United3dArtists Archive

We like computer graphics and FX in movies. Post 'em here.

Jupiter Ascending
Special effects extravaganza.

Saw it. REVIEW here.



Likes: Mila Kunis, maximum FX unless the trailer shows them all.

Gripes: Some FX look a little goofy. I don't like it when the FX quality is not consistent. I'll probably gripe about PC after I see it because it probably is PC.

March 27, 2014 New trailer.


Release delayed until February 2015.

New trailer:

Gulp!!!

Transcendence

Saw it. Review here.





There is also a trailer with an anti-AI group.

Likes: Looks like fun, maybe a good movie, likely lots of FX and sci fi. I like the trailer with the circuit board patterns going together with the light in them at the end. It is a "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts" thing.

Gripes: Just nitpicks. The being in question began as an uploaded human mind -- not purely artificial. That's a theme of the movie of course but I'd like to see a completely artificial, non-human, intelligence in the movie too.

March 27, 2014 New trailer.

New trailers for Jupiter Ascending and Trancendence above.

Edge of Tomorrow

Saw it. Review here.



Likes: Action, sci-fi, FX, may have a good plot twist.

Gripes: Does the trailer have most of the action scenes? Will the replays of the day be boring?

Knights of Badassdom



http://youtu.be/_JSggaU2X1Q

Likes: Summer Glau, heart licking demon, "There be monsters in need of pummelin'".

Gripes: When and where will this be released?

REVIEW

I saw Transcendence. I give it 4 stars of 5 if you are a nerd who understands what it is about. If you aren't then much of what happens would be incomprehensible.

Transcendence trailers here.

It is nicely done in the cinema things like acting, directing, costumes, sets, camera work, and such. No quality problems there. The plot was surprisingly good and had little PC stuff. It treated the promise and the threat of such a development pretty fairly. I have a few nit picks but they would be spoilers and aren't significant anyway. There is action, cool tech, a love story, heroism, and interesting plot twists. You don't see much of the movie in the trailers.

Critics didn't like it. They usually don't like, or understand, sci if. For a few minutes I thought I would get a private showing. No one else was in the theater but then two people arrived. I did see a movie at a theater with no other viewers there once. It was Quetzalcoatl with David Carradine.

You do have to be a nerd who understands AI, computer stuff, and nano tech. Otherwise you won't know what is going on.

Lucy

Saw it: review here



Likes: Action, FX, Sci fi, metaphysical super powers, transcendence, Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman.

Gripes: The idea that we only use a small portion of our brains is long discredited but it is a good premise for a movie. There are other movies based on this theme like Limitless. Holding gun sideways.

This is kind of like Transcendence with the theme of what happens when a Human becomes superhuman but this looks like more fun and less serious.

Thanks. these are great. I usually wait until they are out on red-box, but may make a exception for transcendence.

It a little bit old now but I liked Oblivion, especially for the visual effects (and also the story).

Thanks FHembree.

Person of Interest (television)

I like this TV show. It doesn't have the usual CG effects but they are used to visualize the machine's thinking and subtly throughout the show.
http://www.cbs.com/shows/person_of_interest/

I couldn't find a good recap of this show. It case you might watch it you'll need to catch up so: Brilliant computer guy Harold creates an AI and the the machinery needed to run it. He and the rich guy who paid for it did this to predict big threats and prevent them. They sold use of it to the government for $1 but didn't tell them where it was* because they don't trust the government to have full access to it. The government gives the machine "nsa feeds" (input from every camera, microphone, and computer in the world) and it gives them info. on likely perpetrators of large scale mayhem.

The machine, called Northern Lights by the govt., also finds ordinary crimes about to happen but the govt. considers these irrelevant. Harold does not so he made a back door where it calls him and gives the social security numbers of people involved in the likely crime. Harold and his helpers Reese (ex CIA), Shaw (former govt. agent who was sent to deal with threats the machine predicted), and Fusco (police detective) then try to figure out who's the victim and who's the perpetrator and prevent the crime.

