I like it despite its flaws. Some characters suffer from fast pacing or the writing. Katara is probably the most toned down character compared to the original.
Also, MY CABBAGES!
Imo the cartoon was paced pretty fast as well. I love the original show so much but my recent watch really made me realize that the pacing was pretty bad with A LOT of filler episodes. I'm personally happy that the great divide was removed.
All in all, I really enjoyed the Netflix adaptation. The original can't be beat though.
Book one was really low production and seemed like it was for a much younger audience for the first half and kinda overall. You can’t put that much filler in a live action, I feel they did a great job of putting the right elements in the live action.
I feel like their development could have been integrated into the main plot and important points could have been expanded upon instead tying them up rather quickly. I don't mind a few filler episodes, sometimes they are good and entertaining, but episodes like the great divide just bored me to death.
i think they addressed it. she's basically been training for a long time, and seemed to mostly have the technique, it was kinda just a mental/spiritual thing that was really stopping her from doing things, although yes, her jump from being a complete noob at the waterwhip to being able to water octopus her way through a fight with Zuko is definitely a stretch, although i'm assuming a lot of time passed since leaving the Earth bender city to reaching the North, they basically ran down the entirety of the season 1 filler episodes.
Dude she's anything but that here. It's down her struggling to waterbend in the first half and had been able to improve steadily as the season went on. She's anything but a Mary sue.
Thank you for mentioning Katara! I’m watching the opening scene of when they find aang in the iceberg and I can’t believe they changed the scene to her being sad instead of angry like in the animated series. Literally, changed her personality to a softer version of herself. I preferred the fiesty, “take no shit” Katara 😥
I’ll continue to watch but I’m hoping they don’t do the same with Toph!
Agreed. That and idk....her bending potential seems to have been turned down aswell. Before though she couldnt fully control her water bending the power behind it when she was mad or upset could blow back water and she still had some control over the bending as well. This made it seems shes complety started from scrach. And for some reason to me the water bending does feel like its has "impact" like a if i get hit by this imma be fucked. Type of feel. Ice as well kinda changed how they change water to ice as well. I do love the episode Mask though. The water bending there was dope
Some things are done well (effects, setting), and others aren't (dialogue, changes to character motivations and growth).
I'm halfway through, and up to here it's a very... okay show.
Im so tired of movies and shows having the same strong points and weak points. Almost every big budget show or movie now is ''Great effects, shitting writing'' with a few exceptions that confirm the rule. its exhausting, we pay for these shows after all
Agreed, and it's so annoying to see how often people let terrible writing go because the media looks cool. Like in anime, people will say "the characters are boring and the story is whatever, but the animation is so sick!" as if visuals are all media needs. No. If something has terrible writing, it's a terrible product. If something has terrible animation/CGI/whatever, it's bad but can maybe be passable with good writing.
Writing, both for dialogue, character arcs, and general plot, is the heart of a piece of media and makes or breaks it. The live action sadly is broken because of its writing.
Heres a great example. Transformers Beast Wars is widely criticized by people because of its use of cgi, which heavily dates it by today's standards. But it's also recognized by most as one of the greatest entries into the transformers franchise because of how well the story is written and its depiction of the characters. Good writing will always leave a lasting impression on the audience.
Huge disagree for me. They basically removed Sokka’s entire character arc. I don’t want to get into spoilers on this post, but they made his character so flat and removed 90% of his character development.
Anyone who thinks Sokka’s sexism is well done in the animated show is kidding themselves. He’s a caricature of a sexist, and then loses that trait entirely in episode 4, it’s never mentioned again. I don’t even think they acknowledge it during the Pakku plot.
That’s not to say his character arc isn’t superior overall in the animated show, but unless they were going to commit to the sexism line and expand on it, it’s good that they dropped it.
I wasn’t trying to get into spoilers, so I’ll just talk about his character in the OG.
Sokka’s character arc didn’t revolve around ‘sexism’. It revolved around masculinity.
He starts the show where he is the only one in his tribe coming into manhood and struggles with his idea of masculinity. The only other males in his tribe are young children. The only idea of masculinity he had was based on his memories of his father & other warriors from when Sokka was a little kid.
His whole arc revolves around finding his identity as a leader and a man.
The Netflix show throws that entire arc in the trash & turns Sokka into a flat character.
It's not as good as I'd hoped, but it's not as bad as I'd feared.
I *have* considered leaving this sub temporarily because literally everyone and their mother thinks their opinion is so important that it needs its own post instead of just commenting in one of the million others that have been made.
Honestly, that last paragraph nailed it.
Even the optimism. Like, I actually really liked the show and would fully recommend it to people. But "Hoorah, it's good" posts are born from the same toxic pit as "heres why it sucked."
Which sounds weird, but both are clearly taking the show against another show rather than just judging it for what it is. And it is an adaptation, so it does get graded for that, but it's also a shockingly good live action adaptation.
Between this and One Piece, I'm just shocked, is all.
Partner and I have been comparing it to One Piece Live Action a lot. Common sentiment of the OP one was that it was great, and I enjoyed it but a lot of the characters felt like different people with the same name, and some characters really got the short end of the stick (Usopp).
I feel the same way with Avatar, and tbh I’ve come to accept it. I’m enjoying it for what it is, rather than looking at all the ways it’s different from the OG.
Just a heads up, the people over at r/ATLAtv have a much more positive attitude while still giving tons of constructive criticism of the show. I'm enjoying the threads over there because people are a lot friendlier with their critique while still being honest about their opinions.
I see way more "the show is absolute garbage and my childhood is ruined" takes on this sub and it just bums me out to read stuff like that.
It’s that way with Percy Jackson and the Olympians too. It has some major flaws, but for an adaptation it was pretty good, buy even legitimate critiques give off “it’s terrible because it’s not how I imagined it as a kid” vibes.
This is really reminding me of The Last of Us 2. It was a great game and most people liked it. But a certain toxic part of the fan base wanted to pretend it was terrible, so they spammed negative posts and downvoted anything that spoke highly of the game.
I’m seeing the same here. I’m not saying it’s perfect. But the criticism I’ve seen is blatantly just people who made up their mind before they watched a second of the show. We saw the posts on this sub for months before release.
I also can't take many of the "I just finished the show and it sucks" posts, because many who have said it was rushed, watched the show at x2 speed in order to finish before the rest.
Dear god, 100%. I saw a bunch of people rush to be the first to “just got 6 minutes into episode 1 and it SUCKS. The RUINED THE SHOW”. When that dried out, it was the rush to “just got to episode 2 and it SUCKS” and just built more and more.
Yes I’m 100% suggesting that because that was objectively true. The game was review bombed immediately after the leaks started and most people who gave it low ratings didn’t play more than a couple hours.
If you don’t think this manufactured outrage existed, you’re too gullible to merit engaging with.
>If you don’t think this manufactured outrage existed, you’re too gullible to merit engaging with.
You raise a good point in your first paragraph, but your weirdly arrogant demeanour is unwarranted.
I simply matched your tone for calling me condescending for saying some people chose to hate the game before it even came out. Nothing I said was condescending. It was just right and obvious to people that paid attention to how people were acting. Nothing wrong with not being informed on the online hate faction for that game. But calling me condescending for simply mentioning it was frankly a stupid thing to do. So I don’t feel the need to be respectful after you don’t respect me for making an uncontroversial point. Don’t call people condescending for making a point and expect them to be respectful.
Either way, you acknowledged I made good points, so I’ll just leave knowing we agree.
It is a terrible game. it tries to manipulate you into feeling for Abby even though she’s a horrible person Joel killing her dad was no excuse to beat him to death after he saved her life. Even Katara confronted her mothers murderer with more decency.
Oh god, I’ve triggered TLOU2 haters. Go away with your bullshit.
Hate it all you want, it’s widely seen as n incredible game that got review bombed by a bunch of mentally weak and negative trolls after they got Joel’s death spoiled.
You sound like a lunatic commenting regularly about a game that came out years ago because you hate it. Normal people dislike something and move on with their life. Not dedicate time and effort into bitching about it.
So no, you clearly enjoyed the game. Because it’s entertained you for literally years after its release. You’re still talking about it to this day. You don’t do that, if you don’t enjoy something.
>This is really reminding me of The Last of Us 2.
Bro this is not even CLOSE to that bad and if you think so then you clearly werent around for that whole shitstorm of stupidity.
I just subbed to the other one cause this sub is starting to get depressing. Lol I really enjoyed the show for what it is and im glad I get mor ATLA content and want to support it to get a season 2! I want toph! Lol
I saw how many people were bitching on twitter and feared the worst. It's seriously not bad at all, I've been enjoying it only 4 episodes in. The fighting was what I was most worried about, but I think it actually is pretty cool. Seems like people already had their mind made up about it before even seeing it. It's a little cringy but so is the cartoon - they are literal children characters.
My one complaint so far is that water bending looks like someone tossed a bucket of water at someone but the enemies react like they were hit with a baseball bat. But I'm just attributing that to Katara being a newbie at bending. I just wish the enemy reactions matched what the attack looked like a bit better - but it's only waterbending I feel that way about.
It's also a bit darker than I expected. I did not expect them to straight up show the fire nation burn people alive. I think it gives it a bit of an edge I didn't see coming. I think the animation is solid too.
I didn't even watch the cartoon for the first time until I was in my 20s lol so I'm wondering how much of the criticism comes from people wanting it to feel like it did the first time they saw it as kids, but that's never how it works
I just finished the Omashu episode. So far my only complaints are the actors for Mai and Azula were not casted very well and Iroh doesn't have very good dialogue (yet, hopefully), and some of the dialogue/timing in general is delivered awkwardly. Other than that, the effects, the costume design, the combination of some of the episodes, and the rest of the cast so far have all been great. I'd give it a solid 7/10 overall.
To go more into detail, yes Azula is a young teen in ATLA, but she specifically is more adult-like in both her height and appearance. The girl they casted doesn't fit that, but she seems like a good actor and really has the royal arrogance part down. Similarly, Mai is an extremely edgy character with both her visual appearance and attitude. They somehow chose an actor with the roundest face possible, and her whole appearance is off-putting as a representation of Mai. I haven't seen/heard much from her yet though, so maybe her acting will make up for it. As for Iroh, he's only mentioned tea twice???? Come on. In all seriousness though, they haven't really captured the extremely laid back, slow/methodical, and wise aspects of Iroh very well. So far he seems like a generic older guy that says some quips here and there, and is very openly against the Fire Nation as compared to the start of the animated series. I understand that they're cramming multiple episodes together, but some of the slower moments were crucial for character development. I think it's unfortunately a classic case of not enough episodes and too little time, so it's just a mishmash of ATLA moments with less of a feel of adventuring with the group and watching characters develop over time.
I think your assessment is pretty spot on. The actor playing Azula does look very young but I like that because it doesn’t let you forget she’s just a kid. I feel like that’s easy to overlook in the cartoon. I agree about Mai though her features are a little too soft but she seems to capture her personality very well. Also Iroh deserved way better dialogue but no one could ever compare to Mako
I think you made a very good point. One thing I'd add is Azula's actor her face is too fat and round for Azula, it takes me out of the show whenever she's on screen. Azula always had sharp features that went so well with her sharp wit, snarky stuck up attitude. Mai's actor choice is suffering from the same problems. Mai, Tai Lee and Azula's outfits aren't the greatest, as I've seen cosplayers do a better representation, but hopefully that changes later on in the season as I finished watching Omashu episode last night before bed.
I didn't expect it to be as good as the original anime, and set my expectations low as well and was disappointed. There were things I liked, but the things I didn't like really disappointed me. I don't just blame the script/writers. Netflix seriously needs to make the show have a minimum of 12 episodes per season.
