Battlestar Galactica

Nektonic said:
I got it for $209 at Best Buy. Normal MSRP is listed as $349, so I figure that it won't drop much more than about 200 bucks, at least not anytime soon. When I bought it last week, the price tag said $249 but they had it on sale for $209. Right now, Amazon has it for $219. Not sure if the Best Buy deal for $209 is still good, because on their site they have it listed back at $249.

I probably shouldn't have spent $209 on blu-ray's right now, but BSG is literally my favorite TV series of all time. I even enjoy it more than some of the epic film trilogies like Star Wars, Matrix, Indiana Jones. I'd even put it equal to or better than my favorite film trilogy, The Lord of the Rings.

So I figure that with the many times I plan on watching it, it is money well spent.

The only caveats I have are the disc packaging, which make the discs hard to get out, and the fact that they didn't include the season 4.0-4.5 web series The Face of the Enemy. The big box and Cylon figure are pretty nifty though.
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Not bad... maybe I'll wait until Christmas... then I can justify spending that much lol ;)

I agree though, it's great!

Speaking of LOTR, that's out in November on BD I think.
 
Brandon Rice said:
Not bad... maybe I'll wait until Christmas... then I can justify spending that much lol ;)

I agree though, it's great!

Speaking of LOTR, that's out in November on BD I think.
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Yeah, Christmas might be a good time to pick up the BSG complete set at a more reasonable price. Nothing like planetary armageddon and interstellar genocide for the holidays.

LOTR trilogy on blu is tempting, but it is only the theatrical versions of each film. Peter Jackson has recently said that they will be releasing the extended editions on blu next year.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/41838

Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if the extended blu-ray editions were delayed to tie into The Hobbit's theatrical release in 2011. I'd easily pick up the LOTR theatricals on blu if the set was $50 or less, instead of the current Amazon price of $70. We'll see if I can resist come December though.
 
Brandon Rice said:
I like the theatrical versions better anyway ;)
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I actually agree with the exception of Fellowship. On the whole I think it plays better than the theatrical, especially the relationship between Aragorn and Boromir, and the cave troll scene made more spatial sense. And the sequence with Cate Blanchett and the Elves seemed more purposeful. The other two films I vastly prefer the theatrical cuts. The added scenes felt redundant and unnecessary.
 
I recently got around to watching that Caprica movie, I liked it alot, it is a completely different type of show so just don't expect the same thing over again. Look forward to the series.
 
Batutta said:
I actually agree with the exception of Fellowship. On the whole I think it plays better than the theatrical, especially the relationship between Aragorn and Boromir, and the cave troll scene made more spatial sense. And the sequence with Cate Blanchett and the Elves seemed more purposeful. The other two films I vastly prefer the theatrical cuts. The added scenes felt redundant and unnecessary.
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I like both versions, with a little more love to the extended ones, partly because I don't own the theatrical versions on DVD. However, I still think the theatricals work just fine. I just wish they would release the blu-ray with the option to watch either version.

chriscurl said:
I recently got around to watching that Caprica movie, I liked it alot, it is a completely different type of show so just don't expect the same thing over again. Look forward to the series.
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Caprica definitely feels like it takes place in the same world/society that BSG takes place in. The biggest differences to me are the absence of the military focus and that Caprica will focus more on the Caprica City environment and not be in space.

Although, there was a Comic Con 09 interview (that I can't find now, arghhh) where Ron Moore and David Eick hinted at the possibility of getting into the First Cylon War later in the series. They also said we might get to see some of the other 12 colonies as well. That is something I always wished they could've delved into on BSG, or maybe done a spin-off series during either of the two Cylon Wars with the military and some human rebels fighting the toasters on the other colonies.
 
Ok, I watched the finale last night.... still reeling and pondering! Phenomenal!

I also started watching Caprica last night... enjoying it so far (about half an hour in)
 
Ugh. Way too early for this. Although, I'm not surprised.

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/2008-12...ger-boards-battlestar-galactica-for-universal

Seriously, they need to wait awhile before doing another remake. I've resigned myself to the fact that mainstream Hollywood has nearly lost all ability to create original content. This just drives it home.

