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Post by Vandelay on Nov 24, 2021 9:25:32 GMT
I watched the first episode last night. It wasn't bad at all. Grabbed me a bit more than The Witcher, although not as much Game of Thrones. I perhaps shouldn't have watched it in bed when slightly tired and there are probably a few bits that I could rewatch to really know what was going on, but for the most part it seemed like competent, if not surprising, fantasy. The core 4 younger characters are likeable and Rosamond Pike's character is mysteriously interesting. Her casting spells looked quite silly, with them requiring more and more elaborate swirly motions to conjure. I'm sure the angry troll people could have taken her out whilst all that was going on. The ending altogether was quite rushed, with Pike's character telling the four "oh there is a prophecy and one of you is it. Now, let's abandon your home and everyone you love" and they seem to accept this quite willingly. Also, the blacksmith lady didn't seem to really do or say anything except randomly look like she was attacking her boyfriend from behind when everything was quite clearly safe . Really underdeveloped and made the outcome a bit shrug worthy. All in the all though, looks to be worth sticking with. The colouring does look shit though. I've found that with Amazon shows (The Boys looks abysmal), although this was particularly weird as the image quality was really sharp and high quality, but ever so often things would be oversaturated (actually the opposite problem to The Boys, which looks really flat). I kind of assume that Amazon just has really crap compression that makes its shows look wrong. |
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Nov 24, 2021 9:33:55 GMT
I actually really liked the channelling. The CG wasn't perfect, but there was a good amount of physicality to it.
I agree that the ending felt a bit rushed, but "these monsters are specifically after you, if you stay they will attack the town again" seemed like a pretty convincing argument for them to leave.
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Post by Vandelay on Nov 24, 2021 9:49:28 GMT
It is a compelling reason to leave, but only if you buy the whole prophecy part and that one of you is the person it talks about. It was more that part that seemed like it needed a bit more evidence rather than her just telling them this out of the blue.
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lexw
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Post by lexw on Nov 24, 2021 10:08:19 GMT
The colouring does look shit though. I've found that with Amazon shows (The Boys looks abysmal), although this was particularly weird as the image quality was really sharp and high quality, but ever so often things would be oversaturated (actually the opposite problem to The Boys, which looks really flat). I kind of assume that Amazon just has really crap compression that makes its shows look wrong. It's pretty fucking weird, I have to say. Same deal here though (and with The Boys, but I think that's partly an intentional choice to desaturate excessively as well). We watched in 4K HDR, and we'd watched a number of shows in that on Disney+ and Apple TV recently, and they'd looked utterly fantastic, and this just looked... oversaturated in a almost pixelated way. It was getting that 4K quality, you can tell from the edge of things and people's hair and stuff, but Amazon had done something horrible to it. I've seen this with a couple of movies on Amazon too, like, I thought I wasn't getting 4K HDR, but I was, it just looked really compressed because I guess it was. Interestingly Disney+ had a very similar problem initially, I remember being pissed off by it trying to watch TLJ, like weird greens and pinks where they shouldn't be, but recent Disney+ stuff just totally hasn't had it (like Dopesick). Apple TV's Foundation, which is many way's dreadful totally does not have this issue. One thing i do note, Apple TV and Disney always take a few seconds to queue up, like you press play and it's maybe as long as oooooh 5 seconds before they actually play. Whereas Amazon tends to play instantly. It's like, if I have to wait a few seconds, shit even 30 seconds, so you guys can use a compression method that actually makes your show look good, that's A-ok with me! Anyway, watched the first three episodes now, and I like it a lot better than the books so far. The same events are more compelling and scarier here, which I guess I should have expected because LotR managed it back in the day, and just as the WoT books were inspired by the LotR books, this is clearly inspired in part by the LotR movies (though a lot more colourful) and particularly the way Jackson shot battle scenes and stuff. Everyone in it seems pretty well-cast so far. There's some excessive ACTING! but it's mostly the kind you see when people are new to characters, and hopefully it fades. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2021 10:18:02 GMT
Ref the colouring, have you tried Filmmaker mode? I'm using that and I've not seen any problems.
Vandelay, that spoilered bit isn't in the books. I think its - as someone has said - a clunky way to make him not like using his axe / violence which is in the books, but which takes loads of introspection to get there. I agree that the direction of that scene was poor though. I couldnt understand her actions at all.
