Watched the first episode. Visuals are there, acting is not great. It's really hard to judge fairly since the original is so ingrained and it's hewing do close you just sort of miss the stuff that's missing. It's stronger where it's doing all new stuff you have nothing to compare to.
Will keep going.
I'm going to watch, but I don't care all that much. Looks fine, but nothing I've seen, heard, or read has convinced me that it does anything to set itself apart from the OG. It doesn't have to do that to be a worthwhile venture, but it will need to in order to really catch my attention.
third episode and uh, take a shot everytime someone says "save the world". I don't know whether it was that in your face in the og but it sure wasn't this huge elephant in the room that is constantly pushed into your mind like the live action is.
Also I'm really, really sorry but Katara's actress is.....not good. Like at all. She made me miss OG Katara ALOT.
This isn't helped by the fact that every other actor that shares a scene with her outshines her by a mile (except maybe for Aang).
I never liked Avatar. Not my speed. I will say it is interesting to see the dramatic shift. Most of last year, there was excitement. Even after the creators left, there was mostly positivity. Once the actors (and then the producers) said that stuff about Sokka, I notice a shift and a lot of negativity.
That is all it takes for any show or film. Before the project can be released, a comment like that can make many become more critical than they usually are. The psychology behind marketing strategies are crucial. Clear example of goodwill in business. Mess up reputation for something that is already shaky, you speed up the process of something that could have gone either way.
I’m more shocked this live action doesn’t seem to be in the zeitgeist. Maybe I’m imagining things or overfixating on it at the moment, but people don’t seem that interested in the show. Not really seeing it being reviewed by many media YouTubers. Reaction channels don’t seem to be getting the views from the show like others show that have popped off. No big memes or major discussion points have come out from the show. Admittedly it’s only been out for a couple days, but this is feeling dead on arrival. Curious how the fest few weeks’ view count will end up or if the show’s popularity will pick up for some reason down the line, but don’t think it will given what the show provides.
they've made some wrong marketing/publicity moves and have a pretty weak overall marketing compared to say, OPLA.
just off the top of my head.
also i'm almost done but I just have to say this. This feels like a stage play of the original material rather than a good adaptation. This really suffers from the lack of childlike-ness and humor which made the original material charming. It's really weird to see kids being all serious, talking like adults and monks(I know one of them might as well be) in a live action when they should be kids..
The animation benefits from well, being an animation so they can utilize the humor in a more extreme way but that doesn't mean that the live action has to be this...for a lack of a better word, stale. You know, I really hate that I have to keep going to OPLA for comparison (and how it keeps coming up oin my mind) but they did comedy and seriousness right. I don't think it is perfect but it doesn't feel stupid cartoon but rather, fun.
This adaptation, however, is only fun because I have to deliberately try to feel like I'm having fun. Like....will kids even have fun with this? And you can say its for adults who has grew up with it but even then it doesn't seem to be capturing that fun, light heartedness moments, we are on a journey, aspect pretty well.
Like e.g Sokka is the only comic relief around but in the original Aang was also pretty silly. Katara was clumsy and that was funny. Here, Aang's is constantly burdened by his position and rarely messes around, with his only "funny" element being...a kid that does kid stuff for like a second? I don't know how passionate the team behind this is about the source material but I sincerely doubt that they are in anyway more passionate than well, the og creators and the team behind OPLA. I'm sorry to say that.
Azula....could have also been casted better or portrayed in a different direction.
Got through the second episode. Again its hard to judge on its own since its so close to the original, you end up largely noticing what was missing. I'm more and more bothered that Zuko's scar isn't more extreme. His eye isn't half lidded, its not hitting his ear, its just less severe. But limits of LA I suppose.
I liked Sokka and Suki's interactions a lot... and I think if interviews hadn't said beforehand "We're toning down the sexism" and gotten everyone backlashing in advance, no one would have had a problem with it, or even really noticed it was missing. I liked their dynamic. Very little was lost toning that down and them just sort of bonding and vibing in a different way worked, without having to throw Sokka into a dress as a joke.
Aang is being forced to be too serious too much, and I think that's going to keep being the case judging from other comments. A shame.
