hairy_hen

Watched GoldenEye today.

Was extremely impressed with the sound design of the original 5.1 mix.  In some places they used old and somewhat lo-fi sound elements, and a lot of the bass is of the one-note kind, but it is put together so well that it hardly matters.  A lot of 5.1 mixes, including the Star Wars special editions, rely on 'flashiness' and really call attention to themselves in a distracting and bad way, but GoldenEye is definitely one of the better ones I've heard.  The sound field is very natural and immersive at all times, during explosive action scenes and quieter moments alike.

Later on I put in the ultimate edition dvd to compare a few scenes, which confirmed my earlier recollections.  While the remix does eliminate some distortion evident in certain effects in the original, the LFE volume in most cases is only about half as loud, causing many effects to seem subdued and quiet in comparison.  I definitely recommend watching the older dvd version because of this!

They do if you randomly happen to think of them.  :p

I hereby declare eggs not to be a fruit.

Also, dirty diapers will no longer be accepted as legal tender.

I was just thinking of watching GoldenEye recently.  Have heard good things about the DTS laserdisc, but never heard it for myself.

I have two dvd versions, the special edition release and the ultimate edition box sets that came out a few years ago.  The 'ultimate' version is actually nothing of the kind, because they screwed up the transfer by cropping the image too far and rendering it too dark, and the remixed audio has rather less LFE strength than the original, even though the sound quality is somewhat improved.  In both picture and sound it is simultaneously better and worse because of these things.  Overall I'll just stick with the older version; hopefully when they get around to doing the Bluray they'll re-do the transfer and go back to the original mix.

teeveez phrinke ar smithy ov da shist

fasebuuk froghumps efelant buttasplodes . . . clearly.

If the seventh book has three acts, the second would begin with the trio going to hide in the forest, and the third would be all the stuff at Hogwarts.  So the first movie pretty much ends on a somewhat cliffhangery note while the second act is still going on.

Most of the HP dvd's look pretty good, but the sixth definitely got shafted on the transfer.  While the Bluray version is said to be excellent, the dvd is inexplicably soft, way too dark, and desaturated.  It was a bit dull-looking in the theatre anyway, but the standard definition image quality is dreadful for no apparent reason.  A fair amount of Warner Brothers dvd's have been rubbishy in appearace lately, which probably speaks to the studio just not caring about the format anymore.  This is very unfortunate for those of us who are not yet in the HD game.

Oh yeah, I don't like the colour timing on the newer transfer of The Matrix.  It makes it look just like the sequels, which is bad both because the other two sux and because it's just worse colour to begin with.  It's too digital and fake looking--yes of course it's supposed to look like that anyway to some extent, but in the original it seems more subtle and less beating you over the head with the idea.  Didn't they use a filter on the lens for part of the effect instead of doing it all on the computer?

The newer transfer does have nice contrast and definition, though.  It would be cool if someone could colour correct it back to the original look, to get the best of both worlds.  Although sometimes I even wonder about that, because when you look at the menu the colours are clearly different again.  Hmm . . .

lol  Well, I just saw The Matrix.

Been a few years since I watched that.  It's easy to forget how good it actually is, in the wake of those wretched sequels and all the horrible imitations it spawned, but the original film holds up as well as it ever did.

Well yeah, but I didn't NEED to know all of that when I saw it, and in the movie continuity none of that really enters into it. Sure, its disappointing, but unnecessary in the view of the movies as a whole.

You can follow the on-screen action without knowing those things, but much of the emotional resonance vanishes along with their removal.  "I saw my dad," Harry says, thinking his dead father had reappeared to protect him by conjuring the world's best Patronus.  Well, in a very real sense he did--the moment when the stag comes back to him and Harry realises that its appearance is actually that of Prongs, James Potter in his animal form, and he reaches out to touch it only for it vanish--well quite honestly that was one of the most moving scenes I've read in any book ever.  To quote TV Tropes, it was the Crowning Moment of Awesome for the whole series in my view; but in the movie that element is simply not there.

Good idea.  I think I was starting to take over the movie thread too much, lol.

