Burning Sky: An Immortal Classic? 6/20/32
by Nero L. MacLeon
Settle into your seat with the biggest bag, bucket, or barrow of popped corn you can
find. Easy on the drinks though, because in any three-minute restroom run after the
opening half-hour set-up you will miss at least two explosions, a few hundred rounds
of automatic weapons fire, and a close-up shot of a favorite BattleMech design. Don’t
worry about missing that moment of character growth, though.
It isn’t there.
This is Burning Sky, director Lawrence Kohlman’s latest (and most successful) foray
into the world of immortal warriors and endless ammunition supplies that originally
began under writer/director Mike Haufenpfahl a century ago. Technology has
improved and our taste in Tri-Vids has supposedly evolved in the last hundred years,
but the plotlines and characters in this hyperbole-driven military adventure series have
not.
The story follows pretty closely the usual opening pattern: Warrior leaves military and
settles down on new world that no one realized was about to explode into violence. It’
s a modern setting, within the oh-so-fanciful “Union of the Sphere.” This time our
immortal hero is drawn into a conflict that rises out of the old hatreds and rivalries
which existed before “Daniel Rock’s grand order” was imposed on these poor,
defenseless people (hiding a cache of BattleMechs and unlimited small arms) who just
want the freedom to hate each other in peace.
All right, the entire conflict could have been avoided if supporters on both sides just
sat down to talk with each other. So what? The spark that sets it off is a vicious
officer so conservative he makes Daoshan Liao look sympathetic. And big deal, it
wraps up in a nice neat package after the final twenty-eight-and-one-half minutes of
virtually non-stop violence. Let’s get down to what we really care about: ’Mechs!
Love ’em or just like ’em a lot, three-dimensional images of those great war machines
stomping across the theater are still a huge turn-on with audiences, enough so that
Burning Sky broke all previous records for Tri-Vids set in the same milieu. Most
critics agree that there were at least eighteen different designs showcased within the
space of only two hours, ten minutes. That’s about sixteen more than you can usually
find on your average Republic planet.
Eighteen BattleMechs. Twelve minutes of footage where they walk, run and jump
their way into and out of battle. Thirty-seven separate cockpit shots. Two hundred
and eight weapon discharges and about twice that many weapon hits. The detail level
is so incredible, except for the extra hits, you have to believe the hype that Kohlman
shot Burning Sky on a twelve-world tour just to locate so many varied designs. No
mock-ups here; or if they are, they’re some of the best work to be found yet out of
the wizkid operation of Jay Wise Special Effects.
What more could you want?
In an age where open warfare has been set aside, the adventurous can still live
vicariously through the life of a new immortal warrior.
by Nero L. MacLeon
Settle into your seat with the biggest bag, bucket, or barrow of popped corn you can
find. Easy on the drinks though, because in any three-minute restroom run after the
opening half-hour set-up you will miss at least two explosions, a few hundred rounds
of automatic weapons fire, and a close-up shot of a favorite BattleMech design. Don’t
worry about missing that moment of character growth, though.
It isn’t there.
This is Burning Sky, director Lawrence Kohlman’s latest (and most successful) foray
into the world of immortal warriors and endless ammunition supplies that originally
began under writer/director Mike Haufenpfahl a century ago. Technology has
improved and our taste in Tri-Vids has supposedly evolved in the last hundred years,
but the plotlines and characters in this hyperbole-driven military adventure series have
not.
The story follows pretty closely the usual opening pattern: Warrior leaves military and
settles down on new world that no one realized was about to explode into violence. It’
s a modern setting, within the oh-so-fanciful “Union of the Sphere.” This time our
immortal hero is drawn into a conflict that rises out of the old hatreds and rivalries
which existed before “Daniel Rock’s grand order” was imposed on these poor,
defenseless people (hiding a cache of BattleMechs and unlimited small arms) who just
want the freedom to hate each other in peace.
All right, the entire conflict could have been avoided if supporters on both sides just
sat down to talk with each other. So what? The spark that sets it off is a vicious
officer so conservative he makes Daoshan Liao look sympathetic. And big deal, it
wraps up in a nice neat package after the final twenty-eight-and-one-half minutes of
virtually non-stop violence. Let’s get down to what we really care about: ’Mechs!
Love ’em or just like ’em a lot, three-dimensional images of those great war machines
stomping across the theater are still a huge turn-on with audiences, enough so that
Burning Sky broke all previous records for Tri-Vids set in the same milieu. Most
critics agree that there were at least eighteen different designs showcased within the
space of only two hours, ten minutes. That’s about sixteen more than you can usually
find on your average Republic planet.
Eighteen BattleMechs. Twelve minutes of footage where they walk, run and jump
their way into and out of battle. Thirty-seven separate cockpit shots. Two hundred
and eight weapon discharges and about twice that many weapon hits. The detail level
is so incredible, except for the extra hits, you have to believe the hype that Kohlman
shot Burning Sky on a twelve-world tour just to locate so many varied designs. No
mock-ups here; or if they are, they’re some of the best work to be found yet out of
the wizkid operation of Jay Wise Special Effects.
What more could you want?
In an age where open warfare has been set aside, the adventurous can still live
vicariously through the life of a new immortal warrior.
| June 20, 3132 |