Any Xena Season One reviews yet ? (1 Viewer)

[Sven Lorenz]

How would you describe the quality of the Xena Trilogy disc ?

 

[James Reader]

Not very good. It is a long time since I watched it, but I think it suffers from more problems then simply it's source elements. It's was first released in 1999 I believe, so come to your own conclusions. At the time it was probably average, but these days we're used to so much more.

If you see it cheap, by all means pick it up, but I wouldn't pay some of the prices being asked - it's WAY overpriced.

 

[Sven Lorenz]

Too late. :frowning:

 

[Randy Korstick]

All 3 episodes will be released in a hopefully better quality version in the Hercules set in June. Why not just wait for that. I'm looking forward Hercules more than Xena as I always enjoyed that show more. It was not quite as silly if thats possible for these shows.

 

[Sven Lorenz]

Well, I've always found Hercules to be way to silly.
And my biggest problem with Hercules is Kevin Sorbo who IMHO is possibly the worst actor ever.
So I won't be buying the Hercules boxset and the 'Xena Trilogy' is already on it's way.
If it's really that bad I can still get my money back by selling it at Idiots'R'Us (eBay).
I'll probably even make a profit.

 

[James Reader]

I'm sure you will. I always thought it was OOP. Amazon don't seem to agree though...

 

[Tony Whalen]

Kevin Sorbo who IMHO is possibly the worst actor ever.

Oh come on Sven... didn't you see that tour-de-force, "Kull The Conquerer"? Or was that tour-de-farce? (Although Harvey Fierstien caused some great laughs...)

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Kull was great, but I always thought Hercules and Xena were terrible We had such a great time at that, me with 4 other guys

"I am altering the deal...."

*Inhale to complete the line*

"..pray I don't alter is any further"

*rolling in the aisles laughing while the rest of the theater goes "what the hell are they laughing at"*

 

[Brian Kleinke]

Well the Xena episodes don't look great nor really bad, but then again I watch them on my 20" Sony instead of my 57" Sony

I'm not going to complain too much, looks better then I've seen em on TV... and you can buy them on discs

 

[Dave Molinarolo]

OK folks, for the low-down on the Xena discs and series itself, I started a thread over on the Trek BBS "Sci-Fi/Fantasy" forum. The info I got was that the first two seasons of Xena were shot on 16mm film because the show was done on a low budget because remember it was a spin-off from Hercules. However the third and subsequent seasons were shot on 35mm film. As you all should know, 16mm source material doesn't translate well to DVD.

However having said that, I've watched 10 episodes so far, meaning that I'm half-way through Disc 3. I noticed that the video on Disc 1 & 2 is pretty grainy. The "Hercules" cross-over episode "Prometheus" is so grainy at times, that I've seen better on VHS. But the video quality on the 2 episodes I've seen on Disc 3, is pretty damn good actually. Very little grain if at all.

Now then, as for the Hercules set coming out in June, it supposed to contain the 5 original Action-Pack TV movies along with the 13 First Season episodes. So if you're debating or not to get the single Hercules movie disc, don't.

Now as for Kevin Sorbo as an actor..com'on...he's not that bad. He's just got a sense of over-acting akin to a one William Shatner. Actually I find it quite entertaining. You know, he's a bit funny in his nueances.

However having said all that, I plan on getting all 6 seasons of both Xena and Hercules because even thou both series are a bit campy, I tend to enjoy the sword and sorcery genre. Can't wait for the Hercules sets.

 

[Randy Korstick]

I find the comments about Kevin Sorbo puzzling too. I mean neither one of these series features any great acting but Kevin Sorbo's likable presence is what got me started on Hercules to begin with and I only watched Xena because it was a spin-off but it always felt like a spin off to me.
Glad to hear the video should improve in later seasons. Does anyone know if Hercules started in 16mm or 35mm?

 

[Dave Molinarolo]

Oh sorry forgot to mention that, yes, Hercules was always shot on 35mm. So the image quality should be good from the start.

 

[Will_B]

Even if you don't care for Herc, Autoculous (Autyclious? whatever) was great. And I gave up watching the series before he got killed & resurrected & killed & replaced & killed & resurrected again (?) so I'll have to watch the DVDs (of the later seasons) to find out what happened.

 

[Dan Rudolph]

Michael Hurst is a great actor. I don't have a problem with Kevin sorbo's acting as I feel the part called for it. I think the regulars and the frequent guest stars on Xena were all great, but many of the not-so regular guest stars couldn't act worth crap.

 

[PhilipG]

I agree. Michael Hurst is a terrific actor, and shows up KS to some extent. However Sorbo gives what I call a "Gil Gerard" performance - he's fully aware of how campy and bad the show sometimes strives to be, and overplays/underplays to match. I couldn't think of a better actor for the part.

 

[Sven Lorenz]

I've watched the first few episodes now and I had really forgotten how much fun this show was.
I haven't seen the episodes since they originally aired and it took some convincing to make me buy the boxset - but now I'm happy I bought it.
It's really refreshing to see some good stuntwork and to see actors actually doing some of the fighting themselves - especially after watching stuntmen with bad wigs do all the fighting on Buffy for so long.
I'm even considering getting the Hercules boxset.

 

[Will_B]

And a shoutout to the great beyond to Kevin Smith, whose portrayal of Ares: God of War was always spot on, and whose other characters (Ares: God of Love, and various other alternate-world personas) were hilarious.

Glad to see him on disc, sorry that we can't see more of him. (He passed away a year back, or a bit more, maybe two years ago, after an accident).

 

[Dan Rudolph]

Will, it was last February.

Xena had stuntmen for about half the time, but shot around it well. They did have a tendency to get bad actors for smaller parts and recast them as well, though. (Example, Perdicas. The original actor even continued being on the show, just in different roles.)

 

[Sven Lorenz]

I have the 'Xena Trilogy' DVD now and the quality is not that bad - considering the DVD was mastered in 1999 it's actually pretty good.
There's one strange thing about the DVD though - the episodes run between 46 and 48 minutes.
The usual episode of Xena or Hercules runs only about 45 minutes.
It's been too long since I've seen these episodes on TV, so I can't confirm that there are additional scenes - but looking at the runtime there have to be.
Does anybody have any info on whether these are Director's Cut versions of these episodes ?

 

[Ryan Spaight]

I don't know if they're technically "Director's Cuts," but they definitely have stuff not in the original broadcast versions.

Ryan