this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2024
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Television

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Netflix’s live-action Avatar has its heart in the right place, but its pacing and uneven performances leave a lot to be desired.

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[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 55 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Please let's all remember that these are child actors, and they are no responsible for the poor writing or direction in the show. We can be sure they have worked extremely hard and poured their lives into this show, and the ones we should be disappointed with are the showrunners.

[–] I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 12 points 9 months ago (3 children)

If the acting is bad, we can be mad at the casting director as well. It doesn't really matter if they're child actors, that doesn't make them immune from being called bad actors. They don't deserve to get dunked on or solely blamed for the show, but let's not pretend they don't play a part in its quality. If they were amazing actors, I'd assume you'd have no issue giving them praise? Why is the opposite not true?

[–] teft@lemmy.world 30 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

The problem is people tend to go way the hell overboard when it comes to criticism and some child actors can't handle it. Look at what happened with Jake Lloyd as an example. Best to just leave the children out of the criticism and make it about the adults who made the decisions.

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[–] Blueberrydreamer@lemmynsfw.com 26 points 9 months ago (3 children)

If they were amazing actors, I'd assume you'd have no issue giving them praise? Why is the opposite not true?

Because they're children dude. Praise does not have harmful psychological consequences. There is no downside to giving a child credit for doing something well. There is tremendous harm in attacking a child over something they did objectively correctly, but inevitably not to the impossible standards of armchair critics whose entire presence on the Internet is built on giving exaggerated and heartless criticism.

[–] wrath_of_grunge@kbin.social 15 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

like the kid that played Anakin in Star Wars. he caught so much shit over it, that he gave up acting all together.

In 2012, Lloyd explained that his decision to retire from acting in 2001 was due to bullying at school and harassment by the press, both in response to his role in The Phantom Menace.

[–] scarilog@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

Damn that's sad. Haven't seen the phantom menace in a while but I thought he was pretty good.

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[–] Lmaydev@programming.dev 6 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Complete false equivalency. Do you think positive and negative are the same thing?

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[–] blargerer@kbin.social 7 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I've only watched the first 2 episodes, and yeah some of the performances come off quite bad, but I think the editing is at least partially to blame. They hold on characters too long and at odd moments completely destroying any sense of natural tempo in conversations.

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[–] Bluefruit@lemmy.world 27 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Even with each of its eight episodes clocking in at about an hour each, it would have been difficult for Netflix’s Avatar to hit all of the same beats as the lengthier cartoon.

Ah well theres your problem. I was actually rooting for this to be good but surprise surprise, Netflix is still shit.

[–] Yukito01@lemmy.world 26 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I mean, to be fair, 8 episodes at 1 hour each is more or less the same runtime that 20 episodes of ~20 min each. The problem is not the amount of episodes, it's just bad direction.

[–] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 13 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Same runtime maybe, but not the same pace. Would you have them just switch from one story to another a third of the way through the episode?

[–] Infynis@midwest.social 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Lots of animated shows do that, though they only usually have two stories due to shorter runtimes

[–] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 6 points 9 months ago

That's more because they have an allotted time slot on their TV network. Like Nickelodeon gave Spongebob 22 minutes per episode but they only wanted to write 10 minute episodes, so they did 2 per episode. That's not really relevant on a streaming service where they have total control over the episode pacing. They can even do weird stuff like having different episodes in a series run for different durations.

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[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

They got my hopes up with One Piece.

[–] simple@lemm.ee 22 points 9 months ago

shocked pikachu

[–] Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 17 points 9 months ago (1 children)

That's a shame.

The One Piece live action blew me away. I had the lowest expectations too, so it was quite a surprise.

[–] runjun@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Really? I thought it was adequate at best.

[–] warbond@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

Had you seen it before? The live action was my first real introduction and I really enjoyed it.

[–] fubarx@lemmy.ml 15 points 9 months ago

Just finished watching Episode 1. Don't care what the reviews say. It's a great show. Decent acting and pretty good SFX. Looking forward to Ep. 2.

[–] Jakdracula@lemmy.world 14 points 9 months ago

Watching the latest trailer it’s very easy to see the poor acting. It’s pretty bad when you catch a 3 second glimpse of a scene and can see in those few seconds just how poorly the acting and dialogue is, ooof.

[–] TheFinn@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Me and my family like it. They grew up with the original and didn't know a live action was in the works until I started it up yesterday.

We also liked Netflix's Cowboy Bebop but all the neckbeards managed to cancel it fast.

[–] Cort@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Yeah I liked bebop, and one piece, and this too. The only note I would have on this is regarding iroh. It seems like the actor is playing him 100% sober, so we lose a bit of the iroh charm I think.

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[–] RIP_Cheems@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Is it at least better than the first one?

[–] nachtigall@feddit.de 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Much better. This one does not make me want to go to Lake Laogai and get brainwashed.

[–] FenrirIII@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

There is no Avatar movie in Ba Sing Se

[–] Crack0n7uesday@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

M Night Shamalan get bored or something? Wasn't his movie a big enough kick in the dick?

[–] thirteene@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

There is no movie in ba sing se

[–] MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 4 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Is there any anime-remake that's not a disapointment?

[–] ElderWendigo@sh.itjust.works 12 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Maybe it's an unpopular opinion, but I thought the new One Piece hit all the emotional beats of the anime even if it didn't get all the details the same. I wasn't disappointed, although I was prepared to be.

Is Avatar even really anime though? That's kinda like calling Taco Bell Mexican food.

[–] TheOgreChef@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Is that unpopular? I thought One Piece got near-universally praised, but I didn’t pay attention to the discourse beyond the first week or so it was out so I missed the pivot if there was one.

Like you, I braced for the worst and actually liked it quite a bit. I think the changes they made were fairly well done.

I would say Avatar is a solid American homage to anime, but the average tv viewer would see the art style and assume that it’s anime so most outlets are just framing it that way.

[–] MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Is Avatar even really anime though?

What, why not? We are talking about master of elements Avatar, not Pandora Avatar, right?

[–] ElderWendigo@sh.itjust.works 7 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Yes, Avatar is an American creation in the style of Japanese animation in much the same way that Taco Bell is an American fast food chain in the style of Mexican tacos, burritos, etc.

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[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago

Speed Racer and Alita: Battle Angel were good.

[–] SomeGuy69@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

Sadly bad live action will devalue rare good live action shows like One Piece, because people will skip it as being another bad show, while it isn't.

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