Battles BC
Has anyone else seen any of these yet? Series recently(?) aired in the States I think. For something that seems to have a decent special effects budget it is astoundingly bad! The first one I watched was Hannibal the Annihilator! Despite all the historic references about what we think Hannibal looked like, he was played by an slightly more muscled Vin Diesal lookalike. The whole action scenes and combat scenes are styled a la the movie '300'. You just have to watch the lot to see how many times you can sit there shaking your head :) I've also watched Caesar: Super Seige! about Alesia but ended up skipping ahead as I couldn't another reference to the 'Gallic' horde (pronounce throughout as 'garlic'. You just have to see these. I hope they air here soon... Andy

Never heard of this, but your description does make it sound like The History Channel shlock.

Yep, they're pretty horrible. Most of them are battles from the bible.

You can find it on youtube... the 'Hannibal' episode seems to be on there in full. The re-enactments are pure '300'.

Occasionally some of the scenes work, albeit only briefly. It's a shame as with the budget they had for the CGI it could have been so much better! I watched some other program about Alesia and the reenactments scenes (no CGI) were hilarious!. The majority of Roman shields on view were obviously flat pieces of hardboard, painted, with the metal edging clearly just silver gaffa tape! Classic stuff....

So are we talking about all that sort of religious right stuff that exudes from the mid west combined with pure fantasy re-enactments?

You mean like the mueum where they show the dinosaurs cohabitating with cavemen? No, in the main thier history's fair, with mostly small mistakes and only one or two glaring follies. I'ts the depictions of the warriors fighting that's laughable. Think how bad the battle scenes were in Troy or 300 and you've got it.

I opened the door to some Jehovah's Witnesses by mistake a few years ago. They shoved a copy of their magazine under my nose and demanded to know if I thought there was anything wrong with their vision of the world in the picture on the front of the magazine. The picture was of a bunch of kids sitting in the middle of a field with tigers and pandas walking around in the background. I was about to put a rocket up their arses but saw the earnest look in their faces and just slammed the door on them instead...

Isn't that the special signal you use to get the rottweilers to come out from their kennel in the back garden?

"The majority of Roman shields on view were obviously flat pieces of hardboard, painted, with the metal edging clearly just silver gaffa tape! Classic stuff" Did you see the BBC's woeful 'Boudica'? The romans carried Ermine st. Guard-quality reproduction scutums. Until they entered combat.... ...then, they instantly switched to... erm.... small circular shields of bare metal, with a single handle on the back. Far be it from me to say 'dustbin lids'. Just, y'know, the same size, shape, colour and design as dustbin lids...

That's because the Ermine Street Guard would be loathe to get their lovely shields scratched or dented - even in mock combat!