Just like other fans, I had a mixture of hope and doubts about the live-action of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I’d been let down by the movie (which I tell people doesn’t exist) but felt that a series had so much potential. Having watched it now and wanting to keep some balance, here are my pros and cons for the series.
Having grown up in the U.K. Avatar: The Last Airbender wasn’t something that was frequently on my television screen. Instead, I became enamored with it during my years at university after a friend recommended I watch it through properly. I binged all three seasons in three days. I then promptly watched them all over again, more slowly, and decided that this was one of the best shows I had ever seen. I still hold that opinion a full decade later.
When I heard about the live-action adaptation I wanted so badly for it to be as amazing as the animation, but honestly, it’s impossible to match. Some elements cannot be translated from animation to live-action either: Characters can’t go bug-eyed, can’t have steam coming out of their ears and certain jokes just won’t land the same. I went into watching the live-action knowing this and wanting to give it a fair go.
So, channeling my inner Avatar, I want to find a way to be balanced in my approach to the live-action now I have finished it, and discuss what I think the live-action adaption did well and the elements that were a letdown.
Liked: Costumes
I thought that the costumes and styling for the show were overall fantastic. They kept very true to the animation and brought color and life to the show. Of course, there were extra flourishes and intricate details added. For instance, Aang’s tattoo was a solid blue arrow but had spirals and detailing within.
I feel that the costume department, especially costume designer Farnaz Khaki-Sadign, for this show should be heavily praised for bringing the animation’s designs to life. Talking with Marie Claire, Khaki-Sadign explains how they went even more specific with cultural influences saying,
“The animation is more of a broader reference of the Asian and Indigenous cultures, so we went in and did a bit more specification—to give it a more dimension and narrow each culture in the show down to a specific group.”
Disliked: Too much exposition
The first episode was stuffed with exposition. Not only did they create a new opening for the show, they also used the original opening later on, delivered in a pretty uninspiring way by Katara and Sokka’s Gran Gran. This makes the pacing of the first episode feel very sluggish and repetitive and, given that the opening of the animation is so iconic, just feels like a letdown that could have easily been avoided.
Had they kept the original exposition the same as the animation they would have appeased fans and also could have dropped repeating themselves a second time, allowing the action to have started earlier and get into the meat of the episode.
Liked: Getting to know the airbenders
I did, however, appreciate seeing more of the airbenders and their culture. It allows the audience in on Aang’s life before his 100 years in ice and what was lost when the firebenders committed genocide. With this, we saw more of Aang’s mentor and friend, Monk Gyatso played by Lim Kay Siu.
I liked the Gyatso in the animation, but here I felt more connected to him and it made his demise painful to watch. I genuinely teared up watching him struggle to hold back Fire Lord Sozin as he tries to protect the young airbenders who we also know will face the same fate.
Disliked: An overly serious tone
The show lost a lot of the fun and incredible daftness of the animation, opting to be more gritty and down to earth. This ended up making it feel a little difficult to dredge through. The animation often has dark moments that work all the better for being surrounded by lightness and goofiness. Here, it all felt too serious overall and many of the jokes just failed to land because of it. (That and poor scriptwriting honestly.)
Iroh lost some of his joviality that worked in great contrast to when he gets heated (pun intended) or doles out wisdom, and Aang lost a lot of his childish enthusiasm, instead becoming super focused on becoming the Avatar.
Liked: Bending looked way more realistic
Now, there is no way they are going to get the bending to look like it did in the animation because we are working with real people who are bound by the laws of physics in a way animation just isn’t.
That being said, the bending elements were perhaps some of the best moments of the show, especially the earth and firebending. The water bending wasn’t bad at all, but I feel like the shots could have looked like they had more impact than a bucket of water being thrown at someone. Overall though it was a huge step up from the movie. Shout out to Dallas James Liu whose martial arts and firebending looked incredible.
Disliked: A difficulty connecting with the characters
Look, most of the actors are young so I don’t want to be too critical of them but really, this falls on the heads of the directors. Choppy performances and weak scripts with awkward dialogue made it difficult at times to feel connected to the characters. Major character motivations and arcs were dropped, making characters less layered and it just made for flat performances in many areas.
Katara in particular felt like a washed-out version of her animated self, losing her headstrong, passionate nature and motherly instincts as well as her great speeches. She worked so hard in the animation to get where she ends up, but I just don’t see that here.
Liked: More Avatar Kyoshi
Kyoshi is perhaps one of the most well-loved of all the past Avatars with fans desperate to know more about her backstory and see a spin-off revolving around her. We didn’t see much of her at all in the animation, but here there was a lot more emphasis on Aang’s past lives and we got to see Kyoshi in action as she took over Aang’s body and showed him what being a badass warrior really looks like. I, as well as many other fans, loved it.
Disliked: Azula’s change in character
In the animation Azula has one of the best introductions of all time. Her speech on the tides gave me chills. She is controlled to a terrifying degree, she smiles at others’ suffering and she is exceptionally confident in her abilities. In the live-action, much of this is lost. I did see a spark of it as she watches Fire Nation “traitors” get burned alive, but the series made her much more neurotic right from the offset which is very different from her gradual, and phenomenal, decline into madness in the animation.
Of course, some people on the internet insist on being terrible about these things and Azula’s actress Elizabeth Yu has been subjected to some distressing amounts of online hate. We can dislike some character changes and also recognize that Yu did wonderfully with what she had. The nasty comments aimed at her have been completely out of line.
Liked: The creatures of Avatar: The Last Airbender
The weird and wonderful animals found in ATLA were done well in this adaptation. I enjoyed the visuals for all of them from Appa and Momo to the spirits. I was particularly impressed with the shirshu Nyla and the terrifying figure of Hei Bai. They made the world more real and I was happy to see them so well executed.
Disliked: Erratic pacing
Even though it’s now a series, it still felt ridiculously condensed to the point where I didn’t know what was happening. They pushed together certain storylines and left out what I felt were pivotal moments in the show. It didn’t leave enough time for character growth (though I felt Zuko got plenty which I was happy about) and the pacing was erratic. Some storylines felt way too long and others way too short which just didn’t make for easy watching.
What do you think? Do you agree with the above list or do you have different opinions on the show? Lord knows there are a lot of them out there right now.
(featured image: Netflix)
