I am going to change it up a little tonight and review the premiere episode of the Steven Spielberg produced series Terra Nova. This is the new high budget production premiering on FOX and it was pretty fantastic. The first hour ha a lot of great elements, from the vision of the future to the explanation of the reason for going back in time to start over. The future in the show has the same feel as the unused opening scene from Avatar. If you own the extended copy of Avatar you will know what I mean. It could also be seen as a version of the Blade Runner mega cities and the effects used for the futuristic city in Terra Nova is fantastic. It has the same high quality effects as the highest quality video-game cinematics and that it a great thing.
The casting is pretty spot on, Stephen Lang is the grizzled leader of the Terra Nova colony and Jason O'Mara as the former cop who escaped prison to come to Terra Nova with his family. The action in the first hour is sparse but it sets up the rest of the season and it establishes the motivation for the main set of characters. O'Mara's character is trying to get to know his family again after being in prison for 2 years and Lang's character is trying to hold the colony together and find out if his son is still alive. O'Mara steals the show in the premiere episode and that is due to him being believable on screen and having a commanding presence. He plays the cop type perfectly and the way the writers designed his character is great. He is a family man who does whatever he needs to in order to protect his family. This may sound cliched, it might be but it works really well for the show and only adds to the overall quality of the show. The inclusion of a splinter colony is a necessary addition because the colony cannot always be fighting dinosaurs, as it would put the show over budget.
This show has an amazing amount of promise and if producers such as Spielberg continue to throw their support behind the show then I am sure that it will succeed. It had a Lost type of vibe to it, early-Lost not the over hyped crap final season. If you want to see a show that has the potential to be great and has two great leads then watch this show.
No comments:
Post a Comment