Editorial: It’s Time to Make Peace with STAR WARS
George Lucas Addresses Changes to STAR WARS; Maintains Greedo Shot First
17 New Images from GAME OF THRONES Season Two [Updated with Hi-Res]
Collider Visits the Set of JOHN CARTER
Set Photos from M. Night Shyamalan’s AFTER EARTH Starring Will SmithNew International Poster for THE LAST AIRBENDER
by Ramses Flores Posted:January 27th, 2010 at 11:35 am
|
|
 |
|
Empire has the newest international poster for M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender and it’s nothing too amazing. If you’ve seen the previously released character banner posters for the film, then you can easily tell that what they did was just combine both posters into one. Boring posters or not, Shyamalan’s adaptation of the popular (and pretty damn great) Nickelodeon cartoon, Avatar: The Last Airbender, still keeps looking good to me and not as racist as Matt claims.
The Last Airbender hits theaters on July 2nd and you can see the poster along with along with the official synopsis after the jump.
For those just tuning in, here is the official synopsis:
Air, Water, Earth, Fire. Four nations tied by destiny when the Fire Nation launches a brutal war against the others. A century has passed with no hope in sight to change the path of this destruction. Caught between combat and courage, Aang (Noah Ringer) discovers he is the lone Avatar with the power to manipulate all four elements. Aang teams with Katara (Nicola Peltz), a Waterbender, and her brother, Sokka (Jackson Rathbone), to restore balance to their war-torn world.
Based on the hugely successful Nickelodeon animated TV series, the live-action feature film “The Last Airbender” is the opening chapter in Aang’s struggle to survive.
Please Like Collider on Facebook
|
|
|
|
Related Links
- The Razzie Awards Names THE LAST AIRBENDER the Worst Film of 2010
- THE LAST AIRBENDER Blu-ray Review
- Reporter Puts M. Night Shyamalan on the Spot About His Career and THE LAST AIRBENDER
- First Trailer, Poster and Images from DEVIL – From a Story by M. Night Shyamalan
- HANGOVER 2 May Keep Bradley Cooper Out of M. Night Shyamalan’s Supernatural Thriller
hate to admit it, but that poster is badass.
I agree, its pretty sick; the effect is slightly dampened since we've already seen the other to not combined, but still a pretty awesome poster.
Wow, you really don't find it racist that they whitewashed all the protagonists? Or when Jackson Rathbone says things like “I think it's one of those things where I pull my hair up, shave the sides, and I definitely need a tan.”? Yeah, because getting a tan is the same thing as an ethnic background. To quote Derek Kirk Kim:
“What if someone made a ‘fantasy’ movie in which the entire world was built around African culture? Everyone is wearing ancient African clothes, African hats, eating traditional African food, writing in an African language, living in African homes, all encompassed in an African landscape…but everyone is white.”
Or, to sum it up visually:
http://www.racebending.com/v3/wp-content/upload…
I have to agree to Isabeau. As a white guy married to an african brazillian lady, racism is a subject I am well aware of. The Avatar world is based in the far east, mostly from China (Earth Kingdom), Japan (Fire Nation), Tibet (Air Nomads), and Inuit (Water Tribes), with a dash of India (gurus). The characters in the animation are visually based on these cultures (with maybe the exception of the blue eyes on water tribe characters). So to put the cast mostly was a big mistake. I live in Brazil and many of the fans here comment that this whitenning effect was “hoolywood rascism”. So I have to defend the USA to explain that the country as a whole is not rascist, just some movie producers.
I think that Hollywood might believe that most Americans are racist and that is why they cast it the way they did. Who knows if they really are that racist, but I think if anyone in America isn't racist it would be people in Hollywood. The people doing the casting may be concerned about how people will react to unknown Asian actors in an American movie.
It would have been better if at least one of the protagonists was of Asian descent but while I hope America and Hollywood will change and introduce people from other racial backgrounds into leading film roles I think people are overreacting to the casting in this film. It isn't that big of a deal.
See I Don't Find It Racist AT ALL. And I Grew Up In A Family That Has Adopted Children From ALL OVER the world. So I Would Know What Racist Is.
Just Pulling the Racist Card to Have a Reason to Hate Something.
First off, people aren't playing a race card. You know why? Because racism isn't a game.
