Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender debuts July 25 on Paramount+.
Nearly two decades after Nickelodeon’s beloved Avatar: The Last Airbender wrapped up its stellar three-season run, the original animated crew is back in action for a full-length movie, Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender. The film is big, bold, and stunningly animated with gorgeous imagery and huge fight scenes that were clearly crafted for the big screen… which is why it’s such a crime that this is being relegated to streaming on Paramount+.
There is a constant argument about whether movie theaters are the real deal while TV is some sort of second tier where movies get dumped once cinemas are done with them. But the quality and size of TVs and sound systems, the availability of the movies, and the erosion of the theatrical experience have put them pretty much on even footing, not to mention that the expense of movies makes it prohibitive to go to theaters for most viewers in the current economy even when you’re not being hit in the face by popcorn while screaming teens yell “chicken jockey.” That’s not the argument we’re making here.
Instead, it’s clear from the opening frame of Avatar Aang to the closing scene that director Lauren Montgomery and company created this movie to be seen on a large theater screen. The original cartoon often depicted the beautiful open vistas of the world that Aang and friends fought to save, and in particular the final fight between Aang and Fire Lord Ozai is epic in scale. However, the widening of the frame throughout the new theatrical feature was clearly animated to be seen on the biggest screen possible; not your laptop, or your phone, and definitely not leaked on Twitter.
It’s an extremely unfortunate series of events that led to this slipshod release, from multiple shifting release dates, to Paramount changing their minds from a theatrical release to a streaming original, to the deplorable leak of the movie online back in April. And Avatar Aang doesn’t deserve any of this because on a whole, the movie is a lovingly crafted return to the world created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, full of thrilling action and emotional moments alongside the aforementioned gorgeous animation and epic fight scenes. After an abysmal live-action movie and a not-that-great live-action TV adaptation, this should have been the rousing return to Avatar that fans have been asking for, and a chance for those fans to gather in theaters to cheer on the continuing adventures of Team Avatar. Instead, it’s marked with several weird asterisks.
That’s a lot of wind-up to get to the actual movie, but the table-setting is important, because the story around the movie is sadly more a part of the conversation than the content of the movie itself. Picking up a few years after the end of the animated series, Aang (Eric Nam) is now a teen/in his twenties, but still finding his way as the commander of the four elements — earth, air, fire, and water. He’s established Republic City, a place for “benders” — those who control one of those elements — to live together, with the caveat that he is the one and only airbender. While it’s hard to imagine someone with zero experience with Avatar coming into this clean, the movie does a nice job of recapping the original series both through the actions of Aang, and a revised opening sequence that shows off not just the magic inherent in the world, but also reintroduces the rest of Team Avatar and their current status quos.
The plot, per the title, focuses squarely on Aang as the newfound peace of the world is plagued by a new group called The Denied, non-benders who think the imbalance of power should be evened out. There’s also the surprise arrival of another, ancient airbender named Tagah (Dave Bautista). Thanks to Tagah and The Denied, Aang reassambles Team Avatar in a race across the world to capture a powerful artifact that may bring airbenders back or potentially fracture the balance established at the end of the original series. It’s vaguely reminiscent of 1987’s The Chipmunk Adventure, another hot air balloon race around the world, though with far fewer songs than that particular landmark animated feature.
The script by Tim Hedrick and Christopher Yost — the former was a veteran staff writer from the original series while the other is a staple of Marvel’s live-action and animated fare as well as comics — does a nice job of focusing on Aang and pushing him to a place where he needs to wrestle with his legacy in causing the problems that led to the triumph of the Fire Nation in the original series, while holding on to the fragile peace he gained at the end. Nam does a stellar job of voicing Aang, which was one of the big worries going into this movie. One joy of the original series was watching the tiny, young Aang wrestle with problems enormously larger than himself, physically and emotionally; thankfully, aging up his voice and body don’t take too much away from that.
A not inconsequential note here: The voice actors were almost entirely recast for the movie due to changing discussions about ethnic fidelity that have cropped up since the series initially aired. It’s laudable that DiMartino and Konietzko made this choice, and the new cast mostly — particularly given the rest of Team Avatar are in support mode and not much of the focus — works out just fine. Jessica Matten is the weakest as Aang’s love interest/waterbender Katara and over-pronounces every word, with Román Zaragoza as Katara’s brother Sokka and Dionne Quan as earthbender Toph ably aping the previous voice actors’ performances. The only one who truly makes the role his own is Invincible’s Steven Yeun as Fire Lord Zuko, who is actively hilarious when he needs to be and commanding when he’s not.
Bautista also makes a solid impression as Tagah, bringing some strong voice work and emotion to the ancient airbender, while Ken Jeong slots in just fine as the series’ cabbage merchant, still never getting a break. Geraldine Viswanathan also does good work as Kallak, a member of The Denied who is more sympathetic to the Avatar’s cause. On the other hand, there’s Taika Waititi, who is actively annoying and out of place in a shoved-in scene set in the spirit world seemingly designed only to allow for a celebrity guest appearance. The lone cast member ported from show to movie is Dee Bradley Baker as Appa and Momo, the flying bison and lemur, and Baker – a consummate pro – doesn’t miss a step.
While the visuals are stunning and the action intense, there’s not a lot to speak of on the story side — as indicated above — other than Aang’s arc. There’s really not much of a reason for the rest of Team Avatar to be there other than that it’s nice to see them again, and the plot twists (such as they are) are telegraphed from a mile away… not that the original The Last Airbender was a shock a minute by any means, but it often did go in surprising directions that expanded the world.
Avatar Aang functions more like the (usually excellent) graphic novels from Dark Horse Comics, which slot nicely into story gaps rather than reinventing the mythology. That said, the movie also laudably skirts the prequelitis that infects these sorts of entries. And while there are some neat easter eggs and explanations for plot points in sequel series The Legend of Korra, Avatar Aang never feels like it’s holding your hand and walking you up to the events of Korra; those connections are merely a nice bonus.
Since Avatar Aang isn’t really trying to push the franchise forward in wild ways — for that we’ll have to wait for the post-apocalyptic Seven Havens TV series coming next year — it’s again supremely unfortunate that we were robbed of the way this would have been a special event: watching in a theater full of fellow screaming fans. It’s still surprisingly emotional to see these characters back on the small screen they called their home for so many years, and the movie is good enough that it functions as a nice epilogue while not detracting from the original in any way. But this could have been bigger and better, and all it needed to get there was Paramount’s confidence. Like Aang, the power is there; Paramount just needs to figure out how to use it for good, because sticking Avatar Aang next to Landman and Big Brother does the ambition of this lovingly crafted movie a massive disservice.
feedzy_import_tag
About the Author
