By | Published June 23, 2009

Noah Ringer as Aang in THE LAST AIRBENDER (2010) A teaser trailer for M. Night Shyamalan’s THE LAST AIRBENDER has arrived online. The film is THE SIX SENSE director’s big-budget adaptation of Nickelodeon’s hit animated TV series AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER.

The footage shows Aang (Noah Ringer), a 10-year-old successor in a long line of Avatars performing a mixture of magic and martial arts in a remote temple just as an armada of ships offshore begins a fiery bombardment.

THE LAST AIRBENDER (2010)

Dev Patel as Zuko in THE LAST AIRBENDER (2010).

Shyamalan has been getting a lot of flack from fans of the series for casting Caucasians in the roles of Asian characters, particularly the lead. Not having watched the series I have chosen to stay on the sidelines.

After watching this teaser, I have to say, the film looks pretty good and the kid doesn’t look all that different from his cartoon version.

Since we’re not talking about a real person here, I think maybe, just maybe fans should wait and judge the film on its own merits instead of dwelling on something that obviously isn’t going to change regardless of any attempt to boycott the film.

I especially like the long take that Shyamalan indulges in. If more of the action scenes in the film look like this, I’ll be pleased. This film just needs to escape the fate that DRAGONBALL EVOLUTION met. We haven’t seen much yet but so far it looks promising for a fantasy actioner.

Related Topics:
 •   • 
  • Brett

    As far as the non-Asian casting goes, I’m not very pleased with but I’m more upset at Shyamalan directing. When was the last time he did anything good? Anyways, the real draw for the series to me was the fact the magic or “bending” in the show is based off real Chinese martial arts. Northern Shaolin for fire, Tai Chi for water, Hung Gar for earth, and Ba Gua for air. This was helped by not only one of the creators being a practitioner of kung fu himself, but also having Sifu Kisu of the Harmonious Fist Chinese Athletic Association as a fight consultant. I feel like the Chinese martial arts will be lost in the translation thanks to the director and the casts lack of martial arts background. While the lead character does karate I doubt whatever skill he has can carry the rest of a non-trained cast. We will wait and see I suppose but I won’t hold my breath.

    And on a side note, watch the series. It is good.

  • STDthaGreat

    Typical of hollywood. It's 2000 and f'n 9. You would think that the movie industry would pass over these miscastings of races and cast real ethnicity for lead roles. Movies nowdays can never do the source material justice.

  • J

    This movie will be ass… like his last 3

  • Will Britt

    Hhhmmm….doesn't look THAT bad, but the kid wasn't even doing bagua. The two lead roles of Aang and Zuko are portrayed by two TKD stylists. Nothing against the style, but fire is Northern Shaolin and air is Bagua. I just hope they can make the martial arts authentic…

  • http://goldenpigsy.blogspot.com/ GoldenPigsy

    I don't think that it's quite right to say this looks like a “promising fantasy actioner” based on the very tiny bit that we've seen so far.

    I will say that Noah Ringer looks like he has some skills, unless he was doubled in that shot — you never know these days. So I'm with you in remaining open to the possibility that this won't suck.

  • Atherton

    It looks like the kid was doubled. Support inauthentic projects like this and more and more inauthentic projects will be made. Nothing will change until you let hollywood know you won't pay for this type of product.

  • John F.

    Hmmm….the visuals at the end of the trailer look amazing. However…sigh…the scene in the beginning with him doing that staff work is embarassing. It should've had more grace, power, and sharpness. In the cartoon Aang's martial arts skills are amazing. I've seen plenty of young asian children in hong kong films and their level of skill makes this kid look like the amateur he is. And they claim this kid is a black belt?? Guess it shows that Bruce Lee was again right in that belts mean nothing. I still can't believe the casting, and most of all I can't believe they put the man who makes the most disappointing, boring, and all around bad films in the directors chair. For how great the cartoon is, this movie may have its moments but guaranteed it will be a let down to fans. So sad being that there is so much potential.

  • Numb Chuck

    Simply put, the teaser looks great, and if the movie can maintain close to that intensity, it will be great.

    As for Aang's staff work, anyone who really knows martial arts, knows it was outstanding. And if doubled, anyone who knows film, understands this is the norm.

    I forgot, I'm on the internet, where people who know nothing get their opportunity to show off.

