The praise is mostly from people who are familiar with the source material who might have been concerned about how that source material would be represented and are rightly happy with how good a job they've done of translating it to the screen, which isn't really praise for the show in its own right.
Having played the first game and watched the first episode last night, I'm actually taken aback at how much praise this show is getting already. Talk of being "the best video game to TV/film adaptation in history!!1!" is a little premature in my opinion, but it is perhaps the most faithful adaptation.
In fact I think that the TV show suffers a little from following the game so closely. There was a little bit of additional material, some modest revisions to some scenes, but this is otherwise a beat-for-beat remake of the game's first couple chapters. And that's fine, but it's different to me than making a live-action version of, say, a book. A book and a TV/film adaptation of the book will always have significant differences, because the picture you paint in your head when you read the book will be completely different than the way the TV/film adaptors will envision things. Third-person narration of a book is almost never replicated, so the pacing of the book vs. pacing of the TV/film adaptation will be completely different.
With a video game like The Last of Us, even though the product on screen was originally a computer-generated image, it was still acted out. It was like an interactive movie that gave you the ability to contribute to the action in a minor way. The video game was already so close to what many effects-heavy movies otherwise are these days that it's... not even really an "adaptation" in my mind. Like, there's nothing that the actors who portrayed the characters in the video game did that the actors in the new Avatar movie didn't also do: walked around in motion-capture suits and had camera rigs attached to their heads to capture facial movements, etc. The TV show actors are really just emulating the performances of other actors who already performed the roles, in reality, in a studio environment, who just happened to have a CG façade applied to their bodies and had those façades set into a CG set.
So, instead of feeling like Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey are "adapting" the roles for television, I feel like they're just copying what Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson already did. It's like making shot-for-shot remake of a movie from ten years ago, with mostly the same dialogue, and mostly the same cinematographic composition... It's more... copying, than adapting.
I dunno, I just got this weird vibe from it, and to be perfectly honest I tuned out and didn't pay very close attention in the last 25 minutes or so. It's not even that I know how the story will generally go that bothers me: it's that I know almost precisely how it'll go, and it's weird watching people do precisely what other people already did.
I'm curious to see how they'll flesh out the rest of the story. At the pace they're going they'll run out of material from the video game in about five more episodes.
I watched it. Haven't played the game (yet), but wanted to get into it.
I thought it was good - but nothing spectacular. Seems like another zombie flick with slightly different plot devices and a local flavor (which is why I really wanted to watch in the first place).
Not sure I would give it the unanimous accolades it's getting. But happy to continue watching on and readjust my position.
Well if you compare this to crap zombie shows like the Walking Dead this is Casablanca!
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I'm curious to see how they'll flesh out the rest of the story. At the pace they're going they'll run out of material from the video game in about five more episodes.
You’re probably forgetting some stuff. They’ve done the prologue and the first chapter. There are 9 chapters and an epilogue in the game yet to be covered, with 8 episodes left to go.
Having played the first game and watched the first episode last night, I'm actually taken aback at how much praise this show is getting already. Talk of being "the best video game to TV/film adaptation in history!!1!" is a little premature in my opinion, but it is perhaps the most faithful adaptation.
I believe critics were sent the first 7 episodes to review, so the "best adaptation ever" reviews should be coming from people who have seen most of the series already.
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You’re probably forgetting some stuff. They’ve done the prologue and the first chapter. There are 9 chapters and an epilogue in the game yet to be covered, with 8 episodes left to go.
The pacing is right on so far.
Uh, aren't they already up to somewhere in the middle of chapter 2...? They've already left the QZ, and Joel and Tess already know why they're smuggling Ellie...
I suppose I did forget about the content from "Left Behind" though, that much is true. I'm sure that'll be sprinkled in as a flashback.
I was just going to post a few scenes from the first part of the game in case people who hadn't seen both wanted to compare.
