Anyone here succumbed to 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray?

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

Isn't the most recent expanded soundtrack release about perfect?

[Naïve Old Fart 9,508]

Option 1 with a caveat: can anyone lend me $2000?

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

Can somebody help me with my DVD-ROM Weblink to exclusive Star Wars content?

[Naïve Old Fart 9,508]

OT, PT, or ST?

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

The first one. 

[crocodile 7,990]

I watched Starship Troopers last night. I was bit worried because Verhoeven filmed it in a very flat and hilariously soap opera-like style. But the picture on the UHD disc is really great and I was surprised many of the 1997 visual effects still hold up pretty well. The film itself is still very entertaining. I forgot how much gore there is in it.

 

Karol

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

It was shot on film, not video tape.

[crocodile 7,990]

3 minutes ago, PuhgreÞiviÞm said:

It was shot on film, not video tape.

Well, no film is perfect.

 

Karol

[Chen G. 3,944]

42 minutes ago, crocodile said:

the picture on the UHD disc is really great and I was surprised many of the 1997 visual effects still hold up pretty well.

 

Weren't the effects done optically back then?

 

Whenever that's the case, it detracts from a UHD presentation because you're watching a film one generation removed from the original camera elements.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

23 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

 

Weren't the effects done optically back then?

 

Whenever that's the case, it detracts from a UHD presentation because you're watching a film one generation removed from the original camera elements.

 

Is that really a huge deal to you?

[Chen G. 3,944]

Not at all. Most of the time I can't tell 4K apart from 2K anyway.

 

Just a curiosity.

[rough cut 1,714]

On 7/25/2020 at 9:33 PM, Jurassic Shark said:

Isn't the most recent expanded soundtrack release about perfect?

 

Well, yes, but it’s kind of a tradition to have an expansion at regular intervals, no? ; )

[crocodile 7,990]

Watching this tonight. Heard it's supposed to be the best looking disc of the 11 films:

 

 

Karol

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

Is that a digipak? WTF?

[crocodile 7,990]

35 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Is that a digipak? WTF?

No, it is not.

 

Karol

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

Good.

[A24 4,327]

I couldn't watch that second time. 

[Chen G. 3,944]

9 hours ago, crocodile said:

Watching this tonight. Heard it's supposed to be the best looking disc of the 11 films:

It better be, being the only one that’s actually 4K.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

I'd like a 4K remaster of Always.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

4 hours ago, Chen G. said:

It better be, being the only one that’s actually 4K.

 

What about Solo?

[Chen G. 3,944]

I’ll rectify that to “the only Star Wars that’s actually 4K in its entirety”, Solo having used Alexa Mini and Alexa XT. The Last Jedi is the same thing.

[crocodile 7,990]

And tiny bit of TFA.

 

Karol

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

When watching my old DVDs on my bluray-player, the picture upscales nicely, but the subtitles remain pixelated. I thought the subtitles were saved as characters, and not as images, so in theory it then should be possible to get them to look better on a HD TV. 

 

Has anyone got any advice on this?

[Chen G. 3,944]

3 hours ago, crocodile said:

And tiny bit of TFA.

 

Other than a bit of IMAX footage (which was funneled through a 2K DI anyway) all of The Force Awakens was shot in sub-4K formats, as were The Rise of Skywalker, some of Solo and most of The Last Jedi.

 

Rogue One is the only one shot entirely in a format in gross excess of 4K and funnelled through a 4K intermediate.

[crocodile 7,990]

23 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

 

Other than a bit of IMAX footage (which was funneled through a 2K DI anyway) .

Are you sure about that? I heard it was 4K DI. Weren't all Disney films finished in 4K regardless of shooting format?