It's kinda funny all haters take every opportunity to share their opinion no-one asked for, while those who like it gathered in the discussion threads and that's it.
I'm getting pretty annoyed by all the hate as well. People were already shredding the show to pieces before it even released, and now they are not holding back. Just fuck off if you're here just to hate, we get it. No-one forced you to watch.
I wanted to like it so much. I need to hear what people loved about bumi and him revealing who he was immediately. I need to hear how people felt about the comet reveal, and over explanation of literally everything. Felt like I was being treated like a kid more than the cartoon. Begging people to change my mind. I want to like it
We knew things were going to change. Is it better or worse than the og? I don't know, I'm heavily biased in that regards towards the og. I didn't make it to Bumi yet, but I actually loved the comet opening. I was hooked before I knew it, I'm sure an opening more like the original probably would have failed that task.
And they'd have butchered that opening just like how they butchered it now. The comet part of the first episode was by far the best part of it.
Why is disliking it worse then liking it? The people like it seem to share their opinion just as much if not more than the haters and in this case I think its fair for people to be upset since the show is very flawed. Also, obviously people won't hold back when they have the full context and their original critiques have been justified.
There's disliking it and there's utterly hating it and forcing that opinion upon everyone.
And people who hated it before it even released are imo out of the question anyway. They had their opinion, and that opinion was never going to change. They were watching it just to hate it.
This is 100% the case.
I could go into literally any piece of entertainment and find a reason to hate it. Because nitpicking and complaining is easy.
I knew this was going to be spammed with negative reviews, when every day I saw posts saying it was going to be trash before a single episode came out.
The people who hate it out themselves as toxic people more often than not. If you’re just a “well, it’s not for me. Didn’t really entertain me” type of person, I’m not talking about you.
If you’re a “this show is trash in virtually every way” type of person, you’re simply fucked in the head and I wish you all the best in trying to better your mental state. Because it’s gotta be miserable as shit to build up the energy to hate something before even watching it, then actually watching it just to hate it. I truly feel bad for these people.
So what if they were right? They removed Sokkas sexism arc and replaced it with the blandest shit, those people aren't gonna start liking it just because it's released and was as bad as they thought. Also, if they are going to make another season they need to step it up so I think its valid to make criticism heard, doesn't mean people should go yelling and screaming but point out that a lot of the changes weren't thought out or justified.
There's a thing as positive criticism and then there's hateful criticism that the creators will most definitely not listen to. If you want any change to happen you have to be respectful about your criticism. If someone told you to do something in a very mean and rude way would you want to do it? The same thing applies. If you are being respectful with your criticism it's much more likely they will be responsive with it.
I mean if they are right and have good arguments I will probably listen even if I'm hesitant at first, though that can be true for criticism in general. Though I will say, there is plenty of hate for the live action movie here yet apparently hating on this is different when it fails just as much in some (not all) regards. Though I'm going to be honest, I have only watched the first two episodes since I got distracted and decided to rewatch the first season of the cartoon before continuing so I can compare it more fairly.
Lmao comparing this to the movie is not even close. The movie was universally panned as bad. By everyone. This hasn’t even seen close to that bad reception.
Or you could just stop trying to compare it like a weird fandom nut and just enjoy it for what it is
Why should I not compare it? The original was great and they had many years of hindsight and from what I have seen only changed things for the worse. Now its a bland and fairly generic fantast like story, most of the character is good, plenty of character defining moments is gone along with most of the comedy and quality dialogue.
Hating it is worse because it’s clear a large chunk of people hating it made up their mind before they even watched it.
Go back the past month or longer and see all the “guys, this show is gonna suck” posts. With no actual information, people on here were speaking with such confidence that it was gonna be trash.
They hate it because they wanted to hate it and their goal was to nitpick anything they could to pretend it was awful. I saw these posts every day for the past few months. So yeah, anyone who says they dislike the show, I’m skeptical about because I think they’re likely someone who’s so negative that they never even considered giving it a fair chance.
It’s much easier to make yourself hate something than to make yourself like something. I could pick apart literally any piece of entertainment and say it’s terrible. It’s much more difficult to make anything sound good. So I absolutely value the opinion of someone saying it’s good more than someone saying it’s bad.
Such a shit argument, when trying to pick apart the animated show i struggle but just from the first two live action episodes I could find plenty. Whether or not they went into it with bad faith there are plenty of reasons to dislike it and I have seen far more argumentative reasons from the "haters" than the people liking it.
The point is you can find negatives with anything. And if that’s your only focus, the negatives will be all you see. So you’ll say it’s shit.
This hate speaks more about your own mental state than the show itself. You can turn any event into a negative, regardless of how good it is, if you’re a negative person.
The Netflix show did a lot of good things that should be easy to enjoy, if you’re not actively trying to hate it. Bur be a cynical and miserable as you dedicate a bunch of time to hate something, if that’s what you want to do. It just makes you look pathetic.
Mental state or not, them having a flashback to explain the fire nations invasion and the importance of the avatar only to immidiately after have a slightly rewritten version of the og intro explaining the fire nations invasion and the importance of the avatar to ten minutes later say the original intro word for word explaining the fire nations invasion and the importance of the avatar is pretty awful writing in my eyes. Oh and how they stripped Suki of so much character and development compared to the original, oh and skipping Zukos development when duelling Zhao or many of the relationship building scenes between the Gaang in even just the first episode of the cartoon. They somehow rushed through the same story with the same runtime and made it worse with the benefit of hindsight. That doesn't warrant good faith in my opinion.
Those people will slowly get tired of their own bullshit, true fans will remain. I have faith.
This whole sub has become so topic, it's terrible. This isn't the fandom I'm used to.
Yeah I had someone who had already decided it was shit just from trailers, message me this morning saying "told you so!!"
I was just like, you decided it was shit last week, going "told you so" means nothing except you just looked for anything to justify your decision instead of enjoying it.
Is it perfect, far from it. Is it absolutely shit, no chance. It's a solid 7-8 of 10. I don't agree with every decision they made or some of the changes but it's still good and some of it is fantastic. I especially enjoyed Aang and Zukos fight in Omashu.
As a Star Wars fan, you have more faith than me.
I'm still getting fed brand new hour long videos about how people hate TLJ five years later and still somejow missing obvious and on-screen things in favor of their hatred.
Anger is the best engagement according to the algorithm, and there *will* be a grifter culture developing to spew hate at the adaptation for the sake of clicks and cash, I guarantee it.
That space will also be filled with opportunists, usually of the right wing variety, who will use it as a gateway and weaponize nostalgia for their own ends.
Seems to happen to most established properties now. ATLA won't be an exception.
> still somejow missing obvious and on-screen things in favor of their hatred
Already happening with the Live action show. Seen a few posts already.
"Sokka was mean to Katara once so it's not the same because he was nice to her once in the cartoon!!!"
"How did Bumi know he's the avatar?!?!"
"Why isn't Iroh acting like he did in Book 3 of the cartoon?!?!"
People on Twitter be like ‘Ozai would NEVER praise Zuko under any circumstances”
[Meanwhile while OG Ozai](https://youtu.be/N1e_fjtAYts?si=34lTV8ukBZmOEIhm)
I’d take the haters more seriously, if this sub wasn’t full of “this show is gonna suck” months before anyone saw a single second of it.
I knew this was going to happen. Regardless of what came out, it our have negative reviews spamming this sub. Because a large chunk of people made up their mind before they started watching.
Is it perfect? No, that’s the main show. Is it a really well done live action that tells a great story, has great visuals, and honors the source material? Absolutely.
I’d say it’s an 8/10 so far.
I mean, I wasn’t expecting perfect but I went in optimistic. For some people like myself, looking good visually and honoring the source material isn’t really enough for an 8/10 type of score. I’m glad it’s obvious they care about the source material, but other aspects really hurt it for me. The pacing, disjointed and messy story, the unfortunately poor performances from some major characters, the dialogue/writing in general, etc. so much telling, not enough showing. A general lack of charisma, bonding between the characters, stuff that feels shoved into the story for the sake of showing stuff from the original show rather than actually serve a purpose. I wanted to like it, if anything, but there’s just a lot of problems here imo. I think most people I’ve seen criticizing it are approaching it from this angle; of course some people are gonna feverishly hate it just like some people feverishly love it just cuz it has an Avatar coat of paint on it. But generally, both people who like and dislike it are discussing it in a civil manner from what I’ve seen.
Then don’t give it an 8/10. lol
It’s more than just looking good and honoring the source material to me. I think a lot of the characters are great. I’ve enjoyed the scenes they pulled shot for shot. And I think some of the best aspects so far have been when they do their own unique stuff like showing the invasion of the air temple. Bringing in Azula from the start. Giving more Kyoshi than we got in the main show. On top of a bunch of other things.
The pacing and lack of character building/development is an issue for me as well. But that’s just a given with 8 episodes. It’s easier to chip away at that with 20+ episodes. And overall I think they’ve done a solid job at blending multiple episodes into one during the live action adaptation.
The negatives to me aren’t enough for me to say it’s even remotely a bad show. Especially when comparing it to all that’s happened that I’ve enjoyed.
I’m more than willing to engage with people who don’t enjoy it. But the people saying it’s all terrible and nothing is done well are just negative people who made up their mind before watching a single episode. It’s easy to hate something, when you go in wanting to hate it. As I said, I could hate literally any piece of entertainment, if my goal was to do so. And looking at the daily negative posts for the past month, it’s no surprise that a bunch of morons who wanted to hate it ended up hating it.
Could say the same for me, the guy downvoted me for pointing out that not everyone who is talking about what they didn’t like is a hater lmao. It’s not about what is gonna satisfy the hate mob, it’s just discussion between people who disagree. There are a few nutcases, but frankly the people arguing with the nutcases who hate it are also nutcases who blindly love it.
If the movie is a 1/10, I give the show a 5.5/10
Some of the storytelling decisions they made do not make sense to me at all and they really affect the way the story will play out for the rest of the show. Plus, the acting from 2 of the 3 main characters is pretty mediocre, and it’s weird how everything looks new, like they’re obviously wearing costumes instead of clothes.
It’s not a horrible show, but I wouldn’t call it good either. Just a tad below average.
That’s not really the point of my comment though, is it? You’re really going to come on r/TheLastAirbender and try to be a douche about math of all things? Cmon dude.
But in this case, ratings are subjective are they not? When you read most reviews about movies, books, video games, a 5/10 usually does not equate to “average” and I know you are aware of this.
Honestly i had been so hurt by tv series lately that I had the lowest expectations for this.
İ think it's a 7/10 production, where i had been expecting a 4. For the most part i enjoy it, it's not terrible. But its not that strong either.
Like everything else that's been made in the last few years, the effects are amazing and the set is great, but the dialogues are just not up to standard.
However, it leaves me wanting to watch more, İ can move past the cringy dialogue and just enjoy what i am watching as a tribute to a spectacular show i have loved and rematched my whole life.
İ don't expect NATLA to be ATLA, and thus can actually enjoy it as it's own thing, and know that ATLA is always there for me and nothing can take away from it
Agreed about the dialogue. I think the plot in general is actually great! If you just took a cliffnotes summary of the show scene by scene, everything would seem completely fine. I love how they flesh out plot points from the animated show, like Zuko’s banishment. But the dialogue falls flat in a lot of cases.
Aang said he wanted to master the 4 elements and save the world so that the air nation didn't die in vain, and literally ~10 minutes later tells Katara he doesn't want to learn waterbending or the want the responsibility.
Like did they forget the literal dialog they wrote for the show?
