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

Tom, I didn't know you were starting the Buffy series...

As I've said to Charles, give it time to get past it's hokey beginnings. It's made several "Best TV Series ever" awards/lists....

I'm convinced you just like watching Sarah MG jump around and beat up vampires. Not saying it's a bad thing, just that I'm saying it was a factor

Can’t speak for others but you could have stopped at “like watching Sarah MG” and left it at that.

The writing, character interaction etc. . . is just icing on the cake.

Mmmmmm. Cake.

What? Did someone say cake?

Yes Cheese cake. We changed the topic from the casserole Charles was talking about.

I went to see Clash of the Titans with some friends. In 2D, since that's the showing that we could get to. It was okay, but I wouldn't even put it above the original, so I was annoyed that the new one had to make a little jab at the old one. The relentless special effects got tiresome. Throwing a lot of crap into the picture doesn't make it interesting. Still, I didn't even hate the movie as much as I thought I would. Of course, that could simply be because of the actress playing Io.

Oh, and I finally saw a movie in 3D the other night. How to Train Your Dragon. The writing wasn't spectacular, but it was entertaining enough. The 3D was somewhat fun, but I can see what some of you have said about perhaps preferring a 2D presentation. It's still not perfect and can cause some eye strain. Still, I'm glad I finally saw the current state of 3D.

Just watched the Blu-ray of 2012. Overall it was a nearly 2 and a half hour movie and by the end it sure felt like it.

The video quality was great. Dark scenes looked stunningly detailed and the overall PQ was excellent. My only gripe about the PQ is that there was a stark difference between “real” scenes and CGI special effects. The live action scenes had a real pop and realistic quality to them while the CGI stuff was dull and muted by comparison. Don’t get me wrong, the CGI looker great I just felt the difference was distracting.

The Audio quality was also great with one big disappointment. This might have the best surround effects through the movie I’ve ever heard. While there were some ambient effects like wind it’s the directional effects that really shined. Creaking and moaning of the airplane they are flying in. Debris flying all around. Helicopters flying from one side to the other behind me. Really just to many directional sound effects to describe.

Sadly, however, the LFE was IMO a joke. I had to boost the Buttkicker by +11dB and the EP500 by +6dB just to get something that felt remotely believable to the on screen action. Even with the boost almost all the LFE was just rumbling. Didn’t matter if the on screen action was explosions, earthquakes, big rocks and cars crashing around it was all just a rumble. The only place this actually worked was in the tsunami scenes otherwise it just didn’t feel right compared to movies like “War of the Worlds” or even FOTR were the LFE spikes correspond to what you’re watching.

The special effects were great throughout most of the movie. Some of the most realistic if a bit over the top stuff I’ve seen. And for most of the movie these action scenes were just the right length except at the end were it dragged out way to long.

Which leads to the overall nature of the movie. Way to long especially at the end. For the most part the build up and early action works great and I was really getting into the movie but then it started trying to be dramatic and fell right on it’s face. It also has way to many story arcs which if they had all been handled quickly, a few were, weren’t so bad but some just had to be drawn out for “dramatic” effect and just became boring. I didn’t see this in the theater but it seemed almost like a “directors cut” were all the crap the studio should have made him cut out got picked up off the cutting room floor and spliced back in.

AFAIK this was made by the same director as “Independence Day” and it shows. The story and direction are almost cookie cutter copies of it. Even many of the characters reappear. Similarly we are introduced to many characters who might as well be wearing red shirts since we all know what going to happen to them.

Overall I could only give this movie a C- or 2.5 out of 5 stars and that’s only because of the surround sound and the early scenes. Reedited and shortened I might be inclined to bump it up a little bit. I really liked the first half to two thirds of this movie as I did “Independence Day” but as with “Independence Day” the melodrama and drawn out ending bring it crashing down.

Worth a watch but without better LFE I wouldn’t even use it as a demo there are much better audio tracks out there that get it all right.

I keep catching "signets" of Fringe... it looks good! Am I missing something? Should I get it from the beginning from netflix?

Thanks