asterisk8

Bingowings said:

The better half has just excitedly finished reading Anno Dracula by Kim Newman after my recommendation of it for as long as he has known me.

This has perpetually been on my wishlist, but I never seem to pull the trigger and pick up a copy. One of these days.

Currently reading Voltaire's Candide. Just finished Embers by Sándor Márai.

 

Monolithium said:

asterisk8 said:

The flashy CG floating see-through displays seem like pandering to Avatar-fans, not like the meticulous, thoughtfully considered aesthetic of a director like Ridley Scott. I'll still see the movie, and let it stand or fall on the merits of its story/acting/directing, but it's just disappointing to me. If any director could've made "antiquated" technology look sexy in a 2012 film, it's Ridley Scott. Hey, Duncan Jones' Moon succeeded wonderfully without needing to wow the kids with fancy holo-displays. That film's aesthetic would fit right in with any number of classic science fiction films of the 20th century. 

But would MOON have looked the way it did if it had the budget that Prometheus has?

I'm not a fan of hypotheticals. :) But I will say that having to work with limitations is something that always benefits those with real creativity. Huge budgets and a cadre of Yes Men have the opposite effect.

Whatever Moon's budget, Jones proved that fancy technology is not what drives great science fiction, it's ideas.

Who_Am_I? said:

 

Its the golden era of the Earth like the golden era of a certain republic far, far away. Thats why its all new, shiny and high tech. Pretty basic stuff people.

I'm not interested in "basic stuff". I'm interested in directors who throw "basic stuff" out the window and write their own rules.

muddyknees2000 said:

I always liked little "defects" like that....feels more real, as opposed to everything being perfect.

Agree 100%. That little bounce to me is part of the "bucket of bolts" charm of the Falcon.

timdiggerm said:

Ironically, if not for the the connection to Alien, a connection the writers seem to want to downplay a bit, y'all might be more willing to see this as just a really good sci-fi movie

assuming it's really good, of course.

Yes, true. If it's a great sci-fi movie, it won't matter all that much to me. It only matters right now because it's the only thing to really talk about. The fancy Avatar displays sapped just a little of my excitement because I was banking on the fact that Ridley Scott would manage to make old, bulky technology look sexy. It worked so well in Moon.

Really, I just want to see a science fiction film from Ridley Scott that's as good as Blade Runner and Alien. That's about story and mood, so we'll see.

The YouTube Android app is similarly worthless. I've never gotten a video to actually play on it in the 18 months I've had this phone, even when just for shits & giggles I give it 10 minutes to load.

Great post, Chainsaw. I'm bookmarking that in case this question ever comes up in conversation.

Hanna - I really enjoyed this. Nothing deep or all that original about it, but it's a stylish film with a fantastic performance by Saoirse Ronan, and a killer soundtrack by the Chemical Brothers.

7/10

walkingdork said:

But you are socially liberal, right? prochoice, gay marriage, legalization and all that jazz?

 

A Libertarian would be for all of that, because personal liberty is the foundation of the platform.

ChainsawAsh said:

Again, the Nostromo is a space semi truck that looks like it was made before any of the crew from Alien were born.  The Prometheus is an extremely heavily-funded scientific research vessel.  Of course it's going to have better technology.

Like 005 said, the Nostromo is probably older than the Prometheus, too.

This is an explanation I can get behind. It's the "get over it, it's a 2012 movie, they can't have CRT monitors in it" attitude that bothers me, as if a reason is not required.

I brought up the difference in technology issue on another board, and was roundly criticized to "get over it" and quit obsessing about it because it's 2012 and you can't have CRT monitors in a science fiction film set in the future anymore.

My feeling is that this is a bullshit excuse. The excuse actually bothers me more than the fact of the tech discrepancy itself.

It's an alternate reality, not our future (just look at the timeline on weylandindustries.com if you think this is supposed to be our future), so who's to say what technology is "supposed to" look like in this alternate future? Is Alien automatically unwatchable because the technology on the Nostromo is not flashy enough? Maybe to some, but not to me. What it does do, is hurt the continuity. It makes it harder for me to suspend my disbelief and buy into Prometheus as a true prequel to the Alien saga, as opposed to a J.J. Abrams-style reboot.

