When I started watching this I had low expectations because of the fact that I knew that it was a pretty low budget and the concept was pretty ambitious. It starts off with a clichéd take on a cliché which is a pretty good summary of the writing. There was a ideal vision that the writer wanted to convey but the delivery didn't always come off right. When it came to the style of the project there were a few things like the Darth Vader knock off that made me chuckle. Most of the Steam-punk clock-work equipment is just for show and is never explained or given a reason for being where it is. This hurt Riese only in that it detracted from one of the things that drew me toward it. I give this a 7 out of 10 because I found it enjoyable to watch despite it's flaws. The story itself is a solid fantasy and it is obvious that the cast and crew worked really hard on this project. If you like steam-punk at least give this a double take and keep your mind open when watching.
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holyangeloftheabyss26 March 2011
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FlorisV4 December 2011Princess Riese, sole survivor of a coup d'etat, has to regain the throne that was stolen from her by the current Empress. Meanwhile, there is a religious cult, the Sect, with an agenda of their own, and a small resistance group hoping to find Riese.
A good setup for a story and an enjoyable watch, though very short and unfortunately not bringing much of a conclusion.
Like others mentioned, there is no thought behind why things look steampunk. Why the goggles? Why the masks and why do Sect people wear machinery, what does it do? If this was explained more, the show would get an 8.
As low as the budget was, the show manages to look decent and the backgrounds of the empress's castle look particularly grand in some brief shots. The actors are good and do what they can with the sometimes stereotypical characters.
I would watch a second season to see things unfold. Shows like this would be much better with some more budget, longer runtimes and some good HBO-caliber writers, so they wouldn't have to waste their talents at soft porn garbage like Game Of Thrones. -
SyFy, pleeze no more movies from Canada. I realize it is cheaper there, but jeez... The only one who threw himself into the role was Ryan Robbins (and yes, i know he's Canadian). Some of my best friends are from the cold country, but not a whole crew and director...
If the acting and timing wasn't so stilted, this could have been good. I was wanting it to be good. But the wooden acting and directing made it no more than a 5 in my opinion.
Come on, lets hear some passion, some conviction, some life....
Okay, actually, the wolf did a great job.
The flick is worth the time if you are really in to steam punk, or just want to escape to a cold landscape for 80 minutes or so. -
paul-268624 August 2011Couldn't watch this for long. I can forgive a low budget if the writing and acting are good, which is what I was hoping for here, but the narration and dialogue in Riese sound like something I would have written when I was a teenager. The actors seem like actors in cheap costumes, reading lines from cue cards. You can't see the production team, but you can tell that they are right there, just of sight. It is terribly obvious that you are watching grown men and women playing make believe in front of a camera — and without much feeling for it.
But it was the narration that made it unwatchable: execrably redundant exposition, inserted between nearly every scene, pointless telling what we just saw, or are just about to see, like terrible comic book writing. I really lost my cool when an entire scene consisted of Riese walking through a set looking pensive, and the narrator telling us what she was thinking. Oh my. That's not a script. -
forgottenandlost17 June 2012There was more narration than there was acting. That is a very bad sign. There was potential, but it was crushed into the dirt before the 1st episode was half way through.
To many scenes of a character just walking in the short gaps between the narrations start and stop.
It is like they thought they were making an audio book and forgot why they had any actors. I can't even say that the acting was bad (or good) because there really wasn't much to go on! What were the people making this THINKING?
P.S. Dear IMDb, please stop being idiotic about how many lines I used, this is plenty long enough to say what needed said. -
Sailinship20 January 2011First of all, I'd like to say that I watched 7 eps. before writing this review and tried to like it. I was hopeful.
My opinion. This show is garbage, it has no redeeming qualities at all what so ever. THE LOOK!?! It's horrible, in one scene they have thin sheets of paper as walls and these 3 to 4 foot gear silhouettes showing through. No reason why the gears would be there in this world, the only reason they are there is to try to cash in on "Steampunk" which is obviously something they don't understand. The look is mostly the same as any fantasy show with a low budget. Absolutely no interesting tech., no innovation as far as costumes, truthfully if someone showed up at a steampunk event in just about any of these outfits they would likely be met with a whole lot of meh and/or confusion. As far as the sets go, again, they are recycled fantasy sets with nothing worth seeing. Ever. Not one thing.
The worst part of the show is how foolish the characters act. I'm watching it and thinking to myself "nobody would do these things. Why are they doing these things?" And then I realize they are making these stupid actions because the writing is horrible. When actors have to do things that no real person would do they lose the ability to be convincing actors. Stiff would be the description of the characters, and it's not simply due to bad acting, again, the writing is trite and ridiculous. I hated it and I hate the people who made it for trying to cash in on steampunk. -
ristro420 October 2013I actually kind of enjoyed this show. Lucky for all of you who hated it and thought it was 'just plain awful' it doesn't look like they're going to make any more. As I was saying, sure, there are moments where they lay on the suspense a bit heavy and it's probably not as good as other stories but it's still damn beautiful to look at. It's like watching 'Pacific Rim', you know that things don't make sense mechanically but it's a bit of a marvel.I found the story with the babies pretty different so I would've liked to see what happened next. Don't take my word for it, though. I'm pretty easily impressed...And if you do like this series, the indefinite cliff hanger will drive you as nuts as it has me.
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brasjuan27 May 2012How would anyone fund such a bad show, is beyond anything. I don't even know where to begin, the show is completely stupid! It makes no sense; but not in a "Lost in the good years" no sense, but in an actual lack of direction. The society portrayed in the show is all around weird, and it works in a way that is not believable at all. I know it's low budget, but even so, you can compensate with acting and plausibility. The show has none. It's a sequence of clichés and dumb choices, and characters that are just not organic. At all! Don't waste any time watching. I certainly didn't, I couldn't bear watching any episode 'till their end, and I've tried, more than once! But I guess the show fits syfy's schedule, filled with other productions that don't take any kind of quality into account.