Netflix Avatar The Last Airbender is a Terrible Pointless Exercise
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- Опубликовано: 21 сен 2024
- You thought The Last Airbender movie was terrible so there is no way this Netflix TV show can be any worse...right?
In this episode of Journey Through Cinema we will take a look at the latest live action version of the hit animated show and see if it has what it takes to become one of the few good animation to live action adaptations. Or will it fall prey to similar issues that Disney has found with their translation of animation properties....?
Everything changed when Netflix attacked.
This show shouldn’t exist
Agreed
It's because none of these studio executives make a point of interacting with the creatives who work for them. The Bob Igers and David Zaslavs of the world couldn't care less about what their companies actually produce, and that attitude is what's showing up on screen.
And here we have someone at Netflix thinking that what fans of Avatar want is an almost carbon copy of the animation, but less good. I think it also comes down to these decision-making executives think that live action *has* to, or should, be taken more seriously, just on the basis of not being animated. It doesn't matter how many award winning animated shorts and movies come along, it will always be an inferior medium to these types of people.
Animation is sadly looked down upon.
1:45 We all know that Studios are terrified of this little thing called putting some goddamn effort into it, and taking risks.
3:16 To quote Lickboot "We've got to have... money."
4:45 M. Night Shyamalan would be proud.
5:54 I also hate how they flat-up turn A GENOCIDE into a spectacle, this is the Avatar version of the holocaust and this show turns it into a spectacle. Spectacle isn't inherently bad but genocide shouldn't be a spectacle because it should make us feel sad, not excited.
11:17 Even Season 2 of legend of Korra was trying to tell its own story and wasn't relying purely on nostalgia.
Second to last point is really good and I hadn’t thought of it. It does seem a little distasteful.
@@ajourneythroughcinema1271 You know with showing the Airbender genocide and condensing Aang's discovery of the Air nomad genocide I feel like the live-action series was more focused on the genocide overall rather than its effects on Aang which was what the original series was focused on. Which I think was a mistake because to quote Joseph Stalin "A Single Death Is a Tragedy; A Million Deaths Is a Statistic" (he may have been a horrible person but he was right when it comes to this). The reason we focus more on single stories like Anne Frank when studying the holocaust is because it's a lot easier to understand the tragedy of a few deaths vs the tragedy of eleven million deaths, so by that same logic it's a lot easier to understand the tragedy of the Air Nomad Genocide by just focusing on how it affects Aang rather than the genocide as a whole. To bring us back to the Holocaust comparison whenever good Holocaust stories told stories about mass killings they tended to focus on the perspective of single people. In summary, the original series made the Air Nomad genocide feel like a tragedy while the Netflix series made it feel like a statistic.
@@GOODYGOODGOOD789I don’t agree that the animated make it feel like a tragedy. The southern and northern air temple episodes are the only real time there’s any emotions attached to it. They basically destroy another one of the temples and aang doesn’t care. I love the original but aang having an immense guilt that affects his actions is one of my pluses for the live action series. Animated aang does work that out but going from genocide to riding giant fish doesn’t really make aangs story feel like a tragedy
@Maniac He goes from genocide to riding a giant fish because he wants to have fun because he's a kid, also when horrible things happen to people it's not unheard of for them to do things to cheer them up. Also, it's not that Aang didn't care that the western and eastern air temples were destroyed it's that we can't write in another scene of Aang talking about the death of the Air Nomads because that would be repetitive since he already that scene. Finally, no offense but Aang's guilt clearly affected his actions in the original series, because it's what progressed his arc of realizing that he couldn't run from his responsibilities.
When the writers keep using lines such as “I feel _____” or “We have to do ____” instead of showing character emotions or motivations, it removes so much from what the actors are able to portray. That’s why I think none of the actors are at fault here. You can see this best with Azula’s actress where you can tell she is trying to act cold, perfectionist and manipulative, but with lines making her sound whiny and needy. If they really wanted to delve into Azula’s poor upbringing, they had to show the most important dynamic, her lack of motherly love. It’s sad because I really liked the new ideas of showing the airbender genocide (should have been shown as a flashback vision when Aang visited the temple to have more impact) and what they did with the 41st to show Zuko’s empathy.
Yeah, dialogue was just clunky which is a shame. It lacked the punchy brevity of the animation counterpart. I think the actors were doing the best they could with what they had. Thanks for watching!
