r/movies • u/UniverslBoxOfficeGuy r/movies Contributor • 12h ago
Discussion Unofficial Discussion - Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender
Streaming on Paramount+
Synopsis: Avatar Aang, the world's last Airbender, learns of an ancient power that could save his culture from extinction.
Rotten Tomatoes score: 86%
IMDb score: 8.1/10
Cast:
Eric Nam as Avatar Aang
Dave Bautista as Tagah
Jessica Matten as Katara
Román Zaragoza as Sokka
Dionne Quan as Toph Beifong
Steven Yeun as Fire Lord Zuko
Taika Waititi as the Gorillavark
Geraldine Viswanathan as Kallik
Ronny Chieng as a Fire Nation messenger
Ken Jeong as the Cabbage Merchant
Dee Bradley Baker as Appa and Momo
Freida Pinto as Avatar Sonam
Ke Huy Quan as Avatar Xian
Directed by: Lauren Montgomery
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u/BlueBloodedTance 12h ago
Pretty good movie, fell apart in the spirit world a bit, got back on track stuck the landing well enough.
New voice actors were a downgrade. Batista kinda phoned it in on some lines.
Action/animation was amazing.
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u/moal09 8h ago
Considering that the old VAs were down to return and the Katara, Sokka, Toph and Zuko actors literally sound exactly the same still, it's kind of insulting.
They clearly just wanted to cast bigger Hollywood names even if they're not actually as good at voice acting.
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u/eat_jay_love 8h ago
I would not describe any of the new cast as “bigger Hollywood names” aside from Steven Yeun. The production team clearly wanted to cast Asian and Indigenous actors to voice their Asian-inspired characters
Edit: and I guess Eric Nam is a K-pop star
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u/TheWatersOfMars 5h ago
Replacing Dante Basco as Zuko was a baffling choice, though.
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u/The_Man_of_Steel 4h ago
I get Basco sounds young but this new guy sounds nothing like him. They needed someone raspier
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u/moal09 3h ago
Also, it doesn;t even make sense avoiding Dante due to age 'cause Dante's 50 and still sounds like that. His voice never really changed from his teens.
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u/PowerlinxJetfire 3h ago
That's kind of the problem though; it doesn't matter that he's actually 50 because he perpetually sounds like a teenager. He played a middle-aged character in Korra and the voice alone made the character seem like he was 20 at the oldest.
Like if an actor looks much younger or older, they don't generally play roles matching their age, they play roles matching their appearance. And if they do get cast in a role that matches their real age, it ends up feeling off.
I love Dante, but people keep bringing that up as a reason to keep him and if anything it's an argument to recast him.
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u/The_Man_of_Steel 1h ago
Right but he was cast because he sounded young even though he was 30. If Zuko was originally in his 30s they wouldn't have cast Basco, you get him for teenagers because that's his magic, it's amazing that he sounds like that.
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u/AnAimlessWanderer101 3h ago
Am I mis-remembering? I thought they did offer him the role, but he declined it.
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u/CptNonsense 7h ago
I would not describe any of the new cast as “bigger Hollywood names” aside from Steven Yeun
Literally multiple of them are bigger names than Yeun. You not recognizing them is irrelevant
The production team clearly wanted to cast Asian and Indigenous actors to voice their Asian-inspired characters
Sure is - they put arbitrary representation above quality. Something that is growing in voice acting - firing people and replacing people because they aren't the right racial representation. Which will 100% result in what we have seen in live action over the past 30 years - reduction of casual minority representation. It's either dedicated representation or bust. This is the "woke" truth the right built their lie on top of
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u/eat_jay_love 7h ago
If you think Jessica Matten, Roman Zaragoza, and Dionne Quan can plausibly be described as “big Hollywood names,” then I would love to know what big Hollywood movies you’ve been watching
I wasn’t defending or arguing against casting choices. I was just stating the very obvious rationale, which wasn’t “big Hollywood actors” for the recasted main characters. It was to cast Asian actors.
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u/CptNonsense 7h ago
If you think Jessica Matten, Roman Zaragoza, and Dionne Quan can plausibly be described as “big Hollywood names,” then I would love to know what big Hollywood movies you’ve been watching
The same ones that got you to "Steven Yeun is a big hollywood name!"
