marco-30-384328

(2012-04-28 19:24:26)

Really like it!

Normally I am not much a fan of "Jurrasic park" or "Stargate", but thisshow cached my attention although it promised to be like this shows. Ithas a little bit of everything: Jurrasic Park (dinosaurs), Stargate(travelling to a strange place), Lost (the others = the sixers), StarTrek (go where no men has gone before), Avatar (like on a strangeplanet), Star Wars (the general atmosphere) and Jeremiah(Post-apocalytic-world). Terra Nova has a little bit of all these greatseries and I only wish that it will survive the first season and notdie early like "Flash Forward, "V" and other projects. Outstandingacting for "Stephen Lang (Commander Tyler)" I must say that he is theshow-maker! The special-effects (dinosaurs) look a little bit outdatedand could need a little improvement. I will follow this show until theend and hope it will last many seasons.

kblain

(2012-04-28 06:50:40)

Uninteresting, formulaic, wiith bad research and facts.

I've watch 2 episodes and I find the writing to be formulaic and fullof basic mistakes. A good example of bad research and writing is in thefirst few minutes of the second episode where a "survival expert" isasking the children how to tell, which direction is north. One of themreplies with the myth about moss growing on only one side of the trees.Some simple research and the knowledge of the jungles and forest ofthat time period would show it to be false. I haven't been throughsurvival training, but I do hike and even I know not to rely on mossgrowing on trees. The only true indicator is a compass. A basicsurvival tool that they seem to have forgotten how to make.Also, what happened to making me care about this family or any of thecharacters? I watched the teenagers sneak out and knew that they wouldget stranded. The writing was boring and formulaic. No surprises. Inthe first episode, they gave away the only mystery that would have keepme watching. I'm not interested enough to keep watching and see thefamily "figure it out".

bodygroove23

(2012-04-26 22:52:30)

Missed out on a great chance

**** This review might contain spoilers****So we have this great story. Starving planet, no future for humans.Time travel is the only way out. Back to the prehistoric. But then...After the sixth episode, it is clear that the show is nothing what thetrailer promised. I think most expected an exciting SciFi flick butlike most of the reviews concluded, they got a family drama series withsome blood to make it exciting. Next to that, it is shot in a teenageseries mode, with a tiny story completing every episode. In the past six episodes, there have been quite a few interesting storylines, but they were executed way to quick. In the pilot, we see dyingEarth. A terrible time for men being on the verge of extinction. TheShannon's are picked to go through the wormhole to Terra Nova. As oneof the viewers, I would have loved to seen more of Earth and it'smisery. How did it get this far? What are the current rules? Why didthe Shannon's decide on another kid. What was their position in thesociety? Who were their friends? How were they treated? We see howElisabeth helps Jim escape prison where he had been for quite some time(why not help him sooner?). All of a sudden, he's in the station wherethe wormhole portal is. How could he get out of that highly guardedprison? I would have loved to have seen that. Then he gets through theportal quite easy. And when they arrive in Terra Nova, they getaccepted also very easy. Though commander Taylor keeps emphasizing thatthey are a colony of laws. And for a colony that has so much high techequipment, I believe they could have looked a lot more futuristicinstead of those wooden fences and houses (and the primal marketplace). At least send some more building material through the wormholefuture Earth! I mean, see through walls in the houses? Great thing fora teenage boy and girl. Then all the story lines start. Commander Taylor's Son who is lost. Thedrawings Josh finds. The teenagers that sneak out of the colony forsome fun. Mira and her Muppet's (why do they have to look so clichГѓВ©?).Maddy's love interest. Elisabeth's crush who evidently was the one thatgot here there. Mira who tells Jim that commander Taylor is actuallythe bad guy. Birds breeding place where the colony has been established(for how many years now and they never caught up on that?). And besides this, let's discuss Zoe Shannon. The little wining girlthat has everyone not thinking straight. It would be very refreshing ifthey would bring her up in the future world instead of Disneyland.Teach this girl that the world isn't always nice! I think Terra Nova could have been an excellent concept, even for anadult target group. If the writers would only focus more on the grownups instead of trying to please everybody. Pick a story line, spread itout over 3, 4 or 5 episodes and feed Zoe to the T-Rexes. Bring in somemore tension and actual drama. And stop killing all the good lookingpeople that enter the show! For some reason (hope?), I keep watching, but with about 40 shows Ifollow, this is the one I most likely will kick first.

