And it IS on YouTube!

The Last Airbender teaser trailer, that is:



Visually, it looks good. As expected for a big-budgeted Hollywood movie. And, we can see his arrow.

The trailer looks promising to people like us.

It seems accurate.

And that's what I hate about the trailer. Because based on production photos, it's far from accurate.

I used to go around telling people that AvatarThe Last Airbender is like a Chinese kung-fu movie, except that it's animated series and the characters speak good English. I mean, who doesn't love an old-fashioned Chinese martial arts movie, right? But with this movie coming along, everyone will come to know of the MOVIE first, rather than the original animated series. And there's nothing like lousy adaptations to deter you from delving into the original.

[Or misleading adaptations. *cough*Golden Compass*cough*]

Sure, the current idea for the movie has the potential to be a huge summer blockbuster. If the entire concept for this franchise had just randomly come to M. Night Shyamalan in a dream or something a few years ago, provided there's no twist, he'd be sitting pretty, and his film-making skills wouldn't be made fun of in discussion forums. Yeah, white people saving yellows from brown baddies is offensive, but it wouldn't be THIS offensive. I'd just be avoiding the movie, instead of ranting about every other production photo that's coming out, or blogging about it every other post.

But that's not the case here. The movie is an ADAPTATION, which means that it's BASED on something, in this case, the Nickelodeon animated series. And to drastically change important aspects of the source material, loosely-based adaptation or no, that's a major faux pas in my book.

[That's despite my puristic beliefs]

The potential for TLA to be a hit on the big-screen is definitely there; fans can see it, the people involved with the movie can see it (heck, Paramount is calling it, "Their Harry Potter") , even NON-FANS can see it.
And the fact that Hollywood is going about it the wrong way is what really pisses me off.