Wheel of Time - Amazon Prime

[ArtisDead]

So...having read the books in my misspent youth, I feel like I got quite a bit more from the books. I can hear you now...saying, "duh". At this point, it doesn't live up to what I was hoping. But neither did Foundation or Game of Thrones for that matter. This could be very dissapointing because both Foundation and Wheel of Time are such pillars in their respective genres.

 

[Gieferg]

I just can't feel any immersion when I see people looking like those in the trailer, especially Anakin SKywalker and his haircut

 

[ArtisDead]

I have not read the Wheel of Time, but to me the whole thing looks incredibly generic and says nothing to me about what makes the Wheel of TIme different to any other fantasy world. The music for the trailer doesn't help, which sounds like its been copied and pasted from every modern trailer ever.

Oh, brother, with all of that time that you spend isolated in your tower scribbling, you could be immersed in one of the most amazing fantasy worlds ever imagined. The books.

I just can't feel any immersion when I see people looking like those in the trailer, especially Anakin SKywalker and his haircut

You don't have much of a haircut, yourself bald one. Whats that from?

 

[Moe_Syzlak]

I just can't feel any immersion when I see people looking like those in the trailer, especially Anakin SKywalker and his haircut

I was concerned with that first teaser. It definitely looks better than that teaser. And I don’t know if you were joking with your Witcher quip, but I hope so.

 

[Darth Kermit]

Watched episodes 1 and 2 with my mom and brother, who both read and loved the books (eventually lol). I myself couldn’t get through book 3, barely made it through 1 and 2 at all. So I’m not able to criticize changes from the source and whether they were good or bad, but I did enjoy it. I was a little worried that the acting was gonna not be too good in the first few minutes, but the characters did eventually settle in and I think they are fine. No one stands out as amazing, but they do a good enough job. Some of the CGI looked pretty bad here and there, like those rocks falling and I think a rock in the river? And some of the editing, specifically during the action scenes, felt unintelligible. Very messy, almost like Liam Neeson hopping a fence in Taken. I’d say my biggest complaint is the costuming and a bit of the set design. It all looks too clean imo. LOTR’s costuming and set design is perfect weathering. Fraying cloaks, worn trousers, used shirts, etc. But all these peasants should have more worn clothes. They are peasants after all. I’d imagine many of them should have hand me downs, or they’ve been worn and patched for several years. That’s the big thing that distracts me from getting immersed in the world, but everything else is fine enough and I hope I enjoy season 1 overall. How many episodes is each season?

 

[Moe_Syzlak]

Watched episodes 1 and 2 with my mom and brother, who both read and loved the books (eventually lol). I myself couldn’t get through book 3, barely made it through 1 and 2 at all. So I’m not able to criticize changes from the source and whether they were good or bad, but I did enjoy it. I was a little worried that the acting was gonna not be too good in the first few minutes, but the characters did eventually settle in and I think they are fine. No one stands out as amazing, but they do a good enough job. Some of the CGI looked pretty bad here and there, like those rocks falling and I think a rock in the river? And some of the editing, specifically during the action scenes, felt unintelligible. Very messy, almost like Liam Neeson hopping a fence in Taken. I’d say my biggest complaint is the costuming and a bit of the set design. It all looks too clean imo. LOTR’s costuming and set design is perfect weathering. Fraying cloaks, worn trousers, used shirts, etc. But all these peasants should have more worn clothes. They are peasants after all. I’d imagine many of them should have hand me downs, or they’ve been worn and patched for several years. That’s the big thing that distracts me from getting immersed in the world, but everything else is fine enough and I hope I enjoy season 1 overall. How many episodes is each season?

Eight episodes per season.

I’m not in love with some of the costuming as well. It feels sort of Hunger Games-ish at times (though I know nothing about that series or movies). But the show hasn’t done a good job so far of explaining that this is not a medieval setting. It is actually in the future. So the Aes Sedai or Whitelcloak outfits shouldn’t necessarily be medieval. But I didn’t notice a lack of wear in the villager clothing. That all seemed appropriate to me.

 

[ArtisDead]

...Very messy, almost like Liam Neeson hopping a fence in Taken.
How many episodes is each season?

Man, that's harsh but Hilarious. What do you expect? He's like 100 years old.

Eight? episodes in the first season.

 

[Gieferg]

And I don’t know if you were joking with your Witcher quip, but I hope so.

I wasn't.
Witcher series, unfortunately isn't even half as good as I've been hoping for (mainly because it butchers the source material instead of making a proper use of it) but it is based on the best book series I've ever read. Nothing was even close.

I've been a fan for last 20 years and no matter how bad the series will be, I will still watch it, wait for next season, and rewatch over and over again (while I will never rewatch GoT).

 

[Darth Kermit]

Man, that's harsh but Hilarious. What do you expect? He's like 100 years old.

Eight? episodes in the first season.

I was referring to the editing in Taken. That scene especially. It’s like 7 cuts in 3 seconds just to hop a fence and it’s very bad, much like the rest of that series.

