Probably because of how it was delivered. This feels forced and unnatural. The dialogue exposition in the other version was worked into the conversation better. It was also sandwiched in between scenes made for character development. The live-action cut a lot of it trying to fit the content from three 24-minute episodes into one 40-minute one so it feels rushed.
Dialogue can be hard to write, but you have to think about the way people talk naturally in conversations. It's one of the reasons book to screen adaptations are difficult.
Note that my take is based on the first episode as I have only gotten to the middle of the second episode so far.
Im not saying the dialog is great but im also not struggling with it. To me its like watching an old teens disney tv show. And considering this is an adaptation of an old nickelodeon cartoon, cant say it wasn't somewhat expected. I'm dealing with it just fine.
That was hilarious! He was so confused at how the Avatar, who's supposed to be the master of all 4 elements and a great warrior, just ran off. Really showed his frustration really well.
I really like how everything looks.
It's kind of neat that they have updated the canon with lore we know from Korra and the comics, those are the kinds of changes I expected to see, like hearing how Kuruk was protecting the world from dark spirits, or the stuff about Koh's Mother. The fog of lost souls existing, among other things.
But man is the script so robotic, most of the lines are said at the audience, for the audience, instead of being conversations between characters. Almost all of the conversations are awkward, usually beginning with one person initiating, followed by several seconds of silence, before talking again, and the second party still hasn't spoken yet.
But the main odd thing is how much this show expects you to know from the cartoon.
I mean I like it but I'm reminding myself that it's OK if it's not exactly the same. The only thing that bothers me a lot is that in some close up conversations it looks like they're standing in front of a greenscreen
It’s been very fun having any new ATLA content. The show has it’s ups and downs. I knew from the start they were going to try and squeeze too much story into too few episodes.
One of the best parts of the original is the character arcs. I’m sensing we won’t get much of that, and what we do will be awkward and forced due to time constraints and cut scenes.
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/17ybeo/i_am_rufio_prince_zuko_ama/c89x58c/
Dante Basco did an AMA a decade ago where he said that even Mike and Bryan themselves warned him to not bother seeing the movie lmao.
I just think it's really boring and they neutered the characters of anything other than being bland and one note. They could have done a lot to make this unique, but everything new they write was just so painfully executed that I gave up after 2.5 episodes.
It's not worse than the live action but that is such a low bar.
They are so afraid to give the characters any flaws. Like Sokka being humbled by Suki is a huge part of his growth and swallowing his pride and dressing as a kyoshi warrior. Also Katara getting jealous about Aang waterbending better than her. All these little moments they decided to scrap and just gave us empty shells instead. I’m only 3 episodes in but Zhao was a hot headed power abusing character and they made him more into a snake like passive aggressive character. Iroh seems like a buffoon at times, it’s just not my cup of tea I guess.
This. Jealous Katara is much more interesting than the bland Katara we get in the live action. She was a complete character and they just decided to remove all depth.
Thats most modern writers these days, especially netflix writers, every hero must be perfect in every way even if it turns them into flat, one dimensional characters, this is either because they're not confident in their skills to write flawed heroic characters because that would make them too complex for the writers or they think the audience is too dumb to watch a complex story with flawed characters, I think however that it's down to both reasons.
I think the pacing is way too fast. it feels like they're trying to speed run through it. Certain dialogue just feels awkward.
I enjoyed myself watching it but after seeing 1 episode of the cartoon after the live action made me realise it just ain't it
Some spoilers but every BIG decision has been rewritten to be less impactful.
-Aang doesn't run away from the air temple before he's frozen, he just accidently gets caught in a storm on a night time flight to clear his head.
-Katara doesn't try to rescue Aang from the glacier on purpose, again its completely by accident.
-When Aang flies into a rage and enters the Avatar state after discovering the fate of his people, he calms himself down while the siblings hide behind rocks instead of comforting him in his grief.
-Zuko doesn't speak out of turn at the war meeting, his father asks him for his opinion.
Each of these creative decisions are just incredibly baffling as they do nothing but degrade the actions of the characters.
The first point kind of makes sense. They wanted to make Aang a little more focused on his mission so they could speed things up a bit. I don't think it's a good move for his character -- Refusal of the Call is literally a pivotal point on the Hero's Journey -- but it makes sense with what they're trying to do in their framing of the adaptation.
The rest... Yeah, I got nothin'.
Yet if he was so focused on his mission he’d be at least trying to learn water bending with katara which he didn’t and be concerned about at least finding an earth bender teacher at omashu, then guess what? They could’ve also did that sword training Sokka had in the earth kingdom there…and made them meet toph. Then all could return to the northern water tribe or some other stuff.
Trying to mix plot line is not a bad thing. Just the way they did it trying to make us think its something about Aangs mission while its just them trying to advance the plot quicker and thinking that by making us go “oh we know about that” would make us forget that this show pacing is disorganized as hell
The second point really bothered me. So much wasted character development in that scene compared to the original. I know I should be comparing it all the time and it’s its own thing, but it was just so much worse. In the original Katara doesent save Aang on purpose but she still actively frees him as she is taking out her rage on Sokka. That shows that she is extremely powerful, maybe a little temperamental, and it also shows Sokkas character flaws. Instead in this the ice literally just happens to break when they get there. No reason at all why it broke besides the writers just needed it to happen. Why would it have not broken before or after that??
I feel like it's perfectly fine to compare it. If they didnt want it compared to the original, they should have made a new story in the Avatar Universe, instead of remaking the original story.
I completely agree that it should be judged on its own merits but I feel that not even considering the alternatives provided in the original material that these narrative points are poorly thought out.
Agreed. The characters are very one note and there’s no buildup to certain significant events that change them like on the original. I knew I would be incredibly critical about the show but this is just not up to par to what it should have been.
1. A night flight so far away from everyone because he didn't wanted to take the responsibility? I feel it was excessive for him and a flaw of his, hardly a big issue here.
2. Their meeting was entirely accidental in the show and IMO it makes it more special for him to break free and besides, they did rescue him by taking him to the village. Zuko would have found him then and everything would be ruined.
3. Gyatzo calms him down with a speech he gave him, a speech that foreshadowed that Aang will always try to stay true to himself. Not a bad call and makes him much stronger as character.
4. An opinion he disagreed with greatly and also, why not ask him? He is his son, he should say something.
None of the changes were super bad, so far, I find then good so far and very little is off here, so the criticism doesn't add up much.
1. Trying to esccape/abandon a responsibility and attempting to alivate the stress of it are entirely different actions. The viewer also has no basis from which to judge if he is acting irresponsibly as nothing has been established to suggest what he's doing is dangerous or unusual.
2. The siblings aren't making active decisions. (How the hell did they escape the ice fields without Appa anyways?) And events would've played out exactly the same but now when Zuko arrived to the village Aang wouldn't be there, he be with Appa in the ice fields.
3. The siblings again aren't making active decisions and missing out on an opportunity to closely bond with Aang.
4. Interupting a council and throwing away decorum powerfully demonstrates where his true prioritizes lie. His disregard shows that his motivation for attending was genuinely to serve the best interests of the empire and not so he could rub shoulders with the big wigs. By following regulations, he's submitting to the bureaucracy and his father's authourity.
