‘The Legend of Korra’ (2012), the sequel series to the critically acclaimed ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ (2005), has officially received an order for 26 more episodes from Nickelodeon. The show’s huge viewership and steady ratings through season one, which premiered April 14, 2012, encouraged the Nickelodeon executives to give it another shot.

The new order for episodes will be in addition to the 14-episode second season, which is set to premiere some time in 2013. The creators of ‘Korra’ held a panel at San Diego Comic Con on July 13 where they showcased new character models and backgrounds for the upcoming season. The cast and crew for ‘Korra’ also showed up to answer questions and sign autographs for excited fans.

‘Korra’ tells the story of the 17-year-old Korra (Janet Varney), the new Avatar following Aang. It takes place seventy years in the future as she has learned to master earthbending, waterbending, and firebending, but needs to learn airbending to become a completely realized Avatar. Aang’s eldest son, Tenzin (J.K. Simmons), was set to teach her airbending, but he is called away to Republic City, a large city riddled with crime and tension between the benders and non-benders. Impatient, Korra follows him to the city and gets into trouble, but through her determination, Tenzin decides to let her stay at the airbending temple with his family and start her training.

However, Korra has a difficult time understanding that airbending requires patience, peace, and repetition. She feels frustrated with her inability to airbend and her isolation on the island. She sneaks out one night after listening to a pro-bending match. Pro-bending is a competition where benders compete to knock each other out of a ring and Korra finds herself in love with the sport.

She bumps into Bolin (P.J. Byrne), an earthbender for the Fire Ferrets, and he invites her to watch the match. Bolin’s brother, Mako (David Faustino), assumes Korra is just another one of Bolin’s many fangirls and treats her coldly until he realizes she is the Avatar. Soon afterward, their third team member quits and Korra volunteers to take his spot so the Fire Ferrets can compete in the championship tournament.

Tenzin discovers that Korra is playing in the arena and demands that she return home, but she refuses. She struggles to stay on her feet in the match, but then she remembers Tenzin’s training and eventually helps the team win. After seeing her improvement and her zest for probending, Tenzin agrees to let her stay on the team.

The main plot of ‘Korra’ is centered around the tension between benders and non-benders in Republic City. A mysterious masked man named Amon (Steve Blum) appears and claims that he and his followers, the Equalists, will stand up for non-benders. He demonstrates that he has the ability to remove a person’s bending, thus becoming a threat to all the benders in the city.

Furthermore, Councilman Tarrlok (Dee Bradley Baker), wants to hunt Amon down and secure himself as the savior of Republic City in the meantime. He and Korra butt heads repeatedly because of his misuse of the police force and blatant manipulation of Chief Lin Bei Fong (Mindy Sterling), daughter of Toph.

The 12-episode season ended June 23, 2012 and fans are still reeling from the action-packed, emotional roller coaster the show put them on. The season finale was one of the highest rated and widely watched shows on that Saturday morning and contributed greatly to the decision to order more episodes.

‘Korra’ is expected to return with a 14-episode second season some time in 2013. Don’t miss it.

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Wondering what action movie to see this summer? Consider Colombiana, an action/adventure starring Zoe Saldana as a young woman who witnessed both of her parents murder by the mob when she was nine years old. Similar to Angelina Jolie’s character in Wanted, she grows up to be a “stone-cold” assassin, embarking on a fifteen year journey to hunt down the mobster responsible for her parents murders and achieve vengeance. During this time, she works for her uncle as a hit(wo)man by day, and come nightfall she becomes a rogue killer. Responsible for over 22 deaths within four years, she is getting closer to her target and, typical of Saldana, is looking good while doing it.

As its name indicates, the film is set in Bogota, Colombia, though it is filmed in throughout the United States, Mexico and Paris studios. With a focus on Latin America, many message boards are questioning the stereotypes which may arise due to the setting in Latin American culture. The murder and expected drug use–along with the common misconception that Bogota is located in a tropical jungle when it apparently has a more similar climate to Chicago, rarely reaching above 65 degrees Fahrenheit– has many Colombian natives questioning the authenticity. One blogger wrote, “I just hope to find in this movie at least some slight interest on the true Colombia, and not some pretension of creating a Latin Lara Croft raised in a non-existing and decontextualized Bogota.” With a looped tagline in the trailer of “Never forget where you came from,” will the movie live up to a higher standard?

Directed by Olivier Megaton and produced by Luc Besson, the French pair will take on the challenge. Megaton is best known for Transformers 3 (2008), though some would argue that it was their least favorite installment of the series. In addition, Transformers 3 is his only English-language film to date, making for some speculation amongst movie goers if he will be able to deliver.

However, teamed up with mega-producer Luc Besson the odds are looking quite likely. Besson wrote and directed the 1990 box office hit Nikita, which was focused around a femme fatale assassin. He is also responsible for other action films, such as The Fifth Element and Taken, making him a veteran of putting action and powerful female characters onto the screen.

To add to the hype is Saldana herself, who has become cinema’s “bad ass female” through her roles in the highly acclaimed Avatar and Star Trek. Present in a wave of action heroines, Saldana continues to hold her role as a sexually empowered and machine gun wielding vigilante, prevailing above whoever has done wrong until personal justice is achieved. Will she help make Colombiana a box office hit that stays true to Colombian culture, while asserting her presence as a femme fatale?

The article Colombiana, Saldana Back on The Screen as Another Femme Fatale appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.