I never played the games myself, I did not read the books, I only saw the old Polish TV-series/Movie. So far, judging only by the trailer, I'm not really convinced with this, because it didn't show me any stakes, it didn't inform me about the plot and I still don't know what's going on. I have no idea if this will be a simple story of a magical hero and his adventures or a politically complicated fantasy, like Game of Thrones, which they tried to emulate here, I guess but not efficiently.
It certainly looks better than the Polish series, with all the money at their disposal, but I don't feel the slavic atmosphere here and Żebrowski looked better as Geralt to me. Should the Witcher be such a mountain of muscle? I think Cavill overdid it ... or is there a precedent for it in the book?
It seems to lack color in general though, not just with Triss. I mean, the games were usually pretty vibrant, but even while reading the TLW I mostly imagined landscapes exactly like White Orchard or Velen, not this world of gloom and doom.
It also concerns me that it merely "starts" with The Last Wish, while I think TLW deserves its own 6-8 episode season. The hook and beauty of this franchise has always been how small scale stuff speaks volumes about that universe, but in a way that works more towards tone-building than world-building. Tell me if you've played and enjoyed Wild Hunt for the doomsday plot or for the myriad of minor, more personal stories that pose a dilemma between faith in humanity (or monsters even) and selfish cynicism, with Geralt being the stoic pillar at the middle of it. This trailer gives you none of that and instead confuses you with promises of high-er fantasy action. This is like showing white walker army and grown dragons in GOTS1.
Like, the CGI trailers for the games have always been great at perfectly summing up who Geralt is and what he does and with only that - also what kind of world he lives in as well. Think the "killing monsters" trailer for Wild Hunt, or even the very first one.
A teaser trailer for a "The Witcher" show truly needed nothing but just Geralt in it so I don't know what this is.
This may probably end up being another Hobbit situation, with the whole thing having to be both expanded and compressed at the same time in ways it shouldn't be, making it poorly structured in the end, only this time its confusing 3 mediums instead of 2 and mixing their audiences as well.
And why does he look like he can beat up The Hulk?
I read on Reddit that her hair was described as "golden", but that is incorrect. Her hair is initially described as "chestnut" and is later referred to as "red" or "ginger" in Lady of the Lake by Yennefer, apparently. So while that original description makes the show's depiction nore acceptable, I would still prefer she have red hair, but I am admittedly not the most informed on the matter. My experience with the series is the latter two mainline games. I have not read the books.
It also concerns me that it merely "starts" with The Last Wish, while I think TLW deserves its own 6-8 episode season. The hook and beauty of this franchise has always been how small scale stuff speaks volumes about that universe, but in a way that works more towards tone-building than world-building. Tell me if you've played and enjoyed Wild Hunt for the doomsday plot or for the myriad of minor, more personal stories that pose a dilemma between faith in humanity (or monsters even) and selfish cynicism, with Geralt being the stoic pillar at the middle of it. This trailer gives you none of that and instead confuses you with promises of high-er fantasy action. This is like showing white walker army and grown dragons in GOTS1.
I've played Assassins of Kings and Wild Hunt. Wild Hunt's singular stories are more enjoyable than its main plotline but Assassins of Kings' central story is extremely strong comparatively and stands out from its side stories. Wild Hunt's story doesn't fail because of the inherent nature of the "doomsday" plot but because of its own horrible writing. The story starts out strong with Emhyr but quickly becomes farcical, only serving in padding the runtime.
Geralt has to hunt for Ciri for an extremely tedious, needlessly long amount of time—nearly two thirds of the story. The tasks faced in those two thirds are only tangentially related to actually finding her. Then he has to deal with a bunch of moronic dwarf-stowaways whose comedy ruins the drama of finally reuniting with Ciri. Absolute tonal atrocity. You have the subplot with the horrible character of "UMA". (Get it? Ugliest Man Alive? Hahaha, so clever and witty, hahaha. Good one, CDPR.) There's a shitload of predictable turns including the backstabbing Elf and Vesemir's obvious-as-Hell death. Eredin receives no development and is actually less intimidating than Imlerith, hallmarked by the terrible practice of never giving the main villain any direct interaction with the protagonist or dialogue to speak of, directly contrasting with Letho. You even have drama with the "Mysterious Elf", or "UMA", that leads nowhere as though CDPR ran out of time to finish it. Ciri, of course, predictably has to sacrifice herself unless you've made enough arbitrary choices that are deemed positive or kind. King Radovid's turn to madness is totally over the top, as is Nilfgaard's all too rapid conquest of the Northern Realms. Even the way that Yennefer is handled feels at odds with how much Geralt supposedly loves her, she's haughty and conceited throughout. The story is mainly a string of set pieces, MacGuffins, and contrived plot devices that broadly follow their desired direction while allowing the game to be a hundred hours. The actual story takes a backseat. The genre of story is not the problem.
