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FEATURED THREADS for 1-12-23

 
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 11, 2023 6:49 pm    Post subject: FEATURED THREADS for 1-12-23 Reply with quote



If you're not a member of All Sci-Fi, registration is easy. Just use the registration password, which is —

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How can you go wrong with a story about a mission to a fictional version of Venus that brings back a an amazing creature?

Ditto for an amazing action/sci-fi staring Tom Cruise as a man who jumps around in time — against his will.

And Johnny Depp plays a very different role than his famous pirate captain, in a movie about a computer than preserves the knowledge and personality of a great scientists.

Wow, who couldn't think of intelligent replies to add to great threads like these?

I think I'll do that myself, right now! Cool

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20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)

Brigz and I watched this movie in the chat room recently, and we both used the old DVD, which allows the viewer to chose "fullscreen" or "widescreen".

The Blu-ray doesn't have this feature, and I think that's a shame. Here's why.

The fullscreen version on the old DVD offers images of the Ymir that are very different from the ones in the widescreen version -- and sometimes that's a genuine bonus.

Consider these examples. Here's the widescreen version. It looks a bit too much like exactly what it is: a model being animated in front of a rear projection screen.



But the fullscreen version shows the way the ground slopes up towards the creature, thus convincing us that the Venusian is standing on a hill, looking down at the farm.



And notice how much more of that gorgeous creature we get to see — including its writhing tale! The same is true in several other scenes, and the difference is striking. Like this one.



This scene of the Ymir atop the Colosseum looks better with the extra part at the bottom. In addition to displaying more of the creature's lower body, the expanded view adds to the sense of great height.



Perhaps the best example is this scene. Here's the widescreen version —



— and here's the fullscreen version, showing the lower part of the creature's torso and the platform he was on. It looks great!



Guys, please don't think I'm disregarding the director's intent or the cinematographer's composition. I'm just commenting on the way we get to see extra areas that include Harryhausen's splendid model and his animation.

Some folks would argue that the extra areas at the top and bottom look like superfluous space in this scene from the elephant versus ymir fight.

I disagree.

The expanded version emphasizes the fact that this battle is taking place in the heart of a city, and that the last place a sane person would want to me is closer to these enraged beasts!



But if they ever create an IMAX 3D version of this movie, this would look just fine on that big screen.


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Edge of Tomorrow (2014)




I missed this one at the theaters, but I recently downloaded it, watched it, and loved it. If you like Groundhog Day, you'll love this one.





There's more combat action in this than in Starship Troopers, and the alien creatures are just as eager to rip people into small painful pieces. I admired the way the filmmakers presented us with a truly alien life form — which ain't easy when you consider the tremendous variety of life right here on terra firma!







Tom Cruise and co-star Emily Blunt make a great team, not only as actors and as the kick-ass combat juggernauts. Both actors project the intelligence needed for the two characters to deal with the insanity of having to relive the same events over and over.





The special effects are stellar from start to finish, and the shots of the military aircraft are gorgeous — both flying into battle and crashing in a spectacular fashion.





The explanation for the time loops is actually a source of considerable confusion among viewers, and you and l find websites like the one below that offer intelligent theories that attempt to clear things up. It did clarify certain aspects of the plot for me, but even the writer of the article freely admits that the film withholds a lot of information we need to fully understand the concepts.

http://screenrant.com/edge-of-tomorrow-ending-spoilers-time-travel/




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Transcendence (2014)




I didn't know what to expect from this movie, and a friend even told me that it wasn't good. The box office totals and a significant number of movie critics weren't crazy about it either.








After all those warnings, the movie certainly wasn't what I expected. The scope of the story is far beyond anything attempted in movies like this. Other films have gone all wild and crazy with their yarns about the threat of artificial intelligence, and that's exactly why I've disliked some of them.





This one did the opposite.





It presents its complex concepts slowly, leading the audience along at a careful pace, one step at a time. And the methods it uses to tell the story are elegant and beautiful. The photography, the editing, the special effects, the sets, the lighting, the acting, and the music — they all work together to present a tale that keeps the mind engaged.







It gives us time to think about what we're seeing.





The basic premise has much in common with Colossus: The Forbin Project, but with a big difference. In this case, the machine that wants to help mankind actually could have done miraculous things for us — but mankind didn't want it, and this time we succeeded in killing it. In doing so we killed the ultimate Golden Goose, and wound up sending human civilization backwards a hundred years.

I like this movie. So, does my computer. It told me so.



[img]https://i.imgur.com/09c24QI.jpg[/img
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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