But the show hasn’t done a good job so far of explaining that this is not a medieval setting. It is actually in the future. So the Aes Sedai or Whitecloak outfits shouldn’t necessarily be medieval. But I didn’t notice a lack of wear in the villager clothing. That all seemed appropriate to me.

I’m not saying the outfits need to be medieval. I understand it’s a Wheel of Time, so it rotates, but they do have medieval tools, weapons, and other stuff. But like I said, I just found the peasant clothing to look brand new, like it was made yesterday, when I feel like the poor people would have frayed, weathered, and used clothing. Rand’s sweater is especially bright and clean and perfect. It doesn’t look worn in at all.

 

[ArtisDead]

I was referring to the editing in Taken. That scene especially. It’s like 7 cuts in 3 seconds just to hop a fence and it’s very bad, much like the rest of that series.

I know. I was being sardonic towards Neeson because of his age.

 

[Stromboli Bones]

Eight episodes per season.

I’m not in love with some of the costuming as well. It feels sort of Hunger Games-ish at times (though I know nothing about that series or movies). But the show hasn’t done a good job so far of explaining that this is not a medieval setting. It is actually in the future. So the Aes Sedai or Whitelcloak outfits shouldn’t necessarily be medieval. But I didn’t notice a lack of wear in the villager clothing. That all seemed appropriate to me.

Finally watched episode 1. My only complain was the prologue (the first 60 seconds exactly) felt super forced and unnecessary, they just gave a TDLR at the beginning for all of the exposition that I felt was delivered pretty well throughout the episode!

 

[Moe_Syzlak]

Finally watched episode 1. My only complain was the prologue (the first 60 seconds exactly) felt super forced and unnecessary, they just gave a TDLR at the beginning for all of the exposition that I felt was delivered pretty well throughout the episode!

The scene with the red ajah chasing down the male channeler? I was super worried while watching that scene. Not only was it too on the nose and unnecessary, it felt super cheap, almost like a fan film. I was prepared to hate the show after that.

 

[Stromboli Bones]

The scene with the red ajah chasing down the male channeler? I was super worried while watching that scene. Not only was it too on the nose and unnecessary, it felt super cheap, almost like a fan film. I was prepared to hate the show after that.

Nah that was fine actually, I mean the VERY first 60 seconds where Moirraine tells the audience that they're looking for the dragon reborn in a very LotR-prologue-esque way


Because they give us all that info in Episode 1 in more convenentional ways anyway, so if felt redundant and weird. Super small complain though, and easily edited out

ALSO, Holy sweet baby Jesus. Watching this on a 77" OLED is GORGEOUS. I always appreciate a full-screen aspect ratio, too

 

[Malthus]

Thoroughly enjoyed the first episode. The changes to the source seemed logical especially Perrin accidentally killing a lover and therefore learning to fear violence. As far as an adaptation goes I'm pretty content, nice breezy pacing, I like the cast, visual effects are obvious but I like them. I admit it feels more "Dr Who" than "Game of Thrones" but it's certainly enjoyable.

My main gripes are the cleanliness of the characters/costuming and it's vibrant colours.

 

[DigModiFicaTion]

Just a general reminder about the edit function when posting. Instead of mulitple posts that are only minutes apart, feel free to either a) edit your original post to include the new material that you are resopnding to (the community member should still get the quote alert), or b) read all of the posts and reply to multiple posts at once. This helps keep things tidy. Thanks!

 

[Darth Kermit]

My main gripes are the cleanliness of the characters/costuming and it's vibrant colours.

Completely agree here. Their clothes look like designer sweaters and new cloaks made yesterday. Not old hand me down rags that peasants have been wearing for years.

 

[DigModiFicaTion]

For me it's the terrible approach to violence in this show. Lord of the Rings was able to show a lot without it becoming grotesquely laughable. The Hobbit was terrible in this regard, but this show is even worse. The impacts and wounds are just wildly inconsistent and unnessecary. This show can't decide whether it's a fantasy ala LOTR or a cheap horror hack n slash flick. This feels like a Lionsgate made for teens movie/series.

 

[Moe_Syzlak]

I agree with that. I assume they are trying to show the brutality but it comes off almost as comedy at times and over the top at other times. The comedy, for example, when entrails spill out of the trolloc and OTT when Perrin is having blood splatter his face while killing the trolloc at the forge. I hope they tone that down or at least find a consistent tone.

 

[addiesin]

it’s way more LotR than GoT.

This boggles my mind. Amazon got the rights to do something with Tolkien work, the media has been calling it their LoTR show, why did they also make this if it's so similar? Reminds me of Disney going all in on the Avatar theme park (which apparently even pre-pandemic remained pretty empty) and then just outright buying Star Wars.

 

[revel911]

Looks kinda like Hercules with Kevin Sorbo. Cheap, generic fantasy/LOTR wannabe. Couldn't even get past to the end of the trailer.

Ok, now back to waiting for Witcher season 2

As much as I like Cavill, the WItcher pacing is kind of crap. So far I am really enjoying Wheel of Time FAR more than the Witcher once I got through the first really slow 25 minutes.