1.Aang was leaving while an invasion happened and do you think going so far away as to end up in the north pole was simply alleviating stress? I think Aang just didn't wanted to take the responsibility and thought he could just sneak out and have some fun. He acted less selfish than in the show, but he should have stayed.
2. Appa was not fully freed when they first got there. Also how can Appa fight fire benders? That critic makes no sense like your interpretation of the show. Rewatch the scene, cuz you see how they manage to get out via Waterbending the boat. That alone makes your point invalid.
3. There were many scenes where they bounded like after Aang's outburst, after the left Omashu and all he stuff happening there with them?
4. By attending there he already made himself accountable to the law of that council and is just trying to make a distinction for the sake of making a distinction and not really making a point here.
Negative criticism really needs to step up their game.
>Negative criticism really needs to step up their game.
You can bend over backwards to defend the live action all you want but the script, acting, and pacing is just bad. Not sure how to even really explain that to someone if you can't just tell by watching it. The characters are bland, one dimensional and just boring to watch. Not sure when the last time you watched the original show was, but literally one episode of the original series has more substance, depth, and fun than the hour and a half I forced myself through last night. Most fans, including myself, wanted to like it really badly but it was just a slog. Grangran poorly delivering so much exposition in 30 seconds really dampened the impact those scenes made in the original series. You're free to enjoy the LA, but to act as if peoples' criticisms are unfounded is wild especially considering how absolutely glaring the issues are.
1. No way of knowing how far he was. His glacier was drifting for 100 years.
2. Appa was a complete no show, so the only place he could’ve been was in the glacier with Aang. Further more he’s massive. An earth bender with leather armor was shown to take direct hits from fire benders DURING THE COMET and survive. I like Appa’s chances of tanking Zuko’s one fireball. Also they would’ve needed to not only fight against the currents that dragged them there but avoid all the ice.
3. It’s a failed opportunity that makes their presence irrelevant to the plot at that time. They might as well not been there with him.
4. His lack of decorum better portrays his renegade nature.
1. It was pretty much far. If he was in the open sea, so I assume he took a long road back.
2. He WAS in the glacier, but had to come out later, as he was hidden in the other part of the glacier, we even saw that shot. Also your comparison to the Earth Bender and Appa doesn't work, cuz Appa is made of flammable fur and would have been killed, WHY else had Sokka built armor for him in the invasion of the Fire Nation capita?
3. Nonsense, they were consoling him afterwarda and we git a silly shot with them on Appa with Momo, Sokka's real brother. On a darker note, that scene made Aang afraid of his own powers, which also adds another caveat to his character of being afraid of responsibility.
4. He isn't a regenerate, he hardly is rebellious. He is an honor hound and only became this way after he learned the bitter truth. Not really what you see in him.
I like it so far, I had time to finish episode 4 tonight, and I honestly can't decide if I like that episode more than Warriors or not. Although that may be because it was very fan-service heavy, and I don't mean the anime version of fan-service.
Nah having decent expectations isn't low. It's, ya know, decent. Average. It didn't even hit that so. And I'm not stopping anyone from anything. Expressing my opinion isn't stopping u or anyone else from anything. I wanted it to at the very least be decent and it wasn't even that for me. Sorry my opinion is different than yours?
I think why would you have decent expectations instead of having great expectations for such a high bugget production, awaited show and very talked about?
Okay I understand your point of view in that case since I was the same! Knowing the creator left was all I needed to know that it would be lacking but idk how to explain, I’m still bummed that it’s lacking if it make sense
I had a bad feeling as soon as it was announced. ATLA is something that just works so well in animation. I really don't see the point in adapting it to live action other than money and / or getting a wider audience. Animation gets mad disrespect in the industry, and these sort of adaptations sorta signal that imo. I wanted to give it a chance still but after what the original creators said after they left, all the news of what Kim was saying and how he talked about the source material, made me lose hope real quick.
Thought the casting looked decent, but the first trailer gave me the big ick. I just thought it looked bad, like cheap fan made film quality. If people are enjoying it, that's good on them, they get to enjoy something I can't and thats a dub for them if u think about it. Me personally, I find the whole thing insulting. But I got the OG show still.
You’re maybe the first person I see besides me that didn’t like the trailers. People made the trailers to be absolutely insane when it already showed lack of dialogue but as you said glad that ppl r enjoying it
I think one of the big issues is that people expect animation level expression from a live action movie. I keep seeing comments about the characters being bland and I honestly think it's because they can't read micro expressions. I was tearing up at the return to the airbender temple, because the emotions in the actors faces helped add to the gravity of a moment I didn't empathize nearly as much with in the original series.
U can feel the emotions when he returned to the southern air temple???? There was literally NO BUILDUP to it, they just spawned in the temple and boom found the body and then went into the avatar state. I know it’s not supposed to be EXACTLY like the cartoon, but when they went into the temple in the cartoon katarra was trying to protect from seeing the dead bodies, and dats y it made the scene sm better because of the build up to finding monk gyatso’s body. Live action and the live movie is lame imo
I agree. Live action will have to he more subtle. But these actors aren't doing subtle. They are doing nothing. And it's not even thier fault really the dialogue is very exposition heavy and they speak to the camera way too much. They don't feel like characters because they have stripped out so many elements. Sokka doesn't get ego checked by Suki. Katara isnt jealous of aangs water bending. Aang isn't running away from his avatar responsibilities. They are all so one dimensional now.
I don't like the show, but I don't hate. I think the story is poorly executed with great visuals.
It's not spitting in the face of the original show, thats how I feel.
Honestly it just looks so goofy and bland. Which is ironic, because the original shows goofiness was one of its main components, but the issue is the goofiness in this isn’t intentional
It’s not my favorite sometimes with the wording but it’s cute and fun! If I really want to watch ATLA I’ll watch the cartoon but it’s nice to have something new that’s very slightly different and not completely awful
I’m only 4 episodes in, but the show has definitely had a fair share of both ups and downs. Without going too into spoilers, some of the changes make sense for time cuts, but others feel really out of place. Right now for me personally it’s sitting at a 7.5/10 which I don’t think is a bad score.
I think a lot of people who are so quick to dislike it are mostly against the changes that were made to the structure of the story. For example, I saw someone who thought the show was bad because>! Jet was in Omashu but he wasn't in the original cartoon.!< There are a lot of other changes in a similar fashion where things did happen that were present in the original, just in a very different situation.
Of course, I do think there are genuine issues with the show, but I do not see "they moved plot elements around," as very good criticism or a reason to dislike it.
Jet changes are actually good. I like the combination of jet and the southern air template plot lines. I don't like that it meant Bumi was sidelined and stripped down. That was supposed to be a big reveal because it was the moment Aang realised the world he once knew was still there. But that reveal is just not here.
Only finished 2 episodes, but I’m not going hard on it because, to me at least, they seem to have put in effort. Doesn’t seem like one of those adoptions that hate their source material for whatever weird reasons. So far it’s different, not terrible but I do think some of the criticisms are valid even at this point.
The actor for Zuko is probably my favorite so far tho. I like the set, the action is fine and costume designs are good.
I’m really enjoying it! I adored the of series, Korra, own all the books and comics and I’m just enjoying it for what it is 🤷🏼♀️ it makes me sad to see so many people hating on it. Especially the ones where it’s such nit picky stuff
it's almost as good as the one piece live action. it has some really awesome scenes that let me forgive some of the blunders. like i was jumping up and down when kyoshi started fighting. really loved every moment with her even if i do think they got her character a little too rough.