Johan Thilander

(2012-04-26 12:00:01)

Jurassic Park meets Lost in Space

No need seeing this. Man this was pointless. All the clichГѓВ©s areaccounted for. - It opens with a father in a dystopian future bringing a - sigh.. -real life fruit home to his family. - Later we meet the seemingly goodguy general, who will inevitably have some devious schemes later on. -The son of the main character is rebelling and is mad at his father,but realizes how much they have in common. - Dinosaurs quickscare-bonanza. - And of course... black guys die left and right.The ending moment on the pilot is not even worth talking about.Do not bother.

Ben Fournier

(2012-04-20 10:19:02)

It's good, but people's whining is going to kill it before it gets better.

Terra Nova has a lot of good in it as far as I'm concerned: a fatherwho cares about his family and what's right regardless of whether thelaws are wrong; a base commander who is truly concerned about thewell-being of those under his command and who has had to make difficultdecisions in the past on the basis of right and wrong; the improvementof the behavior of dinosaurs as compared to what Spielberg did workingwith Michael Crichton's script such as that they actually behave morelike animals and less like invincible monsters; and a heck of a lotmore, already, within even the first season! People seem so overlyeager to complain, "this looks like that, so blah blah blah blah blah!"rapidly accusing everyone of plagiarizing as if their mouths were aDillon M134... but no, I don't see this as plagiarized whatsoever. Yes,there are elements that are common between it and other shows, andthere will always be, but Terra Nova seems to me to be the best show ofthis decade for its originality, for the great performance of itsactors and actresses, for its script and plot. I see the whining of theother reviewers as a character trait of them rather than havinganything to actually do with the show itself. The show's fairlyawesome, yet people seem to think that if they can complain aboutsomething that it somehow makes them sound more intelligent. Sorry, buteven in Terra Nova's first season, it's pretty darn good. Does anyonenowadays even remember the first two seasons of Star Trek The NextGeneration and how horrible they were? Yet Star Trek TNG improvedtremendously in its third season even though its first two seasonsstank. Terra Nova's already good, great in comparison to the rest ofcrap on television nowadays even, but with all the k'vetching about itnot being absolutely perfect it probably wont make it very far. I dohope that this show lasts for many years and continues to get evenbetter than it is now. To me, at least, if this show is canceled itwill be like the cancellation of Firefly. I really like Terra Nova andI hope it stays around.

xavboy4

(2012-04-19 22:17:16)

I require something more!

I started watching this programme in the hope that it might indeed beworth watching. I've watched the first 4 episodes now and have to admitthat I'm severely disappointed by the quality of the writing and thespecial effects too. I struggled to get through the first threeepisodes, just about managing to put up with the unlikely event of Jimbreaking out of a maximum security prison (in the nick of time); Iturned a blind eye to the fact that instead of the 3rd illegal childhaving been incinerated for being born, she had in fact been hiding ina big rucksack for two years (presumably); I shrugged at the fact thatthe teenage boy was thoroughly unlikeable (but not in a good way) and'meh'd' at the fact that the CGI was only a few notches up fromPrimeval. However, the straw that broke my back was the third episodewhere everything that was going to happen in the episode was clearlysignposted early on and the lamest of contrivances and happenstancewere used to flesh out the show and make it totally impossible tosuspend my disbelief for any longer. I have to give up on this show asit's given me no reason to want to invest any more time in itunfortunately. A wasted opportunity in my eyes - it seems to be aimedat a demographic of 8-14, which is fine, but it would have been nice tohave been told this upfront. Sigh.

bzwebner

(2012-04-17 12:19:08)

