Wasn't expecting it to be this good
Made an acc just to talk about this drama lol as a big DMBJ fan I absolutely loved it, even with some censorship and changes, it is without doubt way more accurate to the original book than Lost Tomb 1 and 2Good:
It's actually well paced, generally DMBJ adaptations are way too fast, not caring about explaining details that matters for the story or way too slow and boring, but Time Raiders 2025 really have the good balance of giving the audience the necessary explanation in the dialogues between the characters without losing the timing of the narrative, it's a quicky watch too and when it ends you still wants more, but not because they didn't show what was necessary to tell the story, instead you want watch more because you are curious to see what will happen in the next adventure and it's good
The good mix between CGI and practical scenarios really makes watching the show comfortable and doesn't take away the attention from the story, a sin common in action adventure dramas that like their VFX way too much, and while the creatures would have a better design, it is not exactly too awful to the point of making it hard to watch
As a book reader it being a pretty close adaptation is also a good thing for me, it had nice changes like giving more character development to Da Kui and Wu Sanxing, the emotional scenes between Pangzi and Wu Xie already showing us a close bonding between them, some timeline events happening early to connect better with the future; but in general it was a accurate version of the book
Bad
The fight choreography really need some improvement, it was mostly okay in the first half, but lose a lot of strength when they enter the shipwrecked, what is sad since it's when we see Zhang Qiling in action, but I don't think they did a good job with Cheng Xiang's fight scenes in this adaptation, so I hope it get better in the next season
It's way too dark, like I get technically they are inside a tomb and then inside deep sea, but god sometimes it was hard to see the actors
The ADR also was bad in some moments and it was distracting because the voices were just too off
Neutral:
Casting was okay, the star is without doubt Xu Zhen Xuan as Wu Xie, he is so far one of the best in this character and did seem pretty comfortable, Sun Ge as Wang Pangzi also do a good job even if it's not a fan favorite or as good as predecessors, I feel he shows an emotional side of Pangzi that rarely is explored in adaptations or in the books and I like it, and it's easy to see that he is going to be the base in the future iron triangle interactions if this casting end up being the official one for new adaptations.. Cheng Xiang still need some time to convince me as Zhang Qiling, but he did capture well the otherworldy vibes from Xiaoge in early books
Francis Ng as well do a good job is showing a more sympathetic Uncle Three while not losing what makes his characters so deceitful
So far Daisy Li as A Ning is the weakest acting of the main cast, she looks cunning, but not fierce as her character would be in the book
I liked the music, but I really think it would be better
The intro is FANTASTIC for a book fan because it is basically a big resume of major events in DMBJ series, I absolutely loved it
Well, in general I really liked this drama, it's a good start point for new fans, and I hope we keep this cast as the official one for future DMBJ adaptations, especially Xu Zhen Xuan as Wu Xie
10/10 will watch again
Was this review helpful to you?