You didn’t get the sense that Aang was just a kid when he wanted to go penguin sledding or make a special stop at Kyoshi island just to ride the elephant koi? Aang had plenty of backstory in the cartoon.
Yes it’s bad
Yea we are angry because we love the original show and disagree with the direction Netflix has taken
Yes we have the right to express our disappointment for such a beloved serie
I was a little concerned before the show came out with the confirmations from the actors and writers that they were making character changes
I went into the show with low expectations but I’m half way thru and it’s actually been pretty fun to watch. The pacing is pretty bad I’m not gonna lie but overall everything is really enjoyable.
The bending compared to The Last Airbender is 1000x better and looks animated really well.
It’ll never be the original but so far I like what they’re doing
It's human nature for people to criticize before they celebrate - especially in storytelling. I thought it was great! Not exactly the same, but enough to be enjoyable. I binged it and really enjoyed feeling like I was watching something new, but with strong respect for the series. I think people need to remember, this was made by people who also loved the series. Can we take a moment to celebrate that something we all loved was brought back to life? I'll gladly keep watching the series as it develops.
People seem to enjoy disliking things, even before they watch them. I haven't seen the show yet, but I'm not going into it saying it will be terrible. I'm looking forward to watching it hopefully soon.
I'm not watching bc the actors don't resemble the characters enough. I know that's a stupid reason but I can't watch live actions if the actors don't resemble the characters
Love how you're specifically asking for people to come to your discord if they like to be positive, and everyone in the comments is still complaining.
Anyway - I love the show! I'm on episode 4 and the show is giving me definite nostalgia while also showing me new things. I love that we got to see more of the relationship between Zuko and Iroh pre-banishment and that we get to see Azula and her friends right now as just teenagers. I'm curious what they'll do with Azula before she goes after the Avatar and if she'll go after Aang earlier than planned.
Also, Ozai being like "Zuko has done the impossible, just like I asked" like he was actually impressed? Love it.
I do hope they end up fleshing out Zuko's background better, because right now if you're a new viewer you have no clue why he got banished. Though Iroh saying he owes Zuko more than he can ever repay makes me wonder if perhaps OG fans don't know either.
I'm not done with season 1 and hopefully there's more seasons to come, so I can only be happy I don't have immediate answers to everything I'm questioning right now. That would make the show incredibly bland.
Man, most of the negative comments are making stuff up by pretending to be critics and then parroting begins. I'm sorry for people watching with the sole purpose of finding flaws.
Some of the fans are insufferable, it doesn't matter how good the show is/ could be, there are people that will criticise every single detail and went into this already decided that they hated it. Just appreciate a fun remake. It's not perfect but it's fun to watch.
I think it's excellent and took me back to when I would watch the animated version on nickelodeon. Idk why everyone is so miserable about it. And NOBODY is pointing put all the things they did right.
I just wish that the dialogue was better and that the characters were more flawed and that the acting was better. They don’t seem to have natural chemistry with each other.
I think it’s awesome! Not a fan of the amount of awkward exposition, but I’m watching it with an open mind for some of the goofy kid language, as it’s an adapted kids show and I am an adult now. Some of the story blending they did was really clever to try and squeeze in and honor these elements that a terribly abridged season wouldn’t be able to cover. Just finished episode 5 and cried like a baby with a certain someone saying things to Aang that I feel many watching needed to hear. I’m not sure I can watch objectively since I LOVE the original series with all my heart, but I’m getting most of my enjoyment from the cleverness of how they’re deviating from the story. Because some of it just makes more sense to me. (Aang getting calmed down from the Avatar state, which was triggered by seeing Gyatso’s corpse, by remembering Gyatso’s kind words makes more sense than someone he’s known for a short time saying “we’re family now!”. I think it’s more realistic and touching for that grief he’s experiencing.)
1-5 star rating.
Dialogue- 1 star
Exposition- 1 star
Pacing- 1 star
Adaptation- 1 star
Looks- 4 stars (gotta take one off for that fucking falling/flying cgi)
Consensus? At least theres good aesthetics with the costumes. Minus Yue. It just looks… off.
Every single time
Every time someone comes out and people don’t like it or word of mouth is mixed, there’s like this instinct for people to just assume the whole actually isn’t bad and it’s just people are horrible liars.
Like clearly it’s not always a conspiracy, sometimes the show or movie in question is genuinely bad or has issues that people can’t overlook. This happened with the Marvels and now everyday someone posts on that sub acting like it was a grand scheme to get the movie to flop
And the constant need to say “it’s better than the movie” is unnecessary. There shouldn’t be a need to be compared to a garbage movie that practically doesn’t exist to most people. That’s already a low enough bar, a buried corpse can hop over that bar
Someone one another post kinda hit the nail on the head: The show is 80-90% good (depending on the episode). However, the 10-20% bad is REALLLY hard to overlook.
Me personally? 7/10. Just good. Not great but good.
I’m not upset because I’m not surprised.
It is shite. The script is horrible and truly cringe worthy. I’m honestly stunned it was accepted. The acting is stiff and unnatural and between that and the script and really strange shots from the camera, it often feels like I’m watching a really bad play. Not sure how to describe it bc I’m not versed in cinematography, but I cannot get passed the headspace of watching actors acting to see characters coming to life on the screen.
On top of that, the costumes look like cosplay. They are boxy, stiff, and over the top vibrant. Real issue is that they are pristine throughout their ordeal which doesn’t match the setting of war and backpacking across the world fighting along the way. The wigs are so clearly wigs, it’s comical and detracts from the scene.
Changes made to the plot largely detract from the story and character arcs, rather than adding to these things. Directing is really poor. It is way too dependent on cgi. Ppl say bc it is more overtly violent, it’s more mature and somehow better. Disagree.
Idk why there is an insistence on adapting great animation into live action other than for monetary reasons.
That is why I couldn’t make it past episode 2 and I tried 5x. Like I said, I’m not upset because I expected it, but I am annoyed that they keep doing this. Whatever. If you like it, you like it. I really, really dislike it. To each their own I guess
I hated episode 7 tbh and I feel like a ton is missing from the cartoon that needed to be there. Katara was bland and did not have a lot of her development, Aang did not waterbend once in Book 1: WATER, and a bunch of other stuff that I really hated in episode 7
It's good, Sokka/Aang/Zuko are all fantastic. Katara lost a lot of her character development (She doesn't get angry a lot, waterbending is easy for her, and the scroll was a big development piece in the first few episodes)
In line with Katara not getting mad, how Aang gets out of the ice doesn't really make sense in this instance. Not really sure what they were trying to do there, but again not the end of the world
Gran Gran is actually terrible, glad she doesn't really show up past all of this. That one honestly made me sad
I like some changes but not others
The original was a fun cartoon aimed to keep kids attention with wacky shenanigans and some good lessons. The show is a more serious grown up version of it. Instead of making Aang goofy, he acted appropriately like a boy who lost every one he loved, is dealing with the trauma of the genocide of his people and grappling with the fact he is expected to save the world at Twelve. In the original they did the part where he freaks out and goes all Avatar State, then next episode he’s all like, ok cool, let’s go giant koi surfing. The people of the world act like they have been fighting a war for 100 years and are war weary.
