Summary
Avatar: The Last Airbenderfans have been down this road before. First, there was an announcement of a live-action adaptation, garnering excitement and some hope for a possible redemption after the mess that was M. Night Shyamalan’sThe Last Airbender. Then Netflix released a clear look of the actors in their outfits, which raised the level of excitement across the internet as it started to look more and more faithful. Now, the streaming behemoth dropped the official trailer for its live-actionAvatar: The Last AirbenderTV series.
Rightfully, some fans remain skeptical, wanting to seeNetflix’sAvatar:The Last Airbenderseries in its totality before passing judgment because it does look better than its first live-action iteration. The buzz around the internet is overwhelmingly positive. The characters look fantastic and even a little improved with some stylistic choices. Not to mention, Appa and Momo show up. However, those skeptics might have the right idea, as the trailer didn’t give fans much more to get excited about.
What was Wrong with M. Night Shyamalan’s Adaptation?
There was a healthy level of excitement when M. Night Shyamalan announced his live-action movie,The Last Airbender. Fans were evenly divided after its first teaser, as some were upset with some notable inaccuracies to the source material, while others were willing to give it the benefit of the doubt until they watched it themselves. However, when fans found themselves in their seat and saw one of the first scenes of the movie, regret overwhelmed them for the following one hour and 43 minutes.
For starters, Shyamalan completely missed the ethnic representation of the series. He utterly whitewashed Sokka, Katara, andmembers of the Water Tribe, which took inspiration from Inuit and Yupik cultures. The animated series' creators drew much from China for the culture of the Earth Kingdom. Knowledgable fans can find many similarities between Ba Sing Se’s royal palace and China’s Forbidden City. The Fire Nation symbolically represented Imperial Japan from its architecture and wardrobes to its topography. Finally, it’s easy to see the various similarities betweenATLA’sAir Nomads and Tibetan Buddhists, Shaolin Monks, and even some Hindu influences.
The movie’s most prominent flaw was the way Shyamalan represented the bending powers. In the animated series, benders needed their element nearby to bend it to their will. Thus, Katara always carried a pouch of water with her. However, Firebenders didn’t have the same prerequisite for their abilities because fire is a naturally occurring event, whether it’s lightning strikes or friction.The Fire Nationis more spiritual with their abilities, as Uncle Iroh said:
The people of the Fire Nation have desire and will, and the energy and drive to achieve what they want.
They use the energy-burning within their being to manifest flames rather than control the physical manifestation of fire, although they can do that too. This is what makes theFire Nation so powerful. Shyamalan’s film reduced them to a group of people running around with Bic lighters. It’s a wonder how they consolidated so much power in his adaptation from the beginning.
Shyamalan completely neutered the strength of the Earth Kingdom, requiring a dozen earth benders to lift a pebble and throw it at a single prison guard. In contrast, the original series portrayed individualEarthbenderswith the ability to nearly move an entire mountain. A lot was lost in translation between the animated series and M. Night Shyamalan’s adaptation.
Why Fans Shouldn’t Get Their Hopes up About Netflix’s Adaptation
As exciting as it is to receive the first trailer for the live-actionAvatar: The Last Airbender, which promises to be a more faithful adaptation than M. Night Shyamalan’sThe Last Airbender, the trailer didn’t show much in the way of anything new. Even the trailer forThe Last Airbenderhad fans excited to pay money for it. Before the trailer dropped, one significant black mark attached itself to this live-action adaptation: the original creators left the project.
Fans were rightfully skeptical when Netflix announced the live-action adaptation because M. Night Shyamalan’s film left a sour after-taste that many are still trying to eliminate. The most promising prospect of this new iteration ofAvatar: The Last Airbenderwas that the original creators of the cartoon, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, played significant roles in its production. Unfortunately, that changed in 2020 whenDiMartino announced on his websitethat he and Konietzko made the difficult decision to step away from production. He went on to say:
Unfortunately, things did not go as we had hoped. Look, things happen. Unforeseen events arise. Plans have to change. And when those things have happened at other points during my career, I try to be like an Air Nomad and adapt. I do my best to go with the flow, no matter what obstacle is put in my way. But even an Air Nomad knows when it’s time to cut their losses and move on.
DiMartino and Konietzko have a specific vision forATLA, and if Netflix isn’t fulfilling that vision, the live-action show is unlikely to be the same story that fans fell in love with in 2005. Perhaps Netflix’sATLAwill be a reimagining for a new generation of fans, but the upcoming TV series doesn’t look hopeful for fans of Nickelodeon’s animated series. DiMartino said as much when he stated:
It might turn out to be a show many of you end up enjoying. But what I can be certain about is that whatever version ends up on-screen, it will not be what Bryan and I had envisioned or intended to make.
Then there’s the trailer itself, which much of the internet is cheering. The setting, scenery, and actors all appear to be faithful to the story’s original iteration. The sliding doors ofBa Sing Seand the scale of the city alone look fantastic. The inclusion of the Kyoshi Warriors, which look as accurate as they can get, completely sets this series apart from Shyamalan’s film. However, besides a bit of fire bending, the trailer doesn’t show much in the way of bending. There’s potential for another misrepresentation of what earth benders are truly capable of. Although, it does look like the new series doesn’t force Firebenders to have an active flame around them to use their abilities.
The trailer also gives no sense of the acting quality besides some voice-over from, presumably,Gyatso, Aang’s mentor and father figurebefore the air nomads went the way of the dinosaurs. For all anyone knows, the acting could fall flat and lose the emotion that the animated characters portrayed beautifully. There are a few actors that audiences can reliably count on, such as Paul Sun-Hyung Lee and Daniel Dae Kim.Star Warsfans will recognize Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Captain Carson Teva from The Mandoverse, but his role inKim’s Convenience(where his character’s name was coincidentally Appa) really put him on Hollywood’s radar. Uncle Iroh is arguably the most important character to get right in all ofATLA, and there’s no doubt Lee can nail it.
Avatar: The Last Airbender
In a war-torn world of elemental magic, a young boy reawakens to undertake a dangerous mystic quest to fulfill his destiny as the Avatar, and bring peace to the world.
MORE:Did The Legend Of Korra Retcon Avatar The Last Airbender’s Origins?
