...ugh.

[misora]

Dear god. The wanking over The Last Airbender movie in katara_zuko and everywhere else on LJ today (o hai random comms suddenly paying attention to this fandom, wtf) is driving me nuts. How many posts are we going to have about "racefail" (which there WAS, yes, we've known for quite a while already) and "Ebert says it sucks" and "don't go see this, or else you're stupid".

Be aware now, if any of you tell me not to see it, simply because of what you've heard or you've seen it yourself and disliked it, I will remove you from my friendslist. I do not feel as though you are doing me a "favor" by telling me to believe something without having seen it with my own eyes first. Do me the courtesy of viewing it like those of you that have seen it have done, and I'll reserve my judgment of the film once I've managed to take it in for myself, not by second-hand info.

Apologies if this sounds harsh, but I have had just about enough of the self-righteousness of LJ, today.

Comments

[mscongeniality.livejournal.com]

I'm not in the fandom, but I totally get where you're coming from. 100%

LJ really does take self righteousness to new heights (lows) sometimes.

[misora.livejournal.com]

It especially does when everyone who has an opinion (and we all know that proverb about what opinions are like) decides to make giant comm posts to accomplish nothing but a) wank about how bad the movie is, or b) tell others what they should and should not be viewing, or both.

It's at the point where people are saying this shit to people they don't even know, in comments of random people's journals.

[mscongeniality.livejournal.com]

I actually had someone on my flist, whose last post was in April of this year and last post before that was in 2007 come out of the woodwork to announce that she's joining the boycott. You've had nothing to say for the past three years and the ATLA movie racefail is what brings you back to LJ? Pardon me while I fail to take you at all seriously.

[alexb49.livejournal.com]

Wait? There's a movie out? Why have I heard nothing of this?

What I find fascinating and annoying at the same time is the multiple new posts within each ATLA community about it. It's as if each new post is not interested in actual discussion and the poster wishes to merely make their opinions known and bask in the glory of a ton of posts.

[misora.livejournal.com]

♥ at your first sentence.

This same thing happened right around the time the animated series picked up again, after a long hiatus on Nickelodeon; the postings for the SD ComicCon 2008 and for the start of the last half of season 3 episodes was mindboggling. Of course I'd prefer *those* posts (which were mostly squee and hope for a Zutara ending), now, to all this movie wank. It's just depressing.

[alexb49.livejournal.com]

Glad I wasn't around. Personally I find LJ's archive system hard to navigate so I'll excuse an old repost but if it's on the same damn page? Post after post of OMG! will get a whole lot of STFU from me.

[misora.livejournal.com]

Word.

[vitani]

I just don't want people to see it because I don't want to support the horrid racefail with money, but I wouldn't yell at them not to or anything like that. I know people who want to see how bad it is, so they're paying for other films and then sneaking in, or downloading it. Still, it's up to people what they want to do.

[misora.livejournal.com]

I can understand not wanting to see it for that reason, but to be honest, it's not really accomplishing anything. M. Night has already signed on with Paramount for the trilogy...so unless Paramount decides to pull the plug on it (and it will probably depend on gross $sales, not newspaper editorial reviews), the rest of the movies are still going to happen.

I'll always wish M. Night would have gone about things differently, but that doesn't mean I don't want to see it for myself rather than have someone describe it to me. And downloading right now is not even an option unless you like watching shitty versions of kids' vidcams in the theater.

I detest the bullying that's going on in the main comms, though. Someone telling me what to do with my own money (when half of these people live with their parents and are unemployed, to boot) gets me from zero to crazybitch in no time flat.

[vitani]

I don't think they're going to happen, but that may just be me hoping.

The point for me isn't trying to stop the sequels, though. It's letting M. Night know what he did isn't okay. That this continuing trend in Hollywood isn't okay. And it is accomplishing something -- the racefail is making more and more news, as are the boycotts and protests at the theatres.

Do what you wish! I personally wouldn't feel right paying money to see it. But that's my own personal choice.

