Avatar: The Last Airbender, Netflix Adaptation Review: A Great Divide of a Season.

When the Netflix live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender was first announced, I was cautiously optimistic about it.
This optimism faltered a bit when the creators of the original show departed, but my hopes started climbing again when I saw the trailers, which were quite good.
Well, the show is out and the consensus is in.
Turns out, the fandom is as divided as the two tribes in “The Great Divide” episode.

I have seen plenty of people hating and liking the adaption.

As for me, I quite enjoyed Netflix’s adaptation of Avatar.
Is it as good as the original?
No, but it was never going to be.
Going into the show, I wanted a retelling of the story with changes that stuck true to the soul of the original and, for the most part, I got that.
Like the cartoon, the adaptation follows Aang (Gordon Comier) who, as the Avatar, is the only one who can master all four elements of Water, Earth, Fire and Air.
However, after being frozen in ice for a hundred years, he awakens to find that, in his absence, the Fire Nation has been waging war on the world and killed all of the Air Nomads.

The depiction of the Air Nomad genocide was grim but thankfully pulled its punches where it needed to.

Teaming up with Katara (Kiawentiio) and Sokka (Ian Ousley) from the Water Tribe, Aang sets out of a journey to master all the elements to save the world, all the while being pursued by the disgraced Prince Zuko (Dallus Liu) and his tea loving uncle Iroh (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee).
For the most part, I would say that the actors chosen to play these iconic characters do a good job portraying them.
My favorites of the bunch were definitely Ousley as Sokka, Liu as Zuko, Sun-Hyung Lee as Iroh, Daniel Dae Kim as Ozai, and Ken Leung as Zhao.
Ousley in particular is excellent as Sokka who, while some of his character growth is unfortunately cut, still portrays the character with a lot of spirit and humor.

Ousley was, in my opinion, the perfect casting for Sokka.

The comedy of the adaptation is definitely in keeping with the original, with a lot of great laughs from both Sokka and the interactions between Zuko and Iroh.
The maintaining of this humor was good to see since this adaptation is darker than the original cartoon, what with the showing of the genocide.
The series also has plenty of good emotional moments, with the hardest hitting being an added scene at Lu Ten’s funeral.
This scene had me tearing up, although I will admit that this was mostly due to the context I had as a fan of the original show.

The added scene between Zuko and Iroh will leave fans in tears.

So, the adaptation definitely maintains the soul of the original in regard to its tone with the good mixture of humorous, dark and emotional moments.
Where it deviates from the original is what I was most interested to see going in.
I wanted to see how the writers would introduce characters in different places and blend them into other storylines.
I think the writers nailed this in some areas and failed in others.
For example, I think episodes three and four did the mixing of different storylines and characters to create a new and cohesive storyline excellently.
However, I think the writers also dropped the ball with it, as Episode Five feels quite disjointed and like things were only added for fan service reasons, rather than them being necessary.

Hei Bai’s storyline takes a considerable drop in quality.

I would not say that Episode Five is the weakest episode, though.
No, I think the first episode is, what with its constant clunky exposition.
This clunky exposition is an issue which sadly persists throughout the season, and I hope future seasons can improve upon it.
Another thing I hope they improve upon is the CGI.
Don’t get me wrong, the CGI is not bad.
There are a lot of moments of fantastic computer-generated environments across the season.
It’s just that sometimes, when the actors interact with these environments, I could clearly tell that they were looking at a green screen.

Some moments in the season definitely could have used more work in the CGI department.

And then there are a few things that the adaptation did which I just think were straight up bad ideas.
The first of these is the portrayal of Roku (C.S Lee).
He is the first past Avatar we see in the original show, and he is by far the most important as he warns Aang about Sozin’s Comet.
In the adaptation, however, he is overshadowed in importance by Kyoshi (Yvonne Chapman) and Kuruk (Meegwun Fairbrother), and he feels completely different from the Roku of the original.
The second, and by far the worst thing the adaptation did was Aang not learning Water Bending.
Seriously, this season is an adaptation of Book One.
You know, the book named Water.
Each season of the show focuses on Aang learning an element.
Book One is water, Book Two is earth, and Book Three is fire.
Aang not learning to Water Bend is honestly baffling to me.