There is a lot of good stuff in the third movie, particularly the artful visual presentation and the lovely music.  But I can't consider it one of the best movies because they completely chopped out all explanation of who Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs actually were, why they made the map, why Snape hates Lupin and Sirius, how Sirius escaped from Azkaban and how he identified Pettigrew as Ron's rat, and why Harry's Patronus looks like a stag.  I know it's a lot of information to present, but chopping it completely wasn't the answer, because without it the plot simply fails to make much sense at all.  Also, Hermione's characterisation is bordering on Mary Sue-ish at times, misrepresenting her actual personality, in part because any reference to her extreme stress at going back in time over and over to take so many classes was simply removed altogether.  Having her be the one to say "If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to kill us too" is just the last straw, because in the book this line was spoken by Ron, signifying his bravery and loyalty even with his broken leg, while the movie just makes him look fearful and goofy.

Pretty much all these mistakes are at the screenwriting level, and it's annoying because Prisoner of Azkaban is my favourite of all the books in the series, being the best written and most emotionally meaningful and nuanced.  Still, at least the music is so damn good, and the casting and so forth are splendid.

Of course, the third movie looks like writing gold compared to the fourth, which is a choppy mess whose plot ends up making even less sense from having a huge amount of essential material removed . . .

My association with Harry Potter goes back a long way--read the first four books in just a few weeks about ten years ago (I was 16) as a deal I struck with my sister; I read them in exchange for her reading Lord of the Rings.  At first I was sceptical they'd be any good, but I'd already fallen hard only a few pages in, and it got even better as it went.  It was tough waiting three years for the fifth one to come out, I can tell you!

This article details exactly what is wrong with series 5 from a character perspective, and I agree with about 98% of it.

Be sure to read all three pages; the third contains an in-depth description of exactly how a new approach and some rewrites could have made it a far more enjoyable series than it actually turned out.

http://www.overthinkingit.com/2010/07/12/fixing-doctor-who-season-five-edition/

Saw Deathly Hallows part one last night.

Despite having severe grievances with the book, I found myself really enjoying the film a great deal.  By presenting it at length rather than cutting out a huge amount of material as the previous entries have done, it allows each scene and the story as a whole to develop at a better pace and make much more sense, resulting in a film with quite a different feel than any of the others (quite aside from the extremely dark and grim tone).  If only they had been able to do all the movies this way!

I think part of the problem with the book is that it isn't a story particularly suited to being written out--in many places it feels much more like a movie script that has been adapted to book form, with additional unnecessary padding.  Seeing this same story actually presented as a produced script, it unsurprisingly comes across as if it were in its natural state, as if it were meant to be this way all along.  It also helped that the parts that didn't work originally were often subtly altered in the movie into forms that improved upon the source, as I had hoped.  Highly recommended, and it's going to be tough waiting all that time until part two next summer.

If John Williams had never done any of the HP scores, I wouldn't really have any complaints about the music, but it's just that he set the bar so high initially that his absence is all the more noticeable.  For instance there will be a scene near the end of part two that would be a perfect place to use the lovely 'A Window to the Past' theme from movie three (the theme for Harry's family), and this will undoubtedly pass right by as a wasted opportunity, as it did throughout movie five.  Also, six and seven could have had a romance theme for Harry and Ginny, in the vein of Han Solo and the Princess from ESB, or Indy and Marion from Raiders.  (I ended up composing one myself a couple years ago since I knew such was not to be.)  Ah well . . .

Sorry if I'm turning this into the 'hairy_hen talks Harry Potter' thread.  lol  It's just a subject I have at various times invested a lot of interest in.

Sure, if you like meaningless shallowness masquerading as 'empowerment' or something, I can see how that would be appealing.  Otherwise . . .

There's an art theatre in New York City that sometimes shows silent Buster Keaton films, three shorts and then a feature with live piano accompaniment.  I've gone several times for those and really enjoyed it.

Tis true that not much happened in The Men Who Stare At Goats, but I found it pretty funny and interesting.

Saw Half-Blood Prince last night.  Only a few minor quibbles with that one; it's not far behind Order of the Phoenix in terms of ranking the HP films.  Going to see Deathly Hallows part one tonight.  Think I'll re-read the books fairly soon in preparation for part two next summer.

