ChainsawAsh

Hey Frink! Missed you guys!

So I guess I should say at some point that I watched ESB:R and it was amazing, but you all know that already. But I’ve got to echo what others are saying here because HOLY SHIT THE BATTLE OF HOTH. I just…have no words.

And I honestly don’t remember what I contributed half a decade (or more) ago, but it was pretty damn cool to see my name in the credits (and spelled correctly, too)!

Thank you, Adywan. You’ve outdone yourself in every way.

DuracellEnergizer said:

^According to your post history, four years, give-or-take. 😛

Five, apparently (holy crap I didn’t realize it had been so long). Though to be fair, I’ve been lurking around again for the last year-ish, so you’re not wrong.

Oh, hey guys. Did I miss something?

Jay said:

Tobar said:

Edit: Just got back. Very disappointed in the presentation. The blacks were washed out and the picture detail was very poor. I'd say it was on par with the original broadcasts. I'm sure the actual blu-rays will look far superior. Just another strike against AMC in my book.

I read at AVS that the digital projectors used for these events aren't the digital cinema projectors used for feature presentations, but the junky low-resolution ones used for the marketing garbage shown before the previews.

I can confirm this.  I was really nervous about the Dark Knight Trilogy screening because of my past experiences with this, but we lucked out and got a proper screening of all 3.  But I walked out of Poltergeist and got a refund within 10 minutes of the start of the movie because of this.

Tobar said:

For those that say that Rises doesn't live up to Dark Knight, did you rewatch the first two before seeing Rises or are you just going off your own memory?

I rewatched the first two immediately before, since I went to the $25 trilogy screening - BB at 6pm, TDK at 8:45pm, and TDKR at 12:01am.

TDKR was good.

Overshadowed by the fact that my best friend's house burned down while we were at the movie, killing his cat (his dad came home drunk and left a burning cigarette sitting on the counter when he left) and damaging/destroying most of his possessions.

Then I heard about the Aurora, CO thing.

Jesus fucking Christ.  I'll never be able to watch that movie again in my life.

Also loved The Amazing Spider-Man.  Andrew Garfield is perfect as Peter Parker, and Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy is infinitely more interesting (and capable - she actually gets out of a potentially deadly situation on her own!  Gasp!) than Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane.  Garfield and Stone have great chemistry together, too, which really sells the love story.

I didn't mind the Lizard's flat face - that was what he looked like in his original appearance anyway, if I remember correctly.

I did think the whole "mystery" behind Peter's parents was a pretty lame way to try to make this iteration of Spider-Man different from the last, which was unnecessary as it was already different enough to begin with.  Gone is the cheese of the Raimi films (minus the thing with the cranes at the end, that was a little much), and the cardboard characters that came along with it.  (Though Aunt May is criminally underused this go-round.)

I also loved Spidey's fights and web-slinging.  Much more believable and, in my opinion, Spider-Man-like than previous attempts.

And the best part?  This Spider-Man could easily be rolled into the current Marvel cinematic universe, assuming Sony, Marvel, and Disney can make some sort of deal.

8.5/10, easy.  (For comparison, the only one of the first trilogy that comes close is the second one, which I'd give a 7/10).

The season premiere of Futurama.

Meh.  Much like the last season (or seasons, if you count the 2010 and 2011 runs as distinct seasons).  Both episodes had their moments, but overall left me with a feeling of "Damn, it didn't get better."

I feel like my reaction to Prometheus has been the inverse of yours, georgec - I was immensely disappointed walking out of the theater, but the more I think about the movie the more I like it.

I'm also being perhaps too optimistic that the extended cut will fix the issues I have with the theatrical version.

Er, the distance quoted in the film is 35 light-years if I remember correctly - hardly within our solar system.

If you're referring to Charlize Theron's character's "half a billion miles" comment, well, she's a corporate suit who doesn't know what the fuck she's talking about.  She probably just pulled a number out of her ass that sounded big to her.

Is anyone really surprised about this?

I was strongly reminded in the theater of the theatrical cut of Kingdom of Heaven.  The movie was good, but it felt like there was a lot that got ripped out for time without any thought as to how it would affect the story.

And then yesterday, I read that Ridley Scott is releasing an extended cut - 20 minutes longer - on Blu-Ray.

So I'm going to reserve any and all judgment about Prometheus until I see the extended cut, since his KoH DC turned a movie I loved to bitch about* into one of my favorite movies of all time.

*Because it had so much potential that was wasted because the soul of the movie had been gutted, not because I thought it was bad.  Which is pretty much how I feel about Prometheus.