Having seen the third episode now, I'm liking it more. There's still some bits that grate, (like I couldn't understand where Lan went), but the newly introduced character was good (i'm sure I heard spurs whenever they walked) and Mat is acting like I thought he would. The scene with Rand and ANother caught me by surprise which was good.
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スコットランド
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Post by スコットランド on Nov 24, 2021 13:55:16 GMT
Really enjoyed the first 3 episodes to be honest, visually it looks weird, sort of grainy, weird colour etc. but it's a proper fantasy epic adventure and that'll do me fine.
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lexw
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Post by lexw on Nov 24, 2021 17:48:32 GMT
Ref the colouring, have you tried Filmmaker mode? I'm using that and I've not seen any problems. Vandelay, that spoilered bit isn't in the books. I think its - as someone has said - a clunky way to make him not like using his axe / violence which is in the books, but which takes loads of introspection to get there. I agree that the direction of that scene was poor though. I couldnt understand her actions at all. Having seen the third episode now, I'm liking it more. There's still some bits that grate, (like I couldn't understand where Lan went), but the newly introduced character was good (i'm sure I heard spurs whenever they walked) and Mat is acting like I thought he would. The scene with Rand and ANother caught me by surprise which was good. I'm effectively in that mode, yeah. Going to see if I can disable HDR, maybe that will help. |
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Post by Mr Wonderstuff on Nov 24, 2021 20:53:30 GMT
Filmaker mode automatically switches on on my CX. I think its a pretty good production and will stick with it. I remember reading the books back in the mid 90s and enjoyed them but never read the Sanderson ones.
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Nov 25, 2021 2:27:36 GMT
So apparently this is doing pretty well! (if you believe Amazon's reports about their own streaming figures)
Maybe there's just enough sauce to capture the GoT crowd, without having tits flopping around everywhere. And it was probably a smart idea to release it before everyone starts talking about The Witcher again.
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Nov 26, 2021 11:00:01 GMT
Ok, episode 4 was pretty cool. Lots of world building, lots of plot movement in two out of the three groups. They'd already told a few stories about why the idea of men using magic in this world makes people shit their pants. But they really needed to show it too, and they're starting to do it now. |
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Lukus
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Post by Lukus on Nov 26, 2021 11:29:53 GMT
Looks shit
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dogbot
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Post by dogbot on Nov 26, 2021 23:27:26 GMT
Ok, episode 4 was pretty cool. Lots of world building, lots of plot movement in two out of the three groups. Yeah, that was really good. It’s starting to find its feet. Enjoyed the stuff with Logain (great actor), enjoying Nynaeve far more than the books and the bit with Rand, Matt, Thom and the Myrdraal in the farmhouse was good. Also, starting to bring Ishamael (calling himself Ba’alzamon) with his flaming eyes and mouth into it more and more. He’s a major plot point as they find out who is who. There were always going to be deviations, but on the whole, they’re really working so far. S’good. |
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Nov 27, 2021 0:08:22 GMT
Only issue I have right now, is that Rand is just kind of a nothing character. He's torn up about Egwene, supportive to Mat, but that's about it so far. Everyone else has way more to do.
Though I guess he's kind of dull in the source material too, so it's faithful in its own way. |
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dogbot
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Post by dogbot on Nov 27, 2021 0:17:50 GMT
Agreed. But it’s building to the obvious. “Keep Matt away from Aes Sendai”, Logain seeing Nynaeve as “Like the sun” etc. He’s going to have plenty of time to be all sorts of other things. Moody sod, forsaken hunter, bit of an arse sometimes, Car’acan and suchlike |
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Nov 27, 2021 0:29:15 GMT
I would genuinely love it if the showrunners just said "hey, you know what, fuck everything Egwene is the Dragon Reborn" Obviously it's impossible because it would change too much of the story. But man, the nerd meltdown would be tremendous. Edit: the spoilered bit is a book thing about who the Dragon is, if anyone cares. It feels like the show is trying to keep it a mystery, so I spoiler tagged it. As an aside, I don't really know how to approach book wankery in this thread, because it feels like people here either have read some of the books, or they don't care that much about other people discussing them |
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スコットランド
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Post by スコットランド on Nov 27, 2021 1:10:26 GMT
I haven't read the books and don't want to read spoilers from the books, can't book wankers have another thread to discuss the books?
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Nov 27, 2021 1:39:22 GMT
Alright, I'll do a separate one, see how it goes.
