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Star Trek Mission's End

Wow this was great. This tells the tale of the last mission and end of the five year journey for the original crew. Very well written and an apt farewell to the original series.

The remastered TOS episodes bugged me with quite a few of their changes. I appreciated the new digital mattes but the CG ships were terrible. Should have just recreated all of the shots with real models. Probably wouldn't have been that difficult. They did recycle a lot of the same shots throughout the series. =P But yeah things like how they changed the Tholian ships to look more mechanical when the interior of their ships clearly showed an alien crystal based technology, just irked me.

So far the TNG remastered episodes look amazing and very faithful to the originals. There's also this:

Drexler, Curry & Takemura Join Remastering Project

"You heard right, this time around Paramount is bringing in a team that lived TNG as it happened. Dan, as I’m sure you know, was the visual effects supervisor on Next Gen. Unlike the remastering of TOS, this job will be 100% true to the original. Visual effects shots will not be reinvented, pulling you out of the show. What’s about to happen is truly extraordinary. The studio has saved all the original footage, and VFX elements from the good old days.. We will be recompositing them, and then outputting them in high definition. Here and there, elements have been lost, and we will recreate only those missing pieces, and with this promise: aside from looking like you had your windshield cleaned, you won’t know the difference. Star Trek:The Next Generation is Gene Roddenberry’s legacy, it is culturally significant, and we will rejuvenate the show with curatorial eyes only. Paramount Picture deserves a round of applause, and I can’t wait to dig in with my friends."

Source

OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006)

The Artist was a fantastic film, definitely one of my favorites of the year. So naturally after learning that the director and the main stars had teamed up previously in a french parody of James Bond I had to check it out. This film was hilarious! What's also great is that it seems like little to nothing was lost in translation. Just a great film all around and I hear its sequel is supposed to be even better. Definitely be checking that out soon as well.

Probe?

My first thought was back to that Shatner recording that leaked a few years back.

They don't really have a staff anymore. After the recent site redesign it seems like they abandoned developing new material for the site and I wouldn't be surprised if it's run by one person at the moment. Everything that's there now is the absolute bare bones with links to fansites to do the heavy lifting.

A Face in the Crowd (1957)

Randomly ran across a mention of this film on twitter a while back and decided to check it out. I went into it only knowing the title and the star (Andy Griffith) and it was not what I was expecting at all! He plays completely against type and what a great performance it is! A terrific film.

SilverWook said:

I don't think anyone involved has a clue how to market this movie. :/

Oh I don't know about that. (Click on the What is button) =P

Alexrd said:

nightstalkerpoet said:

-Some people would like Fett removed from RotJ...

I see no reason for that to happen.

Anyway, I wonder how Ady's doing.

The Defiant Ones (1958)

Was watching an interview with John Lasseter this morning and he mentioned a few films that I figured I ought to check out. The Defiant Ones was one of them. I'm pretty sure I saw this movie years ago but it's only the vaguest recollection. So I just got done watching it "again" and it is a great film!

TV's Frink said:

Not sure I've even seen '33.

Ah, excellent choice.

Which Kong are we talking about here, '33, '76 or '05?

So today Andrew Stanton (writer/director Wall•E/John Carter) has been replying to tweets of a hashtag of people's "favorite Pixar movies". Here's one of them:

andrewstanton andrew stanton 

 

@DisneyandBeyond: The Star Wars Blu-Ray Re-Release #favoritepixarmovie / Nope. The original '77 release ONLY.

The Artist (2011)

Saw this Monday. What a wonderful film! Definitely one of my favorites of the year. As well as having the best trailer of the year.

I play on Kaas City as a Republic Smuggler. The game hasn't been prequelly at all for me but that's probably because I haven't tried a force class. Given that the majority of what we know about Jedi comes from the prequels I wouldn't be surprised. =P The other classes like Smuggler and Imperial Agent that I've tried have been awesome and not prequelish in the least.

Should probably have linked it starting here. =P Man I miss the old Sci-Fi Channel, it's just a train wreck these days. =(

Poor guy. =(

There's none in Arizona. =(

Edit: Oop, decided to do a quick search online and found a store here in the valley that sells them. Definitely have to run out this week and pick some up. =D

The Adventures of Tintin (2011)

Oh man what a fantastic film! I became a fan of Tintin when I was younger from watching the Nelvana animated series. So I was really looking forward to this film. Though at the same time I was a little cautious because it's mocap. My fears were unfounded, this film is simply spectacular. I've heard multiple people say it's a "good Indiana Jones film" and I'd agree with that sentiment. Though I'm a little wary of saying it myself as Tintin has been around so much longer than Indy has. =P

AuggieBenDoggie said:

Ady, what was it about old background design in that shot you didn't like? Now I'm not talking about the quality of it, I'm talking about the design.

EDIT: And because of the change, are you going to apply the new design to all the other shots?

Adywan said on Facebook:

The painted background is completely different from the on-set background we see in all the other shots, so it needed to be changed. Plus you can see hairs in the original painting and brush strokes. The new matte was created as a flat 2d image (bloody huge one too) with the details matching closer to the on-set background, then a 3d tunnel was created matching the camera to the angle of the gantry. There are so many inconsistencies between the set backgrounds and the matte paintings, which also seem inconsistent with each other, a new matte had to be created

IDW's Star Trek Year Four comics are pretty entertaining. Some of them were even written by D.C. Fontana. Their Alien Spotlights are pretty good too judging from their Romulan issue.

Star Wars Agent of the Empire #1

Oh man. I've been waiting for this to come out and I was not disappointed. Back during the beta for Star Wars the Old Republic I decided to play an Imperial Agent and fell in love with the idea of 007 in Star Wars. This comic set during the original trilogy era is fantastic! Highly recommend it.

So....is there a mirror of that comparison video anywhere? =(