I honestly didn't really have any expectations, except for a general respect. Respect for the source material, respect for themselves and most importantly respect for the audience.
It doesn't exactly succeed in any of these aspects, but it doesn't entirely fail them either. At least not most of the time.
This show's quality level is right between the Hobbit trilogy and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It's not that brilliantly amazing, nor that breathtakingly bad, so it's okay.
But it's certainly lacking. It didn't leave a strong impression at all, mostly because of the extreme speed of things. There is no real build up of the characters or story, which serves to turn every action scene into a giant bore-fest. These characters have not yet been established and already they're fighting snow trolls, orcs and discover mysteries.
The actors are doing a good job, mostly. Cough! Cough! Charlie Vickers. Cough!
But there is no breathing room for these characters to expand. It's all: NOW! NOW! NOW!
Yet in 2 hours time this show introduces just about as many characters and as much plot as the Fellowship of the Ring did, only here it feels so much less important. I'm not just talking about the fact that we are mostly following the story of characters, who we already know will make it to the end of the show anyways, but the sheer lack of actual steaks. We have yet to establish something to care about. Something to lose.
If you want to watch this, you probably already cared about this universe way before and they know it.
TLDR: It's kinda fun. Kinda stupid. Great visually. Not offensive. Take it or leave it.
It doesn't exactly succeed in any of these aspects, but it doesn't entirely fail them either. At least not most of the time.
This show's quality level is right between the Hobbit trilogy and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It's not that brilliantly amazing, nor that breathtakingly bad, so it's okay.
But it's certainly lacking. It didn't leave a strong impression at all, mostly because of the extreme speed of things. There is no real build up of the characters or story, which serves to turn every action scene into a giant bore-fest. These characters have not yet been established and already they're fighting snow trolls, orcs and discover mysteries.
The actors are doing a good job, mostly. Cough! Cough! Charlie Vickers. Cough!
But there is no breathing room for these characters to expand. It's all: NOW! NOW! NOW!
Yet in 2 hours time this show introduces just about as many characters and as much plot as the Fellowship of the Ring did, only here it feels so much less important. I'm not just talking about the fact that we are mostly following the story of characters, who we already know will make it to the end of the show anyways, but the sheer lack of actual steaks. We have yet to establish something to care about. Something to lose.
If you want to watch this, you probably already cared about this universe way before and they know it.
TLDR: It's kinda fun. Kinda stupid. Great visually. Not offensive. Take it or leave it.