The flashy CG floating see-through displays seem like pandering to Avatar-fans, not like the meticulous, thoughtfully considered aesthetic of a director like Ridley Scott. I'll still see the movie, and let it stand or fall on the merits of its story/acting/directing, but it's just disappointing to me. If any director could've made "antiquated" technology look sexy in a 2012 film, it's Ridley Scott. Hey, Duncan Jones' Moon succeeded wonderfully without needing to wow the kids with fancy holo-displays. That film's aesthetic would fit right in with any number of classic science fiction films of the 20th century. Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica series made nice use of more traditional set design also.

Like I said, it's not a deal-breaker, it's just disappointing. Seems like the path of least resistance to me, like it's trying to appeal to teenagers more than to fans of the original films. As others have duly noted: the exact same problem a lot of us have with the SW prequels.

Contagion - 7.5/10

I see what you mean, but I think it's just a matter of them continuing to refine the visual effects shots in the time between the teaser and the trailer. I first really realized this was common practice when I noticed this change between the Edward Norton Incredible Hulk teaser and a TV spot from a couple months later:

Aside from flipping the ship for the shot (the new composition is much stronger, imo), the new Prometheus trailer likely has much greater lighting, texture, and atmospheric detail than the earlier renders used in the teaser. I'm sure if you compare other shots, you'll find more improvements in the CGI.

Rogue-theX said:

Noticed something about the ship while watching the different versions of the trailers.

It's the exact same ship design, just seen from the opposite side. Apparently they decided to flip the ship around in that shot since the original teaser was released.

DavidBrennan said:

Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:

David, you're mistaking lack of sympathy for outrage.  After reading your description, I didn't have much sympathy (if any) for your situation, but I wasn't outraged.  We have people here who post much wilder stuff.

Sometimes mods delete posts and ban users because they don't want a significant base of their readers to start leaving, or for the discussion to degenerate and cause new readers to shy away.  Sometimes it is to keep a few people from getting offended and leaving.  I delete some feedback posts from my YouTube videos precisely because I don't post those videos so that my friends can be insulted.  Freedom of speech doesn't apply to private sites on the internet.

Everybody understands the difference between censorship (government-enforced silence) versus simple suppression of ideas.  The reason that the U.S. Founding Fathers mandated freedom of speech (and assembly, etc.) was because they understood this to be a Natural right.  So even though media PC police or power-tripping internet moderators are clearly not breaking that right itself, they are breaking with the underlying idea.

The lesson for me here is that Star Wars fans are rabidly politically correct (by 2012 standards) as a group.  Hey, maybe this is just normal nowadays, but I've been spending too much time in the world of MMA where they're mostly devoid of pretense and phoniness, and so I just project that kind of social innocence onto others.  I don't know. 

I wish more people would stand up to these bullies.  But I understand the instinct to just shrug your shoulders and move on.  It's like Tom Wolfe wrote once, he asked students in some useless college course why they all submitted to their teacher's command that they spell women "womyn".  He said that they all agreed it was stupid, but better to just get through things than make waves and risk your grade, reputation, or sparking the name-calling wrath of their bullying professor.  That same shoulder-shrugging acquiescence to all the phonies has continued, and they and their bullying ways have obviously just grown.  Now, the word "effeminate" to describe a dude is the latest word on the blacklist.  Okay, duly noted.

It's funny, I like the Joe Rogan podcast, and he always complains about this sort of shit and how they're prohibiting more and more words and ideas, working for NBC and UFC (although the latter is obviously very lenient).  He just substitutes "cunty" for "faggy" nowadays, but he always fears that you people are gonna throw your hysterics about "cunty" pretty soon, too, and muzzle him still more.  You'll just keep demanding more words to the censored list until there's just the word, "The" in the vocabulary.

What hilarious phoniness.  I don't want to talk about it anymore, either.  What they did to me was wrong, as is their secrecy about it and their lies, and their refusal to punish people who called me names.

Man, is your soapbox full of booze, because you must be loaded.