I mean you can add Bumi to the list. I think the actor for Bumi is amazing. He nails the mannerisms and overall behavior of Bumi. But the weird decision to make him cynical and bitter towards Aang which is so different from the cartoon. The actor cannot save that.
The first thing I did after finishing was going back to rewatch the animation
I may do the same lol
Im doing the same thing lol
My biggest problem with this adaptation among many others is the pacing of this series. I don’t know why Netflix has this incredible talent on messing up their own projects over the most avoidable things. I understand that we are dealing with real people that age. But bro, Netflix could have easily brushed off the fact that people age and focus on a slower pace so that they could take their time and allow for a more expansive approach of the avatar universe. They could’ve scraped off the idea that aang had a time limit in defeating the fire lord, that could’ve been a minor change. More important was letting the actors grow into their characters. The Omashu scene pissed me off lol. That was supposed to be a pivotal point in the dynamic of aang and katara’s love, but because of how rushed it was they couldn’t implement the kiss as it’d obviously feel inadequate it felt beyond flat and dull. This live adaptation would have benefited from a pace and production similar to Game of Thrones. Copy pasting the adaptation but then changing small details that made the show impactful to begin with is another dumb move. Bumi being too serious? Katara not being as empathetic and sassy? Aang not avoiding responsibility? Sokka not being sexist? Not showing gyatso taking down MULTIPLE fire benders via air vacuum or at least showing his dead body surrounded by multiple fire benders? Katara blocking zuko’s fireball instead of aang ? YUCK NEXT
I’m on episode five and have no desire to finish either.
The big reason companies like translating Animated media into Live-action is because it brings in a whole new audience. Many fantastic stories like ATLA has many advantage at being animated but just as many if not more disadvantages. Many people consider animation nothing more than for kids which is true for many animations. But ATLA has many dark things, emotional and interesting characters.
Translating animated media into live-action provides more audience from the general public.
I think It's when it's mostly cgi except real people that annoys me(except speed racer. I saw the passion in that). I liked it more when they tried in the 90s with the Flintstones etc. With the built sets that made me go "hey i would like to hang out there" or when hong kong and taiwan or even japan itself tried those live action Manga adaptations in the 80s and 90s with limited budgets. I like camp. Alot of these Don't have the same charm.
It’s not a perfect show, but I enjoyed it. Here’s a list of things the show changed that I believe were better than the animated
- Zuko’s crew backstory
- adjust why Zuko was banished (absolutely loved this whole arc)
- not letting generations of Northern Water Tribe sexism disappear because a girl had a necklace on
- making Zuko a little more pathetic, he is still a teenager finding his footing
- Ozai testing Azula (various ways)
- fire bending is terrifying
- aang continually grapples with guilt
- Sokka having leadership doubts
- Bumi not being a dumb pacifist. Probably one of my few gripes with the animated series
- Bumi holding some resentment about the avatar disappearing
- the past Avatars being imperfect, having pain and actual scars from their life’s
- being the avatar kind of sucks, having the weight of the world doesn’t lead to a happy life
- no awkward puppy eyes from aang toward Katara, if it was in the show it would be so cringy
- Geography, while it’s explained it feels like team avatars travels actually have meaning (oh we’re further north, we’re running into fire nation troops more)
- Azula using Zhou as a pawn was interesting
- Adults actually taking action (see Kyoshi island, the firelord, and GranGran)
- aang actually has to figure out what being the avatar includes
- aang has a fear of hurting people, he’ll probably have to grapple with that in season 2
- no great divide (happens off screen)
THIS! People are being way overly critical of an adaptation of a kids cartoon lol 😂
perfectly put and I agree with almost all of these points. I loved most of the things they changed.
@@mattcollins3591 It misses the point of the original. Sure, there are good points here and there, but that doesn't take away from the fact it doesn't get what made the original good in the first place.
