The Last Of Us

Video games, beloved all over the world by all ages. No matter what nation you are from there is always a video game that will fit in your taste. It doesn´t matter if you love killing zombies, killing aliens, driving cars, boxing or just playing golf you can pretty much find anything in video games. These days i don´t play video games like i used to in the 90´s with the first PlayStation. My absolute favourite game at that time was a game called Tenchu - Stealth Assassins, where you played two different samurais ( you choose wich one you want to play as ) who had two kill different evil people for their Lord Ghoda in Sengoku-era Japan. Tenchu - Stealth Assassins may look old today when it comes to graphics but it is a classic 90´s video game that i still love. One of the most difficult things to do is to transform a video game into a movie or a TV series. We have seen this so many times before and still some people believe they will at least give it a try. One of the most horrible movie adaptations of a video game ever made has to be the 1994 movie of Double Dragon, based on the very popular Arcade games. Directed by James Yukich ( the director of the classic Genesis music video of I Can´t Dance ), this film tells the story of brothers Billy Lee ( Scott Wolf ) and Jimmy Lee ( Mark Dacascos ), who have no option than to fight against the evil crime lord Koga Shuko ( Robert Patrick ) in New Angeles ( a futuristic version of Los Angeles ). Double Dragon is a film filled with awful dialogue, bad martial arts action and awful characters. If you want to see a really good film based on a video game you should definetely choose the 2006 horror film Silent Hill. Based on the very popular video game franchise with the same name, this is actually one of the very few film adaptations that capture the atmosphere and feeling of the game. Director Christophe Gans clearly took the source material serious and actually made an effort to make a film worthy the fans of the games. Speaking of video games some of you might have heard of a video game called The Last Of Us, originally released back in 2013. We find ourselves in a post-apocalyptic future, where an outbreak of a mutant Cordyceps ravages Unites States, transforming its human hosts into aggressive creatures known as the "infected". We follow Joel who works as a smuggler, who escapes from the quarantine zones with a teenage girl named Ellie. The Last Of us turned out to be a really powerful game with beautiful graphics, really strong characters and quite difficult missions. I have played the game and really enjoy it and i heard that a TV series was coming based on the game. So here we are with the whole season of The Last Of Us released on HBO Max and the question is, does this TV series capture the feeling of the video game or is this TV series just a cash in to make money out of the fans?

The year is 2023, it has gone 20 years since a pandemic caused by a mass fungal infection, which caused its hosts to transform into zombie-like creatures. There is no ordinary society anymore and now it´s all about finding a way to survive. Joe ( Pedro Pascal is a smuggler tasked with escorting a young girl named Ellie ( Bella Ramsey). In a world that has fallen completely, you can´t really trust anyone.

If you happen to be a big fan of both games of The Last Of Us, i have a feeling you will be pleased to hear me say this. This TV series adaptation of the video game actually manage to capture the feeling of the game and the post-apocalyptic look of the world in the game as well. I might actually say that this TV series may be one of the best adaptations of a video game since the 2006 film Silent Hill, so you know we are already in for a good start. So what is it that i especially appreciate with The Last Of Us? First of all that they have clearly worked hard to make sure that the locations looks like the video game, where you can sense that the world we once knew is gone completely. There are no ordinary homes anymore and you can´t live an ordinary life. You take the job that is avaiable no matter what education level you have, because fancy titles doesn´t matter in this futuristic world. Since fans of the games are probably wondering how the characters of the game works in a TV series version, i can tell you that they actually managed to pull this off, especially the two main characters Joel ( played by actor Pedro Pascal ) and Ellie ( played by actress Bella Ramsey ). Not only does Pedro and Bella have really good screen chemistry together, but you can actually sense that they really took these characters seriously and tried to capture their personalities from the video game. I especially appreciate actress Bella Ramsey ( fans of Game Of Thrones will definetely recognize her ) who is an incredible talented actress. I personally feel that Bella shows that you can be a professional actor even though you are young, and i am really looking forward to see her future work. It was really nice to see actress Melanie Lynskey ( who is brilliant in the very funny comedy series 2 1/2 Men as the character Rose ) doing a completely different role than we have seen before as the character Kathleen Coghlan. There is especially a wonderful love story as well that i did not expect that will touch your heart. The monster design of the infected looks really good and i really enjoy the apocaplyptic look of each episode. The Last Of Us is without a doubt the best video game adaptation i have seen so far made into a TV series, and if they keep the same tone in future seasons we could have a lot to look forward to. If there is a Blu Ray release of this season in the future i am getting myself a copy, because i really love The Last Of Us. A must watch, no matter if you love the games or apocalyptic horror.

Rating: DDDD