SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils movie The Last Legion. DISCLAIMER! This was done just for fun and using little time and material on internet. If reliable source says something else, believe it.
In this post I try to explain what was fact and what was fiction in The Last Legion. I haven't done any research on issues and write this based on what I know and what I can easily find. There is nothing academic in this post.
The little boy Romulus Augustus was emperor of Western Roman Empire. Also capture of Rome happened and involved persons in movie. Romulus Augustus was exiled to castle like in movie. What happened next is not clear. There are no documents what happened to him after that. He wasn't blood line of Julius Caesar. Even though emperors were often relatives of previous emperor, there were different families in power after time of Julius Caesar and some times next emperor was adopted by previous emperor. I don't think Julius Caesar bloodline meant as much as movie suggest. What happened to Romulus Augustus after castle in movie is pure fiction. Reasons for betrayal at beach were valid but anything else is fiction. Britain was not controlled by Rome at that time so them going to Brittain didn't make much sense.
Julius Caesar had two campaign in Britain but the sword is more from King Arthur legend that from anything Julius Caesar did in Britain. In the end of movie sword is revealed to be Excalibur of King Arthur.
The Last Legion was Ninth Legion. Ninth Legion disappeared from history books at place where they were found in this movie. However that happened almost 350 years before movies time. At movies time no-one would have gone to seek them from Britain which wasn't even controlled by Rome. Finding them from there would have been miracle.
Rest of the movie is from King Arthur myth. It is debated if there even was King Arthur and if there was when he lived. When Roman part of the movie had bit facts behind it and lot of fiction around it, King Arthur part is based on old fiction which might have based on real event and new fiction is added to glue the thing together.
I am not historian only fan of history. Please let me know if there is something wrong in this post. I like to know what is the current understanding of this subject. I wrote this based on what I think is the truth as far as we know.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Ninth Legion
SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils movies The Last Legion, The Eagle and Centurion.
There always seems to be two similar movie about same subject made almost same time. Ninth Legion was subject couple years ago. When I planned this post I thought Ninth Legion had three but The Last Legion was made three years prior to The Eagle and Centurion. What was the reason that Ninth Legion was interesting at the time?
Ninth Legion is most know for its disappearing. It just disappears from documents around 117 CE and there is no mention why. At the time Ninth Legion was in Britain and some speculate that it was destroyed in battle. There are also other speculations but to me that battle sounds best. What ever the reason there wasn't ninth legion after that. It showed that Roman empire was vulnerable like battle of the Teutoburg Forest hundred years earlier. In that battle three roman legions were ambushed and destroyed. After the battle Rome never tried to conquer Germania again.
The Last Legion doesn't make any attempt to be historically accurate. It happens almost 350 years after Ninth Legion disappeared. But the last legion of the movie is Ninth Legion. Rest of the movie same kind of fantasy containing characters from real history. I am not going in to that because this is about Ninth Legion but I'd like to read how wrong the movie got these things from historian point of view. In movie Ninth Legion founded town after Rome had forgotten them. They used local clothes and names and acted like locals.
Centurion is story how Ninth Legion was led in to ambush and destroyed there. Movie suggest that Rome didn't want to tell about ambush because they didn't want another battle of the Teutoburg Forest to decrease morale of Romans. For that they removed every mention of Ninth Legion and started hunting surviving Ninth Legion members.
In The Eagle Ninth Legion was destroyed in battle and enemy had captures symbol of legion the Eagle of the Ninth. In this movie the battle is shown to be similar to battle of Teutoburg Forest. In movie son of one legionnaire of Ninth Legion search the Eagle of the Ninth.
There always seems to be two similar movie about same subject made almost same time. Ninth Legion was subject couple years ago. When I planned this post I thought Ninth Legion had three but The Last Legion was made three years prior to The Eagle and Centurion. What was the reason that Ninth Legion was interesting at the time?
Ninth Legion is most know for its disappearing. It just disappears from documents around 117 CE and there is no mention why. At the time Ninth Legion was in Britain and some speculate that it was destroyed in battle. There are also other speculations but to me that battle sounds best. What ever the reason there wasn't ninth legion after that. It showed that Roman empire was vulnerable like battle of the Teutoburg Forest hundred years earlier. In that battle three roman legions were ambushed and destroyed. After the battle Rome never tried to conquer Germania again.