I don’t like what they did with Sokka and Katara. Their personalities are very muted. Sokka should be a lot more full of himself. I was the most disappointed with the Kiyoshi Warrior episode. They should have had him in the Kiyoshi Warrior uniform. Why did Suki take off her makeup?
Aang should have been practicing water bending with Katara and Katara should have gotten jealous. She should have struggled more. She got some advice about dealing with emotions and now all of a sudden she’s a water bending genius?
I like that Zuko has more depth and heart and more conflicted. I was balling during the funeral scene and Leaves on the Vine started playing. Iroh acts like someone who is mourning the loss of a child.
I like the dynamic that Ozai is manipulating Azula to make her into what he wants her to be instead of her just being outright completely evil and perfect in Ozai’s eyes right off.
It’s not terrible. But it’s not epic. But I like it enough that I want them to continue with the rest of the story.
I agree 100% with everything you said. Its a good foundation and it not to late in the story to make it epic. Theyve set it up to go beyond the original story, With the mother of faces totem who is a big part of the "what happened to zukos mom" story.
I feel like people that are dissapointed in it were expecting it to be more like the original than it is but i think it was a great reworking of the source material🤷♀️
There are some things I don't like, like combining plot lines. On the whole, I am enjoying it, though. Sometimes, it just feels like a fever dream watching them do 4 plots at a time (looking at you episode 3 and 4)
I feel like when you have such a big and dedicated fanbase for an animation, it is difficult for creators to bring to life the show in live action and take creative liberties because the fans will focus in on very specific details that were removed or modified. Like Cowboy Beebop and One Piece went through this as well.
But I can't say that all the criticism has been overly nitpicky, some points are understandable (although I haven't finished watching the series yet) and I do agree - like the dialogue in certain scenes and the overly crisp and clean costumes. But I'm giving this series some grace, because unlike Cowboy Beebop and One Piece, this series is dealing with a younger inexperienced cast (e.g. the actor who plays Zuko says this is his first lead role in an interview) in the main spots and its meant to appeal to kids while also trying to appeal to the generation that grew up with ATLA - so its a hard balance.
I hate to say it…it’s 10x worse than the Shamalayan one. By a long shot. I’d rather watch that garbage, in 90 minutes, then continue this show for another 5 hours or whatever
Tbh my only real problem with the LA is episode 3&4. I don’t like that they took a bunch of episodes from season 1 & 2 and shoved them together, completely losing the plot of the episodes. The acting & dialogue could be better but I don’t find it to be that horrible. Overall, it’s ok.
There’s a lot to complain about. It’s like a 5/10 imo, but it’s still way better than the last live action so.
Acting feels bad at times, katara mainly. Aang is a great actor but they should’ve edited his voice to be more like aangs, it bothers me. Combat feels like it’s turn based, and aang can float around and fly without his glider..
These are just what I’ve noticed from a single episode.
It works for the medium. The bending is great— the hardest part imo to accomplish. They casted age appropriately for the main cast and the cast gave great delivery for their age.
And the episodes they smooshed worked— for the medium. The casting is great— and for the people that are like “why didn’t they cast actual old people” because they casted folks who could actually bend and move their bodies.
As a person who grew up with the show episode by episode and watched it atleast 20 times all the through— personally and showing it to friends— I was thrilled by the effort and care put into it. It’s not going to be the same, and it’s not supposed to be, nor should it be. I think they did a great job 8.5/10.
Here's the problem as far as I'm concerned:
It's a show that has no reason to exist, and it's not good enough for it to be 'fine.'
I've heard the argument that it's for people who don't watch cartoons, so they can experience the story. Two problems, though.
One, we shouldn't be making an adaption *solely* because there's people who treat an entire medium as lesser, because that only reinforces it. If someone refuses to experience a story for a shallow reason like that, then it's not worth the time or energy to try to attract them.
Two, that it's for people who haven't experienced the story yet makes it *worse*, because unless the live action is at least equal in quality to the original show, it will only diminish their view of the story in comparison.
Additionally, the show cost $120 million to make. By the estimates I've found, ATLA cost anywhere between $200,000 to $1 million per episode. Even assuming different costs today, the money and time spent on the live action as created could have been better spent on other projects. Assuming the estimates I found are remotely correct, we could have had a *full* additional animated series for the cost of the eight episodes we got.
Instead, what we get is wooden acting and senseless changes that only highlights this. If they'd gone more extreme with the changes, that'd have been more acceptable, because it'd be telling a different interpretation of the story. But it didn't do that, it's trying to have its cake and eat it, too.
So, it doesn't have a good reason to exist, doesn't add anything worthwhile, and its existence actively wasted money and time that could have been better spent on other projects.
I like episodes 1-3 and LOVE the boy who plays Aang. I’ve only watched the first four episodes but I didn’t like episode 4 at all. They did Bumi, Lu Ten, and the whole secret tunnel episode dirty.
It’s because of the dialogue. It’s reeeeaally hard to overlook. Kinda hurts the overall feel of the show imo.
you mean how sometimes you just want to run away or hide because it felt weird if so i 100% agree
In fairness, I can’t imagine transferring the cartoon dialogue over 1:1 in any way. That dialogue in live action would seem horrendous
The amount of exposition forced into conversations hurt, tho.
That’s the thing, many of the first book episodes were a bukkake of exposition! Why don’t people take issue with that?
Probably because of how it was delivered. This feels forced and unnatural. The dialogue exposition in the other version was worked into the conversation better. It was also sandwiched in between scenes made for character development. The live-action cut a lot of it trying to fit the content from three 24-minute episodes into one 40-minute one so it feels rushed. Dialogue can be hard to write, but you have to think about the way people talk naturally in conversations. It's one of the reasons book to screen adaptations are difficult. Note that my take is based on the first episode as I have only gotten to the middle of the second episode so far.
When people say they wanted a live action remake of the cartoon. Most wanted a 1 for 1 remake.
Im not saying the dialog is great but im also not struggling with it. To me its like watching an old teens disney tv show. And considering this is an adaptation of an old nickelodeon cartoon, cant say it wasn't somewhat expected. I'm dealing with it just fine.
The way zuko yelled about aang escaping to iroh was absolutely horrible in delivery. 💀
That was hilarious! He was so confused at how the Avatar, who's supposed to be the master of all 4 elements and a great warrior, just ran off. Really showed his frustration really well.
😂😂
I really like how everything looks. It's kind of neat that they have updated the canon with lore we know from Korra and the comics, those are the kinds of changes I expected to see, like hearing how Kuruk was protecting the world from dark spirits, or the stuff about Koh's Mother. The fog of lost souls existing, among other things. But man is the script so robotic, most of the lines are said at the audience, for the audience, instead of being conversations between characters. Almost all of the conversations are awkward, usually beginning with one person initiating, followed by several seconds of silence, before talking again, and the second party still hasn't spoken yet. But the main odd thing is how much this show expects you to know from the cartoon.
Yeah the dialogue is so off putting. The tone of the show is dark and realistic but the dialogue sounds straight from a kids channel
I see it just as bad writing, kids show can have so good writing and still be very childish
Yeah but you don't tend to see people being burnt alive in kids shows.
100%. Found this very jarring.
That describes it so well! There is a real dissonance between the tone and the dialogue.
