I think you misunderstand. I'm pretty sure what he means is that the kids are going to age, regardless. If they said it was coming in three months and it takes 3-4 years to make all 3 movies, the kids are not going to be kids anymore. Fuck, Sokka is already barely a "kid".[/QUOTE]
Technically the movie is actually using the proper pronunciations of these asian-inspired names. The TV series actually 'americanizes' the pronunciation.[/QUOTE]
Technically the movie is actually using the proper pronunciations of these asian-inspired names. The TV series actually 'americanizes' the pronunciation.[/QUOTE]
Look I'm not a fan of the 'white-washing' either, but I think that's a bit much to say they 'hate the chinese'. (and why just the Chinese? what about the rest of Asia?) I don't think the changes were made out of malice, but cowardice. The reality is that when you spend $150 million on something, you tend to want to take the 'safe' route.
Well, it is more "Asian" style. Sorry you found it so distracting, but as far as changes go this has far more legitimacy than some others.
Well the main trio weren't particularly good, but I don't think Zuko and Iroh were that bad. Asif Mandvi did chew the scenery a bit as Zhou, but otherwise was pretty good.
Yep, even recognizing that cuts were obviously necessary, that sequence was bit odd.
I empathize with you wearing glasses. The 3D in this movie was indeed worthless, it was tacked on in the post-production. The problem is that the film was not shot with 3D in mind, so there were precious few shots that could take advantage of the extra depth, and even those didn't come off very well. On top of that the process made the film darker and 'muddier'. I've heard they had similar problems with "Clash of the Titans".
Particularly in this case when it doesn't really add anything and it has a negative effect on the picture quality. They really need to be more careful about this as bad 3D in films has the potential to kill the technology before it can take hold.
I don't think that's necessarily unfair, however I do think that there's a much simpler explanation for it: I think that the producers assumed that if the average american film-goer saw movie posters and/or previews for this film and saw an all-asian cast that their first thought would be: "huh, must be a foreign film." and that their second thought would be "meh, I do care for foreign films, what else is playing?" I think it was fear of that kind of reaction that lead them to go the 'safe route', which is really a shame.
I thought the Indian/South Asian characters with Japanese-esque armor was a good fit. I wish they had carried through that theme in the casting of Iroh, as it was kind of weird having Zuko's Uncle and Ozai's brother be a white guy. Although technically the actor who played Ozai is Maori, not Indian. So I guess that just fits in with the whole weird mix of races theme.
Yes. This. Which is called whitewashing. It's also worth noting that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon did just fine. Also, that as recently as "Hitch," Hollywood producers were afraid to cast Will Smith as a lead by himself without a white man to accompany him because he "wasn't bankable enough." Hitch also did just fine. Hollywood likes to hide behind the fact that "it's the public that's racist, not us, we just have to follow the money," when the fact is the public is far less racist that Hollywood gives them credit for.
That is what I believe. Sure maybe about 20 years ago the "population could be racist" but with the internet age and people can watch anything from anywhere in the globe, not so much.
According to wikipedia, CTHD made $128million in the U.S., which is indeed a very impressive figure for a film that cost $17million to make. Unfortunately that would not be as good a result for a film that cost $150million to make. The general calculus as I understand it is that a film generally has to make it's production costs back in the U.S., then the foreign grosses are where they make their profit. Of course that calculus has changed somewhat with the rise of DVD sales in the 90's, but the core of it is still there.
To be fair I do think that there are parts of this country that are '20 years behind the times'. I'd like to believe that this country is a post-racist society, but it's not.
Unless the Chinese ban it, for offending their cultural heritage or some such. (Wouldn't be the first time...)
Unless the Chinese ban it, for offending their cultural heritage or some such. (Wouldn't be the first time...)[/QUOTE]
It's especially damning, as every season except the first had a mid-season cliff hanger as well.
If you click on the "Forgeign" tab on that page you'll see that the film hasn't been released in the majority of the countries they have listed. That suggests it's foreign box office isn't done yet.
"utterly and irredeemably awful"? Seriously? The film was definitely flawed, but "utterly and irredeemably awful"? Not even close.
It is pretty awful. I would rather watch Harry Potter or X-Men again than watch Last Airbender the movie. It was that bad for me.
Well, not that scarce apparently considering it's box office take which was pretty ok. Not great or fantastic, of course, but then that is fair since it wasn't a great or fantastic film. Now among voices on the internets, there is indeed a lot of hate towards this film. The thing is that internets have a tendency to go to extremes. Everything is either the greatest ever or the worst ever. So what really makes me alone is that fact that I'm arguing for the film's "ok-ness".
Oh no... it's not the worst movie ever. That honor currently goes to Tommy Wiseau's The Room, ever since Tommy Wiseau made the Nostalgia Critic take down his review of it, despite it being perfectly legal for him to show images of said movie during a review.
