Thulan Perera

Feb 23, 2024

8.0

Although I gave the show **8 stars**, it's more like **7.5 stars**. I like the show, but it would have been considered a pretty good show if I didn't have any prior knowledge about the original show. However, with my prior knowledge, **I see it as a good show, but not pretty good**. They did a decent job adapting the original show, but I hope that in season 2, they make it a bit more aligned with the original, not a recreation, but a little more aligned with the original. That would be amazing.

dumasori

Feb 26, 2024

4.0

**Who are the writer??** Those who grew up with the memories of the original animation series, here is a bad news for you. This live action is an absolute abomination! It had a promising start, and the first 3 episodes were enjoyable. Eventually, the new writers’ plague took over and turned everything into a mess. They literally changed the original story and made it to deliver “the message”! The last 3 episodes were so bad, I wanted them to end it already. I am not going to go into details, but here are the good and bad from my perspective: GOOD: 1. I liked the casting. The actors look like the original animation series characters. 2. Zuko is a good actor. His uncle on the other hand seems goofy. 3.Some good CGI. BAD: 1. Bad acting, direction, dialogues. 2. No character building or chemistry between characters. 3. The storyline is changed dramatically, which looks like any other Netflix girl boss series. E.g. God forbid if water bending women had to take the nurturing and healing role. They must fight into the battle and stand up against the patriarchy. Katara beating Zuko’s ass, Azula is the ultimate warrior, and so on. These days you simply can’t entertain yourself without being lectured about something. 🤦🏻‍♂️ Overall, extremely bad remake (if you want to call it one). I would rather watch the animation series again than waste my time on this crap. 4/10.

A live action movie cannot create 1:1 replication of each small moments of the animated series. Nevertheless a good try.

Truly an attempt. but beating the look of the worst movie of all time isn't a big achievement. The appearance and action of this show is nearly perfect, but the writing and plot leave so much to be desired that I can't help but wonder why anyone would watch this instead of the perfection of the original cartoon. It's almost hard to sit through knowing how each impactful scene will be mangled by the exposition machines (sorry, characters). Aang freaking out about Monk Gyatso makes no sense if he already knows all the airbenders are dead and when learning that info, barely reacted. Katara doesn't even calm him down, he just has flashbacks of Monk Gyatso and stuff until he feels better. 0/10 writing, visuals get a 5/10 for managing to at least resemble the original show, but the original bending animations are such masterpieces that it still outshines this show. And they forgot to try with the script, so it's literally just having the plot spoken aloud most of the time instead of ever seeing any of it. no impact.

Why remake perfection? The original show was perfect and has aged well, just make a different story in the same universe and step out of Aang's shadow. They spend most of the show telling us what happens instead of just remaking the beautiful scenes from the original show, so distasteful.

Dean

Apr 25, 2024

9.0

Never seen original show (as I understand this is a remake) and never seen cartoon, but I started watching this on Netflix and I can say only good things about this show. No woke propaganda, no BS and it's very enjoyable to watch it. Watched first season already and I love it. Can't wait for the rest seasons to come out...

misubisu

Nov 14, 2025

## **Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024) Review: A Visually Stunning, Well-Acted Epic - 8/10** In a landscape crowded with fantasy adaptations, Netflix's *Avatar the Last Airbender* stands tall as a formidable and impressive achievement. While a vocal contingent of fans decries it for not being a shot-for-shot replica of the beloved animated source, judged solely on its own merits as a live-action series, it is a compelling, emotionally resonant, and beautifully crafted piece of television. ### A World Brought to Breathtaking Life The most immediate and undeniable strength of this series is its visual spectacle. This is not just good CGI; it's world-class filmmaking. The bending — the ability to manipulate water, earth, fire, and air — is rendered with a tangible, visceral weight that is awe-inspiring to watch. A water-whip cracks with force, an earth wall erupts with grinding power, and fire blasts feel genuinely dangerous. The production design, from the icy Northern Water Tribe to the sprawling city of Omashu, is cinematic in scale and rich in detail. This is a world you can believe in, and it is a pleasure to simply inhabit it episode after episode. ### Stellar Performances Anchor the Journey Beyond the spectacle, the series is anchored by a cast that delivers sincerity and depth. The core trio is perfectly realised: * **Gordon Cormier as Aang** captures the immense burden and innate innocence of the Last Airbender with a heartfelt vulnerability that makes his journey deeply engaging. * **Kiawentiio as Katara** embodies the character's compassion and burgeoning strength, providing the moral and emotional core of the group. * **Ian Ousley as Sokka** masterfully balances the character's surface-level humour with the underlying seriousness of a young warrior forced to grow up too fast. Furthermore, **Dallas Liu's Prince Zuko** is a standout, delivering a performance simmering with rage, pain, and conflict that makes his arc one of the most compelling aspects of the season. Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Uncle Iroh brings the necessary warmth and wisdom, creating a beloved character feel entirely his own. ### A Coherent and Mature Narrative The series successfully condenses a sprawling cartoon narrative into a cohesive and focused live-action story. It handles weighty themes of genocide, imperialism, and the cost of war with a maturity that respects its audience. The pacing, while brisk, ensures the story is always moving forward, building momentum towards a powerful and satisfying climax. ### The Verdict **8/10 - A Triumph on Its Own Terms** Freed from the impossible task of replicating every beat of an animated classic, this adaptation can be appreciated for what it is: a superbly acted, visually magnificent, and emotionally grounded fantasy epic. It honors the spirit of its source material while confidently carving its own path. The complaints of purists are understandable, but they should not overshadow the quality of what is on screen. This is a show that deserves to be judged for what it is, not what it isn't. And what it is, is very, very good. It’s a rewarding watch for newcomers and a fresh interpretation that, for those willing to let it, can stand proudly alongside its animated predecessor.

