 "Great content, TERRIBLE packaging!!!" | 2009-11-18 |
| - Reviewed By User: A33JQ5SLU6A5Z6 |
Just started to re-watch the series, its still flippin amazing. I love watching it in HD.
My only beef is the packaging. They tried to make something cool and different. It didn't work. It baffles me. I dropped $200 on Blu Ray disc set that I have to claw out of the box? I'm afraid I might scratch a disc. |
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 "Serious packaging issues." | 2009-11-08 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2D278XR2DR3IN |
This set contains all the seasons of BSG and including the movie Razor, but not Caprica or The Plan. I thought that the inclusion of Razor was a nice bonus, since I only thought the regular episodes were included. The box is quite large and overly done. The top of the box lifts up exposing the central core of character photos, kinda like your opening a futuristic computer core. There is the plastic Centurion action figure on top, it's average quality and can barely stand up on its own. The bottom part of the box is quite drab as the colorful cardstock piece falls off once the plastic wrap is removed. The blue blu-ray band and red dress of Caprica actually gives a nice contrast. The episodes are contained in four containers one on each side of the box's perimeter.
My main problem was with the containers for the episodes. The blu-ray discs are are staggered in a flip top like holder. I could barely get them out, at first I thought that the packaging was damaged as the cheap cardstock that holds them in place seemed smashed, but realized that they were all that way. The flip top lid is also held in place by an odd "rubber velcro" with is hard to secure in place. It all felt very cheap and unfortunately I didn't feel that I could store them safely on a shelf without the elaborate box. I ended up returning it for the reason of being unable to easily access the discs and the fear of scratching them since you almost need some needle nose pliers to remove them. I plan to either buy the european region free tin or await another and hopefully cheaper box set. |
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 "BSG The Complete series Bluray" | 2009-11-06 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2AKNCGS3JC8F2 |
Luckily I caught the series on sale much cheaper than the Amazon price. I would not have paid the higher price knowing I would have to repackage the set into proper DVD cases and throw away the junk packaging. It was easy to search out the BD contents on the web and piece together my own booklet containing the contents of each disc. It just took a bit of time.
The gritty grain however is just plain annoying. Very dissapointing to "dumb down" my HDTV settings so the grain isn't overwhelming. Many scenes I was looking forward to viewing in spectactular HD were so grainy and pixelated that it detracted from the viewing experience. Ron Moore in his comments actually states that he didn't get the chance to watch much of the HD version and his statement about how now we get to watch the show as it was actually meant to be seen doesn't sound convincing.
On a positive note the space battles were some of the best I've ever seen in Sci-fi tv unlike many shows and movies that cram so much action and confusion into the scenes that you can't figure out what is going on. |
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 "Taken as a whole, it's quite a series." | 2009-11-05 |
| - Reviewed By greyhater |
I remembered how awful the original Battlestar Galactica series was and really had no interest in viewing the new series when it aired. Oh, the original series had a great concept, but atrocious acting, horrible scripts, completely inane and laughable dialogue, along with amateurish special effects (or should I say one cheap special effect repeated ad nauseum) sunk it for me very early on. And the only reason I tried out this new series (via Netflix) was because of all the positive reviews. Then again, the original series also got plenty of positive reviews ... which I find impossible to even comprehend.
Let's start off with the good. The acting ranges from decent to excellent (mostly excellent, especially James Olmos). The special effects are indeed movie-worthy, the concept (obviously taken from the original, which I thought very highly of) has been refined and improved, while the scripts and dialogue are generally quite good, even thought provoking. I guess the most important thing is, this series throws many curves and sometimes shocks (at least I was shocked more than once ... and I do mean shocked!). It's certainly a far cry from the silly, cliche-ridden original, thank God. I also liked how the new series paid homage to the original by showing the older cylon robots in a few episodes. It cracked me up when I heard them say, "By your command".
Now the bad. Normally, I feel a series can sustain high quality for about 2 or 3 seasons before it begins to melt into milk toast, so I wasn't surprised that this 4-year run had several episodes that were fairly mundane ... and a few that were simply weak throw-ins. There were several times I thought I was viewing a soap opera, so it began grating on me. I'm far from being a prude, but I began to tire of all the sex, and to the point that it simply bored me. But the worst part of this series ended up being the Lee Adama character. I felt it was the weakest writing in the series ... here we have a "hero?" that is an insufferable whiner that probably should have been thrown out the airlock before the second season.
