Avatar: The Last Airbender, the Netflix series has been making rounds on the internet ever since it was released. While fans have been enjoying the series, its arrival takes us back to another live-action version of the mythos, the 2010 movie The Last Airbender.
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan, The Last Airbender, is a criticized and lambasted feature. While the movie might be bad Shyamalan’s defense of the movie is even worse which will leave fans shocked.
When M. Night Shyamalan Defended His Version Of Avatar: The Last Airbender
When M. Night Shyamalan was said to make a live-action version of The Last Airbender, fans had high expectations but they were all broken the moment the casting controversy started. Although, with time, fans of the original cartoon and critics have found many issues with the 2010 movie, the main issue has always been the whitewashing of the characters.
Characters of color were majorly depicted by white actors throughout the movie despite the mythos being based on Asian culture. Hence started a wave of controversy and criticism, where many fans even called for a boycott of the film (see Gizmodo and SFGATE).
Meanwhile, surrounded by criticism and brutally lambasted left, right, and center, Shyamalan tried to defend himself. In an interview with the Washington Post (via Reappropriate), the filmmaker stated,
“Anime is based on ambiguous facial features. It’s meant to be interpretive. It’s meant to be inclusive of all races, and you can see yourself in all these characters… . This is a multicultural movie and I’m going to make it even more multicultural in my approach to its casting. There’s African-Americans in the movie … so it’s a source of pride for me. The irony that they would label this with anything but the greatest pride, that the movie poster has Noah and Dev on it and my name on it. I don’t know what else to do.”
Not only were fans offended by Shyamalan’s response but the movie continues to be remembered for not being a faithful adaptation of the beloved Nickelodeon cartoon series (see Reddit).
M. Night Shyamalan Apparently Later Accepted The Limits To His Creativity
Despite being behind the critically panned The Last Airbender, M. Night Shyamalan is revered for making some of the most intriguing and out-of-the-box movies and features. While recently conversing with The Hollywood Reporter, regarding his career and journey within the industry, the filmmaker was asked about how he felt about the failure of two of his high-priced studio movies, The Last Airbender and After Earth, and he stated,
“All of us go through moments in our lives where we want to be accepted. We get tired of the fight and having to defend who we are… So I made a genuine effort to join the system, but I learned that the special thing that makes me happy was hard to do within that system. It was so wonderful to have that opportunity, but there are so many people who are so much better at that kind of storytelling than I am.”
Apparently accepting his own limitations when it comes to the genre, Shyamalan’s statement reflects his struggles to appeal to a wider audience and create a successful adaptation of a beloved animated series.
While his defense of The Last Airbender may not have been well received by fans, it seems that he has since learned from his mistakes and is now focused on creating original content that showcases his unique vision and storytelling abilities.
The Last Airbender can be streamed on Netflix.
