Review Avatar – The Last Airbender: epic and successful, the Netflix series is the expected adaptation

Six months after the great success of the live action adaptation One Piecethe streaming platform Netflix is back with the live-action remake of the cult anime Avatar: The Last Airbender.

This new series wants to keep things simple by satisfying both fans of the original and the simply curious. A rather successful bet? Here is our review, guaranteed without spoilers.

Netflix

Netflix is an application and paid subscription service that provides access to an online library of several thousand films, series, documentaries, shows and TV shows.

Downloads: 626
Release date: 02/21/2024
Author: Netflix, Inc.
License: Free license
Categories: Video – Leisure
Operating system: Android, Online service, Windows 10/11, iOS iPhone / iPad

The history of the series

In a magical world torn apart by war between the four elemental civilizations – water, earth, fire and air – young Aang is the only one who can master all the elements and restore balance. He goes on a mystical quest with his friends to fulfill his destiny as Avatar.

Series Avatar: The Last Airbender arrives February 22, 2024.

Our review

Let’s say it straight away, this remake of the cult series by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko (released in 2005) does not seek to reinvent powder, revealing itself as a wise adaptation of the first season. Enough to reassure fans who could have been legitimately worried since the departure of the co-creators of the project.

In the pipeline for the streaming service since 2018 and with a generous budget of $120 million, the Netflix series thus offers a rereading faithful to the spirit of the original work, ambitious in form, but the effect of surprise and less charm.

Gordon Cormier as Aang in Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Everything is there: the mythology, the favorite characters, the expected scenes… But to fit the 20 animated episodes of 23 minutes into the 8×55 format more suitable for Netflix, it required the usual lot of rewriting and sacrifices. The adventure of Aang, Katara and Sokka is thus purified, sometimes abruptly.

What the series gains in rhythm and efficiency, it loses in body and substance, shipping its story at times to the detriment of a certain balance. Fans will see some of their pleasure diluted by seeing such a rich universe shoehorned in, and character journeys rushed like this. They will nevertheless be able to rejoice in the means deployed.

Like One Piecethe series does not avoid a fairly artificial green screen effect, but is saved by a clever play on scale and its ability to regularly give scale to its universe. Avatar: The Last Airbender has the epic breath it needed, even displaying a dark side and a certain unexpected gravity.

Daniel Dae Kim plays the formidable Ozai.

In the end, if it does not avoid the usual pitfalls of adaptation, the series more than largely fulfills its contract and establishes itself as a successful Netflix production, both artistically and technically. Above all, the series has all the potential to be the program developed over several seasons so hoped for by the streaming platform.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is available February 22, 2024 on Netflix.