I give the production kudos for effort, especially the special effects. They were awesome! They look so real, they merged seamlessly with the real world. I can honest believe that their world is real with all those stuffs in it.
Acting wise, 10/ 10. They cannot pick a better cast.
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Great story, and I need more!
Honestly, I am a fan of Zhu Yilong and I came to support him. That said, I am so very glad that I did and have zero regrets!! I've actually started to rewatch it with a few friends who I got interested in it, and they are loving it too! I'm still enjoying it the 2nd time around while I get them caught up to me.The first few episodes kinda set up the story and it gives you a few puzzles to start piecing together. After that, it’s just full speed ahead from one puzzle to the next! I often find myself thinking, why did that happen or why is X person doing that?! It really keeps me interested in what is going on and waiting for the next clue to pop up.
The acting is amazing, and you can tell the main characters had fun together shooting this, and they have great chemistry! They, also, keep things very interesting with their character's different personalities and long time friendship. The characters have made me feel every emotion you can think of and I never get bored watching an episode.
I am fully invested in this show to find out what, exactly, is going on and episodes can’t come out fast enough! The special effects are wonderful, the story is complex enough to keep you interested, but sprinkles in humor, sadness, horror-esque moments, and some tense scenes. Some of the settings are just amazing to look at, and overall it’s a beautiful show.
Some of the places where they left off, and the credits come, in have me clamoring to click the next episode to see the continuation, and it’s awesome watching the main characters start to put together all the pieces of the puzzle. I 100% recommend this if you enjoy a kinda historical, tomb exploring, horror, adventure! :D
Edit: I have completed watching this whole season and I'm not really disappointed in any of it. I'm just really sad that we don't have a date for season two yet. Overall, I really enjoyed every episode. I was always excited to get to the next one and I just have a great time watching it. I hope we get back to what's going on with the other group in the next season, and I hope the next season is very soon.
TLDR; I really enjoyed this whole season and can't wait for the next one. I feel it's worth a watch! :D
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The thunder rolls: a work in progress
This is the first of this series that I managed to get this far through. Despite the appeal of supernatural mysteries and tomb raiding adventures, I was never able to get into any of the other ones. That said, while there are flashes of brilliance, the overall effort so far is at best mediocre with much hanging on how the various plot threads end up resolved.A cryptic message from Wuxie's uncle that sends the Iron Triangle - Wuxie, Pangzi and Zhang Qiling on a quest to decipher the message of the Thunder god and find Wu Sansheng. The story is off to an awesome start with heart stopping action and phenomenal world building. The scenes in the tomb have just the right balance of mystery, suspense, supernatural forces, hordes of foul and undead creatures and death defying moments. My eyes bugged out at Qiling (Huang Jun Jie)'s raw athleticism, fierce speed and fluid grace. Like most viewers, I love the Iron Triangle - their chemistry, hilarious banter and complimentary skills make them seem invincible together. So it is super disappointing to see the three amigos separate and off on their own.
The pacing is jarring - it alternates abruptly between gripping, life threatening action and mind numbingly boring and unnecessary filler episodes and characters. The entire Hei Yanjing/mute girl arc could have been cut by at least 75pct - there is little plot advancement and the romance is pedestrian. It could only have been worse if the girl can actually speak so thank the small mercies. That painful arc ends only to descend further into purgatory with the introduction of (drum roll) Piao Piao. While allegedly due to the heavy hand of censorship, at best she had three brain cells instead of two. Poor Panzi, he deserves so much better. It is offensive to see women written to be so dumb just to facillitate certain plot developments. By comparison, Xiao Bai is an adorable genius; even her lovesick eye batting at Wuxie is totally forgiveable considering how devastating and charismatic Zhu Yilong's Wuxie is. I am sure I will be unable to watch any other actor take on this role after this.
Although I quite like Warehouse 11, the Sea King's tomb is hard to beat and sequencing leaves Season 1 ending with an anti-climatic and unfinished feel to it. The reveals are somewhat predictable and too many plot threads are left open. If too much time passes before Season 2 airs, I will forget many of the important clues and open issues unless I invest in some rewatching. In hindsight, I should have started this after there is an airing date for Season 2 and that would be my advice for those planning to watch this.
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This review may contain spoilers
The show is about Iron Triangle. So you'd hope that Qi Ling would at least appear as much as some supporting character AT THE LEAST - let alone giving him the actual deserved screen time.
The second Yangyangs Qi Ling disappears, you watch season after season, episode after episode, spin off after another spin off, only to get to Reboot (Reunion) and have him still pretty much either so far in the background, or just simply gone.