[misora.livejournal.com]

I agree, the Racefail has definitely made itself heard, and people of aware of it; that's definitely a good thing. As for Hollywood changing, though, I guess I'm just more of a pessimist when it comes to those kind of people valuing equality in casting. They've been doing this for years, to many, many other movies and franchises...and I think they're just going to keep doing it, boycotts or not.

Regardless, his movie's already been made, and even if it turns out to be a trainwreck I want to see it for myself.

[vitani]

Man, I certainly hope it will eventually change. Even if it takes a long time. I'll keep hoping for that because the alternative is just depressing, haha.

[misora.livejournal.com]

We have to get studio executives' heads out of their asses, which unfortunately I have no idea *how* long would take.

But, one can only hope.

[avocado-love.livejournal.com]

What's pissing me off is how celebratory people are that the movie is, apparently, bad. I guess I'm just one of the few with the bizarre opinion that if the movie does poorly the franchise will probably not continue. This is something that should be sad. I will never understand the people who high-five each other while watching the franchise shoot itself in the head.

It's the very worst of fandom. I'll never, never understand it.

[misora.livejournal.com]

...I'm not fully convinced that the movie failure will impact Bryke and Nickelodeon pushing through with the new series in the franchise, though. It's been made clear that Paramount and M. NIght are at the helm of the movie, and Bryke apparently had little say in it. I could be wrong, but I'm assuming the movie has kind of...completely distanced itself from the animated series. Which is fine, anyway, since it's so mind-bogglingly different.

My opinion is that people can cheer either way they want - whatever they feel about it, it doesn't affect me or my own personal judgment/enjoyment of the movie. (It is kind of disheartening, though.) However, when they start telling people that we shouldn't be seeing this movie, that's something different and I won't tolerate that shit. Don't tell me what not to do, people.

:) I'll put up a post this weekend after I see it (which will probably be Sunday, since I have family in town this weekend), and you and I can gush/discuss/complain/contrast all we want wank-free. :D

[avocado-love.livejournal.com]

LJ is not doing the notifying thing for me. How annoying.

I hope you're correct and I'm mistaken. If the film ends up losing money (which isn't guaranteed, even with bad reviews, but still...), hopefully it won't be tied into the Nickelodeon animation department. The only thing I can do is wait and see (and try not to wring my hands anxiously. lol.)

Yeah, I have commitments the next few days. Unless something changes, I won't be seeing it until monday or so. Looking forward to comparing/contrasting! :D

[alexb49.livejournal.com]

I'm also not getting notifications. Ah well. Anyway, like it or not the creators have an executive producer credit on the movie. Seeing it tied to an expensive movie that goes nowhere is not going to do them any favors on future projects. Profit is the only thing that studios will see, nothing else.

Yes, the crowing about the movie being bad is kind of odd. You can discuss the racism but I sort of get the feeling that the triumph in the bad reviews is more because of how unlike the source material it is. That if he'd followed it more closely it would be successful (which there is obviously no guarantee of that). I'm still fascinated with debating how a mostly white voice acting cast of non-white characters is inherently any more or less racist than a mostly white cast of a movie without it devolving into NO U!

I already have my little bottle of pre made margarita on my shelf that I bought just to see this movie.

[infinitygoddess.livejournal.com]

Fandom wankery is probably what caused me to lose interest in joining most anime-oriented communities. I still see it in Sims 2 (my current crack habit), but at least with the game, you choose your own scenarios as to how your Sims are supposed to be and all that and no one fusses over outcomes because hey, it's your story, and you're just using Sims to illustrate it.

But yeah, for something like movies and tv, I tend to prefer to let people decide for themselves if that's their cup of tea. I'll say if I don't like something, but I'd never say "don't see it", because my personal preferences don't apply to everyone.

[misora.livejournal.com]

It comes down to respecting peoples' personal choices, which apparently on LJ the majority do not. But I kind of already knew this, to be honest.

[infinitygoddess.livejournal.com]

Sadly enough, it's like that in real life. :/ For a lot of things.

[milieva]

As one who is not familiar with the fandom and was practically forced to go see the film at the midnight premier last night, I could easily complain about it on those grounds.

But I actually enjoyed it.