I agree, 005: that problem is especially evident in the last book.  Things that did seem to be foreshadowed earlier turn out to amount to nothing, and the actually important plot elements spring up out of nowhere.  Certain comments JKR made in interviews and such over the years do hint at some of the things that happen later, in retrospect, but she would have done well to include such hints in the actual books themselves to a greater degree, because as it is they fall flat and conflict with previously established facts.

She did bring up in the first one that the wand chooses the wizard, and that using someone else's wand isn't nearly as good as your own, but nowhere did it ever hint that disarming someone was enough to force their wand to your ownership.  Apparently this works even if you just grab it out of their hand rather than using a spell, and works for a wand that the person didn't even know they owned, which happens to be over 400 miles away.  And this in turn is the key to winning everything.  I'm sorry, but how the F#$% does that make any sense at all?!?!  *head-desk*

If in the movie they end up changing it so that the Elder Wand chooses Harry because he displays some sort of magical prowess, I'll be very happy indeed.  It would really help if he, you know, had actually physically touched it at some point . . .

I'm glad to hear that the 50,000 pages of sitting around wiping their asses with leaves in the middle of the book is more interesting in the movie.  Good lord, reading that part was so boring.

Still, even with all my grievances towards the last book, I'm looking forward to seeing the movies considerably, because they are always fun to watch and it's kind of sad that something that's been going on for so long is coming to an end.  I really did adore the early books, especially Prisoner of Azkaban.

This makes me think of the Shepherd's iconic remark to Mal in the Firefly episode 'Our Mrs. Reynolds':

"If you take sexual advantage of her, you're going to burn in a very special level of Hell.  A level they reserve for child molesters, and people who talk at the theatre."

Keep in mind that d_j can't possibly include everything people want on these dvd's.  They are primarily meant to be the best rendition of the GOUT video with various alternate soundtracks, not an archive of every tiny little thing there has ever been.  Keep the expectations to a reasonable level, folks.  ;)

My girlfriend likes The Christmas Invasion for some reason, but I can't stand it.  First truly dreadful episode of the new show, and a harbinger of the downward plunge it would later often exhibit.

I consider the first series with Christopher Eccleston to be practically perfect, despite every episode being set on or near earth.  But that unfortunate trend continues later--it's very bizarre that in a show with a plot device that literally go anywhere, anywhen, they keep coming back here, particularly in the present day.  What the heck is that about?  Use your imagination, writers, and show us some real alien worlds and strange things we've never heard of!  Present day earth gets boring, and that's not what I want to see in scifi, even if they seem to think it's what people want.  From what I've seen of the classic series, that was something they really excelled at back then, despite the limited budget and slower pace, and it's disappointing that the new show often fails to live up to it in that respect.

Just look at something like the Key to Time arc with Tom Baker and you'll see what I'm referring to.  I mean, a planet that quite literally pirates entire other planets, complete with pirate captain who has a robotic parrot?  A companion who is a fellow Time Lord and every bit as clever as the Doctor (if less experienced in travelling), and whose bickering yet respectful interaction with him is utterly fascinating to watch?  Assembling an artefact with the power to stop time throughout the universe, using it to prevent two groups from destroying each other, only to break it apart again when it turns out the higher being who asked them to retrieve it is actually going to use it for evil?  Now that's the kind of science fiction I can get behind!

Don't even get me started on the onslaught of emo angst that plagued the later Russell T Davies years.  That kind of thing has its full expression on Torchwood, which I shun since it is a pile of utter garbage, but it interferes a lot in the enjoyment of Doctor Who as well.  By the opposite note, the most recent series takes the complete opposite approach, having nearly no genuine emotional resonance whatsoever.  Steven Moffat excels at creating complex and interesting plots and time twists and generally far more interesting ideas than anyone else writing on the show these days, but it has to be said that he often fails rather wretchedly at writing believable female characters.  River Song's grating smugness succeeds only in being a massive annoyance, and Amy is a flat character devoid of any depth.  (Hugely unfortunate since I love redheads and she is undeniably very pretty!)  I know a fair amount of people didn't like Rose or her relationship with the Doctor, but she had heart and was infinitely more interesting than anyone else who has travelled with him these days.

