• Reviews

• All
• Music
• DVDs
• Live
• Cinema
• TV
• Books
• Comic Books
• Video Games

Mar 07, 2012 By Hays Davis Web Exclusive

Considering alone the multiple-kingdom setting of George R. R. Martin’s epic book series, bringing it alive on a screen would be a daunting prospect. But it’s the broad cast with its rich character development that has held readers, and their stories needed to be properly told for this undertaking to resonate.

HBO slated a full season for Game of Thrones, the first book in Martin’s series, to properly unfold, and with little expense spared and considerable leeway in its beyond-PG presentation, the cinema would hardly have been better suited to the task. There’s the enormity of the ice-built Wall protecting the seven kingdoms and the unsettling possibility that something that can’t be defeated is on the other side. The noble Stark family becomes inextricably linked with the potentially treacherous Lannisters, and every minute of Peter Dinklage’s career-making performance as Tyrion Lannister is a treat. Dinklage, along with Sean Bean as the troubled Eddard Stark, are at the complex heart of this story.

That there was an outcry from viewers regarding an unthinkable event late in the season is a testament to both Martin’s creation and the actors’ success at bringing it to life. It would have been ridiculous to change the outcome of a key turning point in the story, but the audience feedback is understandable: Game of Thrones succeeds so well that some would have forgiven creative license, if only to avoid suffering from their emotional investment in the cast.

(http://www.hbo.com/game-of-thrones/index.html)

Author rating: 8/10