The arrival of the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix has set social media ablaze, as fans gear up for binge-driven rewatches, and fans-to-be look at all the ranting and raving about the show with a curious eye. Why do people love Avatar: The Last Airbender so much? But that plot launches in the first season in a way that seems childish and familiar.
Aang is a chipper Chosen One type with a funny animal sidekick. In the first episode, he encounters the young waterbender Katara, who comes across as a Hermione Granger-style tryhard girl boss sidekick, and her arrogant brother Sokka, an impulsive wannabe warrior and comic-relief butt-monkey. But a lot of the joys of Last Airbender is the ways it upends these simple, familiar tropes, and finds the deeper ambitions and character conflicts behind all three basic archetypes.
Shows aimed at young people can be pretty goofy or over-the-top, but Last Airbender is slyer about its humor. Some of it is slapstick, like the running gag about the traveling cabbage vendor who always manages to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Last Airbender creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko planned the series from the start as a three-season story built around three major arcs, and because so much was planned in advance, they had the ability to lay seeds from the very beginning that let the characters flower organically over time.
In fairness, it debuted at the same time a snowstorm was sweeping through the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. But it opened below projections, which no doubt freaked out Fox, a studio that wasn't entirely keen to make Cameron's movie in the first place. No matter. In its second weekend, "Avatar" had less than a 2 percent drop in revenue, which is basically unheard of. For comparison's sake, "The Force Awakens" made about 40 percent less during its second weekend than its opening one.
Movie-goers continued showing up in droves thanks to enthusiastic reviews - 83 percent positive, according to Rotten Tomatoes - plus glowing praise from other audience members, many of whom went to see the movie multiple times. Some reviews did acknowledge that the story was a little weak. The movie takes place on a ravaged Earth in , and follows a paraplegic Marine Sam Worthington , who, through a blue-skinned avatar, explores a resource-rich planet called Pandora.
There he meets and falls in star-crossed love with one of the planet's natives Zoe Saldana , forcing him to rethink his imperialistic mission. The obvious reason people were hyping "Avatar" was because it was visually spectacular thanks to technical achievements. Cameron made a movie that blended two worlds - one that was entirely live action and one that used computer-generated images and motion-capture technology against real backdrops to create Pandora and its inhabitants, the blue Na'vi.
The images turned out to be stunning. Cameron wanted the two worlds to become almost indistinguishable, and the use of motion-capture for alien characters really brought the fantastical to life. How Andy Serkis didn't end up with a supporting role is a mystery. These aspects won "Avatar" three Oscars in for cinematography, visual effects and art direction. But the other reason people were talking about the movie was its social and political themes.
You might compare the effect to "American Sniper," which inspired scores of think pieces and heated debates, which in turn led to more ticket sales. In order for people to weigh in on the various "Avatar" controversies, they had to see the movie. Enough with white saviorism, with military propaganda, with generic tropes that are all variations on a single theme. If capitalism is supposed to promote competition and innovation, where are the innovative stories?
With Avatar, there is so much to talk about and analyze. The storytelling is just extraordinary. Given the state of the world, and the violence and hatred that seems to be constant, these quotes will hopefully leave you with a good feeling.
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Your email address will not be published. The many reasons why I love Avatar. Its genre is what I like the most: science fiction with aliens or extraterrestrials, spaceships, robots, futuristic elements, futuristic advanced technology, journeys to other planets; journeys through the space, the galaxy and the universe, contact and relations with aliens, etc.
It's an awesome and very well made movie with an original, beautiful, epic, exciting, interesting, creative, imaginative, absorbing, deep, touching, perfect and well thought and structured story, charged with action scenes and with epic and spectacular fights, wars and battles, love, dramatic and emotional scenes, interesting and cool things, etc.
All these things fascinate me so much. Moreover, it has everything or almost everything I want and can imagine in any movie, especially in a science fiction movie, and much more.
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