# The Last Airbender(movie) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 1, 2010, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-airbender-movie/545185 "2010-07-01T13:17:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![boozilu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@boozilu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boozilu)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-airbender-movie/545185/21 "2010-07-01T18:45:39Z")
We’ll have to see it because the Boozi-kids LOVE the cartoon (we also enjoy it, but not enough to see the movie for ourselves given those reviews). I hope that Boozi-girl, at 7, will enjoy the movie and not realize the suckiness. After all, she does like The Phantom Menace . . . ---
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-airbender-movie/545185/22 "2010-07-01T18:53:36Z")
All 4 of my kids loved the series and we’ve watched it all the way through 3 times. So I know we’ll end up going anyway. I had a bad feeling about it ever since I saw the trailer. The kid who plays Aang just didn’t seem at all right. ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-airbender-movie/545185/23 "2010-07-01T19:15:50Z")
A notable number of fans of the TV show have been mightily pissed off by the casting of white actors as Asian. [Racebending](http://community.livejournal.com/racebending/) [Reasonably balanced post about whether it is/isn’t racist from ONTD](http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/48390292.html). Also, from reading the ONTD comments, it looks like M. Night pretty much mangled the franchise, so your kids may be very disappointed if they’re expecting it to be true to the show’s spirit. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-airbender-movie/545185/24 "2010-07-01T19:16:54Z")
Man, I am disappointed to hear that. I was really, really looking forward to this movie. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-airbender-movie/545185/25 "2010-07-01T19:26:18Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > So when I saw he was doing _Last Airbender_ I thought it was a good sign. Our daughter MilliCal, who has watched his other flicks with us, started chanting “please don’t be bad, please don’t be bad,…” when she saw who the director of Airbender was going to be. She loves the animated version. Some times, works are best done in a particular combination of idiom and medium, or if adapted with a specific point of view. It could be that _The Last Airbender_ is perfect as an animated piece using Animé-derived styles, idioms and aesthetics (it’s not \*really _Animé, since it’s an American cartoon) and it would suffer in any attempt to turn it into live-action, never mind 3D live action to boot (as in the above-referenced_ Dragonball \*movie, IMO something that was pointless to ever try to do live-action). BTW and while I’m at it, hello, filmmakers, marketers, buying public: not every&^%#thing even remotely SF or action-fantasy \*\*\*has\*\*\* to be in @#%^ 3-D! Or it may be , though, that it could have worked as a live action… had it been done by Zhang Yimou, Ang Lee, Cameron, any of a dozen others, rather than by Shyamalan. Or that it could work as live action… 20 years from now, when a new generation of directors and screenwriters with a different set of sensibilities would be doing it for a public with different expectations about the characters, visuals and narrative in an action fantasy. ISTM that historically it’s just damn easy to fail when starting from a [pick any: novel, play, animation, feature film, TV series, comic book] and trying to transpose it into a [pick one of the other artforms]. Add in M. Night’s propensity for confusion and you can really get things bolloxed up. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-airbender-movie/545185/26 "2010-07-01T20:07:43Z")
I would have preferred they put it in the hands of Robert Rodriguez or Zack Snyder. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-airbender-movie/545185/27 "2010-07-01T20:17:09Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > I’ll probably just wait and get it on Netflix. With just a little more patience, you can probably just catch it free on TNT (“the modern classics”). ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-airbender-movie/545185/28 "2010-07-01T20:49:06Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > This movie is worse than _Dragonball: Evolution_. I really can’t put into words how breathtakingly horrible this film is. > > I’m just glad I got in for free. Ouch. My wife and I have been hording some free movie tickets, and I was going to talk her into seeing this with them, but now I’m glad I didn’t. I just recently finished watching the series and I was really excited about this :(. ---
**Author:** ![MostlyClueless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@MostlyClueless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MostlyClueless)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-airbender-movie/545185/29 "2010-07-01T20:57:15Z")
[Someone](https://twitter.com/machallboyd) said it better than I could; > [@](#): > > Sorry M. Night, I don’t think they’re going to give you money for movies anymore. And I’m totally OK with that. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-airbender-movie/545185/30 "2010-07-01T23:39:56Z")
> [@lizardling](#): > > A notable number of fans of the TV show have been mightily pissed off by the casting of white actors as Asian. > > [Racebending](http://community.livejournal.com/racebending/) > > [Reasonably balanced post about whether it is/isn’t racist from ONTD](http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/48390292.html). > > Also, from reading the ONTD comments, it looks like M. Night pretty much mangled the franchise, so your kids may be very disappointed if they’re expecting it to be true to the show’s spirit. That particular complaint is still stupid. The characters in the show weren’t Asian, and they weren’t Caucasian. They mixed features, cultural bits, and concepts from a broad array of sources. Calling the characters 'Asian" is among nthe _most_ racist thing I can think of. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-airbender-movie/545185/31 "2010-07-01T23:45:31Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > That particular complaint is still stupid. The characters in the show weren’t Asian, and they weren’t Caucasian. They mixed features, cultural bits, and concepts from a broad array of sources. Calling the characters 'Asian" is among nthe _most_ racist thing I can think of. It’s more complicated than that and people who point out that the characters are clearly Asian and not Caucasian is not being racist–it’s pointing out the obvious fact that the characters aren’t Caucasian. [This is a very good and thorough article on the controversy.](http://splinterend.tumblr.com/post/749364670/facepainting) ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-airbender-movie/545185/32 "2010-07-01T23:54:36Z")