I am now interested in seeing the series, though I don't know that I ever will. My time is still currently being eaten by the Doctor Who fandom, though I am not fond of the current Doctor. I still adore the past one as he is part of my OTP for that fandom.

I say it is your choice to go see it.

Just remember it is a film adaptation and the films rarely do the books or series justice. Look at Harry Potter or the Princess Bride. They leave plenty of information out.

As I said, I liked it, but I have no knowledge of anything else or what everyone is complaining about. I did have to deal with my mate bitching about it afterward to the point I pulled out my iPhone and ignored him while reading a book on my Kindle app.

[rachelthedemon.livejournal.com]

*facedesk*

I have zero interest in seeing it, and have had such since I heard Shamwow's name attached to it. But damned if I'm going to pull an Aang and tell anyone who wants to see it that they should refrain just because a lot of people think it sucks. That self-righteous douchehattery.

Seriously, go see it and make your own value judgement. Haters to the left.

[sabaku-no-tsuki.livejournal.com]

Lool pull an Aang. I already have plans to go see it once it comes out where I live. We all should be albe to disclose our opinions on things. If we don't like something we shouldn't be afraid to say so. But to go as far as say someone shoulnd't see something is exagerating.

[jennibare.livejournal.com]

Woo hoo! I'm stoopid!

I went to see it today, despite all the failings I had heard because I'm of the same opinion that it's my own, not yours and I wanted to see it. I don't regret seeing it by any means. Yes, there's lots of things that could should have been changed, but I wouldn't have known that without having seen it first hand.

And no apologies, woman! I won't allow it. You make a very valid point and to those who don't respect that simple courtesy f*** 'em.

[rabidline.livejournal.com]

I think I know which post at katara_zuko you're talking about, and I have to agree.

Personally, I'm not that interested at the movie; but I understand where both the cruel and/or the optimistic attitude came from. You can diss the movie, sure. You can defend it. But forcing your opinions to others, and bullying those who don't agree with you? Na-ah. It's like shipper wars all over again.

What really irritates me is how the people who are complaining CLEARLY DID NOT DO THE RESEARCH before they complain. "They changed it, it sucks! They cut this! They cut that! OMG THEY GOT THE NAMEZ WRONG!! DON'T GO SEE IT!" and I was like, "What, you people did not know this?" And then they name-dropped the racebending community, which is good, don't get me wrong, but I get the feel that they just want to be ~*trendy*~ and bash the movie as hard as possible.

*sigh* Stay Classy, fandom.

[vejibra.livejournal.com]

I'm with you ToT. I was totally scared of seeing the movie because of all this bashing comments DX. But I decided, wherever is good or bad I want to see it myself and I had my own opinions about it :D So I going to see the movie to the end of the month (because that is when premiers in my country lol).

But I'm agree with you, in matters or movies or life itself, people had difference views of it, and should respect the opinions of others :D.

But the matter, hope everything is okey with you :D. *hugs*!

[manonlechat.livejournal.com]

Just spent the past two hours catching up (and mopping up) @ katara_zuko. Unfortunately, I don't want to delete any of the posts that have conversation already taking place within the comments, but I can monitor new ones cropping up. Do you think a "I am a Zutara fan and plan to see the film" post would balance things out at all?

[animefantasyfan.livejournal.com]

I'd say try it, quickly, or else it'll really get out of control (Lesson learned from FB... *sigh*)

Golly, now I wonder if any of my posts have that "lo I am movie judger of awesome- thou shall listen to my opinions and live accordingly." quality. I hope not! I was just enjoying adding my two cent on how the movie adaptation didn't live up to it's potential. :(

If you see anything that (god forbid) has my name on it, and smells of d-baggery, please delete it, and spare the comm!

[misora.livejournal.com]

I saw the mod posts up there, and I'm relieved that some control has finally been reasserted. Because as you could see from that one post where you had to step in and remind someone not to bash other shippers - it was just getting out of control.

:( This whole thing does indeed remind me of the '08 finale. It just sucks because it's so much more negative this time around.

[animefantasyfan.livejournal.com]

...I think I'm going to go ahead and ask you to do the exact opposite of what everyone's asking.

