Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender

13 years after the defeat of Phoenix King Ozai, a group of non-benders called the Denied ransack the Southern Air Temple. Their objective is to steal any clues as to the whereabouts of a powerful relic from a forgotten Avatar.

I hadn't originally intended to watch this. I felt it was a cheap moneygrab by a huge media corporation attempting to profit off millennials' sense of nostalgia. Honestly, I still think that. How many hundreds or thousands of ideas has this very same corporation turned away at the door in order to make reboots, revamps, re-envisionings, sequels, prequels, and continuations of old media? Also, Riza interrupted my winning streak in the Cyber Grind to sort of pressure me into watching :P

Anyway, I decided not to think about that and take the film on its own merits. After all, this was not the first continuation of a franchise and it would not be the last; plus, my track record with new media engagement is not great. Cramming the entire history of a show from the early 1990s does not count as "engaging with new media".

Enough about me, let's talk about the film. While I'm not entirely convinced that there wasn't any generative AI use to create the visual elements, I couldn't find any evidence to back that up, so I'm just going to drop that matter. The writing stays pretty true to the show it's based upon, insofar as it focusses mainly on loyalty, friendship, mysticism, and fighting. Apart from a couple of times where Aang and Katara kiss, there really is no particular focus on romance. While there are a few points at which it looks like the film is going to undermine Legend of Korra, it manages not to.

The voice acting is, fortunately, still appropriate for the characters. Attempts were made to get the original voice actors on board with the project, but each one failed, and the only returning voice is really just archive recordings of Dee Bradley Baker performing Appa and Momo. However, unlike M. Night Shyamalan's crap-ass live-action film, the entire cast of Avatar Aang is non-white. Dave Bautista makes an excellent voice for new character, Tagah, though he does lapse back into "Batista" mode occasionally. It's an improvement over the series in this way, where only Dante Basco and a handful of characters of the week were non-white. There's way too many white voice actors out there who we hear all the time. Tara Strong, Charlie Adler, Michael Kovach, Rob Paulsen, Tress MacNeille, Lizzie Freeman, I'm glad to hear some Korean and Indian VA's for a change.

Like I said before, I cannot guarantee that there is no genAI use happening here. This was produced during the 2023-2026 period of time and, while generative AI is nearly-universally reviled with independent artists, corporate outfits tend to use it to cut costs. A background image here and there might be genAI, but as I also said before, I can find no proof or denial of its existence here.

8/10 stars

Here we come with the n-2 rating again. I shan't spoil the ending, but let's just say that I was, once again, able to come to the conclusion to the film's jeopardy an act before the characters do. Of course, don't let's lose sight of the fact that the screenwriters were aware of the film's release venue, and it would appear in the same search as the show with a similar title. Therefore, even though the characters have aged, as have the original audience, kids are going to be watching this, too.