Eden Akasha

Dare I say, I judged this too harshly back in the day. If you can not compare it directly with the animation and look past the unnecessary alterations to the original, particularly names and uncle Irohs watering down, this is an engaging film. Flawed yes, but easier to digest than the series and far better production value, lighting and some cast were quite excellent, others are not well cast in their roles. I feel bad for the hate this has gotten over the years. Revisited after watching the series and was surprised.

Spoiler free review- Lot's of promise, little execution. It seemed like an underfunded pilot, or generously funded community stage production, including and especially the sets (northern water tribe I'm looking at you), costumes and WIGSSSSS. Some wigs were so distractingly bad we could not even focus on the story or what was happening. :| What was great was most of the world being beautifully designed created, the personalities of many cast being very akin to the orignals and great bending and stunts. Most of the cast were well cast but the younger crew seem to need some intensive acting lessons and better direction to bring out the performance. Zuko is the standout and Aang is just adorable and shows lots of potential, his emotions seem really genuine. Sokka is great, just needs a bit more confidence and to amp up his performance. Katara fell a bit short, she needs to double her energy in almost every scene and connect to what the character is feeling. The fire nation girls felt very off vibe and have not won me over, yet, but I am ready to be pleasantly surprised. Now where the series really fell short was in character development, relationship development and meaningful interactions. So much time per episode but felt like hardly anything really meaningful happened. Everything felt rushed and inauthentic, characters were chucked into the mix without making an impact, like they did in much less time in the animation. Events were mashed together for fan service and diminished some important storylines and characters significantly. Changes: some truly added to the story and were quite clever and insightful but others were completely unnecessary and took away the impact and motives of characters and stunted their development. Too much development was given to Zuko, who already has the most nuanced and inspiring character arc in the whole series. Meanwhile, Aang, Katara and Sokka are left without strong motives and flaws to overcome and win over the audience, making them seem a bit like amusing and agreeable side characters, leaning into marysue territory. It is going to be challenging to redeem their arcs and give them meaning in future seasons. Zhao seemed more like a dislikable office manager than a power-hungry war general. Overall we were amused but not engaged, it is apparent that the creators gave this adaptation love and respect to the original series, but many things that were altered show little understanding of what made the animation, one of the best stories with the best characters in modern history. I would however like to see the second and third seasons and hope that brings a more nuanced, higher-level narrative and design to the mix. And for the love of god, better wigs.

Huge LOTR movie fan, have read all the Tolkien books but not an absolute purist. Was open minded but a bit hesitant with the early promotion of TROP, honestly I think they made the mistake of featuring interviews with the actors making it very much about their own "representation" or adapting for a modern world, when everyone wanted to hear how faithful and respectful to the lore the show would be. Anyway, the first 2 episodes were beautiful, carving out a deeper and very Tolkien feeling world, filling in the colour and depth and well acted thus far, the inclusitivity is quite seamless, remember actors are always playing someone else and it doesn't feel forced, although a few dodgy accents ;) . I felt the dialogue could have been a little more sophisticated but still some poetic lines. I'm enjoying the pacing, much of Tolkien work was slowly paced with interactions, song and poems and even as a fan a I remember skipping a few Tom Bombadil ditties haha! So pacing is much more fluid than that , and the action scenes have been thrilling and beautifully choreographed. Excited to see how it develops. 4.5