The Avatar is supposed to learn to bend the elements, yet Aang takes no time to do so, even when there clearly is.

Aang is probably going to learn to Water Bend in between now and the next season, and I really hope the show does not do the same for earth and fire.
Still, there are a couple of changes that I think are actually improvements the original show.
Having Zuko’s crew be the division he saved, and having Han be an actually pretty nice guy were both great decisions.
So, with plenty of positives and negatives in this first season, it is easy to see why the fandom is divided.
For me, I would say that I am satisfied with this adaptation, so far.
Yes, there are some questionable deviations but there are also plenty of good changes as well, and the soul of the original show is still there.
I look forward to seeing the next season of this adaptation and hope they can improve upon it.

Avatar: The Last Airbender Trailer Breakdown: The Quenchiest Trailer.

The first trailer for Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender did an amazing job of hyping up fans for the show.
Now, we finally have the second trailer, which easily topped it.
The first part of the trailer seems to be narrated by Monk Gyatso, who we then appear to see briefly fighting Fire Lord Sozin during the Air Nomad genocide.
From the brief shot we get, it looks like Gyatso has subdued many attacking Fire Benders before Sozin intervenes.
Seeing Gyatso’s last stand will be a great addition, since we did not get to see it in the original cartoon.

I am curious to see if this will be the first scene of the show, or a flashback when Aang visits the Southern Air Temple.

The trailer then shows Aang being freed from the iceberg, which is much more explosive than in the cartoon’s first episode.
The music from the original show also kicks in here, bringing a comforting feeling of nostalgia.
From here, we get a brief look at the performances we will be getting for the show.
Kiawentiio sounds good as Katara, and Ian Ousley seems to be a perfect live-action Sokka, with his bits of comic relief.
Dallas Liu also looks great as Zuko, and we get shots of him rescuing Paul Sun-Hyung Lee’s Iroh.
We also see Azula using a bow and arrow, which is interesting because I don’t think she ever used one in the original show.
They could just be holding off on showing her blue fire until the second season.
As for Gordon Cormier, he seems to play Aang’s uncertainty of his destiny well, as we see him being comforted by a wonderfully animated Appa.
Momo also looks great when he jumps on Sokka’s head in another solid comedic bit.

The humor of the show looks to be on point.

The trailer then shows us brief shots of many characters from the original.
We see June, Hei Bai, Zhao, and Aang fighting alongside the Blue Spirit.
There are even hints of some of the conjoining storylines we will get in Netflix’s version of the story.
For example, we see Aang flying with Teo but, rather than being at the Northern Air Temple, they are clearly in Omashu, where Bumi’s storyline takes place.

I hope the shortened or condensed storylines still work.

Speaking of Bumi, we also see him briefly fighting with Aang.
The shot of him doing this is intercut with many other action shots, which flow togethor beautifully in a fantastically edited moment.
It’s the best moment of the trailer, which shows off the fighting styles of characters like Bumi, Aang, Zuko, Katara, Sokka and Jet perfectly.

The last few action shots are perfectly edited together.

The trailer then ends with the iconic music playing over Aang going into the Avatar State at the Southern Air Temple.
The first trailer for Netflix’s Avatar was great, but this second trailer brought my excitement to a whole other level.
My only criticism is that there is one CGI shot of Aang accidentally Airbending himself into a statue which looked a bit dodgy.

Something about the physics of Aang’s body hitting the statue here just didn’t look right to me.

Otherwise, this trailer was perfect.
The CGI was mostly pretty good, the acting looks fun, and the action was edited to flow into the trailer nicely.
I am now more excited for this show than ever.
February 22nd cannot come soon enough.

Avatar: The Last Airbender, Netflix Teaser Breakdown: A Promising First Look.

