The Last Airbender: Pre-Screening

[whosdamike]

This afternoon, Paramount screened the final cut of The Last Airbender in 3D for MANAA, the JACL, and a few members of Racebending.com. This movie was the final cut of the 3D version.

There will be an official reaction on the site, describing the various issues of diversity and representation (and our discussions with Paramount representatives

Comments

[skemono]

I'm... astonished. I can only hope that professional critics share your opinions in their write-ups and it gets horribly panned.

I was sorta prepared to hear that Roku was left out, but I'm still boggled. I mean, what is the point of switching Aang's mentor from Roku to a dragon? (And since Roku's not in the movie, why is he still listed on IMDb?) Do they even mention the Avatar cycle, that he reincarnates? Or is it just left a stereotypical "prophecied hero"? I can understand leaving out most of those, if only to cut them for time, but why take out Roku only to replace him with a dragon?? Ghgjklk... *choking on own rage

[the_gersemi]

I mean, what is the point of switching Aang's mentor from Roku to a dragon?

A European dragon at that.
But the answer is real simple - because huge dragons are way cooler than old Asian dudes! D'uh!

[puffysanjo]

Not to defend it, but I think the dragon is actually more Asian. It's snake-like without wings. Here's a shot of it from the comic based on the movie. It also has a Fu Manchu mustache going on.

[the_gersemi]

True, it does look Asian there. In the trailer, it looked very European to me.

[puffysanjo]

Yeah, I thought it looks western in the trailer, too. I also thought that it was Koh the Face Stealer.

[whosdamike]

Yes, and in the original series, it was Roku + Roku's dragon that mentored Aang in the spirit realm.

The dragon in the film looked very Western to me and I'm pretty sure it had wings. Tough to tell because those scenes were all "spirity" with fog effects and scuh.

[skemono]

Well, the dragons in Avatar also had wings, so that's not a big deal.

[nijibug]

lol :'D

[nijibug]

Wait. They already made a movie like that. I think it was called Eragon. :|

[whosdamike]

The Kyoshi warriors are completely absent, except for a statue of Kyoshi herself. Her statue, the fact that she is a previous incarnation of Aang, etc. is explained by one of the Earth Kingdom villagers, as we pan up to look at the statue.

[imnotasquirrel]

W. T. F.

So...okay, MNS keeps harping on that he's made the Earth Kingdom Asian in an attempt to pacify us. Except it looks like he's completely removed some of the most kick-ass Earth Kingdom characters. What a twist!

(What about Suki?)

[dkwrkm]

Holy crap, but there are pictures of them all over the place! I'm confused...

[nthdraft]

they... CUT... the Kyoshi warriors???

(that explains why they stopped putting them on "Earthbending" merchandise in favor of the other guy who has no name)

It's not like they ran out of time, at under 100 minutes. They could have left it in.

Who edited this thing, Edward Scissorhands?!

[yukinoomoni]

*headtilt* So why were there so many pictures of the Kyoshi Warriors at all? Why was Suki even cast?

I'm starting to wonder if the film WAS three hours, but tons of it got cut for budget.

[whosdamike]

As I was watching the movie I constantly asked myself: where the hell did the budget go?! It was $150 million but it looked like a made-for-tv movie. The sets looked cheap, the action sequences were bland and incredibly boring... crazy. Where'd the money go?

The CG landscapes looked really pretty.