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Update: just saw this story on SyFy Channel website (seriously SyFy, W-T-Frak?????).

http://scifiwire.com/2009/08/confirmed-bryan-singer-to.php

Universal Pictures has confirmed blog speculation that Bryan Singer, director of Valkyrie, will take on directing and producing duties for a BSG movie. Glen Larson, who created original series back in 1978, will produce as well. The film is not expected to be a continuation of current popular television show that's running on the Syfy network but will be a complete re-imagining of the sci-fi lore that was invented by Larson back in the '70s.
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So it is confirmed.
 
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Show of hands: can we start shooting people who use the expression re-imagined?

Call it what it is, Skippy: a recycling of what's long ago done and finished with because you can't imagine anything original, on your part.
 
Sad Max said:
Show of hands: can we start shooting people who use the expression re-imagined?
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I have my hand raised and my gun loaded.

Call it what it is, Skippy: a recycling of what's long ago done and finished with because you can't imagine anything original, on your part.
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I've become so desensitized to all the Hollywood remakes for the most part. So I can usually brush it off pretty easily.

What's so annoying about this one is that they haven't even bothered to go to something that has ended long ago, or even more than a year or two ago. The show ended less than six months ago. Six months. Technically, it isn't even over yet, since there is a direct to video/cable BSG movie coming this fall. Then there is the prequel series Caprica, which takes place in a completely different continuity than the old 70's version that they want to remake.

To me, this is worse than what they did with Star Trek with their whole alternate timeline/universe thing. At least they were trying to please the hard core fans. This BSG "re-I-shall-not-utter-the-word" pretty much poops all over the amazing and ground breaking series that just recently ended. Seriously, this is not unlike someone taking the Lord of the Rings trilogy sixth months after Return of the King swept the Oscars, and proclaiming, "we're gonna redo LOTR off of the Ralph Bakshi animated movie continuity. Peter Jackson's trilogy doesn't exist." (Yes, I know BSG didn't win any Emmy's, and it wasn't as big financially as LOTR, but I think in the long run scholars and historians will be more interested in and will be discussing the new BSG series over the LOTR films a hundred years from now.)

What is really sad here is that they still have the potential to make a really great version of BSG, just one that should be done at the very least 5 to 10 years from now. Instead they are piggybacking off of a landmark version of the BSG myth. Personally, I find the BSG mythos and overall story arc much more fascinating than Star Wars. I think it will endure and it should be retold, maybe even taking the basic premise and working it into a new fictional world and with a new film or TV series using different names. It is just not right that they are doing this at the expense of washing Ron Moore's amazing telling of it down the drain to make way for a big budget, and probably dumbed down version.
 
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OK, everybody...

Look, I need to say two things right away in this post: first, I don't like Ron Moore's "Battlestar Galactica." OK, no, that 's not even true: I hate Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica.

Second, I don't want to start any fights here , because I have nothing personal against any of you folks who like it. And I fully realize that I'm one of about twelve people on the face of the planet who don't like it (kind of like Matt in STL felt about Watchmen :D ), so clearly there's something wrong with me as far as y'all are concerned. :)

But here's the thing that confuzles me. The show that y'all love, is in itself a "re-imagining" of a show from 30 years ago. How, then, can you be so pissed at somebody doing another "re-imagining" of the original? Look, Ron Moore is far from the worst writer who ever worked on TNG, DS9, or VOY; and I actually love that, when he quit VOY, he actually sat down for an interview and said a lot of the same things that I'd been saying for years about why VOY sucked. But I just cannot see how anybody can like his version of Battlestar Galactica so much that you think that nobody else can "re-imagine" the show, or comment about there's nothing original in Hollywood anymore. Sorry, Nektonic (and nothing personal, dude), but if there was anything original in Hollywood anymore, Ron Moore would have come up with something original; for that matter, since his "BSG" had nothing to do with the original, he could have done the same show with a totally new name and totally new characters, and nobody would even have noticed that it was supposed to be "BSG"!!!

(Oh, and Sad Max, since I got the term re-imagined from your post, I feel the need to apologize to you, too. Nothing personal.)
 
