Video game films have long had a bad reputation, and rightly so. But exceptions prove the rule and perhaps we will even see a trend reversal here: The Last of Us is the adaptation of the PlayStation mega-hit of the same name, which has already thrilled millions of gamers and is characterized above all by a gripping story and incredibly immersive gameplay.
For me, The Last of Us is the best adaptation of a game ever and a stroke of luck for the horror genre, because a good story and believable characters are far from the genre norm. Voted the best series of 2023 by the Moviepilot editorial team, you definitely shouldn’t miss this highlight. You’ll get the best experience with this 4K version on Amazon *which also contains over 2 hours of bonus material.
The HBO hit is also available on Blu-ray * and DVD *. If you no longer have a playback device in the house, you can enjoy the series with the WOW series subscription *. But then you have to do without the bonus material of the physical version, which contains several featurettes and behind-the-scenes documentaries.
That’s what The Last of Us is about
Already the premise can make your hair stand on end: The parasitic fungus Cordyceps attacks ants, controls their brains, sucks out all the nutrients and spreads its spores throughout the animals’ bodies. This mushroom is also colloquially used “Zombie Mushroom” called because he controls the body and mind of his victims.
In The Last of Us A variant of Cordyceps mutates and learns to infect the human brain. According to scientists, this is not realistic in reality, but the idea alone is incredibly scary. The result is a zombie apocalypse like in the book and Joel (Pedro Pascal) is right in the middle of it when the USA is overrun by masses of zombies.
While escaping with his brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna), his daughter (Nico Parker) is shot by soldiers. 20 years later, Joel is a smuggler in Boston. When he meets rebel leader Marlene, she asks him to escort teenager Ellie (Bella Ramsey) to a hospital. It turns out that Ellie is the first person to be immune to the zombie fungus.
The Last of Us series is that good
What follows is a highly dangerous journey where death lurks around every corner. Because, and this is different from the classic zombies, the infected are all connected by a neural fungal network, so survivors have to be very careful who they scare.
But even if the danger is omnipresent, the leading duo Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann (who was responsible for the games’ story) leave enough room for deeper character development. The focus is on Ellie’s coming-of-age story, who has to grow up in this terrible world and is constantly confronted with death. She has to do it again and again make unimaginably hard decisions in a split second. As a result, she toughens up inside and out while still forming an emotional bond with Joel.
In addition to the oppressive atmosphere, to which the perfect visual implementation of the template also contributes, for me they were surprisingly authentic dialogues the secret star of the series. Ellie and Joel are constantly at loggerheads while secretly liking each other better and better. This high quality of dialogue and script can also be used in other horror productions and video game adaptations.
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