Battlestar Galactica On SciFi Channel - Page 9

geoschmo · #81 December 5th, 2003, 05:05 AM

Atrocities, I agree with you the original cylons were cool looking, but you seriously thought the rest of the effects stand up even today? Have you watched any of the reruns on sci-fi recently or are you just going by faded adolescent memories.

I think most of the people ripping on the old cylons aren't complaining about the look so much. It's just that they were pathetically inept, slow, clumsy, and couldn't hit the side of a barn with a bLaster. Why would a supposedly advanced race go out of their way to create a combat droid that looked like a human in a chrome suit, but couldn't move half as well as one?

Starhawk · #82 December 5th, 2003, 05:58 AM

Yeah they were not complaining about the LOOK of the old Cylons as much as how clumsy they were and how hard it was for the men inside them to do anything.

The costume took like four hours to put on, they couldn't sit down at all and oh Lord help them if they had to go the bathroom because it took a few hours to get the costume OFF too.

The Cylons "armor" was painfully hard to get to do anything gracefull and they made the "feel" of the show as "How the hell did the Colonies lose to these tin cans?" when you see a single warrior taking out like eight of them or a single viper taking out four of their raiders it just ruined the effect of the Colonies losing to them in the first place. I mean they are just so inept the colony fleet should have decimated them even WHEN it was suprised.

The new Robotic Cylons (yes they have a large number of Centurions) move like humans and look like they can kick serious ***. Not to mention that if you see the intros to the space battles the Cylons have truely OVERWHELMING numbers and rather advanced tech which makes it easier to understand the colonial fleet being defeated. But I have also heard they are redoing the WAY the battle for the colonies is fought completely so that it makes more sense. I personally am looking forward to this new show and won't judge anything until I see it.

Atrocities · #83 December 5th, 2003, 06:29 AM

Geoschmo, for the era that they came from the special effects were impressive. But by todays standards they are indeed campy. Hell even effects done in the movie ID4 are weak by todays standards.

Starhawk, I did not say that they should make new costumes for actors to play in.

I said that the cost for making the original cylons in a CGI format was obviously to expensive.

I seldom understand the need to reinvent the wheel when the old wheel worked fine. Just rebuild it with current technology. I for one think that CGI rendered original Cylons, with humans cylons as well, would have worked neatly. I have seen the "new" cylon robots, and they are kinda spookly looking, but I honestly prefer the originals far more than I do the new ones.

Cheeze · #84 December 5th, 2003, 06:46 AM

I can really only remember one line from Battle Beyond the Stars:

Zador? Of the Malmouri?

I want his head.

It's also a pretty cool observation that The Seven Samurai was inspired by the spaghetti westerns. I like how Robert Vaughn, who played the cowardly character in Magnificent Seven (George Peppard's character in BBTS, I think), played the cool warrior with no fear (Yul Brynner in Magnificent Seven) in the BBTS.

EDIT NOTE: I was wrong, the spaghetti westerns followed Seven Samurai. In particular, Sergio Leone's Fistful of Dollars (adapted from Yojimbo). Kurosawa was inspired by epic westerns (films directed by John Ford in particular) when making his films, including Seven Samurai. I meant to say westerns, but I was hungry, and spaghetti slipped in there.

I'm looking forward to Battlestar Galactica. I like how the predominant weapon seems to be missiles. Guess the point-defense isn't quite that good in that universe.

[ December 05, 2003, 22:33: Message edited by: Cheeze ]

Loser · #85 December 6th, 2003, 02:21 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Cheeze:
It's also a pretty cool observation that The Seven Samurai was inspired by the spaghetti westerns.

Umm, I think it was the other way around, actually.

gregebowman · #86 December 9th, 2003, 11:11 PM

Saw the first part of the mini-series Last night. Very interesting. There were things I thought were great, and some things that might take getting used to. I wish they had shown more of the space battles. Maybe they used their budget making the models. I like the way they did portray the fights in space. Very minimal sounds, as there would be no sound in space. As a matter of fact, the only thing I remember hearing was the Cylon EMP device going off. And speaking of cylons, if more cylons looked like that one chick, I'd join Baltar. Some were griping about the cast. I thought the female Starbuck was ok, but I did notice one thing. In order to make the cast more PC, they deleted any significant black roles. Boomer is now an Asian female, and Col. Tighe is white. The only black person I noticed was the commications officer, who I think was called D or Dee. Just an observation on my part. I look forward to seeing part two tonight.

Starhawk · #87 December 9th, 2003, 11:34 PM

Indeed it was very interesting. I liked the way it seemed more real then most space shows I mean no uber phasers or loud loud noises going off all over the place.

I also enjoyed the way they showed how the Colonial fleet was defeated I mean like I said the original Cylons were so friggin incompetent that they couldn't take down one battlestar and a few straggler ships but they were able to kill a whole fleet of Battlestars and their fighters with only three stinking base stars.

Sadly though I did like the Viper Mark 3 design better then the Viper Mark 2 but the Mark 2 is the main fighter of the mini-series and hopefully upcoming full blown series. I am hoping to see some of the new battlestars (in relation to the "new" galactica) in part 2 tonight but I doubt I'll get that chance.

Atrocities · #88 December 10th, 2003, 02:17 AM

Excuse me but did you see the colonial fleet being taken out? I sure did not. I would say that this first installment of the mini series was vague if anything about just about everthing.

I did like the back history that played in, ie the tour guide guy talking about the history of the BS, and the whole president story line. How she came to power. That stuff was good writing, but the utter lack of seeing the colonial fleet, or any portion there of being attacked was very dissapointing to me.

I think the whole story line is an interesting one, I just wish they would have included more action and less comericals in the first episode of the mini series. I think the ratio was ten minutes to six. Six being show time, and ten being comerical.

I thought that most of the acting was great, although I did not buy some of it, but overall it was rather ok.

If only they had a few million more imagine what they could have done then.

[ December 10, 2003, 00:24: Message edited by: Atrocities ]

Starhawk · #89 December 10th, 2003, 03:51 AM

Well the colonial fleet was easily destroyed because if you had seen it the Cylons were able to cause entire ships to simply shut off because of their modern computer technology.

sachmo · #90 December 10th, 2003, 05:21 AM

Well I'm hooked! It's not Emmy award winning, but it looks like it's going to be fun. Some of my personal hilights:

1. Starbuck- Male or female, this is the character I always wanted "him" to be. Not that goofball from the original, but a hellraiser who can fly like the angels.

2. Space Battles- while many lament not being able to watch the rest of the fleet being defeated, I think the mini-series had just the right amount of combat. And those scenes are great!

3. Actors- some (Boomer) I could leave, but Edward James Almos as Adama is a natural fit for me. He has a presence that really sells me.

4. Story- so far, so good!