The Last Airbender, the movie formally know as "Avatar," is ramping up to be one of this summer's blockbuster movies.
Sure, the "newest new" trailer may seem redundant, but when new trailers/spots are dropped every week or so, descriptive titles are necessary. I have to say... the longer I'm exposed to this movie, the less indifferent I become. While watching the show is on my to do list, this seems to jump straight to the "serious" and skip most of the "silly" that the show apparently started with.
The Last Airbender, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, is set for a US release July 2nd, 2010 .
Ether way though as i have said before, not having Mako doing the voice work of Uncle Iroh ruins my favorite character in the whole series. I LOVED his character, and have always loved his voice work is other projects like Samurai Jack and the TMNT movie. Not to mention his live action works. Makes me sad to think that he isn't alive to play this role. I would hate to be the guy who has to fill his spot. It just wont be right not hearing his voice when they do scenes with Uncle Iroh.
Though, sad as it is (I enjoyed his contributions to samurai jack even if I wasn't aware that it was him,) there was a nearly 0% chance they would get him to play the character in a live action endeavor anyway.
Yes and no.
The main thing that turned me off was seeing the little bit of "acting" that we saw in the characters. They just don't look the part enough to make it feel like the characters from the show. In a show where most of the main characters are kids/young-adults you really need to spend the time in casting to make sure you get kids who can act, but after seeing the little bit of acting i saw in the trailer it came off as forced and emotionless to me, which is a shame. Especially so when you consider all the work and details they appear to have put into so many other aspects of the show -- the look of the bending, the clothes, the environments etc.-- that to drop the ball on such an important aspect seems almost unimaginable to me.
The cast may grow on me once i see it after its release, but from what i saw of it in that trailer i just dont see me warming up to the actors they have chosen.
As for my rant on Mako, i never expected them to cast him as uncle, even if he was still alive, but he really is one of those talents that once you hear/see him in a role it's almost impossible to see anyone else doing it. I may be in the minority here, but he was my absolute favorite character of the series. I felt like there were many an episode where his character/performance kept me interested in the show, or re-kindled an interest when i was getting bored or tired of it. Not to mention he was just flat out hilarious, and he never failed to put a giant shit eating grin on my face with almost every one of his lines.
Looks like a decent watch,imo.
You know, thinking of that, I'm sure it probably blows for that kid to do make-up. Its presumably some sort of henna, but he probably has to do it a lot.