times being what they are

[reflectedeve]

Hey there! I'm still pretty snowed under - missed my deadline, naturally, but the anthology editors say they'll continue accepting submissions for a few more days. Will definitely be done tonight. /o\

Following up on my previous post, however, here's a quick roundup of Avatar/The Last Airbender-related links.

-Racebending.com has a (neutral) rundown of The Last Airbender Film: Changes from the Cartoon Series, for the curious.

-Preliminary Thoughts on Race and Gender in The Last Airbender over at the racebending comm. The racefail sounds about as awful as expected, but I still managed to be surprised by the genderfail, a little. :/ Ugh. The strong female characters were a large part of what initially drew me to A:TLA - so disheartening.

-bossymarmalade posted a powerful example of why the hell stuff like this matters: but we must always be polite about it.

-A:TLA's own Dante Basco (who voiced Zuko - you may also know him from films like Hook or But I'm A Cheerleader! ♥) discussed the boycott in his blog: See, if you can get some Asian actors in the machine of Hollywood and they exist as a viable commodity, it can spark more projects that can support the voice and face of the Asian community and level the playing ground a little. But when we can’t even land roles that were so clearly created as Asian roles, its a bit disheartening.

-The film is generally getting truly abysmal reviews, which is some comfort, although as cereta points out, far too many of them are dismissing the race controversy as unimportant. io9 has a brilliantly over-the-top snarkfest review that you may find cathartic: M. Night Shyamalan Finally Made A Comedy.

I have very mixed feelings related to the orgy of disapproval that seems to be raining down onto the film. On the one hand, I want it to do very poorly, so I won't lie - I'm thrilled that the reviews are terrible, and I hope that carries over to the box office. On the other hand, it's depressing that the race issue probably won't be credited for its failure (if it does fail). Also, I was watching a handful of A:TLA episodes during my inking marathon last night, and it hit me (again) how amazing a movie adaptation could have been. The cartoon doesn't need to be adapted, mind; it's awesome all by itself. (I do get a little tired of film being held up as the be-all and end-all of storytelling mediums, but that's a grumble for another day, if ever.) But still. What a waste.

One other thing that's had my dander up over the last few days: Wonder Woman's "new direction." There's been a lot of coverage of this that I definitely haven't had time to read, but I have a feeling I'm going to spend a fair chunk of my weekend on it. /o\ I'm ... really upset about the whole thing, which kind of took me by surprise. I can't get into it now, obviously, so here, check out this nifty alternative redesign by _ming: Diana of Themyscira.

I really have to get the hell off the internet, but before I go, here's something AWESOME. Back in the immediate aftermath of the SPN racefail with the J2-in-Haiti fic, glockgal posted this amazing fancomic with Desi versions of Sam and Dean, which you may have seen. I loved it, and I love this new follow-up even more. (Guest-starring Durga! And wait until you see Castiel's new earthly incarnation!) I've never watched an entire episode of Supernatural, but I would watch the hell out of that show. ♥

Comments

[alexmegami]

I take some heart in the fact that Roger Ebert pointed it out as a failure, since he's the most well-known movie critic out there and therefore one that many people are going to read the review of.

[reflectedeve]

Ebert's attitude towards all this has certainly made me respect him a whole lot more, but after the conversations I've had even with some of my own friends (generally fairly intelligent, political, liberal people) who just weren't getting the race angle (or able to place enough importance on it), I can't help feeling pessimistic. We'll see, I guess. I do feel as though the whitewashing of TLA has gotten more press than that issue usually does, which is something.