Last Last Airbender Trailer

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Falconwing

Falconwing

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And Last Chance to rate the film before you see it.

http://lastairbenderfilm.com/2010/04/23/third-theatrical-trailer-unveiled/

Zuko's voice is good, Zhao look epic, Iroh looks even more epic, the bending scenes are amazing, the music is good, the plot seems to be well thought out (from what I can see), the animation overall is excellent. The movie could become my favorite for this yea-

Wait, it's in 3D?

F*CK!

For those of you who don't know, I'm not a fan of 3D movies. Maybe it's because of the pricier ticket. Maybe it's because my local theater presents 3D movies with unnoticeable 3D effects, making the extra cash pointless. Or maybe it's because you have to wear those stupid glasses that not only hurt after extended use, but my theater reuses them. Ick.
 
3D? Um ... yay?

The movie looks awesome, better than I could've expected! But 3D? Really?
 
I'm displeased with the 3D and the casting still irks me, although I now get that it was an attempt at expanding diversity (a poorly executed one and one that I still think didn't belong in this particular adaptation, but regardless). That said, I probably will go see it anyway, without my mother ever finding out because she would absolutely destroy me, and will most likely end up blog ranting about it.

Oh, and THE BLUE SPIRIT DOES NOT HAVE HAIR!
 
the funny thing is... the spirit having hair doesn't really ruin. Unnecessary change, but it still doesn't kill it.

On casting:

M. Night said:
Well here’s the thing. The great thing about Anime is that it’s ambiguous. The features of the character are an intentional mix of all features. It’s indented to be ambiguous - that’s completely it’s point. And so when we watch Katara, my oldest daughter is literally like a photo-double of Katara in the cartoon. So that means that Katara is Indian, correct? No, that’s just in our house. And her friends that watch it, they see themselves in it, and that’s what’s so beautiful about Anime. When we were casting, I didn’t care who walked through my door. Whoever’s the best for the parts, I’m going to figure out like through a chess game. Ideally we separate the nations ethnically - ideally. But I don’t know how or what it’s going to be. It was so fluid, the casting.

For example, if you found a great brother, but it didn’t go with my favorite Katara, then I couldn’t use him. Theoretical things like that would happen. There was an Aang that I really loved, but he was like 5 foot 10. There’s all kinds of issues that come to the table. I kept having a board of all the people that I was considering. There was at one time a - I think their background was Chinese - a Sokka and Katara. One of them was a better actor than the other, and I was gathering my pros and cons. “Let’s say that was that, what would the Fire Nation be?” And you just do that. Being without agenda and letting it come to the table. Noah’s like a photo double for the cartoon; I mean he’s literally spot-on. To me, the best part is, I didn’t really know their backgrounds. Noah, for me, has a slightly mixed quality look to him - so I cast Airbenders as all mixed race. So when you see the monks and that stuff, they’re all mixed. And it kind of goes with the nomadic culture that over the years all different nationalities came to the table. The Fire Nation was the most complicated. I kept switching who was playing Zuko. It was such a complicated and drawn out thing about practical matters. The first person I was considering for Zuko was Ecuadorian. So I started thinking that way. And then when that person couldn’t do it, the second person who came in was much more Caucasian. I was like, “well then we have to switch the others. Alright, now how are we doing this?” What is the Earth Kingdom was always the issue because the second movie is so dominated by that group, and will represent most of the movie, but it has a small, small part in the first movie. That was important. It just sort of came into being and started to distill.

Dev came into the picture really early on - he had auditioned for me in London. He’s kind of like a sweet guy, but he did such a great reading. I always go for the actor. When I was doing The Sixth Sense, you literally read the script of The Sixth Sense and [Cole’s] dark haired, black eyed. I always pictured the kid from Searching for Bobby Fisher as the lead of The Sixth Sense. “We are not casting hiring any blonde L.A. kids, okay? Don’t even bring them in!” And Haley came in… “You got the part!” How can you not have him play the part? So that’s always been my lean. I have hopes of what I want them to be. My hope was that this movie would be incredibly diverse. When we look back on the three movies, without peer, they were the most diverse movies of all time. And that is the case when you watch the movie. It’s not like an agenda like when you see a picture of a kid’s school with kids on the swings and there’s one from each background - it’s not like that. It’s a real thing. This nation has this ethnicity and when we go deep into that culture, we’ll see more and more of that. Again, Dev ended up being my choice for Zuko. I looked for an uncle that could be in that realms. For a moment there I thought of Ben Kingsly. Shuan Toub, who I loved in Iron Man, took us into kind of a Mediterranean, Arab and Indian world. I can go as far as that. That would be the breadth of the Fire Nation - that kind of look.

For me, Nicola had a lot of Russian qualities and European qualities, so that’s where I was going to go there. Just like that, whoever we ended up with, I said that’s their nationality. Suki was Jessica, who is a mix of Pilipino and stuff. So the Earth Kingdom is going to be all Asain. Toph now will have to be Asian. Like that. I looked at the board and I said “this works for me.” And there’s a section of that’s African-American cause it’s such a big land I felt you could have some diversity in there as you travel through the different cities. So, more so than the show, it will have a much more diverse ethnic background. It’s not an agenda for me, but it’s something I’m super proud of; that when my kids look at, or any kids look at it, they’ll see themselves in the movie.
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Ryuutakesh! said:
the funny thing is... the spirit having hair doesn't really ruin. Unnecessary change, but it still doesn't kill it.

