What are you watching tonight?

J

JengaHit

Audioholic
We had a death in the family. Sorry for the delay in posting.

Start with this, which came in the mail; still don't know what to make of the story, aspect ratio or picture quality (my initial thoughts run to the 4:3 aspect ratio he chose for this is WAY too confining and distracting for the scope of the story):









Sorry for your loss.

4:3 (1.33:1) is actually closer to "true" IMAX aspect ratio, which is 1.43:1, as IMAX screens are tall. This article explains Snyder's rationale of wanting to preserve the IMAX ratio it was shot in. Snyder's decision was always to release the home video in 1.33:1, even before WB's decision to stream it on HBOmax.


As for the film, I think it's an improvement over the original theatrical cut, which was cartoonishly glib. The Snyder cut fleshes out more fully character motivations and the plot; the characters' actions and decisions just make more sense now. But is it on the level of the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight trilogy? No. It's also inferior to the whole Avengers/MCU storyline.
 
J

JengaHit

Audioholic
This was one of Frank Capra's early movies. Has all of Capra's signature high drama and social consciousness. It anticipates many of the themes in It's a Wonderful Life: about banking, money, and community; and about how mob psychology and rumour-mongering can create destructive runs on a bank (the movie was released in 1932, one year before the creation of the FDIC and federally-backed bank-deposit insurance). It asks questions about what a bank does in a healthy economy and in the midst of a depression: hoard money or keep capital flowing to Main St? Why is a bank important to a community?

MV5BMTU1MDY2MTU4N15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMDY5NDUzMzE@._V1_.jpg
 
davidscott

davidscott

Audioholic Spartan
Cant believe anyone didn't chime in on this but it's NFreakingL opening Sunday. Football all day baby. GO STEELERS!
 
G

GotAudio

Audioholic
Anyone like Gattaca? This is my favorite movie and they remastered it in 4K/Atmos.. I already own the 1080p version non-Atmos. Interesting to go through iTunes library to see older movies remastered in 4K/Atmos.

F38F99B3-53C1-4541-97F3-2D054E28DCDA.jpg
 
Kaskade89052

Kaskade89052

Audioholic Samurai
Sorry for your loss.
Thank you; it was actually my mother, and to make it worse, we were estranged for quite some time so we weren't talking. I'm not really taking it very well...

4:3 (1.33:1) is actually closer to "true" IMAX aspect ratio, which is 1.43:1, as IMAX screens are tall. This article explains Snyder's rationale of wanting to preserve the IMAX ratio it was shot in. Snyder's decision was always to release the home video in 1.33:1, even before WB's decision to stream it on HBOmax.

Yes -- I know precisely why he chose the ratio, the rationale behind it and what it is exposing in every frame. I have read all there is to read about his decision to shoot it this way and how it was intended for theaters. It's just that, on MY setup at home on a 65-inch screen, the pillarboxing made the whole thing feel "too small in scope" to really appreciate -- and this is aside from what Snyder WANTED, which I respect. I don't know what it was, but the pillarboxing didn't really engross me in the narrative too well....I was really distracted by the shape of the image and the way it felt "squeezed in," even if we were seeing more from top to bottom.

For whatever reason, my eyes never got comfortable with pillarboxing the way they did with letterboxing; even old films in a 4:3 ratio on DVD look very strange to me with the side bars. This is PRECISELY why I am pissed that my Panasonic UHD Blu-ray player doesn't offer a way to zoom or stretch any content the way you want it (like the Oppos did) -- the player is locked in a widescreen-only output, so even non-anamorphic DVDs won't play back correctly. Absolutely ridiculous.

I'll give the film another chance with the pillarboxing, and I'm glad I got it to see it, but my first impression is that I just couldn't get that immersed in the story.

As for the film, I think it's an improvement over the original theatrical cut, which was cartoonishly glib. The Snyder cut fleshes out more fully character motivations and the plot; the characters' actions and decisions just make more sense now. But is it on the level of the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight trilogy? No. It's also inferior to the whole Avengers/MCU storyline.
I definitely didn't hate it -- I see what he was going for and appreciated it. It definitely improved upon the Whedon variant that introduced way too much comedic relief at the wrong times, which just didn't feel like a DC film (for instance, I LOATHED the whole "Oh yeah....something's definitely bleeding...." line Affleck mutters after being tossed to the ground by Cavill's Superman). I'm glad all of that was pretty much gone from Snyder's cut. On the other hand, something STILL didn't feel right -- the first disc contained storylines that seemed all over the place and randomly sewn together. Getting the backstories on characters like The Flash and Cyborg was cool, but the way Snyder strung them together felt a little haphazard -- like, in one moment we're seeing Victor play football and the next we're back to Diana's home world where Steppenwolf is attacking (it didn't happen EXACTLY like that, but it's just an example of what I mean).

