New Live-Action Remake Barely Masters any of the Elements
New adaptation of beloved cartoon ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ doesn’t hold up to expectations.
By Saya Fujii
New adaptation of beloved cartoon ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ doesn’t hold up to expectations.
By Saya Fujii
There was always only one bad “Avatar: The Last Airbender” adaptation. Then, everything changed when the fire nation attacked (again).
Netflix’s live-action adaptation of the original, animated, “Avatar: The Last Airbender” follows the original story as closely as possible, re-introducing fans to Avatar Aang and taking us into his journey to master all four elements to end the war the Fire Nation had started 100 years prior.
The creation of the show itself annoys me because the money could be put into something else that fans actually want, like a spin-off on the old avatars or a show about the comic books that have been released. I get that in this case, it was partly because the 2010 live-action movie was terrible, but maybe we should just take that as a sign to move on.
Early on in the show, I noticed that it was going in a more serious direction which I was not really a fan of. A big part of what makes the animated show great is the charm it has and the funny scenes, some of which are because it has that anime-style animation. Since the new series is live-action and follows the story closely, it is hard for it to be funny because it can’t change the proportions of a character’s face for comedy or repeat the same jokes. But not only did it remove most of the comedy, the charm and lightheartedness is also really lacking. Everything is made out to be so much darker and unhappier, perhaps with the exception of Aang’s character (Gordon Cormier), who keeps the show’s depressing energy from dipping to a painfully low level. I can tell that Cormier is giving his full effort to the role despite the cheesy tendencies of live-action scripts masquerading as a high-quality, original creation. I will say that the casting is decent, though, because the actors seem to fit their roles, especially Ian Ousley as Sokka and Cormier as Aang. After several episodes, though, I was not a fan of Elizabeth Yu as Azula and Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Iroh. Yu does not have the straight-up evil face Azula always wears and Lee does not carry the cheery, adorable-old-man disposition that fan-favorite Uncle Iroh has.
Overall the acting is just okay, but it is partially held back by the lifeless and rushed writing, hardly giving characters the depth they need and instead trying to get to major plot points. I will say, though, that this ensemble is a huge step up from Shyamalan’s movie adaptation. However, there is really no point in comparing these two as nothing can get much worse than the mess he created.
Aside from the letdown that is the execution of the characters and plot, the production design, costumes and visual effects were great. Seeing the Air Nomads in its entirety was really cool, and Earth Kingdom was even more grand. If turning this into live-action had one purpose, it was to build some incredible sets, because these were truly a sight to see. The costumes, similarly, were impressive and very accurate to the animated series. The attention to detail stood out, clearly trying its best to capture these characters. Unfortunately, that was a very one-sided effort and the standard it set was not matched by the writers.
But at the end of the day, designs and effects are the accessories for highlighting the story and its characters, so if those areas are bland in the first place, accessories hardly serve any purpose.
All episodes of the first season of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” are now streaming on Netflix.
Netflix’s live-action adaptation of the original, animated, “Avatar: The Last Airbender” follows the original story as closely as possible, re-introducing fans to Avatar Aang and taking us into his journey to master all four elements to end the war the Fire Nation had started 100 years prior.
The creation of the show itself annoys me because the money could be put into something else that fans actually want, like a spin-off on the old avatars or a show about the comic books that have been released. I get that in this case, it was partly because the 2010 live-action movie was terrible, but maybe we should just take that as a sign to move on.
Early on in the show, I noticed that it was going in a more serious direction which I was not really a fan of. A big part of what makes the animated show great is the charm it has and the funny scenes, some of which are because it has that anime-style animation. Since the new series is live-action and follows the story closely, it is hard for it to be funny because it can’t change the proportions of a character’s face for comedy or repeat the same jokes. But not only did it remove most of the comedy, the charm and lightheartedness is also really lacking. Everything is made out to be so much darker and unhappier, perhaps with the exception of Aang’s character (Gordon Cormier), who keeps the show’s depressing energy from dipping to a painfully low level. I can tell that Cormier is giving his full effort to the role despite the cheesy tendencies of live-action scripts masquerading as a high-quality, original creation. I will say that the casting is decent, though, because the actors seem to fit their roles, especially Ian Ousley as Sokka and Cormier as Aang. After several episodes, though, I was not a fan of Elizabeth Yu as Azula and Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Iroh. Yu does not have the straight-up evil face Azula always wears and Lee does not carry the cheery, adorable-old-man disposition that fan-favorite Uncle Iroh has.
Overall the acting is just okay, but it is partially held back by the lifeless and rushed writing, hardly giving characters the depth they need and instead trying to get to major plot points. I will say, though, that this ensemble is a huge step up from Shyamalan’s movie adaptation. However, there is really no point in comparing these two as nothing can get much worse than the mess he created.
Aside from the letdown that is the execution of the characters and plot, the production design, costumes and visual effects were great. Seeing the Air Nomads in its entirety was really cool, and Earth Kingdom was even more grand. If turning this into live-action had one purpose, it was to build some incredible sets, because these were truly a sight to see. The costumes, similarly, were impressive and very accurate to the animated series. The attention to detail stood out, clearly trying its best to capture these characters. Unfortunately, that was a very one-sided effort and the standard it set was not matched by the writers.
But at the end of the day, designs and effects are the accessories for highlighting the story and its characters, so if those areas are bland in the first place, accessories hardly serve any purpose.
All episodes of the first season of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” are now streaming on Netflix.