If I could see this show completely fresh I think I'd like it more. Since all the worldbuilding and characters would be NEW to me instead of something I've already seen and know where every single beat is going. (To offset this they need to do something DRASTICALLY different in season 2 to make it "anything can happen")
Finished episodes 3 and 4.
Overall I'm digging it. Not as much as I would if this was a brand new property to me, but I'm starting to see where its improving on the source a little. Its weakest spots are consistently when it tries to hew exactly to the original show beat for beat, and strongest when its doing its own thing. And Aang is pretty different from his animation counterpart, but he's sweet and nice in different ways.
Well, see how it feels after finishing the season out, halfway there!
@Robby how’d you feel about Bumi’s characterization? He had a whole different arc than what was in the show. You think it the change worked out?
Also, while I like bringing in the stuff with Iroh now, I also think that means they can’t really recreate the story from the Tales of Ba Sing Se since episode 4 covered Iroh’s mourning, but could be wrong. I never saw that making the live action anyways, but it definitely is an iconic moment from the show.
Originally Posted by Nightwing
Stay focused, cause right now you have a decision to make. Are you a man perpetually looking back at what he’s lost, or a man looking forward, to what he might become?
@Gizmo said in Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra:
how’d you feel about Bumi’s characterization? He had a whole different arc than what was in the show. You think it the change worked out?
The show keeps making some interesting creative choices to make itself a little more mature or complex or dark, but then its terrified to move away from the source for more than 2 minutes and rubber bands right back and that's its biggest weakness.
Like great that you got the cabbage merchant into the show, but that's funny because its a cute side gag that keeps happening, and the way he said it... not something you put major focus and a dramatic aerial shot camera pan on. "Aha, we have this fan favorite character and gag teed up, here it goes! Don't miss it!"
The medium change is mostly forcing them to do less filler and make Aang less silly... but they're not really capitalizing on the strengths now available to them in trade which is that they can do acting and emoting now.
Acting improved since the first episode at least.
Had that same problem with cabbage guy. They did the same thing with the Mean Girls 2024 making their callbacks. Stopping the scene to highlight the callback rubbed me the wrong way. But I dunno, seen people really happy with the scene too so guess it’s up to personal tastes there.
By the way everyone, the cabbage merchant gets a shout-out in Baldur's Gate III, and he is especially irritable if you are a Monk.
Just got through episodes 5 and 6.
Shock of shocks, I think I enjoyed this episode and the previous more than in the original series. June has a bit more of a character to her, Ko is actually even more terrifying and creepy than ever, the Aang/Blue Spirit team up was great, Aang's conversation with Zuko had a lot more room to breathe, and as a result I can actually believe these two will get along later, and the expanded version of Zuko's flashback including Azula being there as a witness, and the onebig change from the original
were all improvements.
Letting the fire lord be an actual character instead of just an ominous shadow for two seasons is a huge improvement and really allows improvement in what was already the strongest part of the original.
Still missing bits here and there that were in the original, mostly in the comedy, (and why hasn't Aang practiced ANY waterbending? Just to give Katara more focus and make their different skill sets more clear? They managed to do both in the original) but I'm not missing the slapstick that would be out of place in live action, and I think it's found its tone and struck a really strong balance here. And the acting improved!
I guess in the last two episodes they're hitting up the northern water tribe... and that was such a bonkers thing in the original I'm real curious to see how that goes. But I think the show is justifying itself at this point. It's not better than the original, but it HAS improved on a handful of things, and letting some of the standalone storylines intersect into basically 2 hour movies gives things like Jet and Ko a lot more time to breathe.
Also really curious how they'll handle season 2. Obviously they'll have to introduce Toph and start the Zuko redemption arc, but they already burned through several of the more memorable episodes from that season (like cave of two lovers... which I enjoyed the different context in, almost entirely to throw off old viewers)
watched the first episode, really funny how it's trying to be more adult but expects the viewers to be dumber than the literal children that the animated show was made for.
probably not gonna watch more
Refresh my memory and I can look this up (but laziness) cartoon was 3 seasons?
