ROTTEN TOMATOES: (Teaser) Trailer Bulletin: The Last Airbender Comments

(Teaser) Trailer Bulletin: The Last Airbender

by | June 23, 2009

Summary

Will M. Night Shyamalan's "The Last Airbender" represent a return to form after recent disappointments? Watch the new teaser trailer for an early peek. Back to Article

(21-40 of 61 posts) | Reply

dj Mark writes:
on Jun 23 2009 10:33 AM

I want to be optimistic, I really do. But the last 3 of his movies weren't just hit and misses, they were certifiable disasters - especially The Happening. I still haven't recovered from that one.

By insisting on writing, directing, and producing his own films, he has become creatively stagnant, not to mention out of touch with what makes a good film. He's also pretty eccentric, so for all I know, he wanted to make The Happening so laughably bad that Airbender would look like Citizen Kane by contrast. Who knows?

I'd be lying if I said that the teaser wasn't (visually) impressive. At least I know that James Newton Howard's score will be epic.

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Matanuki writes:
on Jun 23 2009 10:39 AM

In reply to this comment (#2515775)
Tombstone, at last the day has come that we find ourselves on opposite sides of the fence. I see no logic in what you said, only bias. How, pray tell, does the Airbender story, let alone this teaser trailer, bear any legitimate relationship to Star Wars beyond a loose comparison of archetypes? By your standard, there's no originality left in the world. Nothing to look forward to. Every story might as well be a copy of a copy of a copy, and you might as well have taken your words right out one of Shyamalan's own character's mouth. Ironically, the jaded movie critic in 'Lady in the Water'.

An onto George Lucas. His saga, while great, can claim no ownership of the prophetic child motif. And just because Tolkien did well with the portrayal of magic in his stories, it doesn't mean that every story after it that also employs magic is a rip off. And since magic is not even what the character (Aang) in the teaser is doing, its absolutely irrelevant anyway.

An armada of war ships? I'm not sure, but I don't think 'Troy' introduced that idea to the world. Add to that what was shown in this teaser looked nothing like what we saw in Troy, and was furthermore quite faithful to the cartoon on which this film franchise is being based. Have we devolved now into condemning adaptations FOR honoring the source material?

Look, everybody has a stick up their a$$es over Shyamalan and his work. I get it. I agree with none of it, but I get it. And I stand by my initial response all that time back when. This film is going to be Shyamalan's touchdown. And for anyone who knows this series, this teaser, if nothing else, should inspire a taste of faith.

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Matanuki writes:
on Jun 23 2009 10:41 AM

In reply to this comment (#2515791)
King Thor said: "Not sure how much damage someone will do to an army with air."

You'd be surprised.

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Bob S. writes:
on Jun 23 2009 10:45 AM

I think it's a sign of his ego that MNS saw fit to put his name above the title of a franchise that he has zero creative ownership of. It's an adaptation of someone else's work, not M. Night Shyamalan's creation. I agree with dj Mark - I want to be optimistic, but Shyamalan's recent track record is uninspiring at best. LADY IN THE WATER and THE HAPPENING were both cinematic abortions to me, but I'm hoping that adapting someone else's material will be a boon for M. Night. If this thing falls flat, his career is going to be on the ropes.

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tomwaitsjr writes:
on Jun 23 2009 11:04 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRoUpDON0_0

Sorry for previous wrong song!

"I'll be, wrapped around M Night Shymalan's finger. . ."

*dances around candles*

(Reply to this)

dj Mark writes:
on Jun 23 2009 11:12 AM

In reply to this comment (#2515852)
Bob S. I think his career could already be on the ropes. I know that he had to get funding from Indian sources to help finance The Happening because few in Hollywood were impressed with the script.

I don't enjoy adding my voice to the chorus of MNS haters. I was a huge fan of his in the beginning. I was a downright apologist. But I can't do it anymore. I still believe in his talent. I think with a healthy dose of humility, and the willingness to collaborate with others, he can hit another home run.

I guess we'll see.

