I've been on a binge-watching spree of the series and it's safe to say that despite all its flaws it certainly isn't a bad show - it has some reasonably high production value which gives it some much-needed flair, as otherwise it'd be too clichéd and boring to watch through. But this remains the biggest merit that exists in the show.
The camera is never not moving. I think that I found one shot in the entire of the first 2 episodes that remained stationary and it was less than half a second long. Even the shot-reverse-shots where characters talk are so shaky you could think that an earthquake is happening - it's worse than JJ Abrams with his lens flares.
And the acting gets worse and worse each episode. Episode 1 wasn't too bad, although the old man character Zed is completely wooden, which works when he's unconscious for a small period, but otherwise it looks bad. The main character Richard is at least well-acted, but the supporting cast lets him down entirely. Yet some of the characters don't have their priorities as straight as they probably should be - the token black character seems to believe that his daughter is more important than saving the world.
The fight sequences highlight most of the other problems. The special effects look horribly outdated even for 2008 and when you can see a green outline around the characters as they fight, not to mention fire not lighting up one of the character's faces, it's obvious that not much work was put into this.
And in all of the fight sequences there is unneccessary zooming and slow-motion in the vein of 300's famous battle scenes all of which accomplish nothing except to drag on the fight to excessively long periods of time. In fact I found myself getting bored at the end of the fight sequence in the second episode - then Zed makes a comment about being the mythical Seeker not having "an instruction manual".
Then I stopped watching the show, and waited until I calmed down, then watched it again.
Then I stopped watching the show again, because of a wanted poster with a photographic print of Richard on it.
Then I watched it again, and managed to keep watching it for one whole episode before the editing of one sequence made me so confused that I had to stop to understand what was going on. Instead of a normal sound bridge from one sequence to another where the evil villain is talking, the camera cuts mid-concersation and while the audio is still playing, it shows Richard, then cuts to a soldier who is in a completely different location, then to the female lead, then to Richard - all the while the villain is talking. It was confusing and didn't work.
But as I've said above the production value and design are very high-standard, with a sequence in a cave in the third episode really standing out with a well-constructed creepy atmosphere BUT STILL SHAKY CAMERA.
Legends of the Seeker is bad, but not awful. Looking past its flaws, I can enjoy it enough to watch on, but the bad writing, special effects and acting could easily deter some.
No comments:
Post a Comment