Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome [Blu-ray]

I feel your pain my friends but the only way this could've become a series is if it were sold to TNT or perhaps AMC! They are the only channels showing anything bold or even remotely considered sci-fi. That would be a show called "Falling Skies", the single closest thing to sci-fi on American television. Shame. The actual SYFY channel has completely abandoned all things science fiction. A few years ago MGM was taken over by new management and they immediately decided to cancel the following: SG:A, SG:U, the new SG-1 movie (SG: Revolution), and the new SG:A movie (SGA: Extinction). As long as this current bunch of skin-jobs is in charge we will never get real sci-fi. Instead we get a steady diet of rediculous monster movies with horrible acting and direction. We get fed one ghost hunting show after another. We're up to 5 of those shows now right? Oh and my personal favorite - wresting. Wrestling? What the fraaaaak? I just cant wait to see steroid injected men all greased up in baby oil throwing eachother around for a buck. Yup. That qualifies as sci-fi now folks. Unfortunately for us "real fans", we will never see a full blown BSG: B&C series. Not while those circle jerkers are in charge...! ...............UPDATE (3-20-13)................. I finally got a chance to watch this pilot/movie for the first time and mow im pipping mad! I cant believe America has given up on all things science fiction and let this one go. BSG:B&C is nothing short of spectacular. The story is compelling, with a bit of a callback to G. Baltar of the origanal series. They really know how to perfectly cast the BSG universe with the makers recasting many BSG/Caprica alumni. Us real fans will identify them immediatly. The new faces are top picks as well including the guy playing young (and dumb) Adama. The picture quality is brutally sharp and crisp on Blu-ray disc. The audio is big and precise, as I expected, especially for those of us with surround sound systems (Definitive Technology 8.2). The CG effects for Blood & Chrome are only rivaled in the movies! A small gripe for us computer animators - we'll instantly notice the underdeveloped dynamics programing and very quick decay rates on those effects but other than that it's all top grade stuff. I understand that the action-packed nature of the pilot/movie is to give the viewers a glimps of the kind of quality and intensity the show has to offer with following episodes. To bad that's not going to happen. I will forever be se stunned at how something this amazing will never get off the ground. We have screwed ourselves out of truly brilliant story telling. Again. I was hoping for Bryan Singer's BSG movie to get going but I suspect after he sees this he might give up on it. Blood & Chrome is just that good!

This was 1 1/2 hours of awesome. It took me back to the BSG re-imagined mini-series and reminded me how a solid beginning can lead to great things. It's a shame this wasn't turned into a TV series as originally intended, only becoming a web series and "TV Movie". It has amazing potential. After all, we know basics about the first Cylon war, but the specifics? All the large-scale battles and small-scale special operations? All the people who became legends during it? The evolution of all the cylon human and non-human models? Nope, we haven't seen all that. We WANT to see it. But Syfy is all about ghost stories, reality shows, and wrestling. WRESTLING!? On SyFy? How about we change the name back to SciFi, bring back BSG as a full prequel that takes place during the first Cylon War, bring back Firefly to pick up 5-10 years after the events of Serenity, and show old episodes of Farscape, Trek, & the various StarGate offerings? Oh, that's because SyFy has gone the way of MTV. The name no longer represents the programming. It's a random hodgepodge of crap that has forever removed the SyFy channel # from my brain's rolodex. Maybe AMC or TNT would take it? Or Starz...Seriously. The best shows these days are on HBO (Game of Thrones, Deadwood, True Blood, Eastbound & Down), Showtime (Dexter, Californication, Shameless, The Borgias), & Starz (Spartacus) But I digress..Blood & Chrome is well worth the 3.99 if you're renting it, or 14.99 to keep it. IF I knew they were making a series of it, I'd buy it.

Pretty good movie. Kind of fills a gap in the overall story. A little short. Enjoyable.

Trying to piggyback off the success and cult following of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica series from Ron Moore, Blood & Chrome gives us the story of a young William Adama and his first mission as a member of the Colonial fleet. Fresh out of the academy, Adama (played by Luke Pasqualino) is assigned to the powerful battlestar Galactica, where he's met with contention from his co-pilot Coker (Ben Cotton), and is assigned to escort a beautiful but mysterious woman (Lili Bordan) on a secret mission. Originally shown in small "webisodes" online, almost every shot from Blood & Chrome was done on green screen. The result is A LOT of CGI, most of which looks really great. The space and aerial battles especially look marvelous, and the few Cylons you see look really good as well. There were a few action and landscape shots I thought looked kind of cheap but overall, when you consider almost the entire show was created in post-production, the effects rival a lot of shows on TV today and look very similar to those seen on the BSG series. Blood & Chrome was created with hopes of getting a series order in mind, which probably won't happen, and because of this the story and character development felt rushed to me. There's really only the three main characters, none of which I really got attached to, and a few other supporting characters that had a few lines. Perhaps because the creators thought they would get a series out of the show, they were going to save some of the backstory and further development for later. However, as it stands the 90 minute show doesn't really tell you much about who these characters are or what brought them to the Galactica. It also didn't help that the cast is made up of relatively unknown actors who, thought they try, don't have the chops to keep up with the actors from the reimagined BSG series. The story was fun and engaging, I just wish there had been more depth. The Bluray set comes with DVD and digital copies, as well as a few extras including a bunch of deleted scenes and a making-of featurette that delves into the visual effects created for Blood and Chrome. This behind-the-scenes feature is quite interesting to watch as it interviews most of the people involved in the creative process behind the special and gives some awesome insight into the development and creation of making a show that's most computer generated. If you're a fan of the Ron Moore, series I would definitely check this out. It's not quite up to par with the series but is still a fun adventure that will make you want to revisit the sci-fi series. On a side note, the 188 minutes Amazon lists as the running time is inaccurate; the feature itself is around 90 minutes and I think Amazon added the Bluray and DVD discs together.

