aaronleverton
Joined Nov 2007
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Reviews4
aaronleverton's rating
Excellent stand alone/season 4 intro (watch it how you want) that finally puts the whole franchise's roots on screen.
Centurions, vox-boxes, Gold Centurions! Ah, finally. And they don't look clunky, move poorly OR suffer from Stormtrooper Syndrome.
If, like me, you were not yet 10 when Ben Cartwright began to lead his Wagon Train toward earth, then you probably thought it was the most amazing thing you'd ever seen when first broadcast. Oh, how memory leads you astray. Damn you, VHS cassette and VCR, for ever allowing my golden, hazy dreams of days yore to be punctured by cruel reality. Amazing SFX (but what else from Richard Edlund?), blow-them-out-of-the-water opening (complete with sacrificial-lamb), boring, sermonising speeches, standard over-focus on leads (why does Apollo, a pilot, have to space-walk for the blast/oxygen vent, where are the engineers?), zero development of universe (oh, one comment about "loose" Geminese women) and (come the series) repeated FX shots that weren't simply repeated, but were obviously so.
If, like me, you saw all this, but refused to by bowed by it, then Ronald Moore's arrival on the scene (after Todd Moyer's departure, whew, that was close) was cause for pure rejoicing.
But as the series progressed, it gave fewer and fewer nods to its, admittedly dodgy, source material.
Until Razor. How to meld the painful past with the amazing now without destroying either or, worse, both? Write Razor.
Anybody who says that original Galactica was brilliant, current Galactica is a pale shadow and Razor is just crap is lying. Lying to themselves and you. Original Galactica was hamstrung by budget, pacing and imagination (yes, you read that right, imagination, see "over-focus on leads"), modern Galactica needed the legitimacy of the original. Casting Richard Hatch as Zarek was a good start, this is the perfect bridge.
Oh, and it's a great script, involving three time periods, moral conflicts, interpersonal conflicts and some kind of redemption. And centurions, vox-boxes and Gold Centurions.
By your command! 7.5/10
Centurions, vox-boxes, Gold Centurions! Ah, finally. And they don't look clunky, move poorly OR suffer from Stormtrooper Syndrome.
If, like me, you were not yet 10 when Ben Cartwright began to lead his Wagon Train toward earth, then you probably thought it was the most amazing thing you'd ever seen when first broadcast. Oh, how memory leads you astray. Damn you, VHS cassette and VCR, for ever allowing my golden, hazy dreams of days yore to be punctured by cruel reality. Amazing SFX (but what else from Richard Edlund?), blow-them-out-of-the-water opening (complete with sacrificial-lamb), boring, sermonising speeches, standard over-focus on leads (why does Apollo, a pilot, have to space-walk for the blast/oxygen vent, where are the engineers?), zero development of universe (oh, one comment about "loose" Geminese women) and (come the series) repeated FX shots that weren't simply repeated, but were obviously so.
If, like me, you saw all this, but refused to by bowed by it, then Ronald Moore's arrival on the scene (after Todd Moyer's departure, whew, that was close) was cause for pure rejoicing.
But as the series progressed, it gave fewer and fewer nods to its, admittedly dodgy, source material.
Until Razor. How to meld the painful past with the amazing now without destroying either or, worse, both? Write Razor.
Anybody who says that original Galactica was brilliant, current Galactica is a pale shadow and Razor is just crap is lying. Lying to themselves and you. Original Galactica was hamstrung by budget, pacing and imagination (yes, you read that right, imagination, see "over-focus on leads"), modern Galactica needed the legitimacy of the original. Casting Richard Hatch as Zarek was a good start, this is the perfect bridge.
Oh, and it's a great script, involving three time periods, moral conflicts, interpersonal conflicts and some kind of redemption. And centurions, vox-boxes and Gold Centurions.
By your command! 7.5/10
The first of Heston's two comedies (The Pigeon That Took Rome followed in 1962) and the best of the pair.
Understanding his gift perfectly, Heston chased a comedy role that didn't actually require him to be funny. The pay-off is this little film that has no room for self-indulgence or ego.
The success of Benson led to Heston doing The Pigeon That Took Rome. That one isn't bad (and way ahead of some of the "comedies" that get greenlit today), but this one doesn't hit an off-key note.
Far, FAR superior to the truly dire remake (Major Payne) with Damon Wayans.
Understanding his gift perfectly, Heston chased a comedy role that didn't actually require him to be funny. The pay-off is this little film that has no room for self-indulgence or ego.
The success of Benson led to Heston doing The Pigeon That Took Rome. That one isn't bad (and way ahead of some of the "comedies" that get greenlit today), but this one doesn't hit an off-key note.
Far, FAR superior to the truly dire remake (Major Payne) with Damon Wayans.
I really hope the other poster was kidding when he said JLU was cancelled to put this on air.
Bryan Singer did so much to make Marvel a success in adaptations, but let's face it, it's always been DC making the running. First with Christopher Reeve, then with Kevin Conroy...
Why, oh why can't executives look at WHAT makes a series or a film a success and copy that, instead of looking for a source to butcher. Batman (conroy's) was all style (like West's), but with enough substance to sustain it. It had visuals, it had villains, it had stories and it had PACE. Plus, being a cartoon, they got the best voices available. All the things that were transferred into Superman and then Justice League.
Fantastic Four has none of these. The action (for desperate want of a better word) is so slow it nearly put me to sleep. The voices are awful, not necessarily because the actors can't act (don't know what else they've done), but, I suspect, because the directors haven't got a clue about emoting in English. The nationalities don't inspire confidence in this department. The scripts are almost passable, but the direction (see "action" and "voices") sinks everything.
I suspect I may be too old for this, as YouTubing Battle of the Planets brought me face to face with things my memory had edited out (such as the stupid R2D2 clone and his girlfriend on Pluto), but, given the acclaim and success of the recent DC animated adaptations across a broad audience spectrum, I'm willing to say this sucks.
There just isn't any joy in it. There is no way the cast are having fun recording the dialogue, you can hear it in their voices, or, rather, you can't.
Bryan Singer did so much to make Marvel a success in adaptations, but let's face it, it's always been DC making the running. First with Christopher Reeve, then with Kevin Conroy...
Why, oh why can't executives look at WHAT makes a series or a film a success and copy that, instead of looking for a source to butcher. Batman (conroy's) was all style (like West's), but with enough substance to sustain it. It had visuals, it had villains, it had stories and it had PACE. Plus, being a cartoon, they got the best voices available. All the things that were transferred into Superman and then Justice League.
Fantastic Four has none of these. The action (for desperate want of a better word) is so slow it nearly put me to sleep. The voices are awful, not necessarily because the actors can't act (don't know what else they've done), but, I suspect, because the directors haven't got a clue about emoting in English. The nationalities don't inspire confidence in this department. The scripts are almost passable, but the direction (see "action" and "voices") sinks everything.
I suspect I may be too old for this, as YouTubing Battle of the Planets brought me face to face with things my memory had edited out (such as the stupid R2D2 clone and his girlfriend on Pluto), but, given the acclaim and success of the recent DC animated adaptations across a broad audience spectrum, I'm willing to say this sucks.
There just isn't any joy in it. There is no way the cast are having fun recording the dialogue, you can hear it in their voices, or, rather, you can't.