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| Genuine Full Metal Jacket with the robot Cylons in BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: BLOOD & CHROME. All images: UNIVERSAL. |
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: BLOOD & CHROME
Starring Luke Pasqualino
Written by Michael Taylor
Directed by Jonas Pate
Available on Blu-ray and DVD from 5thAugust, from UNIVERSAL HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Reviewed by Scott Weller
Out there amongst the heavens, the savage war between humanity and its now unleashed robot creations, the Cylons, wages on to its tenth year, and a bright, ambitious viper pilot, Lt. William Adama, keen to join the galaxy-spanning conflict, soon finds himself thrust into a premiere and complex top secret mission to a remote snowbound world, of which the consequences of his actions could prove paramount to the survival of all living beings. In the midst of intrigue, betrayal, and murder, failure is not an option, as BLOOD & CHROME, the epic feature-length continuance of the modern, re-imagined BATTLESTAR GALACTICA series, originally created by Glen A. Larson, arrives on UK DVD and stunning Blu-ray, courtesy of UNIVERSAL HOME ENTERTAINMENT.
Written in an evolving group effort way by Michael Taylor (story by Taylor, David Eick and Bradley Thompson and David Weddle), BLOOD & CHROME has some surprises in store, where not everything is quite what it seems, linked to both Classic and Modern GALACTICA series (as well as showing firm middle grounding between the one season running CAPRICA and the Ronald D. Moore created re-imagining), that fans will greatly enjoy. It's setting opens up lots of potential story avenues, and its great to finally see a part of the epic often talked about great war that has been so integral to the history of both series incarnations, whilst also having a chance to play in and experience a bigger universe than the one previously seen in the re-imagined series, what with the fugitive Galactica and her fleet having to escape from everything they once known and loved by the end of their original pilot.
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| The mighty Battlestar Galactica and accompanying human fleet stand defiant. |
With all of its four season duration production pieces for the weekly series sold off, the filmmakers continue their pioneering behind the scenes efforts in tackling such a big sci-fi project for the small screen by taking a leaf out of George Lucas and the Modern V series book- shooting the majority of the film against green screen, with virtual sets filling in the blanks in post production. It’s a bold move that works for the most part, resulting in 1,900 visual effects, a lot of which hold up very well in High Definition. There’s a bigger and bolder, meaner and more formidable version of our beloved Galacticawarship that stands out more than ever-armed and glistening like a true ship o’ war. Plus, there’s some nice hybrid design work with the series other key space ship icons.
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| Viper versus Cylon. Space warfare guaranteed! |
The stunning trademark intergalactic battle work, done in the previous series documentary style, remains dizzyingly right in the middle of it all prescient and enjoyable, whilst updated CGI gives us more intriguing new environments to stage ambitious action/drama (like the human’s snowbound former resort world of Djerba, now a staging base for the enemy) and alien creatures (like the impressive Cylon/snake hybrid, the Cyloth).
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| A baptism of fire for pilot William Adama (Luke Pasqualino). |
Away from the pioneering glitz and mechanics of the special effects, the very real human trio that comprise this adventure are an overall solid and likable bunch, even if they don’t yet have the allure of their previous series counterparts. Cocky and intuitive Adama, played by Luke Pasqualino, has the right looks and fiery attitude to be a future Edward James Olmos, whilst Ben Cotton and Lili Bordán provide satisfactory co-support as life-hardened Raptor flying pilot Coker (a kind of pre-Colonel Tigh figure for Adama to spar with) and Dr. Becca Kelly, the mysterious, all-important ‘cargo’ to be delivered to Djerba. Enjoyable support performances emerge from ALPHAS John Pyper Ferguson as Xander Toth, a solitary Colonial Marine who helps our trio on Djerba, and Brian Markinson, who looks good as the Galactica’s former commander, Silas Nash.
Adding subtle depth beyond the story’s visual fireworks, there’s also a nice book ending of Classic and Modern series themes by the latter's regular composer Bear McCreary.
Bonus features for the Blu-ray release are sadly a bit scarce, but there’s a worthy featurette looking at the shows genesis and its heavy effects realisation requirements from a very dedicated core group, plus thirteen nice-to-see deleted scenes from the original green screen filming.
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| Ready for battle. Adama boards his Viper. |
Its roots as a planned interactive gaming experience may show through from time to time, but BLOOD & CHROME, with its preface storytelling format, is a very enjoyable, fast and furious thrill ride continuance of the critically acclaimed series. If you’ve missed your regular fix of gritty action/character, this breezes along in its mission statement as a fun one-off, or possible primer for a future series- its ultimate long-term fate so far undecided by UNIVERSAL/ THE SYFY CHANNEL.
KOOL TV RATING (overall film and extras): 3.5 out of 5
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