Live Action Avatar the Last Airbender

This live action adaptation is riddled with problems. And the biggest one is that all these problems are really easy to fix. They are stupid mistakes and it feels like a film students senior project and not like it was made by professionals and developed over years. Most of the technical elements are at about 70-80% but that last 20-30% is very incohesive. I am holding out hope that the first episode is not indicative of the overall season quality.

We are flying to Kyoshi and these characters are finally starting to resemble themselves. Aang has adopted Momo, Sokka’s banter has kicked in and it seems that the director has finally let these kids do their damn jobs. Zuko and Iroh are also starting to sound like themselves. Wow this really should not have taken a whole episode.

The warriors of Kyoshi look AMAZING. The costumes and the makeup look great. Suki is the best casting choice of this entire situation. The way the warriors move together is very nicely choreographed. The second episode finally settles into itself and starts feeling like it should. We get to laugh a little bit more, Aang actually seems like a kid and the line delivery and dialogue start sounding like polished drafts instead of first tries.

Suki kicking Sokka’s ass could have gone on a bit longer, that’s my favorite part. Now that I think about it, the warriors of Kyoshi should have been my second clue that I was a little gay. Just to be clear, Sokka learning from Suki is not character growth because it doesn’t come from anywhere. The stupid, sexist little comments mean that when he does start training with Suki he has grown and it takes humility. All of that is gone now. Sokka is a hollow shell of who he should be right now. There is no build up, and no depth to his character. We know that he’s Katara’s big brother, and he's not a bender and that is all we’ve got. There is nowhere for his character to go because there is nothing to him now.

Having Suki and Sokka get together so early is also feeling really forced. Things are just happening too fast and with so much exposition that there is no build up. There is no tension, no emotion, no connection to these moments that are supposed to be really impactful. It's also really going to cheapen Sokka and Yuia’s relationship, provided they don’t screw that up entirely. I kind of love that we got more screen time for Kyoshi, she has always been my favorite Avatar so seeing her kick some ass was really awesome. I feel like the animated series only did it in glimpses which is totally fine but I am in love with Kyoshi and I am glad she got her well deserved screen time.

The second episode was infinitely better then the first one and though that makes the show more watchable, Netflix should have come out swinging in the first episode. You never want to “save” your quality stuff for later, especially in a world where things get canceled after one season, but something with as many eyes on it as Avatar the Last Airbender, not putting your whole body, soul, blood, sweat, and tears into your first episode is a mistake. People should not have to wait for you to get your shit together, I hate every show that people tell me to watch where they go “just wait, it gets good” bitch why didn’t it start good?