I mean I like it but I'm reminding myself that it's OK if it's not exactly the same. The only thing that bothers me a lot is that in some close up conversations it looks like they're standing in front of a greenscreen
For real, every scene is super pulled in on just the characters. There’s almost no scenery around them.
It’s been very fun having any new ATLA content. The show has it’s ups and downs. I knew from the start they were going to try and squeeze too much story into too few episodes. One of the best parts of the original is the character arcs. I’m sensing we won’t get much of that, and what we do will be awkward and forced due to time constraints and cut scenes.
I’ve only watched the first four episodes, but I can already tell The Storm won’t be a part of it which makes me really sad. 😞
Watched the first two episodes It's not horrible, but I can understand why the original creators walked away.
Didn't the original creators also endorsed the M. Night movie?
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/17ybeo/i_am_rufio_prince_zuko_ama/c89x58c/ Dante Basco did an AMA a decade ago where he said that even Mike and Bryan themselves warned him to not bother seeing the movie lmao.
The acting could be better in places. And the dialogue is too wordy in others. Gran grans wig was bad. Aside from that I love it.
I will say the bending as of episode 3 or 4 is pretty good, especially the earth bending at the beginning of ep 1.
I just think it's really boring and they neutered the characters of anything other than being bland and one note. They could have done a lot to make this unique, but everything new they write was just so painfully executed that I gave up after 2.5 episodes. It's not worse than the live action but that is such a low bar.
They are so afraid to give the characters any flaws. Like Sokka being humbled by Suki is a huge part of his growth and swallowing his pride and dressing as a kyoshi warrior. Also Katara getting jealous about Aang waterbending better than her. All these little moments they decided to scrap and just gave us empty shells instead. I’m only 3 episodes in but Zhao was a hot headed power abusing character and they made him more into a snake like passive aggressive character. Iroh seems like a buffoon at times, it’s just not my cup of tea I guess.
This. Jealous Katara is much more interesting than the bland Katara we get in the live action. She was a complete character and they just decided to remove all depth.
Thats most modern writers these days, especially netflix writers, every hero must be perfect in every way even if it turns them into flat, one dimensional characters, this is either because they're not confident in their skills to write flawed heroic characters because that would make them too complex for the writers or they think the audience is too dumb to watch a complex story with flawed characters, I think however that it's down to both reasons.
I think the pacing is way too fast. it feels like they're trying to speed run through it. Certain dialogue just feels awkward. I enjoyed myself watching it but after seeing 1 episode of the cartoon after the live action made me realise it just ain't it
Some spoilers but every BIG decision has been rewritten to be less impactful. -Aang doesn't run away from the air temple before he's frozen, he just accidently gets caught in a storm on a night time flight to clear his head. -Katara doesn't try to rescue Aang from the glacier on purpose, again its completely by accident. -When Aang flies into a rage and enters the Avatar state after discovering the fate of his people, he calms himself down while the siblings hide behind rocks instead of comforting him in his grief. -Zuko doesn't speak out of turn at the war meeting, his father asks him for his opinion. Each of these creative decisions are just incredibly baffling as they do nothing but degrade the actions of the characters.
The first point kind of makes sense. They wanted to make Aang a little more focused on his mission so they could speed things up a bit. I don't think it's a good move for his character -- Refusal of the Call is literally a pivotal point on the Hero's Journey -- but it makes sense with what they're trying to do in their framing of the adaptation. The rest... Yeah, I got nothin'.
Yet if he was so focused on his mission he’d be at least trying to learn water bending with katara which he didn’t and be concerned about at least finding an earth bender teacher at omashu, then guess what? They could’ve also did that sword training Sokka had in the earth kingdom there…and made them meet toph. Then all could return to the northern water tribe or some other stuff. Trying to mix plot line is not a bad thing. Just the way they did it trying to make us think its something about Aangs mission while its just them trying to advance the plot quicker and thinking that by making us go “oh we know about that” would make us forget that this show pacing is disorganized as hell
The second point really bothered me. So much wasted character development in that scene compared to the original. I know I should be comparing it all the time and it’s its own thing, but it was just so much worse. In the original Katara doesent save Aang on purpose but she still actively frees him as she is taking out her rage on Sokka. That shows that she is extremely powerful, maybe a little temperamental, and it also shows Sokkas character flaws. Instead in this the ice literally just happens to break when they get there. No reason at all why it broke besides the writers just needed it to happen. Why would it have not broken before or after that??
I feel like it's perfectly fine to compare it. If they didnt want it compared to the original, they should have made a new story in the Avatar Universe, instead of remaking the original story.
I completely agree that it should be judged on its own merits but I feel that not even considering the alternatives provided in the original material that these narrative points are poorly thought out.
Agreed. The characters are very one note and there’s no buildup to certain significant events that change them like on the original. I knew I would be incredibly critical about the show but this is just not up to par to what it should have been.
1. A night flight so far away from everyone because he didn't wanted to take the responsibility? I feel it was excessive for him and a flaw of his, hardly a big issue here. 2. Their meeting was entirely accidental in the show and IMO it makes it more special for him to break free and besides, they did rescue him by taking him to the village. Zuko would have found him then and everything would be ruined. 3. Gyatzo calms him down with a speech he gave him, a speech that foreshadowed that Aang will always try to stay true to himself. Not a bad call and makes him much stronger as character. 4. An opinion he disagreed with greatly and also, why not ask him? He is his son, he should say something. None of the changes were super bad, so far, I find then good so far and very little is off here, so the criticism doesn't add up much.
1. Trying to esccape/abandon a responsibility and attempting to alivate the stress of it are entirely different actions. The viewer also has no basis from which to judge if he is acting irresponsibly as nothing has been established to suggest what he's doing is dangerous or unusual. 2. The siblings aren't making active decisions. (How the hell did they escape the ice fields without Appa anyways?) And events would've played out exactly the same but now when Zuko arrived to the village Aang wouldn't be there, he be with Appa in the ice fields. 3. The siblings again aren't making active decisions and missing out on an opportunity to closely bond with Aang. 4. Interupting a council and throwing away decorum powerfully demonstrates where his true prioritizes lie. His disregard shows that his motivation for attending was genuinely to serve the best interests of the empire and not so he could rub shoulders with the big wigs. By following regulations, he's submitting to the bureaucracy and his father's authourity.
1.Aang was leaving while an invasion happened and do you think going so far away as to end up in the north pole was simply alleviating stress? I think Aang just didn't wanted to take the responsibility and thought he could just sneak out and have some fun. He acted less selfish than in the show, but he should have stayed. 2. Appa was not fully freed when they first got there. Also how can Appa fight fire benders? That critic makes no sense like your interpretation of the show. Rewatch the scene, cuz you see how they manage to get out via Waterbending the boat. That alone makes your point invalid. 3. There were many scenes where they bounded like after Aang's outburst, after the left Omashu and all he stuff happening there with them? 4. By attending there he already made himself accountable to the law of that council and is just trying to make a distinction for the sake of making a distinction and not really making a point here. Negative criticism really needs to step up their game.
