Downtown Khazan: Ice Cold Utopia

[Sharpandpointies]

I may be doing it a bit of a disservice, but both my wife and I were...'meh, it looks meh at best'. Granted, we're comparing it with Jackson's cinematography, which for me was one of the stronger points of his first three movies.

I never got 'into' Rings of Power - it's lacking the sweeping, emotional visuals, it doesn't impact very hard with the cinematography, everything just feels kind of ordinary. Like, half a billion dollars and it feels kind of average. To both of us, so it's not just me being grumpy about the Tolkien stuff. Basically we watched one episode and we're not going to bother any more.

As an example, there's a scene shot on top of a very, very tall tower, at the top of a very high place. A couple of characters (two Eldar) have a conversation, and this is the setting for it. Anyway, the landscape doesn't mesh well. I don't get the feeling I'm looking out from a high place over a community in the mountains, I get the feeling I'm looking at an image.

It's not awful, but it's all very 'meh'. I guess I should say that if this were another fantasy show, without the half-billion dollar budget, without the hype, I might be saying 'Hey, this is pretty good.' Not 'AWESOME!', but 'pretty good'. Sadly, I was expecting better and I'm sure the other problems with the show does taint my point of view somewhat (and my wife's - again, not a purist, loved Jackson's movies, does not like this stuff).

Maybe other people are judging it differently than us.

[Nik Hasta]

I mean, Jackson went to New Zealand and pointedly and emphatically made the natural beauty of the land part of his vision for the films.

From the brief clips I have seen, looks like a lot of stuff done on sets. Not that sets are intrinsically bad but they do have a different feel. And they must have known that they were going to be directly compared to one of the most successful and culturally powerful set of fantasy films ever made.

Like, if Sense8 filmed on location in 8 countries around the world and, as result, looks amazing. Apparently it cost ~9 million dollars per episode which would have it clocking in at something like 250 - 300 million dollars for the full show. There really isn't a good excuse for not filming on location wherever possible.

Obviously, a fantasy setting is a different beast than a contemporary drama but Jackson proved you could do it in the early 2000s.

(Also people should watch Sense8, it's really very good.)

[Sharpandpointies]

I sometimes wonder if the whole SuperHD thing actually messes up how a show might look. I imagine it might be harder to seamlessly merge CGI backdrops and such with that level of detail in the filming.

[Sharpandpointies]

It's worth noting that we started - for fun - watching Wheel of Time immediately after finishing the first episode of RoP.

I know there are complaints about WoT from people. Not going to speak to that, nor to how close it followed the books (I'm not really invested).

But after the backstory opening - to give a little history - we paused the program to turn to each other and BOTH essentially say 'That was far better for establishing character (of Moiraine) and actual drama in backstory than the entire historical backstory part did in RoP, including establishing Galadriel's character'.

The backstory opening in Wheel of Time is about 20 seconds of Moiraine armoring up with an extremely generalized voice-over about history. That's all. And they did a much better job with that than the entire enormous backstory opening to RoP, in our opinion.

[Nik Hasta]

I sometimes wonder if the whole SuperHD thing actually messes up how a show might look. I imagine it might be harder to seamlessly merge CGI backdrops and such with that level of detail in the filming.

As a 1080p version of say, Star Wars Attack of the Clones will illustrate, higher details makes it harder to blend stuff naturally.

[Nik Hasta]

Oh great, on top of everything else the Queen might be dying.

Hope everyone is prepared for the UK to go fully insane for like... let's say three months?

When Prince Philip died, who was by all accounts an old racist bastard who no one really liked, we spent a month blasting out media about how great he was and being "in mourning,"

And people actually like Liz. She's also been Queen for the entirety of basically the entire lives of anyone under the age of 70. This is going to be such a weird fucking culture shock.

Christ.

Still, if she dies, we should get tomorrow off so long weekend.

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

I may be doing it a bit of a disservice, but both my wife and I were...'meh, it looks meh at best'. Granted, we're comparing it with Jackson's cinematography, which for me was one of the stronger points of his first three movies.

I never got 'into' Rings of Power - it's lacking the sweeping, emotional visuals, it doesn't impact very hard with the cinematography, everything just feels kind of ordinary. Like, half a billion dollars and it feels kind of average. To both of us, so it's not just me being grumpy about the Tolkien stuff. Basically we watched one episode and we're not going to bother any more.

As an example, there's a scene shot on top of a very, very tall tower, at the top of a very high place. A couple of characters (two Eldar) have a conversation, and this is the setting for it. Anyway, the landscape doesn't mesh well. I don't get the feeling I'm looking out from a high place over a community in the mountains, I get the feeling I'm looking at an image.

