Don't see The Last Airbender.

[feuervogel]

It opens this weekend. Much has been said around the web, about the whitewashing of the characters and the changes they've made to the story.

Supporting this film, by giving the studios money when you go see it, will only encourage them to continue making racist casting decisions. (Did you know that 83% of Paramount's planned films for this decade have white, male leads?)

I'll leave you with a comic by Gene Luen Yang, author of American Born Chinese, on why he won't be watching the movie.

(Hint: it has to do with the casting call for Aang's role: "12-15, male, Caucasian or any other ethnicity." If you don't see how this wording expresses a preference for a white actor, there's little I can do to convince you. But go read the extensive information at Racebending.com anyway.)

Comments

[leora.livejournal.com]

Your title gave me a moment of confusion. See, I just started watching the cartoon. I have no intention of seeing the movie, but I just started watching the cartoon, so seeing the title was weird. But yes, I've heard about the whitewashing and I do not intend to see it. Plus, this is done by oh his name is hard to spell without looking up Shamalan... something like that. He's the guy who did Unbreakable and Signs right? I really liked Unbreakable, but then I saw Signs and I lost all respect for him. Not only was the movie unbearably stupid, but it was unbearably stupid while trying to force a bad point. It made me figure he's likely to try to shoehorn his beliefs into future movies as well. And he did it so badly. I'm not interested in giving him another chance. And it doesn't hurt that this movie already has other reasons to avoid it.

[anacoluthon.livejournal.com]

The comments on that comic are so much "fun"! I think I got about ten in and had to stop.
Sigh.

I don't know that I would have gone in general... maybe if I knew y'all were going I would have come along. But once the casting info came out I knew I wouldn't mess with it. =/

There's an easy solution.

[thorny-rose.livejournal.com]

Buy a ticket for a movie you would see and just walk into the wrong theatre.

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

have you seen the Roger Ebert review? It's pretty entertainingly snarktastic.
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100630/REVIEWS/100639999