The Last Airbender Mug

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan from "Lady in the Water" and "The Happening" fame, "The Last Airbender" will be a live-action fantasy movie premiering on July 2, 2010. It is based on the "Americanime" Nickelodeon series "Avatar: The Last Airbender". The film stars Noah Ringer as Aang, the 12-year-old lone survivor of the almost-extinct race of Air Nomads in the fantasy, Asian-influenced world of "Avatar". Aang is rescued from an iceberg he and Appa, his giant flying bison pet, were encased in for a hundred years. He meets Katara, a Waterbender (played by Nicola Peltz), and her logical-thinking brother Sokka (played by Jackson Rathbone), at the South Pole, home of the Southern Water Tribe. Katara and Sokka learn that their new friend Aang is the Avatar, the only person in the world who can bend the four elements--water, earth, fire, and air--and restore peace and harmony to the war-torn world they live in. However, they have to avoid the clutches of Zuko (played by Dev Patel), the banished prince of the Fire Nation (the country that started the war in the first place!) who seeks to capture the Avatar and restore his honor. And so begins Aang's journey to learn how to bend and control the elements and save the world! Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, Jackson Rathbone, and Dev Patel--the four actors who will play our four main characters in "The Last Airbender". Apparently, some members of the fanbase of the original show are disappointed in the casting choices for the live-action movie, because three of the four actors are white, when all of the characters portrayed were Asian and/or Inuit-based. They have expressed their contempt in websites like LiveJournal or Twitter (look up "aang-aint-white" or "racebending.com" on Google), asking to change the casting lineup. And to no avail, it seems, even though they and MANAA have tried so very hard. The teaser trailer has been released on Entertainment Tonight, and the full trailer will be released on the previews for "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen". From what I've seen on Youtube videos, the sets are the only thing about the movie that appeals to me; they look very nice! About the rest of it, not really. But hey, it'll come out summer of next year, so I--and maybe you, and lots of others--have lots of time to mull over whether to see the movie or not.