Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome - Grading & Discussion

[Agent Richard07]

I finally saw the unrated version on blu-ray, profanity and all. So here we go…

- The movie was quite visually stunning. It looked fantastic for a greenscreen web series. The integration of live actors with cgi scenery and effects was seamless in almost every instance. This wasn't "Battlestar Sanctuary" as I feared it would be. The only thing I didn't like were the lens flares and the brightness at the beginning. That was distracting.

- The story was pretty weak. If Caprica had too much drama and no action, this was the opposite… Too much action and no drama. You don't solve a problem by going to the opposite extreme. If this went to series, I think it would have become another single-season show. Things did pick up story wise in the last 15 minutes though. I also liked the question asked at the beginning… "Why do they hate us?"

- All the action was making me appreciate Caprica a little more and wanting to check it out again.

- Luke Pasqualino was good. I didn't have any issues with him or his size. I did take note of him being eclipsed by Mike Dopud though. Olmos was never a big man anyway, but he had a big presence and Pasqualino had enough energy to keep the action moving and make me believe that he was a young Adama.

- It's nice to have a taste of the war as part of the saga even if the story was weak.

- I do wish we could find out what became of the Graystones and their company. Creating a race of genocidal robots is a pretty big deal and I'd love to know what the fallout from that was like. I especially want to know what happened to Zoe.

- The movie I bought included both a DVD and a blu-ray version. I wonder why they did that. There's also 29 minutes of deleted scenes. I'll have to watch those when I can.

Sindatur wrote:

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One thing I was hoping for if a Series lasted 2 or 3 (or more) seasons was for them to put Luke Paqualino on a "Bulk Up" regimen, and see him gain muscle and slowly morph the "Punk Kid Adama" into the personality/style of EJO Adama

And have him gargle with rocks to get the voice?

BenRoethig wrote:

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With the exception of Brian Markinson who was a regular in Caprica, I don't have a problem with reusing actors as long as the Character is very different.

Kegg wrote:

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Honestly the only actor I've recognized so far is Brian Markinson, and that's only because he has a role on Continuum (yet another sci-fi series shot in Vancouver, but one of the few also set in Vancouver). This probably just reflects that it's been over a year since I've watched anything BSG related.

He's in everything. He's the new Callum Keith Rennie.

pst wrote:

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tricia helfer has said she has some involvement in B&C and we've seen concept artwork of a half human-half cylon being, so think in terms of that.

So that was her voice.

Mutenroshi wrote:

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The sex scene was obviously left out. It'll probably be on the blu-ray in February.

The sex was pretty tame on the blu-ray. Brief and little skin outside of Adama with his shirt off. I didn't see what it was like in the webisode.

[Sindatur]

Agent Richard07 wrote:

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And have him gargle with rocks to get the voice?

Nothing wrong with a little dedication from an actor who goes the extra mile to get a part just right

[Awesome Possum]

I think they should have gotten the actor who played young Adama in Razor, he was a lot more believable in the role.

Also I'd rather have more stuff about the period before the war itself. What caused the war? Did the Cylons actually strike first?

[Ethros]

Razor came out five years before B&C remember? And that was Adama at the end of the war, this is him at the beginning.
Actors do age too you know

[Hartzilla2007]

Awesome Possum wrote:

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Also I'd rather have more stuff about the period before the war itself.

I'd go with a DTD feture fr that because aprica moved that plot way to freking slow for my tastes.

What caused the war?

The whole Cylons being slaves of the humans thing.

Did the Cylons actually strike first?

Well that is implied to be the case.

[Awesome Possum]

They seemed to have been using Cylons for a while before they rebelled, at least enough time to build a lot and for them to become a regular part of life in the colonies. Based on Caprica, they were introduced to religion which may have inspired them to want to be free and turn on humanity. But I want to see the moment that they had enough. I want to know if it was a planned event or a single incident that started the rebellion.

