REVIEW: Avatar – The Last Airbender, Netflix’s new live-action series

the new series live action Avatar: The Last Airbender premiered on Thursday (February 22) on the streaming platform streaming Netflix and has already caused a lot to talk about on social media, receiving mostly positive reviews from fans all over the world. Keep reading to find out more:

Past adaptations

The series is not the first version live action of the popular cartoon being produced, there was already a film version that was not well received by fans and critics. The film, released in 2010 and directed by M. Night Shyamalan (film director with The sixth Sense), was harshly criticized for the whitewashing of the characters, in addition to summarizing the story too much, resulting in a film that told the story of the complete first season in a shallow manner in a film lasting just 1h46m.

28 comic books were also produced about the Aang's Legend and 4 about The Legend of Korra, in which the reader can discover more about the lives of Aang, Korra and other characters after the events portrayed in the animation.

History

The story of this new adaptation live action will be based on the original animation Avatar: The Legend of Aang, loved by fans and whose success led the studio to invest in the sequel The Legend of Korra, which tells the story of the next incarnation of Avatar, this time in the water tribe – which in turn was also well accepted by the fans.

In the series, the world is divided by nations that can manipulate one of the four elements or 'bend' — as this ability is called in the series — so we are introduced to the water tribe, the earth kingdom, the fire nation and the air nomads (of which Aang is the only survivor). The avatar is the only one who can bend all four elements and his duty is to use this gift to bring peace to the universe.

The series promises to be faithful to the original, telling the story of Aang and his friends fighting evil and helping people as they travel looking for good teachers to help him develop his earth, water and firebending skills - in adventures that also help him perfect his airbending skills (nation where he was reborn).

Cast

Aang

The main character, Aang, aka Avatar, is played by Filipino-Canadian actor Gordon Cormier. He so far has few characters on his resume, the best known being Joe in the miniseries The Stand.

Katara

The character Katara, Aang's friend and the one who finds him frozen and frees him, is played by the tribe's actress Mohawk Kiawentiio Tarbell. She became known for playing Ka'kwet on the Serie Anne With An E and the character Beans in the movie The Little Warrior, which tells the true story of a confrontation between two communities Mohawk and government forces that occurred in 1990 in Quebec, Canada.

Sokka

The main trio is complete with the character Sokka, played by American actor Ian Osley, known for playing Robby Corman on the Netflix 13 Reasons Why and Zeke Breem in the Apple TV series Physical.

Zuko

Another important character in the series is the Fire Lord's son, Prince Zuko, played by American actor Dallas liu, known for playing Ruihua in the Marvel Shang-chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and the character Shuji Ishii-Peters in the series PEN15.

ozai

The character Fire Lord Ozai is played by South Korean-born American actor Daniel Dae Kim, known for playing Jin-Soo Kwon in the series Lost and Dr. Jackson Han at The Good Doctor.

Azula and Iroh

Zuko's evil sister, Princess Azula, is played by the American actress Elizabeth Yu, who played Mary Atherton-Yoo in the film Secrets of a Scandal. Iroh, the duo's uncle, is played by Paul Sun Hyung Lee, the South Korean-Canadian actor is known for playing Appa in the series Kim's Convenience and Captain Carson Teva in the series The Mandalorian.

main highlights

There is no way to write about this series without highlighting that the Netflix did what the movie live action refused: hiring a cast and crew almost 100% of Asian origin. This gave the series a necessary precedent, as deviating from this was one of the reasons the film began to be rejected before it was even released.

I also need to give credit to the casting producers for managing to find an Aang so similar to the original, this gave me a lot of hope for the direction of the series, but unfortunately, despite Gordon Cormier do a great job of portraying the sweetness and innocence of Aang, he sometimes doesn't do a good job in more serious parts, especially in longer monologues where he has to act with himself or with the brand on Appa's set. In these scenes he shows little emotion and too many facial expressions. This seems to be a common problem with the young cast, especially during the first episode, but they improve as the story develops.

Other casting Perfect was Uncle Iroh's: paul sun hyung lee He did a brilliant job and it's impossible to think of an actor with characteristics so naturally similar to the character. It's as if he came to life transitioning from animation to live action.

The relationship between Uncle Iroh and Prince Zuko was also very well represented during the series, scenes that were the actor's biggest highlight Dallas liu, as well as moments in which Zuko shows a certain hopelessness.

Another highlight is the performance of Daniel Dae Kim, elegant and irreverent, which interprets the dark side of Lord of Fire in a way that makes it seem easy. Sometimes, the character's extremely fake beard still manages to draw more attention than his splendid work, as it appears to have been bought in a cheap costume store.

The person responsible for the visual identity was clearly concerned with adding details to the scenes set in Fire Nation: did a good job in the scenes in monastery of the Air Nomads and Earth Kingdom, but he simply didn't even try during the scenes in Southern Water Tribe. It's a shame that it's exactly with the latter that the series begins, which means that the series begins on this tone of neglect that may make many people give up on continuing to watch.

As a fan of the original animation, the biggest emotion I felt was anger at seeing Aang flying out of nowhere. This isn't something that happens in the original — where he always uses his kite, Appa, or a sphere of air — he never just takes off on his own. But worse than changing the story for no apparent reason is doing a horrible job at it, and unfortunately the CGI of the character flying was extremely poorly done and makes him look like a Disney fairy.

Technical aspects

The creators of the original animation, Michael Dante DiMartino e Bryan Konietzko, left the series project live action in June 2020 claiming differences in their approach to the show compared to Netflix's vision and in August 2021 albert kim was announced as writer, executive producer and showrunner. He has served as executive producer on series such as Nikita, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow e Pantheon.

They were also announced as executive producers Lin Dan (A Lego Adventure, A Lego Adventure 2, Lego Batman: The Movie e Two Popes), Lindsey Liberatore (The Day After Tomorrow, Flames of Vengeance e Hostage), michael goi (Big Sky e American Horror Story) to Roseanne Liang (A Shadow in the Cloud e Friday Night Bites), with the last 2 also acting as directors in some episodes.

According to the website Avatar News, the animals in the series, such as the flying bison Appa and the flying lemur momo, were created using practical effects on set and CGI in post-production to achieve a more realistic result without losing the essence.

The voices of the characters Appa and Momo are done by actor Matthew Yang King, known for playing Marty Mantle in the series Riverdale and voice the characters Liu Kang and Fujin in the video game Mortal Kombat 11.

Conclusion

Don't be discouraged from watching the series by the first episode, it gets better. Not only because the actors seem to connect better with the characters, but Aang stops flying out of nowhere like he's leaving Never Land.

Where to watch

A série live action Avatar: The Last Airbender has been available on the Netflix streaming platform since February 22, 2024.

Have you watched the series? Tell us what you think in the comments below!

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