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Zed'sDead writes:
on Jun 23 2009 11:24 AM

In reply to this comment (#2515847)
Preach, Matanuki, Preach!

I'm amazed at how overly critical people are of honestly, like 60 seconds of footage. The Avatar cartoon is one of my favorite television shows of all time, and I'm pretty passionate about it, and I was impressed with what I saw.

I like many others, were concerned with what M. Night might do to this adaptation, but I'm willing to at least give the guy a chance.

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Chris B. writes:
on Jun 23 2009 11:28 AM

I think that, not only collaborating with others, but, the change in genre is going to help him out, too. he's no longer making the type of thriller movie where he has to come up with some big twist that makes us all go crazy. the fact that he is adapting this from another source material will help him out a lot. I hope this movie will be a good one.

(Reply to this)

tomwaitsjr writes:
on Jun 23 2009 11:29 AM

Well, M Night is ripping off videos now. . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRoUpDON0_0

(Reply to this)

nathanpoitras writes:
on Jun 23 2009 11:35 AM

The fact he Shyamalan didn't write this gives me hope.

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TombstoneLawDog writes:
on Jun 23 2009 11:42 AM

Mat'; had to happen, sooner or later.

All I can say is I honestly was looking at this little kid, listening to the 9,000th espousal of this sort of 'prophecy' and the first thing that popped into my head was 'This is almost precisely the description they recently used in Phantom Menace' (which, you'll notice, I indicated was not the first to use the premise).

Then, I started noticing the kid using the staff as a conduit for his abilities and I thought of Gandalf fighting the Balrog, using HIS staff as a conduit for HIS abilities. Perfect similarity? Not at all. But if you're going to show a staff being used as a mystical device, show me something I haven't seen yet. ...would you feel better if I said it also reminds me of the commercials for 'Forbidden Kingdom'?

Finally, I promise you, I REALLY did think of the movie 'Troy' when I saw the endless fleet of boats. It's not all that different. Take a look. Other than the boats being different sizes, it's even a similar screen-pan shot. Notice they even have a fire effect in the 'Troy' commercial before they cut to the land battles (and then the commercials significantly diverge).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC9oPseyKCE
Also, I indicated that the point of a teaser, so far as I'm defining it, is to DRAW people IN, fans and non-fans. Why should I, as a non-fan, CARE if this armada is faithful to the origin if I've seen this sort of thing, before?

I also stand by what I said, including the part about 'maybe this movie being worthwhile.' I just haven't seen anything yet to convince me of that.
I am not a Shyamalan hater and I cannot simply be dismissed as such. I don't care enough about him to hate him. I watched each of his first four movies in theaters and I personally detected a precipitous, sequential drop-off in quality to the point where I didn't even bother with his last two. I'll go again, should I learn that he is as good as he once was or better.

As I so often say on this site, no less sincerely to yourself, I would LOVE for you to be right about this movie. I lose NOTHING by having my first impression changed for the better. I continue to wait.

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rizzyh writes:
on Jun 23 2009 11:45 AM

I fell in love with Avatar by the end of the 3rd episode i watched and as much as i love the tease of Aang trying to fight off that humongous fire nation army, i really detest what Shyamalan did with casting Dev Patel (aka Slumdog Millionaire) as Prince Zuko. If Zuko is being played by an indian, then so will Azula and Fire Lord Ozai, and that much racial deviation would be too much for me. Especially given the fact that they went through a lot of trouble to find a ringer to play Aang. I honestly though the voice actor for Zuko actually looked perfect with his head shaved. (He's fillipino i think, but way closer than Dev)

I'm getting the feeling that Shyamalan may feel like his american audiences have given up on him, and is now actively courting his South Asian audience. Bollywood films are loved all over the world because between the Indians, Pakistanis and South Asian populations that populate any given corner of the globe, most everyone will want to go see a film made in Mumbai by their favorite actors or directors. By positioning a large indian contingency in his films (which i'm assuming is going to be depicted throughout the trilogy, esp in the third season which takes place entirely within the fire nation)Shyamalan may be making sure that he will always have that same audience to draw on, regardless of how much his future movies suck.