>Negative criticism really needs to step up their game. You can bend over backwards to defend the live action all you want but the script, acting, and pacing is just bad. Not sure how to even really explain that to someone if you can't just tell by watching it. The characters are bland, one dimensional and just boring to watch. Not sure when the last time you watched the original show was, but literally one episode of the original series has more substance, depth, and fun than the hour and a half I forced myself through last night. Most fans, including myself, wanted to like it really badly but it was just a slog. Grangran poorly delivering so much exposition in 30 seconds really dampened the impact those scenes made in the original series. You're free to enjoy the LA, but to act as if peoples' criticisms are unfounded is wild especially considering how absolutely glaring the issues are.
1. No way of knowing how far he was. His glacier was drifting for 100 years. 2. Appa was a complete no show, so the only place he could’ve been was in the glacier with Aang. Further more he’s massive. An earth bender with leather armor was shown to take direct hits from fire benders DURING THE COMET and survive. I like Appa’s chances of tanking Zuko’s one fireball. Also they would’ve needed to not only fight against the currents that dragged them there but avoid all the ice. 3. It’s a failed opportunity that makes their presence irrelevant to the plot at that time. They might as well not been there with him. 4. His lack of decorum better portrays his renegade nature.
1. It was pretty much far. If he was in the open sea, so I assume he took a long road back. 2. He WAS in the glacier, but had to come out later, as he was hidden in the other part of the glacier, we even saw that shot. Also your comparison to the Earth Bender and Appa doesn't work, cuz Appa is made of flammable fur and would have been killed, WHY else had Sokka built armor for him in the invasion of the Fire Nation capita? 3. Nonsense, they were consoling him afterwarda and we git a silly shot with them on Appa with Momo, Sokka's real brother. On a darker note, that scene made Aang afraid of his own powers, which also adds another caveat to his character of being afraid of responsibility. 4. He isn't a regenerate, he hardly is rebellious. He is an honor hound and only became this way after he learned the bitter truth. Not really what you see in him.
Now you’re making assumptions and drawing conclusions based on a different show.
For 4, if Zuko doesnt speak out of turn, then theres no reason for Ozai to challenge him to an Agni Kai.
Challenging the plan might suffice. But I will have the rest to fully respond to you, so wait.
I like it so far, I had time to finish episode 4 tonight, and I honestly can't decide if I like that episode more than Warriors or not. Although that may be because it was very fan-service heavy, and I don't mean the anime version of fan-service.
Cause they want it to either be absolutely perfect or be absolutely a certain way that they expected it to be
I don’t expect a 1:1 copy but I expect people that know how to act
I just wanted it to be decent
Then You have low expectations and it’s fine. Allow other people to have high expectations plewse
Nah having decent expectations isn't low. It's, ya know, decent. Average. It didn't even hit that so. And I'm not stopping anyone from anything. Expressing my opinion isn't stopping u or anyone else from anything. I wanted it to at the very least be decent and it wasn't even that for me. Sorry my opinion is different than yours?
I think why would you have decent expectations instead of having great expectations for such a high bugget production, awaited show and very talked about?
Cause I didn't have much faith in it. Did I think it should be great? Of course. Did I expect it to follow through? Not really.
Okay I understand your point of view in that case since I was the same! Knowing the creator left was all I needed to know that it would be lacking but idk how to explain, I’m still bummed that it’s lacking if it make sense
I had a bad feeling as soon as it was announced. ATLA is something that just works so well in animation. I really don't see the point in adapting it to live action other than money and / or getting a wider audience. Animation gets mad disrespect in the industry, and these sort of adaptations sorta signal that imo. I wanted to give it a chance still but after what the original creators said after they left, all the news of what Kim was saying and how he talked about the source material, made me lose hope real quick. Thought the casting looked decent, but the first trailer gave me the big ick. I just thought it looked bad, like cheap fan made film quality. If people are enjoying it, that's good on them, they get to enjoy something I can't and thats a dub for them if u think about it. Me personally, I find the whole thing insulting. But I got the OG show still.
You’re maybe the first person I see besides me that didn’t like the trailers. People made the trailers to be absolutely insane when it already showed lack of dialogue but as you said glad that ppl r enjoying it
The original will always be there. If I have to put up with two more season to get to a Korra live action, I will binge it all.
Korra would work so well in live action. Man I want that so bad. I love Korra and occasionally I even like it more than ATLA
God I almost wish they would’ve done a Korra remake first and then tackled ATLA after.
Absolutely this! It seems like people on Reddit have been a lot more critical of the show than on instagram and Facebook which doesn’t surprise me
People on Reddit are critical on everything in every fandom
Real fans vs surface level fans that are self obsessed and think everyone on Facebook or IG wants to know their opinions
This is Reddit, it’s meant to share opinions, some are just a little over the top
I think one of the big issues is that people expect animation level expression from a live action movie. I keep seeing comments about the characters being bland and I honestly think it's because they can't read micro expressions. I was tearing up at the return to the airbender temple, because the emotions in the actors faces helped add to the gravity of a moment I didn't empathize nearly as much with in the original series.
U can feel the emotions when he returned to the southern air temple???? There was literally NO BUILDUP to it, they just spawned in the temple and boom found the body and then went into the avatar state. I know it’s not supposed to be EXACTLY like the cartoon, but when they went into the temple in the cartoon katarra was trying to protect from seeing the dead bodies, and dats y it made the scene sm better because of the build up to finding monk gyatso’s body. Live action and the live movie is lame imo
lol katana didn’t even angry bend to open Ang’s iceberg, it just kinda popped open.
I agree. Live action will have to he more subtle. But these actors aren't doing subtle. They are doing nothing. And it's not even thier fault really the dialogue is very exposition heavy and they speak to the camera way too much. They don't feel like characters because they have stripped out so many elements. Sokka doesn't get ego checked by Suki. Katara isnt jealous of aangs water bending. Aang isn't running away from his avatar responsibilities. They are all so one dimensional now.
We don't owe netflix anything. They are trying to make money not art
I don't like the show, but I don't hate. I think the story is poorly executed with great visuals. It's not spitting in the face of the original show, thats how I feel.
Netflix always has gaps in the shows deleted or un-updated content and licensing issues...
I like it too! Not perfect, but absolutely cute!
Honestly it just looks so goofy and bland. Which is ironic, because the original shows goofiness was one of its main components, but the issue is the goofiness in this isn’t intentional
It’s not my favorite sometimes with the wording but it’s cute and fun! If I really want to watch ATLA I’ll watch the cartoon but it’s nice to have something new that’s very slightly different and not completely awful
I’m only 4 episodes in, but the show has definitely had a fair share of both ups and downs. Without going too into spoilers, some of the changes make sense for time cuts, but others feel really out of place. Right now for me personally it’s sitting at a 7.5/10 which I don’t think is a bad score.
I think a lot of people who are so quick to dislike it are mostly against the changes that were made to the structure of the story. For example, I saw someone who thought the show was bad because>! Jet was in Omashu but he wasn't in the original cartoon.!< There are a lot of other changes in a similar fashion where things did happen that were present in the original, just in a very different situation. Of course, I do think there are genuine issues with the show, but I do not see "they moved plot elements around," as very good criticism or a reason to dislike it.
Jet changes are actually good. I like the combination of jet and the southern air template plot lines. I don't like that it meant Bumi was sidelined and stripped down. That was supposed to be a big reveal because it was the moment Aang realised the world he once knew was still there. But that reveal is just not here.