[SouthPark]Nice...[/SouthPark]

10 hours wasn't enough to adapt A Clash of Kings.  Should have been closer to 12 or 13.  That's why this season felt so rushed, and why they changed so much around (well, Dany's story was changed because it was so fucking boring in the book - can't wait to see how they re-write Mereen).  Hell, even A Game of Thrones barely made it with 10 hours, but Clash is, while a similar length, much more dense than Game, so the extra episodes could have helped very much.

I'm very, very glad they'll be tackling A Storm of Swords over the next two seasons and not just one - now that book is significantly longer than Game or Clash, and it's even more dense than the second book, especially toward the last 1/3.

Er, right, this is supposed to be discussion on the Season 2 finale, not the upcoming seasons.  So yeah ... it was very good, a wee bit rushed maybe, but still very good.

MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW.

Best parts:
- Peter Dinklage's performance (yes, again)
- Tywin's horse taking a shit in the throne room (yes, that happened in the book!)
- The Jaime and Brienne show, of course!  Looking forward to more of that next year.
- Theon.  Everything Alfie Allen does.  Yeah, Dinklage is amazing, but he already won an Emmy for the show - give it to Alfie this year!  (Or maybe wait a couple more to give him one ... it rhymes with meek...)
- Jaqen H'ghar's final scene.  I was worried they weren't gonna go full-Faceless Man, but they did and I'm ecstatic (though disappointed we won't be seeing more of Tom Wlaschiha in the role).
- Maester Luwin's death scene.  Manly tears were shed.  Sadder even than Ned Stark's death, which honestly was more shocking than sad.
- Dany's vision of the Red Keep, burned and broken by dragonfire, in the middle of winter with snow all around.  Sure, they got rid of the book prophecies, but HOLY SHIT this one was pretty awesome.
- Seeing Khal Drogo again.
- The Fist of the First Men!  The White Walkers look so much better than they did in the fleeting glimpses we've seen - they're actually white!  And they look significantly different than the wights (zombies), which is quite good.  And their crystal weapons are fucking sweet.

Bad parts:
- The House of the Undying.  So much wasted potential - it's nothing remotely like the books, and all the possibly-important prophecy is gone, replaced by vague new visions (awesome though the Red Keep one was).  And the ending - what, was Pyat Pree the only Warlock of Qarth?  Where were the Undying Ones?  The giant heart beating at the center of the table?  DID PYAT PREE REALLY FORGET THAT DRAGONS BREATHE FUCKING FIRE?!
- Qarth in general, though this is me bitching about the whole season and not the finale.  And as much as I don't give a shit about Xaro, well ... guess he's not coming to visit Dany in Mereen anymore, now is he?
- Jon vs. the Halfhand.  First, no Ghost = Goddammit.  Second, my favorite Qhorin Halfhand line was cut completely - "Is your sword sharp, Jon Snow?"  This also means that a lot of my friends who haven't read the books think Jon betrayed and killed him out of anger, not that Qhorin allowed Jon to kill him so Jon would be able to infiltrate the wildlings and spy for the Night's Watch (since they'd never believe a seasoned ranger like Qhorin would turn).
- Did Robb get married to a foreigner using the vows of the Seven?  He's a Northerner, so he should worship the Old Gods, and she's a foreigner, so she shouldn't give a shit about either.
- Robb/Talisa in general.  Very poorly handled compared to the book, wherein he sleeps with Jeyne out of grief due to the news of Bran and Rickon, and marries her out of honor because he took her maidenhead.  In the show, he's a horny teenager who decides "Nah, I don't need to keep my promise to Walder Frey, I'll just marry you instead.  What's the worst that could happen?"
- No Reek.  It worked out in the end, but still, Dagmer knocking out Theon wasn't nearly as WTF as when it was Reek-who-turned-out-not-to-be-Reek.
- Ros/Varys.  I didn't hate the scene, and it does a good job of setting up Varys to be even more manipulative and cloak-and-dagger than we already know, but it's unnecessary overall and the screentime could/should have gone toward more important things, like Jon/Qhorin.
- Littlefinger making an explicit offer to take Sansa home.  Show-Littlefinger is far dumber than book-Littlefinger.  And where was Ser Dontos, the knight-turned-fool?!  He's the one that should have told Sansa he'd get her home.

END SPOILERS.

So I know it seems like I'm just bitching about the episode, but I really did like it a lot.  Not quite as good as "Blackwater," but otherwise possibly the best episode of the remainder of the season.

