The trouble with remakes lies behind the reasons why they are made. While watching GREAT EXPECTATIONS, directed by the always wonderful Alfonse Cuaron, starring Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow, I was completely enthralled in the story, the direction, the music and the actors. But the story has been done before.
The trouble with sequels is a matter of arcs. The character arc, in my humble opinion, is the hallmark of a film... a character starts out one way, goes through a lot (sometimes an AWFUL lot), and is then changed. Sometimes this means their outright demise. For a sequel to be successful, it has to somehow catch lightning in a bottle for a second time, after the first arc has already changed the characters of the original story.
Which brings me to my review of THE LEGEND OF KORRA, a review to be told in four parts.
AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER is quite possibly perfect. I don't have a single episode of the show that I don't love, I don't have a complaint about anything in it that I think is worth picking apart. For all the other television shows I have seen, very little compares to it in terms of writing, acting, animation, depth, or feeling. It has been one of the great joys of my life to be able to enjoy the show, now for a second time, thanks to its arrival on Netflix.
I was also thrilled to see that KORRA came in right behind it. There are rumors that another AVATAR related show may be in the works for the future. Before I watched KORRA in its entirety, I was excited about the prospect.
Now, however, I would be nervous.
I read that the first season of KORRA was actually supposed to be the ONLY season. It was intended as a mini-series, not a four-season excursion. With respect to that, here comes my review of each individual season, as briefly (but as thoroughly) as I can.
The first season is the best part of it. I wouldn't call it perfect, but forgive it for following such a wonderful show. If AVATAR gets a 10, Korra's first seasons deserves at least a 9. There's so many pluses here, and so few minuses.
If only the rest of the show were like that.
Korra is determined to be the next Avatar, the incarnation of Aang, whose passing is not altogether clear (or even really necessary). She's mastered three out of four of the elements, Air being her weakness. We learn that Katara, Aang's widow, is still alive and helpful in her attempts to guide the new Avatar. We learn of Tenzen, Katara and Aang's son, the main Airbender of the world, who is trying to mentor Korra in the ways of her most difficult challenge. We learn of his family, and the three Airbender of the future, even though they are still only children.
We learn of Korra's bull-headedness. We learn of her short temper.
But we also learn of her courage. Her determination.
The world wants to keep her from harm, because she is not fully trained in the ways of the Avatar. She cannot willingly enter the Avatar State, until she has mastered Airbending. But she wants to help Tenzen in the future of Republic City, the city that Aang created, meant to be a balancing point for all the different peoples of the world.
To make a long story short, she encounters opposition. In the form of Amon, a mysterious figure in Adolf Hitler-esque appearance, commanding the non-benders of the world to join him in pushing against the so-called oppression from benders. The menace and delivery are well-made, leaving you uncertain as to who this man is and what his true agenda is.
We learn of a sport created behind bending, an enthralling and creative idea that is well-played and well thought-out. We learn of the steampunk-influenced ways of this new world, as we are introduced to the new "Team Avatar". All of this plays well, and as the season rolls on, the menace behind Amon and his intentions grow and grow, with supportive and honestly not-too distracting references to the original AVATAR to keep us enthralled.
All in all, I loved the first season of KORRA. It's well worth the trip.
But then we have the rest of it.
The second season of Korra starts to show the cracks of what will eventually become the show's ultimate downfall. While it manages to support and even elaborate on the world of Avatar, it fails in humor, delivery, and ultimately the rules that the world has been previously relying on, which is the real nail in the coffin, so to speak. On one hand, I understand why the writers had so much trouble pulling this off.
It can all be summed up in a single phrase: The Avatar State.
With the exception of the end of the original series, Aang's entry into the Avatar State happened when he was out of emotional control. During each of those moments, the true and somewhat frightening aspect of what the Avatar could truly do and how he or she could do it was illustrated in the devastating, albeit accidental, destruction that the State caused. You didn't want to be anywhere NEAR Aang once he went postal.
Even at the end, the Fire Lord (I mean Phoenix King) goes from pushing Aang to his limits to running for his life when faced with the Avatar's true power. In the beginning of the final battle, the King has Aang on the ropes, until his arrow tattoo lights up. From then on, the King has NO POWER whatsoever to stop him.
Thus bringing a serious challenge to those that have to write for KORRA. Now that she can go into the Avatar State at will, writing plots for her becomes as difficult as it is for writers to create new plots for Superman.... How do you threaten someone who is, in essence, indestructible?
Apparently you focus on her bull-headedness to the point of agony. And you ignore her responsibility and ability completely, as often as you can.
It's not all bad. We learn the origin of the Avatar, done in wonderful artistic style. We learn of the Spirit World, something we only briefly grazed in the original AVATAR.
