This beloved Nickelodeon franchise, has had an interesting run-up to this show. The original animated show is arguably the best and most beloved thing about it, and in all honestly, it's not hard to figure out why. It replicates anime quite well, the story and characters are loved and in all the serious moments the show had, we also got a bit of humour for good measure. When it ended, efforts were made to keep the franchise alive which started off with a lot of books and comic books (which had the bonus of being allowed to explore things that would otherwise not be allowed on the TV channel itself) including a prequel novel series. Lots of video games as well before finally getting a live action feature film based on the first season alone. But for reasons including having M. Night Shyamalan at the helm (you can connect the dots from there), it was widely considered to be one of the worst films ever made and the only good that came out of it for me, was how cute the actress playing the princess of the Northern Water Tribe was. Then we had a sequel series which focused on a new master of all the elements, but went for the approach of having different villains for each season instead of an overarching one, but was nevertheless well received and in its own continuation, explored things like LGBTQ+ themes. Finally, we got another live action take on the franchise which this is and on just the first few episodes alone, it manages to cover a lot of episodes in the show in just the short space of a few episodes and going down its own path. So let's see if this second live action adaptation is better than the first:
I won't go into the story too much because if you have seen the original animated series, it's very much the same story about an airbender called Aang (played by Gordon Cormier) who is said to be the last of his kind and the new Avatar, a being that can wield all the elements and save the world from major threats. After being freed from being frozen, he makes some friends and sets out to learn about the other elements and learn what it takes to become the avatar and stop the major threats that are coming, mainly from the Fire Nation.
I think in comparison to the film, this feels more faithful to the original animated series. It's not as slapstick as that series was, but you still get humour, a sense of fun and lots of serious moments too, all balanced out. Plus it also explores Aang's life before he was frozen and does a few things that the original show didn't do like to introduce the Fire Lord early on whom, unlike his film counterpart, is much more in line with his counterpart in the original series, if not just a little more menacing and unsympathetic. Everyone plays their parts well, and I feel glad that Nickelodeon finally made a good live action take on one of their most beloved shows and one that, already, is getting a season 2 and 3 which is good to hear. Room for improvement in some areas, but overall, definitely the live action Avatar: The Last Airbender remake that we want to see (well for me, it is anyway). 8/10
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