Harold is a super hacker who uses his skills to get info. to solve the "cases". He is also very rich which helps. Reese and Shaw beat people up and shoot them in the knees. Fusco uses police resources and arrests the bad guys. "Root", a super hacker and sociopath, was introduced last season (?). She had knowledge of the machine and wanted to find it. She had one of the best lines in the show. Harold (she kidnapped him) says she will never be able to control the machine. Root: "I don't want to control it. I want to set it free." They go to Hanford but the machine is gone. Harold already freed it and it fooled the people there into shipping it to an unknown location. Mysteriously, it still gets the "feeds" or maybe it just hacked into everything. It still gives the govt. info. on mayhem and gives Harold numbers ... and speaks to Root who (per FX of its thinking) it calls "analog interface". Root sort of worships it and calls it "her".

There are two organizations that appear too. Decima and Vigilance. Vigilance is a privacy group that uses violence against govt. violation of privacy. Decima is a mysterious and powerful group of unclear but likely sinister motives.

The latest development is Samaritan. Another AI that a past coworker of Harold's made. Decima has it but it is not fully functional yet.

* later an inconsistency in the show places the machine at Hanford presumably in the government's possession.

I have been watching this program for about a year now and agree that its is a excellent program.

I was watching a news story the other day and saw a report about a city that was testing a real time surveillance system. (the story is over a year old).

"Eyes Over Compton: How Police Spied on a Whole City"

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/arc ... er/360954/"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VkKeM-OK6g"

The Machine

A low budget (one million pounds is low budget?) film about an AI. Looks like great special effects even with the budget constraints. Might be good. Surely it is entertaining.





Likes: Sci-Fi, AI, FX, actress does her own stunts and plays two parts, Action.
Gripes: None yet. Have to see it.

Looks funny. An 11 minute short film. Not sure where to see it.

REVIEW

Edge of Tomorrow

Surprisingly good! I give it 4.5 stars of 5 on the enjoyment meter. Action Sci Fi. Fun. Lots of action. Looooooots of action. Almost everything is FX of many types.

Cruz and Blunt do a good job of acting including how the characters grow or change from their experiences and the supporting actors give their characters character. The restart the day phenomenon is shown and used thoughtfully both as a story element and by the characters. Although nearly non stop action it has an interesting story with some good twists. There are a few places where license is taken to create dramatic situations or plot elements of course and 2 or 3 of those go far enough to require extra "suspension of disbelief" to stay in "enjoy the entertainment" mode. No problem for me. It was free of PC and upheld some virtues that PC'ness despises.

My main gripe is with one overly dramatized scene where even equipped with tons of "suspension" ability I was pulled out of the story and caused to think about the writing and directing. Emily Blunt's character is a hero and famous so it is necessary to pump up that perception but the scene where Cruz finds her (due to "When you wake up come find me.") is way over done, the location and circumstances are silly, and although she is a sergeant she seems to be allowed to do as she pleases. The scene does provide the entertainment value of a good looking athletic lady covered with sweat ... shining, glistening ... oh yeah review ...

Impressive physical ability for the actors given that the exo suits weighed 100 lbs (Cruz) and 85 lbs (Blunt).

Nooooooooooooooooooooooo! I really wanted to watch that in theaters, but I missed it. I read an article on the making of, it was impressive how they rigged the creatures.

Draise, it is still in theaters here. I hope you can catch it there too. Yeah, the FX are big screen worthy. I never see them in 3D but this one might be interesting that way.

REVIEW

Lucy

That was disappointing. 2.5 stars of 5 on the enjoyment meter. It does have fun action and super powers. That is countered by low quality story telling elements and other problems.

Avoiding spoilers:

If it was like the trailer then it would be pretty good but it is not the level of quality of the trailer. The main bad things were the, um, less-than-well-informed science or knowledge presented and some scenes in the first part, mostly of animals, that are used to illustrate what is happening in the story or Morgan Freeman speaking to explain story concepts. That was really bad.

