I'm not sure how many people watched it last night, but I figured the new Sam Raimi fantasy series deserved a topic. Anyway, as for my thoughts, I thought it sucked. An over sexed, uber violent, 300 ripoff series. There's really very little to say about it. Lots of blood, boobs, and swears; Torchwood Series 1 x 10. Hercules: The Legendary Journeys it is not.
Pretty much sums it up for me as well. And the reason why I won't waste time on any further episodes.
Pretty much what I expected from the producers of Xena with the freedom of cable. I enjoyed it well enough and will keep watching for a while. I just hope they don't muck up history as much as they did on Xena.
For NetFlix subscribers with broadband, they have episode 1 available in the Watch Instantly section. Haven't sampled it yet, but your reviews don't sound encouraging.
I watched the first episode, but it doesn't really hit with me. Don't get me wrong I like watching action movies and hey I have no problem seeing nudity (BRING IT ON!) but the story just seemed non-existent. Like it's just there as window dressing for slow-motion 300 rip-off violence.
Hey! In the story telling bard competition Gabrielle entered near the end of season one, which I saw recently, the blonde kid who would one day be Young Hercules, told the story of spartacus using clips from the kirk douglas movie. cool.
Stylistically the show is a mixed bag. The CGI blood is way overboard in a lot of scenes. The nudity I can take or leave. The swearing is just what it is. But the show has potential. It tells a story and moves at a good pace so far. The characters are just archtypes at this early stage in the game, and poorly acted mostly, but the lines between the villains and hero are well drawn, and just like in Gladiator the urge to see the villains get their rightful reward propels the story along. It isn't close to the level of Rome, but it is still a series worth watching. As a side note, I found it hilarious that the Thracians were going around in their ab-baring, sleeveless barely there clothing in the dead of winter with constant snow coming down, for months apparently.
I watched the first 10 to 15 minutes of the first episode before becoming bored and skipping ahead to find a scene I liked. The fight scenes were alright, but like someone else said. The CGI blood is way over the top, I thought the main character had to be dead after his first 2 hits, but apparently you only die from blood loss if you've been skewered or had several limbs hacked off. I can't believe they've already renewed this series for a second season. Why can't Cable Channels with money, put it behind deserving shows. I'm ready for Farscape 2.0 or a decent adaptation of The Dresden Files for crying out loud. Hell, if they wanted to try something new, do an Honor Harrington TV series... Now that would be entertaining.
Apparently, by every report and critic I've read, the series improves noticeably in a couple episodes. But it still is rather strange to me that it is already granted another season. That is a lot of faith in an untested property.
Yeah, my reaction was... MEH. I thought it was much too gratuitous (but then again, I've not seen 300, and I know they were going for a similar style, so I really can't say much in that department). I didn't mind the nudity or swearing; I've seen/read just as much, if not more. To be frank, I'm only watching it for John Hannah. So they'll have me as a viewer for as long as he's in it. (Same reason I've seen all three Mummy movies, in fact.)
This is the STARZ version of Sci-Fi's Flash Gordon. God awful never should have never been filmed utter piece of shit. It takes elements of several mediums and brings out the absolute worst shit from them. The fact that most of these "actors" were allowed in front of the camera without at least 10 more years of theatrical training is an atrocity to say the least. Thanks be to Christ tits and ass still sells or it would have been a total late term 8th month abortion. The fact that this has already gotten a 2nd season is only proof that evil men prevail and they expect the "common" man/woman to eat this baked shit. Who the fuck pays for Starz on purpose?!?!!?
Starz.com has the first episode online. I'm pretty sure they don't post every episode. At least they didn't for Crash.
I'd love to see an adaptation of Codex Alera... but that would need a lot of cash behind it, I would think. Haven't watched this yet, I plan to give it a go though. Didn't they recently announce a second season already?
I saw the trailers on Starz and thought geez this looks like 300 meets Rome. Unfortunately, some of it is actually almost shot for shot 300. I tried 3 times to get past that opening cornfield goodbye with the flowing red cape. Come on. I can't believe this already has a second season. Who does Starz think it's kidding?
Oh, they know they're not kidding anybody. It's pretty obvious how derivitive this is, and neither they nor Raimi care.
In anyone is interested, Dollhouse's Maurissa Tancheroen and her husband Jed Whedon are working on this show now.