"The Flash" - A Worthy Blind Buy? - Page 2

Paul_Scott · 01-11-2006, 08:50 AM

Matt had me scared to even crack the seal on this, but thankfully i was feeling adventurous and didn't think my copy looked bad at all. pretty much what i was expecting. i've seen worse and i've seen better, but for a 15 year old network show , with the post production caveats that Matt already mentioned,i thought it was just fine.
sound was good too (never watched it in stereo before).
even though i could lodge a list of criticisms about it all day long, i do have to admit i still enjoy pilot a good bit.
there was an awful lot of potential there, even with the unfortunate monkey-see monkey-do ripping off of BB (Burtons Batman) and the woefully lame Marvel newspaper comic style gang of thugs. its a shame that the show quickly became so Hardy Boys in a superhero costume, because the pilot built up a good infrastructure of supporting characters that they could have mined for drama all season if they had just played it true. his brother could have lasted till mid-season, when his fate would have made a greater impact- the conflict with the dad could have been treated more seriously building to epiphany or an understanding at an opportune time. the conflict between his girlfriend and McGee could have lasted longer and been more substantial to generate some romantic tension, etc.
he could have taken longer (several eps) to get the hang of his powers and their costs. (the show that i wanted to see would have eventually had to deal with Barry coming to grips with his food budget for instance...not just as a throwaway joke every couple of eps but as a sincere problem for him).
and don't get me started on the way the show betrays the character by making him an un-official field detective, when it should have realized his 'real' job offered plenty of interest and story opportunity.

oh well. seeing the pilot again did remind me of why i was initially so excited about the show- it was one of the only superhero live action games in town, at the time. and it was a character that had never been done in film before so there was a sizable thrill seeing the costume in a few 'money shots' each week. and regardless of what anyone else says, i still love the costume because it replicates the book version as faithfully as any live-action property has., and much more than most.

was planning on waiting till a certain summer sale before picking this up, but now i'm glad i pulled the trigger on it.

todd s · 01-11-2006, 10:42 AM

Ryan Reynolds would be a perfect Flash. Lets hope that gets going soon.

Gord Lacey · 01-11-2006, 01:03 PM

I've received a number of reports of flawed sets from readers of my site. Has anyone experienced problems with the pilot episode skipping around?

Gord

Dave Scarpa · 01-11-2006, 01:15 PM

I have a problem with the Pilot and I figured it was an issue and was bringing it back today. I was ripping the episode to convert it over to my Ipod and the software choked at the end of the episode, I figured it was a defective disk, other eps ripped fine. I'll let you know when and if I get a replacement if it does the same thing.

Gary Seven · 01-11-2006, 02:21 PM

I've watched the pilot and the second episode thus far... no problems.

Tony J Case · 01-11-2006, 02:26 PM

Quote:

I always felt it was a Batman rip-off, from the suit to the "look" of the city and, of course, Burton's theme music which was way too much like Batman. If he weren't copying his own work, he could've been accused of stealing! Very unoriginal theme music, but I guess he was doing as he was told.

So what's his excuse for Spiderman, then?

Pete Battista · 01-11-2006, 04:44 PM

I've received a number of reports of flawed sets from readers of my site. Has anyone experienced problems with the pilot episode skipping around?

Figures... now I will be concerned until mine arrives! :p) Hopefully all will be good.

Gord Lacey · 01-11-2006, 06:07 PM

I think this is a widespread issue; we've received 15-20 complaints today, which is very high.

Gord

Dave Scarpa · 01-11-2006, 07:03 PM

I returned my Set to Best Buy and they were completely out I was going to order online but I wonder now if I should hold off? Of course if I do then the sale price will be gone. Guess I'll order and hope Warner will offer a replacement plan.

Jeff*H · 01-11-2006, 08:29 PM

No problems with the pilot at all. I ran it on a Panasonic DMR-ES40V.
I think you have to put this show into context. At the time it aired, it was the first true superhero tv show that was not played for camp and had a good budget behind it. These days we are used to shows with multiple plot threads and multi-episode story arcs but back then in 1990 it was pretty uncommon for an action show. Wiseguy, Crime Story and Twin Peaks kind of paved the way during that time. The Flash would have benefitted greatly from this type of storytelling just as the comic has over the years, but it's still good fun, particularly in the season's second half.

Henry V · 01-11-2006, 09:29 PM

I sent my copy of The Flash DVD set back to Amazon today after having problems with the pilot episode on Disc 1, the image started to break up near the end of the episode on every model of DVD player I tried it on.
They're sending me a replacement set tomorrow and I'm just hoping this isn't a batch problem but from what I see on this thread, it's not looking good.

Paul_Scott · 01-11-2006, 09:53 PM

Damn those DVD-9s!!!

my copy of the pilot played fine. if there are problems with the set it's going to take a while to find out because i probably won't be pulling it out very often until i finish off other sets.