Television @lemmy.world EarthlingHazard @lemm.ee 9mo ago

Netflix Avatar review: another live-action cartoon misfire

www.theverge.com Avatar: The Last Airbender is everything that’s disappointing about Netflix’s live-action cartoon shows

Netflix’s live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender is in too much of a rush to be truly magical.

Netflix’s live-action Avatar has its heart in the right place, but its pacing and uneven performances leave a lot to be desired.

59 comments

Please let's all remember that these are child actors, and they are no responsible for the poor writing or direction in the show. We can be sure they have worked extremely hard and poured their lives into this show, and the ones we should be disappointed with are the showrunners.
- If the acting is bad, we can be mad at the casting director as well. It doesn't really matter if they're child actors, that doesn't make them immune from being called bad actors. They don't deserve to get dunked on or solely blamed for the show, but let's not pretend they don't play a part in its quality. If they were amazing actors, I'd assume you'd have no issue giving them praise? Why is the opposite not true?
  
  The problem is people tend to go way the hell overboard when it comes to criticism and some child actors can't handle it. Look at what happened with Jake Lloyd as an example. Best to just leave the children out of the criticism and make it about the adults who made the decisions.
  
  Complete false equivalency. Do you think positive and negative are the same thing?
- I've only watched the first 2 episodes, and yeah some of the performances come off quite bad, but I think the editing is at least partially to blame. They hold on characters too long and at odd moments completely destroying any sense of natural tempo in conversations.
  
  yeah there was at least one scene where I was like "what the hell, the actors are awkwardly looking at something that isn't there, you clearly could have cut away from that take!"
  
  Btw we have some discussions for the first few episodes on !avatar@lemmy.world if you want to weigh in there
  
  I think it was fine overall. But this is one of the few shows where I actually prefer the dub of my native language because the voice acting was rather underwhelming. To be fair the German voice cast is the same as the original show so they have more than 20 years of experience and nostalgia might play a role too 😁
Even with each of its eight episodes clocking in at about an hour each, it would have been difficult for Netflix’s Avatar to hit all of the same beats as the lengthier cartoon.

Ah well theres your problem. I was actually rooting for this to be good but surprise surprise, Netflix is still shit.
- I mean, to be fair, 8 episodes at 1 hour each is more or less the same runtime that 20 episodes of ~20 min each. The problem is not the amount of episodes, it's just bad direction.
  
  Same runtime maybe, but not the same pace. Would you have them just switch from one story to another a third of the way through the episode?
  
  Better direction would probably help but fitting multiple episodes from the original into a few here seems like its asking for issues. But as you said, bad direction is more the issue. Im sure someone will make a better ATLA live action at some point.
- They got my hopes up with One Piece.
That's a shame.

The One Piece live action blew me away. I had the lowest expectations too, so it was quite a surprise.
- Really? I thought it was adequate at best.
  
  Had you seen it before? The live action was my first real introduction and I really enjoyed it.
Just finished watching Episode 1. Don't care what the reviews say. It's a great show. Decent acting and pretty good SFX. Looking forward to Ep. 2.
Watching the latest trailer it’s very easy to see the poor acting. It’s pretty bad when you catch a 3 second glimpse of a scene and can see in those few seconds just how poorly the acting and dialogue is, ooof.
Wait until you go back to watch the original cartoon and find it's just a competent kids show for two seasons and one season of rushed nothing.

Maybe the reason these adaptations keep not working is because the source material isn't actually the magnum opus the people who watched it when they were 10 years old think it is.

Maybe it's just cursed, but the conversation around this show feels a lot like Star Wars that way.
- I was 25 when the show premiered and watched it a few years later based on recommendations from a colleague. Me and my wife loved it, it's definitely not just a show that only works for 10 year olds.
  
  And neither is the live action netflix one at this moment. Nostalgia colors everything, showing it in a bad light. People saw the colorful cartoon, and can't bear the fact that lighting is darker in live action for example.
- It's funny you think that. I did watch the animated show when I was much younger and gave it a rewatch recently. I'm in my early 30s and as far as animated TV shows go it's still one of my favorites
- My kid and I have watched the show a dozen times. I couldn't disagree more.
- I was 21 when the original first came out and I thought it was excellent then. Definitely not just for kids.
- lmao they hated him for telling the truth
Me and my family like it. They grew up with the original and didn't know a live action was in the works until I started it up yesterday.

We also liked Netflix's Cowboy Bebop but all the neckbeards managed to cancel it fast.
- Yeah I liked bebop, and one piece, and this too. The only note I would have on this is regarding iroh. It seems like the actor is playing him 100% sober, so we lose a bit of the iroh charm I think.
  
  I really really like Paul Sun-Hyung Lee. He was amazing in Kims convenience. In my opinion he does a pretty good Iroh. Overall the cast is very good Zuko, Sokka are pretty spot on. I'm not a die hard fan of avatar. But I liked the cartoon and enjoy the show. I don't get the hate. I mean after watching uncharted...
Is it at least better than the first one?
- Much better. This one does not make me want to go to Lake Laogai and get brainwashed.
  
  There is no Avatar movie in Ba Sing Se
M Night Shamalan get bored or something? Wasn't his movie a big enough kick in the dick?
- There is no movie in ba sing se
Sadly bad live action will devalue rare good live action shows like One Piece, because people will skip it as being another bad show, while it isn't.
Wow. Check out the reviews on Imdb. This is what thousands of fake reviews look like.
- Compare this graph to the most well received movies and shows. Let's say, The Godfather. This allegedly got way, way better reviews than The Godfather.
  
  This looks like a pretty normal statistical distribution. Just glancing at it. What makes you think it's thousands of fake votes? I'm genuinely curious what you are seeing.
  
  I did not care for The Godfather.
  
  What? Godfather has around 2million reviews, this show has a few thousand
Why did they make it so dark and gritty? That's my main complaint having seen the first episode.
- Did they? I think they made the scenes with the actual, you know, war, more dark and gritty. But there are plenty light hearted scenes with Aang just being a kid?
  
  Btw we have some discussions for the first few episodes on !avatar@lemmy.world if you want to weigh in there

59 comments