On casting:

M. Night said:
Stuff
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I was also tempted to bitch about Yue having platinum blond hair and not white. Just me nitpicking.

As for the casting, yes, I get it at this point. I don't particularly like it, as part of the attraction of Avatar is this entirely Asian world, but I'm accepting it because I really can't do anything to change it.
 
At least he had logic to it.

And is there really a difference between white and platinum hair? It looks white enough to me.
 
Ryuutakesh! said:
At least he had logic to it.

And is there really a difference between white and platinum hair? It looks white enough to me.
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Again, nitpicking (although more justified, as it's supposed to signify Yue's connection to the moon spirit and its energy in her body. The moon is white, not super light yellow.
 
Ryuutakesh! said:
For those of you who don't know, I'm not a fan of 3D movies. Maybe it's because of the pricier ticket. Maybe it's because my local theater presents 3D movies with unnoticeable 3D effects, making the extra cash pointless. Or maybe it's because you have to wear those stupid glasses that not only hurt after extended use, but my theater reuses them. Ick.
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I'm not a fan of 3D either, because I hate the pricier tickets and it gets annoying wearing those glasses. But I'm sure there are going to be theaters that don't play the movie in 3D, right? My theater usually gives us those options.

Anyway, seeing this trailer has made me even more excited for the movie! I think it looks really great.

And about the casting: I've gotten over it, and decided to trust M.Night about it.

I'm happy that he cast Dev Patel, because Dev is really talented.
 
Uggh, 3-D? Those glasses make my eyes and head hurt almost immediately. Maybe it has something to do with wearing them with prescription glasses? Whatever it is, I'll wait a couple of weeks until the dollar theatre gets it, which always shows 3-D movies in 2-D.

Love the dragon and the komodo dragons. Freaking awesome. The bending looks great, too. And who can forget Appa? xD

- Kat
 
I have a pretty big theater near me, and I think they have separate showings for 3d and 2d. I'll definitely be seeing it in 2d because they tacked the 3d on as an afterthought. It wasn't advertised in other trailers, that's how you can tell.

3d only works if the move is made with it in mind (see: Avatar)
 
I still don't get why people think all the actors should be Asian or even of Asian descent when the movie and the show it's based on are both made in a country where the majority of people are of European descent, but whatever. Of course, THAT IS JUST MY OPINION.

Regardless, it looks like it's going to be a good movie, at least better than a certain other recent movie that was (very loosely) based on an animated series. So, the current 3D movie fad is very much in full swing, and yet I still haven't seen a 3D movie in ages. I've been looking for an excuse to see a 3D movie lately and this might just be it.
 
Well, since the world of Avatar is very heavily influenced by Asia, we just expected it.
 
Really? I got a distinct Chinese feel from the Earth Kingdom.

EDIT: Just realized this trailer shows both Ozai and Zhao. Whoo!
 
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Jabberwocky said:
Even though only the Fire Nation populace looks overtly Asian (a case could be made for the Kyoshi Girls, I suppose, and the Airm Nomad monks)?
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The Water Tribe gives the impression of being based on Inuit society, IMO (which I have some experience with, being from Canada and having visited the territories). Even the hair loopy things Katara sports are influenced by that. The Earth Kingdom strikes me as being loosely based on China, while the Fire Nation is clearly (pre-WWII) Japan. The Air Nomads seem a lot like Tibetan Buddhist Monks. The entire feel of the Avatar World and its cultures are quite obviously based on Asian mythologies, spirituality, and imagery. It's ridiculous to claim otherwise.

So yeah, while I don't quite get why any of the cast needed to be Caucasian (being caucasian myself), I'm not going to get stuck in that issue when the movie looks to be pretty decent.
 
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Funny trivia bit: Katara's hair loopies were originally supposed to hang down, but were made into loopies because of the difficulty of animating them, which turned out to actually be a inuit hairstyle.

So long as the cast is consistent, I'm fine.

But moving away from race bending.

I can't tell who is Pakku in this trailer. I know he's there in that scene of Aang showing off his snow tornado thing.
 
Jeff said:
I still don't get why people think all the actors should be Asian or even of Asian descent when the movie and the show it's based on are both made in a country where the majority of people are of European descent, but whatever.
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Yeah, silly people, thinking Asians and brown people should be in an Asia-based fantasy created by white people in a white country. I mean, Asia-based = only the material culture, fantasy = white main characters, and made by white people = definitely white main characters, amirite? The movie must be showing them as they're really supposed to look.


...
Gaiagonk.gif
 
Dude. This movie comes out on my 20th birthday! I wonder if I should go to the theater for a party instead of the usual "tradition".

Anyone wanna come? :D
 
I would totally do that, Uxie, but according to your location you're in Sinnoh and I don't know how to drive there since I'm getting no results for that in Google Maps.

Also, SWEET, this movie looks like it could be the first good live-action movie based on a cartoon in history. And for you guys who hate 3D, I don't know what it's like where you live, but here in Virginia we have this chain called Cinema Cafe that has like, 2 dollar matinee tickets and isn't in 3D at all. They get their dough from the food, and if you eat ahead of time, you're really getting a good deal and experience. Awesome spinning chairs, a table-desk for each set of friends that go... it's a ton of fun. I highly recommend seeing if there is anything similar in your areas.
 
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