But everything constantly feels to me like STRETCHING. Dialogue you might expect from an anime with over five hundred episodes, where one character is explaining in detail how he or she is going to kill the other character for the entirety of a whole episode instead of just GETTING ON WITH IT. Even a final battle that is, unfortunately, lackluster in its delivery.
And then we get to the last two seasons.
Suffice it to say, what could have been a creative step in a new direction ends up becoming a confused and jumbled mess of plot twists and unnecessary character arcs that lead to an overwhelmingly bland and overdrawn finale. Korra manages to blend the worlds of the Spirit and Man together, but nothing ever comes of it in terms of true development. The fourth season starts out promising, with callbacks to characters from Avatar long thought to be dead and gone, combined with plot developments that imitate the Phoenix King and his ambitions to dominate over all other people in the world. Five episodes in it all falls apart, leaving you wanting for an Avatar that you could actually believe would have some sway in the balance of the world, instead of constantly struggling to catch up to the villains that constantly define her fate.
I will say this, and it reflects on the opening of this review: the problem here stems from the reasons why this show was extended past its original intentions. You could argue that the first season feels rushed, as it is only half the length of any of the seasons of AVATAR. I don't really care about that, because it was SOLID. The arcs are well plotted. You have investment in the characters. There is resolution, and hope for the future, in the same vein as there was at the end of the original show.
But they should have left well enough alone. The key to AVATAR and its success, in my opinion, stems from a simple concept that moves throughout the entire show... Death and destruction are abundant throughout AVATAR.
But NONE of it is in front of your eyes.
The master stroke of the original series is the constant ability to keep your feeling threatened from the dangers of the world that surrounds the characters... while never showing you the grisly details of the kind of world they are living in. The Fire Nation have destroyed and killed in the name of their Lord, in true Hitler-esque style... yet you never see it. You don't HAVE to see it, and that is where the show gets its true strength. It is able to balance the madness of war with the storytelling level of a child.
KORRA doesn't have that luxury. It's able to pull the wool over your eyes in the first season because of what the threat is and how it is being delivered... but once it passes into the seasons that were created to fill the pockets of those that demanded more, it loses its integrity. Nobody is EVER killed, only captured. While the characters of the original AVATAR were children, KORRA's protagonists are adults, in an adult world, one that tries to keep the illusions maintained by the original series, but fail in their delivery.
And Korra never truly uses the Avatar State as it was intended, leaving you feeling cheated out of the true potential of what the show could have been.
Watch the first season, then turn it off. And hope that if there is more Avatar, they care more about the story than extending a show past its natural lifespan, in the hopes of making money.
The trouble with sequels is a matter of arcs. The character arc, in my humble opinion, is the hallmark of a film... a character starts out one way, goes through a lot (sometimes an AWFUL lot), and is then changed. Sometimes this means their outright demise. For a sequel to be successful, it has to somehow catch lightning in a bottle for a second time, after the first arc has already changed the characters of the original story.
Which brings me to my review of THE LEGEND OF KORRA, a review to be told in four parts.
AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER is quite possibly perfect. I don't have a single episode of the show that I don't love, I don't have a complaint about anything in it that I think is worth picking apart. For all the other television shows I have seen, very little compares to it in terms of writing, acting, animation, depth, or feeling. It has been one of the great joys of my life to be able to enjoy the show, now for a second time, thanks to its arrival on Netflix.
I was also thrilled to see that KORRA came in right behind it. There are rumors that another AVATAR related show may be in the works for the future. Before I watched KORRA in its entirety, I was excited about the prospect.
Now, however, I would be nervous.
I read that the first season of KORRA was actually supposed to be the ONLY season. It was intended as a mini-series, not a four-season excursion. With respect to that, here comes my review of each individual season, as briefly (but as thoroughly) as I can.
The first season is the best part of it. I wouldn't call it perfect, but forgive it for following such a wonderful show. If AVATAR gets a 10, Korra's first seasons deserves at least a 9. There's so many pluses here, and so few minuses.
If only the rest of the show were like that.
Korra is determined to be the next Avatar, the incarnation of Aang, whose passing is not altogether clear (or even really necessary). She's mastered three out of four of the elements, Air being her weakness. We learn that Katara, Aang's widow, is still alive and helpful in her attempts to guide the new Avatar. We learn of Tenzen, Katara and Aang's son, the main Airbender of the world, who is trying to mentor Korra in the ways of her most difficult challenge. We learn of his family, and the three Airbender of the future, even though they are still only children.
We learn of Korra's bull-headedness. We learn of her short temper.
But we also learn of her courage. Her determination.
The world wants to keep her from harm, because she is not fully trained in the ways of the Avatar. She cannot willingly enter the Avatar State, until she has mastered Airbending. But she wants to help Tenzen in the future of Republic City, the city that Aang created, meant to be a balancing point for all the different peoples of the world.
