Monday, December 6, 2010
A 10+ minute preview and featurette on HBO's Game of Thrones...
This is a great featurette of HBO's upcoming show, Game of Thrones. I've already raved about this show here. But the above clip put together by HBO is a great, in-depth preview of the show. It contains footage, back-story, character introductions, actor interviews, producers interviews, and also a look at the set and art design for the show. But most importantly, you get to see several clips from scenes and you get to see what the show looks like.
I'd advise you to please take a look at this clip if you have liked shows like Sopranos, Rome, Deadwood, The Wire, and Boardwalk Empire, or movies like The Godfather, Gladiator, or Lord of the Rings. Also, it is a great primer for those who haven't read the books and aren't too familiar with what this is all about.
Enjoy.
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Looks good, looks real good. Can't wait to see how HBO handles this material, but my expectations will be high. Some initial thoughts on the video:
ReplyDeleteThe Good:
- The scenes with the Nights Watch and north of the wall look fantastic. Love this set. The eerie looking winter snow contrasting with the black of the Watch was great imagery. Was hoping for a shot of the wall itself, but I guess they can't spoil that for the show.
- Sean Bean as Ned Stark is on point. He is going to deliver strong. The brief glimpses of the Stark kids all looked right as well. Jon Snow will be strong, wanted to see Robb. Jury is still out on Catelyn.
- I was on record as being skeptical of the Robert Baratheon casting, but I liked what I saw here.
- I knew Daenerys Targaryen was going to be real hard to cast/portray, but that looked strong. Not how I pictured Viserys or Drogo though.
The Bad:
- Jaime Lannister didn't seem right. Cersei okay, but not quite right either.
- Didn't like the scene they showed with Littlefinger and Ned. Didn't seem to be enough subdtely from Littlefinger. Also, I kept thinking "that's Carcetti" from The Wire.
Oh well, that was just a short sample, and we need the whole thing to be fair. I trust HBO, and I think this will be great. If anything, it will be worth watching just for the Nights Watch scenes, man those looked cool.
Oh, and if you haven't read the books yet. Do it. At least read Game of Thrones before this airs in April.
I agree about the Nights Watch, the look and feel of the scenes in the North is dark and cold. That is good.
ReplyDeleteAgree on Ned and all the kids. The guy playing Snow looks brooding, which is perfect (same for Ned).
Apparently the guy playing Robert knocked his audition out of the part. From what I can tell, that is true. I did not think, at first, he was physically imposing enough. But these guys want actors ahead of folks who look the part, especially for roles that require good acting (for instance, with Gregor and Hodor you probably put physicality as a priority). And I think the most important thing with Robert is that he look tired, defeated, and out of shape, and he needs the voice. Check.
Same for Catelyn. She may not look like the beauty were we expecting from the books. But remember that Cat makes a transformation later. And a good actress needs to play her. I think that was what they good with this lady.
The gal playing Dany is hot. She will be good. Actually, I disagree with you on Drogo. He looks very much like I envisioned him. I think the Viserys actor may not be as attractive as depicted in the books, but he looks the was Viserys behaves. So, I like it.
As for you not liking Jaime. I disagree again. I think he's perfect. I think it was hard to find an actor who had the Jaime hair. I just don't think there are many guys out there who fit the entire physical description, much less can pull off the acting required for Jaime's arc. And to do wigs and stuff like that would probably be too obvious (see Cersai). But he looks like Jaime to me, from what I envisioned in the books. Even if he isn't quite as blond (he's still blonde) or doesn't have the long locks. And he's tall, which is important. Alexander Skarsgaard is the only person out there that I think looks more the part, and he's on another successful HBO show.
As for Cersai, I agree with you. Not quite right. Her hair and the wigs is a bit too obvious. Maybe not vixen enough either. But the more I see, the better I feel about it. The clip I see of her talking to Ned looks great. I think she'll be okay in the end.
I actually liked the brief scene we saw with Littlefinger. I guess you have to put it in context. You can't be as subtle on TV, because you don't get all the point-of-view detail you can get from a book. I think there will have to be less subtlety so the audience will "get it."
Other things I liked:
- I think Tyrion will be good. Dinklage is a solid actor, and this was another one hard to find an actor for. I've never been impressed with Dinklage's British accent, as he's American (see Narnia II). But if he can pull that together, he should be solid.
- What little we've seen from some of the supporting characters looks spot on: The Hound, Gregor, Jory, Benjen, Mormont, etc.
Some things I didn't like:
- The King's Landing stuff is a little too bright for me. Not quite dark enough. Too much Eastern influence as well. Some of the armor of the King's men looks very Samurai-ish. Not a fan of that. Kings Landing looks more like something "across the sea" to me, which I don't like. (And I don't like that they've apparently changed the Jaime/Ned altercation to middle of a sunny day instead of a dark, stormy night.)
- I think Joffrey looks too young. He needs to be a little older for the Sansa they've cast, IMO. And he needs to have longer hair. His was a character they could have fudged on acting, IMO, to get the right look. They didn't.
After having a second look, the footage and shots from the North are of excellent quality. It has the same feel and atmosphere of the Ridley Scott shots of northern territories in Kingdom of Heaven and Gladiator, and has more of a "movie" quality as opposed to a "TV" quality.
ReplyDeleteThough the southern shots (I imagine most are from Malta and/or Morocco) are a little too bright and "eastern" for me at times, they at least appear to be of a much better quality than ANY of the low budget shooting in The Tudors or The Borgias (trailer debuted yesterday).