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When I first heard of this show I was intrigued. I've always been fascinated with the legend of Atlantis and being a sci-fi/ fantasy fan the marrying of the two got me excited. However having watched the first episode I'm left feeling rather underwhelmed. I must admit I came into this with some preconceptions but something about this show just didn't quite gel. Don't get me wrong it wasn't terrible but a lot of it either didn't work or was just unnecessary. The writing was average and I'm not convinced yet of the lead actors ability to carry a series. Certain parts of it got me worried as it immediately got me thinking about where the series would ultimately go and the place I imagine (if I'm correct) would be a total let down. Hopefully I'm wrong (all will become evident at the end of this review). Firstly I'm not entirely sure what the point of Jason coming from modern times was as, after he had arrived in Atlantis, it seemed immediately forgotten. There's taking things in your stride but after 5 minutes he acted like this was totally normal. As I said before it just didn't gel. Then there's throwing into the mix mythological Greek characters that have never before been connected with Atlantis. I mean, was it really necessary for Mark Addy to be Hercules as he shared none of the traits of the mythological hero (he could have just been a totally new character and it would have worked within the framework of the story)? What was the point of the Minotaur when any monster would have done? When I learned of the time travel aspect of the show I had hoped that the character of Jason would have been some kind of "fish out of water" genius, thrown back in time by unknown forces and using his intelligence to acclimate to this strange world whilst developing technologies that would eventually lead to Atlantis becoming the advanced pre-history civilisation legend says it was. I thought that would have been a nice twist to the story but hey ho. And I'm also guessing the Oracle turns out to be Jason's mother but I hope I'm wrong as that would be a pretty lame twist that most would see coming from a mile away. I'm going to stick with it as this was only the first episode and perhaps it needs some time to bed in. Perhaps the things I had hoped to see will appear further down the line and this episode simply did not set that up well. My prime concern however, based on the reactions (or lack thereof) of Jason and the mish mash of legends, is that it doesn't end up being some kind of Jacobs Ladder scenario where this is all happening in the mind of the main character in the sub. Only time will tell.
Edit added on 6th October 2013
Well, I've just watched episode two and it unfortunately wasn't an improvement. Ten minutes in and my attention began to wander and I started instead to read the news on my phone. It was only after twenty minutes that I realised I'd completely lost track of what was happening and I simply didn't care enough to rewind it back to find it. To me that's a show's death knell. Disinterest in anything is almost worse than outright hatred toward it (as to hate something means you at least have invested some kind of emotional attachment in it). I think my time with Atlantis is over. I gave it a fair shot but my series link has just been cancelled!!!
score 3/10
markjohnevans79 29 September 2013
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2877879/ |
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22-11-2019 08:34:09
