Last Airbender Teaser Trailer

The Teaser for M. Night Shyamalan's Latest Teases You Into Unconsciousness

By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under Trailers | Comments (34)

Here we have the new teaser trailer for M. Night. Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender, a live-action version of the animated television series that ran on Nickelodeon for three seasons, a show that Phillip described in his review as “not only the best animated series of the last decade, but one of the best shows ever produced.” The movie stars Jackson Rathbone, Noah Ringer, and Slumdog Millionaire’s Dev Patel, and it’s about the 10-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.

Not exactly a compelling premise, but I’ll take Phillip’s word for it that the animated series was superb. The teaser trailer for the movie, however, is not. I don’t know why that call it a teaser if the only sensation I have is of temporary paralysis after being kicked in the hip. Before, I was slightly curious to see what M. Night Shyamalan could do with someone else’s material. Now: I could care less. Go back to making generically creepy twist movies, brother. If the world needed another Street Fighter movie, we’d call Steven E. de Souza.

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Comments

Ho hum. I'd rather watch the original on DVD again.

Posted by: Snath at June 23, 2009 10:50 AM

Ok, I have to ask this now because it's the 30th time i've heard it, what's an avatar? I thought that was that little icon you have like in web forums and banking website logins.

Posted by: J Stride at June 23, 2009 10:58 AM

In this show, the Avatar is the one person who has mastered all 4 disciplines and is supposed to be like the Dhali Lama or something.

Or, in Shamalan's hands...just another pun. Of course, nothing from stopping him from some "twist" ending and have it all be a dream or some such bs.

Posted by: UncleJR at June 23, 2009 11:03 AM

Avatar: The Last Whitewasher. I'm gonna be like this on every Airbender post, I hope ya know.

Posted by: Pen at June 23, 2009 11:04 AM

An Avatar is:
(I believe)
1)The Hindu soul
2)The character you play in a mmorpg..See WoW
3)A Messiah-like figure in a kids television show.
I hope that helps J Stride.

Posted by: badalamenti at June 23, 2009 11:04 AM

Story was always too long to do as a movie. It's 3 seasons for a reason.

Everything else they've screwed up doesn't help either.

Posted by: twig at June 23, 2009 11:09 AM

True story: one of my very good friends, a very tall, very blond, very Arian-looking guy, came in as an extra on this film for what was supposed to be two days and they kept him for a month. He met Shymalan and supposedly Shymalan decided to do this because his kids loved the animated series and asked him to do it.

Probably better than another one of his ideas. He is a good director, after all.

Sidenote: because of Shymalan's weird, 'I won't shoot outside of an x mile radius from Philadelphia', deal I've known someone on every single one of his movies.

Posted by: Susie Derkins at June 23, 2009 11:11 AM

J Stride:

An avatar is something that is representing something else, kinda like a symbol. Like online cartoons avatars represent video-gamers, these kids represent the elements. Aang, who is an airbender but has the capability to control ALL elements, is named THE Avatar because, well... he's the dope-est, and he represent not only the cohabitation of all the elements on earth, but each other Avatar who had his same powers in the past. /geekout>

All I know is, there better be seal surfing.

Posted by: Sweetie Dahling at June 23, 2009 11:39 AM

An avatar is a representation of an entity, usually a deity.

Avatars can range from anything like a different aspect of God (such as Krshna/Vishnu), to the human form a spritual being adopts to interact with mortals.

In the cartoon, though, it was like a chosen one or messiah. Very similar to Lama's in Buddhism. Or the One in the Matrix.

Posted by: Bane at June 23, 2009 12:09 PM

The animated series is terrific. The only possibly surprise twist to this would be if it didn't suck toe jam.

Posted by: Drake at June 23, 2009 12:11 PM

I'll still watch this. Even with the raping of the series and the whitewash, I'll still watch anything with superpowers and martial arts.

Posted by: figgy at June 23, 2009 12:18 PM

You know what would be funny? If Night's kids saw it and thought it sucked.

"Damn Dad. You fucked up royally on that one. What was with all the damn white people? I mean, I know we like in Philly, but you couldn't ship any darker shades in? Really though: What. The Fuck. Was THAT? Because I know for damn sure it wasn't an Avatar movie.

All that stuff they say bout you at school is so dead-on. Not the kids, the teachers. They really hate you. You are terrible. Fuck. You know what? If you really love us, then don't listen to us ever again for movie ideas. We can't take the embarrassment anymore. Fuuuuucking fuckety fuck. We are going to get the shit beat out of us at school for this. Dammit!"

Posted by: Vermillion at June 23, 2009 12:52 PM

Figgy, you took the words right out of my mouth(fingers). I don't know if it's from watching Kung Fu movies as a kid or what, but I'm a sucker for martial arts. Throw in super human abilities and I'm like a moth to a flame. It hurt my soul when they made DB. Here's hoping they don't screw up Avatar because it really is a great story.

Posted by: Gerald at June 23, 2009 12:53 PM

I don't see what was wrong with the trailer - I haven't seen the show, but that looked like it could be a perfectly servicable kid-oriented fantasy flick. Did I miss something?