  • Alexsource

    “As for Aang's staff work, anyone who really knows martial arts, knows it was outstanding.”
    Well, it looks good to me… but, it's very different to what the character does in the show in terms of speed, form… not that i'm a an expert… or anything…

    “And if doubled, anyone who knows film, understands this is the norm.”
    Huh? perhaps on hollywood that would be true, to some degree. On HK movies it might not, as they only use fight and stunt doubles when necesary. And let's not talk about thai flicks.

    The teaser does look interesting, but it shows way too little for my taste.

  • http://www.kungfucinema.com Mark Pollard

    Stunt doubling in Hong Kong is common as well. All the big martial arts stars have been doubled including Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. While I do believe that having trained actors who can perform their own fighting is important, filmmakers are still in the business of creating entertainment by playing “make believe.” Even a trained stunt actor may not be able to perform every trick a script or action director demands. Unless the film is being built around an actor or stunt team, the action should serve the story first and sometimes that means using artifice.

    Now, if the action in THE LAST AIRBENDER fails to meet expectations based on a diversion from its cartoon roots, that's a different issue. I really need to sit down and watch this series before the film comes out.

  • Dev-gina

    Dev can go eat a dick. so can m. night; he prolly hooked dev up with this role. what a doucher. they should've kept dante basco as zuko. i went to go see transformers 2 and i was really pumped for this movie until i found out the dev patel asshole fukin ruined the whole damm movie for me. shyamalan needs to b hung by his balls and beaten over the head with bats. screw him; screw the movie. they should've gotten the same ppl who made crouching tiger hidden dragon cast and direct this film; and also fuck nickelodeon for letting this happen u push over bastards. i outta kik dev right in the nose

  • Lycosyncer

    *YAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN*

    Sure, I admit that the CGI is good but that's expected and nothing to write home about. Nothing stands out here and I've seen a lot of movies that can do way better. The casting of white actors to play the main Asian characters in something like this is just unforgivable. Hollywood has never colorblind cast European fantasy films and probably never will and yet, they would do this to an Asian fantasy story like Avatar? Talk about hypocritical. The excuse of those defending this casting saying that this casting is “more diverse” than the “less diverse” cast of characters in the original and I have to say that as an Asian myself, I feel insulted by that.

    I really hate the stupid assumption that all Asians are the same and not diverse because Asia is not represented by China, Japan and Korea (East Asians) alone! Asia is a fantastically diverse place and adding white and black people for something like this for the sake of “diversity” into an Asian fantasy world is not a great idea, it's just poor storytelling. If they really think that Avatar is not diverse, when why can't they do the same thing to LOTR, The Golden Compass, and all other European fantasy films where they have all-white casts? Wait, they didn't and those films did fine on their own without this “diversity” excuse! Man, that is a hypocritical double standard here.

    Will it be better than that dreadful Dragonball: Evolution? Of course because they are actually marketing/exposing it and it has a much bigger budget and better effects but however, as time goes on, I've learned one thing, bigger budget and better effects does not equal into a good movie and good looking trailers are not always reliable. There are plenty of times where good and fantastic looking trailers can mislead you into seeing a really bad film and this is no exception.

    As for Noah's martial arts demonstration with the staff, it's pretty sloppy and embarassing to see. I've seen kid actors from Hong Kong who could much more better than this. His work with the staff is not as graceful as the real Aang would. That youtube kid named Perris Aquino who once auditioned for the role before, got a lot of people impressed and his martial arts skilled is just amazing for a kid his age and he actually did study the forms of wushu kung fu for years.

    What a terrible waste because the series deserves more better. Why can't they just cast appropriately and let the story do its thing without altering it this way? Comparisons between this and the series will be inevitable and I think we all know which one's much better in comparison.

  • slimmz

    This is NO LIE, my lil'bro looks like Ang… Even thought I'm black Asian, my half brother is black. ANYWAY, I agree with the the 1st person, I've had enought of Hollywood and their racial-bias towards all white, off white and everything else, look at what happened to Street Fighter….

    The point I'm trying to make is if your not gonna rep proper, don't do it at all!

  • Z

    Honestly hollywood is still racist after Bruce Lee's death because look America has plenty of Chinese kids to play this role and they give it some white kid whats the deal? They fucked Dragonball and now there going fuck up this show to but not putting the proper actors in it. This movie is already a right off.

