Battlestar Galactica - The Mini Series (2003)

68 out of 77 people found the following review helpful:

Refreshing ...

Andy Pellew from Cambridge, England, 14th September, 2004

Wow. This has to be the first time ever I've seen any 'remake' and thought that it was actually better than the original!

It's a bit formulaic (oh look, it's a sci-fi pilot and the captain is going hand-to-hand with the bad guys ... *again*), but it's an excellent introduction to the series.

Good things? The alcoholic Colonel Tie, Adama, 'nuclear missiles', the 'disaster movie' feel, Boltar, the CGI cylons, the 'human' cylons ... and tonnes of other stuff.

Bad things? Some people will hate the 'human' cylons idea, but hell Arnie got 3 films out of the human-looking-robot idea so it's obviously got something right? The whole 'baby' scene ... I guess this was just in case you mistook them for the good guys (maybe they should carry a sign), Boomer at the end, and that's it (ok the flashing red light on the front of the cylon ships).

It's not the original, it's different. If you want the originals then they're here to rent as well ... If you like the idea and want to see what someone else can do with it then this is the dvd set for you.

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52 out of 94 people found the following review helpful:

Excellent intelligent SciFi

HalB from Midlothian, 2nd March, 2005

This remake is true to the spirit of the original, and yet at the same time darker, more intelligent, more gripping and a damn sight more realistic. My wife (in general) isn’t a Sci-Fi fan but she watched this avidly… It has characters that you care about. It has documentary style camera work that makes the whole thing look like a news broadcast. The space scenes are so much more realistic than anything on other SciFi series. The performances are spot on and the script, special effects and cinematography are excellent.

Oh, and Starbuck and Boomer are women. Get over it.

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19 out of 19 people found the following review helpful:

Space Opera for telly!

TheRTW from Wiltshire, 22nd February, 2005

A superb pilot for a potentially great new series.

As a fan of the original I was expecting to hate this - Starbuck and Boomer have had gender re-assignment, the cylons are no longer silver-clad stormtrooper wanabees and there are no fluffy sidekicks anywhere to be seen. However the drama is gritty and realistic and gone is the winking at camera camp of the original.

Hopefully there's plenty more where this came from...

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15 out of 17 people found the following review helpful:

A thoughtful remake

morettat from Herts, 2nd April, 2004

I mainly rented this for curiosity value, as I couldn't really imagine why someone would remake Battlestar Galactica.

However, I was surprised to find it a very thoughtful remake of the original. A lot darker and more mysterious, but still true to the spirit of the original.

I think both fans of the original and general sci-fi viewers would find it a worthwhile rental.

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Disappointing

Tillyflop from , 10th January, 2010

My main gripe about this film is the ubiquitous underlying soundtrack - not only does it drive you mad with its repetitiveness (is this the idea to make you more receptive to the Cylons? Are they really real)! Then you have the usual team of undisciplined crew - how did they make it through training school let alone into space? The women - as usual - are clones of muscle-men. Also as usual with anything to do with spaceships everything is a depressing grey/brown/beige colour ... Oh, and wait a minute - take your time having a passionate kiss; don't bother that there is an emergency on ... As you will have gathered if you've bothered to read this far I did not like this mini-series. It is trite; unbelievable and the acting is appalling; just a run-of-the-mill space adventure - with no adventure! I did watch all of it but cancelled the rest of the series - thank goodness it was only rented and I hadn't spent a fortune on it.

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Forget the original....

Rob from Sussex, England, 29th December, 2009

It starts here. Glen A Larson has reintroduced the cheesy glam sci-fi as an epic and awesome new series. Most of the key characters remain (although with a modern makeover) and in the redux cylons has created a convincing and determind enemy. The parallels of current world affairs and the war on terror are deliberately obvious, enhancing the tension and solidly supported by fine acting and impressive special effects. I cancelled the rental of season 2, and bought the complete boxset instead......

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Great remake of a rubbish old film

BKieser from , 26th August, 2009

Forget the original Galactica which was a very poor attempt to cash in on the Star Wars fever 2 decades ago. This has only the name in common with that original disaster! This is a great introduction to a truly gripping series! You need to watch this pilot first in order to see how the whole story started, but be careful to follow the subsequent seasons and episodes in order because, like the best of the great series out there, the stories are all linked, the plot moves on and you will lose most of this incredible saga if you just nip in at random parts of the story line! This has great plot, hot women, mystery and intrigue all rolled into the mix and it's a powerful cocktail.

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believe the hype!

Davies591 from , 22nd August, 2009

Being a fan of the original back in the 70's I was very dubious, however this is without doubt one of the best modern science fiction programmes I have ever seen.

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