I gave it a try, 3 whole episodes.
And that’s it, I can’t watch it anymore.
I know, I made the mistake of reading the book and watch the old mini-series years ago, so I have a frame of comparison and that is “unfair.” Then again, the producers, director and actors could have used that same reference and deliver an equal or better experience. But they failed to do that.
Lots of CGI, probably to avoid costs but if you compare scenes and overall production from 40 years ago to the modern stuff, it is like comparing a Rembrandt painting with a fill-by-the-numbers from a 6-year-old. Acting is subpar going from the emotional expression of drywall to monumental resting bitch faces to Tom and Jerry over-the-top.
The script is “based” on the book, but probably in an effort to be “different”, they added and subtracted stuff that ends up creating some deep narrative holes.
If you are like me and watched the old miniseries and/or read the book, avoid yourself the disappointment and waste of time. If you haven’t, you may want to give it a try.
I watched the series _and_ read the book.
I actually bought records that were supposed to let me learn Japanese so that I could understand the dialogue that wasn’t translated. (Failure there.)
No Richard Chamberlain—not watching. 😉
On the dialog that was not translated: that was a deliberate choice of the movie makers, the idea was to show us (at least the majority who don’t know Japanese) what it was like for Westerners to try to deal with being there. You might disagree with that choice — apparently the makers of the new version did — but it wasn’t an oversight.
How many African and Native American characters did they work into the story for the sake of “diversity”?
Watched the 1980 version. have not read the book, Liked new one so far. Understand about cgi , cant stand that everything is so dark all the time. These people need to get outside and see the world on a sunny day once in a while.