J.C. Reviews: The Last Airbender – Not the Best Re-Incarnation of Avatar
by James Coulter
Long ago (specifically, in 2005), an animated series was released on Nickelodeon called Avatar: The Last Airbender. The cartoon was praised for its stunning action, dynamic characters, a masterful balance of comedy and drama, and a compelling storyline that tackled serious topics and spanned three seasons.
Then, everything changed when M. Night Shyamalan attacked! (Or rather, directed a lukewarm live-action movie adaptation in 2010.)
Since then, the Avatar franchise has attempted to regain its glory with the spin-off animated series Legend of Korra, a series of comic books, and three planned animated movies.
Now, more than a decade after the last attempt to adapt the animated series into live action, a new live-action series has been produced on Netflix, which recently released the first season out of three. But will this series make up for the mistakes of the past? Or is it doomed to repeat it?
The Last Airbender takes place in a fantasy world of four nations, each based on the elements of earth, fire, water, and air. Peace among the nations is maintained by the Avatar, a savior figure who is constantly re-incarnated to help maintain balance among the elements.
Then everything changed when the fire nation attacked!
The Fire Lord, leader of the Fire Nation, attacks the Air Nomads to kill off the next incarnation of the Avatar and to ensure victory in his quest for world domination.
Nealy 100 years pass, and a young airbender named Aang is found frozen in ice. This boy is none other than the fabled Avatar, and he must now set off on a quest to master the other three elements to defeat the Fire Nation. With his new friends, Sokka and Katara, will Aang succeed in his mission to master the four elements and restore peace to this war-torn world?
I fondly remember watching the original animated series during my college years. I consider it one of my favorite cartoons of all times—if not the best! I also remember watching the live-action movie in 2010, and while I didn’t hate it, I was still disappointed with how poorly the animated series was translated into a live-action film.
I will give the new Netflix live-action series credit: it’s not as bad as the 2010 live-action movie. That’s not a compliment. Being better than the worse thing ever is not a goal. It is the bare basic minimum. While the live-action series doesn’t get everything wrong about the cartoon like the movie did, that doesn’t make the new series better or even good.
As with most fantasy-based shows, the visuals are phenomenal. The VFX team evidently placed a lot of effort into making the various settings and locations within the animated world of Avatar look true to life in this live-action adaptation. And many of the characters resemble their animated counterparts, almost as if these characters have stepped out of the cartoon and into the real world.
Another admittedly “good” aspect are “some” of the changes this adaptation made with the original source material. Rather than simply film a scene-by-scene recreation of the original animated series, the live-action Airbender takes a few creative liberties to better flesh out some characters and help blend multiple story arcs from the 20-episode first season of the animated series and condense them into eight episodes. As such, The Last Airbender almost feels like the live-action One Piece series in that it tries to be its own story rather than simply retelling an old one.
The key word there is “some.” Because as stunning as the characters and their setting look in live-action, most of their acting, especially that of the child actors, comes across as rather flat and wooden–almost as if these characters were fleshed out into three dimensions but their actual characters were reduced to one. If anything, the animated characters feel more “animated” and “lively” that the real-life human beings playing them in live action.
And while some of the changes are understandable and even commendable, most of the other changes do a real disservice to the original series. For example, in the cartoon, Aang the Avatar starts out as an immature child (because he is) who cares more about having fun but through the series learns to take his responsibility as the Avatar more seriously. In the live-action series, Aang already takes his role as Avatar seriously and cares more about fulfilling his duty than having fun. As such, his character development from the animated series is lost.
Another annoying change is with Sokka. In the original cartoon, Sokka is a sarcastic wisecracker who considers himself all that with a bag of chips. He’s also a real misogynist who believes men are tougher than women, and it’s only after he gets his butt kicked by some tough women that he learns to humble himself and accept women as equally capable as men. The live-action series ditches his sexism, and so goes another motivation for character development.
Overall, I’d recommend watching the original Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series. The cartoon is currently streaming on Netflix, and it still holds up even after two decades. Sadly, the new live-action series, much like the live-action film before it, feels like a hollow imitation that makes the characters and story feel flatter and less two-dimensional than the actual cartoon it’s based on.
