Completely agree. Also, it really bothers me when people design aliens and find it impossible to not give any race that's even remotely humanoid large mammary glands. XP Another example. A cephalopod with boobs. Really? x.x But yes, I am going to see it for the special effects and the prettiness, and try to ignore the fail in the story.

Speaking of racefail, I really want someone to blog about The Princess and the Frog. Because I went and saw that yesterday, and while it's cute and there isn't any really obvious (to me) racefail, I felt like it was there and my privilege was blocking my view of it. There were some posts a few months ago, but none so far from people who actually went to see it, at least not among the blogs I read. I'm sure it'll show up soon, since it just came out yesterday.

Anthropomorphism at its finest.

I want to see The Princess and the Frog because I've been told that it's good, but I have your same reservations.

Yes, yes, and yes. Also, for the record? A man who uses the word "titties" is a man who should never get his hands on 'em. Ewwww.

Can't disagree with you there.

I was told that James Cameron's "Avatar" is not the same movie as M. Night Shamamamamama's; "Avatar: The Last Airbender."

But I could be wrong.

I'm not planning on watching either.

It's not.

I do want to see the last Airbender though because I watched the whole series and I just WANT to know what they're doing to it.

I'm like that.

Yep.

Wow, and yes, you did find even more reasons to object to it. I knew there were - couldn't quite put my finger on the wheelchair one, but it was buzzing around my head.

I completely agree with all of your points. It's cliched and very unPC.

This is why I enjoy the fact that I can turn my brain off and just enjoy the pretty. I did it in 2012 (where I think I bothered people in the theater with my cackling when the world was going boom), and I'll do it again for Avatar.

The only movie I haven't been able to do that with was District 9.

Oh, we were definitely cackling our way through 2/3 of 2012. (The stoopid in the "Poseidon Adventure" segment of it was too stoopid for much more than outrage - that many big doors on the side of the thing and NO backup plan in case of failure? Please.)

No I disagree on 2. Indigenous culture is helpless against white culture until A White Man shows it how to fight back Its only helpless if it doesn't have equal or better weapons...

Aw, true.

Then it is EVIL and wants to DESTROY US.

I'm a white male between the ages of 18 and 40, and I approve of this post.

Edited at 2009-12-12 09:33 pm (UTC)

I suspect you may be right but none of us have seen the film yet. We've only seen the marketing efforts of the film.

I've seen many, many films where the trailers and other marketing stuff ended up having nothing to do with the actual film that ended up on the screen (Inglorious Bastards being a good example) so I'm wary of anyone judging this until someone has seen in.

Case it point, back in the day based on the trailers I thought True Lies would suck - but it ended up being excellent.

Sometimes marketing has a disconnect from the actual film.

Oh, no doubt. My favorite example was the trailer for Galaxy Quest, which was awful enough that we only went the second weekend on the basis of reviews and word-of-mouth.

This is just my speculation from the trailers, since everyone else seems to be weighing in.

Edited at 2009-12-12 11:08 pm (UTC)

Ha. I had similar skepticism about the plot when I heard about this movie. For me it was more along the lines of "wow this storyline sounds so cliche". I mean Cameron hasn't directed a movie in 12 years and this is what he came up with?

But it looks gorgeous and I'm sure I'll see it and be impressed by the visuals.

Cliche and fail. You can't beat it.

Well, at least this one didn't actively whitewash an existing story where racial differences were important to the plot.

Not exactly a big win in my mind.

1. Indigenous culture is only legitimated by A White Man understanding it
2. Indigenous culture is helpless against white culture until A White Man shows it how to fight back
3. A White Man is the default savior of such cultures

I think you're jumping to conclusions with all three of these. They're possibly true, but none of these are _in_ the trailers I've seen. I didn't see a helpless native culture, a white man saving the culture or an indigenous culture being considered illegitimate.

Really? We must have seen different trailers.

Just saw it. The previews lie.

It's much closer to Narnia than to any "White man saves indigenous people thing."

Unless you consider Narnia that kind of story.

Oh, glad to hear! I want it to be good.