Captain Pierce. No ill will towards you or anyone that didn't dig Ron Moore's BSG. :beer:

I am not against somebody someday doing a BSG remake or re-imagining or re-whatever term they wanna use. I just feel that Hollywood's obsession with remakes has reached a new low when a show ends and not even sixth months later, they announce a big budget remake with an A-list director of mostly comic book movies. Now, Bryan Singer has made a couple really great movies in my opinion, The Usual Suspects and Valkyrie. What worries me is that we'll be getting comic-book movie Bryan Singer here, meaning a non-serious BSG film. Hopefully, he'll balance both aspects of his past films a bit with this one. I think it could work really well that way.

Again, no ill will towards you for not liking the new BSG. But it seriously is ground breaking television. From the more realistic characters and overall feel, to the philosophical, religious, and political issues the show addressed, jaw dropping but efficient visual FX, not to mention the amazing multi-cultural score by Bear McCreary... Ron Moore's show broke the mold for sci-fi on television. Hell, not broke but shattered it. In my opinion, this series has reached a level beyond just being a TV show, but in a way it feels meta-fictional. It feels like literature. It reaches beyond and deeper than a lot of the best of classic storytelling. The score even does this. Seriously, the score for this show is excellent, almost transcendent to me. I can't imagine a big Hollywood movie taking the kinds of risks the writers, actors, and what composer Bear McCreary took over the past four years. The critical and cultural impact that the show has made is best summed up by one critic's statement that the new BSG is the most ground breaking piece of sci-fi film or television since Blade Runner. I'd have to agree.

Now, I'm not trying to convince you that you need to like it. I mean, just because something is critically acclaimed, you shouldn't feel guilty about not liking it. There is plenty of stuff that gets raves by the critics that I don't like too. I guess I just wanted to stress that the show is culturally important. It feels kinda cheap and just plain cold that Universal is going to go with a big budget version that will most likely be fun but forgettable when compared to Ron Moore's version. So it is not so much that the fans of the new BSG wouldn't eventually embrace another remake, but so soon is insulting in my opinion.

Also, this new big screen version will muddle up the continuity of the upcoming prequel series Caprica, which has the potential to be just as amazing and ground breaking as the recently ended BSG.

But not to end on a bad note, Bryan Singer was going to do a BSG show before Ron Moore took the reigns. There is some really nice looking concept art online that gives me some hope. Also, if they are going in the direction of the old series, meaning that characters like Starbuck and Boomer will probably be male again, then I suggest that they get Firefly's Nathan Fillion to play Starbuck.

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http://www.nathanschroeder.net/gal06index.shtml

Even though I'm miffed by this sudden remake, I want Bryan Singer to make the best frakin' version of BSG he can, which hopefully will be a great movie in its own right. I'm just going to remain very very very skeptical until proven wrong.
 
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My objection is primarily that there are a lot of other properties out there ripe for development, both adapted and original. The let's-endlessly-remake-the-familiar-brand doesn't impress as primarily an artistic or (shudder) creative one; it's constrained by keep it familiar because familiar has q-factor and draws eyeballs.

Yes, this is a business, and as has been observed if your business is making soap, you don't care what kind of soap, just make more soap, the more the soapier. And the more familiar the soap, the more you sell. Just business.

It's only objectionable if you look at it from the perspective of someone who hopes for innovation as a member of the audience, or perhaps from the point of view of someone who would like to work on something at least a bit original, for a change.

In spite of all that the never-shot feature grade sets for that years-back didn't-happen BSG remake in (Australia? New Zealand?) are totally drool-inducing (in a good way).

Weirdly enough I think if they were to draw upon the old novelization of the original movie they could do something cool. The book adaptation was a lot more sophisticated, than the movie itself.
 