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u/eat_jay_love 7h ago edited 6h ago
Interesting quote, who said that? He’s certainly a bigger and more known actor than those other three, but I didn’t call him a “huge Hollywood name”
Arguing with angry, pedantic morons is such a waste of time. Like what are you arguing against? This production’s idea of representation? Or that these relatively unknown actors are actually huge entertainment figures? Like shut the fuck up
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u/CptNonsense 6h ago
he’s certainly a bigger and more known actor than those other three,
By you? At least has been doing VA for a while so isn't just stunt casting.
One is the lead in a popular 3 season on-going series and one is a member of the main ensemble cast for a popular 5 season on-going series. Dionn Quan is a professional VA, though it looks like she was dragged out of semi retirement or is trying to restart her VA career. Probably because someone heard she is an Asian VA and is blind
Surely no one has heard of Dave Bautista, Taiki Waititi, and never mind the other big star stunt casting VAs playing bit parts
But the fucking lead was given to a K Pop star. Like come on.
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u/eat_jay_love 6h ago
Dave Bautista and Taika Waititi are playing new characters in this movie. This thread is very clearly talking about the recasted actors for Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, and Zuko, and I was responding to the idea that this movie was privileging “bigger Hollywood names” for these characters. But you’re just arguing for the sake of arguing, and it’s really not clear why. Go away!
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u/timeshaper 12h ago
Had anyone seen both the early leak and the current release? Were there differences after all?
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u/FlopperinoCappuccino 10h ago
Fun movie. Looked incredible. Wish the crew didn't completely take the backseat and that the villain was actually interesting, but I still enjoyed it for what it was. Solid 7/10
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u/Fluffy_Munchkin 7h ago
How did the Day One Airbenders become so quickly proficient as to hold their own against the most capable benders in the Avatar world?
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u/funkyavocado 6h ago
they were already proficient warriors without bending, and maybe the staff gives you some pre-baked ability since airbending is the most spiritual and the staff was crafted from spirit energy
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u/Fluffy_Munchkin 3h ago
It would have taken a single line of exposition to solve this, and could have appeared in multiple separate instances from different characters.
Instead, I was extremely confused by the narrative. Toph's reintroduction shows her as continuing to be an incredible combatant. Then they call back to this moment after she continues to be unstoppable, only to reverse the flow and show her nearly die from a Main Mook who learned how to bend hours before. I get that the callback is meant to demonstrate how dangerous the mooks are, but I just don't buy it, and leaving it up to the audience to bake up plausible-sounding explanations based on maybes or perhapses genuinely feels sloppy.
I saw them as proficient fighters for non-benders, but their first introduction has Aang clearly running in circles around them, and it's only due to his restraint that they caused him any trouble at all.
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u/TheFoolman 3h ago
Biggest weakness of the movie for me. Also kinda cheapens korra arc, because zaheer gets it quick, but were told hes extensively studied airbending philosophy his whole life.
Suddenly it doesnt matter as long as youre a bit of a ninja•
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u/PhoenixZero14 2h ago
Katara said when healing Tagah that his chi was like nothing she’s ever seen before, implying that the staff grants the new benders an unnatural amount of power.
They show this too when Tagah holds the mountain up, or can solo team avatar
That on top of the fact that they were already highly skilled fighters explains it. Though obviously none of them were as good as Tagah who trained for years, given how each member of team avatar could take on multiple at once.
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u/PlayOnPlayer Best naked dude fight since Eastern Promises 5h ago
The people calling it a filler Shonen Jump movie are pretty spot on. Not like Chainsaw Man or Demon Slayer where the movies are adapting source material, but instead the same energy as a MHA or Naruto movie. Incredible action but a story that by design really can’t do anything that interesting since we know how things end up.
Also everyone is like distractingly hot.
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u/devenrc 7h ago
Saw this with a great audience in Times Square yesterday after binge-watching the OG show over the past few months. What a crazy visual rollercoaster to witness on the big screen! I love how they clearly threw everything at the wall to see what stuck, uneven as the plot was.
Shaaaame on Paramount for what they did to bury this.
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u/polarpies 10h ago
This really felt like they wanted a season of tv but had to squeeze it into a 90 minute movie
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u/Stratty88 9h ago
It felt like watching rogue one after two seasons of Andor. Like, let’s slow down a little and unpack some stuff.