@Time-Control-Magician yup, the original cartoon was 3 seasons. Plus a bunch of comics that follow the epilogue of the story. Just bringing that up given they might bring some of that into seasons 2 and 3. They did bring in other Avatar related material from other works into season 1 like a Korra plot and some material that’s about the earlier Avatars (Kyoshi and Kuruk)
Finished the Last Airbender live action. (WHich has been renewed for seasons 2 and 3.)
Overall, I liked it. Live action remakes aren't meant for the original audience that's already converted to animation, they're for the new audience that's never seen it, and will never watch a cartoon no matter how many Pixar or Ghibli films you try to throw at them. A good adptation, and there have been a few, tries to keep true to the source material and please the old audience, but it's mostly for the new folks.
Every single negative review Ive seen for the lie action Avatar has been "it's missing this element that I liked, so it's a failure." And every review picks a different thing to be upset about. But they miss that it was extremely loyal (to a fault) and was in fact, a really good adaptation. So if you can go in with that mindset and enjoy it as a new thing, it ain't bad. The big disadvantage is that animation had an infinite budget for locations and special effects, while the live action's advantage was that the characters could act and be subtle, Both different strengths and weaknesses, and while the animation definitely comes out ahead overall, this is by no means the massive failure a lot of people are making it out to be, and was in fact a worthwhile endeavor.
The show is impossible to separate from the original as far as comparisons go. It hews too closely and loyally to the original, so if you've seen the original, you're just too aware of what's missing, and pay less attention to what was added. But what they added was generally good or a very smart addition! Some of the makeup and costume and hair choices demanded to be exactly accurate to the character's look in the animated version, and that was a miss a lot of the time, particularly when they give someone old man makeup or a really strange beard. The acting from the main leads is weak, but they're kids. It is what it is.
Some of the plots they remixed from the original so there were actually surprises because the ending had a different twist. They've pulled in material from the later seasons and comics so the world is built out a little more lore wise, which balances out that they couldn't do as many episodic one-offs. SInce they've already burned through a bit of season 2 material I'm real curious to see if they make more drastic changes later.
But whenever the show did it's own thing or added to a scene, it was solid. The fact that episodes were an hour, and the nature of big budget tv filming meant most of them were two parters (and had to create sets that they can reuse down the road) meant there were a lot of things that had more time to breathe. The secondary characters in particular benefited from this, though the main characters did not. Jet, Suki,, the bounty hunter woman Juhn, and the stupid fiance in the northern water tribe Hahn, were all much better served by the new format and not being made to do stupid jokes. That they toned down the comedy was actually a good thing, a lot of the jokes from animation would have played poorly in live action... SOkka's sarcasm still works as comic relief without making goofy faces. Characters are actually allowed to die, and not just off-screen, so the war and threat have some actual stakes.
The effects were generally good but the infinite freedom of animation obviously wins out there. Appa and Momo in particular were misses. They were there, and looked fine, but the limits of CG meant they didn't have big parts and weren't nearly as omni-present as they should be. In particular Momo seemed to just disappear for multiple episodes and just reappeared for a scene in the last episode that was very out of place and un-earned, that would have worked as a constant presence annoying Sokka, but didn't really work when they hadn't interacted in six episodes.
Aang is a very different character than he was originally, and that's okay, its a different interpretation. If you want him to be a complete idiot ignoring the state of the world while he goes around riding penguins and chasing giant dragons to surf on... that's just not here. He's was more serious and mature, and those things would have cost effects budget. He grew on me by the end.
Katara is still Katara. If you compare here scene for scene you'll find stuff missing and maybe find her lacking, but she felt the same to me. And her payoff in the season finale was great, a huge step up from what she had before.
A lot has been made of the fact that "they removed Sokka's sexism arc!" Folks, he was sexist for two minutes and 48 seconds in one early episode of the original show, as the C plot of that episode, and then he wore a dress, got over it and it never came up again. That wasn't a character arc, that was a one episode joke. If it hadn't come out in interviews beforehand that it was gone, NO ONE would have noticed because they replaced it with something better. The chemistry Sokka and Suki had here instead was way better than in the animated version. I never ever got them as a couple in the old show and here I totally do.
