Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

Yes, it is real. The “first” movie was the live action version that was universally hated. It was an attempt to retell the first season to The Last Airbender, but it absolutely failed in that regard. This new movie has absolutely nothing to do with it.

This new one is a sort of bridge between the end of The Last Airbender and the start of The Legend of Korra. It’s with the main cast in their 20’s. So ~10 years after the end of ATLA, and probably 25-30 years before the start of TLOK.

The new movie is… Alright? The animation is gorgeous, and the fight choreography definitely feels more modern and fluid. It proves that The Last Airbender would have done really well in HD+widescreen, instead of the 4:3 SD that it originally aired in. The cast is more experienced in combat, and their teamwork is much more natural. My biggest complaint is the lack of substance. The big finale fight feels fun to watch, but there is very little substance because the individual characters simply haven’t had enough screen time. It would likely work better as an extended/director’s cut, because at only 90 minutes it feels a little too short for what they were trying to accomplish. Certain parts feel rushed, and I was left wondering where the rest of the movie was when it finished.

There’s also the whole “we already basically know how it ends, because we know how TLOK starts” problem. Since it’s a tie-in between the two series, we already know which characters come out of it and which don’t. So the stakes never really felt particularly high.