X
- 2024
- TV-PG
- Netflix
- 2024
- TV-PG
- Netflix
Summary Air Nomad Aang (Gordon Cormier) seeks to save the world from Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim) with help from his friends Sokka (Ian Ousley) and Katara (Kiawentiio) in the live-action adaptation of the Nickelodeon animated series of the same name.
- 2024
- TV-PG
- Netflix
- 2024
- TV-PG
- Netflix
Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024)
Season 1 Premiere: Feb 22, 2024
55
6.4
Summary Air Nomad Aang (Gordon Cormier) seeks to save the world from Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim) with help from his friends Sokka (Ian Ousley) and Katara (Kiawentiio) in the live-action adaptation of the Nickelodeon animated series of the same name.
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 27 Critic Reviews
55
33% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
48% Mixed
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
19% Negative
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 27 Critic Reviews
55
33% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
48% Mixed
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
19% Negative
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
Avatar: The Last Airbender accomplishes a rare feat for a live-action adaptation of an animates series: It brings new people into its world while giving fans of the original more than enough to keep them watching.
It’s easy to take small jabs at its shortcomings compared to the animated show. However, despite its imperfections, it still manages to make good on the sturdy bones of this tale, expressing the personal journeys wrapped up in this grandiose, world-threatening quest.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 475 User Ratings
6.4
58% Positive
276 Ratings
276 Ratings
17% Mixed
83 Ratings
83 Ratings
24% Negative
116 Ratings
116 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 475 User Ratings
6.4
58% Positive
276 Ratings
276 Ratings
17% Mixed
83 Ratings
83 Ratings
24% Negative
116 Ratings
116 Ratings
Kids can forgive a lot and the sometimes-shaky effects work won’t detract from the story. But adults coming to this “Avatar” might be disappointed. From the performances (occasionally stunted and wooden young actors) to the general gee-whiz tone, “Avatar” is an OK but not amazing adaptation.
It’s solid entertainment: fast-moving, action-packed, with decent fight scenes and some appealing performances, all done on a generous Netflix budget. Don’t expect subtlety – this is aimed at children so the characters and plot are broadly drawn.
Rather than offer a bold take on this material to excite a new generation, the creative team opted instead to go through the motions, spending millions to recreate something that already exists and which will satisfy neither fans old nor new.
Its thin writing and lack of emotional resonance provide a poor distraction from its technical flaws, reiterating that there's no good reason for this remake to exist in the first place.
The new “Avatar” is a regretful mess in its first season. Both too slavish to the original and too far removed from it, the new “Avatar” fails in every way. And it’s infuriating.
I enjoyed it from the beginning until the end :)
I watched the original, it's a classic - and THIS is a decent legacy in my opinion. Story in live action does not have to be the same as in the original unless diversities are complementing the plot's flow. And small changes here and there are doing only better here.
So I'll wait the second season, I'm really looking into seeing Toph and Zuko's redemption...
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As someone who came into this with no personal history with the graphic novels or previous adaption - I was eager to see how Netflix would showcase the series. Didn't realize it would be so horrendous. Bad acting, bad dialogue "soaring music" for every hug or watery eye. Dumb dumb dumb
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It's *not* as bad as some reviews would have you believe, however I do agree with many of the thoughts. If you need a gauge on whether to watch or not, I would say if you enjoyed the original animation, then watch it just for the live action conversion. The visuals are by far, some of the best in translating cartoon to live-action I have seen yet. The *one catch* is you really need to not have any expectations on the dialogue and story elements.
Look, I love Star Trek: The Next Generation, and if you sit through Season One's 26 episodes, you wonder how a second season ever was approved. In some places it is just ridiculously bad. Let's give Avatar: The Last Airbender at least some room to grow, because in many places this is better than other shows in their first season.
The visuals are great, many of the child or younger actors do well, and some of the fight scenes mirror what you would expect in the animated version.
With that said, the negatives can really pull you out of the story. There is a lot of "tell not show," in the script, versus "show don't tell." Characters spend an awfully lot of time explaining things that the audience doesn't need to have explained- don't say, "I'm really nervous," instead just show beads of sweat on the character's forehead.
The other part of the script that takes you right out of the story is Aang and his friends. There is zero growth for Aang from "I'm just a 12 year old," to all of a sudden giving whole crowds, and even royal characters speeches that start with, "I know you're scared....". No 12 year old would talk like that even in this fictional world, and it makes the story and script very uneven. Back and forth from kid to adult speeches without the character growth to get there. There is a lot of adult responsibility talk that sounds like young writers forgetting it is a 12 year old giving the speech. Maybe they *need* ChatGPT to give them some tips on talking to 6th grade students! This applies to Aang's friends as well. Often the girls are far superior to the males in many things, however *not always.* I give the writers credit for a few scenes where advice was ignored from the males, and later it turned out to be true.
