Movie/TV recommendations

[Nachimir]

http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=311

[Roderick]

The Harry Potter finale is really, really good. I enjoyed it massively. Aside from a few niggles they managed to strike the right tone. It was better than the book, which never managed to bring across the massive impact of the event*.

I will definitely see this movie again in cinema, perhaps a few more times.

(* Deliberately kept obscure so as not to spoil anything.)

[Lu]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-07-12/berserk-golden-age-arc-to-be-made-into-3-anime-films Trilogy!

[Sno]

Regarding TF3 on the "Michael Bay is an asshat" front, it's got the misogyny for sure, but did it occur to nobody else that the film is also actually more racist than the last one? Nobody is offended when it's an Asian caricature, i guess?

Whatever though, and maybe i'm going to take some flak for this, I actually really enjoyed Transformers 3. That movie, and essentially every Michael Bay movie, is the cinematic equivalent of Michael Bay jingling his keys in front of the audience for two and a half hours. You know, and i'm kind of ok with that, kind of ok with just being shown some really cool action. If you tell me that you are going to show me giant robots fighting, i am going to tell you that i am on board.

So yeah, it was offensive, there's at least three or four subplots that could have been cut entirely from the movie without affecting literally anything, and the entire thing is filled with plot holes. The film didn't seem to really have a grasp on why anything it was doing was happening, but holy shit! Did you see that giant mecha worm bring down that skyscraper? That was awesome!

It was better than the second one, at least, right?

I feel like the ass shot was pretty much Bay flipping Fox the middle finger. I'm not one to follow the tabloidy shit, but I do recall many a rumor about bad blood between them causing recast for the female protagonist. So it's like "hey, Megan? there are plenty of asses to choose from".

Dude, they straight up call Megan Fox's character a bitch in that movie.

That whole pissing match between the two was stupid, Michael Bay came off like a spoiled child and Megan Fox was just being characteristically dumb.

[elmuerte]

Source Code

erh... it's ok. Would have been better if there was less Teal&Orange. And as usual, movies like this contain way too obvious mistakes that bug me.

First of all... no sane engineer would name his invention "Source Code". It's even worse than naming a realtime 3D engine "Source".

Second of all,

why didn't that bomber have a fail-safe on his dirty bomb; also why was the fail-safe on the first bomb just a duplicate and not an alternative.

Third,

why place your wallet in a visible place? Just stash it under or behind a bench, out of sight.

Fourth,

what's with this shitty webcam without microphone?

Fifth.

yeah, I'm nitpicking on flaws simply due to the excessive amount of Orange and Teal

[Thyroid]

Fourth,

what's with this shitty webcam without microphone?

...I'll be hiding my webcam then.

[elmuerte]

...I'll be hiding my webcam then.

If you get the funding to keep half a man alive, then please do so.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Source Code

erh... it's ok. Would have been better if there was less Teal&Orange. And as usual, movies like this contain way too obvious mistakes that bug me.

First of all... no sane engineer would name his invention "Source Code". It's even worse than naming a realtime 3D engine "Source".

Second of all,

why didn't that bomber have a fail-safe on his dirty bomb; also why was the fail-safe on the first bomb just a duplicate and not an alternative.

Third,

why place your wallet in a visible place? Just stash it under or behind a bench, out of sight.

Fourth,

what's with this shitty webcam without microphone?

Fifth. yeah, I'm nitpicking on flaws simply due to the excessive amount of Orange and Teal.

Yeah, that's pretty nit-picky. There's plenty of great things about that movie, IMO.

I saw Tree of Life, which I enjoyed a lot. It's very unsubtle, definitely has flaws, is very unconventional, and I can totally understand why people might dislike it, but I enjoyed it.

If you want a reason to see this film, I can't think of anything better than this...

[ThunderPeel2001]

So The Hobbit is going to be shot at 48fps... I'm a little concerned. One of the reasons people dislike how films shot on video look (Collateral, Public Enemies, etc.) is because they're 30fps instead of 24fps. The Hobbit might look REALLY weird and fake at that speed.

Here's a good example of the differences is FPS: http://www.boallen.com/fps-compare.html

Peter Jackson: "The key thing to understand is that this process requires both shooting and projecting at 48 fps, rather than the usual 24 fps (films have been shot at 24 frames per second since the late 1920′s). So the result looks like normal speed, but the image has hugely enhanced clarity and smoothness. Looking at 24 frames every second may seem ok — and we’ve all seen thousands of films like this over the last 90 years — but there is often quite a lot of blur in each frame, during fast movements, and if the camera is moving around quickly, the image can judder or 'strobe.'"

