 A whole new level |
| Review Date: May 29, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Susan M, California, USA |
| We were hesitant to watch SGU because of all the negative reviews but we gave it a try anyway and are glad we did. The most important part of any show is the story. Add all the special effects you want but it won't make the show. SGU has a great story line and mystery. Ignore the bad reviews and judge for yourself. We are certainly glad we did. |
Great New Entry In The Stargate Franchise
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| Review Date: January 2, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Jonathan Griffith, Owensboro, KY USA |
| First I hate when dvd companies do this and release only half seasons at a time however expirence has shown (BSG) that half seasons is all you get untill a complete series set. So in this case I ask myself is it worth it? IMHO it is. I was skeptical but Stargate Universe is a great new addition to the Franchise. There are a few kinks to be worked out as is to be expected but in general a great show, I love the darker direction of the show and how it is more focused on the characters and situations than aliens all the time. We still get plenty of action and drama and IMO SGU is definitely worth owning on blu ray even as half a season. |
Review of the show, not the price ... Not your daddy's Stargate!
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| Review Date: February 13, 2010 |
| Reviewer: James D. Smith, Milwaukee, WI United States |
I will get the price point stuff out of the way before getting on to my review of the show. SyFy pioneered the approach of splitting a season in half. It allows for versatility for actors to pursue multiple projects and allows for stretching out writing deadlines. It also allows them to release more DVDs (or in my case Blu-rays) more often. They charge what people are willing to pay. If people don't buy at the current price, it will come down. I guess those of us who are buying at this price are messing it up for the rest (I paid under $40 on Amazon and was happy with that ... for those of you who don't want to pay, there is always that video-rental-by-mail service).
THE REVIEW
I was one of those viewers who took a while to warm up to SGU.The concept seemed fine at first, new galaxy, new bad guys, hey, new Stargate! As the series started I suddenly realized that this would be a very different kind of Stargate. To understand this, lets take a quick look back at the previous incarnations of Stargate.
Stargate SG-1(Stargate SG-1: The Complete Series Collection) was a science fiction episodic action series. Although there were story arcs, each day's adventure was wrapped up in an hour less time for commercials, for the most part. It had all of the hallmarks of your basic action series. A wise-craking action hero lead, a hot female costar to add sexual tenson, the bad guy turned good and the brainy geek who becomes a hero. The characters you were presented with in episode one are pretty much unchanged by the end of the series (just older, but pretty much unchanged in their personality and demeanor - and before you say Daniel changed ... that is part of the recipe ... he had to change). Wow, can you get more stereotypical than that? But guess what? It worked. It appealed to people's basic desires in a show, required very little actual brainwork to watch, and at the end of the hour, more often than not, you walked away with a good feeling knowing that the bad guys lost, the good guys won, and the universe has been saved once more.
Stargate Atlantis (Stargate Atlantis: The Complete Series Collection) was very much like SG-1, except it started to weave in a little more drama. Not much, but a little, usually seen in the fact that endings were left more amiguous, episodes were more interconnected, and more episodes focused in individuals and relationships. Mostly SGA suffered from a problem with cast stability and some poor decisions by the producers in thinking they could do better with Amanda Tapping's Colonel Carter than with Tori Higginson's Dr. Wier running Atlantis. Sadly, this was not the case, and the diminished audience between SG-1 and SGA was never erased. In the end, SGA was everything it could be, and in it's own right it was the little brother or sister that lives in the shadow of the older sibling. That is how it started, and that is how it ended.
Now we come to Stargate Universe (Stargate SG-U: 1.0 [Blu-ray]). Stargate Universe is a completely different paradigm for the Stargate franchise. Kind of like when Star Trek Deep Space Nine put the Star Trek franchise on an unmoving space station. There was resistance at first. Die hard trekkers hated it ... but eventually, they warmed up to it enough that it had a solid seven-season run. So what is different about SGU? First: it is a sci fi DRAMA, not action series. There are no "bad guys" so to speak. Good guys and bad guys are the products of the good and evil the characters carry around in their own hearts. The adventure in SGU is not traveling the universe and saving it, it is survival against the odds. The show focuses more on character development and how people react to situations thay can only barely control. There will be more relationships (we have seen those already), more jealousy, more situations where someone is definately with the wrong person ... and before you say "Melrose Place in Space", understand this: Stargate SG-1 started in 1997. If you were 15 when you started watchign SG-1, you would be 27 now. Most people, change and grow during that amount of time, and your tastes (theoretically) should have matured away fromthe action adventure genre and more towards the drama genre.
So , what does SGU have? It has Nicholas Rush! Definately the lead character, but somewhat of an anti-hero. His motives are constantly questioned, because face it they ARE questionable. He has the common fault of most geniouses: "you wouldn't understand it, so I won't bother explaining it to you or even telling you about it". He constantly underestimates people around him, and feels superior to them in every way. He believes that brains will eventually defeat brawn, which hopefully he will now start to question after the events of "Justice".
It has an ambiguous military structure. You have Co. Young and Lt. Scott, both of whom are the rugged action hero type, one tempered by age and experience, the other ... not so much. Different people look to one or the other of them for leadership. While Lt. Scott obviously deferes to Col. Young in that area, you can just see that issue will take center stage eventually.
It has hot women. Chloe, Lt. Johanson and Lt. James spring to mind quickly, and although Chloe is the obvious main sexpot of the series, the producers aren't putting all of their eggs in one basket. They know different men prefer different types of women, and if you don't like a 23 year old hottie, why not a statuesque blonde of Scandanavian descent, or a brunette who looks like she could have wandered in off the pages of an Eddie Bauer catalog? (that is, if Eddie Bauer sold fatigues)
It has Destiny! I think that even more than the people, the central charachter is the ship. Destiny is, in the truest sense every nerd's dream. Kind of like the prom date who plays hard to get, Destiny sems unwilling to give in to the advances of the team as they try to learn her secrets, both for the purpose of survival, and for the voyage home.
Stargate Universe is not your daddy's Stargate. It is darker, grittier, and more dramatic ... it is more, well, human. SG-1 showed us how we would want to be if we suddenly ended up with alien technology to play with. SGU shows how we WOULD be. It is a mirror of the viewer, and if you don't like it, it probably showed you something in yourself that you don't like. |
SGU is very good.
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| Review Date: February 9, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Allen Straith, |
| SGU is very good tv show. Its the first Sci Fi drama i actually enjoy watching. While everyone is complaining about the splitting the DVD up, for all we know they will come out with a big set later. However i like the the special features here. I like how i can watch my favorite sci fi show in true HD and catch up on it before the rest of the season happens. But regular season dvd can run up to 60-70 dollars. I will be paying 38.99 for a blu-ray, times that by two its about the same, is'nt? |
Awesome!
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| Review Date: April 11, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Marsbar, Pahrump, N.V. USA |
This was so much better than I was expecting! The extended 1st episode had so much more content. And the Blu-ray Edition was great. everything was so clear. It felt like they were in my living room. I love Blu-ray!
I'm hoping they keep the price low as I do not like buying 1/2 seasons. But otherwise I loved watching this on Blu-ray! I will watch this again and again! Keep up the good work Syfy! |
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