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world's #1 girl dad

#ts4 #the sims 4 #ts4 edit #ts4 gameplay #the sims 4 edit #current household #slate extras #spoiler alert!#lol vinny ends up with reina in the end <3

so, let's talk about avatar aang: the last airbender.

I've been waiting to see this movie since it was first announced years ago, and as the sequel to one of my all-time favorite series, it's not hard to imagine the high expectations I had for this release. It's a little difficult for me to review it objectively, being so attached to these characters and their stories, but I'll give it a try. I can say I had a lot of fun, but I felt like the creators had the handbrake on too much.

The visual department is almost free of flaws. The animation style, although different from the early 2000s series, still manages to make the characters feel familiar. The action scenes were incredible, and there was more than one moment where I was blown away by the breathtaking scenery (if you want a new desktop wallpaper, you know what to do), all accompanied by a soundtrack composed by the same person in the original series. I was sad not to hear the same voice actors for Team Avatar, but the new ones did a great job, especially newcomer Dave Bautista as Tagah. The only one that didn't convince me was Zuko's, perhaps too distant from Dante Basco's very recognizable voice (nothing personal Steven Yuen, I adored you in The Walking Dead).

Now, the story. For me, the main flaw is the predictability, partly due to the writing adopted, partly because this film comes before Legend of Korra. The surprise effect is almost completely missing, an example being Tagah who we discover has bad intentions and the scepter of Avatar Sonam which would have been necessarily destroyed by Aang because it'd be too dangerous in the wrong hands. At the same time, there are elements that tie in very well with the sequel series, such as Aang's acolytes and the gap between benders and non-benders.

For me, the real sore point is the characters. One of the things I love most about the series is how in every episode, even the most filler ones, they always try to have a main plot that concerns Aang or someone else on the team, and then there are the other characters who always manage to carve out space for themselves. In the movie this doesn't happen. It's no coincidence that I found Aang the most interesting, he is the undisputed protagonist and we have the opportunity to see him change in some ways during the viewing. However, this does not justify the fact that the others on Team Avatar are only there to help Aang and make up the numbers. We see very little of their lives after the end of the war and none of them really have an impact on what happens, in fact, they get defeated by Tagah who even without the scepter seems extremely strong (and it was 4 vs 1). Sokka tries to save himself in the end with his new invention, but in a story where part of the problem is a group of non-benders, it would have been interesting to see him play a more prominent role. The only one more active is Katara, though still in relation to Aang, trying to remind him not to get stuck in the past while preserving the culture of the air nomads. His, in fact, almost becomes an obsession, to the point that he now spends more time in temples than in Republic City which, yes, had been built, but it still needed a lot of work. No wonder his reaction when he finds out he's not actually the last airbender, it's as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. All of this leads us to see a much changed Aang, more mature on the one hand, but also more irresponsible in the way he ends up putting his friends in danger, because finding the scepter would mean easing the guilt Aang still feels for running away after discovering he is the Avatar. And that was done really well in my opinion.

Overall, I feel I'm in the middle. I can say I enjoyed it a lot and will definitely see it again. I was hoping to see the others more involved and to be more engaged in certain scenes instead of asking myself questions (ie. team avatar temporaily dying off screen, aang doing so while being in the avatar state with absolutely no repercussion after). Nonetheless, we deserved to see this film in theaters, because it is truly a feast for the eyes (like Zuko's long loose hair---wait, who said that?).

Paramount, count your days.