From the very announcement of the series “The witcher”From Netflix There was a lot of discussion about how they will adapt the Sapkowski universe in the USA with their modern social agenda. Fortunately, show runners were able to implement this trick as painlessly as possible for an overly vulnerable gaming audience. Of course, the scriptwriters too literally understood role slang, offering you rare dark sorceresses, dark knights and dark elves, but this color does not affect the perception of the plot. What difference does it make if the basic cast matches the canons?
The authors quite accurately manage the Sapkowski legacy, combining and slightly reducing individual books, but adhering to the basic plot. Of course, you can find a few minor discrepancies and a sticking bump of an important character suddenly drank from the story, but even to fans it is not very evident, not to mention 90% of the audience that played only in “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt“
Here it is worth mentioning that in the original source the spirit of fairy tales from Eastern Europe was also not shown as much as someone might have imagined. Slavic flavor was present largely due to the Polish language and specific words that added the necessary ethnic flavor to Sapkowski’s stories. It was also well preserved with proper adaptation of books and games to the Russian language. Here the script was originally written in English and the translation into Russian seems much more neutral compared to books and games. Although the scriptwriters tried to keep the names of the monsters and the same werewolf is called a “wolkolak” even in the English version, just as kikimora remained kikimora.
“The witcher”From Netflix there is something to please, and especially sophisticated connoisseurs of combat choreography. Almost from the first shots we are shown how good Henry Cavill prepared for the role and learned to wield a sword, and at the end of the debut series “muscles” the director also played Alik Sakharov. A magnificent scene with a cool battle choreography was made without mounting glues and resembles one of the screensavers in the third “The witcher” This fragment settles in the head and I want to review it many times in a row. It is worth noting that the main character performed by Cavill moves, as described in books and has been shown in games, which will undoubtedly please fans of the original source.
There are enough fights in the series and they all demonstrate a decent level of skill for directors and stuntmen. True, the degree of violence is greatly underestimated – they pierce the breasts of the enemies or cut off their heads, and the blood only sprinkles a couple of modest drops. A lot of cruelty remains behind the scenes.
But on the other hand, the scriptwriters successfully implement the idea of gray morality, fashionable in the modern world, demonstrating difficult choices that can lead to the most unexpected consequences.
The history of Geralt is based on the first stories of Mr. Sapkowski, which at first were practically unrelated to each other. It all starts with the situation in Blaviken, then the White Wolf meets the bard Lyutik and only in the third series does Triss Merigold appear.
In addition, in parallel and independently from each other, there are storylines dedicated to Ciri and Yennifer. Watching what is happening is very interesting, even if you know the plot of books. At the same time, Yennifer is quite tolerant, but Triss does not meet aesthetic expectations. But despite the fact that some decisions in the casting at first seem unsuccessful, you can quickly get used to the appearance of the characters, especially Ciri, whose role was very well played by Freya Allan, reminiscent of something of the Scandinavian singer Aurora.
As for the visual part, contrary to fears, the white wig of Cavill and the criticized armor of the nilfgards in the frame look adequate. The only thing worth noting is that the lenses on the eyes of some heroes sometimes look unnatural, like some of the scenery in the first episodes that were made using computer graphics.
The rest of the picture is pleasing to the eye, especially when showing atmospheric landscapes and naked girls. Scenes with nudity are present here in full, but with small bills. In a few points, the authors are trying to clone “Game of Thrones”That looks weird.
An important aspect for such a series is music. Obviously composers Sonya Belousova and Giona Austinelli tried to borrow interesting ideas from Marcin Pshibylovich – author of the soundtrack “The witcher 3” In some places it even seems that the title melody from the hit from CD Projekt REDbut this, of course, does not happen. Sonia and Giona decided to focus on the classic Hollywood sound performed by the chamber orchestra and only use folk instruments in a fragmented way, while maintaining the similarity of harmonies with the game. Music well emphasizes what is happening on the screen – the soundtrack turned out to be of high quality. But for those who love tunes from “The witcher 3”, The sound here will seem a little secondary.
“The witcher”From Netflix – A beautiful series with magnificent battle scenes, an interesting story and a decent game of actors. Contrary to fears, Henry Cavill perfectly coped with the role of Geralt and very accurately conveyed the character of the White Wolf. Keeping track of the fate of other characters is also very interesting. The authors observe the necessary conventions for a comfortable existence in the Western market, such as black characters, but otherwise they tried to follow the spirit of the source and sometimes carefully refer to games CD Projekt RED. And it’s not so bad.
8 out of 10
The authors: Azzy, XTRediting: ACE, Skyerist
Read also: Guide to anime 2023. What to watch in the winter season – part 1.
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