The Abyss. I put the blame squarely on M. Night Shyamalan’s shoulders. He could have told the casting director to eat a full bag of dicks and go get some more brown people (and not just for background! booo!). But no.

I will not pay real money to see this thing, ever. I will not rent it, I will not put it on my Netflix queue, I will not watch it when it comes on broadcast or HBO or Showtime or the airplane. Gauging the initial reactions to this trailer, it appears that this thing will be enough of a financial success for them to make more and that makes me a sad panda, but they will do so without my financial support. Much like Alan Moore, I spit venom all over this thing.

I would like to hear from casting directors in Hollywood at some point. It occurs to me that these people may have more to do with the ethnic makeup of a film more so than the director. I’d like to ask why the casting director for this film chose the people that were chosen. Was this a conscious decision? Do casting directors feel that America is racist enough to not support a film with a predominantly Asian cast? Did they not bother seeing the original show and just cast based on the script? I’d like to candidly interview a casting director and ask them if ethnicity enters in to the decision making process at all or if it’s something they don’t really think about.

Anyway, Airbender equals big fucking fail. The trailer looks more like a special effects demo reel than a movie trailer. Bleh. Boo! Boo I say!

This entry was posted on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 10:06 am and is filed under Action, Chop Socky, Diversity, Dumb Ass, Movies, Tele. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

13 Responses to “Yes, I Have Seen the Airbender Trailer”

  1. AvatarJack T Robyn
    Posted: Feb 5th, 2010 at 10:49 am
    1

    Glad to hear I’m not missing anything.
  2. AvatarDarren J. Gendron
    Posted: Feb 5th, 2010 at 12:30 pm
    2

    the thing that freaks me out is I think I saw Toph in it (at the least, there’s definitely an earth bender there). I’d been consoling myself with the no-harm, no-fail theory – In that Toph is my favorite character, and Toph couldn’t possibly show up until a second movie. Therefore, if the movie is bad, there won’t be a second movie. Only if the movie actually turns out good could Toph show up.
    Look, don’t question it. It’s my logic that’s keeping my head together.
  3. AvatarFmF
    Posted: Feb 5th, 2010 at 12:42 pm
    3

    I was wondering how fake the bending will look.Now i can say it was more realistic in the cartoon.I like to know how you’ll avoid it on a plane though.Planing to jump or gouge your eyes out?
  4. AvatarJamie
    Posted: Feb 5th, 2010 at 12:49 pm
    4

    Avoiding it on the plane is actually pretty easy for me. I’m out like a rock as soon as the engines start.
  5. AvatarBonzaiRob
    Posted: Feb 5th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
    5

    Bleh. I think it actually looks pretty cool. I’m looking forward to seeing the bending and more of Appa (quick glimpse at 10 seconds in, in the background).
    But, I cannot support it. I won’t spend any money on it. It’s so sad, because if they hadn’t whitewashed it I would be really, really psyched for it!
  6. AvatarSkaOreo
    Posted: Feb 5th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
    6

    I do disagree with you, as I think the teaser looks significantly better than what I expected (especially from a Shyamalan film) though I could care less about the generic rock music. Though I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that you’re still raging about the whole whitewashing thing as it does show in your ranting that you pretty much made your decision about this film ever since they announced the cast.
  7. AvatarGrand Master
    Posted: Feb 5th, 2010 at 6:03 pm
    7

    “…I shouldn’t have been surprised that you’re still raging about the whole whitewashing thing…”

    Yeah, kind of like how those Blacks are still ranting about the whole slavery thing.

    And the Native Americans about being called drunken gamblers.

    And Jews for being called cheap, or saying that the Holocaust wasn’t imaginary.

    No, you’re right, SkaOreo. Guess us yellow men should just shut up and take it from behind. Thanks! That solves racism.
  8. AvatarJenS
    Posted: Feb 5th, 2010 at 6:34 pm
    8

    From what we know, the casting calls were for “Caucasians or other ethnicity” and in Hollywood casting that’s code for ‘We want white people.’ Agents often won’t refer people of colour for those calls and actors who see them often won’t apply because of the feeling that calling for non whites is a token gesture.

    The two things we do know is that for at least this flick, M Night hand picked the actors for Aang and Katara.

    I do agree with you on the trailer though. All it does is showcase ILM’s work which I don’t think anyone thought would be bad. There’s no indications of character and I must admit I eyerolled a bit when I saw the white Katara and Sokka surrounded by the extras who were actual Inuits from Greenland.
  9. AvatarLurklen
    Posted: Feb 7th, 2010 at 3:21 am
    9

    I’m probably going to see this, I have five younger brothers and at least two of them loved the show. The white washing thing goes right over their heads, they don’t get it. Though maybe I’ll look for a rip of it online. Then at least I wont be supporting it with my money.
  10. AvatarLurklen
    Posted: Feb 7th, 2010 at 3:43 am
    10

    Actually I’ve done a little more looking around and I don’t think I even want to pirate this. I mean jesus the casting really is terrible, I don’t even just mean the race thing. You should see who they got as uncle Iroh, he’s a skinny Iranian man. What the hell is that! How is that at all like uncle Iroh. He should at least be an older fat guy who loves tea, not some skinny proffesser looking dude.

    And the art direction is all dark and gloomy. It’s not cool, I bet these actors (kids included) are fine actors but they all just seem so miscast, it’s really unfortunete because they’re gonna get alot of hate from the fans when really they just never should have been cast.
  11. pingback pingback:
    Posted: Feb 7th, 2010 at 4:04 pm
    11
    A Few Hours Early – Tonight’s Look At THE LAST AIRBENDER! at Blast-O-Rama

    [...] Let’s see what a true Avatar fan has to say, like my good buddy Jami “Angry Zen Master” Noguchi! [...]
  12. AvatarJon
    Posted: Feb 8th, 2010 at 3:37 am
    12

    /* The trailer looks more like a special effects demo reel than a movie trailer. */

    Sorry, and the distinction these days comes in *where*? Still think that it’s a little too early to tell at this point.

    That said, you’re probably right. :) Don’t mind me, just gotta play the optimist…
  13. AvatarTyler
    Posted: Feb 9th, 2010 at 6:59 am
    13

    2 things:

    1) Meh
    2) SkaOreo…wtf? “still raging about the whole whitewashing thing.” Yes, we (people other than Jami are pissed about this too) are still raging about this blatant and uncalled for cultural ignorance. But I suppose that wouldn’t matter to you at all. Your statement makes your nonchalance about the matter blatant.
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