While all that does sound pretty bad, the quality episodes (and that is most of the episodes) far outweigh these negatives. This is an impressive series with some rich characters and brilliant ideas. For science-fiction (usually considered non-science, just dumb fiction), Battlestar Galactica breaks new ground, especially for television. And while I think the short-lived series, FIREFLY, was one of the best that this genre has to offer, in many ways I feel that Battlestar surpasses it (although FIREFLY was a heck of a lot more fun ... it had some really excellent and witty writing, and is still my favorite).
I bought the blu-ray version, so I feel I also need to rate the video and audio quality as well. I watched this on a Samsung 40-inch LCD with an Oppo blu-ray player. My sound system is only a 2.1 system, but high quality (a Zvox 550). That said, here are my impressions:
Video: Between 1 and 10, I give it a marginal 7 (barely 3-1/2 stars). Generally, I thought the video was very good, but it does get far too grainy at times. I understand the feeling the director wanted to convey, but this is not a series to show off stunning blu-ray quality (although there are certainly scenes that are pristine).
Audio: Between 1 and 10, I give it a marginal 9 (or 5 stars). Mostly excellent, especially the powerful drum work (while I certainly liked the entire score, I felt the drum beat was supremely effective in the scenes that used it, and added greatly to the suspense of the moment). The music and sound effects resonated and helped immerse me into each scene, and some scenes, like the creaking of the ship as well as the "back-breaking" moment, totally captivated me.
The Series: Between 1 and 10, I give this series a very solid 8 (or a high 4-star rating). The difference between this new series and the original is like a clear, sparkling stream versus a mud puddle littered with trash. Had the series not meandered around in several episodes, I would have gladly given it a 9 or higher (or a 5-star rating). As it stands, I still consider this a must-see series for sci-fi fans. I have to say that this series surprised me so much that I stopped renting after the first season and purchased the entire series.
One more note. About the packaging. If one thing is consistent in all these reviews, it is the complaints about the packaging. For me, it didn't bother me. I simply threw away the big cardboard construct and have the individual season packages on my shelf. And while it is a bit difficult getting some of the dvds to slide out, and I would have preferred protective sleeves, it really is a non-issue for me. What is an issue is not having a booklet that describes what is on each dvd. It's hard to understand why this was MIA. |
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| "INCREDIBLE SERIES, PATHETIC PACKAGING" | 2009-10-28 |
| - Reviewed By User: AMTN3ZWUOT5FF |
The show, Battlestar Galactica, will go down in history as an incredible phenomenon that inspired a new generation to love science fiction and the word "frak". I can say nothing bad about the series, I LOVED Battlestar Galactica and I cannot wait to watch the episodes over and over.
****Note: I purchased "Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Series" from FYE.com, but it is the same product. I did have one issue with my FYE order- the fourth season was missing one of the discs. I hope that was a one-time occurrence and would not be an issue to anyone who buys this. I returned the product and decided to purchase the seasons separately here on Amazon, instead.
My one issue resides with the packaging. It is poorly designed, so you will have problems finding proper placement in your media area for it. The package would appear to have a lid, but it is not really a lid. You cannot actually remove it; you can only slide it up, just enough to extract one of the season packages. The individual seasons are exactly that. The seasons are in poorly made cardboard cases, which house the dvds and nothing else. There are no episode guides (which was VERY FOOLISH, considering most people probably do not know which disk will have which of their favorite episodes, etc.), and like I've already said, the packaging is poorly designed. The Complete Series does come with one interesting item: the Centurion Cylon figurine (which, I must say, is difficult to remove from the plastic packaging on the top of the box) which didn't seem worth the purchase, but was interesting to look at.
I hope that those who love Battlestar Galactica or want to watch the show, having never seen it, will buy the dvds, but I would not recommend this product.
***Note: Although the Complete Series is cheaper than buying each season individually, the end result is worth it! I want my Battlestar Galactica dvds to last a long time (and not fall apart after a short time)! |
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| "Great, but no closed captionaing" | 2009-10-18 |
| - Reviewed By User: AZYHGY37BWFM0 |
| I bought Battlestar for my husband's birthday. He was very disappointed that it doesn't have closed captioning as he enjoys watching videos while exercising. |
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