And okay, I loved Baron Chens romance with the mute girl, it was genuine, had everything in the right amount even though in the end even that didn't go anywhere.
And then you think omg Yi long is the perfect older, mature Wu Xie, so please give me SOMETHING WITHMY OTP I'm not asking for much, but they could have done something along the lines of Untamed or Guardian - I mean I thought I was going to leave confused considering Yilong and Bai yu are one of my top couples.
And in the beginning it looked like that was a possibility, because you guys know I'm extremely partial for Yangyang and for the first time the actor for me had the potential to be a close second to YY buuuut the poor boy never got a chance.
Because halfway through they got into some bullshit office romance - which they probably thought was a clever Warehouse 11 storyline, but seriously the only clever aspect was how much money they saved on the production that went from badass, dangerous, and rather narrow escapes, showing the Uncle and Baron Chen, and the rest like a family - however screwed up it might be, you were still rooting for them.
And then someone gets the great idea that screw tomb raiding, and badass action, or even focusing on the fact that his uncle was being so nonchalant about the cancer news, like WTF.
And then they took my last bromance hope Pan Zi to some hetero storyline too, TWO SECONDS AFTER he confessed his love to Wu Xie lol most likely to give Wu Xie that completely contrived 'romance' which okay not going to lie I was shipping them during that one bonding scene where they lay down and 'watched the stars' XD but apart from that Wu Xie was being so wishy washy. It didn't seem sincere AT ALL not from his side anyway, not like Baron Chen was so into the chick and doesn't just go save her in some ending scene twist.
And omg that ending ugh are they still going to be in the warehouse lol I don't know if I can take the torture.
So, yes, for me it was fantastic till Wu Xie joins the warehouse and then it had it moments - Jia Le story, especially, or Kan Jians ADORABLENESS XD
Anyway, I loved the characters, actors, but I hope the story lines improve and I see more of Qi Ling and iron triangle ACTUALLY BEING TOGETHER AND BONDING TOGETHER instead of being apart and just talking about each other. I mean where is the pining, where's the eye fucking XDwhere's the WORRYING ABOUT THE GUY WHO HAS FREAKING CANCER.
Okay anyway, waiting for next part lol because I'm a sucker for pain.
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Brought me to Daomu Biji obsession.
To be completely honest, the only Chi dramas I've seen are the rom-com high school or boss-fell-in-love with secretary or ordinary girl dramas. I happen to bump into this drama and tried one episode out of boredom and curiosity and dang that was the best decision I've made. As someone who loves ancient civilizations - tomb raiding movies/dramas/pieces have been my faves. The cinematography, CGI and cast of this drama is 10/10. There are moments that are dragging but I enjoyed this over-all and because of this drama, I watched Lost Tomb 1, 2, Sand Sea and now the Ultimate Note. I even watched all Mystic Nine dramas and even Golden Eyes (though unrelated). I am re-watching this drama again to put some pieces together (this drama is set at 10 years after the original Daomu Biji story). ZHU YI LONG deserves a special mention! That acting is solid! I also suddenly started to watch his past dramas including Guardian. Overall, I give this a 10 it deserve for introducing me to the Chi Ent industry.Was this review helpful to you?
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More Like Rant than Review
I've read the novel and watch the others lost tomb series. So I know the good and the bad of this series compare to the others.Honestly, I can't enjoy this series, I often skip the scenes and play it with 1,5x speed. Here the reasons why I can't enjoy it:
1. It's boring. Especially with Warehouse 11 arc, it's to long that make me almost forget about the thunder thing. And the strange thing is WuXie suppose to work there, but I barely seen he working, he just focus investigating .
2. Unnecessary romance. There is too many unnecessary romance, even the uncles have love story lol. The only romance element that I like in this series is between WuXie and the female figurine, the others just no no. After watch this series, I know that romance and Lost Tomb is not a great match. For the future project of Lost Tomb, Just don't add romance please!
3. Too little Iron Triangle moments. I think Xiao ge is not one of the main here, he feel more like guest role. Even WuXie in the warehouse why not show how Xiao ge doing with uncle two. Xiao ge must be worrying about WuXie too, but I can't see it just can imagining.
