Oh, Night. You have a problem. The Last Airbender isn't going to destroy your career like some - okay, many - believe, but if we're being honest that's only because you've already got a few other projects set up and funded so you get a few chances to redeem yourself. But with two consecutive flops already on the resume and now this one coming out... well, there's an issue.

There are two issues, actually, but let's just tackle them one at a time, shall we?

First, movie = not good. I don't normally do this but reading the pull quotes from reviews of The Last Airbender is probably more entertaining than watching the movie itself and I can't bear to keep the fun to myself. Here's a selection:

"Sixth Sense director's latest film is an overstuffed narrative that feels like a very long prologue for a climax that never comes." Liam Lacey, The Globe and Mail

"The problem -- the catastrophe -- of The Last Airbender is not in the conception but the execution. The long-winded explanations and clumsy performances are made worse by graceless effects and a last-minute 3-D conversion that wrecks whatever visual grace or beauty might have been there." A.O. Scott, The New York Times

"The Last Airbender is an agonizing experience in every category I can think of and others still waiting to be invented." Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

"The Last Airbender isn’t that much different from the rest of this summer’s generally dire multiplex fare—from The A-Team to Jonah Hex... But it is remarkable in one respect: It’s the worst of them." Keith Phipps, The Onion A.V. Club

The word is out and the word is baaaaaad. And these, folks, are just a smattering of the politely worded ones from the mainstream press. Dig in a bit deeper and it gets worse, fast. But, surprisingly enough, making a movie loathed by critics is not the biggest problem on Shyamalan's plate right now. No, his life gets worse. You see, despite being Asian-American himself, the casting of The Last Airbender has led to widespread accusations that an himself is racist or, at best, racially insensitive.

The problem began right when the casting notices went out. You see, the cartoon that the film is based on is set in a world populated almost entirely by Asians and Inuit. All of the major players are visually ethnic - for lack of a better term - or are clearly designated as such by the larger cultural surroundings. This is not a white story. But when the casting call went out it specifically asked for white actors for all of the major parts. They ended up not casting all-white at the end of things but only because one of their key actors dropped out and was replaced by Slumdog Millionaire's Dev Patel. Despite not matching the race of the original character, this probably would have taken some of the heat off except for the fact that Dev plays the villain. And his entire race is also dark skinned. So... all the Asians were turned white with the only trace of colour remaining belonging to the villains. Whoopsie.

So now Night's being boycotted by Asian action groups. Here's an excerpt of an email I received from boycott organizers today:

I just wanted to make sure you know about the controversy surrounding M. Night Shyamalan’s film The Last Airbender.  It's based on "Avatar," the TV show, where all of the characters were Asian or Inuit.  It was popular with a lot of children and their parents and for once gave Asian Americans their own heroes.  For the film, the casting directors sent out notices with a stated preference for white people, which is what they ended up with--four white stars--until one of them dropped out.  Dev Patel now plays the bad guy leading a nation of brown people against the good guy white nations.  It sends the message that Asians can’t be the heroes in their own story.
 
It's more of the white-washing Hollywood's done to films based on Asian/Asian American source material like 21 and Dragonball:  Evolution (Mickey Rourke recently announced he's going to play Genghis Khan in a film for John Milius!).  They made these movies with unknowns, so they didn't need big stars to make them successful--these projects were sold on their concepts.  Unfortunately, even Shyamalan, who’s Asian American himself, has fallen for the cynical assumption that whites will not pay money to see Asian Americans starring in a film.  I hope you'll make note of these issues in your review of the film or write about this important subject.
 
MANAA even met with Paramount President Adam Goodman to discuss our concerns, and we‘ve received coverage on this issue from the Los Angeles Times, CNN, and Associated Press.  We saw the movie at a pre-screening at Paramount yesterday and it was even worse than we thought re:  speaking parts for Asian/brown non-bad guys.  Except for a few lines from Asian villagers, every Asian who speaks is bad and every white character is good.  MANAA and racebending.com are calling for a boycott of the film because we don’t believe discriminatory practices should be rewarded.  You can go to manaa.org/videos/html or racebending.com for more information or e-mail me if you have any questions.  Thanks.

Whether you go with the protesters the whole way or not - I'm more inclined to think this was just poorly thought out rather than malicious - the director is already seen by many as arrogant and smug has just given haters a whole new layer of reasons to dislike him...

But, in happier news, Montreal's mammoth Fantasia Festival - the continent's oldest and largest celebration of genre film, the 80+ film program sprawling over nearly three weeks - kicks off next week and have just announced the full program. Hit the link above to browse the program and plan your trip.