In spite of our unease about some of its casting decisions, we’ve had high hopes for The Last Airbender, the M. Night Shyamalan-directed adaptation of the excellent cartoon series, which hits theaters on July 1st. But man … it’s been getting Jonah Hex-like abysmal reviews. It currently has a 00% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and Roger Ebert just dropped a review that gives The Last Airbender a half a star out of four and proceeds to tear the movie to shreds.

Want to take on the world just like Scott Pilgrim? Well now you can at least look like you could with the Scott Pilgrim Avatar Creator. Guys will take on a truly epic pose to champion all things good-boyfriend, while girls will stand there looking kind of sassy, championing all things, “Have you beaten my seven evil exes yet?”

There may not be all that many customization options, but there are enough for you to be epically epic in your own epically unique way (of epicness). Whether you want to wield a flaming sword or a guitar or fight hand-to-hand, you can equip yourself for whatever need may arise.

Avatar: The Last Airbender (A. K. A. the real Avatar) is nearly upon us, and so we’re down to the final few TV spots to pour over. Unnervingly, we haven’t seen much character dialogue in the released footage, leaving many fans still in suspense over the quality of the acting in the movie.

Even I, who have been pretty relaxed in the knowledge that if the movie is awful, it will still be pretty, and I can just go home and watch all four Sozin’s Comet episodes to make myself feel better, am getting a little worried.

And then there’s Appa’s face.

This is the question posed by The Hollywood Reporter. Terra Nova, if you don’t know (we certainly didn’t) is Spielberg‘s latest green-lit television series (he’s producing). It’s going to be about a family from about 2110 that goes back in time 150 million years to the time of dinosaurs, in order to save the human race.

Or something. Who cares! It’s Steven Spielberg and dinosaurs.

But does it look like Avatar?

Roger Ebert is one of the most beloved film writers of all time and, recently, as he’s bravely battled the effects of cancer and its treatment, the esteem people have for him has only gotten greater.

However, at the same time, he’s also been showing another side to his persona; a crotchety old man who refuses to acknowledge that video games could ever be considered an artform. While his views on video games are pretty indefensible (the computer animators who design the entire world and the writers who plot out the entire game aren’t artists?), there’s one area where his Luddite sensibilities are right on the money. In an article in the current Newsweek, Ebert claims that 3-D movies are nothing but a trashy gimmick whose only real purpose is to steal extra money from audiences and this writer, at least, thinks he’s 100% right.

It stands to reason that Alien, directed by Ridley Scott, is an icon in sci-fi — and horror — filmmaking. This isn’t your everyday, run-of-the-mill hyperbole; released in 1979, with Star Wars’ popularity only growing, it broke some serious ground and put Scott on the map. What it did, it did very well, from the slow, breathtaking shots in the darkness of space, to the singularly original design of H.R. Giger‘s Alien itself. I’d bet money that even those who never saw the film have heard the tagline, “In space, no one can hear you scream.”

And its influence can still be felt today. Although Scott wouldn’t stay on for the film’s three sequels (No one is counting the Alien vs. Predator series), Sigourney Weaver did, turning the protagonist Ellen Ripley into an archetypal sci-fi heroine. In 2002, it was inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. And gaming owes a major debt to it, especially when you consider Samus Aran of Metroid fame.

So to hear that Ridley Scott is working on two Alien prequels — and in 3D no less — made me both a little excited and a little anxious.

There is a brand new full-length trailer for Avatar: The Last Airbender, featuring more Appa, more bending, more Avatar state, Fang, and one more special, blue guest.

Check it out after the jump:

Speaking at a press conference to hawk Avatar‘s upcoming Blu-Ray release, James Cameron revealed his disdain for watching his opus on screens not big enough to contain its majesty.

Avatar on the iPhone? Definitely no-go. On a laptop? Still pushing it.

In the wee hours of the night, word got out that Nintendo is going to release what’s tentatively being called the 3DS, a handheld 3D console, between April 2010 and March 2011, with more details to follow at E3 in June.

As timely as the device “on which games can be enjoyed with 3D effects without the need for any special glasses” might sound in light of the current, post-Avatar craze for home 3D, coming as it is from Nintendo, the 3DS conjures up another, maybe unwelcome connection: The mid-’90s’ disastrous Virtual Boy, whose revolutionary promises of immersive VR in your living room only managed to give a bunch of gamers headaches in the comfort of their own living rooms and sell 800,000 units over its entire lifespan of a year.

Fortunately, it looks like Nintendo has managed to learn its lesson since then:

Your first chance to grab Avatar on DVD will come next month on Earth Day, April 22nd. However, there is a twist.

On the one hand, this release is the bare-bones one. No special features.

On the other hand, the Los Angeles Times reports, “According to sources at Fox, “Avatar” will make history as the first Blu-ray new release from a major studio to hit stores without a single trailer or promotional content of any kind.” That’s right. Just a menu and the movie, so as to reserve the most disc space for all that less-compressed visual and audio data.