I hated the BSG remake; Razor was a nice separate effort, but generally - unlike so many viewers out there, I simply did not like the second BSG series. That, reader, is caveat one. Caveat two: Witness the smoking crater left behind by Lucas' Star Wars prequels. Yes, you must. Many viewers felt that performances were flat and appearances were off when actors simply moved in front of a greenscreen. Somehow, the result felt as flat as a weather report. Since all the physical sets for BSG II were struck and sold off years ago, everything in Blood and Chrome would have to be done in prequel fashion - all against a greenscreen. Hmm... caveat three: Many viewers compare Blood and Chrome's geeky young Adama unfavorably with the husky Husker shown in Razor years ago. They point out that impetuous young pilots are a cliche. True and true, but remember that Blood and Chrome features Adama senior on his first mission out of the Academy. His physical and emotional type is therefore apt. Some hate the "video game feel" of Blood and Chrome. Indeed, Blood and Chrome was originally meant to BE a video game, but just grew and grew. So how can I like it? Let me tell you. First, the look: I hated the hastily-constructed sets of the second series with a passion. They lacked detail and texture. Since the premise involved humanity eschewing computerization due to the possibility of Cylon infiltration, all that glorious "electronic wallpaper" that ol' sci-fi consumers like me like simply wasn't there. In Blood and Chrome, the effects designers weren't constrained by physical or budgetary constraints on sets. The wartime hanger bay and bridge are feasts for the eyes, making the second series' sets seem even more wretched in comparison. Second, the plot emphasis: BSG - in any iteration - should be a war story, not a prime-time soap opera. The endless exposition of the second series, leavened only with a small sprinkle of nice exterior effects shots here and there, is reversed here. This is wall-to-wall action. If your preferred entertainment is to see endless human/human, human/Cylon, and Cylon/Cylon bickering (the holy "conflict" espoused by embittered Trek expatriates like Moore), it is not central here. Don't worry; there's plenty of moral ambiguity in Blood and Chrome, but it's not virtually the only thing. An extended dogfight inside a space wreck does feel "gamey," but many a good film adaptation feels "stagey;" it doesn't ruin the entertainment value of the film. Third, the antagonism between the sexes in Blood and Chrome is more tolerable than in the second series. There is better balance here, with no Starbuckette chewing the scenery. Inevitably, there is a flitting appearance by a proto-Number Six, mouthing her holier-than-thou's, but not enough to ruin the recipe. So if your tastes are like mine, enjoy. If not, just pop the second series into the player and have some ice cream.

I loved this as the plot was outstanding and it even hooked up the Pilot ep of the Battlestar Series to this. I'm scrabling to find my Premier Episode Disk of the series, just to see his Viper that they brought back to the Battlestar's Museum. The title "Husker" never made sense and to see it as a term of derision and then later a call sign was great!!! You see where Adama become jaded and that too was part of the series that made it "human". Too bad the folks who run the SCI-Fi Channel will run something like this as a one off, but not sign on anymore for a full Sci FI series that isn't Monsters or Vampires. This series was such a refreshing change from "SyFy". I'm sorry, buy Sigh is more like what the channel has become, outside of this. I know this was mostly CGI, but it was done so well that in my book, it set a new standard. Where an episode might have 10-13 scenes that were entirely CGI, this was all done in Green Screen and then later the Galaxy or the large landing bay was created behind it. This series could be recreated on the cheap, using CGI instead of sets and still draw me to watch it 2-3 times on TV and then go buy the DVD. I couldn't be happier with my DVD, unless it were to carry more hours of the series than the DVD has.

This is a difficult review as I am a massive fan of Battlestar Galactica, and would argue it is one of the best series of all time. The entire series, all four seasons, including the standalone films Razor and The Plan, fill a world out like no other. Sadly, Blood & Chrome is beyond low budget and adds next to nothing to the BSG universe. Actually, as countless others have said, it kind of takes away from it as it flies in the face of continuity that has been established and will leave true fans scratching their heads. I have never been one of those that is against blue and/or green screen as I think it can look outstanding and often keep the budget down. Here, though, it's humiliating. The lense flare is laughable as it is in every single scene at a level that boggles the mind. Had that been taken out, I wonder if it would have been much more watchable. The story itself is not bad, but, again, does it fit into the established universe? I'd argue the IDEA shown does but the execution of it does not. In the end, do you like BSG? Then you owe it to yourself to own the four seasons and Razor and The Plan. Blood & Chrome can go either way, almost like flipping a coin. If you wish to complete your collection, then, of course, pick this up and hopefully you will enjoy it, but if you do not get it, you really never need wonder what you missed as you missed nothing.

I f you liked the original series this is a nice re-visit. Much more potential as a pilot than the Caprica series, however best stands as a stand alone movie and nothing more. I don't feel that either premise was the correct approach to spinning off the BSGjr series, but B&C had a lot more action and promise. I understand that with Caprica they were trying to slow the pacing down from the base series and with B&C they were trying to speed up the action. Maybe the story has been told and there is not a cogent alternative to the original series. But I would think if you have a pacing that worked and garnered good reviews that your probably best to stick with that. As far as green screening everything, I suppose it was ok for a pilot, but the idea they had to do the entire series this way was seriously flawed. I hope that NEVER happens with any series. (I wrote a comedy play for a youtube series about this type of premise a few years ago. Never thought I would see it actually happen in my lifetime.) BSG:The Plan was the best BSG extra so far IMO. Maybe Olmos should be the one working on a spin-off instead of Ron Moore,