Avatar: The Last Airbender Review: Netflix's Live-Action Adaptation Struggles to Fly

Avatar: The Last Airbender Review: Netflix's Live-Action Adaptation Struggles to Fly.

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It's no secret that adapting the animated Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Last Airbender is difficult.

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M. Night Shyamalan attempted to make a feature-length film in 2010, but it failed miserably. The almost universally hated picture had few redeeming qualities, but it was widely agreed that anything like The Last Airbender would be hard to adapt for live-action.

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After a few years, The Last Airbender writers Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko debuted a sequel series on Nickelodeon called The Legend of Korra, which takes place 57 years after the events of the original series.

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However, where there is a successful IP, someone will attempt to create another adaption of it. Netflix and showrunner Albert Kim have created an eight-episode TV series based on the first season of the animated show.

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Unfortunately, the biggest disadvantage of the live-action series is as expected: timing.

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The first season is based on the first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender, with the subtitle "Book One: Water."

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Although each episode is less than half an hour long, there is a lot of storytelling going on.

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The show is set in a universe where certain people, known as benders, are born with the power to manipulate natural elements such as water, air, earth, and fire.

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We meet Aang (Gordon Cormier), a youngster who has been trapped in ice for a hundred years, when he awakens to a world in which his species has been exterminated following a terrible war.

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