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Archive for David Benioff

Game of Thrones Season 4 Preview

Feb11

HBO has released this 15 minute preview/behind-the-scenes for Game of Thrones season 4.

Despite having passed the seminal Red Wedding, I have to say Season 4 looks pretty damn awesome. They look to be making the most of the second half of A Storm of Swords (and perhaps some of A Feast of Crows). Increases in technology and budget (perhaps due to the success) make it look the scope is even grander. Joff’s wedding, some of Dany’s city shots, and the battle for the wall all ought to be epic. From the looks of it, the wedding will come off fabulously. But those big battles have long been a weakness of both the book and show, particularly in that they’ve just “finessed” several to save money (and GOT isn’t the only big show to do that — the mist and sword clanking in ROME comes to mind). Still, I think the battle at the wall because of its smaller number of forces and more confined battlefield has some real potential to work on the small screen.

Truth is, large scale battle barely works on the big screen. Alexander (besides being a generally sucky movie — even if the conqueror is one of my favorite historical figures) was about as good as it gets of full scale infantry battles.

Regardless, less than two months to go!

And this second Season 4 Trailer was released 2/16!

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

Jack-Gleeson-as-Joffrey-Baratheon_photo-Macall-B.-Polay_HBO

We all love to hate the king!

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Season 2 Episode 1 Clips
  2. Game of Thrones – Season 2 CGI
  3. Game of Thrones Season 4 Trailer
  4. Game of Thrones – Season 3 Goodies
  5. Game of Thrones – Season 2 – First Look
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: A foreshadowing, David Benioff, Game of Thrones, HBO, List of A Song of Ice and Fire characters, Oberyn, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Game of Thrones – Episode 1

Apr02

Title: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 1 – March 31, 2011

Status: First Season coming to HBO April 17

Summary: Amazing!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

I had the privilege to get an advance screening three weeks before the premier of the first episode of the new HBO miniseries Game of Thrones. For those of you living in a hole, it’s based on the stunning (and huge) series of novels by George R. R. Martin called the Song of Ice and Fire. The TV series is named after the first volume, Game of Thrones, and the first season covers the first novel. Currently there are four books to the series, with a fifth due this July.

These are arguably my favorite fantasy books (read them all twice) and fantasy is my favorite genre. I’m not reviewing the books specifically here, but it is worth noting that they are stupendously good. Political, dark, complex, and full of very human characters. While this is fantasy, set in a sort of medieval-England-like kingdom, the fantasy is light. There are no armies of trolls and orcs. Just good old fashioned human sex and violence and a touch of the magical.

Which makes it perfect for HBO, and if the first episode is any indication they have done a stupendous job of adaption. I was blown away. I wanted to like it. I love HBO dramas so I hoped I would. But I’m critical by nature, so I was thrilled to find it exceed my expectations on all accounts.

This is a very faithful adaption of fantastic source material, but the series also plays to television’s strengths. The production is lavish, landscapes, sets, costumes, food, everything looked tremendous. And sounded tremendous. I saw a 35 mm print on the big screen with a serious sound system. After the titles alone (gorgeous) and the pitch perfect music I had goosebumps.

The casting/acting is also fantastic, and combined with the great writing is going to make this ambitious show work. These books have a lot of characters, and very well written ones. There is no big Sauron-type villan, there are only conflicted people. The Lannister brothers are awesome. My favorite character is Tyrion, the  Imp, brilliant, sharp-tongued youngest son of the land’s richest (and meanest) Lord. This is a tough role, and made even more difficult by the inherently limited roster of actors short enough to play it. Peter Dinklage is off to a tremendous start, stealing every scene he’s in. Awesome, and cudos Peter! Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is also superb as his taller and prettier older brother Jaime. Both are complex characters, and it’s good to see them nailed out of the gate. The Stark daughters and Jon Snow were also great, plus Sean Bean dominates with all the powerful gravitas that Ned Stark deserves. Emilia Clarke is gorgeous and appropriately vulnerable as Daenerys Stormborn — I’ll be interested to see if she can handle the character changes in store for her. Some seriously good casting across the board.

The writing is also great. This episode pounds through a LOT of material. A lot of introductions, and a good amount of setup and action, and it does it without feeling rushed. I’ll be curious to see how viewers who have not read the books cope with the staggering array of characters. It seemed to me that D.B. Weiss and David Benioff (they had the writing credits) did an incredible job unfolding the parallel threads of the book’s many viewpoints into one seamless narrative. They’ve linearized the story a bit, which actually makes it clearer. I hope that newbies give these characters a chance to unfold because as startling and brilliant as the first novel/season is, it’s really with books two and three that things really get crazy.

The atmosphere was perfect too. Detailed and moody. Filmed mostly in Ireland and Malta (across the narrow sea) it feels authentically “celtic.” And there is the now HBO standard hefty dose of nudity. We’ll also see what the producers make of some of the books’ more sordid moments — which are one of the things that make them such a dark pleasure to read. Now the only problem is that I have to wait a couple weeks for the second episode!

Congrats HBO and George R. on such an awesome job. Now just make sure to green-light the next 6 or so seasons!

Click here for some trailers for and about the series.

Or my review of A Dance With Dragons.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

Related posts:

  1. Inside Game of Thrones
  2. Game of Thrones – The Houses
By: agavin
Comments (15)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: D.B. Weiss, David Benioff, Emilia Clarke, episode, episode 1, episode 1 review, Episode Review, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Peter Dinklage, Song of Ice and Fire, Television, Television Review
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