Drive-by movie news: The Last Airbender blows, Transformers 2 sucks, Avatar leaks, and Alice in Wonderland… Burtons?

At least the effects are good. The first trailer for M. Night Shyamalan’s live action adaption of Avatar: The Last Airbender is not the most captivating teaser ever, but it only blows in the literal sense. (And, well, there’s still that whole racebending thing…) The trailer unveiling (it’s attached to Transformers) also unleashed the film’s official site and a flurry of set visit pieces: MTV, SciFi Wire, io9, SuperHero Hype and IGN. But the movie isn’t out for a year, so don’t go expecting too much just yet.

Oh, Michael Bay. Everyone hates Transformers 2! (Really!) Including Roger Ebert, in fine form. For some reason, this warms the cockles of my black little heart…

The other Avatar. Footage of James Cameron’s Avatar, the 3-D one, was screened in Europe.

And since we’re on a name-brand director jaunt… First look at Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.

The catchup: Links from Twitter

Here are some of the things I’ve micro-blogged over @clubjade in the last week or so.

Hollywood hyperbole. Sony’s Amy Pascal thinks that James Cameron’s Avatar could be the next Star Wars. I’m just trying to think of an upcoming genre movie I care less about than Avatar and failing miserably.

Duck and cover, Dallas. Will Texas be able to handle the squee produced by an official Twilight convention? We can only hope the lack of Robert Pattinson gives them a fighting chance.

Space blob approaches! Guys. GUYS. Waru is coming! I repent of all my Twilight mocking. Okay, not really.

But the real question is, who did they ship? Wired’s Scott Brown takes a brief look back at Sherlock Holmes fanfic.

Presented without comment. Guess who wants to write a Wonder Woman novel?