by Elizabeth M Young

Created on: August 30, 2009   Last Updated: November 01, 2009

After visiting the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) and watching the preview, I have to say that they wasted their time on the preview. The preview begins with a standard "every thing's shaking, what's going on?" intro, followed by the aliens arrival. The alien arrival is so derivative of an astronomically (no pun intended) better computer generated image (CGI) in "Independence Day" that it is easy to feel cheated out of one's valuable time. Since the original "V" predated "Independence Day", I would expect some exciting surprise or improvement in CGI alien arrivals.

What follows are a series of mundane clips of people who could be from Central Casting or a So Cal health club. Apparently, there are only one or two people of color in all of the "major cities in the world" where the aliens first appear. The typical lead and extras casts contain not one huge, blubbery fat person, ugly person, handicapped person or old person. Becoming engaged in characters and their lives becomes difficult when everyone looks like a series of casting agency head shots.

There are portentous statements, dramatic revelations, and minor interpersonal dramas, but not much to tell us what delicious and nasty surprises, (such as slurping down a live hamster), we're in for. Those of us who watched both the original version of "V" as well as "Independence Day" will be severely disappointed if there are not some truly advanced special effects or additional suspense and surprises.

Remakes are very hard to do with any resounding success. A remake of a mini-series that has revealed all of the revelations, while springing all of the surprises that could be sprung is even more difficult. The new "V" must bring it , with vastly improved effects, a new, far more compelling set of surprises and personal stories; and actors who bring that indefinable spark to dialogue that we've effectively heard before.

It might be that the preview fails to provide a compelling reason for investing time in this remake. Or it might be that this remake of a fairly good, but not spectacular miniseries will surprise the viewer with some bells and whistles that were not in the original.

The new cast and new characters is an indicator that there will be some aspects of a fresh look at the story, and it will be worth watching, for a while to see what develops.

Morris Chestnut, Joel Gretsch, Elizabeth Mitchell (from "Lost") and Morena Baccarin and Alan Tudyk (from "Firefly") are some of the recognizable names among the large cast of veteran television bit players and guest stars.

Producer Jeffery Bell was also Executive Producer of "Harper's Island", which I thought was an engaging and creative micro series."

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