@@EliasJWhite And what is that? Specifically? I think the new series was fine. In fact, better than fine. I thought it was really quite good. It retained much of the interpersonal, cultural, and moral complexities of the animated series. It remained pretty true to the plot line, with some changes to accommodate for run time (they retained beloved storylines that they could easily have just thrown out. But because that would have made fans angry, they kept them in a modified form, like in the Omashu episodes). They also introduced really fantastic special effects (which was an area that the Shyamalan movie utterly failed at). They also made sure that they didn't just cast a whole bunch of white people with a couple token Asian cast. They made a real point of representing actors of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Inuit, Eskimo, Indian descent. The show obviously has some failing, and it wasn't perfect by any means, but I feel that all the 'Purists' are being completely out of proportion in their criticism. I for one am very happy that they made this remake, and I eagerly await the subsequent seasons.
@arter_art The original is very much an anti-colonialist story with a lot of depth, and the live-action tries to remove the meaning from the story. They try to turn the Air Nomad genocide into an exciting action sequence. It's very hollow and resembles the original in a very shallow, superficial way. It might have occasional moments of meaning, but the surprisingly deep kids show that said that we don't have to recreate cycles of violence is not there. And people have pointed out that the Chinese characters are not very accurate to the language. Apparently, the appropriate research wasn't done in that regard. Just because they didn't whitewash the cast doesn't mean it's free of issues. The actors deserved better than a show where a First Nation actress has to tell the Filipino Canadian actor that experiencing a genocide made him "a stronger person." That's insulting. In the original, she assures him that he has a family, not that losing his people made him more capable of fighting the enemy. I think calling people who didn't like it purists is unhelpful and condescending. Most people don't like Disney remakes, and they're not called "purists." They just don't like corporate, nostalgia cash-ins. And while this live-action version is better than the movie, that doesn't mean this version isn't hollow. If wanting the integrity and heart of an anti-colonialist story maintained makes me a "purist," then fine, I'll be a purist.
“Put more money on Michael and Brian’s pockets, so they can go and make something new.”
YES.
It's such a shame because I would adore a new story in this setting. There's so much potential and recreating the world and magic in live action was all people really wanted to see. I think it would really work as a theme park land as well. I definitely won't bother checking it out. The only people I've seen watching it were hate watching it. Great video!
I’d go to that theme park! And I agree. I think they did a serviceable job at recapturing this world in live action but did themselves a disservice by having to struggle to live up to the original series. Thanks for watching!
4:28 THIS is what really got me immediately when I started the live action. I loved that in the original it takes time for both the characters and audience to see and understand what's going on in the world. But in the live action it's all laid out for you immediately and with no subtlety.
Like yes in the cartoon we know that aang is the last Airbender from... The name. But we don't see the intricate planning and execution of the genocide before we get the more important thing, the establishment of the characters
Same issues and problem with the miserable, soulless Percy Jackson series. It's finally what led me to cancel my subscription to Disney+.
The live action version of these shows is more of a lecture than tv shows, I don’t understand why why it’s so much harder for them to show us whatever needs to be shown and not to be lectured.
Anyway, that’s why I always preferred movies and tv shows with 2D animation than their 3D animation and live action counterparts.
Actually the live action HTTYD is universal idea not dreamworks from what I read. Since universal is the parent company of dreams works they technically own HTTYD.
Good catch! Thanks!
It actually worse since they sucked all the spirit of the original show!!
I don’t want to watch this with my child and my child does not want to watch this with me😢
I agree… but all of this and you didnt even finish it lol. It gets worse
Have you considered comparing the adaptations of "Mo Dao Zu Shi"?
The cast and visuals are great. It's def unfair to blame the actors as they did a great job (with what they had). Episodes 1 & 2 were fine even with some of the changes.
The rest "Omashu" on were terrible (story wise). Episode 6 was a nice break as it was one of the episodes the OG Creators had a hand in.
Generally, they lost the heart and soul of what made the series so good. They gave us way too much up front and messed you really important story: King Bumi, Sai, Jet, secret tunnel, and don't even get me started on "Spirited Away" (why the heck were Katara & Sokka in the spirit world?! and why were so many spirits there so soon). They watered down how awesome Katara is and WHY DID AANG NEVER LEARN OR DO WATER BENDING THIS SEASON?! There were just so many important story things they got wrong or rushed or completely omitted.
I was left so annoyed and empty because I really wanted to like this show. I really like the actors. The story is just so bad.
i think one piece was a good adaptation
Same here!
Well said. Soulless adaptation. Character assassinations.
No blame on the actors though. The lines were simply off.
