Braid tugging twice within the first 5 minutes, there's your nod to Robert Jordan. ;-)
But seriously, the writing is pretty flat so it is hard to tell if the actors are any good, given what they have to work with. Speaking of writing, they trot out a whole lot of fridging right out of the gates but won't spoil the who/how.
Good points? Hmn... the effects/cgi aren't too bad, the trollocs look pretty good for TV monsters.
I'm going to try to give the series my three-episode minimum, but it might be tough. There are just so many better things to watch out there, unless you absolutely must have a fantasy genre fix, and determined to make it Wheel of Time.
Just absolutely awful. Nonsensical changes to the plot that will seriously cause issues later on (assuming this mess lasts that long), bad acting, bad CGI, and forced diversity casting make this the disappointment of the year for me.
The production design of this series is so terrible that made me laugh. I dont know if i will keep seeing it, i cant take it serious.
appreciates the casting diversity but the cinematography makes this show looks cheap (not 90s Hercules level, but some shots are close to that)
Watched episode 1 of the Cowboy Bebop live action series the other day, and then this episode. Much like Bebop I can honestly say it hurt to watch this.
If you're going to throw out more than half the things that make the characters who they are, just steal the pieces you like and come up with an original story.
The first half was super slow. But that last half was like getting sucker punched hard. It'll knock you out. xD I'd rate a 6 but the last half was a doozy so 7 outta 10.
Cannot understand why there are so significant changes to the story and the characters!
Perrin has a wife, Mat is a thief and Nynaeve already died? WTF!
Pointless departures from the original story, and diversity in casting taking priority to the detriment of the final product. The show is exactly what I had hoped it wouldn't be.
They'll drop the show long before the story's conclusion.
Its never a good sign when a show departs from the original story within the first 15 minutes.
With some of the changes I am asking myself if the screenwriters bothered to read past the first few pages, since they will cause problems down the line.
I say this with sadness, but I don't think this is going to be a good adaptations, the changes are one red-flag after another...
The show is not a masterpiece but it is nevertheless an enjoyable watch, especially if your expectations are not too high and when you are not a die-hard fan of the book series it is based on. I have read only the first volume of Rober Jordan's saga and I do not remember much but I can see they have changed a lot from the original. However, it is hard to say if it is for the worse at this stage. I did not like the first book very much due to its dark atmosphere, whereas the episode turned out to be quite an entertaining experience. Maybe I liked it because I do not mind the deviations from the source material that irk every "Wheel of Time" fan, and I also enjoy watching this type of more lightweight and traditional fantasy shows (in comparison to "The Game of Thrones", for instance), and as a Tolkien fan I do not really mind any references to "The Lord of the Rings", even if they are repetitive and almost plagiarism-like. I find the female characters Nyanaeve and Egwene quite likeable, though I am not so sure about the boys. The landscapes are reminiscent of LotR and beautiful to watch, I also liked how the magic Moraine performs was presented, though I wonder why haven't Moraine and Lan come to the village earlier? Maybe they could have saved more people had they been in The Two Rivers at the time of the attack. I guess this was not explained in the books since from what I remember the events presented here are told from Rand's point of view and he was at his father's house when it all happened. Also, I am not sure whether the village would be safe after Moraine and Lan leave it with the four "chosen ones", from what I recall about trollocs they are just stupid killing machines so they might attack the Two Rivers anyway, not knowing that the ones they are after have left, so I got the feeling that this puts the whole village in danger to some extend. As I mentioned earlier, I am not a big fan of the books, but it seems to go completely against what it said in the novels that the Dragon can be either male or female, in the novels he is definitely male as men are not allowed to use the magic and that is what makes the Dragon so dangerous. I have no idea why it was changed in the show; however, now that I have watched the first episode I might be tempted to return to the "Wheel of Time" book series and try to finish more volumes than the first one ;)
This was a pretty good pilot. It was a slow start at first (not enough action) and the second half almost got drowned out in battle (too much action) but we got to know the main characters, some details about their lives, and it set the tone for our epic quest.
I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.
So, she knew that this will all happen but, instead of maybe warning and preparing the villagers just decided to take a bath and a stroll
The needless changes are a huge detriment to the show. It is so annoying that they make changes to the story and cast diversely for the sake of diversity. The casting makes absolutely no sense.
Even so, it is a fairly high quality adaptation and I am going into it knowing it will be cancelled because they butchered it so badly.
Gonna watch it and get it over with. Enjoy it for what it is and then forget it.
My god it's badly shot. Lots of scenes where it was actually a pain to watch: the camera is shaking like crazy or they are switching angles all the times, wtf happened?
Then you add the bad dialogues, and it really looks like a cheap movie that would go straight to TV or DVD, 15 years ago.
What a waste
My inner monologue towards the climax of ep 1: oh this is kind of a well staged little village dance scene with suspiciously modern sounding contra music. I wonder when the next clap will OH FUCK! Well, that was effective. Maybe this show will be WHAT THE FUCK. THEY SPENT ALL THIS MONEY AND IT LOOKS LIKE AMNESIA A MACHINE FOR PIGS
Overall, the star here is the willingness to add in and change significant plot points in order to fix Jordan's one-dimensional characterization and tinker with his weird old uncle gender politics. Mat's new backstory is a little on the overly edgy side and I feel like they gave away Padan Fain way too quick, but the added detail of Perrin merking his gf in a blind rage really shores up his personality traits that we know and love from the book. Maybe a little too on the nose but, hell, I liked it.
The thing that drags this show down is apparently they didn't want to spend... like... any money on CGI. The trolloc fights are just... embarrassing. There's no other word for it.
Not for the first time we see Roose Bolton getting knifed by a monster.