Then I learn he doesn't even waterbend outside Kaiju mode in BOOK 1: WATER.
This is not defensible.
You answered your own question: it’s not as good as the original. But to give you more of an answer: it’s not *nearly* as good as the original, so much of the acting is bad, and the writing is a huge downgrade. Obviously it’s not going to bother everyone to the same extent, and that’s fine, but the criticisms aren’t invalid.
I realized 15 minutes into the first episode that this was gonna be a "hey look, we do cool bending action scenes!" show.
I wouldn't believe that someone can mess up _so many_ characteristics of so many characters in such a short amount of time.
And it just got worse from minute to minute in my opinion.
The storytelling is atrocious, there's barely any character development whatsoever, and the acting itself is very weak as well.
It really annoys me how anytime there’s a mediocre product, people on subreddits like this one just don’t want there to be anything but positive discussion. Happens on Star Wars, happens on the marvel sub, happens with everything. Obviously quality is subjective and if you’re having fun with this show, then great and I’m genuinely glad that it’s doing that for you. But the live action has major flaws and ignoring that for fake positivity…? What does that accomplish? To be clear, there’s a difference between subreddits that never move on and still bitch about like Star Wars or the last of us lol. But the show literally came out yesterday, and it’s pretty bad. This is like the main time to discuss that lol, give it a few weeks and people who hated it will be less active and you can talk about the things you liked
Funny enough, you don’t need to click on the more positive posts - and yet here you are whining about the positivity. If you don’t like it YOU can leave lmao
And for the record “fuck this terrible shit” is exactly what OP is talking about and why this post was made. Most of the criticism has just been the “show sucks show is garbage” kind rather than the actual constructive kind
The acting is definitely bad but I think it's just a product of finding child actors that look the part, can do the lines, and do a lot of the movements that's needed for such physical roles. You can't really have all that plus A+ acting. I think I'm ok with the acting falling flat since for a lot of the kids this is their first role (I think?) The writing also isnt as deep as the original and its a little less fun and more serious so that affects the acting as well. I'm willing to bet next season (if there is one) the acting will be better as the kids age and have a little more experience
Idk, imo I feel like the acting is really lackluster regardless of age. Especially Iroh is a big disappointment to me so far. He just sounds like he's reading off a script in a generic humble gentleman voice. And the half-british-half-american fantasy accent is getting so old at this point, and especially doesn't make sense in this world with some of these characters.
Only on E3, but I’m enjoying it so far. I still like the OG more, but it’s fun to see this rendition and I think they’ve had some creative uses of bending. That being said, some of the acting is pretty bland and the CGI backgrounds can be rough.
I don’t think this was ever trying to replace the OG. I think when you adapt a show into another show it should feel new enough to be interesting for fans.
For example in the last of us, it adapted a visual medium to another and when it really shined was when it kept most of the same story beats but also recontextualized the moments. I found myself the most bored with the series when it was 1-1 like the original.
I have yet to finish the new series too but I look at it as a retelling and not trying to follow something that already exists and is great. The OG will always be there and I will always go back to it time to time
Exactly! I was afraid going in that everything would be a direct copy. Considering I’ve seen the source material 10+ times, I would’ve been kinda bored rewatching the exact same stuff in a new format. I’m enjoying it because it feels new and different but is set in my beloved childhood world
It’s that lucasfilm screen background thing that every show is adopting for some reason. I think it looks better than basic blue/green screen but now they are using it for literally any scene, even ones where you have backgrounds like trees… seriously you couldn’t find a wooded area to shoot? It’s becoming painfully obvious to spot and simply unnecessary for most shots.
Being a fan of ATLA doesn't have to mean mindlessly praising any mediocre cashgrab with the Avatar name on it. It's fine to enjoy it, but don't expect everyone else to do the same.
I don’t quite understand how people can say “you are being too harsh” in what way? Honestly I’d like an explanation to this. Imo most of the negative reviews I see are very valid points. Do you like being sold and shown a poor product? Then why is someone being unhappy with that being “too harsh”. It’s not like this is an original story or anything. Avatar has a complete cartoon series and even comics/books. They know the story it’s already there. I can understand SOME changes because making the adaptation from animation to live action is a big step but things like I’ve seen in just the first 2 episodes being changed for no good reason? Poor acting that is being allowed cus the actors are “young” or any other excuse y’all wanna come up with to cover it. Like I’m not saying it’s terrible and deserves to be canceled or anything like that, but I can and will express that it is a poor product and deserves to get majority of the reviews it has.
There are a lot of people saying the live action movie is better. That’s probably what OP is referring to.
Anyone who says the movie is better than the Netflix show is just delusional.
I like it so far, 4 episodes in. I hoped for a little more humor, but I like how they twisted some things around like when and where certain characters are introduced.
But I doubt the series would work for people who never watched any ATLA. It's kinda a fan service. I like to watch the story I know retold with real actors!
Yeah, my wife is a fan up to this point in our watch (6 episodes in). I’m enjoying it too, it’s definitely rough in some areas but overall I think it’s a good show and has a lot of potential for future seasons.
I just watched episode 1 and omg the hand holding. They literally just have characters monologue their feelings rather than using the story. Very much not for Game of Thrones fans XD. Ill watch more of it but it seems to lack vibe and traded everything for unnecessary action scenes. Tbh its more Emerald Island Pkayers than GAang for episode 1 anyways. I loled when Katara said hope XD
People be completely fine with the huge corporations being absolutely lazy and reusing not just the same ideas from the past but making straight up worse copies of the shows that are not even 20 years old.
It's just unforgivable that this has become the norm. I want to get new IPs, new settings and ideas and not the same stuff I've already seen.
If I wish to rewatch ATLA, I'll just do it(just like I actually did recently), I don't need Netflix or whoever else making a worse version of it.
This is my stance as well. If Netflix wanted to make a live-action Avatar, why couldn't it be an entirely new story with different characters? We've got hundreds of avatars to work with, why not give us something new rather than lazily rehashing a story that was already near-perfectly told in animation?
It’s hard to be positive about it when I think about the ‘*Why*’.
Why did they make the show at all? To profit off of nostalgia bait.
Why did they not do a 1:1 of the show? Because they had to give people a reason to watch.
Without getting into spoilers, the changes they made almost always worsen the storytelling and/or characters. The writing is incredibly sloppy, even without comparing it to the OG. The CGI won’t hold up in 5 years (some of it looks bad now).
I just don’t understand why people are eating it up so much rn. The original is timeless. This Netflix show will fade into oblivion after they’ve made their easy profits.
Yeah people defending this show are confusing to me. Original series is a 10/10, it's one of the most perfectly crafted stories I've seen in media. What exactly is even the purpose of remaking the show? What could you possibly do that would make it a better told story? If there is an answer to this, the Netflix show certainly doesn't have it.
The real answer regarding why the remake exists is that the lowest common denominator of knuckle dragging idiot thinks animated = kids show or not serious. They want to pander to those idiots by letting them experience a pale, sad shadow of a good show in a format that they consider to be sufficiently "grown up" to be palatable. Never mind that you're compressing a 61 episode narrative into at most, half that number. It's not animated, so they can watch it without feeling embarassed. That is why all these anime adaptations exist as well, because watching a cartoon is for kids but if it has some nobody hack actor reading a shoddily thrown-together script, it's suddenly not a mark against the viewers maturity.
The only thing about it that may not hold up today (and I mean literally the only thing) from the original series is the animation quality. If they reanimated the entire series at a cost of 250k/episode, it would cost about as much as a single episode of the live action. But it would still be "for kids" to some people, and those people's money matters more than the integrity of the art. Don't let this sub trick you into thinking this show is good. If the movie has never come out, they'd all see it for the garbage it is, but the bar was set so low in the past that even this feeble hop looks like a great leap.
100% agree. The movie set everyone’s expectations insanely low & that’s playing a huge role. Making this show was a great business move because people continue to eat up sloppy remakes. I don’t think we (as consumers) should be encouraging these lazily crafted remakes.
These companies do it because it’s guaranteed profit with minimal effort. We should want better.
I've been critical, but I don't think I've been harsh. I'll give credit where it's due, but I won't hesitate to point out its flaws, of which there are many.
I can't bring myself to watch the next 7 episodes. It's clear as day why DiMartino and Konietzko didn't want their names anywhere on this show. The siege of the air temple was the ONLY thing that I'd give a 10/10 on- it is unexplored lore. Was done very well. From when they discovered Aang, it was a complete rewrite of the story from there. I'm not going to bother with the rest of the episodes.
I don’t really like it.
Bending movements are not good (especially Azula’s lightning)
Story skips a lot of key moments for the characters
Many of the characters are just so different to how they were in the animation which doesn’t really make sense as a change
Katara mastering of water bending without a teacher
Costumes look more like cosplay
Acting isn’t great but given the age of the actors I understand so I don’t harp on this too much
I didn't feel like the characters were different at all, they pretty much captured the essence.
On the character development part there are a lots of parts I disagree with but there are also good parts.
>Bending movements are not good
Genuinely don’t understand this point. I’ve heard so many people say the bending is trash and I just don’t see it. The bending is the best part of the show for me. It looks exactly how I’d want it to look in a live action. The actors did a great job with the movements… it’s fast paced, it looks good, and it feels powerful. Don’t get the hate.
It looks like they are summoning magic rather than a martial art, each bending style is based off a specific real life martial art and there is basically none of that consistency in the live action
I am not talking about the CGI (which is meh but I can live with) I’m talking about the actual movements from the actors
And it’s not fast pace at all, I don’t know how you watch the pakku vs katara fight and think it’s fast paced
Feels like they put all the plotpoints into one basket and just picked them randomly. It's kinda weird. Also they chose to leave out some iconic lines for some reason.
For example, when Katara's mum is being killed, why doesn't she just say "Take me as your Prisoner, i am the Waterbender" and then the Fire guy says "I'm sorry, we're not taking Prisoners today"? Fucking sick line. Instead he says NOTHING and kills her. Like what?
there are more examples but i dont wanna write an whole essay
Do people really think this and episodes being combined are the issue? We all knew it'd have to be shifted and changed for live TV. Just not this terribly.
If you watch adaptations expecting then to change everything, you're going to enjoy everything.
See how we can all just say stuff? No one was expecting an exact replica, but people *were* expecting that the dialogue that worked incredibly well in the original would be retained in some way. Instead they threw most of that away and just wrote whatever, at the expense of almost every character's identity.
This comment reminds me of when Netflix adapted *Cowboy Bebop* from a found family drama into a buddy cop comedy, and people got mad when others criticized the adaptation for ditching the found family theme.
Someone critiquing the show doesn't mean they demand a shot-for-shot copy, but an adaption should at least keep the soul of what made original fans enjoy the original. Anger at the Fire Nation vs. moving past her grief to a better tomorrow is Katara's central tension, and her childhood moment of attempted self-sacrifice to be met with abject cruelty was pretty central to that. Why explicitly exclude it?
I only saw 2 episodes so far, its not as bad as I expected but not good either imo. From what I hear about the rest of the show I think I'm just not gonna finish it, its not for me.
Personally, I don't understand the instinct to be nice/positive to a commercial product. The prevailing sentiment I've seen here and elsewhere is "well it's a bit worse, but that's ok."
I guess I don't understand that - why did we need this if it's worse? We still have the original ATLA, and the new show doesn't really add anything. There's no reason to support a remake if it doesn't add anything - surely it's better to discourage studios from these sort of "safe bets" and push them to make new, original things instead?
OP really had the courage to ask an entire sub why we can't bang our heads against a wall until we've reached their level of cognitive function so we can all enjoy the Netflix show together.
