ChainsawAsh

That'd be pretty sweet if it were painted.  (Not a fan of Photoshopped face-collages like the official DVD covers)

Yeah, they just want you to buy something else, so they tell you it won't work when all the DVD-Video function does is - wait for it - create a data disc with an AUDIO_TS and a VIDEO_TS folder!

The two things I took away from the webisodes:

1) We now know what Baltar said to Gaeta to make him stab Baltar in the neck with a pen, though it was kind of underwhelming. ("I know what your Eight did!")

2) While the fleet has allied with the rebel Cylons, and the four Cylons within the fleet are tolerated (Tigh's still on duty), the experience with the Eight on board the Raptor has led Gaeta to believe that no Cylon can be trusted ("I need to speak to Adama directly." "Why?" "Because you're a Cylon.") and he's going to do something to stop them (or something to that effect).

All in all, not entirely necessary - it appears to just be set-up for something Gaeta's going to do, the way "The Resistance" was meant to get you emotionally invested in Jammer and Duck's characters while setting up their roles in the beginning of season 3 (suicide bombing, the New Caprica Police thing).  I thought they were engaging, though - not sure why everyone seems to think they were dull.

And I agree about Tyrol, I lost interest in him after New Caprica, to be honest.  I think he should have died on New Caprica during "Exodus," and Cally should have been a Cylon, but then again, she became very annoying after New Caprica.  They should just never have gotten together at all, IMO - I think that was what made their characters uninteresting/annoying.

DVDs can be DVD-Video or DVD-Audio.  In a DVD-Audio, the VIDEO_TS folder would be empty (though usually those discs contain a DVD-Video portion as well, so players not equipped to read the audio part can still play it).  In a DVD-Video, the AUDIO_TS folder is empty.

In all honesty, for 99% of players, you DON'T need the AUDIO_TS folder.  But, there are a select few DVD players that read the AUDIO_TS folder first, and if it's not there they choke.

There should be an option in Nero to make a DVD-Video somewhere, or Video DVD, or whatever.  Use that, drop the two folders in, and you're set.  Alternatively, you can make a data DVD, drop in the two folders, and you're also set.

I didn't think it was very well-done story wise, but it was quite fun to see in various altered states while it was still in theatres.

And I can't fault it because through that movie I discovered the Secret Machines, who are now my favorite post-2000 band.

I'm going to make another bold suggestion:

COMPLETELY REMOVE ANY mention of Leia and Luke being related.  It was ONLY added in to try and "top" the Luke/Vader reveal in ESB, and just screwed up the way things had been going up to that point.  It just smacks of being thrown in at the last minute.

I know no one will agree with me, but that's my opinion.

I got a PS3 on eBay for $250.  It's an older 20GB model, but that model has 4 USB ports (new ones have 2), FULL PS2 backwards compatibility (new ones have NONE, older 80GB models have SOME), and I bought a 320GB notebook hard drive for $70 on Amazon and upgraded it.  The ONLY thing mine doesn't have that other models do is Wi-Fi (would be nice, but don't really care), the SD card readers (don't care), and chrome trim (really don't care).  If you want those things, get the 60GB model (but those go for quite a bit more on eBay than any other model, since those are the most fully-featured models).

The iTunes ones are 25-30 minutes each.  They're supposedly verbatim from the comic, but not exactly - because sometimes the narration/dialogue when read is actually too long for the animation (which is as faithful as it can be to the comic), some less-than-necessary pieces of dialogue is cut.

For example, Rorschach's opening narration:

--ORIGINAL COMIC VERSION--

   "Rorschach's Journal.  October 12th, 1985: Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach.  This city is afraid of me.  I have seen its true face.
   The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown.
   The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout 'Save us!' ... and I'll look down, and whisper 'No.'
   They had a choice, all of them.  They could have followed in the footsteps of good men like my father, or President Truman.  Decent men, who believed in a day's work for a day's pay.
   Instead they followed the droppings of lechers and communists and didn't realize that the trail led over a precipice until it was too late.  Don't tell me they didn't have a choice.
   Now the whole world stands on the brink, staring down into bloody hell, all those liberals and intellectuals and smooth-talkers ... and all of a sudden, nobody can think of anything to say."

--MOTION COMICS VERSION--

   "Rorschach's Journal.  October 12th, 1985: Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach.  This city is afraid of me.  I have seen its true face.
   The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown.
   The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout 'Save us!' ... and I'll look down, and whisper 'No.'"

The reason for this is that actually reading all that takes too long - "I'll look down and whisper 'No'" comes when the frame is finally above the cop looking out the window saying "Hmm" in the motion comic, while it hasn't even gotten higher than the guy with the hose and the "End is Nigh" man at that point in the graphic novel.

But for people who want the movie to be verbatim from the comic - well, if you add 25 minutes together 12 times (for all 12 chapters), it'd be 5 hours long.  And even then, some things are still cut for time.  A truly word-for-word adaptation would probably be 5 hrs 30 mins or so.  A bit long for a movie.

The motion comic is very good, though, for anyone who wants to read it before you see the movie but aren't a fan of reading comics (like one of my roommates), or if you want to re-read in a more streamlined way.  It's like listening to a slightly-abridged audio book, with pictures included and animated.  If only they had a different person do each voice (watching Laurie talk with a man's falsetto is a bit odd), and animated the mouths, it'd be pretty much perfect.