 

Karol

[Chen G. 3,944]

It was scanned at 4K, but funnelled to 2K. According to American Cinematographer:

 

Quote

Deliverables for The Force Awakens included a 2D and 3D 2K DCP, a 2D and 3D Imax DCP, 35mm archival prints, and a small number of 70mm exhibition prints. Stereo D handled the stereoscopic conversion. The final color grade was performed at Company 3 in Los Angeles, where colorist Stefan Sonnenfeld, an ASC associate member, worked with 4K scans from FotoKem (65mm) and EFilm (35mm).

 

Besides, like I said, Alexa XT and 35mm (the other two formats the film was shot with) aren't 4K sources: they're between 2.5K and 3.4K, accordingly. Rogue One was shot at around 5K, and funnelled to 4K.

 

Its all fairly academic, of course; but its nice the producers on Rogue One went the extra mile with the presentation. Its also a cleaner presentation, naturally.

[crocodile 7,990]

It looked pretty good. The film is a very disappointing as a "story" but very exciting in terms of look and action setpieces. The final 40 minutes is probably one of the finest battle sequences in any SW film. 

 

Karol

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

4K remasters of the Star Trek movies are long overdue.

[Chen G. 3,944]

6 minutes ago, crocodile said:

It looked pretty good. The film is a very disappointing as a "story" but very exciting in terms of look and action setpieces. The final 40 minutes is probably one of the finest battle sequences in any SW film. 

 

I need to get around to rewatch it. My memory was that it was a good-looking, well-directed, unique but ultimately somewhat tedious film, with slightly anemic performances and too much prequelitis for my tastes. I wasn't even that crazy over those famed final fourty minutes.

[crocodile 7,990]

My point is that it is one of the few Star Wars films with a "star war" in it. And it's still more interesting than IX.

 

Karol

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

TFA?

[Chen G. 3,944]

47 minutes ago, crocodile said:

And it's still more interesting than IX.

 

Oh, I'd watch Rogue One on loop before I lay eyes on The Rise of Skywalker ever again.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,508]

Cruel, but true.

[rough cut 1,714]

It’s still not a good movie, though.

 

The whole thing is just so... pointless. Jyn’s charachter has to be one of the most boring ever written, she just sort of ”tags along” all the time.

 

Also, the movie is completely unfocused on where it wants to go - literally. It jumps from planet to planet to planet... I remember sitting in the theatre thinking that it was extremely confusing.

 

The worst offender though is the “mind reader monster”, that reads your mind but leaves it scrambled afterwards... Well, it reads the little nervous guy’s mind, and... he’s fine, he’s absolutely fine. No harm to him at all.

 

That broke the movie for me.

 

Cool space fight at the end, though.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

3 minutes ago, rough cut said:

The worst offender though is the “mind reader monster”, that reads your mind but leaves it scrambled afterwards... Well, it reads the little nervous guy’s mind, and... he’s fine, he’s absolutely fine. No harm to him at all.

 

That broke the movie for me.

 

 

It's a possible, but not guaranteed, side effect. What's so strange about that?

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

23 minutes ago, rough cut said:

It’s still not a good movie, though.

 

The whole thing is just so... pointless. Jyn’s charachter has to be one of the lost boring ever written, she just sort of ”tags along” all the time.

 

Also, the movie is completely unfocused on where it wants to go - literally. It jumps from planet to planet to planet... I remember sitting in the theatre thinking that it was extremely confusing.

 

The worst offender though is the “mind reader monster”, that reads your mind but leaves it scrambled afterwards... Well, it reads the little nervous guy’s mind, and... he’s fine, he’s absolutely fine. No harm to him at all.

 

That broke the movie for me.

 

Cool space fight at the end, though.

 

I didn't notice any of this stuff.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,508]

37 minutes ago, rough cut said:

It’s still not a good movie, though.

Agreed, but it has Vader, Tarkin, Jimmy Smits, Alan Tudyk and a scene-stealing Ben Nicholson, so...

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

1 minute ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Agreed, but it has Vader, Tarkin, Jimmy Smits, Alan Tudyk and a scene-stealing Ben Nicholson, so...