See the movie please. I'd love to get your take on it, because you know how to write good fiction. I personally believe that this movie's crew does not.

I lost faith in Shama-man during the ending of Signs. If I have an extra three dollars, I'll go see it in the discount theatre... during the day, when no one's around, so I can mock it without having to ruin anyone's good time (I do the same thing with some horror movies.... it's my therapy. And I'm a dork.).

This post has me so paranoid that I might have done some bad posting at the comm. T.T I feel dirty.

[miss-sassy.livejournal.com]

Everyone is really super attached to it. I'm kind of annoyed that I joined the Zutara communities this week (finally), because it looks like it's just gonna be people whining about the film for months and months.

That said, I think I'm gonna buy tickets to another movie and then go see it. The racefail bothers me, but I still want to see how the movie turned out.

And OT, but I just finished the finale of the show tonight! :DDD

[jbramx2.livejournal.com]

lol, this probably isn't a good time to admit that I have the racebending community on my f-list and have been talking about the movie and the production team along with other race and feminist issues on my facebook and in my journal in deviantart for the past month.

Yeah, I cope with grief in a weird way. But hey, I'm almost back to normal, a lot of thanks goes to my rage at the production team of the film. ^^;

I've been following the progress on this movie since 2008, but it wasn't until some discussions regarding minorities (transvestites specifically) on Scans_Daily a few months ago, that I became aware of a lot of things regarding debating minority issues. Then my dad died and well, I lost interest in pretty much everything. However, right before my dad died, I had added the racebending community to my f-list here on LJ. (But being busy I missed a lot of updates).

Afterwards, I returned to LJ to start writing again in order to cope. But went through a period of ennui after my last entry....until I started reading my f-list and rediscovered the racebending community. For the first time in a while, I got to feel something: ANGER. It was like waking up. I started talking animatedly to my coworkers and friends. When people would express their disbelief at the production team in sarcastic witty comments, I laughed for the first time. I met people who experienced the same things I did when I was a kid...how we always wanted a hero on tv or in cartoons that looked like us. So yeah, I threw myself into the boycott and kept up with it on facebook, at work, and in my journal on deviantart.com.

Was I self-righteous? I hope I wasn't. I just felt useful and connected to people. I'm glad I caught this here today before posting. Er, well, I had planned to write an updated entry...but that didn't work out too well tonight anyways. Either way, i don't want to piss you off, so thanks for the heads up. When i feel good enough to write that updated entry, I'll post it after you see the movie or put it on a customs f-list so you won't see it. I'm sorry the wank has gotten to the point it has. :(

[misora.livejournal.com]

Look, everyone can feel the way they want to about this movie. I understand the anger over the racial miscasting, and it's something that I will never really forgive Shyamalan for - he could have tapped into so many potential young Asian actors/actresses, and given them a shot at becoming big Hollywood stars, but he blew it. That to me is unforgivable.

But I still want to see this movie, regardless. I have been a fan of this show since its inception in 2005, and for me it's not as much about the ethnicity of the show's origins. It's a great story, for one thing, and particularly in Zuko/Katara's case a wonderful development of two characters that started out the series as mortal enemies. I want to see this movie, for that reason, because even despite the miscasting and the fact that Shyamalan has to condense 20 episodes into one two hour period, I know the basic structure of the story will be intact. And I want to see it on the big screen.

I don't begrudge anybody their varying opinions on this movie, or even boycotting it. But I do begrudge people insisting that others boycott it. Because that's totalitarian, at its basest form. Telling me what I can and can't see, because of their moral compass, and insisting it's so bad that I wouldn't want to see it anyway? Please. It's insulting that anyone would even make that assumption.

Hollywood is an old, old old institution, and people can't expect it to change right away. This miscasting issue has been going on a long time, in other franchises and fandoms. This isn't the first time it's happened. I think change is needed, and I'm in favor of protesting for that change (I was one of the first people to post a "dream cast" after I'd heard who Shyamalan was hiring), but everyone has to realize that everyone protests in their own way. I personally do not believe that boycotting this movie will bring about any change to what Hollywood execs do or think.

