Rating: 
Summary: The last surviving battlestar
Review: When the original series of Battlestar Galactica came out in 1978, I was glued to the television set each week. I loved Star Wars and other science fiction, and I fell in love with this one, too. Of course, I was a young boy then, and loved the battle scenes, the Vipers, the shiny enemies, and the simple story lines. The plot was basic and simple -- betrayal, survival, hope for the future. The assembly of the fleet of 220 ships was a marvel of science fiction for its time. The fleet, including the Galactica, were assembled from various pieces of other models, and this was really in keeping with the story line of assembling a fleet out of suriviving remnants. The casting of Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict and Lorne Greene were inspired. Of the trio, only Lorne Greene was well known to television audiences, and not for science fiction at that. The supporting cast gave the show a community feel that made the viewer care for the people. Of course, this becomes a problem similar to Star Trek in that none of the major characters could ever be killed off. I guess all science fiction that is episodic suffers from this. This particular DVD is a re-cut of the pilot. It was made and released as a feature film, somewhat shorter than the television pilot. However, the cinematography and sound was redone for theaters, which makes this a good DVD to have even if you have the larger series set. There are more scenes in the other offering, but there is value in this one, too, given the remastering. The music from Stu Phillips is memorable, and the effects from John Dykstra of Star Wars and Close Encounters fame are remarkable for their time, and, too a large extent, hold up well against today's standards. The story is basic -- the colonies have been destroyed, along with the defensive fleet, except for one battlestar, the colonial equivalent to a battleship/aircraft carrier combination. Fugitive ships begin assembling from among the survivors, but first they must find supplies and a destination. The Commander, Adama (Lorne Greene) provides hope for both of these, and the end of the movie protrays a small victory and hope for the humans as they begin their journey. It stands up well against the test of time.
Rating: 
Summary: A Comment....
Review: this is a rebuttal of sorts.... For the record, BG was planned as a TV miniseries in 1977-78, and was shot in standard TV format, meaning full frame aspect ratio of 1.33:1. However, the show had cost more than expected, and so it was decided to release a edited version to theaters in canada and probably overseas. In order to do this, they reprinted the film with the top and bottom portions masked off to adapt to then-current movie projectors. Then, as now, practically every theater was setup to screen films in either 1.85:1 or 2.35:1. So this version is a representation of BG that was sent to theaters in 1978
(As for this DVD being without anamorphic enhancement, that's just Universal being cheap and seeing a chance to exploit BG fandom by double-dipping. Although I don't know how many takers they will get because they included a promo for the SciFi Channel's "reimagining" Of Battlestar Galactica....something that dedicated Galactica fans HATE!!!)
Rating:
Summary: The Good and the Bad
Review: I'm 32 and loved this short-lived series when it was on. I also saw the movie when it was in theaters. For some reason I never bought the VHS version, and was glad we now have it on DVD, but it's not quite what it could have been. The Good:
It had been quite a while since I have seen the movie. I was actually expecting a lot of slow parts. That is not the case at all. This film moves along very fast. Maybe too fast.
The special effects are still top notch. I only noticed one place where there was a green "glow" around a cylon ship. If you use your imagination, you can easily pretend that that is supposed to happen. All the spaceships are still "cool." Too bad the film did not have a Base Star versus a Battlestar.
The principal actors were good. I wish we could have gotten more of the love-to-hate-him Baltar. The Bad:
The sound is mono?! Are you kidding me? They should have gone to the expense to put it into at least a basic stereo sound. (My home theater can only do so much.) It's not "true" widescreen, but it does have a widescreen "feel" even if all they did was shrink the picture and add the black stripes. The first battle scenes could have been a lot longer. I believe 3 battlestars were blown up, but we only get to see 1. Summary:
I still enjoyed this film after all these years and it did leave me wanting more, both in quantity and quality. I will probably eventually buy the entire series, but only when the price comes down a bit.
Rating: 
Summary: why is this version not anamorphic widescreen????
Review: I love the fact they have finally re-released bsg on dvd again long time coming for us who have widescreens. However anyone hoping to get an anamorphic widescreen presentation of this film well we will have to continue to wait as they have decided not to release it in this fantastic format WHY????? Don't get me wrong I'm still very happy to own this title it's a classic but it is still a huge dissapointment. Amazon has it listed as anamorphic widescreen BEWARE it is an error unfortunetly.
Rating:
Summary: Great picture... but edited !
