Nickelodeon's Avatar (TLA and Korra)

I've never seen the James Cameron blockbuster or the adaptation of the Last Airbender to the big screen by M. Night.

I binged on the Last Airbender several years ago when it was still on Netflix and loved it. I watched Legend of Korra later and found the first two seasons to be all right, but way less fun. It was like the difference between watching Spider Man and the X-Men. Both some superhero goodness, but a very different tone. All the talk in the Rogue 1 thread about ruining kids' mediums for the sake of making something grittier and more adult made me think of Korra. I've heard commentary from the writers and producers before, and part of their thought process was that if you were a 12-year old kid watching The Last Airbender, by the time you were 17, Korra came out, so it grew up with you. I've seen J.K. Rowling make a similar case for the HP series, and I like that rationale, compared to something like Peanuts and other serials where the kids are permanently trapped in the same age.

Later I watched Korra's season 3 (which features none other than Henry Rollins as the main villain), and it got me back into the series again. All of those guys trapped in those prisons, the creative uses and iterations on bending, it was all cool. It's really a shame that M. Night Shyamalan screwed up the movie so much. If you put 2008 wachowski siblings or some other competent directors in there,* and we could have had a new LotR or Star Wars on our hands. I think that the world they built for that cartoon is incredible. I think it could make for a fun RPG setting too, to be honest, although no one would get to be the Avatar.

I'm rewatching TLA with the family and I still love it. It is some of the best programming for a combined kid and adult audience ever, and does some surprisingly clever and subversive things at times. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Cliffs notes version of the show... think kung fu meets X-men with the mutant powers of the 4 elements hailing from different regions which are all influenced by their respective powers and use them not only for combat but part of their daily way of life. And the writing is top notch; it approaches human relationships and early teen feelings with the same candor as Freaks and Geeks. Don't let "Nickelodeon american anime" scare you.

(If this is completely old news for everyone, I'm down with some spoilerful discussions).

*Joss Whedon for Legend of Korra anyone?

Yep, I watched TLA series with my yungsta about 10 years ago and we both enjoyed it.