Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Heroes, 11 Sep 2007
Heroes has been hyped up & touted as the new'LOST',& in this case,it is well justified.There's numerous characters with different special abilities & seperate stories which all intertwine throughout the season.Zachary Quinto shines as super villain Sylar-the baddie to end all baddies,...tracking down the other heroes & murdering them to steal their powers.
Once again,us Brits have been shafted in releasing this first season in a two parter on Reg 2.Save yourself some money & buy the full Reg 1 US release for half the price(or less)if you have a multi-region player.
Roll on season 2!
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5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Volume One: Genesis, 17 Oct 2007
Before I get down to praising this fantastic show I need get this out the way first: So... I had been aware of the 'Heroes Hype' for quite a while before actually seeing the season in it's entirety. I watched the Pilot and thought it was pretty good and that the show showed a lot of potential to become excellent once the season got going. Pilots are notoriously tricky and many are never as good as the preceding show so I stuck with it. Despite the good in the Pilot equally I felt, there was a lot of cheesy stilted dialogue. The second episode established more firmly the arc of the season. A serial killer name of 'Sylar' was on the loose and was seemingly killing randomly, one by one. All good stuff, but the show wasn't really grabbing me as I felt it was meandering plot wise and the next seven or so episodes felt a little like the writers were stalling in order to build up momentum later on. All very well and good but I wanted to enjoy the early episodes too! Not just the explosive second half of the season. I got to the point where I was thinking `this show is way over hyped'. I say all this because I know there must be people who have seen the first few episodes and feel like the plot isn't moving forward a great deal. Well that's true to a degree but things take on a more cohesive whole once the season is finished and boy does it get good! Just when I was ready to give up the series hit episode nine `Homecoming' and I felt the turning point in the story had arrived. Everything beyond `Homecoming' is absolutely mind blowing. So please just stick with it. Everything in the first half of the season is setting up the wonderful plots coming in the middle to later section of the season, thus as a consequence the slightly slower build up is more than earned. The pay off is amazing: the back end of episodes are some of the best television ever to have aired. Just stick with it. This show is worth every bit of its 'hype'.
The principle characters on Heroes are extremely varied and diverse. There is most certainly someone for everybody to relate to. Whether it be sensitive Peter, gutsy Claire or the rather `mild mannered' Gabriel Gray; there is always someone interesting and hence a story worth following. There are certain characters in particular I found to be extremely fascinating namely Sylar exquisitely played by Zachary Quinto and Mr Bennet (HRG) played by Jack Coleman. Without these actors I doubt the characters would have been portrayed in such an intriguing way, both tend to own the screen with sheer intense magnetism. That kind of screen presence is a rarity in film let alone television. I suspect some of the bumps down the road for their characters would have been different had they been acted by other people. In all honesty every character on Heroes is well acted and the actors themselves are incredibly well cast. It's unusual to have such a large cast and not to have a weak link amongst them. Every character has an absorbing story to tell, this is due both to the writing and to the sympathetic portrayal by the actors.
There is a very distinct stylized visual theme to Heroes. The series itself is set into volumes and the first season is known as `Volume One: Genesis'; the episodes themselves are labelled as `chapters'. The look of the show has been heavily influenced by comic books and the show even goes as far as to put filters on the cameras to give each location a distinctive colour; New York is generally very blue whilst Texas is seen as yellow or sepia toned. Even the subtitles are made in such a way that they loosely resemble the pattern of speech bubbles a la comic books. This gives Heroes a unique vibe and sets it apart from many of the more generic genre shows on television. The comic book connotations are everywhere, supplanted throughout the narrative not only in the written script but in the scenery too. There is many a homage to various comic book characters; an obvious one is the Clark Kent/Superman parallel to Sylar.
The plot and writing on Heroes is generally excellent with the narrative rounding off quite nicely in the finale episode `How to Stop an Exploding Man'. Some found the finale anti-climatic but I would disagree with that. This is just the beginning after all. I won't give anyway any plot arcs but there are several running through the first season which will all get resolved come the end. Rewatching the season is very rewarding since things come together more upon repeated viewings. One of Heroes greatest strengths as a series is how much is going on in any one episode; the subtext in the acting, to the visual clues in the direction is what sets this show above and beyond many others right now. Overall this show has everything in spades, compelling acting, interesting and complex characters, a fascinating villain, Sylar, whom I am sure will go down in history as one of the greatest screen villains of all time; and a compelling story that doesn't try to make it easy for the viewers. This show is convoluted and it expects you to keep up, it begins with the introduction to the characters and its plots; once the story gets going it's full steam ahead (with many a plot twist along the way). Heroes Volume One left me begging for more, thankfully season two is already well on the way!
The DVD has several pretty good special features; a few featurettes and lots of commentaries from the cast and crew (yay). There is also an abundance of deleted scenes as well as the 70 minute unaired version of the Pilot episode.
Highlight episodes include: `Company Man', `The Hard Part', `Sixth Months Ago' and `.07%'
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Save the Cheerleader, Save the World!, 9 Oct 2007
It's about time there is a decent super hero television series, and this doesn't fail to deliver. It follows the stories of a wide variety of people as they discover that they have super powers. But rather than put on a pair of tights and wear their underwear on the outside, these people tend to react in much different ways. Some use their power for good, some for evil, some to get a few advantages in life and some wish it would just go away. Their stories get more and more interconnected (which sometimes seems a bit contrived, but makes for great viewing) as the plot develops at a furious pace. The special effects are amazing for a tv show and the acting is generally very good - most of the actors are unknowns, but watch out for a guest appearance from ex-Doctor Who Christopher Ecclestone.
I've heard complaints that none of the powers are original (most of them are ripped off from the X-Men), but how many super heroes are original these days? And the episodes are all so well written - lots of drama and suspense, great dialogue, cliff-hanger endings and some genuinely funny (as well as scary) moments. This is tv at its best ... hopefully the quality will be maintained in future series.
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