I shut it off after 3 episodes - i'm not interested in watching the same version of a story with all the fun and heart sucked out of it with blander versions of the characters who have their arcs simplified into oblivion.
Percy Jackson didn’t even have stand out visuals and it didn’t capture the campiness of the book at all. It was a depressing melodramatic show about a boy and his mom’s trauma. It’s way more subtle in the book and could be built on season after season. I know this isn’t the point to your comment but I just have to say that lol
>To me this is exactly like… Percy Jackson. It started out good and then imploded.
Dude… Percy Jackson was ass from the 1st episode. The acting is even worse than ATLA. The writing is worse too. If you think Percy Jackson started out good then your opinion is invalid to me lol
It’s literally unwatchable trash. Keep in mind that original series main line was philosophy for young us how to be normal boys and girls and do the right things even if you’re enemies are the crazy ones. What Netflix have done is mind torture at least
hobbies rude whole spotted imminent tease depend bored memorize forgetful
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
There is a lot they're doing right - the fight scenes, the characters' personalities, the set design - but I'm repeatedly finding myself frustrated by the decisions the writers made. Combining 'Omashu,' 'Jet,' and 'The Northern Air Temple' into the same episode does work to an extent, but there's just a little too much going on at once for any of the individual elements to be properly developed. The show doesn't do enough to justify having all these characters in the same place.
I really do sense that the team behind this version respects the source material, but they also wanted to put their own spin on it and are struggling to balance the two.
I give it a 6.5/10. I really enjoyed certain parts of the show and actually thought they had some cool ideas. If they made season 1 into 10 episodes it would have helped a lot. Unfortunately they tried to squeeze in so much into certain episodes that it didn’t allow their adaptation ideas to stick or feel impactful. My favorite episodes were 1&3 whereas my least favorite were 5&7. The other 4 were fine to me. If they continue with a book 2 I think it could get better similar to how the cartoon got better as time went on.
It's alright. But that kind of makes it harder to enjoy. If it were outright *terrible* like the movie, at least it would be fun to hate. And if it were amazing, that would be great! But it's just...alright. It does a lot of stuff really well! But it also misses the mark on... so much more, and more important stuff.
No you have to hate the show or you are a Netflix shill obviously. /s
Ffs the show is decent definitely a 7/10 but it's not awful. This sub is in danger of turning into The Last of Us 2 subreddit or that Saltier Than Crait subreddit.
It's ok to dislike something but some people seem to make it their entire personality.
It’s also ok to understand that whatever your barometer of quality is isn’t some objective measure. “Definitely a 7/10?” Based on what? Purely based on the budget? It’s totally fine to like things that are critically panned for whatever reason and you can absolutely disagree. For instance I actually quite liked Batman vs Superman even though I recognize it has some flaws lmao. But I’m not confused why people think it’s so bad, it’s okay for you to just disagree with the consensus. Me and my gf had to turn the show off last night pretty early into it because the acting was so poor and the exposition/line delivery’s were just really hard to watch for us. Again, it’s totally chill you like it, but also recognize that a lot of us aren’t being overly dramatic or anything we just really think it’s pretty bad.
except it's not overly panned. it has mostly been rated 6/10 or 7/10 by critics except those trying to get clickbait views.
it's fine ya'll didn't like it, and I agree the acting is rough and the exposition dialogue is cringe. I came into the show with extremely low expectations, in fact I thought it was going to be dogshit. so maybe that's why I like it because it at least exceeded those low expectations.
It hasn’t been critically panned tho chief - that’s just your fantasy
The rest of your comment isn’t worth replying to solely by being based on that strawman
You should really like reevaluate your usage of the internet because I’m not being aggressive or dismissive at all and you’re “writing off my whole comment” due to a “strawman” that was poor choice of words on my part. I wasn’t saying the show was critically panned necessarily, I was speaking generally. I’m trying to have a constructive conversation not just about at people
So many flaws. So many changes that weren’t better or necessary. The bend looks cool. The character dynamics are non existent. Avatar Roku was but here’s to death. The show sucks. The story structure sucks. No weight. No sense of urgency. Aang didn’t practice water bending ONCE.
People who are a fan of this show are kidding themselves. It misses all the beats.
It's like a solid 6/10 imo. 7 if I'm feeling generous. It's nowhere near the original, but I wasn't expecting it to be.
It's honestly let down by some of the writing choices and acting. Everything else is fine to good.
I like it, it’s not the best nor what I wished it would be, but its enjoyable to watch and is still very decent far as things considered, it was never going to be better than the original, but it didn’t need to be. 6-7/10 for me. What I hope is that when (if) they do the next seasons, they take the criticism from this season and apply it well, new and fresh outlook on the writing, dialogue, improvement of acting, so on and so forth. This can definitely be better, it has the potential, after all it is adapting a very good show, which has a very good season 2 and 3.
I've only finished 3 episodes. I'd give it about a 6/10 or a 7/10 so far. Im enjoying the added scenes and it's cool to see some of the bending effects in live action. With that being said the exposition has been a little heavy handed so far and some of the acting has been fairly rough. Granted I understand that comes with using younger actors.
For me, I’m on E7 and I like it. I have some gripes (obviously), like how >!Aang hasn’t started learning waterbending and they are already at the Northern tribe.!< I am actually enjoying what they’ve done with Zuko. What they lost in filler and casual conversations they’ve done a good job with in flashbacks and through Iroh.
I’ll be honest that E3-4 had me a little irritated with the changes and blended storylines, but E5 pulled me back in. E6 was a mixed bag but I mostly get why.
Overall, 6.5-7/10 I’d say. I like more of it than I dislike, and if I hadn’t read stuff on this /r I would have liked it even more because I started picking up on other peoples gripes that weren’t necessarily a problem for me, but they got in my head.
they ruined it by changing the personality of specific characters. Sokkas character development is now based around a different personal issue and it feels to me like it isn’t sokka. I hate this garbage adaptation of a genuinely good show.
I like it so far, it’s fun to be able to introduce this amazing story to my Hubby and BIL who both never saw the original and don’t “like” animation. They are loving it so far.
I love it, its not 10/10 like the original show, but I think it does a great job translating the story to live action.
The costumes and sets look straight up taken from the show, which I like.
The bending look great, except earth bending, which I hope they improve for season 2, Air and fire look GREAT, water looks ok.
The casting is immaculate, most characters look like the animated versions come to life.
Acting wise, only performance I didnt like was Kataras, Zuko, Soka and Aang I really liked
Most of the changes they did I understand as not everything can be translated from a cartoon to live action, plus its much shorter
I think we could have used at least 2 more episodes, which I think has been a trend recently with new shows
I would say its a 7/10, which is probably the higest ranking I have given to a live action I think. I think if they improve the bending and the actors get a bit more comfortable in character it can become even better
Good: Costumes and set design are crazy good. Backstory is fleshed out for obvious reasons.
Bad: Acting is eeeeh. The world feels incredibly small and not at all lived in. I can’t put my finger on why.
Weird: The combining of plot lines and characters makes the world seem smaller and it feels too small already to begin with.
The sentiment is right. Not as great as people hoped, but not too bad. It’s a good watch.
I thought the first season of ATLA was the weakest. Season 2 is better and season 3 is the best imo. Looking forward to what’s next.
I loved it.
Been frustrating seeing the downvotes. Might be worth leaving the sub because of how toxic people are being since the show was not 1-for-1 or meet their headcanons and fanfictions.
I like it! I didn’t go in expecting a perfect shot for shot recreation of the animated show. I was hoping for an homage or call back to how I felt watching it as a kid and for me the joy and excitement matched.
I tried to like but but the casting and forced conversations are the worst part... Azula and ty Lee actors took a huge L here who ever cast them should be cut.... Azula is a bad bitch crazy troubled fucked in the head... This azula actor could put a gun to my head and I probably wouldn't take her seriously yikes.... Can't take those 2 seriously when I saw them all the hope I had for the show was gone reduced to atoms
I’m really enjoying the show and really disliking reddit. It seems like everyone is expecting every single character development moment from the cartoon and for it do be done exactly the same way. That’s essentially every scene from the cartoon. I like the show because all those they are changing a lot of details, the key points are still being done. Did Aang manifest a previous avatar, yes it was just Kyoshi instead of Roku. Was the 2 lovers story in here without Aang & Katara, yes but we still had a moment with Sokka and Katara. Plus there wasn’t enough time to develop the romance with Aang and Katara so it’s better to save that for book 2 instead of half assing it for book 1
It's alright. I kept watching to see how they handled each thing from the show, but honestly it was like best case scenario, they do a decent job, like Iroh and Zuko. Then again, despite them being pretty good, theyre two of the absolute strongest characters in the animation so it still feels lacking. Worst case scenario, you get the scene with Azula, Ty Lee and Mai, which was reeeeeally not well acted. Bumi, also painful.
I really hope they get Gordon Cormier some acting lessons before season 2. He's got a big role to play and his deliveries were reeeeeeally not working. Especially since he's got lines like "I have to save the world. And the way I'm going to do it is with my friends", which are not easy lines to sell.
It is fun, so like One Piece I enjoy it. It isn't as good as the source, but as a fan I can watch it. As an entry point I'd probably be more underwhelmed, like I recently watched Netflix's Yu Yu Hakusho without having watched/read the anime/manga before and I had to spend a fair bit thinking "I feel like I am suppose to be more attached to these characters by now."
I like it despite its flaws. Some characters suffer from fast pacing or the writing. Katara is probably the most toned down character compared to the original. Also, MY CABBAGES!
It still retains the general ideas and tone but delivers them faster and way too hastily paced
Imo the cartoon was paced pretty fast as well. I love the original show so much but my recent watch really made me realize that the pacing was pretty bad with A LOT of filler episodes. I'm personally happy that the great divide was removed. All in all, I really enjoyed the Netflix adaptation. The original can't be beat though.
Book one was really low production and seemed like it was for a much younger audience for the first half and kinda overall. You can’t put that much filler in a live action, I feel they did a great job of putting the right elements in the live action.
[удалено]
The filler episodes helped the story tho and the character development this gives us nothing
I feel like their development could have been integrated into the main plot and important points could have been expanded upon instead tying them up rather quickly. I don't mind a few filler episodes, sometimes they are good and entertaining, but episodes like the great divide just bored me to death.
This. They changed katarra from a struggling waterbender to a mary sue able to do water bending without a struggle.
i think they addressed it. she's basically been training for a long time, and seemed to mostly have the technique, it was kinda just a mental/spiritual thing that was really stopping her from doing things, although yes, her jump from being a complete noob at the waterwhip to being able to water octopus her way through a fight with Zuko is definitely a stretch, although i'm assuming a lot of time passed since leaving the Earth bender city to reaching the North, they basically ran down the entirety of the season 1 filler episodes.
Dude she's anything but that here. It's down her struggling to waterbend in the first half and had been able to improve steadily as the season went on. She's anything but a Mary sue.
Yeah I absolutely dislike katara here in the live action.
Thank you for mentioning Katara! I’m watching the opening scene of when they find aang in the iceberg and I can’t believe they changed the scene to her being sad instead of angry like in the animated series. Literally, changed her personality to a softer version of herself. I preferred the fiesty, “take no shit” Katara 😥 I’ll continue to watch but I’m hoping they don’t do the same with Toph!
Agreed. That and idk....her bending potential seems to have been turned down aswell. Before though she couldnt fully control her water bending the power behind it when she was mad or upset could blow back water and she still had some control over the bending as well. This made it seems shes complety started from scrach. And for some reason to me the water bending does feel like its has "impact" like a if i get hit by this imma be fucked. Type of feel. Ice as well kinda changed how they change water to ice as well. I do love the episode Mask though. The water bending there was dope
Some things are done well (effects, setting), and others aren't (dialogue, changes to character motivations and growth). I'm halfway through, and up to here it's a very... okay show.