First, they say they're changing certain things to make it better for live-action, the next second they're flying through plot points to fit them all in. Detailing is what makes anything feel authentic and develops an emotional connection. There was absolutely none of that.
Avatar could have worked... but the writers dont know how to write a story.
There are certain reasons ppl still in love with the OG animation. U just can't delete most of them and try to compensate with flashy CGI, then say "take it as something different". It doesn't work. Fans stay fan for so long for certain reasons. U can't take away those reasons. U can't say accept whatever we are presenting since it has same name/IP.
This has become a disease in current entertainment industry. They lost ability to create their own classics so what they do is vandalize already existing ones in greed of cashing the nostalgia and loyalty of fans, then ignore the same fans while making it. The biggest culprits are the ones who keeps saying "it wasn't that bad", "they are not same" or "don't judge them too early" and defend such mediocre and awful stuff. Fans doesn't show up to see how u can twist their loved franchise, they show up to see the thing they love once more, maybe in a new setup. U can't change characters, story, theme and say "just accept it. U are a fan, no? How can u dislike ur own favorite show since it has same name?". The backlash is pretty strong now as u see in Disney and Marvel. We seen what happened to Snow white. There is still time to understand why such adaptations don't work at all, unless u love backlashes and losses.
Just showing One Piece is on another level
The one piece live action may look good, but it's story and character writing is just as bad as this. A lot of changes for the worse.
Katara Didn't need training. Katara is already a master teaching worthless guys how to do it. Paku's relationship with Gran Gran was too oppressive to have. Paku needed to be given full on lecture to show bad mysogyny is. Aang didn't even need to train since master Katara is there 😂😂😂.
Yup! Perfect show. Nothing wrong there. Very transparent characterizations. Just glad they still killed the princess which probably was gonna be changed as it felt 😂. It might be another sign of women oppression for them
Huge fan of the original, and I enjoyed the live action as well (as well as approximately 85% of viewers) Was it great? Hell no, but who cares i enjoyed it. But a lot of people go through life thinking that their glass is always "half-empty". These are the ones who are more concerned with finding every flaw possible in life instead of just going with the flow and enjoying the process.
There are real issues in life that i care about more then weather or not this show is a carbon copy of the original.
Hopefully we get a second season so i can see my girl Toph.
U can enjoy it all you like, that doesnt make it good lol
Completlry disagree with your take and that's okay. Because we habe our own opinion and yours isnt fact.
These remakes are not for us old folks. They're for kids who wouldn't want to watch those old looking cartoons. These kids don't have the same nostalgia that I think at least 50% of the "quality" of those old films relies on from our point of view (the old folks).
Id believe u if u werent wrong lol the kids i baby sat watched the first 20 mins and asked me to change it to the cartoon
This is the best opinion I have heard
At least they didn't butcher it
BIG step up from Shamalan’s version and, like I said in the video, I enjoyed it more than Amazon’s two big budget fantasy attempts.
Its alot worse then you think unfortunately.
one piece was awesome
If you think this is a "beat for beat" recreation of an original classic, you haven't watched the Netflix adaptation.
Netflix knows that fans are going to watch the live action series. If they made it the same as the anime classic, "beat for beat", it would be BORING.
Instead they've recreated the magic of the original series and added new twists to it. It's a delight to watch.
It's one of the worst written Netflix series I've watched. And that's saying something. One Piece was a bit inconsistent in the later episodes, but at least it captured the characters and was fun. This adaptation has some nice vfx and some of the clever additions around Zuko's story are nice in a few moments. In exchange every other character has become a boring blank slate. Katara's character is now a meek little sister without even an ounce of the anger and desperation of a child whose entire family was destroyed by an all powerful empire.
Sokka has nothing to learn on his journey, Aang has had his core reason for living with guilt that is so moving stripped from him (because he ran away before he could realize his people would need him to survive) and instead just wandered off during a massive invasion, and has ALSO lost his spark that makes him so joyful despite that guilt. Basically every character has become less compelling than your average marvel origin story.
@@Alic4444 Sokka learns the same lessons on Kyoshi Island as he did in the anime version. However, Sokka isn't a raging sexist, so Suki sees no need to humiliate him into learning a lesson.
Aang learns that if he had stayed, he would have died along with the rest of people and therefore his guilt is misplaced.
Katara learns that she is a natural waterbender and needs no affirmation from others to be a master.