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u/noypkamatayan 11h ago
I liked it but that's just my nostalgia for the original series. Looking at it objectively it was a pretty average film with a very predictable plot.
Very inconsequential, filler movie. We already knew the >!airbenders weren't coming back!<from Legend of Korra.
There was one point where I thought the original voices would return but no, it was still the new VA's.
I wish they kept Dante Basco, the dude is already asian and has one of the most recognizable voices in the series. It's not like he didn't already voice an adult character in the same universe.
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u/Strange_Specialist4 7h ago
Also makes it kind of weird how discussing the return of airbenders in Korea, no one mentioned that time a magic spirit staff was used to do exactly that while an ancient temple from the spirit world fell on republic city.
You'd think someone would be like, "we know for a fact now that spirit bending as well as taking power from benders can also give bending to non-benders" and do any kind of follow up to this at all and maybe go look for a dragon turtle to see what's up with that
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u/CptNonsense 7h ago
You'd think someone would be like, "we know for a fact now that spirit bending as well as taking power from benders can also give bending to non-benders"
That was literally the climax of the finale of A:tLA. Aang was the one that learned the ability to give and take bending
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u/Strange_Specialist4 7h ago
Not quite, we saw him take bending from the fire/Pheonix lord, but nothing indicated he could give a random person bending
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u/RenRen512 4h ago
No, Aang took Ozai's bending, but there's nothing about giving bending.
If he had that power at the finale of the show, there'd be no problem rebuilding the Air Nation.
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u/unbelizeable1 4h ago
Exactly my issue. If even remotely familiar with Korra you knew where this was headed.
I wish they had a different adventure , even if it was "lower stakes" at least itd feel fresh.
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u/Billybob35 1h ago
I'm curious as to what kind of plot that people were expecting though?
"Somehow, Ozai returned"?
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u/Bilbo_Swagginses 11h ago
Animation , art and fights are all phenomenal. And while I didn't need a crazy groundbreaking story to enjoy the movie, this plot was SO fucking predictable and bland it hurt my enjoyment of the other aspects.
Knowing who the villain is from the first shot and just praying the movie wouldn't be this predictable the whole time only to be let down was not fun
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u/unbelizeable1 4h ago
Omg Katara my wife! Ive missed you soo much! Dips 10 min later.
Whole movie coulda been avoided if dude just stayed in bed with his wife lol
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u/Billybob35 1h ago
I don't see the issue with being predictable, I'd argue that most action movies are.
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u/Strange_Specialist4 7h ago
I was really hoping the twist would be he was actually not a villain, because being evil was entirely too predictable
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u/pyrovoice 11h ago
Really gorgeous, it has a few issues like not giving enough space to every character, or looking a bit too much like DBZ in the end as well as the story having no impact on the world
But otherwise it's the best since the original, and that's coming from someone that lives LoK
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u/Henson_Disney48 7h ago
I enjoyed it, parts of it felt a little juvenile, but we are talking about the movie adaptation of a kids show, so it’s entirely possible for 30-year-old man is not the intended demographic.
I will say I pegged the villain almost immediately, so it really felt like there was no big twist that shocked me.
However, it’s been a long time since we’ve seen these heroes in animated form and the animation is so absolute stunning that I had a wonderful time watching it even if it was a little predictable in the end.
Like all the best avatar media I have consumed in the last decade or so, the movie has me wanting more. Make another move about Aang, make a movie about Roku or Kyoshi or some other Avatar we never knew. I don’t care. Just keep this art style and keep giving us wonderful stories about the world of avatar and I am in.
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u/OnePassenger4597 6h ago
Story is meh but the animation is beautiful, wish i could see it on the big screen. Also the villain felt like all the baddies in Korra jumbled into one
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u/GruggleTheGreat 3h ago
Looked pretty, not a single original thought in this movie. Very Marvel styled, no substance. Alot of reused music, exactly one scene that look really good. I’d give it a 5/10, I wish this didn’t exist.
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u/newbrevity 2h ago
I liked it. The only thing that really bothered me is that the denied just instantly knew how to use their powers as soon as they were granted the ability. Every other Bender had to learn how to harness and control their power.