> [@pepperlandgirl](#): > > It’s more complicated than that and people who point out that the characters are clearly Asian and not Caucasian is not being racist–it’s pointing out the obvious fact that the characters aren’t Caucasian. [This is a very good and thorough article on the controversy.](http://splinterend.tumblr.com/post/749364670/facepainting) To be fair, they aren’t Asian, either, because there is no “Asia” in the setting. To say that the characters are _literally_ Asian (or Caucasian, or whatever) would certainly be silly, because those places and cultures just don’t exist. On the other hand, it’s not unreasonable to point out that those mixed features, cultural bits, and concepts from a broad array of sources more closely tend to resemble, in the real world, Asian, Inuit and so on potential actors and backgrounds more than Caucasian ones. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-airbender-movie/545185/33 "2010-07-01T23:54:55Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > That particular complaint is still stupid. The characters in the show weren’t Asian, and they weren’t Caucasian. They mixed features, cultural bits, and concepts from a broad array of sources. Calling the characters 'Asian" is among nthe _most_ racist thing I can think of. between the martial arts, architecture, and physical features (facial hair, skin color, hair/eye color, etc) isn’t pretty obvious that it’s at least modeled on asians? iirc the creator himself admits to having certain “nations” in mind and implemented aspects accordingly (mostly architecturally and through the martial arts). it’s definitely a fine line to walk between recognizing races vs stereotyping races. as for the actors themselves, i don’t really think it matters that much as long as they LOOK the part. if that native american in the littering commercials can be ethnically italian and yet have nobody be any the wiser then where’s the harm? they’re ACTORS. ---
**Author:** ![Estilicon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Estilicon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Estilicon)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-airbender-movie/545185/34 "2010-07-02T00:23:39Z")
I really wanted to see this one. The reviews are fun, though. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-airbender-movie/545185/35 "2010-07-02T00:25:41Z")
Have any fans of the show seen the movie? If so I’d be interested in their opinions. I haven’t seen the show but it’s on my list. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-airbender-movie/545185/36 "2010-07-02T00:39:39Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > Have any fans of the show seen the movie? If so I’d be interested in their opinions. I haven’t seen the show but it’s on my list. I’m not a fan of the show but I have seen a bunch of episodes. I saw it with a group of people who are hardcore fans of the series. They hated the movie even more than I did. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-airbender-movie/545185/37 "2010-07-02T01:16:15Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > between the martial arts, architecture, and physical features (facial hair, skin color, hair/eye color, etc) isn’t pretty obvious that it’s at least modeled on asians? iirc the creator himself admits to having certain “nations” in mind and implemented aspects accordingly (mostly architecturally and through the martial arts). Except rhe physical features don’t particularly resemble said peoples. At all. Not even within the very wide latitude given to animation, for the most part. I don’tm really care who they cast for the role if it the whole thing comes out good. It didn’t in this case, but my point is that as long as it makes sense within the context I don’t really care, and I consider the entire controversy pathetic. Basically, my limit would be if they were trying for versimilitude in several areas but, say, dropped in clashing and obvious ethnicities with no sense of them being mixed. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-airbender-movie/545185/38 "2010-07-02T02:27:00Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > Except rhe physical features don’t particularly resemble said peoples. At all. Not even within the very wide latitude given to animation, for the most part. I don’tm really care who they cast for the role if it the whole thing comes out good. It didn’t in this case, but my point is that as long as it makes sense within the context I don’t really care, and I consider the entire controversy pathetic. > > Basically, my limit would be if they were trying for versimilitude in several areas but, say, dropped in clashing and obvious ethnicities with no sense of them being mixed. The problem is the entire village they’re from looks ethnically Eskimo and the main characters are white- they have a markedly different skin color than the people who are part of their village. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-airbender-movie/545185/39 "2010-07-02T03:28:54Z")
I heard M’night cast the Wind from The Happening and the Water from Lady in the Water and Signs. > [@Mahaloth](#): > > Did he really cast white people in clearly Asian roles? Won’t this confuse the fan-base(which I assume is kids)? “Hilary Swank has a vagina and she won an Oscar pretending she has a dick. That’s what actors do, they pretend.” - Ari Gold ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-airbender-movie/545185/40 "2010-07-02T04:36:25Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > Except rhe physical features don’t particularly resemble said peoples. At all. [No kiddin?](http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Poppy_Bei_Fong) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-airbender-movie/545185.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-airbender-movie/545185.md?page=3)