Pakku learns that he needs to let go of tradition. He's not a raging sexist and he didn't learn this lesson because he used to be betrothed to Katara's grandmother. He learned this lesson from his experience with Katara and the other women in the tribe.
Yes, they are telling a DIFFERENT story. It's based upon the anime series, but it's not the exactly the same.
I have no problem with them telling a different story. It would be boring, otherwise.
And as for them being like Marvel characters, I had no problem with Captain Mar-Vel being a woman, when in the original comic, he was a man in love with Una, a medic on his star-ship. His commander was trying to send Mar-Vel on missions that would lead to his death, so the commander could have the lovely medic Una.
Change is good. Like Master Pakku, embrace it!
There is no magic in this superficial bs
socca isn't learning the same lessons then bc he is not the same character in the beginning and after book 1@@terryjwood
well for your initial question, the reason that studios are doing live-action versions of these old animated shows is to appeal to newer, younger & possibly wider audiences. this is because live-action is more mainstream than animation (especially in the style of anime). but it is also much more expensive to produce so nobody is willing to risk that kind of money on something that isn't guaranteed to earn it back. avatar has proven it has enough of a previous audience to make such an investment easier to swallow & any new fans will just make the show an even bigger success, on & off the screen (think merchandising etc).
either way, i'm a long-time anime fan & enjoyed the original cartoon of avatar & this, i thought, was def one of the better anime-to-live-action adaptations netflix has done. but it's the first season only & i think we're off to a pretty good start.
I was kinda unclear if you even watched it until about half way through the video.
I still don’t know if he watched all of it. I see a lot of people raging after one episode. The Omashu episodes should have been stretched a bit further. The setting could’ve had a whole season of intrigue with all the separate original stories interacting with each other. Bumi was a disappointment but I enjoyed the mechanist and Jet
@@Civil_Maniac he said towards the end of the video that he had not finished the season yet and was not sure if he was going to. I was just kind of confused for the first half of the video with the words he was using. He just made it kind of unclear if he was actually talking about the show itself or just the fact that it existed.
This video was made after the first five episodes.
Brother. Live action allows for more human and relatable physical emotional expression. It's not that hard of a concept to grasp. This was a waste of 11 minutes. Also much of the actual meat of the story was changed to make more sense for characters decisions and emotions, like Bumi.
I disagree strongly with the first point and on the second point, I disagree with the effectiveness of such changes.
Agreed, I watched it back to back last night. I thought it was charming and loved it. Some people just like to write rubbish for clicks. Its always not as good as the original, not as good as the book, too woke etc etc etc
@@ajourneythroughcinema1271not really something to disagree with… it’s just true.
That's the problem, the live-action with your so-called "obvious" advantages in terms of emotional expression, failed to make even half as much of an emotional impact as the anime.
The way they produced this, they might as well have written a book and called it a day.
This show was average on its own and way worse if compared to the cartoon.
@@alikazi997no shot you called it an anime..
No lol 😂 it’s not perfect, but it’s NOWHERE comparable to anything that Disney has put out recently. Calm down.
Jeeze it's not that bad 😂
I hought it was brilliant. what you forget is some people want to see humans acting. I teared up a few times on it. If you cant understand that most people emote better with non cgi/animated people then YOU have the problem.
so, I personally dont care and I like a lot of anime.
Why would you compare ALTA (magic kung fu) with the little mermaid. Find a more compelling parallel. Also you are close minded. If you want to watch the animation, watch the animation. Avatar studios is making more animated content, too, so just be patient. But don’t discredit all the hard work of the people behind this project. There was a demand for the live action avatar, whether you were a part of that audience or not. Sure the writing sucked and there are some discontinuities, but dude no OG ALTA fan is going to think Netflix did a better job. This was a passion project especially by the cast. Get over yourself and just go watch the animated version. Or at least give the cast some credit.
Jesus Christ!!!
I do not think you watched either the cartoon or the Netflix adaption.
I say this with absolute honest.
Everything you just stated about what you the Jungle Book and One Piece adaptions can be said about the Avatar adaption.
Many other review talk about how its not like the cartoon enough, but there is some great stuff about it. Saying its not the same.
Yet, you are here saying it the same beat for beat thing. That's Utter Bull$h!t!!!
Many changes where made and some would say tell a great but different story.