  • Atherton

    It's good to see people here know what's up about this flick. If if you're curious and have to see it, don't pay for it.

  • Lycosyncer

    Nice to know there are people who greatly noticed what’s wrong here. If anyone is disgusted with this casting, just boycott the film. This movie has no power over any of you. Tell Hollywood that this racial bias bullcrap will no longer be tolerated and we are not fools.

    We may not have any effect on the casting, but we do have the power to affect the movie’s box office and word of mouth is also a very handy weapon to bring this movie down.

    For those who are curious to see the film, I reccommend either sneaking in, or just wait until it comes onto TV. Just don’t give them your money because they don’t deserve it.

    If you’re interested in learning more, go check on the sites below…

    http://racebending.com/

    http://community.livejournal.com/racebending/

    http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=54866461619

    http://www.youtube.com/user/racebending

    http://aang-aint-white.livejournal.com/646.html

  • Rhythm-X

    So… we finally get what might be something close to a properly filmed martial arts fantasy-action type movie out of Hollywood, after years of Avid farts and 100 cuts per second crap, and the general response is to boycott it because it has more white people in it than the American cartoon it is based on. I'm sure the drawings of imaginary people that you're standing up for appreciate the effort.

    I also hope that Zhang Yimou cancels his upcoming BLOOD SIMPLE remake and recasts it with white people in order to better respect the original Coen Brothers source material.

  • Simon

    having only seen just a tiny climpse of the trailer i cannot really judge the film. heres hoping that it turns out good and proves my negative thinking wrong (that this is going to be utter crap).

    Does anyone know who the action choreographer is? even if the film is crap one can only hope that the action lives up to expectations.

  • Atherton

    Well according to the IMDB Noah Ringer's stunt double is a Woman by the name of Jade Quon. Not trying to slag the kid, but that's kid of funny. The fight coordinators are Ben Cooke and Mark Rounthwaite. I' m not seeing it, have a good one Rhythm-X. Hollywood has tons of many and better resources than other film industries, they should raise the bar and not take a step backwards considering all they are capable of doing.

  • ioio

    Maybe we should boycott all manga for drawing their east asian characters with big, round, light coloured, european looking eyes.
    The problem I have with this teaser is the actor's (or the stunt double) apparent lack of martial talent.

  • Areles

    I am as concerned as anyone about the casting decisions. But I'll give the film the benefit of the doubt. M. Night has a mixed track record, so it remains to be seen how he's going to approach this. As for Hollywood's habit of fast cutting fight scenes, well that's something that has to be developed and coordinated by the filmmakers.

    It's going to take someone with the money, moxie, and determination to do a film that honestly presents a fight scene that is both dramatic and involving. Some of the best have been handled by the likes of Jeff Imada and James Lew. So it's going to take a director with real instincts and honest insight to be able to pull this off.

    Remember, everyone in this town has been trying to ape Woo Ping's style since “Crouching Tiger”, and no one has been able to do it, because the background is simply not there. So, if you want to see it done well… make it. Write your script, get your funds, and take the risk. It's time to stop complaining about what could have been, and make it happen.

  • Nickycole

    If I have to judge based on this preview I would not go to see it. I don't practice martial arts, but I have watched martial arts movies all my life and that pole work was terrible. The first thing that came to me was that, that person is kind of slow.Too bad you can't implant the kid from Jet Li's New Legend of Shaolin movie into that role. lol I know he's old now but that kid was awesome.

  • The Dragon

    This is just awful and disrespectful.

    FAIL.

  • gregorie

    hahaha you guys are making me laugh. You are complaining about hollywood being racist about putting only white people in movie that you don't know that you are being racist to white people

  • gregorie

    hahaha you guys are making me laugh. You are complaining about hollywood being racist about putting only white people in movie that you don't know that you are being racist to white people

  • Charliet77

    This film was complete unwatchable garbage and that being kind.
    I am big fan of the animated series who's success was built around solid traditional Chinese Kung fu and I can tell without even looking at the credits that the creators of the animated series or their fighting instructor had absolutely nothing to do with the film.
    A sad waste of money.
    M. night please wake up and smell the coffee because you are a horrible director.