When I read a few months ago that V, the 1983 original miniseries, was reimagined I thought it wasn't such a bad idea. After all it happened to Battlestar Galactica (1978) and its 2003 miniseries was awesome. However now that I've seen its pilot it didn't live up to all the hype that surrounded its airing.
The beginning reminded me of the film Independence Day but instead of Will Smith it was Elizabeth Mitchell as Erica Evans. Other characters were introduced but some profiles are such clichés that it felt like watching a twenty years old production at times. Erica is a FBI agent, she's divorced, her teenage son is rebelling, the Father questioning his believes
But others are more interesting. First there's Ryan Nichols played by Morris Chestnut. I found the actor's performance quite convincing and his profile was intriguing. I wasn't thrilled by Morena Baccarin as Anna even if I think she has potential. I'm sure she'll grow on us in the upcoming episodes. Moreover at first I found her eyes twitching a bit awkward but I quickly realized it helped us see the reptile behind the attractive flesh mask. Last but not least the news reporter could have been better because his profile was predictable and poorly scripted. It's the writer's fault because the way he was mind controlled was just lazy. I thought Anna would use some sort of charming voice like in Frank Herbert's Dune but instead she only convinced him with words. I found the idea wasn't creative at all, specially for a sci-fi production. The Visitors can travel at the speed of light but they use old lines like some politicians. However their respective story arcs could get more interesting if the writers focus on linking them, developing character connections in original and twisted directions.
It leads us to the story. Scott Peters's work is dated and now I better understand why Kenneth Johnson wrote on his website that he hadn't been involved in the writing process. When V was first aired back in 1983 I'm sure most viewers were blown away by his refreshing ideas but nowadays people have higher expectations. With all the tragic events that happened since then I'm surprised Peters didn't take the risk to develop a more controversial script. The Visitors came from nowhere and their motherships happened to just pop up in the sky. Don't they have radars in their fictional world ? However a few events were unexpected so it should intrigue some viewers enough to give it a second chance.
Moreover I have to admit that the visual effects were good and the production quality correct in general. However when money is not well spent I can't help complaining. Indeed some scenes looked like they were shot for a brainless blockbuster. A plane crashed but it was a non-event. The sun was shining and the sky was deep blue when the ships appeared. Don't they know anything about weather effects and haven't they seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind ? They could have at least hired some guy to operate the smoke machine. An other anecdotic effect was the mothership turning into a giant television, revealing Anna's face. If your civilization was so technology advanced would you just do that or broadcast your messages on mobile phones and televisions ? I couldn't help thinking of how Mars Attacks successfully introduced us to the invaders and their ambassador. There were so many creative ways to do it differently.
In fact the major problem is that it didn't feel at all like if Visitors were arriving. In ID4 we spent half the film listening to the president of the United States but here he was just MIA. Even the people didn't look scared at all when large ships were hovering over all major cities in the world. An other disappointment was how they reacted to Anna's speech, applauding like sheep. Of course it helped the skeptical characters to shine for some seconds but I quickly realized that the writer chose to do it by the book instead of thinking out of the box. To sum things up it didn't feel like V had been reimagined but more rehashed. So it's definitely not the modern version Kenneth Johnson's miniseries deserved. People who thought of V as the new Lost, considering they both air on ABC, should also be quite disappointed.
