Avatar: The Last Airbender 

Avatar: The Last Airbender 🌀

The highly anticipated release of Netflix’s live-action adaption of the beloved animated series, Avatar: The Last Airbender has arrived.

As someone who never watched the original animated series, only casually knowing the source material through what I’ve seen online and the M. Night Shyamalan Avatar (2011) movie - you should take everything I say with a grain of salt.

The story follows the Four Nations of Air, Water, Earth, and Fire who have been at odds for over a century.

As the Fire Nation continues their conquest for power and complete dominance over the other three nations, the only remaining member of the Air Nation wakes from his 100-year frozen slumber, bringing new hope to the waging war.

There are some stories that should remain animated, this is one of them.

It’s unfortunate but there are some things you can only capture through animation, that when done in live-action just comes across as glorified cosplay larpers.

Star Wars had this issue going into the sequel trilogy where they double downed on using practical effects after the hatred they received for the prequels, and then we have something like this that goes the opposite way by creating a hollow feeling world of visibly noticeable green screens and CGI.

I think both cases can learn from each other, where a healthy dose of practical and CGI can give you the authenticity and tangibility of a fantasy world - which this did not.

That’s where I’d give credit to the fairly criticized Avatar movie from 2011. It was able to utilize the four elements in a way that felt natural, and not awkward in comparison to the characters wielding their Bending powers.

The most annoying part of this series for me was the exhausting amount of wink-wink moments that were signalling to the viewer “look we’re doing the thing from the animated series!” losing the organic feeling that would’ve come from naturally letting those moments play out.

I would say the one thing that got better as the series went along were the performances by the young actors.

It took them a few episodes for them to get into their groove but when they did it became less like a Disney channel original movie, and more like the grand fantasy adventure that was to be expected.

This might work more for a younger audience who didn’t grow up with the animated series, and for those that can turn a blind eye to the uninspired use of CGI. Unfortunately, I am neither.

Enjoy!

5/10 🍿 🎥

Runtime: 60mins
Episodes: 8

Avatar: The Last Airbender Review (2024) - February 22nd, 2024.

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