Main good things: Enjoyable FX and action and super powers. Morgan Freeman was not acting his best but he was still quite impressive. Scarlett Johansson did two characters: before the drug and after. She demonstrated that she is good and is competent for certain lead roles. There were no episodes of bad acting. I expected Lucy's expanded consciousness to be used for PC statements or even a speech but her pronouncements were mostly not like that.

There are no surprises of the plot twist type.

The theater turned the volume to 11. Fortunately I remembered to take my ear plugs.

Blade Runner 2. No movie soon but it has been written. Here.

Person of Interest season 4 premier September 23, 2014.

New Jupiter Ascending trailer. vi ... 510#p41510

Tomorrowland

In theaters May 2015. This early trailer looks interesting.



Likes: Looks like great CG and FX.
Gripes: It is from Disney so it may be really PC. Maybe not.

Ex Machina
(From the Machine)



Likes: AI, FX, possibly explores various related issues intelligently, could be surprises in the plot.

Gripes: Related issues likely explored from PC view. Trailer hints at tired old plot twist that one of the humans is really an AI. Probably not a lot of action.

The Age of Adaline



Might watch this if is on TV or legally free on the web someday.

Likes: Might treat her immortality more with more depth than the usual movie with that theme. Looks like it might be a well done movie.

Gripes: Romance not my thing. I fear appropriation of her wisdom (from such a long life) to give unearned value to statements or even a monologue supporting something unwise.

I predict a happy ending where her love interest reveals that he is like her and they live happily ever after ... eeeeeeeever after.

Terminator Genisys



Likes: Terminator, sci fi, FX, action.

Gripes: Sequels have not been good (fun action though) with the exception of Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles (TV series).

REVIEW

Jupiter Ascending

I give it 3.7 of 5 stars on the entertainment meter. Plenty of FX and action but lacking in other ways. I'd say it is fun and worth seeing at the theater for the FX but don't expect much from the story.

The FX are phenomenal. Fantastic cities and worlds. The action is great but sometimes a little hard to follow with too many and too short cuts. The acting from Kunis and the alien good guys was better than the script deserved. I'm not talking about award winning performances but pretty good. The royal people's acting varied in quality but was adequate. There are some good or interesting ideas in the story but they aren't developed and there are also parts of exceptional stupidity. There is some really cool tech.

While I didn't expect it to be great cinema the story, where it exists at all, is poorly written, poorly thought out, and is inconsistent in style. It is like they didn't know what kind of movie they wanted to make. Some is serious; some comic book like; while a third style was artsy-silly-funny (like The Fifth Element). The third type was the best done part imo but that style was terribly out of place in this movie. The serious and comic book parts could have been used together effectively ... but weren't. The story is 2 1/2 hours of a multitude of bits and pieces that aren't woven together or developed.

I saw the 3D version. That had pros and cons. I think much of the action would have been better in 2D. Mila Kunis in 3D is so hot that her butt must leave scorch marks on furniture. The depth was exaggerated which made many scenes, especially close ups, look strange but it succeeded in making things of vast scale look enormous.

Design artist's site.

It looks like Tomorrow Land is unwatchable. More previews and critic reviews indicate it is a mixture of extreme PC and propaganda that only Disney can achieve. Too bad since it is probably otherwise entertaining. However, I haven't seen it (maybe watch on TV someday) and hopefully I'm wrong.

This TV show, iZombie is pretty good based on the couple of episodes I've seen. Yeah it's time for the zombie thing to go away for decade or two but this has an interesting twist on brain eating and is done in an entertaining way.

I felt the Avengers: Age of Ultron was a bit of the same... I knew the Avengers would be watered down by the huge amount of characters having like 10 minutes of screen time and story to develop each, but yeah... it gets all like one huge commercial that's really well done!

Marvel and Disney... technique and marketing are excellent, but still lacking in story these days, no?

Though, I did enjoy the film.

@Draise Yeah, I wasn't too impressed with Age of Ultron either. They say Whedon had to cut a lot of the more "extreme" scenes that included less serious dialogue and more graphic violence though. I wonder if they will ever made a Directors Cut for that film, I'm like to see it.