4. My favorite character, Hei YanJing became weak and stupid here ㅠㅠ. In DMBJ world, his appearance is the moment that I fancy the most. He should be someone that strong, smart, has broad knowledge, fun but also mysterious. From the start of this series I get feel he isn't like Hei YanJing that I know. He do many stupid things here to the point I can't tolerate. There is one thing that I just can't tolerate it is he show his eyes. He supposed to hate showing his eyes and he just show it to the persons he can trust. But, what?! Someone saw his eyes when he showering!! This clumsy mistake is not like Hei YanJing. I want to cry, I hate this version Hei ye T^T
But, this series not that bad there are somethings that I like too from this series. I like the special effect from this series it feels real to the point I often get nightmare. And I don't know why people don't like PangZi here, I like his character here, the one thing I don't like from him is he too in love with PiaoPiao, others than that I have no complain. The scene that I like the most is when Liu Sang tell the others that WuXie is dying. That scene is so emotional and make me cried.
The reason I watch this series because I like DMBJ world so much, so I want to watch all of the series. I'm not watching the season 2 yet, but soon I'll watch it. Hoping it better that this
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I'm ready for Season 2!
I started this drama because of Zhu Yi Long and because I found the promo photos picking my interest.I must say though that I usually try to stay away from anything with Horror elements such as zombies or corpses and I'm not interested in movies and dramas about Tomb Raiding. Yes, this was the perfect drama choice for me. xD
After completing it I can say I don't regret my decision.
Even for a horror avoider like me Reunion is worth a watch. Simply because the main focus is on solving riddles and mysteries and the characters. I actually had fun trying to figure out clues myself, thinking of solutions for problems or predict what certain characters would do next. Not to mention that in the later episodes Wu Xie gets into a cat and mouse game.
A summarize of things I liked and didn't like:
+ Main Story is interesting and pace of storytelling good
+ Characters
+ Cast and Acting
+ OST (the soundtrack is great)
+ Teamwork/Friendship of main leads
+ Comedy
- A few side arcs where not that interesting for me (Piaopiao for example)
- we don't get to see the Iron Triangle together in the second half which is a bit disappointing
- some flashbacks seemed unnecessary to me and looked like they were included for a "little scare"
- Second half is not as interesting as first half, is even a bit boring at first but gets better
- flashback episode to Qi Jin does not benefit to the story in my opinion
The OST is really good and the tracks fit the story and characters excellently.
I'll be back for a rewatch. The drama missed the 10 rating by an inch but it's still a new favorite of mine.
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Starting from the things I liked.
Iron Triangle as one of the best trios ever created. A typical case of characters representing a heart, body and brain, but it never felt limiting in how they were interacting with each other. All of their scenes together were easily the best in the whole show.
Likable female characters with their own goals and ideas. We all know how limited in that aspect are Tomb dramas. Here we got a variety of women with unique personalities and perspectives.
The acting was great. I think Chen Ming Hao is my favorite Wang Pang Zi at the moment. This character is always hit or miss - I either like them, or hate them. Here, he was probably one of my favorites.
Another positive thing was proper lighting. Big props to the team for making the caves/warehouses/underwater scenes look dim, but not ridiculously dark when the viewers can’t see anything. A few more candles or flashlights as the light source is all it takes for the viewers to not question how bright some places might look. The whole production quality was great - the set designs, costumes (excluding Glasses, I just cannot deal with that outfit), camera angles - all working well to create nice pictures.
To the less enjoyable things.
First and second half of the show felt like completely different dramas. Not only did the plot seem too loosely connected, the main cast completely changed. We literally cut from the show the characters we followed at first.
While I appreciate the female characters, I am also a bit sad how all of them were put in the context of being romantic interests. No one watches the Tomb series for romance, this is really unnecessary.
Second half was painfully repetitive and failed to make me care about the plot progression and even the characters safety. I am sorry, but how many times can I watch Wuxie do exactly the same thing over and over again in more or less the same manner in a boring environment, surrounded by barely established characters?
Wuxie being sick. Oh god, too many times it felt like watching a wuxia with male lead being poisoned and coughing blood - so dramatic for no reason, because we all know he is not going to die. My issue was how they presented it as something dangerous, but it never felt really limiting. All the potential issues always showed up after he was done with whatever task he had to accomplish.
While I do believe everyone in the cast did an amazing job, I am also a bit bored with Zhu Yi Long (don’t kill me). There is not enough variety in the roles he takes and his portrayal of them. Sure, I only saw a few of his dramas, but it always feels like a similar character just put in a different context.
Overall, it was not bad, but felt too “all over the place”.
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Hands down best DMBJ to date!