Also, your “I grew up with a multiethnic family so I'm the authority on racism” argument is the same as when white people say “I have a black friend and HE wasn't offended, so I don't see why YOU are”. The experiences of one, or even several people of color is no more or less representative of ALL people of color than the experiences of one or several white people is representative of ALL white people. Even if you and everyone in your family is okay with this kind of racism, doesn't mean it's not racism, and it doesn't mean that it doesn't bother other people.
I have to strongly disagree with this. While I do agree that racism in America is a vicious cycle between the public and the media(in that the public is more likely to watch straight white males, therefore the media is likely to supply straight white males, therefore the public continues to see straight white males as the default, etc), this doesn't leave Hollywood blameless. Indeed, Hollywood can be one of greatest centers of sexism and racism.
I think the best way to sum this up is to link you to a detailed time line and list of casting calls for the Last Airbender movie, which include several overtly racist quotes. I think my favorite has to be where they want people from Korea to come in wearing kimonos…which are from Japan.
I see the only thing possibly being a bit off is the Caucasian or other races. But to me there are far more white actors in Hollywood than there are of any other race so creating a film with primarily white actors regardless of the background of the story doesn't seem to far fetched. Not saying I would do it if I was producing. It just seems a little ridiculous when you expect someone to always cast a person of color in a movie just to show that your not racist. Can I use the same logic to force black films to introduce white characters into their films, or would that be culture stomping?
Furthermore if they did cast primarily Asians in the roles of the film they would have a limited talent pool unless they actually went to Asia to do casting. Also Asia has a very different film history and the acting is very foreign in feel compared to western films and would put off most westerners.
So while I agree to remain true to the animation they should have cast primarily people of color, but maybe they weren't trying to remain true to the animation and were rather going for something unique in texture and style. Even if this is in the slightest bit racist I don't feel that this is something that is of such a large magnitude as to warrant such outrage, there is plenty of other racism going on in the world which is far more distressing that people could be rallying against. Instead of jumping on a marketing band-wagon to get recognition, much like PETA attacks famous/rich people to get press instead of actually putting their efforts towards the big offenders and trying to rescue animals en mass.
First off, people aren't playing a race card. You know why? Because racism isn't a game.
Also, your “I grew up with a multiethnic family so I'm the authority on racism” argument is the same as when white people say “I have a black friend and HE wasn't offended, so I don't see why YOU are”. The experiences of one, or even several people of color is no more or less representative of ALL people of color than the experiences of one or several white people is representative of ALL white people. Even if you and everyone in your family is okay with this kind of racism, doesn't mean it's not racism, and it doesn't mean that it doesn't bother other people.
I have to strongly disagree with this. While I do agree that racism in America is a vicious cycle between the public and the media(in that the public is more likely to watch straight white males, therefore the media is likely to supply straight white males, therefore the public continues to see straight white males as the default, etc), this doesn't leave Hollywood blameless. Indeed, Hollywood can be one of greatest centers of sexism and racism.
I think the best way to sum this up is to link you to a detailed time line and list of casting calls for the Last Airbender movie, which include several overtly racist quotes. I think my favorite has to be where they want people from Korea to come in wearing kimonos…which are from Japan.
I see the only thing possibly being a bit off is the Caucasian or other races. But to me there are far more white actors in Hollywood than there are of any other race so creating a film with primarily white actors regardless of the background of the story doesn't seem to far fetched. Not saying I would do it if I was producing. It just seems a little ridiculous when you expect someone to always cast a person of color in a movie just to show that your not racist. Can I use the same logic to force black films to introduce white characters into their films, or would that be culture stomping?
Furthermore if they did cast primarily Asians in the roles of the film they would have a limited talent pool unless they actually went to Asia to do casting. Also Asia has a very different film history and the acting is very foreign in feel compared to western films and would put off most westerners.
So while I agree to remain true to the animation they should have cast primarily people of color, but maybe they weren't trying to remain true to the animation and were rather going for something unique in texture and style. Even if this is in the slightest bit racist I don't feel that this is something that is of such a large magnitude as to warrant such outrage, there is plenty of other racism going on in the world which is far more distressing that people could be rallying against. Instead of jumping on a marketing band-wagon to get recognition, much like PETA attacks famous/rich people to get press instead of actually putting their efforts towards the big offenders and trying to rescue animals en mass.