Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler So what are you watching tonight?

If as the show gets going the character interaction and general moral dilemma of what’s going on doesn’t appeal to you than it’s likely to be a slow ride. I found the show very intriguing probably helped by watching it all in one sitting. Hope it starts working for you.

I'm liking it enough. I think I just want the bigger story to move a little faster, but it's not so slow that I want to give up on it. I do like the general feel of the show. So you watched both seasons? I only have the first season right now.

Ahh, and I'm done with the first season. I guess I'll have to get my hands on the second season sometime soon.

I watched them on back-to-back weekends. The second season has a more cohesive thread running through it involving more political intrigue but not a lot. However, the animation suffers. I wouldn’t say it’s worse or better than the first season, just a little different.

The Good, The Bad, The Weird

I liked the trailer enough to import the Korean Blu-ray. The story's a bit of a mess, and it can't compete with The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly with its material, but it has its moments, and it's really well put-together as far as how it's filmed. Decent sound, too. I'd say it's worth watching, but don't expect to be bowled over by the story.

Just watched the Blu-ray of “Moon.” I have to go against the crowd as I found it at best unremarkable and at worst plain boring.

The video was ok but in many ways it was to “film like.” while I appreciated the sort-of dirty lived in feel and the lunar surface the overall lack of sharpness just made it seem like a movie set in space. I guess I’m tainted by watching the live feed from the Apollo missions in all their sharpness and hyper contrast.

The audio was also ok but again for me there was nothing special about it.

As for the story it seemed to be a big part “Silent Running,” some “Jacobs Ladder“ a bit of “2001” and a tad of another movie (I won’t mention so as not to ruin the “suspense“) all of which are better told stories than this one. It could have been a very interesting character study but wasted to much time just setting up the main premise w/o any other substance so when the main premise is given up way to quickly you’re left only with how it will be resolved which was sent like a semaphore message if you’re paying any attention. So once the “suspense” of figuring out what is happening is gone it’s a lot like the last bit of an amusement park ride where you’re just gliding into the station and waiting to exit to the left. The main (only) story in this movie could have been told much better in 30 minutes w/ commercial interruptions by Rod Serling on the old “Twilight Zone.” If you want a real mind-bending thriller rent “Jacob’s Ladder.”

I know I’m in the minority on this one.


P.S. If your on the back side of the Moon how far do you have to drive to get an Earthrise that high above the horizon?

We all hated it, too. We were just testing you.

Just watched the Blu-ray of “Ponyo.” What a refreshing change of pace to the crappy movies I’ve been renting lately.

Although I’m coming to prefer Disney’s CGI style (like “Tinker Bell“) this is still no slouch. The video quality is impeccable. Colours are vividly rendered enhanced by outstanding black levels which brings out the variations in hue even in the ocean. Animation is fluid and characters move naturally. The only video issue I saw was really bad motion judder when it started because I had frame creation set to off for gaming. Bumping it up to level 2 eliminated the judder and didn’t over sharpen the image.

The audio is also great. What is lacks in bass is more than made up for in surround action. Ambient sounds like wind, rain and ocean are almost always present. Also directional cues abound. I especially liked the scene when the school of little fish jumping out of the water are landing all around you. Reminded me of when that happened to me while surfing.

The story is both cute and entertaining. Being a Miyazaki film distributed by Disney you can figure out how it will end from the beginning, but as with most good movies you enjoy the trip anyway.

Only one thing really got to me in this movie. When Ponyo occasionally reverted half way back to being a fish the way she was drawn with 3 toes and fingers was sort of creepy.

Certainly not Miyazaki’s deepest work but thoroughly entertaining if you like feel-good stories that are also a little off the beaten path.

I think 4 other people have commented on liking, some a lot, but nothing about why. I’m curious what the people in the forum liked about it.

I liked the way Sam Rockwell interacted with himself. While I think there was a lot more potential for the story, I wasn't bored like you were. The interactions with the AI were pretty ho-hum for sci-fi, and the entire premise was a little ridiculous as far as feasibility and potential backlash over how the moon base is operated, but I still enjoyed it despite all that, and I want to see where they take the story from here. I hope they can ramp up into some more inventive sci-fi for the next outing, but I'm not going to beat up this first one when I simply found it enjoyable. It's like you just mentioned about how you knew how Ponyo was going to end, but you still liked that. Some things just work for you, no matter the criticisms you may have for it.