My Fiance and I just watched the 2 episodes last night, while both being Avatar fans, we had different opinions about it. I thought it was very enjoyable, and had the familiar feel of the original, and I liked Korra. My Fiance flat out does not like Korra, she still cant get over that she isnt Aang. Im sure she will come around once the series gets going, hope it ends up as epic as Avatar was.
I just finished watching the premiere and all and all it wasn't bad. It felt like the old and felt new. I like the addition of the 20s feel, and wonder will there be a electricity bender, not just lightening. Also being in an electrical age could lead to some awesome machine battles for the anti-bender movement.
Now the characters seem a little stereotypical for a teen melodrama, not the avatar, like there are a lot of Zukos. Thats got to be my biggest gripe so far, which is minor. I laughed at a couple of the jokes but this series seems to have a little more serious tone to it which makes the humor seem a little out of place, much like some of the later episodes in the last season of the Last Airbender. I will continue to watch to see how the show develops.
OK, so I answered my own question. Halfway through watching I saw "Chapter 2" so I guess episodes will be a half hour long, and just the premier was an hour long. Now I kinda remember reading that the opener would be an hour.
My thoughts below on the Premier. Warning, spoilers...
So they kept the same basic opening, and the narrator introduces himself as Aang's son. Decent enough, but is it just me, or did the martial arts not seem as cool as the original opener?
It's nice to have characters that bridge the two series, like Katara. Having the son of Aang and daughter of Toff is kinda the same in that respect, I guess. I'm wondering, the fire bender from the pro fighter thing, does he have any relation to Zukko? He seems to have the same quiet, depressed manor as Zukko.
Speaking of Zukko, one of Katara's granddaughters asks her what ever happened to Zukko's mother. IIRC, you don't ever find out in the original series. There were multiple flashbacks throughout multiple episodes, but you never actually find out what happened to her. Will we find out in this new series? Or was that just a giant tease?
The White Lotus are all over the place in this series. I thought the White Lotus was one of the coolest aspects of the story in the original series. One of the elements that made it so great though was the fact that it was a secret organization. They're not very secretive in the new series, so that kinda kills it.
I thought the first episode moved too fast. In the original series, it's slow moving through the first 3 or 4 episodes. You slowly learn who the characters are, it's better story telling that way. In this new series, it feels rushed. "Here's Korra as a little girl, here she is impatient as a teenager. Now she's leaving for Republic city." I think they should have spent a little more time developing the characters, especially Korra. But this is a mini series, so maybe that will just be the way it is. Hopefully not every episode will feel as rushed. The second episode didn't seem too rushed.
I guess it's only natural that the world is industrialized at this point. I mean, in the original series they definitely had technology that like airships and trains. You'd expect to see other things as well. I guess ~70 years later, it's only natural for their world to be more industrialized. But still, it kinda throws you off. When you first see Republic City, it feels like you're set in the 1920's NYC or something. I swear, they music during the first automobile scene was even screaming "big city". It's kinda weird seeing cars in Avatar though. And now they have radios and all that too. Just a little weird, but not bad.
Speaking of the 1920's feel, they have gangsters too? "You better pay us the money or we wont be able to protect your shop." With the hat and everything, it's like Al Capone or whatever.
I read about it already, but I guess having the metal benders is cool. Toff kinda invented metal bending at the end of the original series, so it's cool to see that have it's place here. But why can't all earth benders learn to bend metal? Is Toff just that good? Speaking of Toff, her daughter (Lin, I think her name was) is kind of a hard ass, isn't she? I wonder what role she'll play in the series.
And what's with Korra's animal guide. A polar bear dog thing. Front legs like a bear, back legs like a wimpy deer. I was never a big fan of some of the wacky animal designs they came up with though.
I'm not a big fan of the CG they got going on. Like when there's real nice camera movement, it looks too CG (shot of the water in front of the city, the leaf going throw the spinning gates, shots of the Aang statue). Avatar has a real hand drawn look to it, so the CG doesn't mix well in my opinion. If the original series had CG, it was blended well enough for me not to notice.
Too bad we didn't really get to meet the bad guy yet. We saw him for 1 second, and we have a rough idea of his evil plot, but we didn't really get into that yet. Judging from the trailer, I guess we'll get into that soon enough.
