Current Events > Live action Avatar: TLA topic.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Watched it, and it's watchable IMO comparing to the original. Iroh, Azula, and sokka are standouts, and though it isn't saying much the fighting puts the last airbender movie to shame.

MisterPengy posted...

...Okay, so it's really a poorly executed show that is fairly enjoyable because the source material is amazing.

If the source material is so amazing why rewrite so much of it

I'm finishing it up now. Koizilla was not as destructive as I'd hoped it would be, it was a bit too personal in smashing the ships. Should have been more of a force of nature like the cartoon where it just flings the entire fleet miles back at one time. Also no Yue as the moon spirit which I don't like.

But other than that, I thought it was a fairly solid show. Not as good as I'd hoped it would be, not as bad as I'd feared. Seeing a slightly darker take on Avatar is fun, particularly given that firebenders can actually burn people alive now. Building up Ozai's side of things to actually make him a compelling villain rather than an obstacle to be moved is a good move, shoring up one of the few weaknesses of the cartoon.

And if Sokka gets to say ass, Toph should absolutely get to say fuck at least one time.

i found it entertaining enough to complete. i liked all the scenes with the fire nation characters. commander/admiral zhao is prob my fave character tbh lol

Just finished Episode 6 "Masks"

It was so good

TheHoldSteady posted...

If the source material is so amazing why rewrite so much of it

To fit it into a shorter runtime, and also to fill some dumb checklists.

I'm kinda afraid to ask how it is

Venixon posted...

I'm kinda afraid to ask how it is

I probably won't bother continuing it come new seasons. It fails to capture what made the OG so great

Cant wait for the beach episodes in season 3

Guide posted...

To fit it into a shorter runtime, and also to fill some dumb checklists.

What checklist do you mean?

Venixon posted...

I'm kinda afraid to ask how it is

I thought it was fairly good. It changes a fair bit, but that's to be expected and a few of the new things are actually fantastic. One in particular should honestly just be retconned into the cartoon.

It goes very hard on the exposition, particularly in the first episode, and some of the child actors aren't the greatest. Katara is my only major complaint of the main trio. I think the actress is actually fine, the writing just took a lot of the bite she had in the original.

Darker in tone; firebenders aren't just blasting you across a room when they throw fire at you, you will die screaming. A lot more focus on what a century of war would do to the people living through it.

I like the live action Commander Zhao over the anime. In the anime, he was extremely disrespectful to the Prince in their first meeting. I don't care what rank you have in the military, you DO NOT insult the son of the Fire Lord.

Maybe it's just recency bias, but I think I do prefer live action Zhao.

I definitely prefer live action Ozai

I've read that it has a longer total run time than the animated show yet still made fundamental changes to characters.

This is the nitpickiest of nitpicks, but it usually doesn't bode well for a show / movie when the very first line (spoken or text) makes me laugh in a way the director obviously didn't intend (example: The Rise's of Skywalker's 'THE DEAD SPEAK!'). In this case, I had a pretty good chuckle over the very first subtitle 'CAPITAL CITY.' "Ooh, Captial City! The Windy Apple!"

Also, it was really off-putting how all the airbenders were oohing and aweing over Aang doing some very basic airbender freefalling.

I get they never name the city in the cartoon, but a common fan name for the Fire Nation capital is Caldera City and I feel like that is a better choice.

GuerillaGorilla posted...

I've read that it has a longer total run time than the animated show yet still made fundamental changes to characters.

Anime is 20 eps at (approx.) 20 mins each, total about 6.7 hours. Live Action is 8 eps at (approx) 1 hour each, total of about 8 hours. So yeah, they did have to add or expand content. It worked out well, the Fire Nation attack in ep 1 really benefited the story.

Yeah, people keep bringing up the runtime total to say, "WELL ACTUALLY THEY COULD HAVE JUST ADAPTED EVERY EPISODE" while ignoring how episodic story structure works.

The acting is atrocious but other than that I kind of like it. It's like that new Percy Jackson show on Disney+

I haven't watched it yet and I don't think I'm going to any time in the near future. From what I've read about the changes I'm not a fan.