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V: The Original Mini-Series (1983)
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Movie Review by The Gravedigger
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01.28.10
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This begins in war-torn El Salvador with journalist Mike Donovan (Marc Singer) covering a story about rebels. This all comes to an abrupt stop when he's fleeing some military guys and sees one of the huge alien motherships approaching on the horizon.
Donovan's former squeeze, a news reporter named Christine Walsh, is the first to report on the aliens--and she's eventually made their media spokesperson. When the aliens first reveal themselves they appear human and wear these red military outfits. However, their eyes are sensitive to light, making them wear sunglasses, and their voices reverberate. John is the supreme leader and Diana (Jane Badler), a scientist, is his second in command. The leader of their race is back on their home planet.
Some earth scientists are suspicious that these aliens look so human but before any of them can report their findings they begin to disappear and a smear campaign is made against the remaining scientists. Being a scientist is like having mega cooties--no one wants to associate with them.
The aliens say they need to manufacture certain chemicals on Earth and take them back to their planet. But when Donovan sneaks aboard and helped by a traitor visitor he discovers this is a ruse--they are really just after food and water. And the food is us!
Donovan gets in a fight with a visitor and pulls off half his human disguise to show the reptilian creature underneath and witnesses Diana ingesting a live guinea pig.
The movie also focuses on a Jewish family whose son is recruited to spread the word of the visitors. The grandfather, who survived the Holocaust, is very suspicious of all this. He helps hide a neighborhood family whose father is an archeologist. The kid actually reports his family and his father is tortured before being returned home. One of the archeologist's daughters is interested in a male visitor and they have sex aboard the ship--and she ends up pregnant. Meanwhile, former doctor Juliett Parrish (Faye Grant) helps build a resistance movement with the help of a thief, whose brother was murdered by the Visitors.
The series ends with the world under Marshall Law, with the Visitors clearly in control of the situation. The resistance group, now joined by Mike Donovan, sends out a radio signal to the Visitor's enemy they heard about, who they hope will be their friends.
Dramatically, this original version holds up well and the World War II parallels between the aliens and Nazi's works extremely well. However, the makeup effects, particularly when Diana eats the rodent or when an alien sticks his long snake-like tongue out, are not very realistic by today's standards.
The story continues in V: THE FINAL BATTLE (1984)
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Rating: 10.0 out of 10.0 - 2 votes cast total
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