Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems The one of MANY HD-DVD threads (No bashing Blu-Ray)

Absolutely agree. The trend to remove amiguity has been to the general detriment of many films over the past decade or so - Hollywood in particular feels compelled to not let the audience think about anything.

Daniel, Alien is, without question, an absolute masterpiece; certainly one of my all-time favourites. Unfortunately the only HD version I have right now is the D-Theater director's cut - another version which I feel detracts from the original. I shall wait for the original cut to be released before viewing it again.

Mark

Sadly, I saw Aliens before Alien so the impact of *that* scene was somewhat diminished (I was eight (I think) when Alien came out).

Having said that, I was shxt scared throughout the entire film. I feel it's greatest achievement is successfully keeping up the suspense for three hours. Never revealing the alien fully in any single shot (until the very end on the escape capsule) was pure genius. And Scott's use of moving water and shadow is never better.

That would be special.

Im with you and no where was the removal of ambuiguity more disastrous than with the redo and new star wars movies.

best regards,
Jerry

The one of MANY movie critique threads

Watched the Fountain HD DVD last night. I did not think the video was anything particularly incredible but it was no doubt better than SD would be. I think this review is pretty accurate- I can see how many people would be turned off by this movie but for some reason I liked it. I think its because Im somewhat open to romantic ideas.

http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/fountain.html

Bottom line for me- I want to see it again and that is not always the case. But it is certainly not for everyone.

best regards,
Jerry

Jerry, how was the visibility of the opening sequences? This film contained probably the darkest sequences I've ever seen and made for pretty unpleasant viewing as it was always a strain to see anything - I'm expecting my DLP to really struggle with this film.

Mark

Yes- the visibility was OK and this is probably why I have such a nonplussed feeling on the video quality.

What happens is the image looks very washed out as if someone turned up the brightness control far too much. No doubt about it that more contrast ratio would help and this exposes a weakness in even the better DLP projectors. I had never seen the image look like this from any other movie before- therefore this is a good test sequence.

Mark, did you see it in the theater? Did it have the same result?

The DP on the movie said their objective was to go from dark to light throughout the movie. Its a very interesting movie on different levels. It doesn't always work IMHO but interesting none the less. And I think the music is very good too.

Btw- I thought the acting was very good, I don't understand anyone complaining about Jackman's acting on this. I thought he and Rachel Weitz (sp?) were very good.

best regards,
Jerry

Yes, I saw this at the theatre. The opening sequences simply looked like severe black crush - the screen was almost black at times and you could barely see the action.

I really enjoy Clint Mansell's work for Aronofsky and already have the soundtrack to this film ripped and being served

Mark

Thats exactly it- and thats how it looked. So it turns out the new DLP projector did a nice job of representing the material. I have to say this projector is just fantastic- as it should be. Btw- I really liked a lot of the optical effects they did for this- less true CGI - seems like more computer aided compositing and motion. The movie has a nice texture to it. To anyone else who wants to check it out, its the kind of movie that you have to let unfold otherwise you will tell yourself: this is nuts about 15 minutes into it and youll be lost.

best regards,
Jerry

The visuals in the movie were quite spectacular in places. That and the soundtrack was pretty much what got me through the film the first time. But I am looking forward to giving it a second run in the cave. If you haven't seen PI, his first film, you should check it out - very low budget, black and white, but (for me) astonishing cinema. I'm sure I saw that it is expected on HD at some point...

Mark

You know, I have heard that Pi and Requiem for a Dream are good movies but I never saw them. I will check them out. I think I saw part of Pi on cable once and it was in the middle and made no sense to me so I turned it off...

best regards,
Jerry