The extended Knightmare sequence at the end was cool, especially the dialogue between Bruce and Joker (many said Leto redeemed himself in this performance compared to the trash we got in Suicide Squad, and I must agree...but he is STILL no Nicholson, Ledger or Phoenix). The references to Robin's death made sense, as we now see why Bruce kept his costume in his mansion that read "JOKE'S ON YOU, BATMAN" and now have closure in terms of why Leto's "pimped out" Joker possibly had all the gold teeth (the rumor was that after learning of Joker's killing of Robin -- which we never see in a film version -- Batman beat him so badly he lost all his choppers).

This scene also better explains why Barry looked very different in the dream sequence in Batman v Superman when he reaches through Bruce's screens to scream "BRUCE!!!! IT'S LOIS LANE!!!! IT'S ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT HER!!!" -- indeed, he almost looks Asian-esque in that scene! We also get to see Mera from Aquaman play a role here.

I still don't understand, though, what this Knightmare scene was all about outside of Bruce dreaming about an attack on earth and Darkseid turning it into a hellscape -- what was with all the references to Bruce letting Lois die and Superman becoming evil for that? Why DID Barry look the way he did in that dream sequence, with the small mustache and all?
 
Kaskade89052

Kaskade89052

Audioholic Samurai
Cant believe anyone didn't chime in on this but it's NFreakingL opening Sunday. Football all day baby. GO STEELERS!
Maybe that's because in the first Tampa-Dallas game, the "Black National Anthem" (which technically is far from accurate) was played BEFORE this country's theme was. :rolleyes:

I've given up on the NFL since they have made things so ridiculously PC and "woke."
 
J

JengaHit

Audioholic
Yes -- I know precisely why he chose the ratio, the rationale behind it and what it is exposing in every frame. I have read all there is to read about his decision to shoot it this way and how it was intended for theaters. It's just that, on MY setup at home on a 65-inch screen, the pillarboxing made the whole thing feel "too small in scope" to really appreciate -- and this is aside from what Snyder WANTED, which I respect. I don't know what it was, but the pillarboxing didn't really engross me in the narrative too well....I was really distracted by the shape of the image and the way it felt "squeezed in," even if we were seeing more from top to bottom.

For whatever reason, my eyes never got comfortable with pillarboxing the way they did with letterboxing; even old films in a 4:3 ratio on DVD look very strange to me with the side bars. This is PRECISELY why I am pissed that my Panasonic UHD Blu-ray player doesn't offer a way to zoom or stretch any content the way you want it (like the Oppos did) -- the player is locked in a widescreen-only output, so even non-anamorphic DVDs won't play back correctly. Absolutely ridiculous.

I'll give the film another chance with the pillarboxing, and I'm glad I got it to see it, but my first impression is that I just couldn't get that immersed in the story.
Yeah, that 4:3 aspect ratio isn't that immersive on a living-room TV. I watched the HBOmax stream on my 37" desktop screen while sitting close, so that helped a little.

Shooting originally in IMAX format is a dilemma for home-video release (especially now that streaming day-and-date releases mean more people are watching on small screens). You do what Snyder did and choose 4:3 to maintain that IMAX framing-compositional consistency. Or you awkwardly crop 1.43:1 to fit into a widescreen format (essentially the reverse equivalent of 90s pan-and-scan, when they cropped widescreen to fill fully a 4:3 screen). Neither is really satisfying.

And to be honest, I've never been a fan of IMAX. When I've been to true IMAX theaters (not "lieMax theaters) it's been visual-information overload, as the screen is so big my eye constantly scans the screen. It's like sitting in row 1 or 2 at an ordinary widescreen movie, where the screen is too wide for your field of vision. It's ironically the kind of the visual overload the author of that Collider article accuses widescreen movies of. I don't know why Snyder chose IMAX. I do suspect studio heads encouraged it for marketing purposes. But if it were up to me, I'd prefer blockbusters were just shot in scope (2.39:1) and be done with it. It's plenty immersive in the theater, and makes home-video and streaming much easier.
 
Kaskade89052

Kaskade89052

Audioholic Samurai
Haven't really been watching much since word of my mother's death last weekend, but trying to keep in the upcoming Halloween spirit.....



From:







 
Kaskade89052

Kaskade89052

Audioholic Samurai
Sorry to hear about the loss of your mother Kaskade.
Thank you so much, NIN....it is truly appreciated right now. It's been really, really tough on me because I lost my dad back in 06 and I feel like I'm the only one on the planet to have gone through this. :(:(:(
 
afterlife2

afterlife2

Audioholic Warlord
Sade In Concert on Blu-ray.

Some tears ain't gonna lie. Tough month. I saw this show in NYC at Radio City Music Hall and the show was fantastic. :cool: The Blu-ray show looks and sounds just as great in person. ❤
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