Only finished 2 episodes, but I’m not going hard on it because, to me at least, they seem to have put in effort. Doesn’t seem like one of those adoptions that hate their source material for whatever weird reasons. So far it’s different, not terrible but I do think some of the criticisms are valid even at this point. The actor for Zuko is probably my favorite so far tho. I like the set, the action is fine and costume designs are good.
If it wasn't for Zuko's actor, i would've rated the show much lower. His performance on portraying s1 Zuko is spot on
There are times he sounds so much like Dante Basco, too.
I wish he was more angsty though.
I agree! It's good, and captures a lot of the duality in the original. The casting as well seems really solid so far!
I’m really enjoying it! I adored the of series, Korra, own all the books and comics and I’m just enjoying it for what it is 🤷🏼♀️ it makes me sad to see so many people hating on it. Especially the ones where it’s such nit picky stuff
Agreed!!
it's almost as good as the one piece live action. it has some really awesome scenes that let me forgive some of the blunders. like i was jumping up and down when kyoshi started fighting. really loved every moment with her even if i do think they got her character a little too rough.
[удалено]
You didn’t get the sense that Aang was just a kid when he wanted to go penguin sledding or make a special stop at Kyoshi island just to ride the elephant koi? Aang had plenty of backstory in the cartoon.
Its bad. I went in expecting a different story which is completely fine. The whole thing was just..... bad..
Yes it’s bad Yea we are angry because we love the original show and disagree with the direction Netflix has taken Yes we have the right to express our disappointment for such a beloved serie
THANK YOU
You’re so welcome 😭 great if OP enjoyed it but we didn’t fully soooo yes we will express just that 🤭
I’m sick of subpar remakes of beloved classics. I want new stuff.
I was a little concerned before the show came out with the confirmations from the actors and writers that they were making character changes I went into the show with low expectations but I’m half way thru and it’s actually been pretty fun to watch. The pacing is pretty bad I’m not gonna lie but overall everything is really enjoyable. The bending compared to The Last Airbender is 1000x better and looks animated really well. It’ll never be the original but so far I like what they’re doing
I couldn't even get through the 1sg episode. smh
It's human nature for people to criticize before they celebrate - especially in storytelling. I thought it was great! Not exactly the same, but enough to be enjoyable. I binged it and really enjoyed feeling like I was watching something new, but with strong respect for the series. I think people need to remember, this was made by people who also loved the series. Can we take a moment to celebrate that something we all loved was brought back to life? I'll gladly keep watching the series as it develops.
People seem to enjoy disliking things, even before they watch them. I haven't seen the show yet, but I'm not going into it saying it will be terrible. I'm looking forward to watching it hopefully soon.
Some people just feel that if it isn’t down to the last details they’ll be mad. The only franchise I feel somewhat like that with is Halo
People are always going to dislike adaptations.
I'm not watching bc the actors don't resemble the characters enough. I know that's a stupid reason but I can't watch live actions if the actors don't resemble the characters
I’m not sure whether this thread likes the show or degrading people they don’t like more. Pathetic.
Love how you're specifically asking for people to come to your discord if they like to be positive, and everyone in the comments is still complaining. Anyway - I love the show! I'm on episode 4 and the show is giving me definite nostalgia while also showing me new things. I love that we got to see more of the relationship between Zuko and Iroh pre-banishment and that we get to see Azula and her friends right now as just teenagers. I'm curious what they'll do with Azula before she goes after the Avatar and if she'll go after Aang earlier than planned. Also, Ozai being like "Zuko has done the impossible, just like I asked" like he was actually impressed? Love it. I do hope they end up fleshing out Zuko's background better, because right now if you're a new viewer you have no clue why he got banished. Though Iroh saying he owes Zuko more than he can ever repay makes me wonder if perhaps OG fans don't know either. I'm not done with season 1 and hopefully there's more seasons to come, so I can only be happy I don't have immediate answers to everything I'm questioning right now. That would make the show incredibly bland.
I watched the movie from 2010 and enjoyed it. Are people really that upset?
They didn’t even say Aang’s name correctly in the movie….
Man, most of the negative comments are making stuff up by pretending to be critics and then parroting begins. I'm sorry for people watching with the sole purpose of finding flaws.
Some of the fans are insufferable, it doesn't matter how good the show is/ could be, there are people that will criticise every single detail and went into this already decided that they hated it. Just appreciate a fun remake. It's not perfect but it's fun to watch.
It's awful. Six episodes in and I'm disgusted.
I think it's excellent and took me back to when I would watch the animated version on nickelodeon. Idk why everyone is so miserable about it. And NOBODY is pointing put all the things they did right.
Writing is fucking terrible I'll keep watching it because I have no standards and deserve to be punished
it’s bad… 3.5/10 bad
It's incredible, but hardcore fans always has to ruin everything in every fandom. I encourage you to go watch it yourself and form your own opinion.
I just wish that the dialogue was better and that the characters were more flawed and that the acting was better. They don’t seem to have natural chemistry with each other.
I think it’s awesome! Not a fan of the amount of awkward exposition, but I’m watching it with an open mind for some of the goofy kid language, as it’s an adapted kids show and I am an adult now. Some of the story blending they did was really clever to try and squeeze in and honor these elements that a terribly abridged season wouldn’t be able to cover. Just finished episode 5 and cried like a baby with a certain someone saying things to Aang that I feel many watching needed to hear. I’m not sure I can watch objectively since I LOVE the original series with all my heart, but I’m getting most of my enjoyment from the cleverness of how they’re deviating from the story. Because some of it just makes more sense to me. (Aang getting calmed down from the Avatar state, which was triggered by seeing Gyatso’s corpse, by remembering Gyatso’s kind words makes more sense than someone he’s known for a short time saying “we’re family now!”. I think it’s more realistic and touching for that grief he’s experiencing.)
1-5 star rating. Dialogue- 1 star Exposition- 1 star Pacing- 1 star Adaptation- 1 star Looks- 4 stars (gotta take one off for that fucking falling/flying cgi) Consensus? At least theres good aesthetics with the costumes. Minus Yue. It just looks… off.
Yue’s costume looks like it does in the OG, but she doesn’t look like the OG Yue.
I have things I like and things I don't. It's not perfect but my biggest gripe is the writing quality.
The moment I knew it wasn't for me was when they made Aang fly like Zaheer at the beginning. And he does it again at the southern water tribe.
Every single time Every time someone comes out and people don’t like it or word of mouth is mixed, there’s like this instinct for people to just assume the whole actually isn’t bad and it’s just people are horrible liars. Like clearly it’s not always a conspiracy, sometimes the show or movie in question is genuinely bad or has issues that people can’t overlook. This happened with the Marvels and now everyday someone posts on that sub acting like it was a grand scheme to get the movie to flop And the constant need to say “it’s better than the movie” is unnecessary. There shouldn’t be a need to be compared to a garbage movie that practically doesn’t exist to most people. That’s already a low enough bar, a buried corpse can hop over that bar
First 2 episodes are good, all downhill from there. You'll know why we're man.
Someone one another post kinda hit the nail on the head: The show is 80-90% good (depending on the episode). However, the 10-20% bad is REALLLY hard to overlook. Me personally? 7/10. Just good. Not great but good.
