caramia2002

After the horrible ep 3, I had to go start watching GOT again to wash my brain out. Starts at the Wall, one of the many non-human, mostly mysterious characters which made it so good, that HOTD doesn't have, not one. Winter, White Walkers, dragons (unseen for so long), the Wildlings. And the Houses, oh the Houses, each one a little series in itself with wonderful characters. And Sean Bean to open (great chemistry with King Robert). The producers gave the actors what they needed to craft amazing characters. Plus they were amazing actors. Each scene was rich and full of people. HOTD seems like one small soap opera scene to another. Lonely. And mostly terrible acting. The poor little princess rich girl thing has been done, and better. If I hear about "his heir" one more time... Just lazy writing and we get it, already!

In GOT, the women, the brown, and the downtrodden just took their power, no messing around. And the diverse characters were some of the best, because they had the richest stories. Not just handsome blond princes and princesses. While there were some cringey medieval moments, it was, after all... medieval. The Black lord of HOTD is one of the few good actors and compelling characters in the series so far. I guess people who complain about diversity can't hear how awful they sound. And who justify such bigoted complaints with "source material". If we stuck faithfully to "source material", we'd still be watching 1950s shows.

Anyway, I don't think there's any way to elevate HOTD, things are set, at least for the 1st season. Even the last miserable season of GOT was better. But people so want to relive GOT that they elevate this POS, but just remember that HOTD is to GOT as The Hobbit movies were to LOTR. A pale imitation. Speaking of LOTR, we have the exact same situation as HOTD going on as I write... With predictable results.

I think I mostly watched the whole thing because it was so prescient, released in 2010, about how people act in pandemics, whether the 14th century or 21st. Humans are, after all, humans, superstitious and predictable. Sad that we have so much in common with a time during which they had no idea what caused disease or how it was spread. The other reason was Sean Bean (Eddie Redmayne being the other icing).

Given that, there was nothing else to watch when chilling on a rainy summer Saturday or I wouldn't have made it past the 1st act.

One thing I've noticed about Sean Bean films and series... If there's no "brotherhood" or he doesn't have a cast he can really work with or a director who doesn't foster the ensemble, it's basically just a job. So his default Medieval hero was capable but not convincing here, as I've been a fan of his best, going back to Sharpe.

So, great cast but it almost seems as if they did their parts at different times, or very non-contiguous, and without any real passion or character creation. Redmayne, incandescent as always, leans a bit on the horror melodrama crutch. To be fair, the twist and ending of the film was radically changed 2 days before filming those scenes. And it shows. Plus, well, a very middling script to overcome.

But the worst thing about this film is that not only doesn't Sean Bean feel it as the leader of his merry band, it's not a convincing group. No real bond or relationships or anything you'd care about. Begs the question, "Why are you making a guy mission movie?" The ensemble are certainly very good actors, so all blame falls on the director.

The other downfall is the narration by one of the troupe, er, gang, at the beginning and the end, plus the needless exposition by several characters, particularly "The Red Woman" (same actress, same role as GOT, a few years later). The beauty of a twist is that it's a twist, and the viewer can think on it and talk about it. Again, the twist was changed from the original script right before shooting, to a much more obvious one. Perhaps they were already committed on film to that one in other acts, thus the choppiness and lack of identity (horror, Medieval action, fantasy, historical, heroic guy journey, romance?).