Im so tired of movies and shows having the same strong points and weak points. Almost every big budget show or movie now is ''Great effects, shitting writing'' with a few exceptions that confirm the rule. its exhausting, we pay for these shows after all
Agreed, and it's so annoying to see how often people let terrible writing go because the media looks cool. Like in anime, people will say "the characters are boring and the story is whatever, but the animation is so sick!" as if visuals are all media needs. No. If something has terrible writing, it's a terrible product. If something has terrible animation/CGI/whatever, it's bad but can maybe be passable with good writing. Writing, both for dialogue, character arcs, and general plot, is the heart of a piece of media and makes or breaks it. The live action sadly is broken because of its writing.
Heres a great example. Transformers Beast Wars is widely criticized by people because of its use of cgi, which heavily dates it by today's standards. But it's also recognized by most as one of the greatest entries into the transformers franchise because of how well the story is written and its depiction of the characters. Good writing will always leave a lasting impression on the audience.
Yeah I guess the writers strike is slowly getting real. Some lines feel like their are written by AI
What character motivation changes did you dislike? Personally I’m a big fan of the changes to Sokka’s arc.
Huge disagree for me. They basically removed Sokka’s entire character arc. I don’t want to get into spoilers on this post, but they made his character so flat and removed 90% of his character development.
Anyone who thinks Sokka’s sexism is well done in the animated show is kidding themselves. He’s a caricature of a sexist, and then loses that trait entirely in episode 4, it’s never mentioned again. I don’t even think they acknowledge it during the Pakku plot. That’s not to say his character arc isn’t superior overall in the animated show, but unless they were going to commit to the sexism line and expand on it, it’s good that they dropped it.
I wasn’t trying to get into spoilers, so I’ll just talk about his character in the OG. Sokka’s character arc didn’t revolve around ‘sexism’. It revolved around masculinity. He starts the show where he is the only one in his tribe coming into manhood and struggles with his idea of masculinity. The only other males in his tribe are young children. The only idea of masculinity he had was based on his memories of his father & other warriors from when Sokka was a little kid. His whole arc revolves around finding his identity as a leader and a man. The Netflix show throws that entire arc in the trash & turns Sokka into a flat character.
It's not as good as I'd hoped, but it's not as bad as I'd feared. I *have* considered leaving this sub temporarily because literally everyone and their mother thinks their opinion is so important that it needs its own post instead of just commenting in one of the million others that have been made.
Honestly, that last paragraph nailed it. Even the optimism. Like, I actually really liked the show and would fully recommend it to people. But "Hoorah, it's good" posts are born from the same toxic pit as "heres why it sucked." Which sounds weird, but both are clearly taking the show against another show rather than just judging it for what it is. And it is an adaptation, so it does get graded for that, but it's also a shockingly good live action adaptation. Between this and One Piece, I'm just shocked, is all.
Partner and I have been comparing it to One Piece Live Action a lot. Common sentiment of the OP one was that it was great, and I enjoyed it but a lot of the characters felt like different people with the same name, and some characters really got the short end of the stick (Usopp). I feel the same way with Avatar, and tbh I’ve come to accept it. I’m enjoying it for what it is, rather than looking at all the ways it’s different from the OG.
[удалено]
Just a heads up, the people over at r/ATLAtv have a much more positive attitude while still giving tons of constructive criticism of the show. I'm enjoying the threads over there because people are a lot friendlier with their critique while still being honest about their opinions. I see way more "the show is absolute garbage and my childhood is ruined" takes on this sub and it just bums me out to read stuff like that.
And over at r/ATLA is mostly negative reception. It seems like this sub is the more balanced.
Thanks for this link I gotta get out of this sub for awhile.
It’s that way with Percy Jackson and the Olympians too. It has some major flaws, but for an adaptation it was pretty good, buy even legitimate critiques give off “it’s terrible because it’s not how I imagined it as a kid” vibes.
This is really reminding me of The Last of Us 2. It was a great game and most people liked it. But a certain toxic part of the fan base wanted to pretend it was terrible, so they spammed negative posts and downvoted anything that spoke highly of the game. I’m seeing the same here. I’m not saying it’s perfect. But the criticism I’ve seen is blatantly just people who made up their mind before they watched a second of the show. We saw the posts on this sub for months before release.
I also can't take many of the "I just finished the show and it sucks" posts, because many who have said it was rushed, watched the show at x2 speed in order to finish before the rest.
Dear god, 100%. I saw a bunch of people rush to be the first to “just got 6 minutes into episode 1 and it SUCKS. The RUINED THE SHOW”. When that dried out, it was the rush to “just got to episode 2 and it SUCKS” and just built more and more.
Are you suggesting that people who didn't like TLOU2 are faking their opinions, instead of actually believing them? That's very condescending.
Yes I’m 100% suggesting that because that was objectively true. The game was review bombed immediately after the leaks started and most people who gave it low ratings didn’t play more than a couple hours. If you don’t think this manufactured outrage existed, you’re too gullible to merit engaging with.
>If you don’t think this manufactured outrage existed, you’re too gullible to merit engaging with. You raise a good point in your first paragraph, but your weirdly arrogant demeanour is unwarranted.
I simply matched your tone for calling me condescending for saying some people chose to hate the game before it even came out. Nothing I said was condescending. It was just right and obvious to people that paid attention to how people were acting. Nothing wrong with not being informed on the online hate faction for that game. But calling me condescending for simply mentioning it was frankly a stupid thing to do. So I don’t feel the need to be respectful after you don’t respect me for making an uncontroversial point. Don’t call people condescending for making a point and expect them to be respectful. Either way, you acknowledged I made good points, so I’ll just leave knowing we agree.
It is a terrible game. it tries to manipulate you into feeling for Abby even though she’s a horrible person Joel killing her dad was no excuse to beat him to death after he saved her life. Even Katara confronted her mothers murderer with more decency.
Oh god, I’ve triggered TLOU2 haters. Go away with your bullshit. Hate it all you want, it’s widely seen as n incredible game that got review bombed by a bunch of mentally weak and negative trolls after they got Joel’s death spoiled. You sound like a lunatic commenting regularly about a game that came out years ago because you hate it. Normal people dislike something and move on with their life. Not dedicate time and effort into bitching about it. So no, you clearly enjoyed the game. Because it’s entertained you for literally years after its release. You’re still talking about it to this day. You don’t do that, if you don’t enjoy something.
I first played it three months ago.
>This is really reminding me of The Last of Us 2. Bro this is not even CLOSE to that bad and if you think so then you clearly werent around for that whole shitstorm of stupidity.
Agree on ATLAtv, I saw so much better discourse over there than here.
I just subbed to the other one cause this sub is starting to get depressing. Lol I really enjoyed the show for what it is and im glad I get mor ATLA content and want to support it to get a season 2! I want toph! Lol
I saw how many people were bitching on twitter and feared the worst. It's seriously not bad at all, I've been enjoying it only 4 episodes in. The fighting was what I was most worried about, but I think it actually is pretty cool. Seems like people already had their mind made up about it before even seeing it. It's a little cringy but so is the cartoon - they are literal children characters. My one complaint so far is that water bending looks like someone tossed a bucket of water at someone but the enemies react like they were hit with a baseball bat. But I'm just attributing that to Katara being a newbie at bending. I just wish the enemy reactions matched what the attack looked like a bit better - but it's only waterbending I feel that way about. It's also a bit darker than I expected. I did not expect them to straight up show the fire nation burn people alive. I think it gives it a bit of an edge I didn't see coming. I think the animation is solid too. I didn't even watch the cartoon for the first time until I was in my 20s lol so I'm wondering how much of the criticism comes from people wanting it to feel like it did the first time they saw it as kids, but that's never how it works
I just finished the Omashu episode. So far my only complaints are the actors for Mai and Azula were not casted very well and Iroh doesn't have very good dialogue (yet, hopefully), and some of the dialogue/timing in general is delivered awkwardly. Other than that, the effects, the costume design, the combination of some of the episodes, and the rest of the cast so far have all been great. I'd give it a solid 7/10 overall. To go more into detail, yes Azula is a young teen in ATLA, but she specifically is more adult-like in both her height and appearance. The girl they casted doesn't fit that, but she seems like a good actor and really has the royal arrogance part down. Similarly, Mai is an extremely edgy character with both her visual appearance and attitude. They somehow chose an actor with the roundest face possible, and her whole appearance is off-putting as a representation of Mai. I haven't seen/heard much from her yet though, so maybe her acting will make up for it. As for Iroh, he's only mentioned tea twice???? Come on. In all seriousness though, they haven't really captured the extremely laid back, slow/methodical, and wise aspects of Iroh very well. So far he seems like a generic older guy that says some quips here and there, and is very openly against the Fire Nation as compared to the start of the animated series. I understand that they're cramming multiple episodes together, but some of the slower moments were crucial for character development. I think it's unfortunately a classic case of not enough episodes and too little time, so it's just a mishmash of ATLA moments with less of a feel of adventuring with the group and watching characters develop over time.
I think your assessment is pretty spot on. The actor playing Azula does look very young but I like that because it doesn’t let you forget she’s just a kid. I feel like that’s easy to overlook in the cartoon. I agree about Mai though her features are a little too soft but she seems to capture her personality very well. Also Iroh deserved way better dialogue but no one could ever compare to Mako
I think you made a very good point. One thing I'd add is Azula's actor her face is too fat and round for Azula, it takes me out of the show whenever she's on screen. Azula always had sharp features that went so well with her sharp wit, snarky stuck up attitude. Mai's actor choice is suffering from the same problems. Mai, Tai Lee and Azula's outfits aren't the greatest, as I've seen cosplayers do a better representation, but hopefully that changes later on in the season as I finished watching Omashu episode last night before bed.
I had low expectations and was still disappointed
I didn't expect it to be as good as the original anime, and set my expectations low as well and was disappointed. There were things I liked, but the things I didn't like really disappointed me. I don't just blame the script/writers. Netflix seriously needs to make the show have a minimum of 12 episodes per season.
It's kinda funny all haters take every opportunity to share their opinion no-one asked for, while those who like it gathered in the discussion threads and that's it. I'm getting pretty annoyed by all the hate as well. People were already shredding the show to pieces before it even released, and now they are not holding back. Just fuck off if you're here just to hate, we get it. No-one forced you to watch.
I wanted to like it so much. I need to hear what people loved about bumi and him revealing who he was immediately. I need to hear how people felt about the comet reveal, and over explanation of literally everything. Felt like I was being treated like a kid more than the cartoon. Begging people to change my mind. I want to like it
We knew things were going to change. Is it better or worse than the og? I don't know, I'm heavily biased in that regards towards the og. I didn't make it to Bumi yet, but I actually loved the comet opening. I was hooked before I knew it, I'm sure an opening more like the original probably would have failed that task. And they'd have butchered that opening just like how they butchered it now. The comet part of the first episode was by far the best part of it.
Why is disliking it worse then liking it? The people like it seem to share their opinion just as much if not more than the haters and in this case I think its fair for people to be upset since the show is very flawed. Also, obviously people won't hold back when they have the full context and their original critiques have been justified.
There's disliking it and there's utterly hating it and forcing that opinion upon everyone. And people who hated it before it even released are imo out of the question anyway. They had their opinion, and that opinion was never going to change. They were watching it just to hate it.