I did enjoy the game, by the way. It's good, but it's not the masterpiece many claim it is and the story is absolutely a disappointment after Assassins of Kings.
Last edited by Geoffrey on July 20th, 2019, 8:02 am, edited 4 times in total.
I read on Reddit that her hair was described as "golden", but that is incorrect. Her hair is initially described as "chestnut" and is later referred to as "red" or "ginger" in Lady of the Lake by Yennefer, apparently. So while that original description makes the show's depiction nore acceptable, I would still prefer she have red hair, but I am admittedly not the most informed on the matter. My experience with the series is the latter two mainline games. I have not read the books.
It also concerns me that it merely "starts" with The Last Wish, while I think TLW deserves its own 6-8 episode season. The hook and beauty of this franchise has always been how small scale stuff speaks volumes about that universe, but in a way that works more towards tone-building than world-building. Tell me if you've played and enjoyed Wild Hunt for the doomsday plot or for the myriad of minor, more personal stories that pose a dilemma between faith in humanity (or monsters even) and selfish cynicism, with Geralt being the stoic pillar at the middle of it. This trailer gives you none of that and instead confuses you with promises of high-er fantasy action. This is like showing white walker army and grown dragons in GOTS1.
I've played Assassins of Kings and Wild Hunt. Wild Hunt's singular stories are more enjoyable than its main plotline but Assassins of Kings' central story is extremely strong comparatively and stands out from its side stories. Wild Hunt's story doesn't fail because of the inherent nature of the "doomsday" plot but because of its own horrible writing. The story starts out strong with Emhyr but quickly becomes farcical, only serving in padding the runtime.
Geralt has to hunt for Ciri for an extremely tedious, needlessly long amount of time—nearly two thirds of the story. The tasks faced in those two thirds are only tangentially related to actually finding her. Then he has to deal with a bunch of moronic dwarf-stowaways whose comedy ruins the drama of finally reuniting with Ciri. Absolute tonal atrocity. You have the subplot with the horrible character of "UMA". (Get it? Ugliest Man Alive? Hahaha, so clever and witty, hahaha. Good one, CDPR.) There's a shitload of predictable turns including the backstabbing Elf and Vesemir's obvious-as-Hell death. Eredin receives no development and is actually less intimidating than Imlerith, hallmarked by the terrible practice of never giving the main villain any direct interaction with the protagonist or dialogue to speak of, directly contrasting with Letho. You even have drama with the "Mysterious Elf", or "UMA", that leads nowhere as though CDPR ran out of time to finish it. Ciri, of course, predictably has to sacrifice herself unless you've made enough arbitrary choices that are deemed positive or kind. King Radovid's turn to madness is totally over the top, as is Nilfgaard's all too rapid conquest of the Northern Realms. Even the way that Yennefer is handled feels at odds with how much Geralt supposedly loves her, she's haughty and conceited throughout. The story is mainly a string of set pieces, MacGuffins, and contrived plot devices that broadly follow their desired direction while allowing the game to be a hundred hours. The actual story takes a backseat. The genre of story is not the problem.
I did enjoy the game, by the way. It's good, but it's not the masterpiece many claim it is and the story is absolutely a disappointment after Assassins of Kings.
The broad outlines of base WH story are much inferior compared to those in the dlcs for example but individually the quests and characters in it are unrivaled. I did miss the politics of AoK tho
Immersion instantly broken when Mr. Cavill walked on; it's impossible for me to see him as anything but himself cosplaying in a wig...I really wish I could.
Also, generic lines (one about chaos that doesn't even make grammatical/logical sense), and a generic tagline.
Will still give it a try, of course, because it appears to be a water-cooler, high-budget fantasy show and we don't get many of that.
Almost 10 million views in just one day on Netflix channel alone. In comparison, His Dark Materials is 2.3 in two days for HBO. This will be huge for Netflix.
