Season 1 - 8 episodes
Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix
Created by: Albert Kim
Starring: Gordon Cormier, Kiawentiio, Ian Ousley, Dallas Liu, Daniel Dae Kim, Ken Leung
Rated: TV-PG
Watch the trailer
Plot
A young boy known as the Avatar must master the four elemental powers to save the world and fight against an enemy bent on stopping him.
Verdict
Ultimately this feels like it was made strictly to get views, banking on the popularity of the original. This isn't an adaptation. A series for this story already exists. This is the shorter, more action focused version. It looks great, but it makes me want to watch the original which develops the characters more. This isn't creative, it's a copy. It seems to exist just as a money grab. It's a decent fantasy action series, but it's a snippet of something better.
It depends.
Review
This is a remake of the 2005 animated series. This show manages to cut the original first season down from twenty episodes and both end in roughly the same spot.
The problem with shows like this is that the original is great. This isn't adapting a story from a different medium. The change is truncating Aang's story and transitioning to live action. This doesn't present anything new, and because of that it feels creatively shallow. This could have explored a new story in this world. Why tell a story that's already been done well? It's an aversion to risk that adds nothing.
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| Gordon Cormier plays Aang |
This quickly sets up the lore of this fantastical world of people with elemental powers. It's the typical chosen one story line. Aang (Gordon Cormier) is the air bender, the Avatar that can save the world. This is a more action packed start than the source material, and this season as a whole focuses on action over character development. The fire army are the antagonists of the story with Prince Zuko (Dallas Liu) out to find the Avatar to regain his claim to the throne.
Katara (Kiawentiio) and Sokka (Ian Ousley) find Aang and then accompany him on his quest this season to develop his abilities. This looks great, from casting to the effects. It's faithful to the original, though only certain parts. A lot of the story was truncated. You can't remake something like this in the same medium and not compare the two. This show banks on fondness for the original. Like the slew of Disney live action remakes, I can't help but wonder why I'm not just watching the original version.
For so much of this season, I want to go back and watch the original to see how it was done the first time. This moves too quickly. There's little time to build the characters. This focuses on action and fights. This doesn't do anything new with the source material. It's just a different style. A direct retelling just seems unnecessary.
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| Kiawentiio, Ian Ousley play Katara, Sokka |
Aang is the savior, and he endeavors to unlock his potential. I can't quite recall but I thought in the original he wrestled with the title of 'the one.' I'm not surprised this show ignores that with fewer episodes. As Aang develops his skills, Zuko tracks him down. He's been tasked with defeating the Avatar. While Zuko seems like a villain at first, we eventually see how his father has twisted him. It doesn't absolve his actions, but you do feel bad for him.
Aang's journey this season is as much his as it is Katara and Sokka's. Katara is one of the last water benders, having hidden her talents to avoid being killed by the fire army. Sokka's plot line this season is learning what it means to be a warrior. He had to take over as ruler of his village at such a young age, never developing the confidence or getting the training he needed. Finally he's able to step out of his father's shadow.
This is a good show, albeit short. I avoid the direct comparisons of movies when the source is a book or novel. Different mediums require an adaptation. With this show, the source material is already a series. Truncating it makes it different from the original as it avoids the one to one remake like Disney, but it doesn't add anything. This seems like a vanity project where a studio or creator either wanted a live action version or didn't like the animated series. That or it's just a capitalization of a popular series to repackage and sell it.
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