Of course it's cheese, but as CP3S said, it's a hell of a lot of fun!  What's wrong with liking cheese?

Game of Thrones Season 2, episode 9.

Blackwater.

Holy fucking shit.

Maybe not quite as epic as in the book, but it's the most intense, cinematic battle I've ever seen on e television series.

More than lived up to the hype.

"If anyone dies without blood on his sword, I'll rape his corpse!"

Best episode of the series to date.  It certainly benefited from being written by George R.R. Martin, the author of the books, and from focusing entirely on a single story/location.

4 jars of wildfire out of 4.

Johnny Ringo said:

Started watching Sherlock.

I had low expectations knowing that it's made by writers of Dr Who - but unlike Dr Who it's actually good.

;)

4 balls.

Them's fightin' words!

Though I agree that Sherlock is absolutely fantastic television.

Johnny Ringo said:

 a bit of dialogue here and there is too faint - i understand this is bacause some parts are sourced from workprint footage where they never did ADR.

That's fixed on the Blu-Ray.  Sigourney Weaver, Charles Dance, and whoever else they needed lines for came in and did their ADR.  Shame they didn't gather them together for the DVD version.

Tenacious D's new album, "Rize of the Fenix"

Good so far, but I'll need a few listens to develop a fully-formed opinion.  Seems better than "Pick of Destiny" so far.

Yeah, Enver Gjokaj can channel Fran Kranz so well, it's almost like they actually did imprint him...

And the Epitaphs comics are pretty good.  Definitely wish we'd gotten a full season of that instead of two episodes.

Whoops, you're right!  Fixed.

[Fett is] a goes-where-the-money-is bad guy...

And that's exactly why I (personally) think he doesn't belong in ROTJ at all.  Why is he hanging around Jabba's palace?  Shouldn't he be off, I don't know, collecting bounties or something?  As it is he stands around doing nothing until he gets killed by accident.

Tobar said:

I went out of my way to find a copy of the theatrical version of Alien because I kept hearing about how the director's cut wasn't actually a director's cut and how it was actually shorter than the theatrical version and that the only new thing about it was a quick shot of an alien egg hatching.

Here's the rundown on that.

The 1979 cut of Alien is Ridley Scott's preferred version, so it's his "director's cut."

In the early 2000s, Fox was looking to create extended versions of all the Alien movies for the Quadrilogy box set.

Scott found out and offered to recut the movie himself (or they asked him, I can't remember).  So he did, and the studio called it a "Director's Cut" since he actually worked on it.

Scott sees the 2003 "Director's Cut" as an alternate version that's cut more to modern sensibilities - a lot of small trims are made to make the movie move by a little quicker, but it's not noticeable unless you're really familiar with the movie (the comment Dallas makes about Ash being a last-minute replacement is cut, for instance).

He also added in a few deleted scenes - Ripley finding Dallas being turned into an egg and killing him with a flamethrower, Ripley arguing with the rest of the crew just after Kane is brought aboard against her orders, a clear shot of the Alien in the scene where Brett gets killed (which is the main thing I dislike about the 2003 cut), etc.  And, yes, Kane and the egg was recut slightly IIRC.

Overall, with stuff being cut out and stuff being extended, the 2003 cut clocks in at roughly one minute shorter than the 1979 theatrical cut.

So there you have it - it's a very subtle alternate cut with a few extensions and a few trims, but nothing Earth-shattering.  I still prefer the 1979 cut, as does Ridley Scott himself, but aside from that one shot of the Alien in Brett's death scene, there's nothing wrong with it, either.

I recommend this order.  It's the one I used while watching, and it's pretty flawless.  It's also designed for minimal disc-swapping if you're using the DVDs.

Anyway, the Fringe finale was last night.  I enjoyed it quite a bit, even if the latter chunk of the season had a distinct "Oh shit we might get cancelled" feeling to it and the finale itself felt a little rushed.  There were some great surprises, one of the most disturbing scenes I've ever seen on the show (THOSE EYES), and it made the 2036 episode feel relevant to the season itself by fulfilling quite a bit of its foreshadowings.

Really looking forward to the final season!

Someone said this to me today, after a third person asked the two of us to compare Avengers to Dark Knight, and I 100% agree with what he said:

The Dark Knight is the best film so far based on a comic book character, but The Avengers is the best comic book movie to date.

Also, I've decided that Joss Whedon must write all Tony Stark dialogue from now on.

"Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?" ... "That man is playing Galaga!" ... "Phil?  His first name is Agent."

All gold.  Gold, Jerry!