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eastern2western writes:
on Jun 23 2009 11:54 AM

this is the first time I have seen an american martial art movie where the whole sequence is performed without cuts, shaky cam, close ups, and matching music. if the whole film is done in this fashion, then it could be interesting. at this moment, I kind of do not give a monkeys bottom about a white kid in an asian world, hey buddy, this is an american film, if two of the biggest asian stars in the world (jackie chan and jet li) need a white kid to start in an american film(the lost kingdom), then there is no freaking way that hollywood is going to put up a load of cash to start some asian no body

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bacoby13 writes:
on Jun 23 2009 11:55 AM

I think anyone familiar with the television show can see how this teaser is mostly good news. I'm still cautious (I did see The Happening, after all), but not downright negative. Shyamalan has proven himself as a talented director; it's often his writing that flounders, so to have the source material and concept be completely out of his hands gives me hope. Still nervous, but hopeful.
And what's all this nonsense about unoriginality? Puh-lease. Must I remind you that Lucas borrowed half of Star Wars from Kurosawa, not to mention the structure of the monomyth from Joseph Campbell (which in itself was borrowed from countless cultural stories and myths)? We live in a post-modern world, and it is next to impossible for any material to not be a reflection of a previous work. Avatar managed to successfully make the tried and true "Kid with a destiny" story fresh, funny and exciting. Watch the series and you'll see. It's only three seasons, and entirely worth it, if only just to see the final two-hour episode, which really can only be accurately described as "Epic"...

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Matanuki writes:
on Jun 23 2009 01:08 PM

In reply to this comment (#2515883)
Racial deviation? I thought it was common knowledge that there's a vast diversity of cultures represented in the Avatar world. It's not as pronounced in the cartoon, but I always thought it would be interesting to see how they could expand on that in the film series. Having the Earth Kingdom portrayed by, say, native, indigenous cultures; The Water Tribes represented by Eskimos on one end and Brazilians on the other; the Air Monks can be Tibetan (and other Asian cultures, a subtle metaphor for the argument of how Hollywood's exploitative traditions have hijacked and swallowed much of Asian culture) while the Fire Nation, with a melting pot of them all in the trickle down of their ranks and expanding regions, can be headed up by middle easterns. A perfect fit. Since we're talking about a culture that, amass and in truth is not evil, is being so notoriously smeared by the destructive deeds of powerful fanatics that an ugly shadow has been cast over the entire image of the culture itself.

This is not a sketch of what Shyamalan has done however, but it does seem like the inspiration behind the decision made regarding the Fire Nation. Either that or a welcome coincidence.

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Matanuki writes:
on Jun 23 2009 01:15 PM

In reply to this comment (#2515881)
Your motion is denied, Tombstone! ;-)

But Amen to the last part. Because I think you and many others are going to be won over by this thing. Take it from someone who knows the series. If Shyamalan gets it even half right, it's bound to be quite special.

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cAPTIANISaFAG l. writes:
on Jun 23 2009 01:32 PM

maybe hell redeam himself wit this one

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mrdanny writes:
on Jun 23 2009 01:39 PM

I think that by MNS putting his name at the VERY beginning of the trailor, and over the movies title may have already lost the movie tons of money. His name is like a VIRUS for movies now. He shouldn't have even mentioned it AT ALL!! So if it turns out being good... People will ask "who directed that?" ...
"Oh... It was that guy who directed all those crappy movies? M.Night Shyamalan?!!"... "Guess hes not so bad after all."

what a twist!...

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Logan A. writes:
on Jun 23 2009 01:48 PM

Idk if i could take that lil kid seriously.

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Armondoh S. writes:
on Jun 23 2009 03:06 PM

Nope..... I've given SHAMWOWALMAYAN or whatever his name is, too many chances... The village was real Bad, Lady in the water was not horrible but better than the village, and the Crappening was just Awful.... He isn't gettin my money amymore...

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