Comments | wazira_sharira: Writer's Block: What's my motivation?

wazira_sharira

Writer's Block: What's my motivation?

Aug 30, 2010 01:19

Comments 17

silamai August 30 2010, 07:58:06 UTC

I was going to say pretty much the same thing with The Last Airbender but then I realised that even that wouldn't have made it fail less.

wazira_sharira August 30 2010, 18:13:54 UTC

I don't know whether changing the Prince of Persia cast would have made it anything other than a video game movie (I've actually heard it's decent), but I feel like telling people "meh, it failed anyway" is just a distraction. A video game movie that gave someone of Middle Eastern descent exposure beyond being "Terrorist #4" would still be preferable in my not-so-humble opinion, even if it wasn't very good.

I mean, things like Trailer Failure and Zero Punctuation had comments on the casting, and they're casually sexist, un-PC white nerds. So yeah. The casting department done goofed, and everyone noticed.

inkedfeathers August 30 2010, 21:59:44 UTC

Sounds like my reaction to Sindbad (I will never understand why it's written that way... in Arabic, it's pronounced Sindibad).

White people! SO many white people! And they didn't even look remotely Middle Eastern, Arab, or Persian or... whatever they were trying to portray.

Blue-eyed white people? I'll forgive white people, but blue-eyed white people? xD ( ... )

wazira_sharira August 30 2010, 23:27:14 UTC

Yeah, and that's actually almost worse (if you're talking about the new animated Sinbad), because there's even less excuse for DRAWING an allegedly Middle Eastern person with blue eyes than there is for CASTING one.

My studies are actually over, I graduated in May. I just fail at updating my profile. I'm also so much less of a Jafar fangirl now.

inkedfeathers August 31 2010, 00:21:51 UTC

I haven't seen the new animated Sindbad, but yeah, it looked pretty... um, bad. I meant some odd old live action cheapo version.

Oh, congratulations! ^_^

wazira_sharira August 31 2010, 00:53:32 UTC

I haven't seen it either, but I've heard that it does more with Greek mythology than the actual Arabian Nights story. Although the character designs I've seen actually do look plausibly Mediterranean, so I don't know why that was what I thought of.

p_hesser September 4 2010, 01:15:41 UTC

There's a Prince of Persia movie? :P

wazira_sharira September 4 2010, 01:56:18 UTC

Yes. I haven't seen it, I've heard that it's not bad but not very good either. And I don't think that with the problems it allegedly has, that real Persian people as the characters would have improved it that much, but it might have furthered their career, which would be a good thing; instead it only furthers the career of a white Ascended Fanboy who was willing to sit in a tanning bed too long.

p_hesser September 4 2010, 05:50:35 UTC

The Mummy, which isn't seen as a 'good movie' to my eternal sadness, had some great middle eastern actors cast in it. going through the wiki article, here's my breakdown. I apologize in advance for hijacking your thread ( ... )

wazira_sharira September 4 2010, 12:03:02 UTC

I actually don't like when Israelis play Arabs, but your comment just made me think "Prince of Persia...when The Mummy is doing better than you at something, give up."

...Actually, why WASN'T Omid Djalili in Prince of Persia? He's a good funny character actor and there was a funny sidekick that still wasn't cast as Persian.

p_hesser September 4 2010, 20:35:10 UTC

I can see how having an Israeli actor portraying an Arab could be politically problematic. Still I feel it's better than getting a obvious white guy for the role.

Yeah, when the Mummy does a better job it is time to give up. :D

Omid Djalili would make a good funny sidekick. His original profession was a comedian I think.

wazira_sharira September 5 2010, 02:13:30 UTC

This is totally off topic but I knew you'd get it: I put a hidden reference to the Tales of the Arabian Nights game in one of my fanfics. Jafar is a genie, but he's in his human form, and the person recognizes him as an evil vizier and says "I never thought about what I should do if I met a wicked vizier" and Jafar just snaps, "Pray." It's not obviously a game reference, but I couldn't resist putting that in there since Praying is possibly the one reaction that screws you over the least.

(It's actually a Mummy/Aladdin crossover, so maybe it's sort of on topic? Anyway, I don't post that here but if you ever wanted to read any of my fanfic it's on fanfiction.net and my username is LadyJafaria.)

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