I got to admit, I did get excited after watching the trailers, so whoever put them together, absolutely great job. Everyone else disappointed me and all fans of the original show.
Both Shyamalan and the writers for this newest adaptation have failed to realize what made ATLA special, i.e. The writing and atmosphere.
Writing as in story, character development arcs, the little bits and bobs that brought them togheter, the pacing, the dialogue, the contrast between Aang's innocence and his actual duty, so many other things that will make this review a small book... The jist of it is, the writers spun the story and events to appeal to modern audiences and I feel that either they're extremely smart and think the entire population of the earth is intellectually challenged or they are part of the 2nd category themselves.
Writers today heavily underestimate the viewers and their capabilities of following a story or they can't do it themselves and use exposition dumps just to make sure they never have to write something more complex, of which I remind you, they already had the material. They could've copy + paste the entire story and they would've been acclaimed as geniuses, but unfortunately, they did not... Extremely lazy writing and interpretation.
In the atmosphere department, I will fully admit they did justice to the visuals, everything looks stunning and perfectly translated from the animation. What they screw up though is, again, the child-like freedom of the story. And the worst offensive is the generic from the shelf background music, used in almost every single scene, because apparently they didn't trust the kid actors to do their job ( and they were right unfortunately ) and needed further emphasis on what the viewers are supposed to feel at any given moment.
Again, I can go into further detail, but this is already longer than it should've been. I wanted to keep it short, say how amazing it was and urge everyone to give it a go, but life is often disappointing.
I'm only going to lightly spoil the first episode, but keep in mind that there are reccuring issues.
They changed events that are iconic to the series. The "come closer... Wanna come penguin sledding with me ??" is gone. Gran gran became the exposition dump bender, far worse than in the series. Katara suddenly learns to waterbend way beyond what she w9as able to in basically 1 short scene. Furthermore, instead of the deck fight with Zuko where she freezes the soldiers ( the fight is again, iconic ) she is the one that stops Zuko's fireball aimed at them. Because she's not enough of a badass by the end of the series, she needs to be a girl boss right from the get go.
Why show of how powerful Aang is, which is something she constantly acknowledges over the series until she also gains incredible power by struggling enduring and constantly improving, when she can learn starting in the first 30 mins of the show ? Why let the male actor have the initial glory ?
Not to mention her motherly personality is a thing of the past...
Look... You can watch it, it's.... decent. For some people distracted by pretty lights it can also be a 10/10 since I fully admited it does look stunning.
But, if you are a fan of the original or you don't like being talked down to, you'll not enjoy it. You are STILL better off watching the "kids" show, and that's just sad in my opinion. They had ample time to not screw it up and the absolute perfect material, and yet, unfortunately, they did...
I tried, I really did. Too many things were changed and not in a good way. I truly believe the entertainment industry thinks of us as chickens, with similar attention spans. And I am so tired of it.
Good luck to the newer generations...
Both Shyamalan and the writers for this newest adaptation have failed to realize what made ATLA special, i.e. The writing and atmosphere.
Writing as in story, character development arcs, the little bits and bobs that brought them togheter, the pacing, the dialogue, the contrast between Aang's innocence and his actual duty, so many other things that will make this review a small book... The jist of it is, the writers spun the story and events to appeal to modern audiences and I feel that either they're extremely smart and think the entire population of the earth is intellectually challenged or they are part of the 2nd category themselves.
Writers today heavily underestimate the viewers and their capabilities of following a story or they can't do it themselves and use exposition dumps just to make sure they never have to write something more complex, of which I remind you, they already had the material. They could've copy + paste the entire story and they would've been acclaimed as geniuses, but unfortunately, they did not... Extremely lazy writing and interpretation.
In the atmosphere department, I will fully admit they did justice to the visuals, everything looks stunning and perfectly translated from the animation. What they screw up though is, again, the child-like freedom of the story. And the worst offensive is the generic from the shelf background music, used in almost every single scene, because apparently they didn't trust the kid actors to do their job ( and they were right unfortunately ) and needed further emphasis on what the viewers are supposed to feel at any given moment.
Again, I can go into further detail, but this is already longer than it should've been. I wanted to keep it short, say how amazing it was and urge everyone to give it a go, but life is often disappointing.
I'm only going to lightly spoil the first episode, but keep in mind that there are reccuring issues.
They changed events that are iconic to the series. The "come closer... Wanna come penguin sledding with me ??" is gone. Gran gran became the exposition dump bender, far worse than in the series. Katara suddenly learns to waterbend way beyond what she w9as able to in basically 1 short scene. Furthermore, instead of the deck fight with Zuko where she freezes the soldiers ( the fight is again, iconic ) she is the one that stops Zuko's fireball aimed at them. Because she's not enough of a badass by the end of the series, she needs to be a girl boss right from the get go.
Why show of how powerful Aang is, which is something she constantly acknowledges over the series until she also gains incredible power by struggling enduring and constantly improving, when she can learn starting in the first 30 mins of the show ? Why let the male actor have the initial glory ?
Not to mention her motherly personality is a thing of the past...
Look... You can watch it, it's.... decent. For some people distracted by pretty lights it can also be a 10/10 since I fully admited it does look stunning.
But, if you are a fan of the original or you don't like being talked down to, you'll not enjoy it. You are STILL better off watching the "kids" show, and that's just sad in my opinion. They had ample time to not screw it up and the absolute perfect material, and yet, unfortunately, they did...
I tried, I really did. Too many things were changed and not in a good way. I truly believe the entertainment industry thinks of us as chickens, with similar attention spans. And I am so tired of it.
Good luck to the newer generations...