*chuckles*
As usual, you think that Hollywood is completely innocent of all this and you believe it's the best that should be catered to the majority audience and that the minorities don't even matter? They've been responsible for many racial problems society has and all of the claim that this cast is more diverse than the original is just an insult. I've seen that before and it's still crap. For rebuttals, do you always support anything that has a name to your favorite franchise, even if it turns out to be crap? My recommendation is to just not support them when it is confirmed to be crap.
The Star Wars prequels were pretty bad compared to the classic originals and yet the fans still went and see it despite that George Lucas is involved but I pretty much call him a hack because of his overabundance with cgi instead of the heart that he once had with the original trilogy. Even the new Superman movie that Bryan Singer made didn't seem to get the praise that it deserves, though.
Here's another response from an anti-caster...
Enough talking? If you spend your money on this, it implies that you're approving what the studios are doing. I doubt that the actors they've chosen to play the main characters were the best they have found. I just don't believe that. The reasons they've cast them is to make money out of who's popular and has recognition rather than having actual acting talent. Most movies released these days get away with having bad actors and be successful, anyway.
Despite that I heavily dislike Rathbone because of his infamous and idiotic "I need a tan" comment when addressing the controversy, he is chosen because of his connection to that overrated piece of crap, Twilight and not because he's the best actor. The more I look at him, the more that he's not right for the role at all. If they really want to get someone from Twilight, get Taylor Lautner to be Sokka than him. Taylor is not only experienced in martial arts, he's also at the right age and, he is part Native American and he looks like it.
Nicola Peltz does not look like Katara at all! Besides the fact that she looks more like Lucy from Narnia, than Katara from the Water Tribe, her less than impressive resume of speaking bit parts in critical and commercial duds, does not even spark confidence. That Native American actress from "The New World", Q'Orianka Kilcher and "Whale Rider's" Maori actress, Keisha Castle-Hughes have Katara's qualities much more intact and after their impressive performances in their films respectively, having them in the movie would have been an much better excellent choice. I just can't look at Rathbone and Peltz and expect that these two are perfect for Sokka and Katara with a straight face.
Even after when I tried reasoning and being logical, you're just accepting the status quo instead of challenging it. After seeing the Slanted Screen documentary, I just knew that the film isn't what Mako would like to see after spending his entire life fighting for Asian American actors' rights for quality roles and I am deciding to boycott the film. If you're still going to support Paramount's discriminatory practices that has led to this, despite how obvious it is, then screw you.
By the way, check these videos out if you're still think being color blind or think that this is reverse racism...
Deny it or not, the media does have a major influence in everyone's lives and this doesn't make it any better. I want an adaption that does the original show justice. I don't want M Night dicking around and changing whatever the hell he wants. I want tla to be A:tla coming alive, not some generic fantasy loosely based on one of my favorite TV shows.
Unfortunately, M. Night Shyamalan is showing no such care. He's just throwing in a hodge-podge of random cultures into random places while assuming we won't notice. I don't think it's a lot to ask for a director to try to make their movie a quality work, but I haven't seen a single indication that he even cares if it's good or not.
I suppose it's fun to play the "What if" game, but right now I'm concentrating on what is. This movie could have been so incredible in so many ways, if they even tried to get the appropriate cast and everything else but unfortunately I don't think Shyamalan is taking it in any of those directions.
If you want specifics, the architecture is a big one. M. Night has taken a lot of the Asian-inspired architecture of the show and replaced it with European architecture. The music is another - it is now generic "Western" music in the trailer rather than Asian-inspired. Now, let's say he has decided to change the races of the nations. Why is Zuko Indian, but still named Zuko? Why are Katara and Sokka "viking-inspired" in looks, but their architecture and names are Inuit? Why is Aang Caucasian, his air temple Eastern European, but his name Aang? Why did they change the martial arts around? Water bending is no longer based on Tai Chi, therefore they no longer "push and pull" the water. Aang is using a completely different form of martial arts that emphasizes different movements than the show's airbending, making him look less light and airy. The Fire Nation uniforms look Japanese, but again, these people are being played by Indians. Of course, there are some Caucasian fire nation soldiers as well, making them more "mixed."
Sorry, but it's pretty confusing and shoddy, in my opinion. I haven't seen a solid plan or division for these races. Someone came out earlier in production and said that the water-benders were supposed to be white, the air-benders were supposed to be white, the fire nation was Indian, and the Earth Kingdom was Asian - and then they started hiring African-Americans to be members of the Earth Kingdom? Huh?
If you want to try to make sense of it all, you can. I can just go off of what I've seen, and frankly, I'm not too impressed nor sure of what M. Night is doing. I'm sure he's not tryING to make the movie bad, but I have a feeling that he's not putting the care and effort into this production that fans of the show would like him to. Either that or he's trying so hard to make it unique the movie is losing everything that was special about Avatar. Honestly, I can't describe what I've seen as anything other than a hodge-podge, because it is. As Dee Dee Rickets said during casting, "Shyamalan doesn't know what he wants, but he'll know when he sees it." That describes it perfectly.
