Spartacus, Blood and Sand is a Starz original series that tells the story of middle aged rouge soldier of the Roman army who is captured for desertion. He is then condemned to death inside the Gladiatorum against four bloodthirsty gladiators. With a heart full of vengeance against the Roman general who captured his wife, you can only imagine what happens next.
Andy Whitfield stars as the invincible Spartacus that wins the heart of every citizen of Capua by spilling every ounce of blood that his enemy has. This merciless figure has grown to be one of my favorite bad ass characters of all time. He starts off not being the best warrior in the arena but surely the most pissed off. And luckily for him that seems to go a long way in movies and TV series. Throats being slit, organs pouring out, heads decapitated, this show has it all. And if it wasn't as gory, well i would be disappointed. Because that's how this shit was in real life, and i like the truth. The only problem i have with the gore is that at points it really is way too fake. It is all computer generated but at some points in the movie i found myself turned off and disengaged from the story. To be more specific, in case you didn't quite catch it, the intestines falling out looked like something from a video game, and the bright red blood being spilled as soon as a cut is made. Everyone knows blood is actually blue and when initially exposed to oxygen it will be red, but at a much darker shade. Maybe that's just me being picky, but if the graphic animators spend that much time with all the fight sequences i am sure they can make a few tweaks to make it more believable. O ya, they should really scrap the whole blood squirting and covering the camera thing to, very corny, very fake.
I did enjoy the frequent aggressive sex that was on screen about every 30 seconds, and it was very real sex, no animations here. I would compare it to soft core porn in the 80's just a little sweatier with more thrusting. And the women in this show make the playboy bunnies look like transvestites. And if you haven't seen this series get to know Ilithyia, its a love hate relationship. The directors really don't hold anything back and that's why i kept watching this show. It's very easy to follow, there's violence, gore, and sex, boom, enough said. If you are a female then this may not be the show for you, but i couldn't see how any man on the face of the Earth could not be entertained by this.
As far as the story line goes i really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it because i enjoyed the movie Gladiator that came out ten years ago. A similar idea that I honestly will never get sick of. But like i say about every Series, the director has a lot more room to work so he can dive further into a story. Having more time to develop a story is what makes Spartacus such an original piece. But a show like this has a fast approaching expiration date because if he lives any longer than it would just be unreasonable. And after the last episode of this first season i can't see how they could continue off that. The second season only went backwards as a prelude (Spartacus: Gods of the Arena), and the third installment entitled Spartacus: Vengence is due to be aired in January of 2012. I am very interested to see where this will go since it seemed DeKnight pretty much wrapped up all loose ends. ( In case you haven't seen it, i wont include any spoilers.)
This is kind of like a very long movie. Definitely worth my time.
Grade: B+
Actors:
Andy Whitfield: Recent Work (Gabriel, The Clinic )
John Hannah: Recent Work (The Mummy, Cold Blood, New Street Law ), Future Work (Woodland Cross, The Words )
Manu Bennett: Recent Work (Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, The Condemned, 30 Days of Night ), Future Work (Sinbad and the Minotaur )
Viva Bianca: Recent Work ( Accidents Happen, Bad Bush) Future Work ( Panic at Rock Island, X)
No comments:
Post a Comment