DVD REVIEWS
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
(All region VCD)
Movie: * * * Repeat after me: "VCD no good". This is a phrase you'll do well to repeat
when buying suspect merchandise from obscure persons of doubtless Asian
background on flea markets like I did when I recently obtained a copy
of the excellent Princess Mononoke anime movie. VCD is a predecessor
of the DVD format and can be cheaply produced on your home PC with not
much effort. Most DVD players can play the format. A movie is usually
split over two CD disks. However, the compression used is very inferior to that of DVD, and sometimes
VCD copies can be worse than video copies - I kid you not! The image on
My Princess Mononoke copy, especially when not static can seem
as bad as some low res MPEGs you get on the Internet! That said, when
a colleague wanted to know whether I wanted Battlestar
Galactica on VCD I jumped at the opportunity: the two writeable CD
discs I bought for him to copy it unto were cheaper than what my Atlantis
DVD rental cost! Obviously ripped from the DVD, the quality on my pirated Battlestar
Galactica VCD isn't too bad. Some occasional pixelating, clear and
loud (but mono) sound. Should I have gone for a DVD rental instead? Maybe,
remember piracy is a crime, kids! However, it seems somehow apt to own
Battlestar Galactica in this way. Always a stepchild in the sci-fi
world (after all, it is an unashamed Star Wars
rip-off designed to cash in on the late-1970s sci-fi craze), I have always
had a soft spot for Battlestar Galactica. (For the uninitiated: it is a very expensive TV show that ran for two
seasons. The pilot episode was released in cinemas in both the States
and elsewhere. Its producer, Glen A. Larson, would later give the world
Knight Rider. Brrr . . .) I first saw it at a drive-in as a 12-year-old in 1979 and fell in love
with it. Hey, I was a kid and it had explosions, big loud spaceships done
by John Dykstra (who did the groundbreaking Star
Wars special effects) and shiny metal robots. Needless to say I also
religiously followed the TV series. Unfortunately the series has dated
badly. My much younger brother (22) merely rolled his eyes at me defending
the movie after watching it together. The hair styles are excruciatingly
late-Seventies, the plot has some pure layers of cheese, there's a nauseating
small kid and an even worse cute robot dog sidekick, the soundtrack features
some very bad disco music and fashion (no doubt people living in a galaxy
far away would also like the Bee Gees!), some truly bad acting and the
special effects aren't all that special anymore. Despite all this (did I mention how much even the movie's symphonic score
sounds like John Williams' for Star Wars?), nostalgia isn't a thing
of the past and I must admit to having enjoyed watching the Battlestar
Galactica movie again. WORTH IT? Only if you are in the 30-years and older age bracket,
meaning you saw this as a kid. RECOMMENDATION: I can't recommend you pirating movies, kids!
Disc: *