Avatar last Airbender is one of those incredible fantasy stories that lingers through the ages. The story started clandestinely as a Nickelodeon cartoon but has amassed a massive fan base around the world.
Making a live action series for the animation was never going to be easy. Generally speaking, live actions of animations are very difficult to execute and whenever an attempt is made, I like to give plaudits to the efforts.
The execution of the Avatar last Airbender series live action series was always going to be an uphill battle. There are so many facets of the animation that simply cannot be captured into 8 episodes.
The fact is, live action adapted series will always pale in comparison to the animation or game and that is okay. There's just so much you can do in an animation that you cannot execute in live adaptation.
The ringer estimates that the entire budget for the series was around $120 million. Considering we had 8 episodes of around 50 minutes per episode, I'd say that's fair value for money.
As a fan of the cartoon series, I was always going to be immersed in the storyline and take mental notes of similarities between the live action and the cartoon. Overall, I'm pleased to say that just like my review of House of Ninja, this would appeal to Anime nerds more than "objective movie critics".
The likeness and Graphics
The first thing fans of the cartoon series will notice is the likeness of the live action to the source. For that, I reckon the producers did a great job.
Considering how limited of a budget the series had, I'll go as far as saying they exceeded my expectation. There wasn't any A-list actor in the series but that's okay as it really doesn't matter much to the actual story.
As far as I know, all the main characters from the animation were properly depicted and dramatized by the actors. It wasn't perfect in all situations but it was fair
General Iroh and Boomy, the king of Omashu, for example had minor kinks in their design that could be ironed out, while the actor that played Azula just didn't have the sinister aura of the source. However, overall, I'd say it was excellent work.
The CGI wasn't great but that's just about what you can expect from such a limited budget. Overall, I don't think there's any need to be overly critical of the quality of the graphics.
I think the most difficult part for the graphics team would be dramatizing earth bending. Fire, water and air are elements that exist on their own, so there's no environmental effect. Earth bending is complicated.
Earth bending requires the individual to literally pull out boulders and soil out of the ground. So, technically, whenever an Earth bender fights, there'd be holes in the ground. I reckon dramatizing something like that would be a hassle and with that budget, it is just not possible.
If you're watching or watched as a "neutral" it is important to remember that this is a live action dramatization of a kids show, so the earth bending "plot hole" wasn't an issue in the animation.
Plot
There's not much to say about the plot and that is actually a good thing. The original lore was hardly tampered with and there weren't any unnecessary dramatization.
Every single event from the source material was captured. However, there were minor tweaks to how the event transpired.
For example, Iroh reminding Zuko to use his breath of fire, Sokka's numerous flings and the events at the North pole were among the bits that were tweaked. However, all the main points of the story were identical to the source material.
I am trying not to post "spoilers" but virtually everyone knows how the story goes. Oh and just in case you're wondering, the first season only captures events of the first season of the animation, so everything was shoehorned into 8 episodes.
Overall, I'd give the show a solid 4/5 for excellent casting, makeup and sticking within reasonable bounds of the source material. The graphics weren't too quality but that's an issue with the budget and there was cringe scenes that I reckon are either because of poor acting skills of the actors or because I'm a grown up watching a live action of a kids' series.
I had to rewatch a few episodes of the animation just to remember the story. I still haven't seen the live-action yet but I know it won't suck so much. Your review makes me more certain I'll be able to stand it.
It's actually not bad
I can't lie...I enjoyed it. It's Belemos review that giving me any reason to see anything wrong with it
Just minor issues . Gave it a 4/5 because I think it was great
I watched some reviews that pointed out some major issues...but I still enjoyed myself but compared to the original... its more of a 3
Yeah. It is worth a watch, honestly.
hello. yesterday i finished watching this series the truth is that it is good i liked the actors. but i think it lacks those jokes on the part of the avatar boy i thought it looked very serious.
Yeah you're right. There's just so much you can do in a live action. Watching humans do some of the clowny things might not really be funny.
I think this remake stayed behind compared to the animation regarding the treatment of some characters and the plot, but visually it delivers. Interesting review by the way!
Oh yeah, it is impossible to match up to the source material
I like this a lot.
I watched it while I was ill and I just wanted to get my mind off things and it served that purpose. I started rewatching it to pick out details.
That "my cabbages!" Part was my favorite in the cartoon and in the movie...I hope that's not the corny part of the movie you're talking about.
I'm also considering how I'll get you to write my IELTS exam because your English be like who go get top score.
I'm glad they didn't over do the whole cabbages thing but they slid it in for effects. I think he moved his business to Ba Sing Se, so we will see a bit more of it.
Yeah. What did you think about the fact that they took away the avatar's ability to be a natural when it comes to Water bending and gave it to Katara? She also does not have that distinct caregiver of the team that she had in the original story
From your response here I was just thinking about seeing this movie
To be honest, I was satisfied with this. I didn’t expect too much from it considering how the live action movie went and just like you said, there’s a limit to what you can do with humans.
I feel like those who are overly critical about this are those who expected it to be word for word, probably exactly like how the cartoons went. A few tweaks can be done to the characters but overall, I agree with your review 😇🔥
Spot on mate. I'm glad you agree with my review. Live actions are very difficult to execute
I’m happy I read an excellent review.
Hopefully, we don’t have to wait too long for the book 2 😅
I was thinking the same. It would be torture to have to wait too long