Over all, I liked it. My only complaints were that it felt too rushed through Chapter 1, and I'm not a fan of the CG standing out as much as it does. Other than that, I think this series definitely has promise. I like how they still have that quirky animation from time to time. Like the bum that came out of the bush to eat the fish.
Ziggy587 wrote:OK, so I answered my own question. Halfway through watching I saw "Chapter 2" so I guess episodes will be a half hour long, and just the premier was an hour long. Now I kinda remember reading that the opener would be an hour.
My thoughts below on the Premier. Warning, spoilers...
So they kept the same basic opening, and the narrator introduces himself as Aang's son. Decent enough, but is it just me, or did the martial arts not seem as cool as the original opener?
It's nice to have characters that bridge the two series, like Katara. Having the son of Aang and daughter of Toff is kinda the same in that respect, I guess. I'm wondering, the fire bender from the pro fighter thing, does he have any relation to Zukko? He seems to have the same quiet, depressed manor as Zukko.
Speaking of Zukko, one of Katara's granddaughters asks her what ever happened to Zukko's mother. IIRC, you don't ever find out in the original series. There were multiple flashbacks throughout multiple episodes, but you never actually find out what happened to her. Will we find out in this new series? Or was that just a giant tease?
The White Lotus are all over the place in this series. I thought the White Lotus was one of the coolest aspects of the story in the original series. One of the elements that made it so great though was the fact that it was a secret organization. They're not very secretive in the new series, so that kinda kills it.
I thought the first episode moved too fast. In the original series, it's slow moving through the first 3 or 4 episodes. You slowly learn who the characters are, it's better story telling that way. In this new series, it feels rushed. "Here's Korra as a little girl, here she is impatient as a teenager. Now she's leaving for Republic city." I think they should have spent a little more time developing the characters, especially Korra. But this is a mini series, so maybe that will just be the way it is. Hopefully not every episode will feel as rushed. The second episode didn't seem too rushed.
I guess it's only natural that the world is industrialized at this point. I mean, in the original series they definitely had technology that like airships and trains. You'd expect to see other things as well. I guess ~70 years later, it's only natural for their world to be more industrialized. But still, it kinda throws you off. When you first see Republic City, it feels like you're set in the 1920's NYC or something. I swear, they music during the first automobile scene was even screaming "big city". It's kinda weird seeing cars in Avatar though. And now they have radios and all that too. Just a little weird, but not bad.
Speaking of the 1920's feel, they have gangsters too? "You better pay us the money or we wont be able to protect your shop." With the hat and everything, it's like Al Capone or whatever.
I read about it already, but I guess having the metal benders is cool. Toff kinda invented metal bending at the end of the original series, so it's cool to see that have it's place here. But why can't all earth benders learn to bend metal? Is Toff just that good? Speaking of Toff, her daughter (Lin, I think her name was) is kind of a hard ass, isn't she? I wonder what role she'll play in the series.
And what's with Korra's animal guide. A polar bear dog thing. Front legs like a bear, back legs like a wimpy deer. I was never a big fan of some of the wacky animal designs they came up with though.
I'm not a big fan of the CG they got going on. Like when there's real nice camera movement, it looks too CG (shot of the water in front of the city, the leaf going throw the spinning gates, shots of the Aang statue). Avatar has a real hand drawn look to it, so the CG doesn't mix well in my opinion. If the original series had CG, it was blended well enough for me not to notice.
Too bad we didn't really get to meet the bad guy yet. We saw him for 1 second, and we have a rough idea of his evil plot, but we didn't really get into that yet. Judging from the trailer, I guess we'll get into that soon enough.
Over all, I liked it. My only complaints were that it felt too rushed through Chapter 1, and I'm not a fan of the CG standing out as much as it does. Other than that, I think this series definitely has promise. I like how they still have that quirky animation from time to time. Like the bum that came out of the bush to eat the fish.
I can agree with certain parts of your post. I personally found it well done, although rushed. I'm also worried that this one will have the same problem as the original, which had this feeling of trying to fit two shows into one. They had a serious, well done, dark show, with a goofy kids show with some anime styled over exaggerated emotion at time. This one had a balance of a dark, edgy show with a bit of humor. I'm personally loving the move, and already like the main character better than Aang. Truthfully, I wish they could go full series with this one, or create another after this. I love the show, the first series just didn't feel right at the end with me. Too many loose ends, I felt, along with the two mashed shows thing going on.