@Finis Ex Machina was pretty good actually. I agree Jupiter Ascending was a wasted opportunity, in the end it was just an alright sci-fantasy film.

Thanks Draise and Mikom.

Spacekdet: That design artist has a great job. It would be awesome to do that for living.

"Whedon". Well that alone would scratch Age of Ultron off the watchable list. Too many characters, like Draise said, for me so I wasn't going to watch it anyway.

I want to see Ex Machina. It is in limited release so it is at few theaters. If it does well in limited release, and it is so far, then it could go to more theaters. Being an independent film some theaters won't or can't show it because they are bound to the "Hollywood system". I think the theater here (monopoly) is unlikely to show it. For now I'd have to drive 80 miles to El Paso or maybe 60 to Las Cruces (nearest cities) to see it.

Well I wouldn't drive that far to go see it. It's pretty good but not /that/ good. There aren't a lot of surprises in the film and the ending is a little sudden leaving you wondering what happens next, something you will most likely never find out (unless they make a sequel).

Just saw Mad Max, wow.. what a concept, and great action scenes! Full of happy adrenaline after watching that! For story and drama, I wouldn't hole much to it, but seriously, great fun!

And it should have been called Max Furiosa.

Great character.

Supergirl



TV series. Looks like fun.

Likes: Fun fast paced plus action and super powers. Bad guys are bad. Good good guys are good. Actress was born to wear a miniskirt. Helen Slater's more powerful physique, from the 80's Supergirl, looked more Kryptonian but this actress has an energetic athleticism that works too. Cast is not too numerous so characters won't get lost in a crowd.

Gripes: Ali McGraw actress' acting stinks. They should have cast someone else. The boss character she plays is poorly written or the way she does it is flawed. Although based on comic books the characters could use a little more depth. Not too much though. There will probably be "girl power".

I hope the writer's remember that Kara was 10 or so on Krypton so she has memories and knowledge which Kal El does not.

This is a game, a cool game, not a movie. I put it here because the preview made me long for a movie with this theme. Not a game based movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTUcQ0DDT7s

The Martian

Saw it. REVIEW here.



Likes: FX, sci fi, space, lead character's attitude.

Gripes: In one trailer the crew is being interviewed and the female mission commander lists people who inspired her -- all females. The German astronaut says that he is German in every scene. If that is all there is to dislike then this will be fun.

I'm really really looking forward to this film.

Glow

A short film by a new director. This is really good. His website says this was inspired by a dream he had and that he hopes to continue the story. If he does I hope he keeps the mystery factor. Not much CG but it is used well.

https://vimeo.com/139718295

Your right Finis, this one is really good! Even the acting was pretty solid. The environments were setup to be believable and well done. This short film reminded me of the XFiles. I hope they continue the project.

Steinie wrote:Even the acting was pretty solid ...

Yep. He says this was for requirements for a master of fine arts degree. The actors looked familiar and were too good to be his friends and classmates so I looked them up on IMDB. They are pros with movies and TV shows to their credit. He must have raised a good bit of money for this. Good. Seems he knows how to deal with agents, producers, etc. He'll be around for a while.

Blindspot



Getting the tattoo FX https://youtu.be/P8q-OEF6CoM Six hours when full cover is needed.

Full Premiere Episode http://www.hulu.com/watch/846712 This is the only one I've seen yet.

Likes: Mystery, weirdness, action, FX.

Gripes: I think the first episode reveals too much ... of the mystery . She is thought to have training like special ops etc. ... close quarters combat looks amateurish, blinks when she shoots, runs like a girl, limp wrist fist. They need an adviser for that stuff. Like most crime shows officers violate rights, commit crimes, ignore crimes, never appear in court, etc. True it would be boring otherwise but at least mention being in the trial of the perp arrested in the previous episode or note the gravity of situation merits an exception.

REVIEW

The Martian

4.5 stars of 5 on the entertainment meter. It would score higher if I preferred realistic sci fi. It gets a PC rating of zero! That's right. Zero political correctness.

