An utter waste of time.
Thank the heavens I watched Candle in the Tomb before this mess of a show. If this had been my gateway into the tomb raider cdramas, I'd have given up before finishing. There are so many things wrong with this series, I don't even know where to begin. I had heard before jumping in that this was a) based on a novel that started out initially as a Candle in the Tomb fanfiction, then morphed into its own thing and b) that this entry in the series is far and away worse than its sequels. I still wasn't prepared for just how bad it would be.Let's start with the plot. It moves way too quickly, cramming far too much into its 10 episodes than it should have. Half of the cast has what I can only describe as super powers, and basically everyone knows kung fu. The plot itself is incomprehensible, and the background histories are convoluted at best. I still can't tell if this was meant to be a serious show, because it is so chock-full of half-witted numb-skullery at every turn.
Then there's the cast, of which none of them know what they're supposed to be doing. Wu Xie at one point starts falling to what he could only assume would be his doom, but shows absolutely zero emotion in his face as he does so. That's pretty much how this whole thing played out. Everyone is non-committal to their roles because it's anyone's guess as to how the tone of the show is supposed to be conveyed. This is due to some very poor direction, from a director who probably wished they were working on some sort of super sentai clone instead.
The visual effects are laughably bad. The set pieces rarely more than green screen backgrounds or really cheap looking plastic obstacles. The music rarely if ever fits (except of course in those moments of loathsome slapstick humor), and the dialogue meanders many times without ever getting to the point.
This is a bad show. There's no other way around it. When you read reviews telling you to skip it, you should listen to them. I sure as heck wish I had.
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This review may contain spoilers
A simple yet decent & mysterious intro for The Lost Tomb Series
I'm writing this review months after watching this drama but the feeling and impression it left me never faded away; so I would like to take this opportunity to encourage and invite people on watching this Series through my words.This drama started with Wuxie and his friend escaping from a set of people who is after the ancient relic they've obtained and how he met his 'Best Buddies' Wang Pangzi and Zhang Liying. As a fan who have watched the entire Series at this point, I may say that this drama does consist some trivial scenes that shouldn't have existed in this drama yet it worked out greatly and did make people more interested about it (I'm talking about the copper fish auction).
It also showcases the different attributes and characteristics of our Iron Triangle Trio and left us hanging with anticipation on how awesome they can be once they work it all out together.
Story - 8.5, This is a rather decent introduction for the 1st season oF TLTS and they did great on making the people curious about it but I felt like they could have done better. They did a big leap showing some scenes that shouldn't be there in the first place and watching it being included on the other Seasons like Lost Tomb 2 & Ultimate Note made me a little confused.
Acting/Cast - 10, Li Yifing and Yangyang did well with their execution and the cast did great portraying their own characters as well.
Music - 9, I can vaguely remember the BGM of this drama but I remembered not skipping the opening and ending of it just to check the music out.
Rewatch Value - 8, Would probably rewatch if I feel like watching the entire thing again. Nonetheless this 1st installment is a fundamental to start when you're planning to watch the whole series.
Overall - 8.5, Despite all the things I've mentioned above about this drama, It still highlighted the crucial points and characteristics of our Main Leads and how the story will unfold.
IF you find my review helpful please let me know.
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Mostly enjoyable, but weird story issues
I watched this as I wanted to get into The Lost Tomb franchise and start from the beginning. I haven't seen any of the other shows yet, but I understand they are generally longer (by episode count). I did appreciate that this season was only 10 episodes, easy to get through and well-paced.The characters are good - even Chastity, who some other reviewers criticized. I felt the acting was good, and every character had a purpose (comic value or intrigue).
The production values and OST were just okay, nothing special there in my opinion.
The story was mostly interesting, and surprisingly varied for a 10 episode show (including story sections in the tomb as well as outside it, as well as a pretty long sequence set in historical China). However the series was majorly let down by some weird plot issues - basically stuff which happened and was never explained. I'm sure there are some things that will be explained in future series, but others that I'm pretty sure won't be. For example, early in the series the characters travel through a water tunnel to get to a village and barely make it through alive, but when they get to that village they have electricity, food etc. Which begs the question how can they have all the modern conveniences if they are so cut off from the rest of the world. This is never explained. There are multiple other examples of this.
Overall it was worth watching to get an introduction to The Lost Tomb franchise, and it was mostly good (especially the last couple of episodes) but plot issues led to me feeling a bit frustrated by it.
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Hmmm...don't let this one deter you from the remainder of the series.
Compared to Ultimate Note and Tomb of the Sea, which both came out a few years later, it felt lacking. I greatly enjoyed UN and TotS. This adaptation...not so much.I thought Yang Yang did a great job as Zhang Qiling; however, it was not my favorite performance of his. Futhermore, I enjoyed the actor who played as Zhang Qiling in UN and TotS better. But, I believe this has more to do with the screenwriting, etc. than it does with the actors. Though, I do want to note that I did not care for the actor who played Pangzi (Fatty) at all. For him, I don't know what happened but his character was annoying AF and detracted greatly from my overall enjoyment. It might have been bad acting or a bad script. Maybe both. Nevertheless, I can't think of a polite way to express how much I disliked him...
As for the pacing, it felt rushed and jumpy--almost as if they had to tried to cram a bunch of information into just 10 episodes, resulting in a subpar product. It should have been longer, because many things remainder unanswered or not properly dealt with. And the scenes/answers that it did have, didn't have enough oomph to really make an impression.
Honestly, I watched Un and TotS before this and found that this wasn't even necessary for my understanding of the storyline. If I had watched this adaptation first, I wouldn't have bothered watching the others and might have missed out. So just know that you won't miss anything if you watch UN and TotS. ^_^
I'm on episode six now and seriously pondering whether or not I'll drop it. Probably will.
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L'histoire:
Le scénario je l'ai au départ vraiment aimé. J'aime l'action dans les drama plutot que la polituique ou les choses comme ca donc je m'en suis regalée et malgrés les questions en suspens qu'il me restait j'etais satisfaite; Mais je ne comprend pas pourquoi ils ont continué apres etre sortit de la tombe. Je veux dire, je veux bien a la fin de l'episode tu les remet dehors pour conclure le tout. Mias pourquoi partir dans des conflits comme ca avec les Neuf familles ? En plus ca n'a rien apporté, apres ces deux trois episode on a pas de reponses aux questions qu'ils ont emises. Je ne comprend pas pourquoi ils ont fait ca. Apres je vais commencer The Lost Tomb 2, donc peut etre on auras des reponses et mon jugement sera changé mais c'est a voir
Casting:
Le cast est vraiment bon. On a des acteurs avec de l'experience, qui ont fait du bon travail dans l'ensemble
Bien sur ca ne veut pas dire que j'ai aimé tout les personnages. Comme Wnag que j'ai trouvé beaucoup trop agacant a s'enerver pour un rien. Mais bon je sais que dans la situation des protagonistes il y aurait forcement eut un personnages comme ca pour demarrer des conflits internes.
Musique:
Je ne l'ai pas remarqué... Aucune des OST ne m'a vraiment frappée, si ce n'est le theme de fin que j'ai apprecié.
Pour mot de la fin, je dirais que The lost Tomb est un bon drama d'action qui passe le temp. Tu te pose et tu regarde les episode. Le drama est divertissant et tu peux le regarder sans trop reflechir. C'est un drama que je conselle malgrés ses petits defauts
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