I'm not going to tell people to censor themselves as to what they think or feel about this movie. I was simply annoyed by the sheer volume of posts in certain comms that was someone posting about how awful the movie was, every fucking five minutes. That's overkill, and people just posting to see their words on the screen is what I was referring to as self-righteous; not the racebending movement. Everyone has the right to say what they want about it. However, I hope people will extend others the same courtesy who want to see the movie for themselves, and not attach derogatory labels such as 'racist' to them. (Which has happened, I've heard.) Because the reason *I* want to see this movie has nothing to do with race, and that's just all kinds of fucked up.

I know for you in particular, that these past few months have been extremely hard, and that this probably brings up a whole slew of feelings that I couldn't possibly identify with. But Racebending has made its mark - there's been a ton of attention devoted to it, from all sides, and that's extremely positive. So you should be proud of that.

Your opinions on the miscasting aren't going to piss me off. But if you told me you would think I'm a racist for wanting to see it - that would piss me off, and I hope you can understand why.

[jbramx2.livejournal.com]

Oh lord no. I wouldn't think you're racist. A racist is someone who holds one race superior to others or...one race inferior to the others. Clearly that's not you.

No, in my case, I write about it mostly to raise awareness of the issues surrounding the movie and Hollywood in general for those that don't know (you clearly are aware of it) and to appeal to those who would be interested in it (You've had your fill of it so you wouldn't even be on my radar). So no, and I would not label people who have a different opinion than me. It's the easiest thing for humanity to do, but it's never that simple, so I refrain from even attempting it.

I don't expect everyone to understand my feelings or know my experiences...that's unfair. I'll write to share them with folks, but I don't expect complete acknowledgment or even understanding. AND Like I told my friend, somedays I feel like I'm Don Quixote charging at windmills and getting weird looks for it, because I know my ideals and moral compass are on a different plane than others (not superior or inferior...just different). If I come off as self righteous, totally not my intention. I understand that ultimately, the only person I'm in control of is ME. No one else. And this is what ME is thinking and doing with regards to that movie and things in general.

But yeah, it sucks that you've been violently bombarded by it all like that. Sad to say, I'm not surprised. I don't follow any of the avatar fandom communities (except Racebending) because long ago, I've found that fandom to be the most unwelcome one of all the fandoms I've joined and I've joined a lot.. (Even American comic book fandoms whose creators are sometimes assholes, are not that bad). *shudders* I LOVE the series (hate the kataang), but I was shocked by how hostile the fandom could be LONG before there was even talk of a movie. I drew a few fanarts, but lord, some of the reactions I got...wow. You know, I like crack pairings, have done a lot of fanart for various series...and in none of those did I face so much hostility as I did in the avatar fandom. I was very disappointed and had no patience for dealing with that on a daily basis. I came very close to deleting my pictures. So I stopped drawing Avatar stuff instead. I still read fanfics (zutara yay) and still watch the series.. Anime fandoms may be crazy and immature, but they're pretty open to everything. I did not find that so in the Avatar fandom. Which is a shame, but I too do not like people telling me what I should do (draw) or not.

[azileath.livejournal.com]

=P Wasn't there an episode where some acting troupe managed to summarize (slightly inaccurately, haha) more than half the show in less than 20 minutes? I'm sure it can be done in two hours if you leave 1.5 hours for ensuring accuracy and 10 minutes for the rest of the episodes!

...ugh.

[platedlizard.livejournal.com]

As someone who is not in the fandom, go see it. Or don't. It's up to you. I've gone to see movies I knew were going to be terrible because I wanted to. I've seen Twilight, heck I've seen Battlefield Earth. I saw them because I wanted to, and I enjoyed them in their own crappy way.

I have to admit that I'm annoyed by all the people saying that they are going to buy a ticket for another movie and sneak in or download it. That's stealing. It's stealing from all the hardworking folks who made the movie, most of whom had no part of the descion making processes. If people want to see the movie, fine, but pay for it. If they don't want to support the movie then they shouldn't go see it. *grabs the kleenex*