FX is great. Mars is beautiful. Acting is good from the leads and better than average to good for the secondary characters. There is humor and it works well for the story and characters. There were plenty of twists and surprises. The story is good but I think with 2.5 hours length it could have been better developed. Same for the characters. Though the actors did well I think they didn't have enough to work with to develop characters I would care about or dislike. The realistic aspect and solving the problems was interesting and believable with a few exceptions. The all female list of people who inspired the commander that was in a trailer was not in the movie nor was anything in it PC.

Misc. TV REVIEW (possible minor spoilers)

Since PC is even reaching propaganda level and rendering otherwise entertaining shows unwatchable I guess it is part of my reviews now.

Izombie: Continues to be light fun entertainment that is fairly well done in acting, etc. Surprisingly little, if any, PC. Too much character relationships and lacking in action for my taste but overall it is pretty good.

Supergirl: Three episodes and quite entertaining. The cheap FX are good enough and there is plenty of action. The Supergirl character often presents traditional Superman/girl virtues and is mostly a good character for kids/people to admire. The comic book nature blends well with other aspects. Likely PC: black Jimmy Olsen. One of the best actors on the show he deserves the part. PC is mostly men are bad and "now my daughter has someone to admire". Females can only admire females? Half Polynesian half Eskimo trans-fluid-gender pan sexual rugby players can only admire ... the oldest strategy: divide and conquer. How about anyone can admire anyone they perceive as virtuous or accomplished? There is an anti-individual pro collectivist theme though actions are good old teamwork. Bipolar Superman references present him as a hero but he is also used as a focus of "male = bad". Surprisingly, they actually said "Superman fights for truth, justice, and the American way" as a positive. Trivia: Her cape is sheep skin and there is a corset-like harness under the suit to manage the weight. The Earth parents are played by former superman Dean Cain and former supergirl Helen Slater.

Blindspot: Did I mention "reaching propaganda level"? This was doing great on most aspects but descended into mega-PC. The good stuff is still good but it if that continues it will be unwatchable.

Star Trek Axanar



About: https://youtu.be/S6TXDDoADIY

UPDATE:
Jan. 19 2016
CBS and Paramont are suing Axanar http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-es ... aws-851474. Star Trek is their property and can and should be able to determine who can do what with it but I think they should be nicer to fan films. Even ones as well funded and professional as Axanar. There could even be money to be made by cooperating with some fan films. On the other hand one of the Axanar producers is a lawer (I think) and he should have know better than to proceed without something in writing authorizing it.

The Man in the High Castle



Could be interesting. I didn't read the book.

REVIEW

Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens

Spoiler Free.

4.6 stars of 5 on the entertainment meter. It's fun. I recommend seeing it. Astounding because it is Disney but there is little if any PC. There are things that probably were PC by intent not in nature. Except Capt. Phasma. "I have a bad feeling about this."

Good: It has the Star Wars feel. FX are great. Acting good. Story: interesting, fun, plenty of action. I like the new heroine and hero and the actors did a good job.

Not so good: Character development is a bit shallow as are various story points. Star Wars is not meant to be great drama but the original (ep. 4) had more depth and connection to story and character where this is, well, shallow. I don't like the casting of Kylo Ren. These things and youth of much of the cast made sense when I realized that it was targeted mostly toward teens. Ep. 4 was devoted to its story and so had diverse appeal. There are errors and not well thought out things that don't belong in a two-hundred-million dollar movie. There is too much similarity to past Star Wars stories. There are three groups, the First Order, the Republic, and the Resistance. Any association of the resistance with the Republic is not clear nor if the Republic is opposing the Frist Order directly. That sounds like a lot but it detracts little from enjoying the movie.

I prefer 2D but missed the cheap early showing so I went to the cheap 3D. The 3D, or my 3D glasses, or whatever was not good. There were ghosts and blurry areas sometimes. That was present even with one eye closed. I don't like giving Disney money but I would have gone again to the 2D but it is out of the theaters now. Thinking about going to Las Cruces to see it again. Long drive but I haven't been out of town in a while.

