Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender fails to capture the spirit of the original series with poor characterization and weak visuals.

Simply put, Netflix’s take on Avatar: The Last Airbender is bad. At best, the show serves as a constant reminder of how amazing the original Nickelodeon cartoon was. At worst, it makes M. Night Shyamalan‘s 2010 The Last Airbender film feel like a mercy because at least that poor effort was only 2 hours long. Granted, there are some saving graces. Most of the cast is good, with relative newcomer Dallas Liu (PEN15) as Fire Prince Zuko, veteran character actor Ken Leung (Industry) as Commander Zhao, and the great Daniel Dae Kim (Lost) as Fire Lord Ozai being the prime standouts (yes, the show is very pro-Fire Nation, at least in making that the best part of this first season). Additionally, the bending visual effects look fantastic. But none of these pros are enough to bring balance to this world.

From the opening minutes, it becomes clear that this live-action remake aims to be both a dark and violent fantasy epic for the post-Game of Thrones crowd, while also trying to capture the silly and cartoony fun of the source material. However, this balancing act of sorts never fully clicks in the 8-episode season.

Lol surprising no one the show is ass

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  • FlakesBongler [they/them]
    ·
    9 months ago

    8 episodes

    Game of Thrones

    Netflix

    I wish I could say I was surprised, but I am absolutely not

    Stop getting hyped for live-action remakes of cartoons, they're always awful

    • thelastaxolotl [he/him]M
      ·
      9 months ago

      Live-action remakes of cartoons must be a money laundering scheme at this point

      • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
        ·
        9 months ago

        The cost so fucking much to make and yet look like total dogshit. The special effects and post-production on Cowboy Bebop, for instance, looked worse than what I've seen on YouTube fan films from ten years ago. There's no way that thing cost several million an episode.

        Same with One Piece. The props and costumes look like they fell straight out of an anime convention. The directing was mid at best. The camera work felt amateurish. And they clocked that at $144M for the season. Where was all this money even going?

        • GeorgeZBush [he/him]
          ·
          9 months ago

          Even my friends, who love Netflix sludge and thought this Avatar remake was good, commented on the CGI being mid.

      • FlakesBongler [they/them]
        ·
        9 months ago

        I mean, all you do is hire a couple of script editors to pare down the writing and you're halfway done