Just watched an episode of Sparticus: Gods of the Arena

[CurseTheSky]

I'm disappointed. It wasn't horrible, but the gore and nudity / sexual content seem like their primary focus. The story line could have been told in 15 minutes' time.

Do we really need to zoom in and give a nice, bloody slow-motion account of the damage to someone's insides every a neck gets slashed? It was cool the first time, but if you do it EVERY SINGLE TIME, it becomes gimmicky and draws out a ~45 second battle to 5 minutes because of all the slow motion bodily injury recaps. On the other hand, having the camera zoom past a line of (female) naked slaves was initially intriguing, as they seemed to be giving a "yeah, there'll be naked people, get over it" statement... until they zoomed back onto the same said slaves 30 seconds later to let all of the 16 year olds watching late night TV oggle for a while. Then they proceeded to have some kind of nude or sex scene every 5-10 minutes for the remainder of the episode.

The ~50 minute episode could be pretty much summed up with:
Gore
Story piece
Nude scene!
More gore
Sex scene!
Some more story
A bit of boring talking
More talk, suggesting of nude / sex scenes to come late
Gore, and more gore!
Sex and miscellaneous nudity
Story, more talking
Gore and sex at the same time
Story and talking
PLOT TWIST!!!
Sex
Sore and gex
End.

C'mon guys, if I want to watch porn, I'll go watch porn. I want to see some OTHER good entertainment. I'm not complaining about nudity, sex, or gore in general, but if that's all they're going to fill the series with it's not going to be worth watching in my opinion. Perhaps it was just this first episode that was way overdone to try to lure more people in, I don't know.

I haven't seen Sparticus: Blood and Sand yet. Maybe I should start with that first and see if it's the same way.

 

[ultimatebob]

Spartacus: Blood and Sand was pretty much the same way, except with slightly better acting and a bit more plot to follow. The first episode wasn't all that great, but it starts getting good around episode three.

Of course, that's what made it fun to watch. It's like they took HBO's Rome, and cranked up the gratuitous sex and violence knobs to 11 and got them stuck there

 

[CurseTheSky]

Spartacus: Blood and Sand was pretty much the same way, except with slightly better acting and a bit more plot to follow. The first episode wasn't all that great, but it starts getting good around episode three.

Of course, that's what made it fun to watch. It's like they took HBO's Rome, and cranked up the gratuitous sex and violence knobs to 11 and got them stuck there

Heh. If it's at least entertaining, I don't mind. I just hate when producers / directors KNOW that a movie is going to be really bad, so they just throw in a ton of sex and / or blood to try to appeal to someone on some level. "Hey guys, our movie is going to suck, but if we throw in a few randomly-placed nude scenes for no particular reason, word will eventually get out and the not-yet-18-year-olds will convince their parents to buy it for them, netting us some decent sales!" My fiancée tends to like random horror movies, the kind you can find for $5-10 at Walmart that no one has heard of. I generally look at the cover, read the summary on the back, and take a guess as to how long it'll be before someone gets naked. More often than not, I'm spot on.

What I watched seemed like fairly decent budget stuff, just way overdone with the aforementioned crutches.

 

[0roo0roo]

I haven't seen Sparticus: Blood and Sand yet. Maybe I should start with that first and see if it's the same way.

wat?

you watch that first.

though the first episode of that is also kinda beta, it gets much better after that.

 

[0roo0roo]

the first spartacus has cancer.
surprisingly he was an engineer, like the buffest engineer ever lol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Whitfield
"In March 2010, Whitfield was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, beginning treatment immediately in New Zealand.[8] This delayed production of season two of Spartacus: Blood and Sand.[8]

In June 2010 it was announced that Whitfield completely finished his treatment, had a clean bill of health and was expected to be back on the set of Spartacus: Blood and Sand by October.[9] Three months later, in September, it was announced that Whitfield's cancer has returned and he would not be returning for the second season of Spartacus.[10]"

 

[CurseTheSky]

I just watched the first episode of Blood and Sand... MUCH better overall. Still plenty of sex and gore, though it wasn't the entire point of the episode. I'll be eager to watch the rest of the season.

Too bad to hear about Whitfield. He seems like all around a good guy. Check this out, and especially the Behind the Scenes (in the video description) for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKogQf9ooR8

 

[Farang]

The first season was the same way. I remember I almost quit watching in the beginning when they are braving a night snow storm in nothing but speedos and capes. It is a really corny series. But something drew me in and I kept watching, and I ended up really enjoying it.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Yeah I was the same way, the first couple episodes of Blood and Sand I was meh about it, but by the end of the season I couldn't wait to watch it. This season is only 6 eps, so I hope they figure out a way to ramp up the story fast.