Saw Star Wars on 3D and IMAX BIG Screen and it was an awsome visual experience !
Other then that well its just another Star Wars !

#VoteCamacho
https://vimeo.com/82074066

I the words of Spacekdet, "I'll just leave this here."
https://vimeo.com/39158857

Entertaining. Weird. https://vimeo.com/153829175"

Person of Interest Returns

Person of Interest is back for season 5. It will be a short season with 13 episodes. Season premiere is on Tuesday May 3. See below about the unusual schedule for the show times.

Weird thing 1: The schedule. Looks like new episodes are on twice a week on Monday and Tuesday. The premiere is Tuesday May 3 then a new episode on Monday May 9 and another new one on Tuesday May 10.

Weird thing 2: This is very likely the last season but network executives say different things about that being definite. Michael Emerson, "Harold Finch", has said vaguely hopeful things like it might not be the last season. CBS selling it to Netflix or Amazon is also hinted as a possibility. Writers say the last episode is written so it can be a series finale or a season finale.

Huh, they canceled the Limitless TV series and no one like sci fi channel or netflix picked it up. Weird, I thought it was the network's number two show.

Interesting short film. Too much Fahrenheit 451 but nicely done.


Looks good.


Too much romance for me but I'll watch when it is legally free on the web.

REVIEW

Doctor Strange

4.7 stars of 5 on the entertainment meter. Good: Pretty much everything. Much fun. There are "easter eggs" referring to other movies and at least two cameos. Lots of magic and action. Bad: Only minor flaws. It is to long. FX is great but there is a sameness to the style that given the length of the movie and frequent use becomes a negative factor. A character says "greater good". Points off for that but it is the only PC in the movie.

Some FX looks like it's done with Mandlebulb. Wait through the end credits for a bonus.

REVIEW

Star Wars Rogue One

Minor Spoiler: Very minor, regarding costumes.

4.8 of 5 stars on the entertainment meter. It is fun, adventure, heroism, great FX, good story, good characters, good acting, and it has the Star Wars "flavor". Once again I am astounded to report that a Disney movie has no PC especially since I heard rumors it was written by SJW's. Pros: This is a good well done movie. I was pleased to see that the young heroine was not presented as an angry teenager who's emotions and stupidity are what is needed to save everyone. Her character had an appropriate personality and place in the story and was well written and acted. Cons: Some supporting characters were not developed/written/acted well compared to others. I didn't like some Vietnam/WWII era costume choices. I see what they were trying to do but it was just clumsy.

Local problem. I always wear ear plugs at the theater because they turn the volume up too loud. This one was even louder. I don't like having to wear the plugs since it removes subtle sounds and part of the music.

I loved that film.

REVIEW

Arrival

4.0 of 5 on the entertainment meter. For me most of the entertainment value is in the FX and the mystery but the characters are very well written and the powerhouse cast portrays them expertly. This movie is a "thinker" with intellectual interest. There is little action and what there is is poorly conceived. Matters related to that action contain the small amount of PC in the film. It has an interesting premise but the reveal of it could have been done better. That was a significant flaw but otherwise it was very well done. This story is probably better as a book.

@Draise: I read that they used SoftImage along with Maya and Arnold.

Doesn't surprise me! Very nice. They used SI for the spaceships in Guardians of the Galaxy too (Spaceship AI and animation, etc), I am sure they did something similar for Rogue One. It's a great software, very capable today still, even if you can't buy it.

You can get the student version of Softimage free from Autodesk now though!

Arrival, was a great way to approach Science Fiction. Love that film too, haha

I mostly don't watch TV now. Limitless was canceled. Supernatural is reaching for stories having been on for so many seasons. They should have kept the Frankensteins. I'd have thought it impossible to make a cute chick in miniskirt unwatchable but Supergirl achieved that with wall-to-wall PC and otherwise stupidity and bad writing. Blindspot veered from its forumla of mysterious origin and tatoos solve crimes which is what made it interesting.

