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David Mumpower: To answer Michael's question, I fully appreciate that Shyamalan's last two movies have been critically reviled and the ending of the one before them, The Village, was a heatedly divisive subject. Up until 2004, however, he was almost always described as the next Hitchcock and is a two-time Academy Award nominee. What he has never done to date is a pure action film. Unbreakable teased to be that style of film with some breathtaking sequences, particularly Willis' pursuit of a bad guy performing a home invasion. Like Jim, I had loved everything Shyamalan had done up until Lady in the Water, the movie where he lost his damn mind and let his ego drive the plot. I am curious to see how much he has learned from the mistakes of his last two films. Is this someone who can adapt and make the requisite adjustments to make The Happening and Lady in the Water anecdotes over a storied career or will we look back and say it was all downhill after the sublime ending of Signs? I get the vibe that The Last Airbender will be the movie that tells the tale, at least for the next eight to tenyears.

In terms of the story itself, Jim and Pete Kilmer have been saying for years now that we should be watching this cartoon. It always looked too weird for me, but I thought my wife might love it since she is a huge Naruto fan. The movie should function as the introductory point for us and we'll go back and watch the series if we like it. What I can say from the clip is this. Dev Patel looks ridiculous. And I'm talking about someone who is famous for a Bollywood dance performance of Jai Ho. Somehow, he looks worse here. That troubles me quite a bit. Once I get past this, what I note is that the trailer has several gripping shots, particularly the one Jim references with: "it seals the deal with Ang's arrow lighting up toward the end". I have no end with the relevance of this is to the character. I am, however, stunned that the people cutting the trailer didn't highlight that more. It's a money shot and an epic one at that. They should hammer that image home as much as possible and maybe they will. There is still a lot of marketing yet to be done here.

My suspicion in watching this trailer is that the visuals are going to be killer, particularly all of the elemental attacks on display in this clip. The dialogue, on the other hand...well, I have concerns. The "I don't deserve their praise" line is cringe-inducing. So, while I am not immediately writing this one off, no small feat given how much I despised the last two Shyamalan features, I do have mixed emotions about it. The Happening also had a trailer that built a mystery that engaged me yet the end result was Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel getting outperformed by plants. I really, really hope that there is more substance than style to this movie, but I've been burned before. Twice.

Jim Van Nest: One thing to add about the dialogue...the Avatar and his friends are all kids. Ang is only 12, if I remember correctly. So the dialogue comes off as childish, it's because they're...well...children.

Michael Lynderey: I know Shyamalan used to be incredibly well respected, and I was a big fan until about halfway through Signs. The fact that his first few movies were so good is probably the reason we're all mostly disappointed with his last few.

But I still don't get why this is supposed to be such a huge movie. That is really the gist of my puzzlement. Does the show have a Transformers-esque fanbase?

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