It might seem, reading this post, that I don't actually like the new series at all, but that isn't true, because I'm quite a fan of it.  (The classic series surely has its flaws as well, lest you think I'm saying that it was so much better or something.)  But it's frustrating liking something that at the same time can be so flawed from the writing perspective, especially when the flaws are so obvious and could be avoided with a bit of effort.

I'm pretty sure that's actually a pic from Equus, the play Dan Radcliffe was in a few years ago.

The Harry/Hermione kiss scene in the book was one of JKR's more unfortunate writing choices, in my opinion.  I know she was trying to debunk the notion of them being romantically involved once and for all by having Ron destroy the false image with Gryffindor's sword (since so many delusional fools insisted Harry and Hermione had twoo wuv no matter how many times the author denied it!), but it's not really a very good way of going about doing that because it throws fuel on the fire at the same time just by presenting that image at all.  I pretty much rolled my eyes in exasperation when I read it.

(spoilers ahead) Actually, though, I didn't care for the seventh book as a whole, for a number of reasons:

Harry's character regresses significantly in maturity from what he achieved in book six; suddenly it's okay for good guys to use Unforgiveable Curses, when book four stressed how bad a thing this was; half the book is taken up by the heroes sitting around in a forest doing absolutely NOTHING; all the doubting of Dumbledore was really tiresome and irritating; Ginny Weasley gets virtually no screen time whatsoever, despite having been played up previously as the love of Harry's life; Peter Pettigrew dies like an insignificant punk despite the strong emphasis in book three of the fact that Harry saved his life and that this would be important later; the Invisibility Cloak is suddenly said to be some super important artefact even though this has no bearing at all on the plot; Snape perving on Harry's mother??!!; Voldemort's death being the most contrived and nonsensically stupid solution I've ever read (talk about pulling something out of your ass at the last minute . . . !)

So basically the main problem is that it fails to follow through on points raised in earlier books, or does so in a rancid and unconvincing manner.  That was pretty much the end of my days of Harry Potter obsession.  I still have hope that a few of these may be rectified somewhat by a slightly altered manner of presentation in the films--in any case I think I'll automatically like them better, because there's nowhere to go but up.  lol

I've watched the first five HP films again so far, still have the sixth one left before I go to see DH.  Possibly will watch six today and go out for seven tomorrow.  I find Order of the Phoenix to be the best of the movies by quite a long way, even without the benefit of a John Williams score (I do really miss his music in the later ones).

I haven't heard the ESB 35mm mix in its entirety for quite a long time, but from listening to Darth Mallwalker's samples, the first laserdisc and the JSC sounded completely identical.  As far as I could tell the only difference in actual content from the DC version was the snowspeeder crash sound; you are correct that the few seemingly different explosion and laser sounds in the battle are due to changes in mix levels and so forth--they are still in the DC but less loud.

I wonder exactly where the 1993 mix came from.  SW came from the 70mm mix and had extra sounds put in on top of it, RotJ was reassembled from thirteen-track stems, while ESB is said to have come from an early generation four-track master.  But what master would this have been?  It is nearly identical to the 35mm version, but not entirely, and while its dynamic range probably reflects similarity to the 70mm, its content does not.  It is possible the 70mm mix may not have had the snowspeeder crash sound either, but that's only speculation on my part.  Furthermore the 70 seems to have had at least some of the dialogue differences of the SE, but not all of them, and possibly some that appear in no other version--but without a recording, it's impossible to know for sure.  I find this rather confusing to think about!

I do recall hearing that TIE sound in the GOUT alternate language tracks.  It also appears in the SE, but there the music is also different.

The little old lady had constipation, go granny go granny go granny go

You're welcome.  ;)

I am of course interested in hearing any comments or feedback on all the mixes, whether general or specific in nature.  It seems a few people may be opposed to the music edits I made for ESB and RotJ, but please understand that I'm not trying to replace the official mixes or downplay them--I made those edits because they represent a version that sounds best to me, and I wanted to make them available so that all three films would have excellent 5.1 mixes, not only SW.  If there were actual recordings of their 70mm versions available, I would of course do my best to recreate them as well, but until that time I decided to go with my personal preference for how they should sound.

Seems to me a couple of fixed music cues aren't anywhere near as egregious as the SE's with their overbearingly loud surround channels and changes in dialogue, anyway.  lol

Frink's mom cat, was Frink's mom.