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Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere

Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere

List Price: $39.95
Your Price: $35.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Low budget fun, the book is better
Review: The novel was better even though the television show came first. This was shown in Britain a few years ago and finally a chance to see it in the U.S. The concept is that there's a secret world below London and there really is an earl in Earl's Court and an angel in Angel Islington! The production seemed to be severely limited by its budget, cheesy effects and amateurish stunts. The story is great and I'm hoping someday they can remake this with decent effects. Despite my criticisms, this is still a Neil Gaiman tale and that means interesting and weird.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Enjoy Dr. Who? You'll enjoy NEIL GAIMAN'S NEVERWHERE.
Review: The production quality of NEIL GAIMAN'S NEVERWHERE on the BBC is easily on par with any Dr. Who episode. So I would venture to say that if you enjoy DR. WHO, you'll probably enjoy Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. The acting is solid and the writing is (of course) excellent.

I saw the DVD before I read the book and I was a little disappointed in the book. Having been written by popular demand after the BBC series, it is almost an exact scene by scene duplication of the show offering little revelatory information.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Thank Goodness for BBC
Review: There is a certain magic in simplicity - and I so relieved that Hollywood did not corrupt such a masterpiece by Neil Gaiman. BBC is constantly criticized for the low production costs, but the true beauty is overlooked. Neverwhere is a fantastic story that creates a subculture and an entire new world. The story is multilayered and each character has his/her own history to be exploited and BBC successfully tells this story and all its components. It is visually stimulating and enchanting, but most of all, it doesn't look overproduced and gawdy.

Gaiman's story follows the ordinary (and disillusioned) Richard Mayhew's journey into "London Below", to find that the London underground houses an entire caste system of misfits and homeless people, each with extraordinary talents and powers. To guide him through Neverwhere, Richard travels with a young girl named Door, "an opener", who is being hunted by the very assassins that murdered her family. For an epic journey storyline, Gaiman creates an interesting band of characters, from rat speakers to spear wielding huntresses. It is very easy to get involved with these characters soon after meeting them and its a wonder why I haven't found a Playstation game set with the Neverwhere backdrop.

Neverwhere is a great buy. You don't have to have read the book first to get a feel for what's going on, but there are, of course, amazing details that couldn't be fit in. Still, Neverwhere is fun, enchanting and worth watching with friends of all ages.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Definetly Gaiman
Review: To all those who claim the show looks bad, cheesy, amateurish, with lame special effects, sometimes bad acting, and very-low rate, they are correct.

But, that is not the point. The story and characters and plot that only Neil Gaiman could come up with is so far above all that that the series itself can only be called a masterpiece.

True, it would have been nice to have had the series shot on film instead of video (as Gaiman gripes about throughout the commentary) and it would have been nice to have a bigger budget and have not had the BBC taking control over dialogue and what not. But the fact is that the story shines through all of that, and a true fan of not only Gaiman but the genre will realize that.

It was entertaining and just kept you enticed with its depth and left you wanting more everytime an episode ended. The show itself is heavily abridged, cut many times over due to budgeting and time issues. Gaiman is developing a novel though, and as with many great stories, the film version is lacking in complete realization of the story at hand. But in the end, this series has been one of the most enjoyable to watch for me, and I was simply amazed at how great it truly is.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Poor production.
Review: While I have only lukewarm feelings about Gaiman's Neverwhere novel the DVD set is terrible. I know people want to knock on the acting, but it's not really what makes this piece suffer the way it does. The filming crew have no sense of cinematography. They hardly ever switch camera views. It's like they only had one to work with. The sets seem like they are better suited for a highschool play and the dirty citizens of Neverwhere seem to well groomed. I would hate to see the budget that the group had to work with. I also believe that while Gaiman is a master at writing I do not think he translates well on film (or would not since I'm trying to act like this movie doesn't really exist.) I would say pick up the book instead, but I wasn't really impressed with it either. I'd like to direct people rather to the book American Gods and for a media experience the American Gods audio book. The text is performed by a talented voice actor and I have been blown away by it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A gem in its own special way
Review: You will want to approach this television series with an open mind, otherwise the sometimes wooden acting and the cheap sets will put you off, and you will be tempted to give a lower rating that it deserves. The story is wonderfully imaginative and totally absorbing: A City yuppie is dragged down into London Below; an underworld where all our memories and nightmares of London are real, have a life of their own, and are very, very dangerous. Thinly disguised, it is about homeless people and social outcasts. I hope that all the allusions to the London Underground won't be lost on an international audience.


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