I have been excited for the Avatar: The Last Airbender live action adaptation ever since it was announced in 2018.
This was in large part because it seemed like everything required to make a good adaptation was there, namely the original show’s creators, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, being involved.
However, my excitement for the show dimmed slightly when the creators announced that they were leaving the adaptation.
Still, I remained optimistic, since it seemed like those behind the adaptation were at least getting the casting right, with actors being hired who looked the part.
Seriously, we did not need another The Last Airbender situation where the main characters were changed to be white when the story is set primarily in Asian culture.

The actors look much closer to their animated counterparts this time aroumd.

After seeing the teaser for the show released today, I can say with absolute certainty that this show is going to better than the notoriously awful first adaptation.
The teaser begins by showing something we have never seen before, the Fire Nation’s attack on the Southern Air Temple at the beginning of the Hundred Years War.
This attack was only something we saw the aftermath of in the original show so it is exciting to know we will see a flashback of the attack.
After this, we see the scene from the very first episode, where Aang is discovered in the iceberg.
We hear the ice cracking as Katara and Sokka look on and, I have got to say, both Kiawentiio and Ian Ousley look great as the characters.
Along with them, the environments also look fantastic, with the next shot of Omashu having excellent CGI, which really brings the city to life from its animated counterpart.

Let’s hope the rest of the show’s CGI looks as good as what the teaser shows

The teaser then reveals Dallus Liu as Zuko, whose scar is thankfully visible in this adaptation, and Paul Sung-Hyung Lee as Iroh.
They seem to be boarding their ship, with the Fire Nation soldiers giving Zuko a salute which I am pretty sure is show original.
Although I have liked how all of the characters have looked so far in the teaser, it is the next two characters who are shown whom I think look the best.
The first of these characters is Ozai, played by Daniel Dae Kim.
Not only does Kim look exactly like Ozai but he also appears intimidating, a complete contrast to his lackluster version in the Shyamalan movie where he was just… a regular guy.
Ozai’s angry expression in the shot makes me wonder if this is when Zuko criticizes the Fire Nation general, leading to his scarring.
The second character who I think looks the best in the teaser is Suki, played by Maria Zhang.
The makeup for her Kyoshi Warrior attire is absolutely spot on, and the brief shot we get of her with Sokka makes it appear that the two have good chemistry, which will be important.

Props to the makeup department for making the Kyoshi Warrios look this good.

We then get another great CGI shot, this time of Aang heading to Crescent Island.
This is most likely so he can meet with Avatar Roku to learn about Sozen’s Comet, which we also see at the beginning of the trailer.
Throughout all of these shots, there has been narration over the teaser stating, “Time… time is a funny thing. The past, the future, it all gets mixed up. There’s only one way to keep it straight. Always remember who you are.”
I am pretty sure that this line is adaptation original, and I have heard some people speculate that it is Monk Gyatso saying this.
It would make sense for him to be telling Aang this because the Avatar does have a lot of past lives and an uncertain future, making time “mixed up.”
Another thing which supports the theory that Gyatso is saying this line to Aang is that our hero is in the next shot, with Gordon Cormier finally being revealed as Aang.
Just like every other actor in this teaser, he certainly looks the part.
The teaser then gives us a series of shots showing Aang in the burnt forest, Zuko and Ozai’s duel, Aang entering the Avatar State, and even Azula.
Azula is played by Elizabeth Yu, and I hope the way she appears in this trailer stops all of the weird criticism she was getting because of one still image released a while back.

I really like the way the fire reflects off Azula’s eyes in this shot.

The final big moment of the teaser, shows Aang, Katara and Sokka taking off on Appa.
The CGI for Appa and Momo appears excellent, as the GAang head for Kyoshi Island, which is made evident by the statue of Kyoshi in the distance.
And so the teaser comes to an end by showing off the symbols for different forms of bending, followed by the show’s title.
Overall, this was a great teaser that did its job of hyping us up for the show.
The actors look the part and the CGI looks great.
I am already looking forward to seeing more trailers before the show’s release on Netflix on Febuary 22nd.