No Point

Whats the point of going back 85 million years if in 20 million yearstime there will be a mass extinction? Why didn't ANY of the writers orproducers think of that? It was the very first thought that crossed mymind when I saw the trailers for the show. Sorry, that fact alone makesthis whole show a moot point. Add to that the fact that the story line is full of painful artificialsuspense, overly dramatic music and stupid underlying romance plots. Itseams is if the show would have been better if was launched as a videogame. Seriously, they built a huge barrier to ward off the largerdinosaurs but no one thought about the flying dinosaurs? Whos runningthat joint? In short, this show is DOA IMHO.

tp-cherry12

(2012-04-17 01:40:31)

Jurrasic Park on National TV

I love dinosaurs, Zombies and Aliens. This made me got interested onthis series. Its okay ---if you don't have anything else to watch. Ibelieve someone should check how Maddy Shannon aka Naomi Scott acts.She's "overreacting" especially the part Josh's missing his shoes. Herreaction is pathetic rolling of eyes! Come on Steven Spielberg send herto some acting school! I believe they should be able to see that giventhese things are supposed to be edited. It appears to me it gets editedbut not requested to be seen by different set of eyes priorbroadcasting. I love Terranova even the low IMDb rating, but it just happen I lovedinosaurs.

David Knight

(2012-04-16 00:59:14)

Terra Nova is a big, clumsy behemoth; an action adventure family drama set in a beautifully realised fantasy and inhabited by dinosaurs.

Terra Nova may not be an intelligent, serious drama, but then what doyou expect from a series that has a pun in its title? It's big budget,b-grade fun, an exciting ride and a fantastic spectacle. It slipped upin a few places, not least when it decided to ruin a perfectly goodmystery at the end of the double bill, but then I'm guessing 'Genesis'was made to be a pilot, and the writer's felt they needed to set upsome kind of grand story-arch to hook their audience. The dialogue isoften pretty clunky, but that adds to the appeal, it's an absurdfantasy epic about a family trying to get along in the Cretaceousperiod, don't expect Shakespeare.It'll be interesting to see how Terra Nova evolves, the family dramaelement is actually quite appealing in the dinosaur infested setting,and the thought of seeing what new misadventures the Shannon family getthemselves into each week is very intriguing. Terra Nova is reallysilly, but when you make a science fiction drama about living withdinosaurs, you kind of need to be.

bpr248

(2012-04-15 09:07:18)

pretty damn good

I've read many reviews on Terra nova. Lot's of people are saying its"terrible", Its "cliched", "big letdown". These people are just boringand too critical.After watching the premiere (even though it was 2 hours), i didn't wantthe show to stop. It had everything a good show needs. Action, drama,suspense, and a good plot (so far). Pretty good actors and decenteffects. It has a lot of potential and i can't wait to see the nextepisode.All in all, if you haven't seen it, watch it. You won't bedisappointed. Just ignore all the dummies who are bad mouthing thisseries already. Everybody these days just can't seem to relax and enjoythe show without being winy and critical. Watch and enjoy.

alwyzchanging

(2012-04-11 02:27:17)

Wow Can't wait till next season!

at first it started off slow - good but wasn't one of my favoriteshows. I gave it a chance, the concept seemed really interesting. ourPlanet was dying and they found a portal back in time. I also found itvery familiar, especially since it reminded me of a show that i used towatch when i was younger (land of the lost i believe), this time with aface lift. :) All in all, it gets better and better with every passingepisode, as you get to know the characters and learn more details onsome of the unanswered questions. The ending just blew me away! It waslike watching a movie, i was on edge of my seat the whole time. I don'tthink i can wait till next season, so many unanswered questions.....BTW hate how IMDb makes it so difficult to write comments, but thisshow was worth it!:)

nettminder

(2012-04-10 22:41:05)

