WHAT’S IT ABOUT
Avatar Aang, the world’s last Airbender, embarks on an epic quest to find an ancient power that could save his culture from extinction.
MOVIESinMO REVIEW
Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender didn’t need to fight this hard just to find an audience, yet Paramount made sure it did anyway. The studio first promised this movie for the big screen, then pulled it over to streaming, then watched helplessly as the whole film leaked online months before anyone could buy a ticket. After that mess, the studio scrambled and tossed in a one week theater run in just two cities before pushing the wide streaming release out to this July. None of that behind the scenes drama shows up inside the actual movie, and that is a good thing, because what plays out on screen deserves far better treatment than it received. The story happens a while after the original series, when the characters have grown, and each has their own burden to carry. One of the characters, Katara, rules the Republic City. While Zuko is working hard on the reconstruction of the Fire Nation. Sokka keeps working on the inventions. The character named Toph is training the next generations of Earth-Benders, while Aang keeps searching through the ruins of war-devastated civilizations. However, he has the pressure coming from the fact that he is the only Airbender left behind. Eventually, Aang meets a group of nonbending ones that feel oppressed by bendy communities. Aang’s encounter with The Denied leads him to the discovery of the powerful staff that has the potential to revive airbending. This leads Aang to Tagah, who has been frozen for ages and who has her own agenda. This is where the movie shows its true worth. Dave Bautista plays Tagah here, and it’s quite an unusual role for him. Mostly, he is cast as a powerful personality dominating the scene physically. However, this time he plays a tragic individual who lost everything and who’s got real anger. Bautista performs this role with true emotions, and we can hear the pain in his voice when the character speaks about his past. That care is evident in how the characters are portrayed in the animated series. This is the first time these characters have been voiced by Asian American and Native American actors, with Jessica Matten being Katara, Roman Zaragoza as Sokka, Dionne Quan as Toph, and Steven Yeun as Zuko. This change is not just about the actors but also about the suitability of the scenes they perform in. The most interesting actor is Yeun, as he has to depict Zuko’s pain about a poor family life. Matten and Zaragoza didn’t have much to do because the movie is only 90 minutes long, and most of the time is devoted to Aang. Quan has even fewer scenes, with only one short training scene featuring her. It is one thing to have a role in the movie but a different thing to have something to say. Eric Nam takes Aang through it all as smoothly as possible. He keeps his voice consistent during the prolonged stretch that Aang must face where his people could be lost forever. From that moment, Aang experiences that sadness, which is felt throughout the film and can be compared to Aang’s childhood feeling of guilt after the Fire Nation destroyed his homeland. The film lets its audience deal with that feeling rather than trying to move on quickly, and it eventually pays off in several scenes that have more impact than anyone would have thought in a movie that deals with magic and elemental combat. Visually, what we see is just out of this world. The animation by Flying Bark Productions and Studio Mir showcased a mix of hand-drawn characters combined with hand-painted backgrounds inspired by ancient Chinese watercolor paintings. This makes all the locations look beautiful despite taking place during massive battles. One of the problems with this movie is that the portrayal of the villains falls flat. Though the villains begin with a valid issue, as they see benders controlling a world they cannot access, they lack character development and remain just angry villains fighting for revenge. The audience will be disappointed because Tagah’s big twist, even though it is powerful, does not shock any viewers who pay attention to the film. The use of Taika Waititi’s voiceover for one of the characters makes the scene absurd, even though it was supposed to be serious, leaves no room for doubt. However, the weaknesses of the movie don’t make it a failure. Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender manages to depict hardships like the death of a beloved one and the loss of culture in a more sophisticated way than many other animated films and gives one actor a role that fits him perfectly.
OUR RATING – A TRUE AVATAR 8