THE LAST AIRBENDER Teaser Trailer Looks better than I Expected
Comments(36)
- By Venkman
Can I just tell you how impressed I am with this first teaser trailer for M. Night Shyamalan’s new film ‘The Last Airbender’, which is based on the extremely popular animated TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender. It really doesn’t show much but the tease is enough to spark my interest and I can’t help but get a little excited to see more of what is in store for us in this film. Did M. Night go and make himself a nice big epic adventure? It sure looks like it, and I hope it’s good. I would love to see M. Night work some movie making magic like he used to.
Paramount Pictures hopes they have the first of three ‘Last Airbender Films’ under their belt. If this is successful you can bet your ass we will see some more Airbender films.
The story follows the adventures of Aang, a ten year old successor to a long line of Avatars, who must put his childhood ways aside and stop the Fire Nation from enslaving the Water, Earth and Air nations.
Check out the teaser trailer for ‘The Last Airbender’ below and let us know what you think about it.
what a twist!
Surprising in quality and content, but the real test will be the film itself.
LOL
I want to see the other benders in the trailer!! I'm especially curious to see how well they do the water bending. That seems like it would be the hardest to portray realistically digitally. I hope this movie doesn't lean towards the cheesy sci-fi genre. Here's crossing out fingers, right?
Paramount was wise to leave out Katara and Sokka out of this trailer.
Did you notice how Aang's face was hidden in his jedi robe
and how it cut away right before he lifted his head?
Don't let the ILM fx and the Pirates Of The Caribbean score fool you.
The cast is still going to be
Anglo-Saxon heroes vs Middle Eastern villains.
racebending dot com
I gotta agree with Hashirama here. But it *is* a nice-looking trailer, just the same.
i dont see how they can expect sequels from shamalamadingdong, he doesnt do sequels, he does crappy plot twists.
The cast includes: Jackson Rathbone (born in Singapore), Dev Patel (star of Slumdog Millionaire), Aasif Mandvi (born in Bombay). I'm not sure this is shaping up to be an Anglo Saxon line-up.
That's what I call him too, LOL.
Quite a big departure for Shyamalan. I've been waiting to see what he could do if he left his comfort zone of formulaic Twilight Zone-style movies. I admit that I have not followed the animated series, but it is one of the few that have caught my eye. I've watched a few episodes and found it very engaging. I hope he pulls it off.
Jackson Rathbone may have been born in Singapore, but that doesn't hide the fact that he is a Caucasian raised in Texas. Rathbone plays the role of Sokka, an Inuit character who is the leader of Team Aang.
Nikola Peltz, a Caucasian actress playing the role of Katara, an Inuit character who plays the strong, motherly hero.
Noah Ringer, a caucasian "Karate star" from Texas, playing the role of Aang, an Asian character who saves the world.
Dev Patel, an Indian actor playing the role of Zuko, an Asian character, who is the villain throughout the whole story *spoiler alert* until he is changes his evil ways at the end.
Aasif Mandvi, an Indian who is known for being the "Middle Eastern Affairs Correspondent" on the Colbert Report. He will be playing as the villain, Admiral Zhao.
Cliff Curtis, a Maori actor known for playing Latino and Arab roles, will be playing Firelord Ozai, the evil dictator of the Fire Nation.
Shaun Toub, an Iranian actor playing the role of Zuko's uncle, Iroh. In the animated series Iroh was one of the most popular characters. Mako Iwamatsu was the voice behind the character.
Sokka and Katara are from the Water Tribe.
The Water Tribe was designed based on Inuit cultures.
They will be replaced with Caucasian actors/actresses.
Aang is from the Air Nation
The Air Nation was designed based on Tibetan/Shaolin Monks.
They will be replaced with Caucasian actors/actresses.
The Earth Kingdom was designed based on Korean and Japanese cultures.
It is rumored they will be played with Asian and African-American actors/actresses.
Most of these roles except Toph (2nd season) will be just extras in the background,
in hopes to hide the fact that the heroes are white-washed.
The Fire Nation was designed based on Chinese and Japanese cultures.
The Fire Nation are the villains who commit a genocidal attack on the Air Nation and the Water Tribe.
In the live action movie, they will be portrayed as Middle Eastern.
You got me on this one. You really did your homework. You have to let the American studios bet on actors they feel will bring in the $$$ when it comes right down to it. Otherwise, we may never see some movies get made (that might be a good thing in some cases). I hope you might give the movie a chance, though. It might be good despite the casting demographic. I'm really curious to see what Shyamalan will do in a different format than he's used to.
I can't give this movie a chance.
The damage has been done.
I'm offended.
This has nothing to do with the movie being bad or good.
Its not about what the movie is showing.
Its what they are not showing.
To not cast the lead roles with Asians in a movie influenced by Asian mythology
is a slap in the face. It perpetuates the idea that Caucasians can play Asian characters better than Asians.
The producers are using an old formula…
They think they need to cast the hero with a Caucasian actor
so that the targeted demographic can identify with him.
That offends the Asian community and insults the intelligence of everyone else.
Does this homework include Wikipedia? This has been discussed, yes, but honestly, I think we can almost extend this one a bit more leniency mainly because the sheer factor that they never really outright said in the show which races were who, Hollywood was able to do whatever the hell they wanted to.
Now, that being said, I still think some of the casting was poor.