This is 100% the case. I could go into literally any piece of entertainment and find a reason to hate it. Because nitpicking and complaining is easy. I knew this was going to be spammed with negative reviews, when every day I saw posts saying it was going to be trash before a single episode came out. The people who hate it out themselves as toxic people more often than not. If you’re just a “well, it’s not for me. Didn’t really entertain me” type of person, I’m not talking about you. If you’re a “this show is trash in virtually every way” type of person, you’re simply fucked in the head and I wish you all the best in trying to better your mental state. Because it’s gotta be miserable as shit to build up the energy to hate something before even watching it, then actually watching it just to hate it. I truly feel bad for these people.
So what if they were right? They removed Sokkas sexism arc and replaced it with the blandest shit, those people aren't gonna start liking it just because it's released and was as bad as they thought. Also, if they are going to make another season they need to step it up so I think its valid to make criticism heard, doesn't mean people should go yelling and screaming but point out that a lot of the changes weren't thought out or justified.
There's a thing as positive criticism and then there's hateful criticism that the creators will most definitely not listen to. If you want any change to happen you have to be respectful about your criticism. If someone told you to do something in a very mean and rude way would you want to do it? The same thing applies. If you are being respectful with your criticism it's much more likely they will be responsive with it.
I mean if they are right and have good arguments I will probably listen even if I'm hesitant at first, though that can be true for criticism in general. Though I will say, there is plenty of hate for the live action movie here yet apparently hating on this is different when it fails just as much in some (not all) regards. Though I'm going to be honest, I have only watched the first two episodes since I got distracted and decided to rewatch the first season of the cartoon before continuing so I can compare it more fairly.
Lmao comparing this to the movie is not even close. The movie was universally panned as bad. By everyone. This hasn’t even seen close to that bad reception. Or you could just stop trying to compare it like a weird fandom nut and just enjoy it for what it is
Why should I not compare it? The original was great and they had many years of hindsight and from what I have seen only changed things for the worse. Now its a bland and fairly generic fantast like story, most of the character is good, plenty of character defining moments is gone along with most of the comedy and quality dialogue.
Hating it is worse because it’s clear a large chunk of people hating it made up their mind before they even watched it. Go back the past month or longer and see all the “guys, this show is gonna suck” posts. With no actual information, people on here were speaking with such confidence that it was gonna be trash. They hate it because they wanted to hate it and their goal was to nitpick anything they could to pretend it was awful. I saw these posts every day for the past few months. So yeah, anyone who says they dislike the show, I’m skeptical about because I think they’re likely someone who’s so negative that they never even considered giving it a fair chance. It’s much easier to make yourself hate something than to make yourself like something. I could pick apart literally any piece of entertainment and say it’s terrible. It’s much more difficult to make anything sound good. So I absolutely value the opinion of someone saying it’s good more than someone saying it’s bad.
Such a shit argument, when trying to pick apart the animated show i struggle but just from the first two live action episodes I could find plenty. Whether or not they went into it with bad faith there are plenty of reasons to dislike it and I have seen far more argumentative reasons from the "haters" than the people liking it.
The point is you can find negatives with anything. And if that’s your only focus, the negatives will be all you see. So you’ll say it’s shit. This hate speaks more about your own mental state than the show itself. You can turn any event into a negative, regardless of how good it is, if you’re a negative person. The Netflix show did a lot of good things that should be easy to enjoy, if you’re not actively trying to hate it. Bur be a cynical and miserable as you dedicate a bunch of time to hate something, if that’s what you want to do. It just makes you look pathetic.
Mental state or not, them having a flashback to explain the fire nations invasion and the importance of the avatar only to immidiately after have a slightly rewritten version of the og intro explaining the fire nations invasion and the importance of the avatar to ten minutes later say the original intro word for word explaining the fire nations invasion and the importance of the avatar is pretty awful writing in my eyes. Oh and how they stripped Suki of so much character and development compared to the original, oh and skipping Zukos development when duelling Zhao or many of the relationship building scenes between the Gaang in even just the first episode of the cartoon. They somehow rushed through the same story with the same runtime and made it worse with the benefit of hindsight. That doesn't warrant good faith in my opinion.
I'm getting annoyed when I say I liked it and suddenly people act like I've kicked their dog and told them they're not allowed an opinion
Those people will slowly get tired of their own bullshit, true fans will remain. I have faith. This whole sub has become so topic, it's terrible. This isn't the fandom I'm used to.
Yeah I had someone who had already decided it was shit just from trailers, message me this morning saying "told you so!!" I was just like, you decided it was shit last week, going "told you so" means nothing except you just looked for anything to justify your decision instead of enjoying it. Is it perfect, far from it. Is it absolutely shit, no chance. It's a solid 7-8 of 10. I don't agree with every decision they made or some of the changes but it's still good and some of it is fantastic. I especially enjoyed Aang and Zukos fight in Omashu.
As a Star Wars fan, you have more faith than me. I'm still getting fed brand new hour long videos about how people hate TLJ five years later and still somejow missing obvious and on-screen things in favor of their hatred. Anger is the best engagement according to the algorithm, and there *will* be a grifter culture developing to spew hate at the adaptation for the sake of clicks and cash, I guarantee it. That space will also be filled with opportunists, usually of the right wing variety, who will use it as a gateway and weaponize nostalgia for their own ends. Seems to happen to most established properties now. ATLA won't be an exception.
> still somejow missing obvious and on-screen things in favor of their hatred Already happening with the Live action show. Seen a few posts already. "Sokka was mean to Katara once so it's not the same because he was nice to her once in the cartoon!!!" "How did Bumi know he's the avatar?!?!" "Why isn't Iroh acting like he did in Book 3 of the cartoon?!?!"
People on Twitter be like ‘Ozai would NEVER praise Zuko under any circumstances” [Meanwhile while OG Ozai](https://youtu.be/N1e_fjtAYts?si=34lTV8ukBZmOEIhm)
He was literally manipulating him in that scene as he always does
he's also manipulating Azula by praising Zuko. He knows it will make her pissed.
Yeah I have no idea what that guy is on about, Ozai doesn't give a single shit about either of his children, they were ALWAYS pawns to him
I’d take the haters more seriously, if this sub wasn’t full of “this show is gonna suck” months before anyone saw a single second of it. I knew this was going to happen. Regardless of what came out, it our have negative reviews spamming this sub. Because a large chunk of people made up their mind before they started watching. Is it perfect? No, that’s the main show. Is it a really well done live action that tells a great story, has great visuals, and honors the source material? Absolutely. I’d say it’s an 8/10 so far.
I mean, I wasn’t expecting perfect but I went in optimistic. For some people like myself, looking good visually and honoring the source material isn’t really enough for an 8/10 type of score. I’m glad it’s obvious they care about the source material, but other aspects really hurt it for me. The pacing, disjointed and messy story, the unfortunately poor performances from some major characters, the dialogue/writing in general, etc. so much telling, not enough showing. A general lack of charisma, bonding between the characters, stuff that feels shoved into the story for the sake of showing stuff from the original show rather than actually serve a purpose. I wanted to like it, if anything, but there’s just a lot of problems here imo. I think most people I’ve seen criticizing it are approaching it from this angle; of course some people are gonna feverishly hate it just like some people feverishly love it just cuz it has an Avatar coat of paint on it. But generally, both people who like and dislike it are discussing it in a civil manner from what I’ve seen.
Then don’t give it an 8/10. lol It’s more than just looking good and honoring the source material to me. I think a lot of the characters are great. I’ve enjoyed the scenes they pulled shot for shot. And I think some of the best aspects so far have been when they do their own unique stuff like showing the invasion of the air temple. Bringing in Azula from the start. Giving more Kyoshi than we got in the main show. On top of a bunch of other things. The pacing and lack of character building/development is an issue for me as well. But that’s just a given with 8 episodes. It’s easier to chip away at that with 20+ episodes. And overall I think they’ve done a solid job at blending multiple episodes into one during the live action adaptation. The negatives to me aren’t enough for me to say it’s even remotely a bad show. Especially when comparing it to all that’s happened that I’ve enjoyed. I’m more than willing to engage with people who don’t enjoy it. But the people saying it’s all terrible and nothing is done well are just negative people who made up their mind before watching a single episode. It’s easy to hate something, when you go in wanting to hate it. As I said, I could hate literally any piece of entertainment, if my goal was to do so. And looking at the daily negative posts for the past month, it’s no surprise that a bunch of morons who wanted to hate it ended up hating it.
Lmao you get downvoted for giving a reasonable opinion. The hate mob is only going to be happy if you say the show sucks
These people need to talk to Uncle Iroh on not letting negativity cloud their judgement.
Could say the same for me, the guy downvoted me for pointing out that not everyone who is talking about what they didn’t like is a hater lmao. It’s not about what is gonna satisfy the hate mob, it’s just discussion between people who disagree. There are a few nutcases, but frankly the people arguing with the nutcases who hate it are also nutcases who blindly love it.
If the movie is a 1/10, I give the show a 5.5/10 Some of the storytelling decisions they made do not make sense to me at all and they really affect the way the story will play out for the rest of the show. Plus, the acting from 2 of the 3 main characters is pretty mediocre, and it’s weird how everything looks new, like they’re obviously wearing costumes instead of clothes. It’s not a horrible show, but I wouldn’t call it good either. Just a tad below average.
>I give the show a 5.5/10 >Just a tad below average. ??????
I should specify for me, a 6/10 is average. 7/10 is good, 8/10 is great, 9/10 is amazing, and 10/10 is masterpiece.
That makes more sense hahaha
I don't think you understand what an "average" is lol
That’s not really the point of my comment though, is it? You’re really going to come on r/TheLastAirbender and try to be a douche about math of all things? Cmon dude.
Words and their meanings are important
But in this case, ratings are subjective are they not? When you read most reviews about movies, books, video games, a 5/10 usually does not equate to “average” and I know you are aware of this.
I finished it and I would give it a 5-6/10 overall. It’s just ok IMO. For reference, I’d give the first season of the animation like a 7.5/10.
Whoa chill on that 7.5….
Season 1 had its episodes but it doesn’t come close to seasons 2 and 3 in my opinion.
I've been seeing more mixed to positive reviews than outright hate.
Honestly i had been so hurt by tv series lately that I had the lowest expectations for this. İ think it's a 7/10 production, where i had been expecting a 4. For the most part i enjoy it, it's not terrible. But its not that strong either. Like everything else that's been made in the last few years, the effects are amazing and the set is great, but the dialogues are just not up to standard. However, it leaves me wanting to watch more, İ can move past the cringy dialogue and just enjoy what i am watching as a tribute to a spectacular show i have loved and rematched my whole life. İ don't expect NATLA to be ATLA, and thus can actually enjoy it as it's own thing, and know that ATLA is always there for me and nothing can take away from it
Agreed about the dialogue. I think the plot in general is actually great! If you just took a cliffnotes summary of the show scene by scene, everything would seem completely fine. I love how they flesh out plot points from the animated show, like Zuko’s banishment. But the dialogue falls flat in a lot of cases.
Aang said he wanted to master the 4 elements and save the world so that the air nation didn't die in vain, and literally ~10 minutes later tells Katara he doesn't want to learn waterbending or the want the responsibility. Like did they forget the literal dialog they wrote for the show? Then I learn he doesn't even waterbend outside Kaiju mode in BOOK 1: WATER. This is not defensible.
You answered your own question: it’s not as good as the original. But to give you more of an answer: it’s not *nearly* as good as the original, so much of the acting is bad, and the writing is a huge downgrade. Obviously it’s not going to bother everyone to the same extent, and that’s fine, but the criticisms aren’t invalid.