Typical complaint about Public Enemies: "The problem I have with 30fps is that it seems so “real” – and that’s not meant in a good way at all. It feels like I’m on the set – watching the actors in real life – and that (for me) takes away the magic and purpose of the movies. I don’t need/want to know that Johnny Depp is a real person, acting in some movie, but to believe that the guy I’m watching is John Dillinger and that it’s actually the 1930′s I’m looking at – and I gotta admit that the 30fps kinda ruins that for me."

[Ben X]

It's always worth bearing in mind that people hated widescreen and the like at first - if this takes off and all films are this way, perhaps after a while all the old 24fps films will start to look creaky!

[ThunderPeel2001]

It's always worth bearing in mind that people hated widescreen and the like at first - if this takes off and all films are this way, perhaps after a while all the old 24fps films will start to look creaky!

Yep, that's true. It's probably what we're used to, as well. I imagine a younger generation watching a "video" look might fall in love with it, and it might represent what cinema is for them... It's quite a gamble for a fantasy movie, though, especially one I'm really looking forward to!

[DanJW]

It's a legitimate concern; although remember that these movies are heavily post-processed and colour-corrected etc, so if the post-process editor is skilled enough they could still get the look they want.

[ThunderPeel2001]

It's a legitimate concern; although remember that these movies are heavily post-processed and colour-corrected etc, so if the post-process editor is skilled enough they could still get the look they want.

Hmm. Not with 48fps? That's a specific look they're aiming for. Changing it to make it look like 24fps would make shooting it 48 pointless. Although I guess when it's on DVD/Bluray, it probably will have to be offered in a 24fps or at least 30fps version. (I wonder what they did with Public Enemies, come to think of it?)

[syntheticgerbil]

Well, I hope the standard never changes, because it's just going to be hell for animators.

[MrHoatzin]

Hasn't disney already been animating everything at 30 fps or something like that for ever? The Thief and the Cobbler was animated at 40 or more I seem to recall reading somewhere.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Hasn't disney already been animating everything at 30 fps or something like that for ever? The Thief and the Cobbler was animated at 40 or more I seem to recall reading somewhere.

No, that'd be crazy. Animation is usually something like 12fps, The Thief and the Cobbler was unusual for doing the full 24. Also you have to remember that cinemas are going to have to upgrade to display anything other than 24fps (with animation they just printed the same cell twice to make their 12fps fit into a 24fps projector).

Edited July 19, 2011 by ThunderPeel2001

[Roderick]

Whenever I animate I go for a solid 6 fps. That suits my needs perfectly.

[elmuerte]

60 or bust

[ThunderPeel2001]

Saw the new Harry Potter and I have to say... I really enjoyed it. Still hated the Epilogue (so utterly, utterly narratively pointless) but possibly my favourite Potter movie. (And I really hated Part 1.) But overall, quite good!

[syntheticgerbil]

Hasn't disney already been animating everything at 30 fps or something like that for ever? The Thief and the Cobbler was animated at 40 or more I seem to recall reading somewhere.

24 fps, but not always. Both Disney and Richard Williams used 2s or 12 fps, but not very often, if not at all in many productions. I think in particular Richard Williams had some kind of OCD need to animate everything on 1s even though almost all of his stuff that was tested on 2s looks fine (like his pencils that were finished for the released Thief and the Cobbler). So it's one of the other reasons it was partially his fault for Thief and the Cobbler never coming out as he envisioned it.

I think Triplets of Bellville and The Illusionist are both almost 24 fps the whole way through from the looks of it.

Warner Brothers classic cartoons were more friendly to 2s as well as almost every TV animation ever.

Edited July 20, 2011 by syntheticgerbil

[MrHoatzin]

Interesting. I have no idea where I got this crazy idea that animation was summarily done at higher framerates than film. Maybe someone went ahead of me and was vandalizing Wikipedia as I read about these things or something...

[Lu]

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First part of a trilogy describing the Golden Age Arc. Yeeeees, YEEEEEES.

I'm guessing that is a for TV trailer or something, because that looked kind of mild. Hope they release a longer non-TV trailer.

[Sal Limones]

Speaking of animation, Bone is being made into a movie. I really wish this were relevant to the animation fps conversation but sadly it's being done in 3D computer animation.

I know computer animation can be really beautiful, as evidenced in all non-Cars Pixar movies, but a big part of the beauty of Bone is the line quality an the charm of the drawings.

Oh well at least it's not live action.

[syntheticgerbil]

I don't know if the Bone movie is still getting made, but last I heard they were doing it with mo-cap, which is unfortunate and seems incredibly out of place. Maybe they will stop now that Zemeckis has consistantly failed so miserably?

But either way, sounds better than the earlier 3D Bone movie being worked on years ago with Nickelodeon producing that required song and dance sequences as well as someone (Thorn?) to be voiced by Britney Spears.

[miffy495]

Britney would totally be Grandma Ben.