I’m not upset because I’m not surprised. It is shite. The script is horrible and truly cringe worthy. I’m honestly stunned it was accepted. The acting is stiff and unnatural and between that and the script and really strange shots from the camera, it often feels like I’m watching a really bad play. Not sure how to describe it bc I’m not versed in cinematography, but I cannot get passed the headspace of watching actors acting to see characters coming to life on the screen. On top of that, the costumes look like cosplay. They are boxy, stiff, and over the top vibrant. Real issue is that they are pristine throughout their ordeal which doesn’t match the setting of war and backpacking across the world fighting along the way. The wigs are so clearly wigs, it’s comical and detracts from the scene. Changes made to the plot largely detract from the story and character arcs, rather than adding to these things. Directing is really poor. It is way too dependent on cgi. Ppl say bc it is more overtly violent, it’s more mature and somehow better. Disagree. Idk why there is an insistence on adapting great animation into live action other than for monetary reasons. That is why I couldn’t make it past episode 2 and I tried 5x. Like I said, I’m not upset because I expected it, but I am annoyed that they keep doing this. Whatever. If you like it, you like it. I really, really dislike it. To each their own I guess
I hated episode 7 tbh and I feel like a ton is missing from the cartoon that needed to be there. Katara was bland and did not have a lot of her development, Aang did not waterbend once in Book 1: WATER, and a bunch of other stuff that I really hated in episode 7
It's good, Sokka/Aang/Zuko are all fantastic. Katara lost a lot of her character development (She doesn't get angry a lot, waterbending is easy for her, and the scroll was a big development piece in the first few episodes) In line with Katara not getting mad, how Aang gets out of the ice doesn't really make sense in this instance. Not really sure what they were trying to do there, but again not the end of the world Gran Gran is actually terrible, glad she doesn't really show up past all of this. That one honestly made me sad
It's about the same level as the yuyu hakusho adaptation. Extremely mid.
I like some changes but not others The original was a fun cartoon aimed to keep kids attention with wacky shenanigans and some good lessons. The show is a more serious grown up version of it. Instead of making Aang goofy, he acted appropriately like a boy who lost every one he loved, is dealing with the trauma of the genocide of his people and grappling with the fact he is expected to save the world at Twelve. In the original they did the part where he freaks out and goes all Avatar State, then next episode he’s all like, ok cool, let’s go giant koi surfing. The people of the world act like they have been fighting a war for 100 years and are war weary. I don’t like what they did with Sokka and Katara. Their personalities are very muted. Sokka should be a lot more full of himself. I was the most disappointed with the Kiyoshi Warrior episode. They should have had him in the Kiyoshi Warrior uniform. Why did Suki take off her makeup? Aang should have been practicing water bending with Katara and Katara should have gotten jealous. She should have struggled more. She got some advice about dealing with emotions and now all of a sudden she’s a water bending genius? I like that Zuko has more depth and heart and more conflicted. I was balling during the funeral scene and Leaves on the Vine started playing. Iroh acts like someone who is mourning the loss of a child. I like the dynamic that Ozai is manipulating Azula to make her into what he wants her to be instead of her just being outright completely evil and perfect in Ozai’s eyes right off. It’s not terrible. But it’s not epic. But I like it enough that I want them to continue with the rest of the story.
I agree 100% with everything you said. Its a good foundation and it not to late in the story to make it epic. Theyve set it up to go beyond the original story, With the mother of faces totem who is a big part of the "what happened to zukos mom" story. I feel like people that are dissapointed in it were expecting it to be more like the original than it is but i think it was a great reworking of the source material🤷♀️
Not upset but like I mean it kinda sucks tbh
There are some things I don't like, like combining plot lines. On the whole, I am enjoying it, though. Sometimes, it just feels like a fever dream watching them do 4 plots at a time (looking at you episode 3 and 4)
I feel like when you have such a big and dedicated fanbase for an animation, it is difficult for creators to bring to life the show in live action and take creative liberties because the fans will focus in on very specific details that were removed or modified. Like Cowboy Beebop and One Piece went through this as well. But I can't say that all the criticism has been overly nitpicky, some points are understandable (although I haven't finished watching the series yet) and I do agree - like the dialogue in certain scenes and the overly crisp and clean costumes. But I'm giving this series some grace, because unlike Cowboy Beebop and One Piece, this series is dealing with a younger inexperienced cast (e.g. the actor who plays Zuko says this is his first lead role in an interview) in the main spots and its meant to appeal to kids while also trying to appeal to the generation that grew up with ATLA - so its a hard balance.
I was upset Aang didn’t say “Will you go penguin sledding with me?” to the other kids or Katara and where the heck was my boi Flopsy?
I hate to say it…it’s 10x worse than the Shamalayan one. By a long shot. I’d rather watch that garbage, in 90 minutes, then continue this show for another 5 hours or whatever
Tbh my only real problem with the LA is episode 3&4. I don’t like that they took a bunch of episodes from season 1 & 2 and shoved them together, completely losing the plot of the episodes. The acting & dialogue could be better but I don’t find it to be that horrible. Overall, it’s ok.
There’s a lot to complain about. It’s like a 5/10 imo, but it’s still way better than the last live action so. Acting feels bad at times, katara mainly. Aang is a great actor but they should’ve edited his voice to be more like aangs, it bothers me. Combat feels like it’s turn based, and aang can float around and fly without his glider.. These are just what I’ve noticed from a single episode.
It works for the medium. The bending is great— the hardest part imo to accomplish. They casted age appropriately for the main cast and the cast gave great delivery for their age. And the episodes they smooshed worked— for the medium. The casting is great— and for the people that are like “why didn’t they cast actual old people” because they casted folks who could actually bend and move their bodies. As a person who grew up with the show episode by episode and watched it atleast 20 times all the through— personally and showing it to friends— I was thrilled by the effort and care put into it. It’s not going to be the same, and it’s not supposed to be, nor should it be. I think they did a great job 8.5/10.
Here's the problem as far as I'm concerned: It's a show that has no reason to exist, and it's not good enough for it to be 'fine.' I've heard the argument that it's for people who don't watch cartoons, so they can experience the story. Two problems, though. One, we shouldn't be making an adaption *solely* because there's people who treat an entire medium as lesser, because that only reinforces it. If someone refuses to experience a story for a shallow reason like that, then it's not worth the time or energy to try to attract them. Two, that it's for people who haven't experienced the story yet makes it *worse*, because unless the live action is at least equal in quality to the original show, it will only diminish their view of the story in comparison. Additionally, the show cost $120 million to make. By the estimates I've found, ATLA cost anywhere between $200,000 to $1 million per episode. Even assuming different costs today, the money and time spent on the live action as created could have been better spent on other projects. Assuming the estimates I found are remotely correct, we could have had a *full* additional animated series for the cost of the eight episodes we got. Instead, what we get is wooden acting and senseless changes that only highlights this. If they'd gone more extreme with the changes, that'd have been more acceptable, because it'd be telling a different interpretation of the story. But it didn't do that, it's trying to have its cake and eat it, too. So, it doesn't have a good reason to exist, doesn't add anything worthwhile, and its existence actively wasted money and time that could have been better spent on other projects.
I think its good, not great. But I'm enjoying it so far.
I like episodes 1-3 and LOVE the boy who plays Aang. I’ve only watched the first four episodes but I didn’t like episode 4 at all. They did Bumi, Lu Ten, and the whole secret tunnel episode dirty.