Legend of Korra S1
24 Jun 2012 02:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
salineaLegend of Korra was for me, in the end, largely a disappointment. And it's hard not to feel I'm being overly harsh because there's still so much good thing about it. The art and animation are gorgeous. The action sequences are breathtaking and imaginative. The soundtrack is perhaps the best since BSG's. The themes and motifs of the series sound like they could be very interesting, a teenage girl learning, finding herself in a big city, the exploration of the Benders vs non Benders relationship, the growing industrializations of the world. So much potential for awesomeness! On paper the characters sound awesome. They have a lot of potential to be great, awesome charadesigns too. And yet the story never seems to lift off. The group dynamics never properly fizzle. The romance in particular is laughably awful and uninteresting. The pacing in the overall story is way off. The protagonists fail too repeatedly, and yet when they succeed it doesn't feel earned. The big themes never feel properly set up asides from being part of the plot. The villains are developed too late for us to be emotionally involved when they are. In the end it felt like the story truly lacked heart.
Is it a problem of too high expectations? Avatar: the Last Airbender does cast a long shadow, but it does so from much greater length. It's a long series, and it has quite a few, lesser episode that allowed it to develop the characters, the humour, the ensemble dynamics and the setting in all the way that made it truly great. And even ATLA's first season was hardly great, At least not until its finale.
And it's not like I can say LoK is bad. It's not. It's a very decent if a bit badly paced story with stunning production values. There are a few scenes here and there which are truly grear. Tenzin and Korra's relationship truly works. Lin is an interesting character if underplayed (or at least her competence is underplayed. Criminally so.) Asami's narrative arc, once they bothered to delve into it was very well done. The atmosphere of rally of underground political organisations of the 20's was great too. Bolin has a lot of good moments, especially in term of humour; and so do Tenzin's daughters.
But I did have those expectations.
So it does come to that.
Is it a problem of too high expectations? Avatar: the Last Airbender does cast a long shadow, but it does so from much greater length. It's a long series, and it has quite a few, lesser episode that allowed it to develop the characters, the humour, the ensemble dynamics and the setting in all the way that made it truly great. And even ATLA's first season was hardly great, At least not until its finale.
And it's not like I can say LoK is bad. It's not. It's a very decent if a bit badly paced story with stunning production values. There are a few scenes here and there which are truly grear. Tenzin and Korra's relationship truly works. Lin is an interesting character if underplayed (or at least her competence is underplayed. Criminally so.) Asami's narrative arc, once they bothered to delve into it was very well done. The atmosphere of rally of underground political organisations of the 20's was great too. Bolin has a lot of good moments, especially in term of humour; and so do Tenzin's daughters.
But I did have those expectations.
So it does come to that.