Review: I just bought the "complete series" of BSG, and just want to let it be known....There is no reason to buy the "feature film" dvd version, because it's all included in the "complete series". In fact, the "complete series" has many more scenes not on this version. The only thing that makes this worth buying is the excellent picture quality. It looks MUCH better than the new "complete series" version does. Surprisingly, Universal didn't seem to clean up the episodes as much as they could/should have. I watched the 2 side by side, and noticed this in NOT true widescreeen either. It seems the top and bottom portion of the screen were blacked out purposely to make it appear widescreen. If you compare the 2 versions, you'll notice you see the exacts same things on the left and right side of the screen.
Rating:
Summary: Not the Original Longer Version
Review: Battlestar Galactica was first seen in the USA as a three-hour premiere on a Sunday night. I watched that broadcast from 8pm to 11pm. Later this edited version was released to theatres in Sensurround. Hopefully the series boxed set will contain the complete film.
Rating:
Summary: What looks good may not be good
Review: As stated in a review for the BSG series, I have some grave doubts and misgivings as I watch this film. It does look beautful--Universal did not flinch from producing a great looking craft with the Galactica, the costumes look fine, and everything else shows that some cash was spent on the look of the show. The cast looked great and the music was pretty decent. However, the story is the problem--and it is a big one.
For one thing, the story starts out with a strong hour--the destruction of the colonial fleet and the homeworlds. Then the feeling that there is something wrong with certain survivors and how they are getting all the food and all their needs met while everyone else is starving--no problem. However, and it is a big however, the story makes a sharp turn downward with the use of the casino and especially the three vocalists--with the three faces. These take the story into realms that it did not need to go.
The casino looks fake, the costumes seem a part of the 1970s and not a future place and time--or whenever you wish to place the tale. The actions of Starbuck doesn't ring true. A seasoned warrior would not just place himself into this casino and try to win the services of the three (nine?) vocalists. It seemed fake when it was first shown and it stills feels faked. The show was at it's best on the bridge of the Galactica and this bit of silliness wrecks a promising beginning. Also, the idea of a few blasts from the warrior's firearms causing enough blazes to set the whole planet to blow up is just a bit too much. Even with the basestar nearby, the viewer has not seen enough explosions to cause the temperature of the whole planet to rise to a high enough degree to blow up.
So, a promising beginning is destroyed. The problem of BSG, both film and series, is the same which caused the ruin of the other big space epic of the 1970s, "Space: 1999", the writers--especially Larson & Bellarsario, were only loosely aware of what makes good SF stories on the small screen. These producers would take promising plots from films (think of DB's "Jag" which came out after the film "A Few Good Men" or his "Airwolf" which came out after "Blue Thunder".) They could copy plots, but they were and are not the best at writing TV SF--a trick learned by J.M.S. of "Babylon Five."
Rating:
Summary: Re-edit Not So Edited!
Review: Having been a fan for so long, it was great to see them comeout with a "revved" up version -- but I was disappointed when I found out this version was edited (for example, pn the earlier BSG dvd version, the scene with Serena on Caprica...there was supposed be a newscast going on BEFORE the destruction of the planet..this version just goes right into the kill. And what's with the GOBOS STILL? Gobos are small places in the film where you can see they added artowrk around the ships on occassion (bright green ones when the cyon ships are heading back to their basestar! Comeon folks - for the money spent and the time to "remaster", you didnt spend alot of time or money on the fixes! Forget this version and go right for the series.
Rating:
Summary: Widescreen - NOT
Review: Just an FYI to anyone considering this....buy the series DVD's and skip this DVD, as it's just the fullscreen version reedited....they just blacked out the top and bottom just like they did with it's prior iteration.....and it's MONO.....at least the series version of this story is 5.1, and is not very different from the movie. Skip it unless you're passing on the series, and don't mind fullscreen copy with black bars.
Rating:
Summary: By your command...
Review: Repackaged to take advantage of the Sci-Fi Channel's remake/mini-series. This is a decent beginning to one of TV's all time greats. The last Battlestar, Galactica, leads a ragtag fugitive fleet away from the tyranny of the robotic Cylons in search of a lost tribe that has settled on a mythical planet known as Earth. While it was labeled as a rip-off, the fact is it was an excellent series that is only now getting the respect it deserves. The widescreen treatment is courtesy of the fact that Universal marketed a different edit in theaters overseas. All in all, a great disc for the science fiction fan in your house.
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