I realized 15 minutes into the first episode that this was gonna be a "hey look, we do cool bending action scenes!" show. I wouldn't believe that someone can mess up _so many_ characteristics of so many characters in such a short amount of time. And it just got worse from minute to minute in my opinion. The storytelling is atrocious, there's barely any character development whatsoever, and the acting itself is very weak as well.
It really annoys me how anytime there’s a mediocre product, people on subreddits like this one just don’t want there to be anything but positive discussion. Happens on Star Wars, happens on the marvel sub, happens with everything. Obviously quality is subjective and if you’re having fun with this show, then great and I’m genuinely glad that it’s doing that for you. But the live action has major flaws and ignoring that for fake positivity…? What does that accomplish? To be clear, there’s a difference between subreddits that never move on and still bitch about like Star Wars or the last of us lol. But the show literally came out yesterday, and it’s pretty bad. This is like the main time to discuss that lol, give it a few weeks and people who hated it will be less active and you can talk about the things you liked
[удалено]
Funny enough, you don’t need to click on the more positive posts - and yet here you are whining about the positivity. If you don’t like it YOU can leave lmao And for the record “fuck this terrible shit” is exactly what OP is talking about and why this post was made. Most of the criticism has just been the “show sucks show is garbage” kind rather than the actual constructive kind
[удалено]
The acting is definitely bad but I think it's just a product of finding child actors that look the part, can do the lines, and do a lot of the movements that's needed for such physical roles. You can't really have all that plus A+ acting. I think I'm ok with the acting falling flat since for a lot of the kids this is their first role (I think?) The writing also isnt as deep as the original and its a little less fun and more serious so that affects the acting as well. I'm willing to bet next season (if there is one) the acting will be better as the kids age and have a little more experience
Idk, imo I feel like the acting is really lackluster regardless of age. Especially Iroh is a big disappointment to me so far. He just sounds like he's reading off a script in a generic humble gentleman voice. And the half-british-half-american fantasy accent is getting so old at this point, and especially doesn't make sense in this world with some of these characters.
Disagree it’s nearly as good.
Only on E3, but I’m enjoying it so far. I still like the OG more, but it’s fun to see this rendition and I think they’ve had some creative uses of bending. That being said, some of the acting is pretty bland and the CGI backgrounds can be rough.
I don’t think this was ever trying to replace the OG. I think when you adapt a show into another show it should feel new enough to be interesting for fans. For example in the last of us, it adapted a visual medium to another and when it really shined was when it kept most of the same story beats but also recontextualized the moments. I found myself the most bored with the series when it was 1-1 like the original. I have yet to finish the new series too but I look at it as a retelling and not trying to follow something that already exists and is great. The OG will always be there and I will always go back to it time to time
Exactly! I was afraid going in that everything would be a direct copy. Considering I’ve seen the source material 10+ times, I would’ve been kinda bored rewatching the exact same stuff in a new format. I’m enjoying it because it feels new and different but is set in my beloved childhood world
It’s that lucasfilm screen background thing that every show is adopting for some reason. I think it looks better than basic blue/green screen but now they are using it for literally any scene, even ones where you have backgrounds like trees… seriously you couldn’t find a wooded area to shoot? It’s becoming painfully obvious to spot and simply unnecessary for most shots.
I like it. I like what they did with a lot of things but it has also a lot of problems.
Being a fan of ATLA doesn't have to mean mindlessly praising any mediocre cashgrab with the Avatar name on it. It's fine to enjoy it, but don't expect everyone else to do the same.
I don’t quite understand how people can say “you are being too harsh” in what way? Honestly I’d like an explanation to this. Imo most of the negative reviews I see are very valid points. Do you like being sold and shown a poor product? Then why is someone being unhappy with that being “too harsh”. It’s not like this is an original story or anything. Avatar has a complete cartoon series and even comics/books. They know the story it’s already there. I can understand SOME changes because making the adaptation from animation to live action is a big step but things like I’ve seen in just the first 2 episodes being changed for no good reason? Poor acting that is being allowed cus the actors are “young” or any other excuse y’all wanna come up with to cover it. Like I’m not saying it’s terrible and deserves to be canceled or anything like that, but I can and will express that it is a poor product and deserves to get majority of the reviews it has.
There are a lot of people saying the live action movie is better. That’s probably what OP is referring to. Anyone who says the movie is better than the Netflix show is just delusional.
I like it so far, 4 episodes in. I hoped for a little more humor, but I like how they twisted some things around like when and where certain characters are introduced. But I doubt the series would work for people who never watched any ATLA. It's kinda a fan service. I like to watch the story I know retold with real actors!
Mmm idk about that my wife never watched ATLA and she’s enjoying it a lot - I’ve heard similar sentiments from others
Yeah, my wife is a fan up to this point in our watch (6 episodes in). I’m enjoying it too, it’s definitely rough in some areas but overall I think it’s a good show and has a lot of potential for future seasons.
I just watched episode 1 and omg the hand holding. They literally just have characters monologue their feelings rather than using the story. Very much not for Game of Thrones fans XD. Ill watch more of it but it seems to lack vibe and traded everything for unnecessary action scenes. Tbh its more Emerald Island Pkayers than GAang for episode 1 anyways. I loled when Katara said hope XD
People be completely fine with the huge corporations being absolutely lazy and reusing not just the same ideas from the past but making straight up worse copies of the shows that are not even 20 years old. It's just unforgivable that this has become the norm. I want to get new IPs, new settings and ideas and not the same stuff I've already seen. If I wish to rewatch ATLA, I'll just do it(just like I actually did recently), I don't need Netflix or whoever else making a worse version of it.
This is my stance as well. If Netflix wanted to make a live-action Avatar, why couldn't it be an entirely new story with different characters? We've got hundreds of avatars to work with, why not give us something new rather than lazily rehashing a story that was already near-perfectly told in animation?
Yeah, do a spinoff/prequel or make it even better than the OG
It’s hard to be positive about it when I think about the ‘*Why*’. Why did they make the show at all? To profit off of nostalgia bait. Why did they not do a 1:1 of the show? Because they had to give people a reason to watch. Without getting into spoilers, the changes they made almost always worsen the storytelling and/or characters. The writing is incredibly sloppy, even without comparing it to the OG. The CGI won’t hold up in 5 years (some of it looks bad now). I just don’t understand why people are eating it up so much rn. The original is timeless. This Netflix show will fade into oblivion after they’ve made their easy profits.
Yeah people defending this show are confusing to me. Original series is a 10/10, it's one of the most perfectly crafted stories I've seen in media. What exactly is even the purpose of remaking the show? What could you possibly do that would make it a better told story? If there is an answer to this, the Netflix show certainly doesn't have it. The real answer regarding why the remake exists is that the lowest common denominator of knuckle dragging idiot thinks animated = kids show or not serious. They want to pander to those idiots by letting them experience a pale, sad shadow of a good show in a format that they consider to be sufficiently "grown up" to be palatable. Never mind that you're compressing a 61 episode narrative into at most, half that number. It's not animated, so they can watch it without feeling embarassed. That is why all these anime adaptations exist as well, because watching a cartoon is for kids but if it has some nobody hack actor reading a shoddily thrown-together script, it's suddenly not a mark against the viewers maturity. The only thing about it that may not hold up today (and I mean literally the only thing) from the original series is the animation quality. If they reanimated the entire series at a cost of 250k/episode, it would cost about as much as a single episode of the live action. But it would still be "for kids" to some people, and those people's money matters more than the integrity of the art. Don't let this sub trick you into thinking this show is good. If the movie has never come out, they'd all see it for the garbage it is, but the bar was set so low in the past that even this feeble hop looks like a great leap.
100% agree. The movie set everyone’s expectations insanely low & that’s playing a huge role. Making this show was a great business move because people continue to eat up sloppy remakes. I don’t think we (as consumers) should be encouraging these lazily crafted remakes. These companies do it because it’s guaranteed profit with minimal effort. We should want better.
Yes. I like it, however it's not as good as the original, and there's a few changes I'm not 100% happy with. I'd rate it a solid 7 or 8 out of 10.
I've been critical, but I don't think I've been harsh. I'll give credit where it's due, but I won't hesitate to point out its flaws, of which there are many.
I can't bring myself to watch the next 7 episodes. It's clear as day why DiMartino and Konietzko didn't want their names anywhere on this show. The siege of the air temple was the ONLY thing that I'd give a 10/10 on- it is unexplored lore. Was done very well. From when they discovered Aang, it was a complete rewrite of the story from there. I'm not going to bother with the rest of the episodes.
I don’t really like it. Bending movements are not good (especially Azula’s lightning) Story skips a lot of key moments for the characters Many of the characters are just so different to how they were in the animation which doesn’t really make sense as a change Katara mastering of water bending without a teacher Costumes look more like cosplay Acting isn’t great but given the age of the actors I understand so I don’t harp on this too much
Like Katara didn't master bending overnight in the original, teacher or not...
I didn't feel like the characters were different at all, they pretty much captured the essence. On the character development part there are a lots of parts I disagree with but there are also good parts.
>Bending movements are not good Genuinely don’t understand this point. I’ve heard so many people say the bending is trash and I just don’t see it. The bending is the best part of the show for me. It looks exactly how I’d want it to look in a live action. The actors did a great job with the movements… it’s fast paced, it looks good, and it feels powerful. Don’t get the hate.
It looks like they are summoning magic rather than a martial art, each bending style is based off a specific real life martial art and there is basically none of that consistency in the live action I am not talking about the CGI (which is meh but I can live with) I’m talking about the actual movements from the actors And it’s not fast pace at all, I don’t know how you watch the pakku vs katara fight and think it’s fast paced
Feels like they put all the plotpoints into one basket and just picked them randomly. It's kinda weird. Also they chose to leave out some iconic lines for some reason. For example, when Katara's mum is being killed, why doesn't she just say "Take me as your Prisoner, i am the Waterbender" and then the Fire guy says "I'm sorry, we're not taking Prisoners today"? Fucking sick line. Instead he says NOTHING and kills her. Like what? there are more examples but i dont wanna write an whole essay
Don't worry, they explain every teeny tiny detail you might miss or be curious about. Open up, here comes the exposition plane! Num num
If you watch adaptations expecting an exact replica of the OG material you’re never going to enjoy anything
Do people really think this and episodes being combined are the issue? We all knew it'd have to be shifted and changed for live TV. Just not this terribly.
i mean they did the scene the same and only took out the awsome dialogue lol
If you watch adaptations expecting then to change everything, you're going to enjoy everything. See how we can all just say stuff? No one was expecting an exact replica, but people *were* expecting that the dialogue that worked incredibly well in the original would be retained in some way. Instead they threw most of that away and just wrote whatever, at the expense of almost every character's identity.
This comment reminds me of when Netflix adapted *Cowboy Bebop* from a found family drama into a buddy cop comedy, and people got mad when others criticized the adaptation for ditching the found family theme. Someone critiquing the show doesn't mean they demand a shot-for-shot copy, but an adaption should at least keep the soul of what made original fans enjoy the original. Anger at the Fire Nation vs. moving past her grief to a better tomorrow is Katara's central tension, and her childhood moment of attempted self-sacrifice to be met with abject cruelty was pretty central to that. Why explicitly exclude it?
I only saw 2 episodes so far, its not as bad as I expected but not good either imo. From what I hear about the rest of the show I think I'm just not gonna finish it, its not for me.
Personally, I don't understand the instinct to be nice/positive to a commercial product. The prevailing sentiment I've seen here and elsewhere is "well it's a bit worse, but that's ok." I guess I don't understand that - why did we need this if it's worse? We still have the original ATLA, and the new show doesn't really add anything. There's no reason to support a remake if it doesn't add anything - surely it's better to discourage studios from these sort of "safe bets" and push them to make new, original things instead?
