Negative Reviewers - Defend Your Accusations
Hi there,
Usually I'm the last person to waste space on new topics, but I wanted to ask a question of all the, apparently, dozens of negative reviewers on this board. The ones whose lack of support led to this show being canned and why it has such a bad overall star rating here on IMDB. I don't understand what your problem with this show is, so maybe you could explain it to me.
Though I'll admit that this show had its occassional issues (the cast were a little wooden at first, and the budget wasn't huge, so the SFX were a little dull on occassion), I personally think that it was fantastic. I gladly watched every episode and couldn't find one bad one among them. I found all of the characters genuinely charming and well-acted by the cast; I found the episodes all intriguing and well-written, dialogue and all. The main cast of characters were all very fun to watch; even the supporting cast held my attention; there wasn't anyone in this series I legitimately hated.
I admired the realistic brutality that was often shown in the way the characters behaved, the way the Dactyl leader dispatched an assassin in the penultimate episode, the way Ming ordered ten Verdan to be killed daily while Barin remained free, and killed the messenger sent by the rebels. These were all exceptional touches to show exactly how dark and dangerous the planet of Mongo was, without going overboard with it. I also admire the realistic character interactions, and how admirably smart Flash and Dale often were; I have a game I play with a lot of other series called "Why Didn't They Just...?" I say it a lot when watching Smallville. I didn't say it at all here.
I especially liked the fact that this series didn't utilise the well-worn cliches of other series of this type; there was no Flash-Dale-Joe love triangle; Rankle didn't betray Ming (I think he would have continued to support Ming if he hadn't imprisoned him); Rankle and Lena didn't constantly undermine one another to gain favour with Ming, all the while reducing their own efficiency; Zarkof, despite being a bit dull-witted, didn't fall for Lena's lies; Flash legitimately cared about Aura, despite the fact that he didn't want to be with her romantically; Dale and Flash didn't end up as a couple immediately after Joe died, in fact, they remained platonic throughout the show, which I find uniquely endearing. Plus, I found it really exceptional that Carmen Moore's character managed to put the whole sordid mess together herself without the help of any of the other characters, which might be a first for a series like this.
Essentially, I see this series being judged on a couple of questionable scenes (such as the infamous bowling alley scene), or on the fact that it didn't stick completely to the (frankly, garbage) original Flash Gordon, and I have to wonder what kind of head injuries you've all suffered to mean that you missed out on what this fantastic show has to offer.
The Batman series enjoyed its lowest ebb with the campy, brightly-coloured romp that was Batman & Robin. Recently, it received a revamp in the form of the Dark Knight, a more serious, realistic portrayal of the Batman mythos. Gone is the giggling, joke-cracking Joker, replaced with a grim, sadistic monster out to prove that everyone else is just as ugly as he is. Flash Gordon (2007), I have no problem in saying, is Flash Gordon's Dark Knight, the revamp with a serious edge we were waiting for. Gone are the stupid costumes, ridiculous hair, and uninspired alien races, replaced with unique tribes, more human characters, and a genuinely gripping fight to save Mongo and the wider universe from destruction.
I think the fact that destroying the universe was never Ming's goal makes the idea all the more chilling; he'd cause it to implode through his own selfish need to retain power and steal resources, much like our own world leaders would.
If anyone has a legitimate argument for the column marked "bad writing", please feel free to air it here, so that I can see exactly what your issues are. Because, as yet, I haven't seen any argument beyond "this show sucked". And I don't call that a very compelling argument.
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"I am the scourge of God, appointed to chastise thee."