I'm with you. This is reminiscent of when African American characters were played by Caucasian actors that had black shoe polish on their faces. I'm offended and I'm not even Asian.
This homework has been going on since December 2008 when the cast was announced.
And this homework has only been done just because of people debating
about what race these characters should represent.
And so far, the weakest arguments are
"but, its made by Americans for Americans"
(as if there weren't 14 million+ Asian-Americans and 4 million + Native-Americans)
the other argument,
"but, the creators never said out loud what race the characters are"
In the commentary of the pilot episode,
one of the creators said that Katara was
designed based on authentic Inuit characteristics.
In an 2005 interview,
Mike Dimartino (creator) said,
"And we wanted to base it in Asian rather than European background, and use the elements…"
"…all of the really rich cultures and proud traditions, and so, we're just trying to pay homage."
The name, "Avatar" is based on Hinduism.
Have you seen the animated series?
You can see the blood and sweat the creators put into the research and developement.
They consulted with The East Wast Players to make sure they don't portray any of the Asian cultures the wrong way.
EWP also helped cast some of the voice actors including Mako Iwamatso.
They consulted martial arts experts and even trained in Kung-Fu and Yoga to help develop the story and choreography.
One of them spent 4 months in Korea with the animation studio.
Both of them went to China to photograph architectural references.
Even without "homework",
if you watched the show, you would know that "Asian undertones" is an understatement especially when the show is filled with
Asian mythology, folklore, religion, philosophy, ideologies, martial arts, diet, utensils, calligraphy, architecture, fashion, and names.
If films based on European mythology (LOTR) has to cast Caucasians heroes,
I don't see why hollywood should extend a bit more leniency on films based on Asian mythology.
ohhhh my dear god i know the series :O
the series freakin funny my 4 yr old cousin forced me to watch it but that movie looks awsume i want that fluffie flying thing to be in there +.+
also,
on Bryan Konietzko's myspace,
he writes:
"AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER" FANS PLEASE NOTE:
Thanks for all the support and interest!
However, as always,
I WILL NOT BE READING OR REPLYING TO ANY MESSAGES OR COMMENTS regarding the ATLA series or "The Last Airbender" feature film, no matter how desperate you are or important you think your message may be. Sorry, it has got to be this way…
I have NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CASTING WHATSOEVER for the feature film."
Shams going to screw it up and if they make 2/3 of the budget back, I'll be surprised.
I definitely recommend watching the series.
Best American-made animated tv series ever.
It has a very cinematic feel to it.
M.Night could have used the show as storyboards for the film.
They already messed up the story!
At the very least, perhaps the movie will generate interest in the original series so that it may find an audience who would have never known about it. They will be able to see it in its intended setting.
True.
But, by that time, Paramount will have your money
and further support this casting practice.
Weak Argument #3:
"It's just a kids show!"
My kids are not white, so they don't have the privilege of not caring.
They were confused when they found out that the heroes they identified with on the tv series changed race in the live action.
Try and explain that to a 10 year old.
They say the tv series success was due to the fact that it was a refreshing departure of a predominantly white media.
"I think it is possible that some readers never even notice what color the people in the story are. Don't notice, don't care. Whites of course have the privilege of not caring, of being "colorblind." Nobody else does."
- Ursula K. Le Guin
That i can understand, there are a lot of talented actors that are oriental.
my uncle shun is korean, i personly love the Cultures of china japan and korea. so sorry if i offended you, As a Christine i dont look at the outside aperence. black white red whatever. were all human.
What were looking at is a movie that may be good but the cast should have been more Orientle.
There are a lot of talented Orientle actors and actresses out there that could have filled the roles in the movie.
well once you sell those rights then its over
Your right it is stupid sorry about the earlay comment, I love the Asian cultures.
Yep sorry about the las comments it dose suck. i love the asian culture.
No offense taken.
and just for future reference.
The word, "oriental" is now only refered to objects:
e.g. "oriental vase"
People can't be "oriental"
Sorry, I gotta be that Politically Correct guy.
Great an air bender that can't get hurt see's dead people but yet enemies are trying to invade a farm like temple with trees trying to kill armies with air and not knowing there all trapped in a 1500 acre ranch and that they are looking for some type of lake?? awesome!
I'm going to cut in here for just a moment to say…what the hell is all the fuss about? I watched the first 4 episodes of avatar, and I admit that its a pretty awesome show, and that the casting is really screwy for the film, but I just dont get where the huge fan base came from. I mean no disrespect, honestly, but I don't get what the big deal is about this movie. It doesnt even look like that great of a film.
although i do agree with mudd86 here about the cast needing to be the right race. that was my problem with maverick (excuse me–agent zero) in wolverine.
true the movie has lost a bunch of fans due to character replacement of the leading roles from what we know them to be to predominantly white ..the race issue seem to be in play ,especially portraying middle easterners as terrorists, just boosting the stereotype
however the CGI seems to be on point ..would love to see screen-shots of Aappa
The fuck do you mean when you say he has to save the Airbenders? They're all dead at this point in time…or did Paramount go and fuck that up, too?
I LOVE the animated series. I really hope the movie isn't a dissapointment.
The animated series is great but from the casting choices he already messed it up, if he can fix it with insane special effects and descent cgi it should be ok. Theres still no way he could top the animated series though, it was the best american made animated series probably ever.