Review: Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender

Sixteen years of agony have finally come to an end, as the Avatar universe has finally received a movie worthy of its excellence. Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender is a nostalgic adventure that brings back most of the fun from the original television series.

The film was originally slated to be released in theaters, then it was leaked online, then Paramount cancelled the theatrical release, and then they backtracked just a little bit and did a one-week theatrical run in New York City and Los Angeles at a single theater each. I caught the very last show in NYC at 1:15am, and it was worth it.

I thought the movie did an excellent job coming up with a story that fit between the TV series and Legend of Korra without raising questions of why the latter never addressed it. It did require a bit of disbelief that some of the most important leaders of the world could all of a sudden abandon their posts when the Avatar asked, but hey, the gaang had to reunite for the nostalgia.

Unfortunately I don't think the movie would've done well as a general theatrical release. Most of the movie had no explainers for Avatar universe concepts, like bending, the spirit world, Republic City, and so on.

So I think it only works as movie for existing fans, but regardless, I am incredibly thrilled with that outcome. Rating: 8/10.

Spoilers ahead#

The coolest part was definitely the joint airbending that turned into tornado(!!) bending. I was not at all expecting a new bending mechanism.

It seemed a bit obvious that Tagah was a bad guy — otherwise why would he have been stuck in an air bubble prison for thousands of years. Using non-benders as the villain again felt unoriginal.

I appreciated that the entire plot revolved around a paradox: if Aang had never released Tagah or retrieved the staff, then nothing would have happened! But when Aang sees someone else trapped in an air bubble, just like how he was, he doesn't even stop to think before releasing them.

The ending was a bit cheesy with them discovering the herd of sky bison, but hey, it was cute. Nostalgia fulfilled.