[Enterprise is Great]

I finally got around to seeing this and it was pretty good. The virtual sets are rather distracting though and the effects are a little too video gamey. They just don't appear as real as the BSG effects did. Luke Pasqualino was better than i thought he'd be though his features seem a bit soft for Adama. He got the fighter pilot cockiness down but he's not quite bad ass enough. Though to be fair he just graduated from the Academy so he's supposed to be not there yet but still i would've thought that the younger Adama would still have that edge. The music is awesome as always of course.

[Hartzilla2007]

Well i finally watched the DVD version and I have to ask, why didn't they keep the version of the title from the webisode version? it looked better.

[Marcus Porcius Cato]

So that it then... this is the end of NuBSG as a viable franchise.

[Samuel Walters]

nuBSG hasn't been a viable franchise since New Caprica.

(Yes, that's a bit of hyperbole ... but only a little. )

[Marcus Porcius Cato]

Samuel Walters wrote:

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nuBSG hasn't been a viable franchise since New Caprica.

(Yes, that's a bit of hyperbole ... but only a little. )

What I mean is that this is the end of new product, Period. For me B&C was concept taken one step too far... but it is still sad to see the end of the era.

[Ar-Pharazon]

If enough of us buy the DVD's & blu-rays, they would have to rethink, right? That is, if syfy ever thinks.

The gist of the earlier part of the thread was how cheap (comparatively) it was to make B&C. The thing would be, if they do another chapter, they should keep it off youtube & just sell the DVD's & blu-rays.

[CorporalCaptain]

If my grandmother had wheels.

Ain't happening. The discs won't sell nearly enough fast enough.

[lvsxy808]

Just caught this now on AppleTV. Posting this first before I read anybody else's comments, so if I duplicate I apologize.

Not massively blown away. It was certainly gorgeously produced, and the young Adama was certainly pretty. But the story was kind of a big fat zero.

Right in the first 15 minutes, the whole thing was coming across as so hugely cliched that I was thinking "I could write better than this." The stock characters and the set-up were so obvious.

• The cocky rookie who wants to prove himself.
• The grizzled veteran who is due to retire in two weeks.
• The instant love interest with a tragic past and a secret.
• The hero who is worshipped by the noob but it's all a lie.
• The crazy guy with the wild eyes who snaps.

How many millions of action movies have had exactly that same set-up? No originality there at all. And the plot didn't seem to fare any better - the ultimate message was "sometimes soldiers have do questionable things in war, but we shouldn't tell the public about it." Is that really a message that needed to be told at this point in world history? Do we not already know that?

And the casting - I get that a producer likes to give jobs to people who they like and who have worked for them before, and they know to be reliable. But when no less than seven of the cast have been in BSG productions before, it just breaks your sense of reality, your suspension of disbelief. All I could think was, "Oh, he's been in this," or "she's been in that." Across entirely different shows is one thing, but playing two separate characters in the same universe set only 40 years apart is too much for me to accept.

When the Osiris sacrificed itself oh-so-emotionally-and-inspiringly against the enemy, I began to wonder if they had deliberately placed familiar actors in those roles as some kind of narrative shortcut - we would care more about the deaths of these people, not because of the characters themselves but simply because they were played by the same actors as characters we had previously cared about. But then the script had been blatantly manipulative already - the lead has sex with the love interest (by a roaring fire no less) before she betrays him, the pilot learns he has a child just before he dies in battle, and so on.

So all in all, it was well produced and well enough performed, but I wasn't entirely sure that the thing needed to exist at all. It was entertaining enough I suppose - I don't regret the five pounds I spent to rent it - but I felt there was simply more content, more story, more reason to exist in Razor, Caprica and The Plan.

.

[Saul]

From the BSG miniseries

• The cocky rookie who wants to prove himself.

Starbuck.

• The grizzled veteran who is due to retire in two weeks.

Tigh and Adama.

• The instant love interest with a tragic past and a secret.

Lee and Starbuck.

• The hero who is worshipped by the noob but it's all a lie.

Gaius Baltar by Gaeta

• The crazy guy with the wild eyes who snaps

Baltar. Or Adama with a flashlight.