Avatar: The Last Airbender
This post is a translation of this one. Not a litteral one because some things need to be changed (and my english isn't so good), but it is as exact as possible. I see it as a training of a sort.
First, I have to put things in context. I didn't want to have any preconceived opinion about this movie before I saw it; so I tried as hard as I could not to be spoiled (not an easy task because I sometimes read fandomsecrets. This is where I heard about racebending, but I'll talk about it later.) So I went to the theater last night, alone, with only a vague idea about a movie based on the series (I just saw the trailer and some promotional images before).
Well, I didn't hate it. It wasn't a great movie, but I didn't find it so offensive.
The rest of this review will be in two parts. My general opinion about the movie, and the part about "racebending".
I'm French; and where I live, there's only one theater in the neighborhood. It's a bad one, but I didn't want to go too far to see the movie, so I went there.
It only had the french dub, in 3D. I had to pay 2 more euros. (I got an annual subscription, so it's free unless I go to the 3D session. A clear rip-off when you know the special effects aren't so good, not in 3D anyway).
The french dub is a disaster. The worst was Katara: even the way she reads is forced and it doesn't go well with the character, but hey, it's only a problem for French people. But then, I didn't find the casting so good either.
Aang is cute but... that's it.
The actor playing Sokka made me laugh; he just looks like a californian surfer (or what we think a californian surfer looks like here, without the blond locks and the sun-tanned skin. He's just a jock, I guess; not an exact portrayal of Sokka).
Katara is pretty but insipid; don't listen to her in French, she's that bad. And she acts like a dead fish.
Zuko is... intense, but lacks something. Maybe his first haircut. I kind of liked it; it was in character for the culture in the series but not for the one in the movie (again, I'll explain later). What is more upsetting is the fact that his scar is so faint. Isn't he supposed to be deformed? There, sweetie, don't be mad, you just need a little fondation and it will be as good as new.
Iroh, huh... The first time he came into view, I was like: "Hey, who's this thin guy with dreadlocks? He must be important because he doesn't look bland like the other soldiers."
When Zuko called him "my uncle", I thought: "Hey, he has another uncle besides Iroh? Weird."
And when finally we knew it was Iroh, I just... didn't understand: "Huh, he has another uncle named Iroh? Wow."
Several minutes later I was still convinced Iroh would come in the end, because there was no way this guy was Iroh. He had no tea cup, no speech about tea, nothing. Not Iroh. Nothing will change my mind. Leave me in my denial, please. Iroh is in prison or something and this guy is the next best thing Zuko found to replace him (he was probably some foreign mercenary who happened to know about firebending and was in some way related to the Fire Lord. Or something.)
Zhao was blah, Yue was a perfect Mary Sue so she was good (in my opinion, don't shoot me if you like her), the Fire Lord didn't seem very threatening (it was an error to cast him so soon), and the rest of the cast wasn't important here so I couldn't care less.
What I found more stressful was the way the director handled the Fire Nation powers. It was dumb, but I don't want to spend more lines for that when I know the general opinion is already like mine, so in short: Internal fire, good. You can burn entire cities without any weapon, you're the weapon. External fire, bad. A baby can get rid of your source for fire with just one blow. Bad, bad script writers or whoever thought about this thing. It's good to align the fire power with the others, but you have to think. Water, earth and air are everywhere. Fire is not. FAIL.
When you compare the movie to the series, there are some major inaccuracies. That's the problem with this adaptation. It wasn't so bad, but it wasn't so good either. Because of the length, some choices were made about the storytelling, and they were not always good. Major plot to cover but no time to film it? Let this character tell about it. The worst was with the story behind Zuko's scar: he asks a random boy to retell the events to him and his uncle when they already know about it, and sends him away when he finished. Good boy, with this you will be an excellent cannon fodder when you will be of age.
We're coming to the part about the races.
For me, the universe of A:TLA is based on ours. The people are of Asian descent, like:
Water Tribes=Inuit
Earth Kingdom=Chinese
Fire Nation=Japanese
Air Nomads=Tibetans
You can see it in their architecture, their martial art (not for the Inuit), their clothes, their way of thinking and living, etc. It's very clear for the Water Tribes and the Air Nomads, a little more vague for the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation which have both chinese and japanese elements in their culture.
The movie introduces two more ethnies: India and Europe (or America, it's not very clear).
Let me explain.
The first time Sokka and Katara appear on screen, we're surprised to see them so pale, especially when you compare them to the rest of the tribe who is clearly Inuit-like. Then we see their grandmother; she's as pale as them. The three of them seem out of place. The explanation, if I can call it that way, comes later. You just have to remember she's from the North Tribe (not something you know from the movie itself but from the series.)
