Several bloggers respond to Castlevania #richardarmitage

[Each paragraph is a linked excerpt to an individual blogpost on wordpress.com]

The four episode series based on the best selling video game of the same name shocked fans of anime and the video game in a good way. With the voice talents of Richard Armitage as a reluctant hero with a history defeating monsters takes on the task of eventually taking down the infamous vampire king Dracula. Armitage brings his powerful voice to the animated world for the first time after being well known as Thorin Oakenshield in the much maligned Hobbit trilogy. Here, he gets to take on a character who doesn’t seem to care about anyone except for himself.

Before I get into the negatives, maybe I’ll address the things that I liked. The first thing I’ll mention is the voice actors, specifically Richard Armitage as Trevor Belmont and Matt Frewer as the Bishop.

A complimentary summary.

Skip it if you’re not into brutal animated violence.

Trevor is a believable character.

A perspective I hadn’t read before on the religious dimension.

Trevor is also well fleshed-out.

Voice acting: perfect in my opinion.

You should binge it.

Trevor Belmont is a beast.

Amazing characters, mixed with a perfect voice cast.

Mixed feelings.

in this show they decided to make him this quirky wise cracking alcoholic, which I really enjoyed.

The show is a referendum on the rich and powerful’s attempt to keep the world in the dark, to keep wisdom from people lest they use it to make their lives better, to make the world better. And it’s a referendum on religious ignorance.

Criticizes negative reviews made “for contrived reasons.”

There’s enough to capture interest whether you’re unfamiliar, or you’re a fan of subtle throwbacks alongside modern tributes, or you just like gritty, violent little cartoons.

The voice acting is also good, but at the same time, I had to watch the show with subtitles.

Good characters, good plot, really good fight scenes.

The voice actors are completely A+ and chosen well for the characters. I was shocked when I recognized Richard Armitage’s voice as Trevor. I’m a fan of his and like most of the British shows/movies he’s done.

Let me preface this by saying, I was not a fan of the games, they weren’t bad or anything like that, they just were not my scene so to speak. So when i heard the first season of the Netflix serious was out I was very meh about the whole thing. That being said i felt I owed it to my readers ( hey guys how are you) to sit down and watch the first episode of season 1 so I could properly say, meh. The season consist of 4 episodes between 20-25 minutes long and i have to say they went quick. This was not what i was expecting at all, and I am happy to say this was amazingly done.

What humanity remains is found in Armitage, bringing a raffish sensibility to his anti-hero, hinting at an exhausted vagabond who pointedly undermines the hifalutin fantasy tripe with a brutal quality of disenchantment and wry, ground-level comedy. There’s a suggestion of that two-sides-of-the-same-coin Janus head thing every pseudo-complex genre-thing settles into now – both Dracula and Trevor are social exiles frowned on by the general populace – but it amounts to little thus far, and Armitage doesn’t have much to do except sound dispossessed.

I didn’t like the show, in case I didn’t get that across. It spends two hours making Catholicism the villain without having anything new to say about the church or religion. We’ve seen these stories before and done better elsewhere. Heck, Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame tackles that issue and has better animation (and is shorter too). Dracula and his castle is on screen for all of ten minutes and Belmont doesn’t take action until the very end. I came in wanting to see Belmonts fighting Draculas and I got Warren Ellis’ Sunday school report card.

Trevor Belmont is the beating heart of the series. Played with a tongue-in-cheek intensity by Richard Armitage, of Hobbit fame, Trevor is the best part of Castlevania.

A largely negative group review.

The best part about the show is definitely Trevor Belmont. His sarcastic tone is excellent, and despite one or two awkward and embarrassingly sweary lines in his opening bar fight, he was frequently funny and easy to route for. Sypha and Alucard are also good in their roles, Sypha the wholly good person caught up with a dashing rouge, and Alucard the “straight man” to Trevor’s humour. All three are perfectly voiced, which is often rare for animated features, let alone ones based on computer games …

I absolutely love all the main characters particularly Trevor Belmont (Richard Armitage). He was everything that you want in a protagonist; interesting, funny and relatable.

Does not like it.

The performances also elevate the show above its fairly standard story, as all of the actors breath life into their somewhat cliche characters. Richard Armitage and Alejandra Reynoso deserve special mention here. Armitage’s delivery turns Trevor from standard sardonic anti-hero into a surprisingly hilarious disgraced monster hunter. His humor is dark and dry, and Armitage serves all of his deadpan jokes like one of Dracula’s fine red wines.

I love this portrayal of Trevor.

Trevor Belmont and Dracula himself are both charismatic and easy to sympathize with; the high quality voice acting helps here.

The voice acting is excellent, and it helps when the VA for Trevor is Richard Armitage himself, of The Hobbit fame. There’s plenty of humor thanks to the crass behavior of the townspeople and Trevor’s sarcastic remarks.

Trevor Belmont is one of the most likable, entertaining protagonists in a videogame adaptation, even if he’s basically just Richard Armitage bellowing like drunken Guy of Gisborne.

