“Avatar – The Lord of the Elements”
What can Netflix’s new fantasy series do?
Not only the main actor Gordon Cormier looks like his famous cartoon counterpart in “Avatar: The Last Airbender”.
© Robert Falconer/Netflix
The highly anticipated fantasy series “Avatar – The Lord of the Elements” starts on Netflix. Is streaming worth it?
The original of the same name aired in the USA between 2005 and 2008. It thrilled with an imaginative fantasy world full of so-called tamers who can control the elements of water, earth, fire or air. And the Netflix live-action adaptation of the popular youth series is now also completely convincing.
That’s what “Avatar: The Last Airbender” is about
Netflix’s new fantasy series is set in a war-torn world. Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim, 55) and his people plan to conquer the entire known globe. He begins his campaign with a treacherous attack on the nation of the Air Nomads. Only its young member Aang (Gordon Cormier) escapes with his life. The young air nomad has an almost incomprehensible potential. Aang is destined to become the next Avatar. As the master of the elements, he would then be able to tame all four elements of water, fire, earth and air, an ability that no one else in the world of “Avatar” has.
But first Aang slumbers in eternal ice for 100 years while the Fire Nation plunges the world into war and chaos. More by chance, he is woken up from his long sleep by the siblings Sokka (Ian Ousley, 21) and Katara (Kiawentiio, 17). They belong to the Water Tribe and, together with Aang, his flying bison Appa and the lemur Momo, who can also fly, embark on the great adventure of stopping the Fire Nation and thus bringing peace, balance and harmony back to the world.
Is the new Netflix fantasy series worth it?
The streaming service Netflix is expected to invest $120 million in the eight-episode first season of “Avatar: The Lord of the Elements.” have stuck. But this rather high budget also comes into its own in the new Netflix series. In this way, the imaginative world of the cartoon template is brilliantly conjured up on the screens. The Nickelodeon production of the 2000s, conceived by Michael Dante DiMartino (49) and Bryan Konietzko, impressed with a captivating mix of styles that mixed East Asian cultures and influences – for example from ancient Japan or China – with the culture of the Inuit on the North American continent – and garnished with a dash of magic and mythical creatures.
The series creators around creator Albert Kim (“Sleepy Hollow”) and directors Michael Goi (“American Horror Story”, 64) and Jabbar Raisani (“Stranger Things”) are now bringing these visual influences, which can be combined so effortlessly in animation, into the new live-action series from Netflix. And the ensemble of actors around the relative newcomer Gordon Cormier and Kiawentiio (“Anne with an E”), who grew up on a Mohawk reservation, are also completely convincing – especially since each of the new live-action characters has an extremely large appearance Has a similarity to the characters of the cartoon template.
Fans of the original will probably enjoy the new Netflix series as well as newcomers. Because here, too, an epic story of the fight between good and evil is ultimately told, the focus of which is Aang, who is reminiscent of other chosen ones such as “Star Wars” hero Luke Skywalker. With impressive effects and thrilling fantasy martial arts fights, “Avatar – The Last Airbender” is fun for young and old.