The cast arrives on the north pole. Surprise: all the North Tribe people are white! It's not very easy to spot under their heavy clothes but they are: the people on the streets, the soldiers, they're all of caucasian descent. That explains why the grandmother and her grandchildren are white, even if it doesn't justify it (and genetics don't really work that way but let's say it does). I would have prefered inuit characters but hey, at least they tried to explain it even if it's kind of dumb. In a way, it's an interesting choice.
Even more interesting is the Fire Nation. They're Indians! Some say it's all black and white: the white heroes, the black villains. I find this theory too narrow-minded. In the series, there is no 'superior' race, only different people with different paths and cultures. The Fire Nation isn't 'evil' per se, it just has bad leaders. In the end, the world is at peace and Zuko, the Fire Lord, a firebender, is one of the main reasons it has come this way. Saying that firebenders are evil in the movie is a little extreme; they're not evil, they have made bad choices (it also depends on how they will be portrayed in the sequels, but let's say the ending will be the same). If you say they're evil, why not say the Fire Nation in the series is evil? And they are of Asian descent. It's a double standard: are they evil, or not? Is it okay to portray Asians or Indians as evil?
Changing the Fire Nation's primary race may be an artistic choice from the director; maybe he wanted to introduce his ethnic group. I find this point of view interesting: the movie has more diversity than the series, even if it's not always well-made. It's a new vision. Let's see. In there, we now have:
Water Tribes=Inuit for the South Pole, caucasians (Europeans or Americans) for the North Pole
Earth Kingdom=Chinese, or at least Asian (it's easy to see when they save this village in the Earth Kingdom)
Fire Nation=Indian (except for the fake Iroh but he's fake, so he doesn't count. And I'm not in denial.)
Air Nomads=A little bit of everything (Seriously. Aang's master is black, there is an Indian girl and a white boy in his class, and the others I couldn't spot.)
The term "Racebending" may be correct here, but not for the reasons it was invented. There is a diversity of races the series didn't have; and even if it was focused on the caucasians and the Indians, I find it nice to portray other cultures. Prince of Persia was worse in my opinion: every character we see more than a minute is white when they're supposed to be Arabians (or Persians in this case)... I didn't hear about a race fail here, but then maybe people were too busy staring at the prince's chest and the princess' boobs to notice. Or something. I can understand.
In conclusion, that's not the best movie adaptation I ever saw but it was okay, I guess. I confess I was bored: I already knew the plot and most of the actors were not good enough for the role they play. The French dub was a mess (now I'm curious to hear the original version). I didn't hate it, but it was meh for me. If there's a sequel, I'll see it for Toph, but for now, I'm just going to watch the series again.
First, I have to put things in context. I didn't want to have any preconceived opinion about this movie before I saw it; so I tried as hard as I could not to be spoiled (not an easy task because I sometimes read fandomsecrets. This is where I heard about racebending, but I'll talk about it later.) So I went to the theater last night, alone, with only a vague idea about a movie based on the series (I just saw the trailer and some promotional images before).
Well, I didn't hate it. It wasn't a great movie, but I didn't find it so offensive.
The rest of this review will be in two parts. My general opinion about the movie, and the part about "racebending".
I'm French; and where I live, there's only one theater in the neighborhood. It's a bad one, but I didn't want to go too far to see the movie, so I went there.
It only had the french dub, in 3D. I had to pay 2 more euros. (I got an annual subscription, so it's free unless I go to the 3D session. A clear rip-off when you know the special effects aren't so good, not in 3D anyway).
The french dub is a disaster. The worst was Katara: even the way she reads is forced and it doesn't go well with the character, but hey, it's only a problem for French people. But then, I didn't find the casting so good either.
Aang is cute but... that's it.
The actor playing Sokka made me laugh; he just looks like a californian surfer (or what we think a californian surfer looks like here, without the blond locks and the sun-tanned skin. He's just a jock, I guess; not an exact portrayal of Sokka).
Katara is pretty but insipid; don't listen to her in French, she's that bad. And she acts like a dead fish.
Zuko is... intense, but lacks something. Maybe his first haircut. I kind of liked it; it was in character for the culture in the series but not for the one in the movie (again, I'll explain later). What is more upsetting is the fact that his scar is so faint. Isn't he supposed to be deformed? There, sweetie, don't be mad, you just need a little fondation and it will be as good as new.
Iroh, huh... The first time he came into view, I was like: "Hey, who's this thin guy with dreadlocks? He must be important because he doesn't look bland like the other soldiers."
When Zuko called him "my uncle", I thought: "Hey, he has another uncle besides Iroh? Weird."
And when finally we knew it was Iroh, I just... didn't understand: "Huh, he has another uncle named Iroh? Wow."
Several minutes later I was still convinced Iroh would come in the end, because there was no way this guy was Iroh. He had no tea cup, no speech about tea, nothing. Not Iroh. Nothing will change my mind. Leave me in my denial, please. Iroh is in prison or something and this guy is the next best thing Zuko found to replace him (he was probably some foreign mercenary who happened to know about firebending and was in some way related to the Fire Lord. Or something.)
