Has Netflix’s ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Learned From M. Night Shyamalan’s Mistakes?
With rich world-building, humor, genuinely high stakes, and beautiful martial arts battles, Avatar: The Last Airbender is beloved by many, so when M. Night Shyamalan’s live-action film monstrosity came out, we were—well, “not happy” is putting it mildly.
In 2010, The Last Airbender was released in theaters. We all hoped for a faithful adaption to the Nickelodeon show brought to life on the big screen, but what we got was one of the most disappointing and much (fairly) maligned adaptions of all time.
Many felt that the film butchered its source material, and some of the decisions simply made no sense whatsoever. It felt like they were trying to tick us off at parts. The film did so badly that it only has a five percent Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes, with many calling it the worst film of the year. Even to this day, I still try to pretend like it never happened … but it haunts me.
This is why so many people were worried and dubious when Netflix announced that they would be doing a live-action adaptation of the series. Now that we are close to the release of the streaming platform’s live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender on February 23, let’s look at 10 things that went so very wrong in the film and see if Netflix appears to have learned anything from it.
1. Awful bending
Movie: In the animation, the bending of the elements is beautifully done, with each nation, and even each character, having their own martial arts style that suits their element. The movie then just completely and utterly ruined this. Shyamalan had four Earthbenders working way too hard to lift a single rock slowly and throw it with next to no impact. It was atrocious.
Netflix: The trailer has given us a glimpse into what we can expect from the bending, and it has taken a massive step up from the film’s failed attempt. The martial arts looks polished, and the bending itself is much closer to what we see in the animation.
2. Whitewashed casting
Movie: The animation was set in a very Asian-inspired world with the characters and locations all Asian/Indigenous in appearance and culture. Despite being directed by an Asian director, three of the lead characters in the film were allーwait for itーwhite. This caused a huge controversy at the time, which fans still linger on to to this day, and was a hugely derided decision.
Netflix: Here, the live-action series appears to have learned this lesson, with an all-Asian/Indigenous cast to reflect the animation’s intent.
3. Change of Fire Nation ethnicity
Movie: The Fire Nation takes a lot of inspiration from Imperialist Japan in the animation, an island nation that wants to spread its influence across the world through force. Shyamalan changed the ethnicity of the Fire Nation to Indian, which, whilst I get as he is Indian himself, undermines what the animation was trying to do in referencing the colonialist history of Japan. India is a country that has historically suffered massively under colonialism, so to make them the colonizers here felt a little odd.
Netflix: Whilst none of the major players of the Fire Nation are Japanese actors themselves, they have still kept the design of the Fire Nation much more in keeping with the animation’s original intent so that the messaging isn’t lost.
4. Too compressed
Movie: Season one’s 20 episodes were compressed into a one-hour and 43-minute movie. It was impossible to tell the story in such a small amount of time, and it felt incredibly rushed, not allowing us to connect to the characters or the world.
Netflix: By starting with an eight-episode season, the show gives itself a lot more time to explore the story. That being said, it was announced that certain detour storylines from the animation would be cut to streamline the show, leaving some fans feeling a little miffed.
5. No humor
Movie: While accessible for all ages, ATLA’s primary audience is children, and the humor reflects that. (However, I’m nearly 30 and still laugh.) In the movie, all of the humor was lost, especially in the character of Sokka, who was honestly so dull it hurt. Humor is at the heart of the show and stands in opposition to the grim reality the Gaang faces. The script in general was just awful, and very few lines came across well.
Netflix: It looks like the humor will still be there, with the trailer depicting Sokka’s sarcasm as well as the kids laughing joyfully at times. Whether it lands or not is yet to be seen. One thing that has been removed is Sokka’s initial sexism, which fans were also not happy about.
6. The Fire Lord’s reveal
Movie: The animation keeps us on the edge of our seats when it comes to the villain’s face. For the first 2 seasons, he is an ominous silhouette and chilling voice (wonderful work by Mark Hamill) only. The film, however, tried no such tactic, and it made his appearance uninteresting and lacking in any menace whatsoever.
Netflix: The most recent adaption has also chosen to reveal the Fire Lord to us but with the imposing, and ripped, Daniel Dae Kim in the role, it’s easy to see how it may work much better. In animation, you have no idea what a character may look like with just a voice. That works less well in live action, where we know what voice matches what actor. Also, shirtless Daniel Dae Kim may have pulled in a truckload of viewers who wish to see him alone.
7. No input from original creators
Movie: The show’s original creators, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, stated that they had a horrible time with the movie, trying to help with input only to eventually be pushed away after falling out with the production, calling it “a wasted opportunity.” When the original creators aren’t being listened to, it’s usually a red flag.
Netflix: Things started great, with DiMartino and Konietzko on board, but went downhill pretty quickly when they pulled out of the production citing “creative differences.” Fans’ initial excitement for the show quickly turned to skepticism over the news, and only time will tell if the series can be pulled off without the original creators.
8. The pronunciation of Aang and Sokka
Movie: This had so many of us banging our heads on the wall in frustration. Why?! Why on Earth did they feel the need to change the pronunciation of main characters’ names? It was apparently in an effort to make it sound more accurate to Asian pronunciation, but it just fell so flat and sounded so wrong.
Netflix: The original pronunciations are back! Thank god!
9. No giant raging water spirit
Movie: In the battle at the Northern Water Nation, Aang connects with one of the spirits to create a giant Spirit Monster that decimates the Fire Nation’s forces and shows off Aang’s skill and connection to the Spirit World. The movie decided to just get rid of this and have him make a giant tidal wave, which did nothing other than look threatening.
Netflix: We will see what they do here, as it has yet to appear in any trailer—if they even get to this part in the first season.
10. They created an Earthbender prison … on Earth!
Movie: The animation had an Earthbender prison out at sea, away from anything the Earthbenders could use to fight (or so the Fire Nation thought). The movie decided to place these prisoners, who can bend the Earth, in a prison on landーthe mind boggles.
Netflix: We haven’t seen this scene yet in the trailer, but if they do it, let’s hope they have the sense not to make the same mistake the film did. With a supposed $15 million budget per episode, we expect better.
Avatar: The Last Airbender is a truly loved work of fiction and though Netflix appears to have corrected many of the mistakes made by Shyamalan’s movie, there are still elements we worry about when it comes to this live-action adaption. I will be watching with the full intention of enjoying myself, not getting too caught up in every bit of minutia but still expecting to see the story and characters I know and love represented well.
(featured image: Nickelodeon)
Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com