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lexw
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Post by lexw on Nov 27, 2021 2:56:26 GMT
Honestly this remains about 14x more exciting than the books (I mean, admittedly I only read the first two, but I have a high tolerance for boring, overwrought fantasy and the sheer bad writing overwhelmed me), and it's pretty good right now. I hope it keeps being good. I mean, it's just well-done, well-paced, good dramatic choices, mostly spending money in the right places, good casting on all the adults (all the "kids" are a bit weak except Nynaeve who is basically with the adults), and just delivering a fun show. Glad it's got a second season because I would definitely watch that based on the current quality.
My wife was pretty skeptical of it at first (she's read a ton of fantasy, never WoT though), but is actually quite into it now, though extremely amusingly she was like "Why don't they do X, they're being idiots!" and then like Liandrin was like "We should do X...", basically everything she suggested Liandrin suggested a few scenes later.
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Nov 27, 2021 2:59:18 GMT
Does anyone else think that Liandrin looks eerily similar to Lucy Lawless?
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aubergine
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Post by aubergine on Nov 27, 2021 4:48:35 GMT
I just came from an article about how outrageous it is that this differs from the books in some fashion, so it’s a relief to see people saying they like it. I doubt I’ll watch it until the series is much farther along, but I might get Prime again to watch the end of The Expanse at some point.
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Post by oldskooldeano on Nov 27, 2021 8:20:34 GMT
I don’t mind Book wankers talking about the books as long as I can call them book wankers.
For non eg forumites that’s less of an insult and more a term of affection.
Book wankers.
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Nov 27, 2021 8:24:51 GMT
I don't really care either way, I just don't want people to get mad about it. If nobody uses the other thread I'll happily just keep putting things in here (in spoiler tags).
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Post by Bill in the rain on Nov 27, 2021 8:40:23 GMT
It's nice to be able to have arguments between those who've read the book and haven't again.  Maybe it will be the new GoT after all.
PS/ Is who the Dragon Reborn is really being kept a secret? Interesting choice. It's like doing a Harry Potter TV show and keeping secret who 'the boy who lived' is.
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Nov 27, 2021 8:42:35 GMT
Ok!
So... *wink* who do people think is the Dragon Reborn?
/waggles eyebrows
/taps nose
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Post by Bill in the rain on Nov 27, 2021 8:44:01 GMT
Frodo!
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Nov 27, 2021 8:44:56 GMT
I'm actually curious to know if people who haven't read the books are wondering about it. Because it seems pretty telegraphed to me, but maybe that's just because I have secret book wanker knowledge.
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dogbot
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Post by dogbot on Nov 27, 2021 9:08:52 GMT
I haven't read the books and don't want to read spoilers from the books, can't book wankers have another thread to discuss the books? Don't click the spoilers then, dipshit. |
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Post by oldskooldeano on Nov 27, 2021 11:19:29 GMT
I'm actually curious to know if people who haven't read the books are wondering about it. Because it seems pretty telegraphed to me, but maybe that's just because I have secret book wanker knowledge. well it’s Rand isn’t it? I deduced this because A) He was the first character we saw and B) He is a twat C) Nothing interesting has happened to him except he’s had a few bad dreams. Everybody else is having something cool happen with them. I’ll be pleasantly surprised if I am proved wrong though. |
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dogbot
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Post by dogbot on Nov 27, 2021 11:22:58 GMT
I just came from an article about how outrageous it is that this differs from the books in some fashion, so it’s a relief to see people saying they like it. I doubt I’ll watch it until the series is much farther along, but I might get Prime again to watch the end of The Expanse at some point. Thing is, it was never going to follow the books exactly. What plays on a page won't on the screen. So far, the deviations have actually been minor and handled really well, imo. The only one I can't see the point of is Perrin being married at the beginning but I imagine it will become more obvious. Otherwise, it has worked well and I thought episode 4 was tremendous. |
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Nov 27, 2021 11:30:50 GMT
I'm actually curious to know if people who haven't read the books are wondering about it. Because it seems pretty telegraphed to me, but maybe that's just because I have secret book wanker knowledge. well it’s Rand isn’t it? I deduced this because A) He was the first character we saw and B) He is a twat C) Nothing interesting has happened to him except he’s had a few bad dreams. Everybody else is having something cool happen with them. I’ll be pleasantly surprised if I am proved wrong though. I was going to respond with a spoilery thing (which I quickly deleted), but I think I'll just let the story play out. |
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