Sommerleigh Pollonais, Senior Writer
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.
Review: In 2010 palpable excitement quickly turned into one of the biggest blunders in Hollywood history after M. Night Shyamalan released his insultingly terrible adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender. An adaptation SO terrible, fans of the series were legit worried no studio would ever attempt such a thing again. Surprisingly, it would be only eight years later when Netflix announced their plans to do a live action remake of Avatar (you know which one I’m talking about, so it’s Avatar going forward) and to call the results a vast improvement would be an understatement.
The visuals, acting, score, directing and, yes, screenplay was all very well managed here and you could tell the creators behind this adaptation were aiming high. But did they pull it off? While I’ll save my verdict for the end of this review, I get the feeling most people will be swinging back and forth on the answer to this for some time to come.
While adaptations such as these are geared towards the fans who grew up on the source material, I’m going to treat this review the way Netflix and Avatar’s original show creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko treated this adaptation and procced as if this is all new to you.
In a world where kingdoms are based around the elements of air, water, earth and fire, a young boy named Aang (Gordon Cormier) discovers he’s destined to be the next Avatar. The Avatar can control all four elements and must master them in hopes of saving the world from a catastrophic war started by the Fire Nation and their ruthless royal family, led by Fire Lord Ozai (Lost‘s Daniel Dae Kim).
That’s basically the gist of it; I’ll leave the details out for those who have yet to binge all eight episodes, something I did with my best friend and possibly the biggest Avatar fan in my country as she’s rewatched the show more than a dozen times at this point. I deliberately chose to watch this with her as I haven’t revisited the show in some time and she could not only fill in the blanks, but I also wanted to get her opinion on the changes made here.
Overall, she absolutely loved it as in her words, “While the changes were a bit jarring, the way they blended elements of the first two seasons together felt logical.” As for myself, someone who has forgotten more than they could remember about the show, I enjoyed how well they expanded on the dramatic themes such as Prince Zuko’s (expertly performed by Dallas Liu) heartbreaking backstory and his angst-filled journey to regain his honour (something he’s never lost by the way). Or fan favourite Uncle Iroh (Kim’s Convenience‘s Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, also delivering one of the best performances of the show) doing all he can to keep his nephew from going down a path he might regret. Of course, the main story is that of Aang’s journey to becoming the Avatar, with all the burden, guilt, pressure, and loneliness such a title carries. And young Gordon Cormier is so good in this role, you would swear he was the inspiration for Aang and not the other way around. The showrunners made the smart choice to make the story a bit darker and a bit more mature as the audience who grew up watching this series aren’t kids anymore.
Some may complain the show is too serious and I can see that, but I for one was glad to see them take this route as the finished product is one that I’m fully invested in and look forward to going back to once the next season gets here. I also have no issues with the casting, so I won’t go too much into this other than to say, I thought most, if not all of the actors not only nailed the mannerisms of their characters, but they also added depth and made them their own. Solid performances all around.
The visuals were so beautiful I forgot a lot of the time these people are acting against a green screen backdrop. And this was coupled with a wonderful score that enhanced all the action and drama without overstaying its welcome (not to mention the costume designs). As someone who enjoyed the series immensely but wouldn’t call themselves a hardcore fan, I think this adaptation is better than it has any right to be.
Remakes such as these are never easy to pull off, doubly so when you add the heavy expectations this one had on its shoulders. And I’m sure someone with much more knowledge of the series than I will be able to point out all the ways it stumbled. As for myself, I enjoyed it so much I sat through approximately eight hours of viewing and at no point did I reach for my phone, or even realise how much time had passed. If that’s not the sign of a good story, I don’t know what is.
Sommer’s Score: 8 out of 10
Have you checked out Season 1? How does it compare to the original animated series? And you can check out more live action adaptations content below:
Sommerleigh of the House Pollonais. First of Her Name. Sushi Lover, Queen of Horror Movies, Comic Books and Binge-Watching Netflix. Mother of two beautiful black cats named Vader and Kylo. I think eating Popcorn at the movies should be mandatory, PS4 makes the best games ever, and I’ll be talking about movies until the zombie apocalypse comes. Double Tap Baby! Read More