More phony history and bad acting

NanoFrog

Right off the bat, the screen fills with gratuitous, slow-motion, detailed violence. Right off the bat the clothing is wrong, the sets are wrong, the weapons are wrong and the acting is very British. This series comes across as a lower budget Zena knock-off. Yet it pretends to be about actual history. Featuring a cast of mixed accents, mixed bloodlines and short all the way around on talent, we are watching yet another cartoon posturing as historical drama. Though I love historical drama, this one not so much. I can't imagine where the idea for this series originated. Is it meant to imitate Marvel Comics, producing a more greasy version of pre-historic super heroes? Is it hoping to be a "Game Of Thrones" companion? If so, it does not have the cast, direction, photography or writing of that great show. The principal actors, such as the laughable "King Saul" are just so out of place, it is easy to imagine everyone involved in this series was drunk on cheap wine once the filming started. I clenched my teeth and watched until the end. When it was over there was not a single scene that stayed in my memory. I predict this "new" series will not finish its first season. Why film and TV studios want o create and film fantasies and play acting and pretend they are somehow based upon real history is the mystery behind this series. The only element in the filming they craft carefully is the fighting; and that is to make it bloody, detailed and in slow motion. I would have liked to enjoy this series. I was prepared to like it but in the end there is nothing here. I found not a single actor who stood out or even seemed to know their lines very well. The most depressing aspect is the costumes; laughable at best and really just terrible if you have any eye for detail. Once again the actual, beautiful and powerful and fascinating history of the ancient world is made into a cheap comic episode, presented by the same writers and film-makers that have brought you 100 equally terrible and flawed "historical" dramas in years past.

score 1/10

NanoFrog 9 March 2016

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3428788/