Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender

• Directed by Lauren Montgomery
• July 24, 2026 (San Diego Comic-Con) / July 25, 2026 (Paramount+)
• Based on the 2005 to 2008 animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender created by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino

Voice Cast

• Avatar Aang-Eric Nam
• Tagah-Dave Bautista
• Sokka-Román Zaragoza
• Toph Beifong-Dionne Quan
• Fire Lord Zuko-Steven Yeun
• Kallik-Geraldine Viswanathan
• Fire Nation Messenger-Ronny Chieng
• The Cabbage Merchant-Ken Jeong
• Appa, Momo-Dee Bradley Baker
• Avatar Sonam-Freida Pinto
• Avatar Xian-Ke Huy Quan
• Jie-Peta Sergeant
• Roku-Keone Young

Team Avatar finds a surviving ancient airbender and join in his search for an airbending staff to bring back the Air Nomads.

The animated Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender was set to be a theatrical release before it was bumped to Paramount+. After watching I can understand why. The high-quality look of the original series animation is present here. Avatar Aang is stunning and conveys the beauty and grandeur of the Avatar world. While a beautiful looking film, that is ALL it is.

Aang is distraught over the genocide of his people. The movie opens with him collecting whatever relics and written works he can find and bringing them to an Air temple. That’s when he’s attacked by a group of non-benders calling themselves ‘The Denied’ who seek to steal a relic of Avatar Sonam that contains a map to a magic staff which can give them all bending powers.

Cool battle scene but once I had a moment to think I had some questions. Like how did The Denied know Aang had the staff? How do they know it was in that idol? It felt a little contrived that they just happened to know. A line where they just missed buying it or whatever would’ve been acceptable. Something to explain what led them to Aang.

It is shortly after this that Aang and pals encounter an ancient airbender named Tagah who is found atop a mountain in a state not too dissimilar to that of Aang was when found. I think it was obvious from the first few seconds who the main villain of this movie was going to be. A new air bender comes on the scene? Add in within a few seconds of being introduced to the rest of the group he displays bigotry and even clenches his fist in a moment the camera makes sure we do not miss. This may be a movie but put in a little effort!

The Denied and Tagah lack any real depth, imagination, or complexity. Tagah stands out not because of anything interesting but because he is a single purveyor of actions. There are several Denied characters, but I could not tell you much about them beyond them wanting bending powers and the one cliché that does not really want to go along.

All are after a magic staff that connects to the spirit world that can grant people bending powers. Aang wants it to make more airbenders. Tagah wants it to make more airbenders and establish an airbender empire. The Denied are upset over the war and now that it is over want powers. Not during but after. The world looks unusually stable at this point so why the fear? You are in an era of unprecedented peace!

The voice work leaves a little something to be desired. It’s bland and lifeless with the actors doing almost nothing in the way of expression. Dave Bautista voices the new mysterious character and he sounds like Thomas Haden Church phoning it in. I really thought that’s who it was until I looked at the voice cast. I am not dissing Church. I am dissing a lazy Bautista!

Bautista gave no life to the character of Tagah. It was little better than a line reading for most of the film. Voice acting requires you to make the character with your words alone. Either Bautista could not or would not. Then again most of the other actors didn’t really try. Not sure if any are professional voice actors but those that are not certainly make a case against using those that are not.

I had been kind of looking forward to Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender. I was curious to see something new in the lives of the Avatar characters. Yet I felt nothing watching this. No excitement. No nostalgia. This was just an exercise in animated filmmaking. It checked off some boxes and called it a day. Nothing special. My view of this falls somewhere between dislike and indifference. I just didn’t care about anything that happened. There are no stakes by having the events genuinely impact the characters.

This had style that is often lacking in animation today. It was not overly stylized or simplistic in appearance, but that did not help it to become a good film. There is always a need for a good script and this did not have one. I knew where this story was going shortly after it started. That in addition to lazy performances made this a waste of my time.

After watching I found myself impressed by the visuals and underwhelmed by the story of Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender. It wasn’t nostalgic comfort food. It was a predictable exercise with just about every bit telegraphed. Keep the memories of the original series.