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Oh man, not only do the previews make this movie look absolutely un-interesting. I mean really I have no desire to see this movie based on a video game (and I watched doom), even though being made by disney and the guys who put together Pirates of the Carribean, but I just can't get past the whitewash that is the cast of this movie. I mean the prince is the whitest guy you know, and so is the majority of the cast. I mean I don't think I saw a person I'd attribute as persian in that whole trailer.
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Oh man, not only do the previews make this movie look absolutely un-interesting. I mean really I have no desire to see this movie based on a video game (and I watched doom), even though being made by disney and the guys who put together Pirates of the Carribean, but I just can't get past the whitewash that is the cast of this movie. I mean the prince is the whitest guy you know, and so is the majority of the cast. I mean I don't think I saw a person I'd attribute as persian in that whole trailer.
Eecch. Hollywood studios are fanatically unwilling to hang summer tentpole movies around unknown lead actors, and I don't think there is any young ME (or ME-looking) actor currently working on the A-list.
Shades of The Last Airbender?
For me, the problem is less that none of the characters are actually Persian and more that they're failing miserably at recapturing Pirate's spark. This should be great! There's a witty protaginist and an evil vizier and swordfighting and acrobatics and time travel and all that other cool stuff. There's also no chemistry between anyone, the plot is both bad and not like the games, and the special effects aren't even that good.
In other words, Prince of Persia should be able to make a good movie, but this doesn't like it.
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For me, the problem is less that none of the characters are actually Persian and more that they're failing miserably at recapturing Pirate's spark. This should be great! There's a witty protaginist and an evil vizier and swordfighting and acrobatics and time travel and all that other cool stuff. There's also no chemistry between anyone, the plot is both bad and not like the games, and the special effects aren't even that good.
In other words, Prince of Persia should be able to make a good movie, but this doesn't like it.
I can agree with that also, the actors seemed to have no chemistry.
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Shades of The Last Airbender?
Was there a last airbender movie, or are you saying that this foreshadows what will happen with the last airbender movie?
And even speaking of that, technically the airbender world is a different world, so a whitewash there is at least concievable there's nothing to say that on this seperate world people who study martial arts will wind up with asain features. Heck half the people in the cartoon didn't look ethnic in any way. Whereas Prince of Persia is supposed to be set in Persia on Earth.
Shades of The Last Airbender?Was there a last airbender movie, or are you saying that this foreshadows what will happen with the last airbender movie?
And even speaking of that, technically the airbender world is a different world, so a whitewash there is at least concievable there's nothing to say that on this seperate world people who study martial arts will wind up with asain features. Heck half the people in the cartoon didn't look ethnic in any way. Whereas Prince of Persia is supposed to be set in Persia on Earth.
I think he was referring to the fact that just about everyone EXCEPT Ang has olive or tan skin, while Ang is white as white can be (except that stupid blue arrow on his head).
FTR, I'm not a fan of Avatar, my little brother watches it.
I love the Last Air Bender, and the movie that coming, directed by M. Night Shamalyan, does not appear to have a single Asian actor when it's an obvious Asian fantasy analogue. Weird.
As far as Ang's "whiteness" in the cartoon, East Asians come in many skin tones, some significantly paler than this "white" boy.
I love the Last Air Bender, and the movie that coming, directed by M. Night Shamalyan, does not appear to have a single Asian actor when it's an obvious Asian fantasy analogue. Weird.
As far as Ang's "whiteness" in the cartoon, East Asians come in many skin tones, some significantly paler than this "white" boy.
It definitely is one of the better shows he watches, I even enjoy it sometimes, but not enough to actually WANT to watch it other then when it happens to be on (I still change it when it's Zack & Cody or any crap like that).
What your arguing (is that even what you're doing?) seems to be contradicting each other here. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but you're complaining that there are no "Asian" looking actors in the movie, but then you say that Asians come in many different colors. These two statements seem to be in opposition to each other. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Are you meaning that there is no stereotypical Asians in the movie, reflecting the "white"/"asian" paradigm of the cartoon (or more likely just not representing the racial diversity that WOULD be apparent in such a movie)? If so, then okay. I don't know anything, and thus can't refute or even agree with that. We'll just leave it at that. I guess "we're" just curious exactly what you meant by the original comment.
I wasn't really arguing, more like pointing out. The cartoon characters seem to have all been conceived as Asians of various kinds (even at least one South Asian/Indian character), and it looks like the movie has replaced them all with actors of European descent. I have both artistic and ethical issues with this. I wasn't the only person who was annoyed by it: an entire protest movement came out of it, though it was vocal at one point, it seems to have had nil effect.
Maybe I was too oblique in trying to answer you (CR) and LKL at the same time. In any event, I'm probably too much of a fan of franchise to not go see it anyway, and hope that my enjoyment of the cartoon is not defaced by a bad movie. Here's the website, for those interested: THE LAST AIRBENDER.
Prince Zuko is being played by that Indian guy from Slumdog Millionaire.
Thanks, Vigil. That's something, although, the Fire nation was the wrong place to go Indian, if they were trying to bring the analogue to life.
Also, nice, er...face-lift.
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Thanks, Vigil. That's something, although, the Fire nation was the wrong place to go Indian, if they were trying to bring the analogue to life.
Also, nice, er...face-lift.
Well like I was saying, Airbender is set in another world. There's actually no reason they have to assume that they should cast it with asian folks, if anything, I would more expect different ethnicities from each "nation". Basically it's just as bad to say, they're using martial arts, this should be cast with asains, as it is to whitewash it since it's a unique world. Honestly speaking I always thought the kids from the water bending nation were eskimo, the only nation I thought of as asain was the fire bending nation (and I thought it specifically said they came from the east, but I might be wrong in that memory)
But with prince of Persia, your setting it in Persia. It's like having a movie called, "People from the land of china in the land of China" and have the entire cast be Cameron Diaz, Tom Cruise, Bruce Willis, Tom Hanks, Sigorni Weaver, and one of the Wayans brothers, having all the extras be white and shooting it entirely in California.
Basically it's just as bad to say, they're using martial arts, this should be cast with asains, as it is to whitewash it since it's a unique world.
At the risk of continuing to threadjack, I'll just say that I think there's a lot more to A:TLAB that's Asian than "martial arts," and leave it at that. I could definitely have wished that they'd have given more consideration to representing Persia in the PoP film as well.
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Honestly, I can't help but hope this bombs horribly and that people DO get pissed over the casting. I mean seriously Hollywood, we really couldn't have some of the few positive Middle Eastern characters to come out in this decade played by Middle Eastern actors? srsly?
That combined with Airbender and both iterations of Earthsea...and that combined with people in recent memory raging online about there being black people in the D&D 3.0 PHBs...it just makes me a bit bitter about some of the climate hanging over the fantasy genre.
Also, I always figured Aang for a Tibetan analog myself.
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Basically it's just as bad to say, they're using martial arts, this should be cast with asains, as it is to whitewash it since it's a unique world.At the risk of continuing to threadjack, I'll just say that I think there's a lot more to A:TLAB that's Asian than "martial arts," and leave it at that. I could definitely have wished that they'd have given more consideration to representing Persia in the PoP film as well.
Okay yeah I'll admit, a lot of the culture does have heavy asain trappings, I'm not trying to peg you as some kind of secret racist or anything. All I meant is that Avatar has a lot more leeway to cast non-asians than if it was called, Avatar: the last Japaneese Airbender, and the primary setting was Taiwan. But then when you look at the cast all you see is white actors even down to the extras.
As my wife pointed out, it is Prince Of Persia, not Prince From Persia. See, it all makes sense. :D