More than a thousand years before the events of "The Witcher," seven outcasts in an Elven world join forces in a quest against an all-powerful empire.More than a thousand years before the events of "The Witcher," seven outcasts in an Elven world join forces in a quest against an all-powerful empire.More than a thousand years before the events of "The Witcher," seven outcasts in an Elven world join forces in a quest against an all-powerful empire.
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Summary
Reviewers say 'The Witcher: Blood Origin' has mixed reviews. Acting, especially from Michelle Yeoh and Lenny Henry, and world-building are praised. Diverse casting and universe expansion are appreciated. Criticisms include deviations from source material, poor special effects, and rushed pacing. Fans are disappointed with changes to lore and characters. Plot predictability and clichéd dialogue are noted. Some find it enjoyable as a standalone fantasy adventure.
Featured reviews
My wife and I are ardent fans of The Witcher series. Sadly this prequel was not of the same caliber as the main series.
Firstly I should note that the actress who plays the dwarf character (Francesca Mills) was great. When she's in a scene everything works. The other actors felt mostly miscast -- in part since everyone looked different and has different accents. Nothing felt natural.
As for the story, I expect that I missed a lot since the writing was absent of the cleverness that I had come to expect; some ensembles just work, this one didn't.
We watched the 4 episodes in one sitting. At the end we were pleased that it was kept to only 4. At the end I was left with a mild headache and no interest in more. Easily forgetable. And as one reviewer noted, this series is very reminescent of the "Wheel of Time" series, similar feel and characters that felt miscast, yet even that series was better than this.
Firstly I should note that the actress who plays the dwarf character (Francesca Mills) was great. When she's in a scene everything works. The other actors felt mostly miscast -- in part since everyone looked different and has different accents. Nothing felt natural.
As for the story, I expect that I missed a lot since the writing was absent of the cleverness that I had come to expect; some ensembles just work, this one didn't.
We watched the 4 episodes in one sitting. At the end we were pleased that it was kept to only 4. At the end I was left with a mild headache and no interest in more. Easily forgetable. And as one reviewer noted, this series is very reminescent of the "Wheel of Time" series, similar feel and characters that felt miscast, yet even that series was better than this.
So we have the long awaited 6 part series - oh wait it was so bad Netflix already had to cut 2 episodes worth from it, so let's try that again, - the long awaited 4 part The Witcher "spin off / Prequel". Let's start by saying if they cut bad writing / acting / storytelling away to the tune of 2 episodes, and we are left with these 4 barely watchable episodes that in my opinion should have been cut down to 1 single !short! Movie (i am not sure i found 90 minutes worth of good enough scenes in the whole 4 episodes, so a cut down to somewhere around 65 mins would have been probably somewhat reasonable), So lets take a look at what we have besides bad acting, writing that would be cringe worthy in a high school production, and obviously in todays adaption is only "inspired" by the source material. The Casting choices were questionable in many cases and the miscasting might be what lead me to state that the acting was bad before , but to be honest i think it is a mix of both. If you loved the Witcher lore in the games and / or in the books, you will undoubtedly be disheartened by this sad attempt and if this is a sign of what's to come, it does not bode well for the main show once Cavill is gone.
Okay, so I believe Netflix believes that the programme will be successful merely by having a diverse cast and including mystical elements. Right? WRONG! Please, please, please, can we return to good story telling as the MAIN priority, regardless of where the cast is from.
What makes this the "Witcher"? Let the Witcher be the Witcher, which is, incidentally, doing fantastic on its own as it has been for many years now. I really don't understand. Why then alter it? Why not use a different name for this? So many questions. The casting is appalling. The dialogue is the same. Netflix doesn't realise that pairing these hot trash fast food shows with games like The Witcher just serves to hurt the franchise and achieves nothing for everyone involved, especially the performers. Michelle was great in the movie Everything, Everywhere, but how does she go from that to this?
The reason there have been so many remakes of popular shows in recent years-many of which, like this one, are incredibly underwhelming and perplexing for all the fans of the original series-is because this is not the golden age of television; rather, it is the age of television in which "we have the rights to do whatever we like".
As a lover of the Witcher I wasn't able to finish a simple episode of whatever this is, but then again, there's only four episodes anyway... literally what is the point? I'm guessing it was some sort of test or something, well you have your answer: we DO NOT want to see more of this. Thank you very much.
What makes this the "Witcher"? Let the Witcher be the Witcher, which is, incidentally, doing fantastic on its own as it has been for many years now. I really don't understand. Why then alter it? Why not use a different name for this? So many questions. The casting is appalling. The dialogue is the same. Netflix doesn't realise that pairing these hot trash fast food shows with games like The Witcher just serves to hurt the franchise and achieves nothing for everyone involved, especially the performers. Michelle was great in the movie Everything, Everywhere, but how does she go from that to this?
The reason there have been so many remakes of popular shows in recent years-many of which, like this one, are incredibly underwhelming and perplexing for all the fans of the original series-is because this is not the golden age of television; rather, it is the age of television in which "we have the rights to do whatever we like".
As a lover of the Witcher I wasn't able to finish a simple episode of whatever this is, but then again, there's only four episodes anyway... literally what is the point? I'm guessing it was some sort of test or something, well you have your answer: we DO NOT want to see more of this. Thank you very much.
It's like the writers were on acid. The story jumps all the time and this series isn't watchable. Netflix doesn't care about quality it's just quantity. I was looking forward to this series and really like "The Witcher" series. But this was just a mess. Still the actors did a good job and this was just a failure by the director who has to have big problems if this is the end results of a big budget series.
It's not hard to get why Henry Cavill won't be coming back as Geralt. The producers totally destroy the entire series with storytelling like this.
It's time for this series to end and if Henry will be replaced by someone else because of he likes the series to stay to the original storyline. Then it's time to stop this show.
It's not hard to get why Henry Cavill won't be coming back as Geralt. The producers totally destroy the entire series with storytelling like this.
It's time for this series to end and if Henry will be replaced by someone else because of he likes the series to stay to the original storyline. Then it's time to stop this show.
Honestly, there's very, very little to like her. The plot is paperthin, so are the characters. The dialogue is horrible, things happen randomly without explanation and build up making basically everything it tries fall flat. All these backstories of the characters are laid out but nothing feels distinct or unique because there's a huge overlap in their backgrounds. There's also far too little time to even get to know and care for these characters. Even with 4 episodes it feels drawn out in the parts that don't matter and too rushed in parts that do matter. This all is not even mentioning the fact it's tied to The Witcher brand, in which case they've thrown out the little bit of information they could've used for these events, it's all horribly inconsistent with what's already established for no apparent reason other than to be different.
On a positive note, ignoring how well it fits The Witcher, the cinematography looks decent, the action is snappy and Meldorf is kinda funny.
It just baffles me how this show even came to release knowing it had to pass multiple sets of eyes for approval at several stages in it's development.
On a positive note, ignoring how well it fits The Witcher, the cinematography looks decent, the action is snappy and Meldorf is kinda funny.
It just baffles me how this show even came to release knowing it had to pass multiple sets of eyes for approval at several stages in it's development.
Did you know
- TriviaThe first teaser trailer for this series aired at the end of Season 2 Episode 8 of The Witcher (2021).
- How many seasons does The Witcher: Blood Origin have?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- The Witcher: Blood Origin
- Filming locations
- Iceland(on location)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime50 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 16:9 HD
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