Guest reviewed by Caballero Oscura
Let's review the basic concepts of Cleopatra 2525.
Hot chicks? Check.
Skimpy costumes? Check.
Sci-fi with lots of action? Check.
Exec produced by Sam "Spider-man" Raimi? Check.
So on paper, this series would appear to have the basic ingredients needed to satisfy most adolescent and mentally adolescent male viewers, right? Surprisingly, the answer is a resounding no.
The show focuses on the futuristic adventures of a pair of sexy freedom fighters who discover a girl who's been cryogenically frozen for 500 years, thaw her out, and get her to join their merry band of warriors. Their only problem is that she's a ditzy, annoying exotic dancer with no fighting skills...ok, really no skills of any kind. It's absolutely mind-boggling that these two tough, focused fighters would bother to keep Cleopatra around for more than 5 minutes without summarily dispatching her back to the freezer, especially when she regularly lets out high-pitched shrieks at least once an episode. She is so clueless and so lame that it actuallycomes as no surprise when she proves to have no exotic dancing skills in a pole-dancing episode.
Cleopatra aside, the other two leads are convincingly babealicious and really the only semi-decent reasons to watch this show. They shoot guns, get in fights, and perform some dazzling stunts that make them believable in their tough roles. Apparently one of the girls gets their mission instructions from a voice named "Voice" implanted in her head, and they all have no problem following her orders even though they really don't seem to know anything about the Voice.
All we know is that flying robots have taken over the surface of the earth, forcing humans underground to fight forsurvival. The episodes are mostly self-contained plots (using "plot" very loosely here), so viewers can usually jump in at any episode without fear of missing out on backstory.
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Article comments
1 - Chris Beaumont
I reviewed this recently, and found it strangely addictive. Corny, definitely, but I enjoyed it for some odd reason.
I enjoyed your review, but please, please, please, don't lump Farscape in with the rest of cheesy sci-fi shows. I know everyone has different opinions, but Farscape is one of my all time favorite shows, cancelled before it's time, and anything but cheesy.
2 - Grim Weeper
Yeah, I'd also like to correct the mistaken description of Farscape. You must not have seen the show. The stories it told often turned scifi cliches sideways, and each epsode had something for everyone: action, romance, humor, and thrilling adventure. I've never seen a scifi show like it, and only Battlestar Galactica or Babylon 5 approaches it in epic scale. It had the highest production values I've ever seen on commercial television. The CGI, the effects, the creatures, not to mention the camera work, and the enormous and fantastical sets all combined to create aliens worlds unlike any you've ever seen outside of a feature film.
I always cringe when I see someone lump this gem of a show in with all those other cheesy and camp productions. Farscape was out there all right -- out there leading the way on how to do scifi right.
3 - Grey
I think your description/review of “Cleopatra 2525” is probably pretty accurate (I don’t know for sure because I could only stomach about ten minutes of it the first, and only, time I tried to watch it), but apparently you’ve never even seen Farscape. Lumping any aspect of Farscape in with “Mutant X” and “Andromeda” is like lumping caviar in with non-albacore tuna and sardines! (Or you just had to figure out a way to include the name "Farscape" to generate hits and comments. Which has worked.)
4 - NancyGail
Forgot something. The villian Creegan, played with great wicked relish by Joel Tobeck, was a hoot to watch.