By Jacob Bugarin
Just a month ago, Netflix released Avatar the Last Airbender Live Action. Recently there have been numerous live action versions of animated series being released. For example, Yu Yu Hakusho and now Avatar have made one. There was a live action Avatar movie, but it did not succeed at all when the movie was released in 2010. With a new cast and a few changes, I would definitely rate this show at least an 8/10. I really liked some of the cast and their characters. The directors portrayed the cast of the Gaang really well with Gordon Cormier (who played Aang), really matching how Aang acts in the animated series. I believe that in the live action they made Katara a bit calmer and didn’t have the scene’s where she talks about her mom like every second someone has a problem. The story was mixed because the live action made new scenes that weren’t in the animated series, but most of the scenes were recreated really well. An example of this was the scene when Fire Nation wiped out the Air Nation, during this they showed a lot of the air benders fighting the fire bender off. Then, it showed Monk Gyatso clashing with Fire Lord Sozin before he got killed.
The live action also did well with the side characters,most of them are really pretty and they fit the act. My favorite characters the directors did well on were Suki, who is one of the Kiyoshi warriors along with June, who is a bounty hunter. A really good actor who fits Uncle Iroh so well was Paul Sun-Hyung Lee who is known for his other show Kim’s Convenience Store. The bending effects that were shown in the live action show were really well done compared to the movie. This was a big upgrade. There were many moves they displayed in the show that were not in the animated series which was an airbender = making herself a tornado and showing Azula lightning bending against Ozai.
The only characters that weren’t casted as well were Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee. In the live action, Ty Lee wasn’t as energetic compared to the animation where she did flips and tricks a lot. Azula in the live action wasn’t casted as well where the actor didn’t look like Azula as much. The live action also did really well and cast some of the Spirits in the Spirit World really well. Koh the Face Stealer was scarier than he was during the animated series. The Past Avatars they showed were Avatar Kiyoshi, Roku, and Kuruk in the live show. If I’m going to be honest besides Roku, Kuruk and Kiyoshi were mean to Aang and in the animated series they were serious, but not that mean to him. Giving Avatar Kuruk a lot more screen time when Aang and his friends went to the Northern Water Tribe was a good addition to the series. I believe they did Book One(Water) of the live action series really well, but I hope they cast Toph and Azula when they start Book Two(Earth).
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