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Avatar: The Last Airbender is everything that’s disappointing about Netflix’s live-action cartoon shows

Netflix’s live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender is in too much of a rush to be truly magical.

As cool as it is to see Earthbenders shooting sprays of pebbles like bullets and Firebenders incinerating things with their bare hands, Avatar puts those visuals front and center early on, mainly as a way of illustrating how the Air Nomads had little hope of surviving the Fire Nation’s assault on their temples high up in the mountains. The showbecomes somewhat more lighthearted once it jumps forward 100 years, and you can feel it paying homage to the cartoon as its focus shifts to the Southern Water Tribe to introduce brother / sister duo Sokka (Ian Ousley) and Katara (Kiawentiio). But the execution falls flat because from the moment the Gaang is all together, Avatar never lets you forget that in addition to exploring the world / preparing to save it, they’re also racing to stay one step ahead of Prince Zuko (Dallas Liu), the exiled heir apparent to the Fire Nation throne.

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