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Sad Max said:
My objection is primarily that there are a lot of other properties out there ripe for development, both adapted and original. The let's-endlessly-remake-the-familiar-brand doesn't impress as primarily an artistic or (shudder) creative one; it's constrained by keep it familiar because familiar has q-factor and draws eyeballs.
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Oh I completely agree Max. This constant remake fad is really starting to make me both physically and mentally sick. I mean, as a bloke trying to become a writer/director, it is very hard, nearly impossible to sit down and write anything without this nagging feeling that no matter how amazing my script is, it doesn't matter. Even if I were to write a 100% perfect high concept commercially viable script and get it in the hands of the decision makers in Hollywood, they'd probably just throw it in the trash and say let's just remake this instead (fill in the blank with whatever old movie or TV show you feel is appropriate to your situation). I mean, is it even worth trying anymore?

Back to the remake craze, you're right in that there are tons of great properties that could be adapted, both original or already in another medium. We live in an age where digital effects can make just about anything possible, not to mention the amazing things that can also be accomplished with miniatures, prosthetics, and other in-camera or practical effects, all because a lot of digital clean-up tools like wire removal for example, were not available to visual effects technicians during the era of optical effects.

It's only objectionable if you look at it from the perspective of someone who hopes for innovation as a member of the audience, or perhaps from the point of view of someone who would like to work on something at least a bit original, for a change.
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Yet the Hollywood big whigs squander all this amazing potential because they are so afraid of not making ultimate profits. I've said it before and I'll say it again, business people that don't have the balls to risk the kind of money that is necessary to make films that actually do more than progress the state of special FX should be working in a different industry. They'd probably be much less stressed and would still have the opportunity to make great money.

Yes, this is a business, and as has been observed if your business is making soap, you don't care what kind of soap, just make more soap, the more the soapier. And the more familiar the soap, the more you sell. Just business.
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At least this year we've got some reprieve with District 9 and James Cameron's Avatar. Those are two original scripts that actually got made. So at least someone is making some nicer smelling soap.

In spite of all that the never-shot feature grade sets for that years-back didn't-happen BSG remake in (Australia? New Zealand?) are totally drool-inducing (in a good way).

Weirdly enough I think if they were to draw upon the old novelization of the original movie they could do something cool. The book adaptation was a lot more sophisticated, than the movie itself.
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I actually think, that for its time, the pilot movie for the original BSG was conceptually pretty good. It is when you try to actually get into watching the show itself that it starts to become painful. Do you have a link to the old novelization you're talking about?

Maybe the original movie/pilot just crumbled a bit more than it should have under the technical limitations of the time, not to mention some of the cheesier elements like the togas and the robo-dog-cat thing. I just hope that Singer and his crew flush the fraking togas out the airlock. They don't have to go as far as having suits and ties like Ron Moore did, but as long as they don't make this cheesy again, I think there will be some potential.

I'm still pissed about this remake being announced on the heels of Ron Moore's ambitious and controversial series finale. Hopefully as time passes those like me will mellow out about it, especially if Bryan Singer pulls off anything even half as much of a miracle as Ron Moore and company did with their version of BSG. Hey, I'm not all piss and vinegar.
 
I completely agree. I think that it's just far too soon. The stories are still fresh in our minds.

HOWEVER, it's not any different from other brands. I mean look at... bryan singer's superman (seeing a trend here) that happened to appear while Smallville was (and is still) running. In fact Smallville's fans were upset that singer wasn't following Smallville's storyline (that I felt was a bit rediculous though). I'm sure it's been done time and time again. I think the fact that BSG was a re-imagined, and that they ended the show for good, then another "re-imagining" is the only way for them to go.

Honestly, the complaining about re-makes is just getting tiring. I used to do it, everyone I know does it, but hey, we're still going to go see "X" film right?

Let's take a business look at things. Fact is making branded films works. Businessmen HATE investing in the film industry, and they need to know they'll get their millions and millions of dollars back, or else what's the point!? Most businessmen prefer to invest in already working companies/products. This is the exact same thing with the film industry. There's a product that works, they hire people to re-work it, they put a lot of money into advertising, and hope they make something out of it. So either it has to have a name behind it, or the director has to have a name behind them. I mean District 9 had to have Peter Jackson's name attached to it because it had a new director, new actor, and fresh storyline to it.

It sucks, but it's life, and I for one am just trying to accept it because nothing can be done.
 
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