 

[Kelvrick]

I liken it to a live-action roman-timed Dragonball Z. With nudity and gore.


Yeeaaahahhhh!!!!

 

[0roo0roo]

I just watched the first episode of Blood and Sand... MUCH better overall. Still plenty of sex and gore, though it wasn't the entire point of the episode. I'll be eager to watch the rest of the season.

Too bad to hear about Whitfield. He seems like all around a good guy. Check this out, and especially the Behind the Scenes (in the video description) for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKogQf9ooR8

lol
that surpassed expectations

lol aimbot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYGlWjIKoY4&feature=related

 

[chusteczka]

Thank you for informing on the new series. I watched the first series, Blood and Sand, and enjoyed it. The first episode of this new series was also enjoyable.

One thing that has always bothered me about the gladiator period was the enjoyment the people (supposedly) received from watching such gory battles to the death. I do not enjoy this aspect so much and note this oversatiated behavior as one of the reasons for Rome's downfall.

It is uncomfortable for me to watch the excessive blood from the battles and it makes me wonder about our own society. If we are becoming oversatiated in sex and blood, and if we are similarly in the final stages of our society.

 

[cKGunslinger]

B & S was pretty awesome after the first few episodes. I'll try to catch this new series. Here hoping that Whitfield gets better soon. :thumbsup:

 

[vi edit]

Yeah, season one was a major turnoff for me through the first couple episodes. Waaaaay too overstylized action. Then they finally found their groove around ep 3 or 4 and it really picked up. Acting and production value was nothing like HBO's Rome...but it was a more fun series to just zone away for 50 minutes an episode to.

Hopefully season 2 gains a little traction by the same time as season one and then firmly has you in it's grasp.

 

[Lumathix]

the first spartacus has cancer.
surprisingly he was an engineer, like the buffest engineer ever lol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Whitfield
"In March 2010, Whitfield was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, beginning treatment immediately in New Zealand.[8] This delayed production of season two of Spartacus: Blood and Sand.[8]

In June 2010 it was announced that Whitfield completely finished his treatment, had a clean bill of health and was expected to be back on the set of Spartacus: Blood and Sand by October.[9] Three months later, in September, it was announced that Whitfield's cancer has returned and he would not be returning for the second season of Spartacus.[10]"

Damn, that's sad

 

[boomhower]

Forgot this had come out. I like B & S, going to have to go find this one.

 

[zinfamous]

yeah, just noticed this the other night and watched the first episode.

the main series was 85% shit anyway, so I was not surprised that this was equal in shit.

 

[zinfamous]

I just watched the first episode of Blood and Sand... MUCH better overall. Still plenty of sex and gore, though it wasn't the entire point of the episode. I'll be eager to watch the rest of the season.

Too bad to hear about Whitfield. He seems like all around a good guy. Check this out, and especially the Behind the Scenes (in the video description) for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKogQf9ooR8

to expand on my post, the first season is exactly like your description of the 2 episode mini series. It's skin and murder porn through and through....but with more cocks.

the episode where he is in the Pit is particularly vile. Honestly, things like this could be done well, and equally as brutal with much less gore. I think blood is fine, but absolute gore is completely useless.

 

[OutHouse]

The first season was the same way. I remember I almost quit watching in the beginning when they are braving a night snow storm in nothing but speedos and capes. It is a really corny series. But something drew me in and I kept watching, and I ended up really enjoying it.

seeing Lucy Lawless naked and in 3 somes was enough to keep me watching.

 

[JEDI]

Spartacus: Blood and Sand was pretty much the same way, except with slightly better acting and a bit more plot to follow. The first episode wasn't all that great, but it starts getting good around episode three.

Of course, that's what made it fun to watch. It's like they took HBO's Rome, and cranked up the gratuitous sex and violence knobs to 11 and got them stuck there

i saw Gods of the Arena first. I liked it much more than Blood and Sand.

i'm up to episode 7 of Blood and Sand. the whole Barka subplot was meh.
hopefully the rest of the Blood and Sand episodes will be better.

 

[Madwand1]

This isn't season two -- it's a prequel filler.

"To bridge the two seasons of Spartacus, Starz greenlighted the prequel Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, which is now filming in New Zealand and will premiere in January as planned. However, the future of the mothership series is unclear. Production on the second season was supposed to start soon."

I'd still look forward to seeing the continuation of the slave rebellion, regardless of how dirty they make the prequel.