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Good concept, poorly executed.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I quite enjoyed this film, so at first it may seem strange that I only gave it 5 stars, but there is an explanation for that. The story is original and intriguing, and the special effects are good with great model work and vector based computer graphics. You get more than two hours of worth while space adventure, but there are a couple of things that makes me to deduct a star or two. Many of the special effects scenes, while gorgeous, are reused more than once in the film, which is sometimes a bit of a distraction. Especially a couple of times where whats taking place in the story does not match the reused effects scene. Also, as this is essentially a TV-show tie-in, the movie ends somewhat abrupt leaving a bit of an empty feeling if you do not plan on watching the show. It can definitely be watched on its own though, and it is possible to look past the things i mentioned here, but my rating here has to be fair and comparable to other movies in the genre. The obvious comparison is Star Wars which came out the year before, and Battlestar Galactica the movie is definitely not near that level overall. I would recommend any sci-fi fan to watch Battlestar Galactica.

The above statement, from the patriarchal Commander Adama (Lorne Green) sums up this show quite nicely. Adama has to lead the last survivors of humanity from the Twelve Colonies of Kobol to a long-lost mythic planet called Earth, home of the 13th Tribe, after the colonies are attacked by the robotic and clumsy Cylons, who strafe a city or two and kill at least one dog.The first part of Adama's statement is fair enough. Clearly another solar system would be located beyond your own solar system. Oh, but it's also in a different galaxy? You might as well say that the restaurant you're trying to find is "Just down the street, in another country". I wonder if the writers knew what they were talking about."Galactica" is full of moments like this. The Vipers, the little fighter planes our heroes fly into battle, have enormous fiery exhaust trails, implying constant acceleration, the effect of which would be to reduce our heroes to strawberry jam. (The Vipers themselves look like hastily cobbled-together knock-offs of the X-wings from "Star Wars"). Their cockpits even have a little instrument on the dashboard telling the pilot which way is "up" -- in space.The villains of the show are the infamous Cylons, renowned in the realm of televised science fiction as the dumbest, clumsiest, and most ridiculous-looking villains ever. It's to be expected that they can't shoot, but these chrome-plated robots can barely walk. According to Lorne Green, the Cylons are just plain evil, but I'm not sure "evil robots" is all that meaningful, although I did have an evil calculator once. I'm never quite sure whether the Cylons had an organic counterpart who created them, but it doesn't really matter.In many ways this show is a shallow imitation of "Star Wars," and this can be seen in the cast of characters. Particularly Starbuck (Dirk Benedict), who tries so hard to be Han Solo, but only comes off as petulant, sexist, and rather pathetic. Apollo is the noble, Luke Skywalker hero type, and as such doesn't have a personality. Starbuck has a faithful black sidekick, Boomer, who seems to be much more competent than Starbuck. Adama also has a faithful black sidekick, called Colonel Tigh, who at one point is reduced to picking up everyone's laundry. Take that, Civil Rights Movement!The destruction of the human colonies is a brief, and amazingly painless affair. A park is strafed by Cylon ships, and a small dog is killed (though the actual death is not shown, so we are left with some hope). Soon enough, our heroes have forgotten all about the genocide: Starbuck tries to get it on with two equally boring women, and Apollo enters into a creepy relationship with the little boy whose dog was maybe killed (though it might be slightly less creepy if you consider he was only trying to sleep with Jane Seymour, the boy's mother). The Cylons, meanwhile, attack again, but are destroyed because they're so utterly incompetent.Oh yes, and there's a robot dog. I think it was actually a chimp in a robot-dog costume, but either way it's quite nauseating. The special effects are all right to start off (I like those old effects from the Seventies and Eighties, sometimes more than modern CGI), but get very repetitive very fast. I could also mention the preposterous characterization of the humans, including weak-kneed pacifists who are quickly killed, the inexplicably evil and stupid Lord Baltar (John Colicos) who betrays humanity, and the unbelievably dumb Council of Twelve, who prove that democracy just doesn't work.

I've seen worse. This isn't that reimagined piece of dog poop that was on last year. This is the real deal, baby! The original, the pure, the unadulterated, the real thing, the BEST! vs. the turkey, the fake, the impostor, the fraud, THE WORST! I'm referring to theminiseries that was on last year. The wannabe that couldn't bewhat the original was and couldn't even pretend to be what theoriginal was. Battlestar Galactica, the original 1978 series, with Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict, and Lorne Greene, had it in spades. BSG: TOS, (Battlestar Galactica: The Original Series,) was more amibiguous about the Cylons' origins. In the original series, the Cylons were a reptilian race that was wiped out by their robotcreations. Not the lame excuse that was the miniseries. My rating: 10/10.

This was one of my favorites as a child. I try and catch the show whenever it reairs on the Sci-Fi network. I enjoyed the 2003 mini-series but I feel that it was incomplete. It left a lot hanging. I wonder if the Sci-Fi channel plans to finish the show. If anyone knows then feel free to email me. Let me know when they are planning to air the rest of the show or if it is still in production. I checked a few online sites but I didn't have any luck with finding any real comment on the subject. Has anyone seen the DVD version in the stores yet? I found the VHS version a few years ago but you could only purchase two episodes at a time and considering the price I didn't think it was worth the cost. I want the entire TV series with the original cast members. I am not interested in the newer version with Barry Van Dyke as one of the major characters.