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Which is better original V or the new version?

posted 11 years ago by MuggySphere
4 replies | jump to latest

Which is better the two original V mini series or the new one that came out a year or two ago?

I think I'll stick with the original. Was so much more fun.

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Enigmatic-Ocean 11 years ago

The 2009 version was awful! Nothing happened at all. It seemed to pick up a little bit with the additions of Marc Singer and Jane Baddler, but by that point it was too late. It's audience (which was initially huge) had left and there was no way to bring them back. The original series V and V The Final Battle (which while it was good it wasn't nearly as good as V) drew huge ratings numbers. The original V series had good ratings, but due to its budget it was a cancelled (A fate that was shared by another popular series called Battlestar Galactica). More importantly was that the original versions (though dated now) were a lot of fun and it (at the time) felt real and that the takeover was happening over a long period of time, but despite that feeling the show was never boring. It kept you on the edge of your seat. The original plan was to make a continuation of the original V, but (sadly) that was changed into the terrible series that we got.

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...

[–] dpcole7 9 years ago

The CGI was impressive, as means to cut cost while showing an idea of an expensive alien venue.

The problem is, the huge glowing interiors with the water fountains and shopping malls and other niceties was a cliché's cliché. The original miniseries strived for competent realism that people could suspend their disbelief over and the factory look to these ships only added to the ominous intent. The reboot wants to be creative but is too fantastical to swallow, and ending up laughable without even trying.

The motion control cameras to do 3D modeling of CGI in real time was often brilliant. But the plot substance was not there.

The Badler episode I'd seen was so-so, though the big arena with the big "V" letter on it was more laughable - using meta is not being clever or original. The CGI tail was okay, but I didn't care about the characters or what was going on. The CGI could have been photorealistically precise and perfect and that wouldn't have made a difference either.

[–] dpcole7 9 years ago

The new version squanders the legacy, adds nothing new, and isn't written with the same level of intellect. The pilot alone has enough logic gaffes to be off-putting. It's a typical reboot - taking the brand name and trying to live off that. Combined with cheap political shots; at least the original stuck to bona fide parallels (not even Nazis, just fascism in general) as opposed to petty politicking (clear nods to then-modern politicians were obvious and cloying).

If they were to do a reboot nowadays, keep the spirit of the original but then replace TFB with Kenneth Johnson's original ideas.

TFB has a lot of idiocy in its writing with the contrived passcard with technology that I doubt the Visitors freely gave away to the human rebels thanks to how all the 5th Column Visitors tend to behave to their human friends, escapes and recaptures, the B-level subplot with the alien baby, the alien baby's idiotic magical powers, the doomsday device cliche (and yet the red dust situation was well thought out, even into the ill-fated 1984-85 show.)

But considering the original V made the alien menace big and unstoppable, whereas the reboot had the dart flinging globe and sword fights that rendered the new visitors somewhat less than imposing and more an ill-thought out generic group of bad guys, that is why the contrivances and issues in TFB don't kill the deal as much as the reboot (and from the very get-go, no less)...