Not that great, not that bad, somewhere in the middle

Not a bad start but nothing spectacular. Watching Terra Nova's premierwas a hit and miss experience. I was expecting something a littlebigger in regards to the story. Terra Nova runs with a well knownformula and you will not see or hear anything new within this episode.The characters are OK, not a lot of chemistry between the maincharacter and his wife and some typical manufactured family angst. Thebest thing is of course what we do not know about yet. The sixers mayhave some life as well as the real reasons why Terra Nova was plannedand executed. I felt they spent way too much time dragging out thewhole kids stuck in the car while the dinosaurs are attacking, didn'twe see that in Jurassic Park years ago? I think they missed a realchance to establish mortal danger and one of the kids should have bitthe dust. If you are that stupid for going into dinosaur land without aweapon/training then at least one kid needs to be dinosaur dinner. Thisshow could build to something but I am getting the feeling the writersmay not be that creative.

donvaughn

(2012-04-08 21:10:33)

Insipid family story like too many others that ruin SciFi movies.

I couldn't even make it to the first commercial to scroll through on myDVR. I deleted Terra Nova instinctively. I was not going to sit throughan insipid family story no matter what the setting. When the fatherthrew himself in front of his family as security bore down, well,click. This is a disturbing trend to me, a Sci Fi fan since the 50s, inrecent movies and I won't be a participant. 2012 was the story of afather saving his family, driving fast over cracks in the road andeventually fixing a hatch door while his family waited anxiously forhim to bob up. The Day the Earth Stood Still was ruined by the the backstory of the brat and his dead Dad. I can even deal with the badscience (the geology in 2012 is heinous) if the story is compelling.But stories about Mommies and Daddies, sisters and brothers and littlesisters (in space/in the Mesozoic/under the ocean, etc.) and every bodyalive, together and happy are as compelling to me as doing the laundry.I have to do the laundry but I don't have to sit through someoverwrought domestic fairly tale. I think somebody's going to losemoney on this. Shame.

altair-4-toast

(2012-04-08 04:15:55)

Worth the time in front of the screen

Well, won't burn this series for free, it doesn't deserve a heavy firebut a light cover fire... It has a number of holes you could push atruck through and the history itself feels so forced to bring up adecent script, but you only need a little bit of faith (if I was asavvy man I'd use the term "deux-ex-machina"). The main character, ourcop friend, needs to play theater for a long time before consideringbeing back to TV or cinema... Certainly, our heroic family is made upof artificial characters, may be it's not him but the character! If youcan handle fire in the space, hyper speed, event horizon parties, giantmutant animals, walking dead, planting a nuke into a comet,midiclorians, and so on, then you are great candidate for Terra Nova.

alanrox24

(2012-04-05 16:07:13)

Come on guys, why bad reviews?

Good: Hey, it's a good show so far, it had an amazing pilot (just likeLOST). The actors aren't bad (especially Captain Taylor). The Teenagersare a good addition because it shows how most teenagers act, (remindsme of Kim, from 24 and Shannon from LOST). It has a pretty good story,but there is almost no new themes out there. And for a T.V show, it haspretty good graphics. So stop hating about that.Bad: The one thing I don't like is the laser guns, I think that'spretty cheesy. Another is the new names of the dinosaurs, you wouldthink that since Spielberg is on it then it should have T-rex orVelocoraptor.

Mikerday-177-172387

(2012-04-05 05:10:56)

Very disappointed

I had extremely high hopes for this series. I don't know what to sayother than this is nothing more than mindless fluff. A dystopiancivilization on the brink of collapse as a result of over consumptionpollution and greed. Yet one of the first things you see in terra novais well landscaped grounds and private interior designed home. Whywould a society that falls victim to consumer capitalism revert rightback to it after having survived the outcome of it's existence. This is not a survival series, there appears to be little hardships interra nova. Where is the gritty post apocalyptic drama I had beenhoping for?

Jonathan M

(2012-04-04 15:39:13)

There's nothing 'nova' in here...