Now, the elephant in the room- the changes in some character arcs and whole characters involved in the story. I won't give spoilers, however there has been a lot of debate on why some of Aang's past selves have now been changed as his kind of 'mentors' in this version. In addition, there are just some silly character actions that don't ring true for young girls or boys.
Despite my best efforts, I can't unsee the insertion of some current ideology into the story. Again, it is usually not too bad, however it is there. One scene has a male washing himself with no shirt on, when a female character happens to be looking at him through a slightly open door. This was so obvious a gender swap of how males and females react, that it was hard not to laugh. The male character realizes he is being watched, and *literally* crosses his arms over his bare chest like he's being spied on and doesn't know what to do. Any heterosexual teen male his age would be thinking something far different than covering himself. There are more scenes like this, where there are some 'girl boss' moments, and all the males are almost incapable of doing anything.
*With that said, I will admit that this is balanced better here than other shows, where the males never are redeemed at all.* Even when Aang fights in a battle in the form of a former Avatar, I was thinking, "Here we go," because they chose a female, and not the one normally seen in the cartoon (Roku). The end of the sequence, though, *does show Aang materialize* in the place of the other Avatar, in other words- it was Aang calling on that person's power. The story writers could have just left this as a 'girl boss' moment, however they did show it was Aang.
Those dialogue moments are the hardest parts to get over, and as someone else said, their almost teen kids were bored. I found myself once or twice skipping forward and didn't lose anything in terms of where the story was- because it was all being told to the audience. This is really why I can't give this higher, but I still recommend at least the first few episodes if you like the animated version (for the visuals).
Before I read any reviews, and had no expectations- I watched two episodes, with one instance of skipping forward, however I was enjoying most of the show. I still realized those dialogue moments and the other moments I spoke of, and they pulled me from the story. *If you lower your expectations just a bit though, you can watch it and enjoy it for what it is.* Let's hope in a second season they get a bit better.
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A masterclass in wasted potential. As unfair as this rating seems when I only made it through the opening minutes of this series, the criminally underwhelming introduction (specifically the conflict between the two Fire Nation men) and the introductions of Aang and Gyatso were so flat, boring and underwritten that I stopped watching after the latter. After the incredible highs of the cartoon, it was very sad to see yet another live-action adaptation fail so spectacularly.
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To **** bending is great, scenery and art direction are gorgeous , as are the costumes. The casting of Katara, Aang, and Sokka are spot on as well. Unfortunately that is all I can say for this show that is favorable.
After the debacle of M. Night Shalaman"s take with his movie, we were hoping for a more dedicated telling of Netflix"s series, especially after seeing the trailers for the show. Boy oh boy, were we wrong.
The series started out with great promise, but after the first couple of episodes we soon got the Shalaman treatment with the mishmash of episodes crammed together into what was to be 8 episodes of the first season, which was the book of water. (for reference, the Nickelodeon version had 20 episodes in the first season) Characters and storyline are thrown together in what I can describe as "What the heck" kind of moments. We went from the enjoyment of seeing the story/characters we fell in love with from the cartoon series, turn to picking the series apart from inconsistent thrown together storylines, introduction of characters from other parts of the show way to early or late, changing of character arcs and behaviors, horrible dialog that don't fit the situation, to name a few.
If you have never seen the cartoon series, then you will probably like Netflix's version. If you are a diehard fan of the cartoon series like us, then you will most likely hate it. We have officially stopped watching the Netflix version after 6 episodes, knowing that the rest of the series will most likely be butchered and slapped together in the same manner as this first season and therfore unwatchable for us.
If they would've stuck to the original storyline, character arcs, episode consistency, etc..Neflix would have had a sure winner to go with the fantastic scenery, special effects, casting, and great costumes. I have no doubt that subscriptions would've soared for the streaming service. But unfortunately, it will now fall alongside The Witcher series as missed opportunities of pure gold.
Do yourself a huge favor and pass this series on by, and go back and watch the cartoon version from Nickelodeon. You will have a better time and be less confused and critical.
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Production Company:
- Avatar Studios
- Netflix
- Nickelodeon Productions
- Rideback
Initial Release Date: Feb 22, 2024
Number of seasons: 3 Seasons
Rating: TV-PG
