It’s been a while since I sat down and took the time to write a review about something I watched. What’s a better project to discuss than Netflix’s live action Avatar the Last Airbender? With its 2009 hit animated predecessor and, uh, failed live action movie attempt that we must never speak of, taking on such a beloved story of this magnitude isn’t an easy task and like with all adaptations, has its ups and downs.
When Netflix announced a live action of Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender back in 2018, it’s not hard to believe the amount of eyebrows that were raised over the idea alone. Not everything needs a live action and while I did and still do agree with this I’ll admit that I was one of those people who raised their eyebrow when the announcement was made. Many of us fans had been burned before by the cursed movie that we never talk about and it would’ve been a tragedy to see it fail once again. “There is no movie in Ba Sing Se” as the saying amongst fans goes. Many of us were a little unsure of how a live action would even work considering the creators backed out of the project pretty early on (which I think was the final nail in the coffin for a lot of people) but unlike many, I kept an open mind. I stayed up to date with the casting news. Behind the scenes (which were scarce during the time of filming considering it was during covid) but I remained optimistic about it as time went on while avoiding all the negativity surrounding the show which yes, I am well aware of one particular incident that I won’t be discussing here so you can look it up for yourself. Aside from that, I remained hopeful that finally we’d get a semi faithful adaptation (and for those who are wondering: they pronounce Aang’s name right this time. None of this “Ong” bologna. Whatever that was).
I’ll sing the usual praises where praise is due: costumes, CGI and casting were spot on with Gordon Cormier being the breakout star for me. Becoming the Avatar isn’t an easy task and those are pretty big shoes to fill. He embodies Aang’s youthfulness and childlike wonder while also capturing his hesitation to embrace his role as the Avatar as well as carrying the immense guilt of losing everyone he loved 100 years ago. Alongside the praises there are some wrinkles that I do think the show needs to iron out. Some of the acting felt a bit stiff (Katara especially. She didn’t have anywhere near as much personality as she did in the cartoon) and the writing/line delivery fell a little flat but I do think that with season two that the writers will have hopefully taken the constructive comments into consideration and the cast will have honed their skills and understand their characters a bit more.
Naturally with any live actions there will be criticisms (some being more extreme than others but that’s just people picking things apart when there’s nothing there to pick). No adaptation is the carbon copy of its original content. That’s not what an adaptation is. With Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender it was clear that the show had to change some things up a little to attract new viewers. While the plot may remain the same, viewers familiar with the cartoon may notice that Netflix cut out a lot of the trio’s adventure in order to fit the 8 episode slot. Or that the showrunners changed Sozin’s Comet from arriving within a year to match the fact that the kids are growing quickly, Gordon especially, who grew nearly a whole foot since filming ended and his voice dropped. The script was a little “meh” alongside with some of the costumes/wigs but hopefully with these criticisms, the writers and crew will take them into consideration and improve them for the next season.
By the time this is posted (and I know I’m a little late to the party), the show has announced a second and third season to conclude the story just as the animation did. I’m very interested to see the changes and improvements that they implement as well as see how they wrap it all up.
Avatar: The Last Airbender is available to stream now on Netflix.
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