I've been re-reading the comic in anticipation for the movie ... but I think I need to stop, because at this rate I'll be finished by tomorrow, then will experience withdrawal until May.  Much like what happened every time a "Dark Knight" trailer came out last year.

Fox and WB have agreed to suspend the court hearing because settlement talks are going well, apparently.  I wouldn't worry.

I find your complaints about the current BSG interesting, since they're some of the aspects I like best about it.

I find the political aspect of the show more intriguing than most political shows on TV.  I hate the original BSG and it's cheesy "adventure" - they took a very good, very dark concept and tried to kiddie it up and it failed miserably.  And I love the ambiguity of the protagonists and antagonists - not as cut and dry and boring as most fiction.

And the series was finished last summer.  Sci-Fi just wanted to drag it out as long as they could because, honestly, it's the only thing that gets them ratings anymore, and when it's gone, they'll be lost completely.  I agree about the season sets to an extent, but when seasons are split up by that much time, they should be considered a separate season anyway IMO.

The TIE pilot always flew out of the cockpit, I noticed that before the SE came out when I was a kid and thought it was hilarious.

And Ady, let me just say that was AMAZINGLY FANTASTIC!  And I think all the "blue TIE" complaints can be put to rest now that we've seen how the grey ones actually look like they belong, unlike the blue ones.

I did notice a couple matte lines here and there, but nothing major.

So, in the NTSC Blu-Ray set, does it say "Matrix" or "The Matrix"?  Just curious, I'd like to know before I decide to buy it.

--edit--

I guess the proper way of saying "NTSC Blu-Ray set" should be "North American US Region A Blu-Ray set," since in the HD realm NTSC/PAL no longer exist.

Yeah, there's a post on that somewhere in here.  I can't wait until we finally get to see this version!

It looks absolutely fantastic now.  I don't know if you did any modifications to the mouth movement, but I noticed none of the things I mentioned before, and the eyes are perfect.  Fantastic job, Ady!

RE the new Yoda tweaks - here's my observations (which I wrote as I watched it the first time):

1 - It looks a LITTLE too Photoshop-smear-ish - you need to try to tweak the mouth without moving the teeth as well.  One or two tweaks morph his teeth a little as well and make it look too fake.

2 - When yoda says "Looked away," it's PERFECT.

3 - When he says "F" or "V" syllables, see if you can make his lower lip behave the way it really would (go inward a bit) - that part still looks a little puppet-y

4 - "What he was doing!" also nearly perfect.

Overall, it's pretty good.  I've always thought that Yoda in this scene looked a little stoned - maybe something could be done about the eyes?

I think if you do one or two more passes on this it'll be perfect.  It's close, and there are several instances where it IS 100% perfect, but it's not quite there yet.

Handbrake is pretty fantastic - the newer presets can be a little odd, though. I'd recommend either using the "iPod Legacy" setting or the "iTunes" setting with the bitrate at 1500 instead of the new standard "iPod" setting - the new "iPod" setting has a standard size of 320x*** as opposed to the "legacy" setting's standard size of 640x***.

I think the most that needs to be done is adding in a couple shots of AT-STs going ahead of the AT-ATs to take care of the Rebels in trenches.  I've always wondered why they didn't do that - send the smaller AT-STs ahead to make way for the big AT-ATs.

The Futurama DVD-movies are being cut up into 4 episodes each to make a 16-episode "season" that's airing on Comedy Central (so far they've aired the first two, not sure about 3, and the 4th movie comes out in February).  Based on the ratings those episodes get, they'll decide whether to bring it back as a regular series.

And if Frank Miller touches Buck Rogers, I'll shoot myself.  Have you seen "The Spirit"?

I have a feeling ROTJ:R will be a very divisive edit ...

I know I sound like a broken record, but I still think Fett has absolutely no place in ROTJ.

Well, it seems that Fox is seeking an injunction to block the release of "Watchmen" and Warner doesn't want to settle.

What this really means, IMO, is that Fox wants to push as hard as they can to force Warner to give them as much money as possible.  Which will happen because Fox doesn't lose jack shit if the movie doesn't get released, and Warner loses, well, everything they put into it.  It's cheaper on their part to settle eventually, and smarter.  But there is always the possibility that Fox will lose the trial (I highly doubt that, though).

JediMasterFisher said:

So? Boba Fett doesnt even die. I do believe Luke should have finished him off but cutting him out would hurt the movie. He should be there to complete his role in the saga!

Honestly, if I had my way, he'd be in ESB and NONE of the other films.  Jango would be gone from AOTC, as well.  His "role in the saga" is to be the bounty hunter that captures Han Solo.  That's it.  He never should have been involved with the Clone Wars at all, that's just convoluted fan service, exactly like his appearance in ROTJ - "Hey, people like this Fett guy, we should use him more!" when his character wasn't meant for that.

How does it change the story?  Boba Fett does NOTHING in ROTJ, except get accidentally killed in a completely ludicrous fashion.

rcb said:

plus is name is said twice in ROTJ by han right before he  turns and accidently the pole hits bobba fetts jet pack.

Unless Ady takes the suggestion of removing Boba from ROTJ altogether (which I really hope he does) - then his name is never said.