Pre-outbreak part:
First Joel and Tess scene:
Joel and Tess meeting Ellie and Marlene, and Joel and Ellie killing time:
FEDRA soldier scene at the end outside Boston:
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It's not even that I know how the story will generally go that bothers me: it's that I know almost precisely how it'll go, and it's weird watching people do precisely what other people already did.
It's not precisely the same... some things that are different from the game (obviously don't look at this if you don't want to know this stuff from the game) -
Spoiler!
Obviously they changed a lot of pre-pandemic stuff which was most of the episode. In the remainder of the episode, there was a LOT more about FEDRA and how it operates. We had better context for what the Fireflies are up to rather than only ever seeing Marlene. And Joel and Tess's motivation isn't just mercenary - Joel is going after Tommy, who is apparently still working for the Fireflies? In the game, Tommy abandoned them, and Joel would absolutely not be going looking for him as they parted on bad terms years earlier, not just three weeks.
It definitely hasn't strayed very far, but there are differences and there is a lot more colour being offered to the world, which I don't mind. We'll just have to see how closely it sticks to the original plot as things go. I wouldn't actually be shocked if there is more departure after the first episode stays faithful to get over the hump of fans immediately rebelling - I mean there were actually people who were upset by Bella Ramsey being cast because she didn't really look like the character model from the game. That's how stupid this gets.
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I mean there were actually people who were upset by Bella Ramsey being cast because she didn't really look like the character model from the game. That's how stupid this gets.
Oh yeah, people can be pretty stupid.
Hell, there were even people on this forum were frothing at the mouth about some "gender politics" nonsense claims related to the writer/story/game.
Having played the first game and watched the first episode last night, I'm actually taken aback at how much praise this show is getting already. Talk of being "the best video game to TV/film adaptation in history!!1!" is a little premature in my opinion, but it is perhaps the most faithful adaptation.
I think this is more of a snide statement in reference to the pitiful quality historically
The lists are shockingly bad, so it's fun to say this is already the best. And as someone who has not played the game and did not have big expectations either way going it. It was a very good first effort.
The lists are shockingly bad, so it's fun to say this is already the best. And as someone who has not played the game and did not have big expectations either way going it. It was a very good first effort.
Ironically, Tess (Anna Torv) was the main voice actor for Heavenly Sword back in 2007 for the game and 2014 for the movie (I always thought it was just a compilation of games cutscenes.
I played the game and loved it… I thought episode 1 was okay, but I hope it gets better, which I think it will, but I wasn’t blown away by any means… maybe I’m dead inside… or spores…
That blurry figure standing in the background is me.
Was hoping for a more glamourous shot, but knew it was doubtful since most of the camera angles for scene were low, as it was focused on the kid sitting in the wheelchair.
Either that, or they purposely cropped me out and left me on the cutting room floor. LOL
Neat experience!
And yeah, I know I need a new TV...
Spoiler!
Last edited by dubc80; 01-23-2023 at 10:12 AM.
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That blurry figure standing in the background is me.
Was hoping for a more glamourous shot, but knew it was doubtful since most of the camera angles for scene were low, as it was focused on the kid sitting in the wheelchair.
Either that, or they purposely cropped me out and left me on the cutting room floor. LOL
Neat experience!
And yeah, I know I need a new TV...
Well done. Very menacing. It's serving Michael Myers in all the best ways.
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Love what you’re doing with your hand there. Is that a thumb in your pocket? God, I don’t want to say this, but I think you could make a career out of playing the blurry background character. Something to think about.
That blurry figure standing in the background is me.
Was hoping for a more glamourous shot, but knew it was doubtful since most of the camera angles for scene were low, as it was focused on the kid sitting in the wheelchair.
Either that, or they purposely cropped me out and left me on the cutting room floor. LOL
Neat experience!
We've visited the set of some sci-fi stuff in the past but certainly have never been on the other side of the camera/monitor. That's pretty cool! You'll always have a neat story to tell.