Posted by: S.K. at June 23, 2009 1:00 PM

I'm a wee bit tired of the cliches used in the trailer ("last of his kind", "the chosen one", "restore balance", all said in a deep voice), and I'm thinking that watching a kid push air around really hard won't be all that compelling.

Posted by: DeadBessie at June 23, 2009 1:08 PM

Yeah, I think the airbending will be a little lame in a live-action movie. In the show they just drew up some fancy tornados and whatnot, but it's kind of hard to do that on screen and make it look good. Looked kinda lame in the trailer. The other powers will look awesome, I'm sure, but maybe not so much with the airbending.

Posted by: figgy at June 23, 2009 1:25 PM

Vermillion, that made my day.

Posted by: Susie Derkins at June 23, 2009 1:49 PM

I do like that they didn't do a lot of random jumping around cut shots and crazy nonsense. And the thin where the camera slowly turned to the ships in the water was pretty cool.

That said, the most surprising twist Shyamalan could ever pull is if he makes another good movie. BOOM!

Posted by: ChristianH at June 23, 2009 1:57 PM

Shyamalan sure likes his red hoodies. Also, Dustin? I think you might mean to say that you COULDN'T care less, no?

Posted by: Jen at June 23, 2009 2:14 PM

The worst part of the "whitewashing" is that Philadelphia has a Chinatown - plenty of home grown Asians... no need to ship any darker shades in at all!

Posted by: La Femme Nikita at June 23, 2009 2:31 PM

So, Shyamalan's meteoric descent from lofty heights continues? I fear he's a solid splashdown away from joining Eddie Murphy et al in a race to sucktastic depths that rival Challenger Deep.

Posted by: lordhelmet at June 23, 2009 3:12 PM

I'm with Snath. There have been Avatar marathons on Nick all this week.

Posted by: Katie (KP) at June 23, 2009 4:28 PM

Why do the FX guys always put insanely huge objects so close to each other? No way that ships that big can sail that close together, then fire off, they are in WATER, so they move from side to side. Physics be DAMMED.

Posted by: Ted at June 23, 2009 4:31 PM

I'm with Snath. Nickelodeon has been airing Avatar marathons all this week.

Posted by: Katie (KP) at June 23, 2009 4:31 PM

Shyamalan has only had two good movies, Signs and The Sixth Sense now his "what's it going to be?" endings are just lame. Its his trick, but he's playing it out.

That said, maybe he will pull what Robert Rodriguez did with Spy Kids. I mean shit, if the guy who did From Dusk Till Dawn can have a sucessful childrens film, maybe Night can too.

Posted by: DeistBrawler at June 23, 2009 4:32 PM

@La Femme Nikita

Yeah... actually ever since the casting came out, much of the Avatar fandom has been calling Shyamalan a race traitor for whitewashing an Asian-centric world.

Posted by: Vi at June 23, 2009 4:40 PM

That said, maybe he will pull what Robert Rodriguez did with Spy Kids. I mean shit, if the guy who did From Dusk Till Dawn can have a sucessful childrens film, maybe Night can too.

Possible, except Spy Kids was an original creation, not an adaptation of an already popular series. And, no offense to Rodriguez, but Spy Kids is no Avatar.

Posted by: Vermillion at June 23, 2009 4:42 PM

And, no offense to Rodriguez, but Spy Kids is no Avatar.

Posted by: Vermillion at June 23, 2009 4:42 PM

HEAR HEAR!

And I wholeheartedly agree with the majority of Avatar fandom's outrage over Shymalamaasshole whitewashing the characters.

Posted by: BarbadoSlim at June 23, 2009 5:53 PM

I am eagerly awaiting the twist - nature rising against the benders and fire, earth, water and air killing all of the characters in a gruesome, bloody yet oddly satisfying way...

Posted by: DrunkPinkBat at June 23, 2009 7:42 PM

Man if I was't in a stabby mood before now I am after seeing that.

It looks totally crud which is extremely unfair because the cartoon if flipping amazing.

Where, pray tell, was Ang's friends, the flying dog/dragon thing which looks like the flying dog/dragon from The Neverending Story??? WHERE!!!!

M Night Shamozzle needs to be kicked in the groin or locked in a cupboard or both. grr!

Posted by: caity at June 23, 2009 9:32 PM

OMG! Looks awesome! Can't wait!

Posted by: zito at June 23, 2009 9:41 PM

Avatar is the business . I am hoping the movie is better than the trailer but we will see.

The Fire Nation attack did look pretty cool though

Posted by: gilp at June 23, 2009 10:25 PM

Vermillion, You're a funny fuck, and I mean that as a compliment.

Posted by: , (the commenter formerly known as bucdaddy) at June 24, 2009 9:38 AM

Spoiler alert: He's been dead the whole time.

Posted by: chayes at June 24, 2009 11:56 AM

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The Teaser for M. Night Shyamalan's Latest Teases You Into Unconsciousness

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