Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere
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Movie Reviews of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere
Movie Review: For Neil Gaiman Completists Only!
Summary: 3 Stars
Neverwhere: A Novelis one of my favorite books. It was the first non-comic material of Gaiman's that I'd read, and I hold it up to great fantasy journeys like The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: 100th Anniversary Edition (Books of Wonder) and The Chronicles of Narnia Box Set (adult) (Narnia). Most importantly, this book has that incrediable ability to make the ordinary world, the one in which we live every day, seem extraordinary. Reading the book will expand your imagination and add a little magic to your life, no matter how ordinary.
This series, on the other hand, does its best to make the magical mundane and the extraordinary ordinary. The production had fantastic sets, which can be glimpsed from time to time, particularly in the photo gallery extras on this DVD set. During the actual series, the director thought it best to hide the sets as much as possible, shoot with as little light as possible, and generally make it look even cheaper than it already was.
The acting is passable, although much of it suffers from the common british television acting style of "rush out all your lines as fast as possible." It ends up making half the actors sound out of breath. The one actor who really stands out is Paterson Joseph as the Marquis de Carabas. Much like his character from the book, he steals almost every scene he in which he is present. Most of the other actors are servicable, although a few truly bad performances show up from time to time.
The special effects are limited in number, but their quality makes you wish that the filmmakers had simply stuck to using shadows instead of such obviously cheap tricks.
All in all, I would recommend the series only to Neil Gaiman fans who are interested in everything he was ever involved in. Gaiman's commentary is interesting, and he sheds a great deal of light upon the production without sparring any criticism of the elements that he doesn't like. That makes the series essential for die-hard fans, and perhaps worth a rental for more casual Gaiman devotees. Also of note is the title sequence by Dave McKean, who later directed the Gaiman-scripted Mirrormask. The titles are mysterious, atmospheric and beautiful. Everything the mini-series is not. In fact, the titles and the commentary are good enough that they bumped this from a 2-star to a 3-star review. But only barely.
Oh, and skip the lousy comic-book adapation(Mike Carey's Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere) as well. Stick with the novel.
Movie Review: Not the Best Visual Quality, But Neil Gaiman's Imagination Saves It
Summary: 3 Stars
I'm a Gaiman fan. Truth is, it's always a better bet to read his stuff than watch the dramatizations. If you wanted to watch something from Neil's head, MIRRORMASK, with some outstanding visuals and some very cool music, is a better bet. However, the plotting here is easier to follow, and Richard is more sympathetic and likable than the gal-lead-character in MIRRORMASK.
Basically, this is the story of a man whose Good Samaritan act gets him in big, big, big trouble--life and death kind of trouble. The story takes place in two Londons--London above, which is normal London, and London Below, which is where things magical and mystical and dark and scary take place. It's ever so much less safe than London Above, even with all the perils of Big City living.
This is a quest story. You know how that goes, someone wants something desperately, others come with skills and gifts band together to journey to the ultimate place of questing, each wanting something desperately; and then we follow them as they undergo ordeals, evade villains, battle monsters. And we hope they obtain their desires. Or at least, hope the good ones do. Like any quest story, some secrets are withheld, some allies are surprising, and the bad guys are very bad indeed. And someone always has to die, right? But who?
The novel is creepy and funny, in the way that Gaiman manages to be creepy-funny. And you get a sense of Wizard of Oz gone very wrong.
The DVD, which is video-quality, with some exceedingly dorky effects, is not gonna win any awards. Some of you may hate it. But if you concentrate on the likability and charisma of some of the actors (likable: Bakewell/charismatic: the guy who plays Carabas/lovely if disheveled: Laura Fraser), and how much you'll want the bad guys to get their comeuppances, you can enjoy this series. You just have to cut some slack for production quality and effects and sound. Just surrender to the cheesiness.
However, if you want the full effect of scary-suspenseful-magical-sarcastic-amusing-fast-paced fun, buy the novel. It's a nifty urban fantasy from a master of modern fantasy.
Mir
Movie Review: I must be missing something
Summary: 3 Stars
First - I like Gaiman's work. I like this. I like the Dr. Who sensibility of the scenery and everything else. But I came away from these six episodes feeling like I'd seen a small part of something that I would have liked a lot, if it were whole.
The premise could support a story line that went on forever: there's a shadow world, "London Below," interlaced with everyday reality and separate from it. It's a world of magic, heroes, and some very bad bad guys. The action is modest, and the sets & scenes don't go over the top in an effects-fest. It has all the makings of a great, long-lived series. If it were meant to be short, I would have expected it to be more exaggerated in action etc. But it was short, if these six episodes were all there were. I feel like I've had only the appetizer of a meal that could have been very enjoyable.
Messrs. Croup and Vandemar are an interesting pair, the evil henchmen-for-hire. I've always had warm feeling towards toads, so Vandemar's ill treatment of them set him off as a really nasty badguy. It's the pair that I noticed, though - like Mr. Pin and Mr. Tulip, Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint, and probably a gazillion others. Somehow, this pair made me quite aware of a literary stereotype that had never made its way to the front of my awareness before. Now I'll probably see that cliche everywhere I look.
No matter. There's a lot to enjoy in this series, there's just not enough of it here to let me enjoy it properly.
//wiredweird
Movie Review: Gaiman Abridged
Summary: 3 Stars
Neverwhere isn't a great work of television. In fact, it's not especially good. The effects are decidedly second-rate, the acting is occasionally hammy, the camera work borders on the amateurish and many of the details used in the novel are sacrificed to fit the constraints of episodic story telling, which means the story can feel thin at parts. In other words, this is a bad introduction to Gaiman's work that looks like a particularly cheesy episode of Doctor Who.But that doesn't mean that Neverwhere is bad. The show itself is actually kind of fun to watch if you don't have the highest expectations and, yes, expect a cheesy episode of Doctor Who. There are also some particularly good acting bits (Croup, Vandemar and de Carabas particularly) and I'd almost say that the DVD pays itself off for Dave McKean's credit sequences.
Beyond that, of course, is the commentary by Neil Gaiman, where he describes the joys and trials of making it, pointing out trivia, explaining which characters worked for his imaginings and which didn't. Also occasionally simply watching a scene in quiet enjoyment. Fascinating stuff.
This isn't easy to recommend to anyone beyond fans of Gaiman's work, and even then you have to be willing to overlook a lot a lot of failings. Despite that, though, and because of the commentary and other extras, I have to say that this is a good buy for fans of Neil Gaiman and anyone willing to ignore cheesy effects for, what remains despite the Great Cow of London, a good story.
Movie Review: Too bad too, didn't do the novel the justice it deserved...
Summary: 3 Stars
Only fans could appreciate the televised version of Neil Gaiman's masterpiece Neverwhere. While I certainly loved the novel, the DVD/VHS BBC recordings of Neverwhere were terribly done (the acting was horrible, the special effects were almost non-existent... especially where they should have been, and the quality could have been done better on a Handy Cam recorder).
As a fan I'd love to give these DVDs a 5, but as a movie critic I'm going to have to settle on the score I gave it. I can't for the life of me see how anyone can buy this series if you haven't already read the Neverwhere novel (and in fact I'd strongly recommend against it as you will be missing what all the fun has been about).
One of the pros is that Neverwhere-televised follows the Neverwhere novel almost perfectly (granted without the beautifully imagery which set Neverwhere apart from the competition). However, the fan will be delighted to see the story which they've come to know and love turn real right before their very eyes!
Again, due to some of the apparent technical issues of the televised miniseries, I'm unable to give this the reward it should have received.