The 'Blade Runner' director is going to take a crack at 'Dune'.
http://www.slashfilm.com/legendarys-dune-movie/"
You may remember it as the book series that Lucas ripped off to make 'Star Wars'.
I will not speak of the Lynch attempt.

Looks interesting. Might be another Jupiter Ascending with not so great story but there will certainly be FX.

REVIEW

Kong Skull Island

4.3 of 5 on the entertainment meter. A fun simple monster movie. PROS: Lots of action. Monsters. Great FX. The story is simple enough to avoid interfering with the action but still provides a suitable platform for plot and characters. Although it is set in the mid 1970's, end of the Vietnam war, era there was little PC and what there was was historically appropriate for the characters and era. Acting and characters good. CONS: While I don't expect or want "reality" in a monster movie the resilience of the monsters vs. modern weaponry and other injury is too much. They are not supernatural creatures in this movie. There are supporting characters who are just there. They play no significant role in the story. One character is recruited for jungle experience but his background is not appropriate for that.

The movie had a quality that I don't know how to describe easily. I like the concept and it occurs in some movies. It is something like positive and negative are related in nature. Its wonder and beauty come with the price of danger. This movie combines the natural beauty and power of the island with its danger in this way. A character has a brief line about that.

After I saw it someone told me that there is something to see after the end credits. I saw an epilogue of sorts during the credits but he meant after. Don't know what but you might stay to see it.

Went to see "Atomic Blonde".... awesome film. Fx are fantastic and Charlize Theron is amazing in the fight scenes. Probably some of the most realistic fight choreography in years. Plot and writing wander a bit at times but it is nonetheless an excellent film.

Also saw the new Spiderman entry. Clever, entertaining but it takes a bit getting used to the idea that this is yet another film with expository material on the lead character.

Interesting

Lately I've been working on stuff where I need to think or focus. The phone rings at the wrong times. That reminded me the noisy headset in this.

Interesting. I like the strangeness and mystery. That could be good enough to tolerate the PC factor: all female team plus babble in a behind-the-scenes video about how great that is. Not a good indicator but the weirdness is probably worth it.

Lots of CG. Looks like fun.

Interesting
https://vimeo.com/46304267


Also interesting. I can't see the embedded videos, yt or vimeo, unless I use FireFox's basic tracking block list or turn off anti-tracking. The strict block list shuts off the embedded videos. I can watch the videos at those websites with strict blocking. Of course you can't watch there either without enabling their snoopy scripts so tracked anyway.

Suggestion: Hopefully, web surfers use privacy and anti-tracking tools almost to the extent of vpn+tor. So, I recommend that you include a link when embedding a video. That way visitors who don't want to disable even more protection can go to the websites and watch.

Note to self: get tor and vpn

REVIEW

Alita: Battle Angel

Minor unimportant spoilers.

Pretty good! I give it 4.6 of 5 on the entertainment meter. This is tons of fun and I recommend seeing it.

PROS: FX and CG are awesome. Action and fight scenes abound. Interesting that the cyborg parts or bodies are normal in that world. The animation and mocap is very good. Facial expressions are good. Alita even eats food believably. Interesting that the full cyborg people wear clothes although they seem unembarrassed without. The story has the appropriate elements to appeal to its apparent target audience of teens and youths, comic book fans, and gamers and uses them effectively.

CONS: The cons do little to harm the fun but here they are: I understand that it came from comics and so must stay partially true to that story, style and audience but I morn what could have been. Many elements of this show are appropriate for a more mature sci-fi story with broad appeal, more intellectual value, more in depth characterization, etc. while still having plenty of fun, action and style. Her age has an interesting place in the story but the implications needed more development or explanation. "Teen's emotions save the world" (3X penalty for "kid gives speech"). PC world theme. Ludicrous video game weapons were fun but a rocket powered spike hammer was too much. She has mega fighting skills but her early plastic body was not appropriate to win vs. battle borgs and "level bosses".

https://vimeo.com/302361450

Finis wrote: 24 Apr 2018, 04:07 Lots of CG. Looks like fun.