Despite the truly disappointing disappearance of an interesting plot line towards the end (which was apparently due to censorship), this series—including season 2–is without a doubt the best DMBJ adaptation so far. The casting and characterization is downright astonishingly good. The decades-long friendship between Wu Xie, Pangzi, and Zhang Qilin feels completely real and much deeper than in any other version I’ve seen. Their chemistry is incredible and all three actors completely embody their characters. Plot missteps towards the end are outweighed by a great first half and the joy of seeing the Iron Triangle brought to life better than any adaptation before or since.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Where do I even begin ?
First off , acting was excellent. All of the actors were very strong in their roles and did an amazing job. My biggest issue with this drama is that it started out with strong bl vibes between Xiao Ge and Wu Xie only to throw in a girl halfway through to derail it. Though not the fault of the actors, that was incredibly annoying, and almost made me want to stop watching. Chinese censorship is to blame. It ruins so many stories that could have had such great potential. Hey China, that's not how gay relationships work. Get with the modern times , it's embarrassing for you! My other issue is in the story itself. It started out so strong so I had such high hopes but then it just seem to slack off and lose track of the original story entirely. Might as well have called the drama The 11th Warehouse because they dropped the ball completely on the original story (which is a shame because it started out amazing) and it becomes almost entirely about this warehouse mystery and everyone and everything else is forgotten. They stop showing the group investigating the underground river including Xiao Ge about halfway through. Honestly the first half is great, as long as you stop watching before the warehouse and Bai Haotian come into the story. The warehouse bits seemed to drag on way too long. Too many side stories that seem random and irrelevant and have a totally different vibe from the rest of the drama. I'm sorry, as sad as Piaopiaos story is, she was a completely irrelvaent character that appeared out of nowhere 2/3 of the way through and is suddenly taking over half the screen time. Her story has nothing to do with the rest of the drama aside from being a childhood classmate and feels completely unnecessary to be taking up so much screen time . It throws off the whole feel of the drama and gives it a sloppy feel. And maybe I'm missing something but the warehouse stories didn't make a lot of sense and had a lot of holes. For instance, only one tiny entrance to that child warehouse that no adult can get through..then how did the goods get in and out? How did third uncle live for years in that dead area with no food, and yet they have fully functional electronics ? I got really annoyed with the warehouse test. Seriously, how much time do we need to waste watching them retake it over and over? Makes no sense that they're disqualifying exam takers over the smallest thing, yet no one else seems to notice the legit sword fighting and attempted murders going on? Also it gets annoying that adults in Asian dramas are so petty and childish . It's more like high school drama. Also, I am aware there is a season 2 that continues the story, which I have not seen yet, but this is also a bit annoying to me. I wish they had done this as one complete 62 ep series instead of 2 seasons. Clueless sites like Viki only upload one season and not the other so it's a bit pointless. Might as well only upload half a series.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
I absolutely love this show. I have finished the whole 32 episodes and thoroughly enjoyed it.The acting from Zhu Yilong and Chen minghao as Wu xie and Pangzi was excellent. Their chemistry was so good, it really held up the whole series. Huang Junjie as Zhang Zhiling haven't been given much to do except for some fighting scenes but I enjoyed his soft knowing smiles towards Wu xie. Mao Xiaotong is ok as xiao bai. Her infactuation with Wuxie seemed unnatural initially but as the series went on, her personality and her relatinoship with Wuxie also grew on me.
My favourite was the first 11 episodes when the group was together and exploring the tomb. It was really exciting and engaging part. I, like lots of other people did not enjoy the mute girl and black glasses scene and I found it did break the pacing of the series a bit. This all came to a head when Wu xie and co joined the black glasses and mute girl village scenes. Some classic scenes include the part where Wuxie's illness was revealed to the rest of the group, and when pangzhi when to feed him soup. The acting was just on point.
A lot of people have issues with 11 warehouse and whilst I acknowledge that it was disappointing at first to see the iron triangle disbanded (ZQL wasn't in most episodes after episode 16), the latter parts were very Wuxie centric and it became more engrossing and interesting as the episodes went on. Having said that, I do think that some parts did not make sense because part of the story including piao piao and her daughter's disease (bells disease) was edited out due to the current pandemic. The ending feels unresolved because the series is meant to be 60 plus episodes. It was split into 2 seasons due to censorship in China.
Zhu yilong is just so good here, his acting, his interpretation of Wuxie's courage, intelligence, his vulnerability, his chemistry with co stars, his eyes etc. The cinematography is first class and I love the soundtrack. I am really looking forward to season 2, when the iron triangle joins up again and there will be more tomb raiding.
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