DavidBrennan said:

Mielr said:

 

Some may have interpreted your characterization as gay-bashing, which might explain why they decided to ban you, (regardless of their explanation). That's a big PC no-no, especially if he really is gay or transgendered.

Personally, I can't stand TFN or the attitude of most there, so as a female, I wouldn't refer to the behavior by those at TFN as "girly" (especially when the word is used as a pejorative) mainly because I'm fairly sure most of the posters there are male, and DO act like adolescent and pre-adolescent boys tend to act on occasion.

Besides, you're giving them a lot of credit, assuming that there's a whole lot of "grown men" there! ;-)

 

I think that "gay bashing" was what they were, like, coyly hoping I was going to do so that they could wag their little fingers and act even more indignant and self-righteous. 

My basic worldview is that you're allowed to make observations; that observing things, stating observations, and being curious in general is a good thing.  So, like, I don't know why everybody is supposed to silent about the fact that, ya know, Dave Filoni is effeminate.  I mean, everybody has eyes and ears and so they've observed it, too.  We observe that George Lucas has gotten fat and kind of Jabba-ish in the past decade and nobody has issues making digs about that.  I guess that people are supposed to lie about dudes being effeminate.  I don't know.

Thanks for exuding at least a bit of sympathy, though.  It was kind of weird to tell the story here and just read still more, "Oh no he di'int!" fake outrage from people.  I guess Western men don't have any real emotion anymore, so faking feeling is the only way to project humanity to others.

(As far as the age of the dudes at TFN goes, they're usually listed at the people's profiles there.  I definitely haven't done a full survey or anything, but the average does seem to be a male well past 20, for sure.)

You have some serious issues with masculinity. Note, this is not outrage, just an observation made with my eyes.

Seven Samurai (1954)

My cousin had never seen a Kurosawa film - I've seen probably 20 - so we went and got sushi from my favorite place and then settled in for a 3 1/2 hour epic. He loved it. This was my fifth time through, and as if I needed any reminder, it really is my favorite film of all time.

40 out of 40 bandits.

MST3K - season 2 episode 4 - Catalina Caper

"Oh, what are you, Creepy Girl? Are you French, Italian, or one of those swarthy Gypsy-types?"

muddyknees2000 said:

In a way yes......but here's how I see it. Getting THIS excited over something, and so looking forward to it is one of the best parts of life. Its truly a beautiful thing. Its Christmas, or a get together with family, or a surprise party......all of those things that we may or may not grow out of as we get a little older. So to be a part of something that brings that kind of fun and excitement back to something that had lost some of its "shine" its reall quite an awesome feeling.....and I'm definitely guilty of trying to encourage and keep it going. Anticipation is often the best part of something, and I for one am enjoying it imensely.

Couldn't have said it better myself!

Yeah, shut up, will ya? I'm trying to remain as unexcited as possible so the months go by faster!

Really makes you wonder if Topher Grace knows of OT.com or is a stealth member here...

I'm obsessed with the internet.

Anchorhead said:

Actually, I have made the jump to Blu-ray.  I just don't buy too many of them because I can't make full-film audio rips from them.  Not yet anyway.  I know it sounds restrictive to base my purchases on whether or not I can rip the audio track, but it really is a big deal to me. 

Sometimes I buy two copies - one DVD, one Blu-ray - so I can have both a great picture and an MP3 of the film.  True Grit and Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes both came packaged as a Blu-ray\DVD\Digital, which was really nice.I haven't watched either of the digital versions, so I can't speak to the quality.  I may be able to pull my rips from those digital versions.  I haven't looked into it.

I don't have anything against the Blu-rays of Blade Runner and Alien, they just aren't a priority because I'm happy with the DVDs.  I'll eventually get there.

I don't think I've ever heard of someone ripping the audio of a movie to listen to it on its own. Do other people do this? What inspired you to start doing this, Anchorhead? I'm fascinated!

Rule 34?

I have a 31-year-old friend who watched all six Star Wars movies for the first time last year. She fell in love with it so much she named her newborn daughter Roxanne Leia.

XyZ said:

Never seen Firefly. Is it as good ? (One friend told me "no").

He is not a real friend.