Avatar: The Last Airbender

In a world where certain people have the ability to manipulate (bend) one of the classical elements, earth, air, fire, or water, Aang (Godon Comier) finds out he is the new Avatar, the only person that can master all four elements and bring harmony to the world. Learning this knowledge, he takes a ride on his trusty air buffalo, Appa and gets lost in a storm.  At the same time, the Fire Benders attack in hopes of killing the unknown Avatar, the only person who can prevent their plan of world domination.  Aang, still lost in a storm, crashes into an ocean and just before perishing, his Avatar powers activate and some how he is frozen in ice.  One-hundred years later he awakes, and discovers that the Fire Benders are still waging war on the other elemental benders, and are winning with heavy casualties, and the Airbenders were completely wiped out, until Aang awakens.  Finding everything he loved (except for Appa who survived with him) to be gone, he takes on the responsibility he was given so many years ago, to bring peace and harmony to the world.

I think I am one of the few people in the world that did not watch the cartoon.  I always meant to, as it looked amazing, but I just never got around to it.  So, I know very little about the source material.  I did see the movie, which was not very good, and I honestly have forgotten most of it.  So, after seeing the trailers for the new live action series, I was very excited and thought this is going to be amazing!  And once again I find that if I go into something with high expectations, I am inevitably disappointed. At first, I wasn’t actually sure I was disappointed, because I did enjoy the first episode, but the more I thought about it, the more it just didn’t live up to my preconceived hope of a quality production.

The entire first season, all eight episodes, were released simultaneously on February 22, 2024.  I only watched the first episode, so not sure if these elements remain true throughout the series.  First, let me start with the good.  The casting I thought was well done and there wasn’t an actor that I disliked in the role. The fight choreography was well done and many of the fight scenes were visually stunning and exciting, although they did overdo the use of slow-motion bits. The overall cinematography was beautiful. I especially thought the costumes were exquisitely crafted.  The world is modeled after many different Asian and Indigenous cultures and mythology, and I felt they did a good job capturing this in the look and feel of the episode.  Now, for what I didn’t like, and it is really only one thing that spoiled the show for me.  The writing I just felt was clunky and sort of bad.  Not the worst I have ever seen, but much of the exposition was repeated over and over again, while other pieces that could have been revealed weren’t even talked about.  The dialogue didn’t always feel natural and just had an odd rhythm to it.  This just made the whole episode feel disingenuous and awkward.  I will say it again, I enjoyed the episode and it wasn’t necessarily bad, but it just wasn’t what I was hoping for.  And from what I am seeing people post on social media, I am not alone.  The overwhelming consensus, at least from the people I follow, is, “Well, it was better than the movie”.