Adapting a video game to a movie or series has always been a difficult exercise. The last of us, a post-apocalyptic thriller available from this Monday on Prime Video, wants to prove that tradition is wrong. The series is on track to sign the first success of the year on streaming platforms, ten years after the launch of the video game on Playstation.
Adapted by one of its creators, Neil Druckmann, and Craig Mazin (Chernobyl), the story is faithful to the game from the Naughty Dog studio. Follow the duo formed by Joel, a drug dealer torn apart by tragedy, and Ellie, the teenager he must protect, the last hope of a world nearly destroyed by a virus, where zombies run rampant.
The nine episodes take place in a post-apocalyptic America, locked in by a military dictatorship. Joel and Ellie are played by Pedro Pascal (the mandalorian) and Bella Ramsey (game of Thrones).
“There is grace in The Last of Us”
With rave reviews and a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes review aggregator, the series The last of us it seduced the American press, but also French journalists. “After two timid episodes, the series defies our expectations and transports us thanks to two endearing characters,” he says. telerama.
the parisian believes that the adaptation “will delight fans of the video game as well as those who don’t know it”: “There is a grace in The last of us which, despite its dark side, sometimes warms hearts. Episode 3 is a master class at this level.” And to add: “It is not every day that such a successful series reaches our screens.”
In the United States, critics have received the series with equal praise. The choice of Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey was especially praised by Rolling Stone. “We only have one wish: to look at them. They are immediately endearing,” the magazine writes. For the review of HourBella Ramsey is “the series’ greatest asset.”
Hard to compete game memories
if by the echoes, the series “completely seduces” thanks to “a certain sense of aesthetics”, the newspaper deplores “certain transposition options such as not having integrated the spores into the story”. A decision that allows the actors not to wear masks that cover their faces in each scene.
Also celebrating the “great beauty” of the final result, Numerama laments that “memories of the game [soient] very difficult to compete with when Ellie and Joel’s adventure has turned you upside down: “When you’ve played it, then, the series can seem a little less exciting than those memories.”
Many American critics also appreciated the decorations and atmospheres that “seem to be taken directly from the game”, estimated the Digital Spy site. Some, however, lamented that the series relies too much on action scenes, pointing out that it “shines brightest” in the more melancholic sequences.
Source: BFM TV