To make a long story short, she encounters opposition. In the form of Amon, a mysterious figure in Adolf Hitler-esque appearance, commanding the non-benders of the world to join him in pushing against the so-called oppression from benders. The menace and delivery are well-made, leaving you uncertain as to who this man is and what his true agenda is.
We learn of a sport created behind bending, an enthralling and creative idea that is well-played and well thought-out. We learn of the steampunk-influenced ways of this new world, as we are introduced to the new "Team Avatar". All of this plays well, and as the season rolls on, the menace behind Amon and his intentions grow and grow, with supportive and honestly not-too distracting references to the original AVATAR to keep us enthralled.
All in all, I loved the first season of KORRA. It's well worth the trip.
But then we have the rest of it.
The second season of Korra starts to show the cracks of what will eventually become the show's ultimate downfall. While it manages to support and even elaborate on the world of Avatar, it fails in humor, delivery, and ultimately the rules that the world has been previously relying on, which is the real nail in the coffin, so to speak. On one hand, I understand why the writers had so much trouble pulling this off.
It can all be summed up in a single phrase: The Avatar State.
With the exception of the end of the original series, Aang's entry into the Avatar State happened when he was out of emotional control. During each of those moments, the true and somewhat frightening aspect of what the Avatar could truly do and how he or she could do it was illustrated in the devastating, albeit accidental, destruction that the State caused. You didn't want to be anywhere NEAR Aang once he went postal.
Even at the end, the Fire Lord (I mean Phoenix King) goes from pushing Aang to his limits to running for his life when faced with the Avatar's true power. In the beginning of the final battle, the King has Aang on the ropes, until his arrow tattoo lights up. From then on, the King has NO POWER whatsoever to stop him.
Thus bringing a serious challenge to those that have to write for KORRA. Now that she can go into the Avatar State at will, writing plots for her becomes as difficult as it is for writers to create new plots for Superman.... How do you threaten someone who is, in essence, indestructible?
Apparently you focus on her bull-headedness to the point of agony. And you ignore her responsibility and ability completely, as often as you can.
It's not all bad. We learn the origin of the Avatar, done in wonderful artistic style. We learn of the Spirit World, something we only briefly grazed in the original AVATAR.
But everything constantly feels to me like STRETCHING. Dialogue you might expect from an anime with over five hundred episodes, where one character is explaining in detail how he or she is going to kill the other character for the entirety of a whole episode instead of just GETTING ON WITH IT. Even a final battle that is, unfortunately, lackluster in its delivery.
And then we get to the last two seasons.
Suffice it to say, what could have been a creative step in a new direction ends up becoming a confused and jumbled mess of plot twists and unnecessary character arcs that lead to an overwhelmingly bland and overdrawn finale. Korra manages to blend the worlds of the Spirit and Man together, but nothing ever comes of it in terms of true development. The fourth season starts out promising, with callbacks to characters from Avatar long thought to be dead and gone, combined with plot developments that imitate the Phoenix King and his ambitions to dominate over all other people in the world. Five episodes in it all falls apart, leaving you wanting for an Avatar that you could actually believe would have some sway in the balance of the world, instead of constantly struggling to catch up to the villains that constantly define her fate.
I will say this, and it reflects on the opening of this review: the problem here stems from the reasons why this show was extended past its original intentions. You could argue that the first season feels rushed, as it is only half the length of any of the seasons of AVATAR. I don't really care about that, because it was SOLID. The arcs are well plotted. You have investment in the characters. There is resolution, and hope for the future, in the same vein as there was at the end of the original show.
But they should have left well enough alone. The key to AVATAR and its success, in my opinion, stems from a simple concept that moves throughout the entire show... Death and destruction are abundant throughout AVATAR.
But NONE of it is in front of your eyes.
The master stroke of the original series is the constant ability to keep your feeling threatened from the dangers of the world that surrounds the characters... while never showing you the grisly details of the kind of world they are living in. The Fire Nation have destroyed and killed in the name of their Lord, in true Hitler-esque style... yet you never see it. You don't HAVE to see it, and that is where the show gets its true strength. It is able to balance the madness of war with the storytelling level of a child.
KORRA doesn't have that luxury. It's able to pull the wool over your eyes in the first season because of what the threat is and how it is being delivered... but once it passes into the seasons that were created to fill the pockets of those that demanded more, it loses its integrity. Nobody is EVER killed, only captured. While the characters of the original AVATAR were children, KORRA's protagonists are adults, in an adult world, one that tries to keep the illusions maintained by the original series, but fail in their delivery.
And Korra never truly uses the Avatar State as it was intended, leaving you feeling cheated out of the true potential of what the show could have been.
Watch the first season, then turn it off. And hope that if there is more Avatar, they care more about the story than extending a show past its natural lifespan, in the hopes of making money.