 

All it was missing was Ewan MacDonald. 

[rough cut 1,714]

My initial reaction to this movie is “it was ok.”

 

But the more I think about it, the more I realize I don’t like it, and not just don’t like it, but genuinely think it is bad.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

It's not supposed to be high poetry.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

It's like poetry. They rhyme.

[crocodile 7,990]

2 hours ago, rough cut said:

It’s still not a good movie, though.

 

The whole thing is just so... pointless. Jyn’s charachter has to be one of the most boring ever written, she just sort of ”tags along” all the time.

 

Also, the movie is completely unfocused on where it wants to go - literally. It jumps from planet to planet to planet... I remember sitting in the theatre thinking that it was extremely confusing.

 

The worst offender though is the “mind reader monster”, that reads your mind but leaves it scrambled afterwards... Well, it reads the little nervous guy’s mind, and... he’s fine, he’s absolutely fine. No harm to him at all.

 

That broke the movie for me.

 

Cool space fight at the end, though.

By SW standards it's a solid film. By film standards it is dull.

 

Karol

[rough cut 1,714]

Who is talking about high art... ? I don’t think even the ones who like the movie would suggest the movie to be high art, so let’s not get into that discussion. But there are good movies and bad movies, even in mainstream media.

 

Also, I don’t know why anyone would separate SW standards and “film” standards? They should be held to the same standard, no?

 

Some movies have a good script, heart and internal logic, some don’t.

 

Star Wars E IV, Knives Out, Alien, a lot of Marvel Films, etc etc - good.

Star Wars Rogue One - bad.

 

And even within its own genre, special effects aside, Rogue One can not be considered a good movie. A cameo from Vader, ships or dialogue doesn’t make a movie good, it just plays to the things we like. “Oh, it’s that thing I like from that other movie that I liked - so by logic I should like this as well” but it’s a false logic, it’s nostalgia. It’s a human reaction to project affection where otherwise none would exist.

 

I get it, if you’re a massive SW fan and you love all things SW, then you’ll have a blind spot (or a biased and selective perception as it’s called). Nothing wrong with that, it’s human nature.

 

Or if you’ve invested money in buying the 4K even though that money could’ve been better spent elsewhere, then you’ll use internal, but false, logic to defend the purchase (this is called rationalization).

 

As far as Rogue One goes, it’s OK I guess, if surface level entertainment is what you’re looking for - which in a way is what mainstream movies are all about. But to me, in this case, there’s something missing. Like what you like, but don’t kid yourselves about a movie as flawed as this. It’s guilty pleasure at best.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

Just now, rough cut said:

a lot of Marvel Films

 

[Chen G. 3,944]

55 minutes ago, rough cut said:

It’s guilty pleasure at best.

 

I need to rewatch it, but I wouldn't say that. From memory, it was just a little bit dull for me, but nothing too bad.

 

Certainly, nothing about it was incoherent and detestable like The Rise of Skywalker.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

It's still better than Braveheart.

[Chen G. 3,944]

Rogue One actually follows many of the same beats: young hero suffers a family tragedy and gets taken away by a older character. Having grown-up offscreen into a warrior, the hero returns home and, after some reluctance, comes to lead a struggle for freedom and dies for the cause.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

That sounds almost like any random hero's film.

[Chen G. 3,944]

That's not really The Hero's Journey. There are at least two notable differences: one, the hero's learning from the mentor-figure and subsequent maturation happens offscreen, and isn't the result of the hero making an active choice to undertake some kind of quest: rather, he or she are whisked away in youth following a family tragedy.

 

Secondly, the hero's return home as a transformed individual is absent. Instead, he or she die for the cause.

 

Its more of a revenge story, culminating in martyrdom.

[crocodile 7,990]

This arrived today. Appears that it's OOP already? Four of those films I'm really excited about. The other two...not so much.

 

 

Karol