Season premiere was pretty bad. Mind you the production values arequite decent with good FX and costumes and whatnot. However...The Story? Boriiiiiing. It started very good, in a dystopian future,which seemed pretty interesting even if not the most original ofsettings... But it only declines from there. At the end of it all,we're in a "family drama", a very clichГѓВ© one incidentally, withdinosaurs.... so yeah.The plot is dumb. Typical dumb characters that do dumb things becausethere needs to happen something to fill the time of the show. Thecharacters are dull, completely un-original, their dialogue is oftencringe-inducing, and sadly, the actors that portray them don't seem tobe very inspired.It's fine to have laser guns and dinosaurs and retro-sci-fi stuff, butgive us an intelligent story please. I don't want to watch another showabout the estranged dad, the angsty son, the nerdy daughter, theinnocent child, the worried mom, the hot girl-friend and theover-confident military guy... There seems to be only rehashedstereotype characters in this show... ugh! To be honest, this seemslike a waste... it looks expensive enough, but I was expectingsomething less dumb. Seriously, I wanted to slap every last one of thecharacters silly. And then the writers...Let's hope it picks up and quickly, but something tells me it's notgoing to. I'm already dreading the 'family drama of the week' pace,with a little bit of mystery to try and seem like an interesting show.Oh well, at least we still have Fringe, we sci-fi buffs...

laphizzle7

(2012-04-04 03:46:06)

Don't waste your time, unless you're REALLY bored

At first, I was excited for another science fiction TV show to surfacesince Lost is over and Falling Skies is on break, but now I must waitlonger, because Terra Nova did not do justice at all. Of course, Ishould have known since it came from Fox. Had it been an AMC, HBO, oreven a TNT production, then I would be intrigued, but making Terra Novaavailable on basic television definitely limited the show's potential. First of all, the acting is as horrible as the script. Over-dramaticacting from Avatar tough-guy Stephen Lang and most definitely fromprotagonist Jason O'Mara. But, I'm glad to see some diversity in thecast, although Shelley Conn plays a doctor (typical), and an Asian manis a scientist (so typical). The show tries to be dramatic by introducing problems within theprotagonists' family: a father abandoned his family because he wasthrown in jail, son doesn't forgive him. Totally unnecessary, as TerraNova should be kept strictly as an action/adventure/science fictionfantasy. But no, the writers had to add in family drama and even teendrinking.Don't get me started on the CGI. I know the budget is limited given itsstatus as a prime time cable show, but they didn't even try. Greenlights shooting from guns and corny sound effects. Even the voicedubbing was horrible and unequalized. The dinosaurs looked okay atleast, slightly better than the quality of a children's show. Overall, this show is worth 6 out of 10, which means that it didn'ttotally fail, but definitely needs a LOT of work, which I know wontcome. This is why I will not continue watching this show.

Draac

(2012-04-02 23:00:56)

I liked it !

Once it got going and the main characters were introduced it wasalright, plenty of action laced together with relationship bondsbetween the characters forming. I like the main characters they arerelatively unknowns in the acting world. To me that is a breath offresh air, last thing we need is Matt Dammon coming out of the jungleto save the day. It's was also nice that they showed a non-perfectfamily trying to cope with life in Terra Nova. Plenty of room to expandon the first debut's premise. I see a lot of promises in this newseries; it has it all, the good people, the bad people, love, jealousyand hate. I think the show will do fine. You have to remember the firstshows was a two hour set up for the whole series and I think it worked!

Robert Greene

(2012-04-02 15:52:26)

Where did this show come from?

Scanning a magazine that deals with TV / Movies and such, I madequizzical expression when this show was announced for Fall release onFox. Why? Not the name or even the premise, it was one name...BrannonBraga. Recognize that name? Yep, Co-Producer on Star Trek: Next Gen allthe way to Enterprise. So why did I make that funny face when I readhis name? Well I think the 'Time Travel' Fetish he has is what killedEnterprise. It was Heavy in the last few seasons of Voyager and waspart of many of the last episodes of Next Gen. So here comes a storyabout time travel into the past to 'start over' because bad ole humanswrecked the environment, and a temporal anomaly will save us. Look out!There is a rouge element, and conspiracy, who can ya trust! Not a bigfan of the time travel stuff, but there were episodes of Star Trek thatdid this type of thing before and more well written. If you likedJurassic Park, Avatar, and Land of the Lost (the old 60s one) you mightlike Terra Nova.