Just watched this the other day. I have to say, the world building in this was fantastic, something I've never thought of before! But I loved it.

Just watched this the other day. I have to say, the world building in this was fantastic, something I've never thought of before! But I loved it.

100% agree. This world is coherent although totally imaginary, it is full of endearing characters, a bit of British sense of humor, lots of derision... this was an excellent surprise !
Finally we can make good movies without zombies and transhumanism !

Aw, I missed it (Mortal Engines). Critics panned it and it quickly disappeared from the theater here. Glad to hear it was good. Don't listen to critics on sci fi or fantasy or anything with imagination. I thought it was all CG until I saw a making of video and a lot of it was real life models!

When I saw the trailer all I could think of was ....
"It's fun, to charter an accountant!"

(Battle angle) Well its realy cool..and I had the joy to get some good pix of the main Character from the movie a few years ago!
Just like Arnold Schwarzeneger he is an Austrian Actor!!!
You wont believe what he played before that I know his roles for years!!!
But he is very very good!

REVIEW

Star Wars: The rise of Skywalker

Spoiler free.

Entertaining and pretty good. I give it 4.7 of 5 on the entertainment meter. I recommend watching it.

What a pleasant surprise! I read that it was not good and was so full of PC stuff that it was nearly unwatchable. Since it is Disney I would expect that and J. J. Abrams usually means not worth watching. Maybe that article was not a review but what someone expected? Instead is was entertaining, pretty good story, and I didn't see any PC.

Pros:
I suspected it would be sci-fi but not really Star Wars feel and style. It did have Star Wars feel and style! Some of that came from elements borrowed from previous episodes but the new stuff had it too. The CG and effects are great, used appropriately, and not overdone like some episodes. There is a lot of action. The acting was quite good.

Cons:
A bit too much action. More character and story development would be good and is part of the Star Wars style. The power level of some characters was entertaining but also overdone. I think part of that is unearned power. It is where a character has great power, like superheroes, but didn't have to work to gain or develop it. I see that often in stories intended for adolescent to youth audiences. This movie does have broad audience appeal and the characters did train and study but the vast portion of their power is innate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9xhJrPXop4

Big Dune nerd from way back so I have high hopes for this reboot.

cool... i liked the old movie (and the game)

Pretty cool preview with floyd thrown in!

New Dune trailer looks promising.

Eventually I intend to model the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco as a CG project. Looking for references I found this. Watch the film. Then watch again and look at the birds and the people. They are so well choreographed to the camera movement, when they enter a scene, how they move in harmony with the film that it almost could be FX. It is real.

https://vimeo.com/146360171

Interesting. I hope there will be a English dubbed version.

I haven't seen any movies for a while. Theaters were closed during the cooties thing but mostly it is that they are too "woke" to watch.

What have you watched lately?

Now I mostly watch some vloggers for escapism and curiosity.

Lately farming has my interest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jv-lNZgd8g Beauty gets your interest started here but she tells interesting things about farming, farm equipment, and has good decent all American girl vibes.

Cole the Cornstar is informative too. More behind the scenes and straight explanations (sometimes charts and graphs) of the business side.

Before the Ukraine invasion I escaped to Russia watching vloggers tell about regular life there. Surprising how similar to USA it was in some ways. Now of course they have shut up to avoid jail or left the country and vlog about the war and Russia's deterioration. Some stuff I don't hear much in USA news like mobilization, exodus of businesses, effects of sanctions, what Russians are told, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/@INSIDERUSSIA This guy was good for Russian life on the more prosperous side. Now he live streams from another country and supposedly helps refugees from U. and R. Much is to get donations but the news of Russia's inner changes is often ominously like things in America. He lived in the US for a while and says, "Russia is my mother. America is my father."

Who has seen movies? Anything interesting?

Oppenheimer has any seen it yet? Finis this one is close to home for you!
I always liked this Director’s work.