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

Thanks for your thought Charles. I agree with you that Rockwell did a good job however, IMO the director failed him. I felt that far to much time was spent just on setting up a short scene later like the revelation of the main premise or the radio call, or the rescue. I mean they probably spend almost as much time showing treks across the moonscape as they did showing interesting interaction between the characters. I mean three years w/o any direct conversation and that’s all they’ve got to say not to mention I’d be a little bit homicidal when I figured out what was really going on after 3 years.

Something else that irritated me was with that level of technology and automation the best they can do for the robots interface are internet forum emoticons. Three years interacting with a smiley face, really? I bet my cell phone could do better if I owned one.

Don’t get me wrong I don’t want to give the impression I hated the movie I was just really disappointed after all the hype. “Best Scifi movie” in years, 89% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes. . . . I was expecting a character driven psychological thriller and would say I got about 20 minutes of that stretched out with fluff to fill a movie timeslot.

By comparison I thought Silent Running and the latter scenes of 2001 where Bowman is alone were brilliant. The former was an in depth character study while the latter leaves you thinking what just happened (at least if you didn’t read the book first) and both are more engaging. However, “Moon” creates little interest in the character and feeds you the story on a platter creating little tension and leaving what happens after the ending the only really interesting thing to speculate about.

I would love to have seen this movie by Aaron Sorkin and or Joss Whedon for their writing and ability to set up and focus on great dynamics between characters.

Cheers,
Dean

It's funny, but I started watching the anime vampire comedy, MoonPhase, a few days ago, and now I have both that and Buffy to get through. I've said that I can't seem to get into vampire stories for the most part. At least MoonPhase has its humorous moments, but I'm still on the fence about it. There's the anime cliché of the young woman lead suddenly needing to be roommates with the young male lead, and of course it's otherwise a full house, so the situation is supposed to be full of comic potential. So far some of it has been funny, but it still seems just a little too formulaic in that aspect.

I think I'll try some Buffy now that I have the rest of my music collection converting. Only 3 hours, 42 minutes left.

I just watched the first 4 episodes of “Hellsing Ultimate.” Unfortunately I thought there were only the 4 because that’s all Netflix had come to find out there are at least 8 the last 4 of which have not been released in English yet and I’m even having trouble finding them in Japanese. However, I figured I’d give my impressions so far in case anyone might be thinking about watching this series.

This is an action series which so far has some intrigue, little comedy and no romance so far. If you are going to like this series at all it’s going to be because it kicks off with a lot of attitude. Its also very gory, though not quite as sickeningly so as “Elfin Lied” but enough you might not want young children to watch it.

First off the animation style isn’t something I usually care for. It looks like it come straight of a manga. Lots of long lanky characters, still shots with camera pans to show motion and lots of close ups of action like guns firing or body parts being slashed. Despite that it actual does work for this. The colours are rich despite the dark theme and all the main characters are well drawn and distinctive looking. Not really any fanservies except a little in the form of “Police Girl” (yes that’s her name, at least at first), a main character drawn about the size of a page 3 girl. An added bonus, as with most recently made anime, is the 1.78:1 format. Watching this format seems so much more natural than either 1.33:1 or 2.35:1 in the way it draws you in.

The audio track is a mixed bag. The music mostly sucks though there are a few good passages here and there. Where it shines is in the LFE and surround sound. Lots of LFE below 40Hz especially for gunfire but also for ambient mood effect which are really enhanced by the Buttkicker. The surround sound also rocks with a mix of ambient and directional effects going on all the time especially during the battles.

As for the story the first two episodes really grabbed me and just when it started to like this might be just monster of the week fare the story starts to develop. Sadly this is also where the series starts to loose me. By the fourth episode (4 more to go by all counts) you have to suffer through a 10 minute monologue by the bad guy. With that as a last impression I’m not inclined to be in a hurry to watch an more of these. Since I’m half way through I imagine I will finish it at some point assuming all the DVDs are released but unless that 4th episode ending was an aberration it’s going to be tough to finish.

Guess I go back and watch the original “Hellsing” which I haven’t seen yet. It’s suppose to be more in depth and less action oriented which is usually more to my liking. But for now I’d say give “Hellsing Ultimate” a pass at lest until the finish releasing the whole story.

The main thing I've learned from MoonPhase so far is that spiritual messenger cats don't have rectums. I hope this enriches us all.

Works for me!!

Bjork has a video that features robots. Lesbian robots.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjAoBKagWQA

Song sounds pretty good, and will probably work a subwoofer nicely, too.

I like that video. I like a lot of her videos. I even have a poster for that "All Is Full of Love" video. I think it's sort of an ad for the people who did the special effects.

What do you get when you take a high school class and mix in 2001, Andy Warhol, The Exorcist, Gundam, Warring States Periods of Japan and China, Super Mario, Lee Ermey, Casablanca, Godzilla, Race Queens, Salvador Dali, Jaws, Ben Hur. . . make that about every cultural/pop culture reference for the last 3,000 years and animate it?

ぱにぽにだっしゅ! which translated says Pani Poni Dash!

Nope, no fracking idea what that means but I get the “Dash!” part since that’s what my brain is doing after disks 3 and 4 out of 6.

There is so much going on besides the main scene in almost every frame of this show that it’s almost impossible to keep up. Even if you miss half of the jokes because they are Japanese pop culture there are still to many to keep up with. On top of that add in the really non-sequitur stuff and after about 4 episodes your brain is fried.

Matter of fact my brain is to fried to write much more about it so read the reviews:

Anime News Network

T.H.E.M Anime


P.S. About 98.6% of you reading this aren’t gonna like the show. It’s probably only going to appeal to a few of the lurkers I notice reading this thread at 3:00 AM.

I'd give that show a try. I remember reading good things before, but it never made my list for whatever reason.

I finally got a hold of all the episodes and movies so I started watching “Kim Possible” from the beginning. I’ve always loved the show but never been able to follow it on TV so I’ve been holding off.

If you’ve never seen the show it’s actually quite good IMO. The voice acting is excellent and the writing, though aimed at teens/pre-teens is smart enough for adults. Picture Kim as 3 parts Buffy and 1 part Blossom (the pink Powerpuff Girl).

Unfortunately I’m only watching the 1.33:1 2.0 version which looks and sounds great but I wish I could get a hold of the 1.78:1 5.1 version.

Most episodes are 22 minutes and stand alone though there are reoccurring themes and the major arc of Kim and Ron’s relationship. The animation looks good with fluid action scenes (important for an action show). Nice thing about shows based on 30 minute TV slots they don’t usually waste time on filler and neither does this one. Also, a big plus for me is that even during the action scenes the witty dialogue is maintained between the characters so the action doesn’t become just boring and repetitive.

Best of all you’ve got to love a show where one of the main characters is a naked mole rat.