V | Humankind’s Last Stand | The Original Miniseries

At this point, I’ve watched the first episode of ABC’s new scifi series of the same name.  All I really know is the premise:  huge space ships are hovering over the major cities of Earth.  Aliens have landed, claiming to bring peace, but what they really want to do is eat everyone.  Not usually my thing, but the new series looks nice.

It was my mother who brought my attention to the original miniseries.  Actually, she bought the miniseries, the sequel film, and the television series that followed.

I figured, I do commentaries for books, why not do them for movies as well?  They are for my benefit after-all, and if it gets you interested in checking it out, all the better.

The miniseries is a little over three hours long, but (I assume) it’s broken up into episodes.  However, I’m not sure, since I’ve never watched a miniseries from the eighties before.  Haha.  So, I’m not sure how I’m going to write this.  I can’t go chapter by chapter like books.  Since it’s a DVD, maybe I’ll give the current minute count when I have something to say.  That sounds good.  Here we go!

Disc One

+00:01:15

“To the heroism of Resistance Fighters–past, present, and future–this work is respectfully dedicated.”  War.  It’s always about war.  I suppose I’m a resistance fighter in my own right.  I resist fighting.

+00:12:54

“Ray Bradbury was just on with Arthur C. Clarke“…haha!  They would be the experts for this kind of thing, wouldn’t they?  So far everything is pretty much the same as the new series began.  Sans El Salvidor stuff.

+00:30:13

Haha!  Of course they have a marching band that play’s the Star Wars theme!

+00:37:00

Well, the archeologist is dead.  Serves him right for messing with alien reptiles.

+00:37:23

I wonder if they thought those glasses were cool in the 80s?

+00:42:27

Hrm.  Did they burn the archeologist?  Something burned in his car, that’s for sure.  I wonder if it’s a chemical combination…like some people guess that Dragons might be able to spit fire chemically.  That is, if Dragons were real of course.  And of course they are!

+00:48: 35

Totally siding with him on this one, because she’s not making any sense.  She wants him to stop being a cool Dad because she can’t “compete?” What?

+00:50:07

Another death.  Laser gun.  Figures.

+01:00:44

Omigod, my mom’s an ALIEN!  According to this, alien’s are left-handed, and my mother’s a lefty!  EAP!  And Aliens playing Atari!  Amusing.

+01:09:13

I love old special effects.  I wonder if they looked fake in the 80s.  I know when I watch movies I loved as a kid, the effects don’t seem as “real” as they once were.  I do love seeing how they dealt with them though.  All these prosthetics, I would hate to be the actor who has to get up 5 hours early just for that makeup.

+01:43:06

Death number 4.  Oh yes, the doctor can die!

Disc Two

+00:09:19

Is Robert Englund actually playing one of the GOOD V’s?  It seems to be.  Although, I don’t think we’ve seen any good V’s in the miniseries yet.

+00:16:49

At this point, I’m wondering what the V’s motives are.  They haven’t said yet.  My mum says they eat people.  We’ve seen them kill bunches of them, and they’ve definitely taken over everything.  No one has said or even wondered WHY the V’s would do this yet.  Come to think of it, no one’s motives are clear.  This whole anti-scientist crap is contrived too.  Gotta love the 80s.  They wouldn’t be able to get away with this today…oh wait…there is War of the Worlds.

+00:29:00

The first official good V’s.  They wasted a lot of time.  Got them out and about in the first episode of the new series.

+01:00:00

Okay, so it’s about water.  They want all the water and to kill humanity.  Great.  A little late though.  Where did my mother get eating people from?  I keep telling her all these “end of the world” flicks are the same.  She even gets confused about which aliens do what.

+01:04:00

I spoke too soon.  They do want to eat us.  My mother is still nutzo though.  Haha.  I won’t be watching the sequel or the series.  I MAY watch the new series on ABC, but I won’t be commentating.

End of Film Thoughts

Mom SWEARS it gets better.  She thinks this is awesome.  I think it’s the same as every other SciFi C-Movie…yeah, not even B-Movie.  The new series seems to be an improvement.  I still don’t think I need to waste my time with the next movie or the show.  Although it was fun seeing scary German guy do other projects.

Anyone else think I should continue on?  Tell me what YOU thought of V.