It was hard to avoid the hype on this one. Especially after it came out a week earlier in the US and then I had to wait slightly longer to get a chance to catch it on IMAX. But nether the less I managed my expectations (after being burned before) and walked out completely blown away by the movie. Its strange walking into a movie you know is good before you have seen it.
IMAX is incredible. The improvement in the definition and clarity of the image in IMAX shots is staggering and really gives it a completely unique feel. There’s so much to look at and its all so clear - it really proved to me that IMAX can be used effectively in Hollywood films and not just be relegated to crappy educational movies. The switching between IMAX film and regular film was not a problem either. You have to see this movie in IMAX.
Great pacing, constant tension and epic scale. The pieces were all in place before the movie began so we get straight into the action and story without having to set everything up again. The whole goal of the joker being to prove that everyone is just like him shown and then being proven wrong in ferry scene was very different and climaxed brilliantly. The engrossing final scene with Dent, Batman and Gordon coming back together just proved the joker right in the end, even if he did have to drive Harvey mad. The swerve that led to the death of Rachel was genius. With Dent’s face in the fuel I all but expected him to get incinerated and Batman to rescue Rachel. Unexpectedly Batman goes for Dent, Rachel gets blown up and Dent’s face still gets burned off during the escape!
Which brings me to Heath Ledger. Great job but I think the post death hype got the better of this area of the film. I was expecting him to be darker and even more messed up, but that could just be my reaction to the people around me laughing at the joker cause he made a funny face when he’s actually a fucked up sociopathic mass murderer. Maybe the creepiness didn’t cross over that well here? I don’t know, I enjoyed his performance but I feel it was in a different way to others in the audience.
Can’t think of anything else but I will be seeing it again soon.
I’ve had some time this week to check out the 5 disc edition of Blade Runner: Final Cut. It’s worthy of mention here as it’s packed with more high quality special features than I have ever seen in a DVD before. Every conceivable version of the movie is here, the documentary Dangerous Days is outstanding and the features disc goes into even more detail. The “Final Cut” of the movie is fantastic and feels like the Blade Runner that Scott had always intended to make.
I thought Lord of the Rings had milked as much as possible with their 4 disc release per film but this just blows that away.
I have had my “home cinema” setup for a few months now but totally forgot to blog about it until I was reminded recently. Right now I have an Optoma HD70 projector sitting atop some cheap IKEA shelves that boost it over the height of the sofa with anyone sitting on it. It’s far enough away from the wall that I can get about an 80″ to 100″ picture depending on how I feel. Luckily the wall in my apartment is very plain and clean and you don’t even notice the texture of the wall. 720p stuff looks amazing while standard def content doesn’t look too shabby either, especially when compared to and LCD TV. The projector has HDMI, component and VGA inputs so I connect my PC via HDMI and the Xbox 360 via component.
I knew I would have to get some new speakers to go with this when I got it so I went for the cheapest THX DTS set around. This turned out to be the Logitech Z-5400 which produces a ton of bass and has coax and optical inputs to connect to the PC and 360 respectively. The remote is a little flaky but nothing a few smacks can’t cure.
Alien is an awesome demonstration of the system. I have a 1080p version with DTS sound and it just comes alive with the creepy score and crisp visuals. Having this system makes me want to go back and watch the classics all over again and I have definitely found myself watching more movies because of this. Next on the list is Blade Runner Final Cut and Back to the Future (if I can get a decent HD version).
The 360 works nicely too but I did find myself getting slightly motion sick in Halo 3 from the first few hours of play. This is probably due to the sheer size of the screen alone but you do get used to and it only affects FPS games. Oh and playing games like Lumines, Tetris and Bomberman on the thing feels like total overkill!
So my recommendation if you are looking for a nice big screen is to seriously consider a projector. Obviously you need the throw distance, a dark room and a large enough wall but the price per inch of screen size cannot be beaten. Gizmodo put handy list of tips together recently which are worth checking out.
Watching Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe. Great great great TV show about TV. Mondays 10pm BBC 4, you will love it.
Remembering the music from Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe is also in the movie 28 Days Later which I have just realised has an amazing soundtrack in addition to being an awesome movie. I need this in HD.
Cackling manically as my dual core CPU bails under the strain of the Supreme Commander demo. This one is a beast folks and the first barrage of many that will force us all to upgrade our PCs in 2007. Even those of us who did so less than a year ago. Damn.
Wondering why the hell I pay for PC Gamer if all the articles are just going to wind up online from now on.
Seeing how Pride screwed their US pay per view audience out of many of the fights that happend at Shockwave 2005 I present homegrown James Thompson at his crazy best.
I am essentially running a thin client in the loose sense of the word here at home over the Christmas break. My music, documents, code and many of my applications are still being stored and run on my box at uni. As such watching my newly aquired DVDs has proven to be quite the problem as the box I have here isn’t equiped with a DVD drive.
The fact that I can’t slap a DVD into another PC on our network and share it because of the copy protection is highly frustrating. Not even logging in through terminal services and firing up PowerDVD works, it recognises your remotely connected and blocks playback!
It’s fair use out of the window once again.
So the last resort solution is use VideoLAN and stream it explicitly between two PCs. It’s far from ideal as you have no menu control or any control for that matter on the client system and have to keep going back to the server to do anything.
It may take a little longer than usual to get through the raft of DVDs I have recieved for Christmas this year.
Saw Revolver last night after much debate on Skype as to the existance and non-existance of the cinemas in Birmingham. It seems like every week a cinema is getting rebranded, bought, moved or built and it has everyone rather confused. We settled for the new AMC in the end, which I have never been to and didn’t even know existed. Nice place, good prices and a large screen - great.
As for the movie, that’s still in the air. Guy Richie’s latest left us with some interesting ideas and pleanty to ponder but I couldn’t help feeling he tried way too hard. Cool movies that blow you mind are great such as Donnie Darko, Sixth Sense and Fight Club. Here Richie tries so hard to disguise the twist that film becomes overlly complicated when in the grand scheme of things it needn’t be.
Visually the film is impressive with every camera angle meticulously poised and with a depth that is missing from many movies. Unfortunately at one point in the film, and for no reason, some kind of terrible cell shaded computer animation is used that feels horribly out of place and rubs off as poor man’s Kill Bill. Tarantino he is not.
If you enjoy long, mind bending movies with strong characters then there is a lot to enjoy here. If you want entertaining, non-headache inducing film that doesn’t insult your intelligence then this isn’t for you.
I’ve had some time this week to check out the 5 disc edition of 
So the last resort solution is use 
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