Horrifically bad. Utter nonsense. Yikes
Never have I cheered so much for a characters death as I did for Perin’s fake wife.
WELL..WHAT
JEEZ IT NEARLY LOST ME THIS EPISODE, I WAS SO READY TO BOW OUT.
IT WAS A LITTLE BIT TO DIVERSE FOR MY LIKING AND EVERYONE IS SO DAMN CLEAN FOR THIS KIND OF SETTING.
I HAD TO GRIND MY WAY THROUGH THIS FIRST EPISODE IT WAS SO PAINFULLY SLOW AND THE DIALOGUE WAS KILLING ME AND THE CHEAP XENA AND HERCULES VIBE I WAS GETTING. I JUST FELT I WAS THE WRONG GENDER AND THE WRONG AGE AND I THOUGHT I JUST WASN'T WOKE ENOUGH.
JUST AS I WAS ABOUT TO SEE MYSELF OUT OF THIS SERIES THE PACING WENT FROM
0 to a 100
I DIDN'T HAVE A CLUE WHAT WAS GOING ON ESPECIALLY WITH THAT CHUFFING SHAKING CAMRA CRAP GOING ON MISSING THE BEST PARTS BUT I DID ENJOY WHAT BITS I COULD WORK OUT.
IT AIN'T NO GAME OF THRONES
ARE THE WITCHER
AND IT CERTAINLY IS NOT LOTR BUT FROM THAT LAST 20 mins I WILL SEE WHAT THIS SECOND EPISODE IS LIKE AND SEE IF IT CAN TRICK ME TO STAYING FOR THE 3rd
6/10
it was a 5/10 till that last 20mins kicked off.
The first two eps of of this series is not an homage to The Fellowship of The Ring, it’s a blatant ripoff.
Why is it looking like Xena or Hercules from the 90s? It’s really not looking good!
Can't tell if it's the writing/acting/both but jesus christ the dialogue is so bad. Almost every time they speak I have a headache.
These are my thoughts for the first three episodes that premiered today.
This is bad. Since The Witcher, everyone feels confident about producing their own GoT rip off expecting to find the same success or something similar but for those who've followed the Henry Cavill drama know, the critics haven't been parading Netflix's fantasy offering. The case appears to be the same with Amazon's first foray into tackling a major book series with a huge budget (next year we'll see if buying TLotR was worth it). So, this.
I remember David Benioff and D.B. Weiss stating that the first pilot they made for GoT was unwatchable and awful, how their group of friends said they need a lot of help. Well, it looks like whoever is the showrunner of this should've sent this to their friends to get feedback because none of this smells like a great fantasy pilot (great examples of GoT, The X-Files, Buffy and Lost). The story is a complete blur after the first three episodes and I feel nothing for the group of protagonists we're given to follow. This isn't even a mess with redeeming qualities like Westworld or Foundation, where I still have the amazing VFX and performances to catch even if as a whole the story feels like a lazy catastrophe. This unfortunately, doesn't have great effects and is shot like a network TV show (this wasn't the only other big IP series that premiered this weekend with awful direction). For example the big fire ball sequence in the pilot is no sight to bestow, rather a quick and poor attempt to awe viewers. And although some amazing talent like Pike are here, they can't do enough to make the material sound good, the teens here are even worse with wooden interactions.
If you love the books, I guess you might dig it. That's the consensus I've been seeing, but if you're like me unfamiliar with it, you'll be left in a storm of cat scratch writing that leads you nowhere and lacks suspense. Bad.
Couldn't even finish the first episode. As a book reader, I'm so disappointed.
Intriguing start! Casting is strong and they've sped up the plot quite a bit. Visually gorgeous so far. It's hard to let go out of the source material, but I'm willing to see where this goes.
Extremely underwhelming. The magic has poor choreography and is underpowered. There has been zero buy in to the story, I'm not hooked.
For a 2021 4K HDR show, it's remarkably low fidelity. Lame magic special effects and poor colors overall. The beautiful vistas as all too dull.
You won't be disappointed if you have no expectations. The Wheel of Time is a fantasy, there's no guessing about that, it is what it is, and in episode one there's decent coherent story to start... look, I've never been able to really find the appeal of Harry Potter, but very much I'm into this. To each their own.
Very lacking in allure to keep watching to the end (ie., quite boring most of the way through), but the magic of Moir— at the end, in combination with the revealed premise that one of those four shall eventually be critical to their age/aeon, got me in the end.
The show is bad, although the story seemed to have potential. I stopped after one episode. So i red the book instead before the bad acting figures came to much in my head. I enjoyed reading it. The show ont tv on the other hand gave me "I-land" vibes.. it felt soo fake!
Everything is way too clean. The village. The clothes. Nothing looks lived in. It ends up looking like Xena from the 90s. It needs to be more gritty. This episode also felt way too rushed. I heard that they originally had wanted to make 10 episodes for Season 1 rather than the 8 they have been allowed, and it shows in the pacing. An episode spent in the village and the al' thor farm, fleshing out the characters and doing some world building, culminating the trolloc attack would have better. Also, it may just be me, but it bothers me that they made the two rivers area mountainous. In my mind the two rivers area was flat and forested. Too early to say much about the cast, but Moraine and Lan seem good. Not sure about Rand is his fluffy sweater...
i know nothing about the books, this show is brand new to me but it's so obvious with the casting & characterisation that the dragon reborn is the hayden christensen look-alike . i mean, it's not gonna be the thief, wife-killer or love interest , well is it?
Shout by alexnaderBlockedParent2021-11-19T10:34:54Z
Can't put my finger on it, but that whole magic scene just made me think of a bad perfume commercial. Also I hope there wasn't anybody in that house, lol!