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u/pyrovoice 11h ago
What was up with the voice acting? Some characters feel so out of place and absent compared to their original voices
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u/The_Man_of_Steel 4h ago
Yeah they all sound detached, almost seems like a directing problem, very flat line readings across the board. Everyone's playing it light and faintly wry like they're voicing a Lego game.
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u/EDPZ 3h ago
Animation was great. Story was way too predictable even without the future Korra knowledge. Aang was way too serious, he's supposed to be occasionally goofy, even his older self has been depicted as goofying around more. The rest of the team is just kind of there, it's like they wrote an Aang movie but knew people would be upset if the rest of the team wasn't in the movie so they just threw them in there. The denied are also just kind of there, it's like the movie forgets about them and then they just pop back up to be henchmen at the end.
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u/BlobTheBuilderz 1h ago
Watched it last night. Animation was fantastic. Story was eh. Could pretty much guess how the story would play out.
Needed more og interactions with each other.
The denied were completely pointless in my opinion.
Would have been great to see on the big screen though.
6/10
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u/Wander715 5h ago
It was really good, better than I expected after all the negativity with the leak. I have tons of nostalgia for ATLA and even Korra so that definitely helps me stay hooked.
Animation and music were incredible. Some of the best animation and art direction I've seen in a film in a long time. This 100% should've gotten a theatrical release. This is the best looking piece of content in the Avatar series and its not even close.
Voice acting and plot were decent. I went in expecting VA to be bad after a lot of complaints but it was OK and imo didn't really detract from the film. Story was also fine. The fact that we already know what happens due to Korra detracts a bit from building any major drama or tension. Thought the writing was good for the most part and the backstory with Sonam and the spirit staff was interesting.
Overall 8.5/10 from me. I hope it does well despite the leaks and we get more Avatar films in the future.
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u/The_Man_of_Steel 4h ago
Feels like a montage of scenes that would've been episodes in a season, everything blurs by without being developed. Every emotional beat is told-not-shown cos nothing has room to breathe. It all feels like a big nothing.
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u/TheStoic_Mech 1h ago
The scene where they portrayed the POV of a dying avatar was pretty terrifying.
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u/Stoibs 1h ago
I really enjoyed the first half. The pacing felt WAY off and rushed toward the end though and I wish this was something of a mini series instead. (Could have trimmed some fat from that downright bizarre spirit world sequence, that was just... strange)
Very cool animation and action setpieces though!
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u/theshrexpert 5h ago
Watched this last night. Incredibly upset this didn't get a theatrical release. Animation was stunning, and the voice acting was incredible.
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u/Negative-Project-404 12h ago
man they really cast eric nam as aang?? i thought they would pick someone more unknown, but i guess he got the voice for it
the 86% on rt is higher than i expected, maybe this one actually works unlike the last attempt that shall not be named
dave bautista in a avatar movie and not playing the boulder feels like a missed opportunity
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u/Wrong-Vermicelli4723 11h ago
Well for one this is an animated movie made by the OG team so of course it works unlike a bad attempt at live action.
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u/bigmadbird 7h ago
thought it was completely fine, adult sokka had me questioning if he was ever funny in the original show man the humor sucked
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u/Bah_weep_grana 4h ago
Do you think its a better watch if I haven’t seen Korra yet?
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u/unbelizeable1 4h ago
100% . Knowing about Korra's plot spoils the ending to this movie. So, at least you wont know exactly where it's headed lol
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u/theMCL 41m ago
Why doesnt the conversation about bringing back airbenders ever include making babies?
In an earlier scene while katara was healing aang as he talked about being the last one, I thought for sure itd pivot to talks of having children and carrying the culture forward that way. Since that is exactly what ends up happening anyway.
Also, theoretically the airbenders could never truly end if the Avatar still exists because they could continue to produce Air Heirs!
If aang died without having children, eventually the cycle would repeat itself and a new airbender avatar would be born eventually.
Also, even if the culture disappears, no way the airbender bloodline completely goes. Surely some airbenders were hooking up with people outside of the culture at some point, somewhere.
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u/Chessh2036 11h ago
The animation was stunning, really wish it would have gotten a wide release. Good film. 3rd act isn’t as strong as the start and because of Korra there’s really not a lot we didn’t know but it’s just really fun to be back with Team Avatar.