The fire nation stuff was generally better than the original. Iroh and Zuko are great. Hindsight means they could introduce Azula and her gang early (though Azula doesn't feel quite right and we didn't get enough of Mai and Tai Lee to really judge them) , and the firelord not just being a faceless threat for the first 50 episodes means he gets to be an actual CHARACTER this time, vast improvement. The way Zuko and Aang actually interacted, because they had time to breathe in the hour format, makes me actually believe they can be friends later, that Aang can clearly see there's more there and that Zuko isn't just evil. Iroh is a lot more nuanced. The downlplaying of the comedy serves him well, he's not just the goofy tea guy 24/7 now that makes sexual advances on the bounty hunter. Iroh's not just silly old man he was before, he actually comes off as the wise warrior he's supposed to be. And one episode pulled a change with Zuko's troops that was magnificent. They went from being nameless fodder troops in the animated version, to character I hope somehow stick around and come back the whole way through. MASSIVE improvement there.
Overall, I liked it. Am I filling in gaps that it's missing because I've seen the original? I dunno, and its 20 years too late to make that call. Would I have liked it less if I'd never seen the original? Or would I have fallen in love with this new world and all this mythology and characters with nothing to compare it to? I don't know. But it was a worthwhile effort and I'm curious to see where it goes.
@Robby said in Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra:
A lot has been made of the fact that "they removed Sokka's sexism arc!" Folks, he was sexist for two minutes and 48 seconds in one early episode of the original show, as the C plot of that episode, and then he wore a dress, got over it and it never came up again. That wasn't a character arc, that was a one episode joke. If it hadn't come out in interviews beforehand that it was gone, NO ONE would have noticed because they replaced it with something better. The chemistry Sokka and Suki had here instead was way better than in the animated version. I never ever got them as a couple in the old show and here I totally do.
I didn’t realize how stupid the discourse of this was until I saw some grumbling over it’s exclusion on Anime News Network.
And the fact that I barely remember this being integral part of Sokka’s character despite catching many episodes in rerun before watching pretty much the entire show from start to finish a few years back.
Shows how much impact in had. Not to mention of all the character traits to give a character that you’re then going to attempt to better them with why would you give a character “sexism” as a trait especially in series where a substantial portion of the main and supporting cast are female including said characters’ sister?
It's fine for a character to have flaws and be bad and then grow and change to be better. That's absolutely what a character arc is, and that makes a compelling character. Some of the best protagonists, or most interesting characters to watch, are incredibly flawed and messed up. ANd if Sokka had that attitude for half the first season, or if he was just ALWAYS an asshole, and they didn't meet the Kyoshi warriors until episode 10 I'd understand people being upset aboutthe sexism being taken out.
It was never about Sokka being sexist, it was about Sokka having insecurities. Because in the first episode it wasn't about Katara being a girl, but about her doing that weird water thing. He called Aang a weirdo too and was completely not cool with Appa, and the actual arc point that carried though the series is that he felt he was the weak link in a team of benders, that he wasn't a warrior his family could be proud of. (That carried to the episode with Bato and the rafting test, and later to when he searched out a sword master... down to being proud about his boomerang skills). Sokka was insecure and that was his actual throughline and character arc... |i'm just the planning and meat guy" and THAT is still in the live action. Even more so.
And they still got to adress the sexist issues when they got to the north, they just let an old guy make those sexist arguments and Katara still stood up for herself.
As is, this time around, when Sokka put on the Kyoshi warrior uniform, it actually felt respectful. When they put him in the full makeup and dress, and someone confused him for girl, that was a table turn that was just making fun of him instead. That's not "respect this combat style" that's "be humiliated until you accept that this is better" and that's just... I dunno. It feels much weaker to me now that we've seen the other way to approach it.
I never questioned the "put the Sokka in a dress" gag before BECAUSE it was such a quick, minor C plot of a thing. Here's the character flaw, here's the moral that girls can be tough too, the end. But now that there's been heavy active discussion about it and I've had to actually think about it? I like the live action's handling way better.
Is he the one that insisted it be more like Game of Thrones?
He was the one that said the Game of Thrones quote, I don’t have a feel about what ideas were his vs others.
Didn’t realize he was staying as executive producer though. And the new showrunners that are stepping up were also part of the season 1 team so actually I dunno if this is a big change after all.
