There'll be no comparison between this and Dragonball Evolution. For one thing, it's being done by Paramount, and not Fox, who has shown themselves to be the worst serious film production company in Hollywood.
For another thing, the casting looks pretty damn good. Aang looks spot on, despite inane reasoning about some of the race of some of the characters by others. And that's considering this is an American made show, and that the creators of Avatar have been on-set working with M. Night on this, which likely means they'll have passed off on most of the creative and casting decisions. It's not like Dragonball, where Asian casting was preferred, which led to controversy. Since the creators accept the casting, it doesn't matter. Aang struck me as white anyway, and there's no reason to think that a world dominated by oriental culture wouldn't have a place in it for Caucasians. This is definitely a rare case where all the foreign fans who decry the film as a "whitewash" can suck it.
Plus, unlike Dragonball, this film seems to have enough confidence in it that it's actually being advertised a year before it's release, and within the previews of a blockbuster (Transformers 2) that is a forgone conclusion, and also being released in the Summer during the blockbuster movie season. Whereas, DBE was tossed to the side in the dead Spring season, and almost not advertised at all.
Not to mention just from this small preview that it seems like the film has managed to capture the scale and feel of the Avatar Universe, being that it is grand and exotic.
I'm really impressed that this kid is capable of the acrobatic martial arts necessary for the role. He seems to nail the fluidity of movement. Not to mention the airbending effects look superb. The smoke we see when he snuffs out the candles is FROM the flames being put out. And sure, we shouldn't be able to SEE the gusts of air, but I think we can understand why they would give slight visualizations. It would look a might bit cheesy for the kid to wave his hands and stick only to have things fly backwards Jedi style. Tying his actions to something we can sorta' make out has a more powerful effect, and I think it's a fair artistic license, especially since that's essentially what was done in the series.
I wasn't totally sure about this film, but it's shaping up to be more what you'd hope for than Dragonball Evolution ever was, and it only pisses me off that everyone compares "animation to live action" films like this to DBE now since they all expect them to fall as flat on their face as it did.
Hopefully with this film, faith will be restored in such things. And not that it's any consolation, but Fox allegedly has been heard to be planning on rebooting the Dragonball film series due to how badly DBE did, with at LEAST a new director. It means little to me, being that it's still "20th Century FAIL" behind it, but at least it might mean they're willing to admit that they screwed fans of the series and crippled the anticipation for any animation to live action film for years to come by this example.