Zhao was blah, Yue was a perfect Mary Sue so she was good (in my opinion, don't shoot me if you like her), the Fire Lord didn't seem very threatening (it was an error to cast him so soon), and the rest of the cast wasn't important here so I couldn't care less.
What I found more stressful was the way the director handled the Fire Nation powers. It was dumb, but I don't want to spend more lines for that when I know the general opinion is already like mine, so in short: Internal fire, good. You can burn entire cities without any weapon, you're the weapon. External fire, bad. A baby can get rid of your source for fire with just one blow. Bad, bad script writers or whoever thought about this thing. It's good to align the fire power with the others, but you have to think. Water, earth and air are everywhere. Fire is not. FAIL.
When you compare the movie to the series, there are some major inaccuracies. That's the problem with this adaptation. It wasn't so bad, but it wasn't so good either. Because of the length, some choices were made about the storytelling, and they were not always good. Major plot to cover but no time to film it? Let this character tell about it. The worst was with the story behind Zuko's scar: he asks a random boy to retell the events to him and his uncle when they already know about it, and sends him away when he finished. Good boy, with this you will be an excellent cannon fodder when you will be of age.
We're coming to the part about the races.
For me, the universe of A:TLA is based on ours. The people are of Asian descent, like:
Water Tribes=Inuit
Earth Kingdom=Chinese
Fire Nation=Japanese
Air Nomads=Tibetans
You can see it in their architecture, their martial art (not for the Inuit), their clothes, their way of thinking and living, etc. It's very clear for the Water Tribes and the Air Nomads, a little more vague for the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation which have both chinese and japanese elements in their culture.
The movie introduces two more ethnies: India and Europe (or America, it's not very clear).
Let me explain.
The first time Sokka and Katara appear on screen, we're surprised to see them so pale, especially when you compare them to the rest of the tribe who is clearly Inuit-like. Then we see their grandmother; she's as pale as them. The three of them seem out of place. The explanation, if I can call it that way, comes later. You just have to remember she's from the North Tribe (not something you know from the movie itself but from the series.)
The cast arrives on the north pole. Surprise: all the North Tribe people are white! It's not very easy to spot under their heavy clothes but they are: the people on the streets, the soldiers, they're all of caucasian descent. That explains why the grandmother and her grandchildren are white, even if it doesn't justify it (and genetics don't really work that way but let's say it does). I would have prefered inuit characters but hey, at least they tried to explain it even if it's kind of dumb. In a way, it's an interesting choice.
Even more interesting is the Fire Nation. They're Indians! Some say it's all black and white: the white heroes, the black villains. I find this theory too narrow-minded. In the series, there is no 'superior' race, only different people with different paths and cultures. The Fire Nation isn't 'evil' per se, it just has bad leaders. In the end, the world is at peace and Zuko, the Fire Lord, a firebender, is one of the main reasons it has come this way. Saying that firebenders are evil in the movie is a little extreme; they're not evil, they have made bad choices (it also depends on how they will be portrayed in the sequels, but let's say the ending will be the same). If you say they're evil, why not say the Fire Nation in the series is evil? And they are of Asian descent. It's a double standard: are they evil, or not? Is it okay to portray Asians or Indians as evil?
Changing the Fire Nation's primary race may be an artistic choice from the director; maybe he wanted to introduce his ethnic group. I find this point of view interesting: the movie has more diversity than the series, even if it's not always well-made. It's a new vision. Let's see. In there, we now have:
Water Tribes=Inuit for the South Pole, caucasians (Europeans or Americans) for the North Pole
Earth Kingdom=Chinese, or at least Asian (it's easy to see when they save this village in the Earth Kingdom)
Fire Nation=Indian (except for the fake Iroh but he's fake, so he doesn't count. And I'm not in denial.)
Air Nomads=A little bit of everything (Seriously. Aang's master is black, there is an Indian girl and a white boy in his class, and the others I couldn't spot.)
The term "Racebending" may be correct here, but not for the reasons it was invented. There is a diversity of races the series didn't have; and even if it was focused on the caucasians and the Indians, I find it nice to portray other cultures. Prince of Persia was worse in my opinion: every character we see more than a minute is white when they're supposed to be Arabians (or Persians in this case)... I didn't hear about a race fail here, but then maybe people were too busy staring at the prince's chest and the princess' boobs to notice. Or something. I can understand.
In conclusion, that's not the best movie adaptation I ever saw but it was okay, I guess. I confess I was bored: I already knew the plot and most of the actors were not good enough for the role they play. The French dub was a mess (now I'm curious to hear the original version). I didn't hate it, but it was meh for me. If there's a sequel, I'll see it for Toph, but for now, I'm just going to watch the series again.