It's not awful, but it's all very 'meh'. I guess I should say that if this were another fantasy show, without the half-billion dollar budget, without the hype, I might be saying 'Hey, this is pretty good.' Not 'AWESOME!', but 'pretty good'. Sadly, I was expecting better and I'm sure the other problems with the show does taint my point of view somewhat (and my wife's - again, not a purist, loved Jackson's movies, does not like this stuff).

Maybe other people are judging it differently than us.

I mean people think the current slew of Marvel shows/movies are well-done, and well written. It's more likely that the bar is just bordering on non-existent anymore.

[Nik Hasta]

Berserk:...Well damn, that sucks.

Hmm...

spoilers:

If Puck is gone too, that will be an absolute kick to the chest.

end of spoilers

This chapter was a good moment, real good despair hours.

spoilers:

I mean, Skull Knight did tell him. You can no more challenge him than a fictional character can challenge their author. It is one thing to hear it, it's quite another to experience it. All that work, all the hardship, the conversion of the Dragonslayer into an astral weapon via feeding it blood and evil for years and years and... nothing. Not even a scratch.

end of spoilers

Rough stuff.

[Postmania]

It's worth noting that we started - for fun - watching Wheel of Time immediately after finishing the first episode of RoP.

I know there are complaints about WoT from people. Not going to speak to that, nor to how close it followed the books (I'm not really invested).

But after the backstory opening - to give a little history - we paused the program to turn to each other and BOTH essentially say 'That was far better for establishing character (of Moiraine) and actual drama in backstory than the entire historical backstory part did in RoP, including establishing Galadriel's character'.

The backstory opening in Wheel of Time is about 20 seconds of Moiraine armoring up with an extremely generalized voice-over about history. That's all. And they did a much better job with that than the entire enormous backstory opening to RoP, in our opinion.

That’s a bad sign bc WOT wasn’t strong out the gate for me either

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

So, my own two cents………


RoP is….okay so far.

Cons:

-Galadriel, in this, is such a far cry from the gentle, powerful, ethereal elf we see in LotR that it is hard to see how she will evolve into that. I know in the books she did fight, on occasion, and did lead elves in fights, but this hardened, burdened Elf we see here is not Galadriel as we know her. It could be interesting to see her evolve into Cate Blanchett’s Galadriel (and the actress is fine in the role), but as of now it’s hard to see the two characters as the same person yet.

-The elves come off very……mundane like. I would imagine that’s because everyone and their moms are First Age elves around this point, so that would seem mundane I suppose, but it’s still….jarring. Again, compared to LotR, Elrond and Galadriel and her hubby (can’t recall his name) had an otherness about them. Arwen kind of too. In here, these just seem like regular elves.

-Some of the cgi landscape is a bit off.

-The proto-hobbits (Harfoots) are….just kind of there. Still waiting how they impact the story at all.

-The human/elf romance. I dig the look of the guard elf (Arondir), and again the actor is fine, but the romance doesn’t feel…….necessary.

-The opening music is dull.

-The music in general is a bit lackluster so far.

-No mention of Galadriel’s husband (I think she’s married by this point in the books).

Pro’s:

-Acting is good.

-Seeing a thriving Khaza-Dum was really cool. I’ve always liked the dwarves though.

-The mystery man. It’s an intriguing mystery so far if it’s a Blue, Sauron in friendly form, or someone else (Tom perhaps?)

-Despite not liking the romance angle, I do like Arondir’s plot in investigating the source of the sickness/blight/empty city. It’s more engaging then Revenge!!!!

-I…kind of like the idea of Elrond and Galadriel being friends? It caught me off guard, but I didn’t mind it. Though it does kind of make him marrying her daughter later a bit…awkward I would imagine.

-Dig the costumes/armor/set pieces.


Honestly, with only two episodes so far (I generally try to give a show between 3 and 5 episodes to really give it a fair shake) it’s ok. Noting groundbreaking at the moment, hopefully it will pick up once the board is set and people are where they need to be to progress the plot.

[Iron_Twister]

I admit, never thght to see a straight up clip of this series with original audio intact and nothing too choppy of editing.

...Sachio ain't no King Joe but Housen arguably didn't have any interesting leaders (I mean they were competent but they're okay as characters). But yep, this dude manhandled mooks like nothing.

[Dark Soul # 7]

[Sharpandpointies]

I admit, never thght to see a straight up clip of this series with original audio intact and nothing too choppy of editing.

...Sachio ain't no King Joe but Housen arguably didn't have any interesting leaders (I mean they were competent but they're okay as characters). But yep, this dude manhandled mooks like nothing.

Always fun watching Todoroki fight. . His stuff tends to be pretty clean-looking.

[Sharpandpointies]

That’s a bad sign bc WOT wasn’t strong out the gate for me either

Not saying the series is any good - haven’t watched enough. Just the comparison between the two back-story scenes.

[Sharpandpointies]

I mean people think the current slew of Marvel shows/movies are well-done, and well written. It's more likely that the bar is just bordering on non-existent anymore.

Fair point.