Caprica
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Eric Stoltz, Genevieve Buechner, Magda Apanowicz, Michelle Andrew, Roger R. CrossBrand: NBC Universal
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 93 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-04-21
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Caprica
Movie Review: A brilliant prelude to a series with extraordinary promise
Summary: 5 Stars
Like most people who will be trying this series out, I am coming to it from BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. The latter was one of the most brilliantly original shows in the history of television and as topical as any show in memory, addressing real world issues by focusing on one that is not our own. CAPRICA, set over fifty years before the events of BSG, promises both to be very similar and very, very different from the original. Those who complained about the show devolving into BATTLESOAP GALACTICA will hate this. But those of us who actually preferred the ideas and issues at the heart of BSG will find this pure gold. There is likely to be very little fighting and few or no spaceships. It will, in fact, be pretty clearly be a character driven drama, the only difference from a show like FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS being that it is set on a distant planet. But like BSG, there will be no aliens.
Though there are some stark differences from BSG, there will also be a lot of continuities. The pilot has some of BSG's main concerns, such as religion and the idea of what it means to be a person. And just as there was a conflict between differing religious beliefs on BSG with the polytheistic humans and the monotheistic Cylons. There will also be a huge overlap in creative staff. Though the script was co-authored by BSG head guru Ronald D. Moore, it will be run by BSG (and BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER) writer Jane Espenson. And Bear McCreary, who provided the great, great music for BSG (as well as TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES), is performing the same duties on CAPRICA. And of course, since CAPRICA is very much about the lead up to the events in BSG, including the creation of the Cylons, there is a huge overlap in story.
The first scene of the series is shocking, as we see the inside of a virtual nightclub and it serves almost as a mission statement. It was a crazier, more insane world than anything we ever saw in BSG. They also don't mind departing from BSG in other ways. BSG was almost aggressively nontechnological, which is bizarre for a show set on a spaceship. But here on CAPRICA are slick looking robots (that look very much like Eve from WALL*E) and computer interfaces that look wildly futuristic. CAPRICA has paper with the corners cut off like BSG, but it nonetheless has very much its own style.
One thing I found interesting is that they departed for the most part from the camera style of BSG. That show had an almost documentary style, working extensively with handheld cameras. I had anticipated a similar look on CAPRICA in part because Jeffrey Reiner was hired to direct. Most of his work of late has been on the great NBC drama FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, which is shot entirely with handheld video cameras. But the change in camera style really works for this show and should give it a very different feel. By the way, there is a really significant overlap between BSG/CAPRICA and FNL. Ron Moore had two pilots under development at the same time, this one and a pilot for FOX entitled VIRTUALITY. The later was directed by Peter Berg, who was the creator of both the FNL movie and TV series.
I was really impressed with the cast. Several of the members are familiar, like Eric Stoltz and he looks like he is going to stand out on this series. Esai Morales is also creepy as Joseph Adama. I can't imagine anyone giving you the sensation of being Bill Adama's father than he did in this pilot. Some of the other performers you don't get a strong sense of from the pilot, like Paula Malcomson (perhaps best known from DEADWOOD) as Amanda Graystone and Polly Walker (most recently from ROME) as Sister Clarice Willow. You know that they will be important in the series, but there roles in the pilot were somewhat in the background. I enjoyed seeing Magda Apanowicz (who most will know from KYLE XY, in which she played Josh Trager's girlfriend) in it as Zoe Graystone's friend Lacy Rand. But if there is an outstanding performance in the pilot, it is by Allessandra Toreson as Zoe Graystone. This was one of the most important roles on the show and she pulled it off wonderfully. As Zoe and Zoe's avatar, she is clearly the predecessor of all future "skin job" Cylons.
The pilot has left me very, very excited about the series, which is scheduled to start sometime in the winter of 2010. It is definitely going to be very different from BSG, but it is going to resemble it both in terms of quality and boldness.
One last note. In the film we often see characters put on virtual glasses. So I was quite surprised when I got my DVD and saw an advertisement for personal video glasses that look not dissimilar to the ones on the show. From BSG we actually know that the events of CAPRICA are not at all in the future (not to be too spoilerish for anyone who hasn't seen BSG), but seeing these glasses, the world suddenly felt much more like the present.
Summary of Caprica
An astonishing breakthrough is taking shape on the planet Caprica. The rapidly evolving spheres of human and mechanical engineering have collided, along with the fates of two families. Joined by tragedy in an explosive instant of terror, two rival clans led by powerful patriarchs, Joseph Adama (Esai Morales, Jericho) and Daniel Graystone (Eric Stoltz, The Butterfly Effect) duel in an era of questionable ethics, corporate machinations and unbridled personal ambition as the final war for humanity looms. The latest phenomenon from the executive producers of Battlestar Galactica (Ronald D. Moore and David Eick), set in a time over 50 years earlier, Caprica is entirely its own world - provocative, thrilling and startling relevant to our own.Similar DVD Movies
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