The primary conclusion I drew from this series is that the only way to properly do a live-action remake of Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender, which is not just my favorite television series but my favorite piece of media period of all time, is to literally do a word-for-word shot-for-shot update with minimal to no changes. Even though this is generally a faux paw of adaptations, like how this was the primary criticism of this year's live-action Moana, in the case of The Last Airbender, the original is so literally flawless that any changes are inherently going to make the remake product lesser. That being said, after its first 2 seasons, Netflix's The Last Airbender has proven to at least be an attempt at a faithful adaptation of Nickelodeon's animated series while honoring the themes and spirit of the original. It does not always succeed, nor does it come close ever to matching the profound emotional impact or stunning visuals that the original series does, but there are moments where that magic of the original shines through. It is refreshing to see a Last Airbender adaptation that does, to a large degree, honor the original and do its characters justice, after the abysmal atrocity that was M. Night Shyamalan's 2010 attempt at a live-action film adaptation, quite literally in my top 5 worst movies of all time. That movie is so bad on every level that it is not even worth it to go into every single way this series is an improvement over that ; it is not a fair comparison when the bar is in Hell. Suffice to say, the Netlflix series is superior to the Shyamalan film in literally every single way. The casting of this series and the extent to which it gets the original characters right is a mixed bag. Iroh and Zuko I believe are cast perfectly, with Paul Sun-Hyung Lee's Iroh being my favorite. Lee does not copy the legend Mako's portrayal of Iroh, but clearly deeply understands what makes the character great at his core, and brings the exact energy necessary to the role in this version of the story. I would pretty much say all the same things about the much lesser-known Dallas Liu's portrayal of Zuko, and I hope to see Liu in more things. The core members of Team Avatar...Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph...largely do justice to their animated counterparts, but do not quite nail them, and the exact "why" varies for each character. Sokka, for instance, is acted well by Ian Ousley, who looks and sounds the part near-perfectly and mostly gets Sokka's energy right, but the character is written to be much more of a sadboy and less manic, goofy, and frankly sometimes Patrick Star-level dumb, and as a result Sokka is a significantly less fun character. Dareisay, if this version of Last Airbender was all I knew, I'm not sure I'd consider Sokka an asset to the series period. Princess Azula and her two sidekicks Ty Lee and Mae are cast the most poorly. Elizabeth Yu, while a talented actress and this is not her fault at all, is simply not my Azula. She does not have an ounce of the intimidation factor Azula is supposed to have, and at no point did I buy that this was the crazed threat to humanity or the main party as the animated Azula commands each time she's on-screen. Azula is the best villain in the original series and they completely dropped the ball on her. The animal sidekicks are fine. I'm neutral on them. They're just very obviously CGI characters so they obviously are not nearly as endearing as their animated counterparts. A LOT of time, especially in season 2, is devoted to brand new plotlines and characters, as well as elevating the importance of previously minor characters like the inventor, and with a shorter episode count as it is this necessarily means significant plotlines from the original are abandoned entirely or severely trimmed down. Some of the best plotlines from the original in fact. As the series went on into its second season and naturally diverted further and further away from the source material, I found myself accepting that this story would be different and a willingness to judge it on its own terms as an engaging adventure. The core story of The Last Airbender is difficult to not entertain on a plot level when done with even baseline competency execution. The omission of some of the best parts of the original make the significant quality dropoff evident, especially considering the plotlines they replace them with are not satisfactory replacements quality-wise by any stretch, but the series judged on its own merit and not in comparison to the original is an engaging enough adventure drama that is bolstered, not harmed, by these new plotlines. Many of these new plotlines, such as Toph's family's business dealings or the broadened lore around the White Lotus secret society, seem out of an attempt to tie the themes of Last Airbender more directly into contemporary issues, and I like this about it. It may be literally impossible for a live-action Last Airbender adaptation to ever match the greatness of the original, but enough elements of the original are here and done enough justice to make this particular adaptation worth the watch. What does not work about this adaptation, unlike the Shyamalan abomination, is not bad enough to ruin the overall experience, and the new stuff that is added, to some extent, is additive to the broader themes of the world, even if I would have preferred seeing that runtime used to adapt some of the most essential sequences of the original that made the chopping block instead. Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender is a good TV show. Feeling a strong B- to a soft B on this one.