The original animated series about Avatar Aang, which aired on Nickelodeon, is considered a modern classic. It’s hard to find a person who doesn’t sincerely love it. At the same time, Avatar hasn’t turned into a big franchise, and there are relatively few separate works based on it. «Avatar: The Last Airbender» is Netflix’s attempt to transfer the canons and the best elements of the original into a live-action series. In our review, we tell you how this attempt turned out.
Pluses:
overall designs and CGI moments; well-adapted magic and cast; flirtation with the wuxia genre; generally respectful attitude to the canons of the animated series
Minuses:
almost every element has its unpleasant «but»; the series still loses to the animated series in everything; some moments are adapted in such a way that when watching, questions to the script remain
«Avatar: The Last Airbender»
Genre adventures
Director Michael Goy, Rosanna Liang
Starring Gordon Cormier, Chiaventio Tarbell, Ian Usley, Dallas Liu, Daniel De Kim, Paul Sung-Hyun Lee
Premiere Netflix
Year of release 2024
Website IMDb
The plot revolves around the boy Aang (Gordon Cormier), the last representative of the airbenders. All the others were destroyed by the Fire Nation, which is waging a war of aggression against humanity. Aang has been frozen for a hundred years, so he knows almost nothing about the new circumstances of the world. The boy also has the gift of the Avatar, which allows him to use all the elements. But first he needs to master his abilities. After all, they can put an end to the tyranny of the Fire Nation.
The West has already tried to transfer «Avatar» to a live-action format. That’s how we got «The Last Airbender» by M. Night Shyamalan. This is a very specific movie that spoils the feature-length format. After all, the story of «Avatar» is filled with nuances and details that form its charm. You shouldn’t rush to see it.
Netflix’s «Avatar» is much better at this. However, don’t think that the series adapts the animated series one to one. It has its own freedoms and creative changes. They are not entirely critical and are made to make it easier for newcomers to watch. But if you remember the original, you will realize that some important moments are missing here.
The problem is that all the changes that are supposed to make the series easier to understand don’t quite work. You can see how the adaptation still depends very much on knowledge of the original work. If this is your first encounter with «Avatar», it’s better to have a friend with you while watching who can explain all the problematic moments.
On the other hand, longtime fans may be offended by the portrayal of certain characters and moments. Of course, no one forced Netflix to reproduce the original source material as accurately as possible. But some changes are made in a way that spoils the viewing experience. Some things were not explained, some things were not revealed, some changed scenes are not as impressive. This does not mean that all of this is outright bad. It’s just that the original was significantly better, that’s all.
At the same time, there are almost no questions about the technical side of the adaptation. The designs and CGI are top-notch. This is especially true for different cities. The surroundings of the East are realized as well as possible. The only thing that might be criticized is the costumes, but even that is more a matter of taste and personal preference. It’s definitely not up to the amazingly awful level of «Cowboy Bebop» from Netflix.
Battles take up a significant part of the cinema here. In them, you can see that the authors were inspired by the wuxia genre. This is a Chinese genre that emphasizes superpowers and martial arts. Even the camera angles and some small directorial techniques in «Avatar» hint at wuxia. But the local battles lack pathos, they are somewhat «grounded» for the chosen style. And this also does not allow us to feel them wholeheartedly.
It’s very strange to talk about the new «Avatar» in general. It’s like you want to praise it and Netflix in general, but when you start to delve into the details, the positive impressions are tinged with questionable moments. I mean «doubtful», not «bad», because there is nothing bad here. Or almost nothing, if you can’t abstract yourself from the original animated series while watching the new adaptation.
The dialogues and pacing of the story are good, but some moments seem to rush the overall plot too much. It has interesting designs, but with its own issues. There are visually aesthetic battles and magical moments in general, but they seem to be underdone. «But» there are problems at every turn, and you have to put up with them if you want to watch the series to the end. This applies to both fans of Aang’s adventures and people for whom «Avatar» is primarily a movie by James Cameron.