Netflix has finally unveiled its long-awaited live-action adaptation of the beloved Nickelodeon animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, which has left fans divided.
The live-action series sets a much more violent tone than the Nickelodeon animated show, which has seemingly divided the fans.
While the early critic reactions from a press screening last week seemed to be positive, the show has dipped into ‘rotten’ territory on Rotten Tomatoes, with a score of 59% from 46 reviews.
Fans seem just as mixed, with some praising the new take and some even left traumatized by the opening scene, which sets the tone for the show.
Like the animated series, this live-action series follows a young boy named Aang (Gordon Cormier), who must master all four elements – Earth, Water, Fire and Air – to become the next Avatar and bring peace to all four kingdoms.
Netflix has finally unveiled its long-awaited live-action adaptation of the beloved Nickelodeon animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, which has left fans divided
The live-action series sets a much more violent tone than the Nickelodeon animated show, which has seemingly divided the fans
The series begins with one of the Earthbenders trying to escape the Fire kingdom, to reveal their plans for war, thinking the Fire kingdom is about to start a war with the Earth kingdom.
However, he’s told by Fire Lord Sozin (Hiro Kanagawa) after being captured that the Fire nation is not actually starting war with the Earth nation: he’s starting it with the Air nation.
He’s doing all of this because Air nation will ultimately reveal the Last Airbender – the new Avatar, the only one who can stop the Fire nation, which leads Sozin to shockingly use his powers to burn the man alive, setting a dark new tone early on.
When one of Sozin’s underlings insisted the Airbenders are not a threat, since the new Avatar has yet to be revealed, Sozin reveals he wants to kill the entire Fire nation, which leads to a vicious attack on the peaceful Air Nomads.
This opening scene and the vicious attack on the Air nation minutes later was clearly shocking to many viewers.
@MoFandoms tweeted, ‘Netflix said lets start off with TRAUMA and show the fire nation attack on the Air Nomads in the first minutes.’
@only1riles added, ‘Me when the fire nation started burning people alive, I forgot this on Netflix and not Nickelodeon #AvatarTheLastAirbender #AvatarNetflix.’
@CrisonnaAndrews added, ‘5 minutes into the new live action remake of Avatar The Last Airbender and I am here for ALLLLLLLLL of it Woww’
The series begins with one of the Earthbenders trying to escape the Fire kingdom, to reveal their plans for war, thinking the Fire kingdom is about to start a war with the Earth kingdom
When one of Sozin’s underlings insisted the Airbenders are not a threat, since the new Avatar has yet to be revealed, Sozin reveals he wants to kill the entire Fire nation, which leads to a vicious attack on the peaceful Air Nomads
@MoFandoms tweeted, ‘Netflix said lets start off with TRAUMA and show the fire nation attack on the Air Nomads in the first minutes’
Still, many others weren’t impressed like @TakeshitaFan, who tweeted, ‘Man the live action Avatar The Last Airbender really disappoints. The bending looked a lot better than I expected, but the acting is quite bad and they leave out a lot of good parts that made the animation so enjoyable.’
@GabeGabeGab drew a comparison to the conflict with Israel and Palestine, stating, ‘Initial thoughts on 1st epi of Avatar last airbender live action version: 1) Firebending looks so much scarier live 2) to be painfully political, the convo with Sozin in the beginning draws parallels with Netanyahu and the Palestinians just saying.’
@WhitneyStrouth added, ‘I enjoyed the first episode of Netflix’s Avatar the Last Airbender. It looks great and the bending choreography and VFX looks super cool! Disclaimer, I never fully watched the Animated show.’
Other fans like @IAmKieranPirie tweeted that the show was already much better than the universally-bashed 2010 live-action film by M. Night Shyamalan.
‘Watched the first episode of Avatar The Last Airbender and I’m enjoying it so far, it’s already 100 times better than the movie was.’
@ItsThatEM added, ‘2 episodes down of Avatar The Last Airbender and I’m really enjoying it. It’s fun to see the story told in a different way.’
@Reuben____ addeed of the eight-episode series, ‘This Avatar: The Last Airbender series isn’t what I was expecting. 4 episodes in and it’s very mid.’
However, another fan, @MMARick95, who was also halfway through the show, was enjoying it quite a bit, it seems.
‘Just about half way through The LA Avatar The Last Airbender and man it is pretty fantastic so far! Aestheticly stupendous!’ the X user said.
Still, many others weren’t impressed like @TakeshitaFan, who tweeted, ‘Man the live action Avatar The Last Airbender really disappoints. The bending looked a lot better than I expected, but the acting is quite bad and they leave out a lot of good parts that made the animation so enjoyable’
@GabeGabeGab drew a comparison to the conflict with Israel and Palestine, stating, ‘Initial thoughts on 1st epi of Avatar last airbender live action version: 1) Firebending looks so much scarier live 2) to be painfully political, the convo with Sozin in the beginning draws parallels with Netanyahu and the Palestinians just saying’
@WhitneyStrouth added, ‘I enjoyed the first episode of Netflix’s Avatar the Last Airbender. It looks great and the bending choreography and VFX looks super cool! Disclaimer, I never fully watched the Animated show’
Other fans like @IAmKieranPirie tweeted that the show was already much better than the universally-bashed 2010 live-action film by M. Night Shyamalan
@ItsThatEM added, ‘2 episodes down of Avatar The Last Airbender and I’m really enjoying it. It’s fun to see the story told in a different way’
@Reuben____ addeed of the eight-episode series, ‘This Avatar: The Last Airbender series isn’t what I was expecting. 4 episodes in and it’s very mid’
‘Just about half way through The LA Avatar The Last Airbender and man it is pretty fantastic so far! Aestheticly stupendous!’ the X user said
@clm972 said, ‘#AvatarNetflix is dark as f**k. Fire Nation out there burning people alive and all.
@stunningphasers added, ‘ATLA episode 1 “Aang” hi i’m here to give a major trigger warning for burning a man alive on screen within a few mins of this episode starting. i get making it more realistic *eye roll* but COME ON this is a kid’s show’
@SosoTheWanderer added, ‘Oh s**t…how does this have a PG rating? Sozin literally sets a guy on fire 5 minutes into the show,’ though Soso adds in a later tweet, ‘I like the darker tone and the fact that they’re not telling the *exact* same story, so there’s lots of surprises. I’d actually like them to make this TV-MA or at least TV-14’
@PwallowYoSride added, ‘Had me shook AF! I was like hold on wait a min!!’
@clm972 said, ‘#AvatarNetflix is dark as f**k. Fire Nation out there burning people alive and all.
@stunningphasers added, ‘ATLA episode 1 “Aang” hi i’m here to give a major trigger warning for burning a man alive on screen within a few mins of this episode starting. i get making it more realistic *eye roll* but COME ON this is a kid’s show.’
@SosoTheWanderer added, ‘Oh s**t…how does this have a PG rating? Sozin literally sets a guy on fire 5 minutes into the show,’ though Soso adds in a later tweet, ‘I like the darker tone and the fact that they’re not telling the *exact* same story, so there’s lots of surprises. I’d actually like them to make this TV-MA or at least TV-14.’
@PwallowYoSride added, ‘Had me shook AF! I was like hold on wait a min!!’