Richard Armitage who voices Trevor Belmont just gives the character more tone and depth and really bring the character to life.

Take a break from treason.

Somewhat unusually, does not like Trevor.

You think I never learn new vocabulary? “Bishi” is a word for “sexual ideal.” — “Trevor Belmont is sexy. Richard Armitage is my bishi. This show’s writing sucked, but I liked the parts with the whips and the swords.”

I had no major qualms with any of the voice acting, but the dialects took some getting used to.

Perfect voice casting.

In addition to the strong visuals, the voice acting in the show is top notch. The actors aren’t as recognizable as with other Netflix shows like “Bojack Horseman,” or “F is for Family,” but it really doesn’t matter, because these actors are always on point. Belmont is voiced by Richard Armitage, who is building up his nerd-cred, depending on your opinion of the films, after having played Thorin Oakenshield in “The Hobbit” series.

Richard Armitage provides an excellent v.o. performance (and some much-needed sarcasm) as Belmont.

I don’t know how true this is to the source material, but the main protagonist, Trevor Belmont just barely gives a damn about saving the world. He’s standoffish, and a bit of a drunk asshole, but only because of the convictions that the world has put upon his family name. While this mindset directs most of his behavior, he doesn’t allow all of his humanity to be devastated in this world where so little of it is already left. We see him carry the weight of his excommunication like a curse, but we see him strike back at the true evils of Dracula’s army to defend those that would call him the monster. Trevor Belmont is a great protagonist in that he’s not a good guy, but a guy who doesn’t want to be bad.

Feels half-baked.

An enjoyable 100 minutes.

Only for fans.

An excellent adaptation.

I really like what we do have.

And then there’s Trevor C (him drink) Belmont. Yes you read that right. Guy’s rude, claims to be rusty but managed to maim two priests, take on two archers, (I believe) three lancers, kills the bastard child of Medusa and Scott Summers, rescues a magic historian who is the future Mrs Belmont and manages every bit of this with a f-ing hangover. Who is rusty?!

Fucking awesome.

Extensive comments on the animation.

The voice-acting, the anime influenced-style visuals, the music score, are all great in my opinion. The protagonist is awesome, he has a sense of humor, which helps balance the seriousness of the story.

Richard Armitage has the right amount of snark and coolness befitting a Belmont.

The voice actors are all phenomenal.

The only true saving grace for the series is its phenomenal voice cast. Richard Armitage is phenomenal as Trevor Belmont, propelling his character as the emotional core of the show.

The series has some great things going for it: Trevor Belmont’s excellent portrayal as an anti-hero equipped with badass weaponry and one-liners.

Trevor is a drunken misanthrope who’s given up on the people his family have tried for centuries to help.[…] Try not to cheer when he gives his “I am Trevor Belmont, of the House of Belmont, and dying has never frightened me” speech.

Trevor Belmont is a terrific lead and one that literally came out of nowhere. With a great vocal performance by Richard Armitage, Trevor balances masterful wit and a bleak view of humanity to create one of the better tired heroes I have seen in recent memory. There is this sense of arrogance with his family name that also haunts him for all the grief he has been given by those who threw his family away. He is entertaining yet will never turn away from people in need and set straight those who are doing wrong. Entertaining and resourceful, Trevor easily is one of the best if not the best Belmont I have seen interact with others.

The cool thing about this is show is that it features the voices of Richard Armitage (“The Hobbit”) and James Callis (“Battlestar Galactica”).

we pan over to Trevor Belmont wandering the countryside in all his drunken handsomeness.

With Graham McTavish as Dracula (previously played Dwalin from The Hobbit films) and Richard Armitage as Trevor (previously played Thorin from The Hobbit films) where could you go wrong? Two hobbits turned into a vampire and a vampire hunter, what’s not to like? I really loved the writing of the dialogue and the way they portrayed Trevor’s character. The bar fight scene was hilarious just as much as it was bad ass, he’s “Trevor fucking Belmont” and he “used to fight fucking vampires.” Trevor is sarcastic, care free, and secretly compassionate. He hides his sentiment behind his smart comments and nonchalant temperament.

Voice cast was spot on. Likes of Richard Armiyage playing Trevor, Graham McTovish as Dracula, Alejandra Reynoso Sypha, and Tony Amendola as The Elder speaker. All came off with emotional depth and giving their characters their own personality to connect with the viewers. Their speeches were intense and sucked you right in.

The voice acting is pretty decent to. Richard Armitage, known for his roles as Thorin Oakenshield in the Hobbit trilogy and Guy of Gisborne in the hit and miss Robin Hood TV series, does a fine job voicing the alcoholic Trevor Belmont. His accent fits the character nearly perfectly with only the odd transgression of animation matching the voice.

Richard Armitage is great in the lead role, a rather self-centred, cocky individual. His one liners are great, his performance is nuanced and he’s the best thing about the series.

~ by Servetus on July 16, 2017.