Avatar Aang (Gordon Cormier) embarks on a heroic journey to stop the Fire Lord in “Avatar: The Last Airbender.” (photo courtesy of Netflix)

In 2010, I lambasted “The Last Airbender,” Nickelodeon’s first live-action attempt at adapting the incredible “Avatar” animated series. I blamed director M. Night Shyamalan, claiming he “owes all the fans of the show and general audiences an apology for wasting their time and damaging their sense of wonder.”

That thesis remains valid today as that dribble infects how we experience Netflix’s “Avatar: The Last Airbender.” Separate this live-action series from the original cartoon, and it doesn’t make much sense. The world’s rules lack rationale, and characters have unexplained motives and minimal personalities

It’s a midrange series that peaks with its thoughtful, intricate fight choreography, while most scenes succumb to poor acting by regular and guest performers. But compared to the 2010 adaptation, it’s “The Godfather,” it’s the White Album, it’s “Lost,” season 1.

The wretched film creates a false positive, goggles that make something juvenile feel incredible. That’s the power of setting the bar low. When the dust settles, however, most folks celebrating the third portrayal of Avatar Aang’s heroic journey to stop the Fire Lord will never revisit this charmless, joyless series.

I know what some will think, “You just dislike how much the plot line strays from the original series.” Nope. I like when adaptations add new scenes, reimagine how events can unfold. Some of those revisions and additions work rather nicely.

This is hardly a carbon copy. The bones remain the same. Humans reside in a world of four nations based on the elements: earth, water, fire and air, some in each nation able to bend an element. Only one person, the Avatar born into a different tribe in each life, can control all four elements.

A century ago, the Fire Nation began its campaign to conquer the world, beginning the genocide of all Air Nomads, hoping to both kill the Avatar and break the Avatar cycle entirely. But young Aang (Gordon Cormier) instead is frozen in ice for 100 years until Katara (Kiawentiio) and Sokka (Ian Ousley) from the Southern Water Tribe discover him. Together they make their way north so Aang can continue his Avatar training, while avoiding Fire Nation soldiers, particularly banished Prince Zuko (Dallas Liu) and his Uncle Iroh (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee).

That’s the primary premise of season 1 in both the original series and the first film. The plotlines of each episode, however, wildly diverge, each one borrowing from characters and storylines across the original season 1.

Conceptually this should be thrilling: a classic story told in a new way, not merely rinse and repeat. But it fails on some foundational levels, ranging from casting and performances to tone and visual effects. I’m not shocked original creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, originally on board as both executive producers and showrunners, departed, publicly saying they “couldn’t control the creative direction of the series.”

They left before filming began, so they might not have even seen the odd things that would occur, like bad makeup (i.e., Utkarsh Ambudkar from CBS’s “Ghosts” in some truly awful old-man makeup), bad wigs, noticeably fake facial hair and cartoon-accurate costumes too clean to imply everyday use.

They also left before post-production when the musical score became little more than residual notions. This is especially tragic considering how loud and bold the original one was.

This all might seem like nitpicking, and maybe it is. But this “Avatar: The Last Airbender” doesn’t give me a reason to be forgiving. A few fun ideas occur, but the outcome feels more like fan fiction with a budget. And the biggest problem with all fan fiction is the acting. You can’t fix that in post-production. At least the original creators promised more animated films to come. Until then, maybe skip this “Avatar: The Last Airbender” or watch in discomfort.

“Avatar: The Last Airbender falls short, feeling like fan fiction with a budget. (photo courtesy of Netflix)