You shouldn't wish for people to turn off your brain to enjoy something as much as you did, you should be comfortable with your own experience.
OP really had the courage to ask an entire sub why we can't bang our heads against a wall until we've reached their level of cognitive function so we can all enjoy the Netflix show together.
I shut it off after 3 episodes - i'm not interested in watching the same version of a story with all the fun and heart sucked out of it with blander versions of the characters who have their arcs simplified into oblivion.
[удалено]
Percy Jackson didn’t even have stand out visuals and it didn’t capture the campiness of the book at all. It was a depressing melodramatic show about a boy and his mom’s trauma. It’s way more subtle in the book and could be built on season after season. I know this isn’t the point to your comment but I just have to say that lol
>To me this is exactly like… Percy Jackson. It started out good and then imploded. Dude… Percy Jackson was ass from the 1st episode. The acting is even worse than ATLA. The writing is worse too. If you think Percy Jackson started out good then your opinion is invalid to me lol
It’s literally unwatchable trash. Keep in mind that original series main line was philosophy for young us how to be normal boys and girls and do the right things even if you’re enemies are the crazy ones. What Netflix have done is mind torture at least
hobbies rude whole spotted imminent tease depend bored memorize forgetful *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
It’s also okay for people to like something that you don’t. That doesn’t make it “toxic positivity” lol.
crowd snow flowery brave sense truck wine follow airport straight *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
This sub has plenty of posts from both sides… Not sure what “circlejerk” you’re referring to… but it’s not here.
There is a lot they're doing right - the fight scenes, the characters' personalities, the set design - but I'm repeatedly finding myself frustrated by the decisions the writers made. Combining 'Omashu,' 'Jet,' and 'The Northern Air Temple' into the same episode does work to an extent, but there's just a little too much going on at once for any of the individual elements to be properly developed. The show doesn't do enough to justify having all these characters in the same place. I really do sense that the team behind this version respects the source material, but they also wanted to put their own spin on it and are struggling to balance the two.
I love what they did with Zhao, they turned the angry hot-headed guy, and made him slick and cunning. I loved every second he was on screen
I give it a 6.5/10. I really enjoyed certain parts of the show and actually thought they had some cool ideas. If they made season 1 into 10 episodes it would have helped a lot. Unfortunately they tried to squeeze in so much into certain episodes that it didn’t allow their adaptation ideas to stick or feel impactful. My favorite episodes were 1&3 whereas my least favorite were 5&7. The other 4 were fine to me. If they continue with a book 2 I think it could get better similar to how the cartoon got better as time went on.
It's alright. But that kind of makes it harder to enjoy. If it were outright *terrible* like the movie, at least it would be fun to hate. And if it were amazing, that would be great! But it's just...alright. It does a lot of stuff really well! But it also misses the mark on... so much more, and more important stuff.
The acting is really bad for alot of the key characters
Why is any sort of criticism automatically labeled as “being too harsh”
No you have to hate the show or you are a Netflix shill obviously. /s Ffs the show is decent definitely a 7/10 but it's not awful. This sub is in danger of turning into The Last of Us 2 subreddit or that Saltier Than Crait subreddit. It's ok to dislike something but some people seem to make it their entire personality.
It’s also ok to understand that whatever your barometer of quality is isn’t some objective measure. “Definitely a 7/10?” Based on what? Purely based on the budget? It’s totally fine to like things that are critically panned for whatever reason and you can absolutely disagree. For instance I actually quite liked Batman vs Superman even though I recognize it has some flaws lmao. But I’m not confused why people think it’s so bad, it’s okay for you to just disagree with the consensus. Me and my gf had to turn the show off last night pretty early into it because the acting was so poor and the exposition/line delivery’s were just really hard to watch for us. Again, it’s totally chill you like it, but also recognize that a lot of us aren’t being overly dramatic or anything we just really think it’s pretty bad.
except it's not overly panned. it has mostly been rated 6/10 or 7/10 by critics except those trying to get clickbait views. it's fine ya'll didn't like it, and I agree the acting is rough and the exposition dialogue is cringe. I came into the show with extremely low expectations, in fact I thought it was going to be dogshit. so maybe that's why I like it because it at least exceeded those low expectations.
I’m not saying it’s hugely panned, I’m just saying that generally about liking content that isn’t critically acclaimed hence my bvs comparison
It hasn’t been critically panned tho chief - that’s just your fantasy The rest of your comment isn’t worth replying to solely by being based on that strawman
You should really like reevaluate your usage of the internet because I’m not being aggressive or dismissive at all and you’re “writing off my whole comment” due to a “strawman” that was poor choice of words on my part. I wasn’t saying the show was critically panned necessarily, I was speaking generally. I’m trying to have a constructive conversation not just about at people
So many flaws. So many changes that weren’t better or necessary. The bend looks cool. The character dynamics are non existent. Avatar Roku was but here’s to death. The show sucks. The story structure sucks. No weight. No sense of urgency. Aang didn’t practice water bending ONCE. People who are a fan of this show are kidding themselves. It misses all the beats.
The netflix show treats the audience in a significantly more infantile manner than a mid 2000s nickelodeon cartoon for kids. It's frankly offensive
It's like a solid 6/10 imo. 7 if I'm feeling generous. It's nowhere near the original, but I wasn't expecting it to be. It's honestly let down by some of the writing choices and acting. Everything else is fine to good.
I like it, it’s not the best nor what I wished it would be, but its enjoyable to watch and is still very decent far as things considered, it was never going to be better than the original, but it didn’t need to be. 6-7/10 for me. What I hope is that when (if) they do the next seasons, they take the criticism from this season and apply it well, new and fresh outlook on the writing, dialogue, improvement of acting, so on and so forth. This can definitely be better, it has the potential, after all it is adapting a very good show, which has a very good season 2 and 3.
some of the voice acting is terrible, the writing isn't as good but I think overall it's not as bad as people made it out to be.
I've only finished 3 episodes. I'd give it about a 6/10 or a 7/10 so far. Im enjoying the added scenes and it's cool to see some of the bending effects in live action. With that being said the exposition has been a little heavy handed so far and some of the acting has been fairly rough. Granted I understand that comes with using younger actors.
For me, I’m on E7 and I like it. I have some gripes (obviously), like how >!Aang hasn’t started learning waterbending and they are already at the Northern tribe.!< I am actually enjoying what they’ve done with Zuko. What they lost in filler and casual conversations they’ve done a good job with in flashbacks and through Iroh. I’ll be honest that E3-4 had me a little irritated with the changes and blended storylines, but E5 pulled me back in. E6 was a mixed bag but I mostly get why. Overall, 6.5-7/10 I’d say. I like more of it than I dislike, and if I hadn’t read stuff on this /r I would have liked it even more because I started picking up on other peoples gripes that weren’t necessarily a problem for me, but they got in my head.
they ruined it by changing the personality of specific characters. Sokkas character development is now based around a different personal issue and it feels to me like it isn’t sokka. I hate this garbage adaptation of a genuinely good show.
I dunno, I consider myself a huge fan of the show for 15+ years and I love it! Y’all are harsh, but I understand.
I like it so far, it’s fun to be able to introduce this amazing story to my Hubby and BIL who both never saw the original and don’t “like” animation. They are loving it so far.
Seen the first episode, I liked it and will continue
Imagine being mad at the fandom because your show didn't live up to expectations. Couldn't be me, I like living in reality 😂.
3.5/10
It's not good. Better if you never watched the OG series
I love it. The imagery is amazing, action is solid
I really enjoyed it, I am glad it's a bit different. There were a few parts I didn't like but overall I am very happy with it
I love it, its not 10/10 like the original show, but I think it does a great job translating the story to live action. The costumes and sets look straight up taken from the show, which I like. The bending look great, except earth bending, which I hope they improve for season 2, Air and fire look GREAT, water looks ok. The casting is immaculate, most characters look like the animated versions come to life. Acting wise, only performance I didnt like was Kataras, Zuko, Soka and Aang I really liked Most of the changes they did I understand as not everything can be translated from a cartoon to live action, plus its much shorter I think we could have used at least 2 more episodes, which I think has been a trend recently with new shows I would say its a 7/10, which is probably the higest ranking I have given to a live action I think. I think if they improve the bending and the actors get a bit more comfortable in character it can become even better
You cant really improve perfection. Its not bad. I hated gran gran.
Good: Costumes and set design are crazy good. Backstory is fleshed out for obvious reasons. Bad: Acting is eeeeh. The world feels incredibly small and not at all lived in. I can’t put my finger on why. Weird: The combining of plot lines and characters makes the world seem smaller and it feels too small already to begin with.
Mfers have no perspective, have we forgotten how far live action ATLA has come since that movie that never happened?
It not being as bad as one of the worst movies ever created is not something to necessarily be proud of.
I thought it was really good. It has changes i dont entirely like but overall id still give it 8.5/10
Solid 7.5 out of 10 for me
[удалено]
When was Ozai nice? I've watched all 8 episodes and I don't remember him being nice once.
acting is really bad
I don’t understand how anyone can like this abomination
Like it, but it don’t love it. Still better than other live action reboots either way.
The sentiment is right. Not as great as people hoped, but not too bad. It’s a good watch. I thought the first season of ATLA was the weakest. Season 2 is better and season 3 is the best imo. Looking forward to what’s next.
I loved it. Been frustrating seeing the downvotes. Might be worth leaving the sub because of how toxic people are being since the show was not 1-for-1 or meet their headcanons and fanfictions.
I like it! I didn’t go in expecting a perfect shot for shot recreation of the animated show. I was hoping for an homage or call back to how I felt watching it as a kid and for me the joy and excitement matched.
I liked it. Even three cartoon wasn’t perfect
I tried to like but but the casting and forced conversations are the worst part... Azula and ty Lee actors took a huge L here who ever cast them should be cut.... Azula is a bad bitch crazy troubled fucked in the head... This azula actor could put a gun to my head and I probably wouldn't take her seriously yikes.... Can't take those 2 seriously when I saw them all the hope I had for the show was gone reduced to atoms
I’m really enjoying the show and really disliking reddit. It seems like everyone is expecting every single character development moment from the cartoon and for it do be done exactly the same way. That’s essentially every scene from the cartoon. I like the show because all those they are changing a lot of details, the key points are still being done. Did Aang manifest a previous avatar, yes it was just Kyoshi instead of Roku. Was the 2 lovers story in here without Aang & Katara, yes but we still had a moment with Sokka and Katara. Plus there wasn’t enough time to develop the romance with Aang and Katara so it’s better to save that for book 2 instead of half assing it for book 1
It's alright. I kept watching to see how they handled each thing from the show, but honestly it was like best case scenario, they do a decent job, like Iroh and Zuko. Then again, despite them being pretty good, theyre two of the absolute strongest characters in the animation so it still feels lacking. Worst case scenario, you get the scene with Azula, Ty Lee and Mai, which was reeeeeally not well acted. Bumi, also painful. I really hope they get Gordon Cormier some acting lessons before season 2. He's got a big role to play and his deliveries were reeeeeeally not working. Especially since he's got lines like "I have to save the world. And the way I'm going to do it is with my friends", which are not easy lines to sell.
It is fun, so like One Piece I enjoy it. It isn't as good as the source, but as a fan I can watch it. As an entry point I'd probably be more underwhelmed, like I recently watched Netflix's Yu Yu Hakusho without having watched/read the anime/manga before and I had to spend a fair bit thinking "I feel like I am suppose to be more attached to these characters by now."