The Last Legion doesn't make any attempt to be historically accurate. It happens almost 350 years after Ninth Legion disappeared. But the last legion of the movie is Ninth Legion. Rest of the movie same kind of fantasy containing characters from real history. I am not going in to that because this is about Ninth Legion but I'd like to read how wrong the movie got these things from historian point of view. In movie Ninth Legion founded town after Rome had forgotten them. They used local clothes and names and acted like locals.
Centurion is story how Ninth Legion was led in to ambush and destroyed there. Movie suggest that Rome didn't want to tell about ambush because they didn't want another battle of the Teutoburg Forest to decrease morale of Romans. For that they removed every mention of Ninth Legion and started hunting surviving Ninth Legion members.
In The Eagle Ninth Legion was destroyed in battle and enemy had captures symbol of legion the Eagle of the Ninth. In this movie the battle is shown to be similar to battle of Teutoburg Forest. In movie son of one legionnaire of Ninth Legion search the Eagle of the Ninth.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
New year resolutions
SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils Memento. If you haven't seen it you should watch it before you read this any further. It is one of best thrillers ever made and needs to be seen unspoiled.
So. You have seen the movie. Good. We can continue. In the end of the movie we found out that Leonard knew that Teddy was not the killer but Leonard decided to make him kill Teddy knowing that he would forget the truth in few moments.
There is a little while since the last time I saw the movie. Today I started to think how nice it would be if I could fool myself in to something I know now is false but would soon forget what is the truth. I wouldn't fool myself into killing people. Some lifestyle changes would be easier I you could do something like that.
Problem with lifestyle changes is that you have to do something that hurts you now but what would be good to yourself in future. Sometimes that is hard to do. It would be easier if you could fool tomorrow you to do something that helps future you and not remembering tomorrow that you were fooled.
State which Leonard is in movie is terrible condition. It would be nice to get this without being in that bad condition. This came to my when I was thinking about new year resolution. I think I still go with no smoking as I have done every year before.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Based on real events that didn't happen
SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils Fire in the Sky and The Fourth Kind.
I don't like it when supernatural/paranormal/ufo movies are presented are real events. I like movies about these topics but not that some of them are said to be based on real events or true story or something like that. I like to see some evidence before I am ready to believe.
Fire in the Sky is based on book written by guy who is the guy who is abducted in movie. I think it might be little biased source and may not be as true as movie suggest. It have to be said to movies credit that it is more balanced between skepticism and UFO belief than you could expect based on source. Movie is actually quite good thriller until it gets abduction scenes. After that movie tries to prove that these things actually happened. Without that this could have been good movie. Something that I have liked to see again.
The Fourth Kind is as real as The Blair Witch Project or Paranormal Actvity. So playing it is real is part of the genre. The Fourth Kind is abduction story with Ancient Aliens flavor. Movie would be better without real story mentions at the beginning and at the end. Close to end I liked movie because I had forgotten "based on real something" at beginning. I was brought down with "based on real something" at the end.
Why these movies have to be presented as real event? In Fire in the Sky I understand it bit because it is based on book by "abducted" person. As far as I know The Fourth Kind is complete fiction with real footage is as much acted as anything else in movie. Then why try to underline that movie is based on "real event". It makes me like the movie less because I use more time trying to find holes in story. Both of these movies were entertaining but suffered "based on real stuff" tag.
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Nothing scientific fiction
SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils Arctic Blast, Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus and Mega Piranha.
There should be own genre for scifi movies that have little or nothing scientific in them. We need this because people need to know when they are watching scifi that has nothing scientific in it.
In Arctic Blast solar eclipse causes hole in ozone layer which causes super fast localized ice age. I am pretty sure that nothing can cause "They didn't know what hit them" fast cooling. Or if there is something like that the cooling wouldn't be the main problem. I am also pretty sure that they solution to fire missiles to upper atmosphere wouldn't work either in real world.
In Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus two monsters from age of dinosaurs were frozen in ice and then released because of global warming. That is not possible but I can buy that for sake of movie. What I can't buy is that they gave Shark an Octopus super powers. Both can move super fast and human weapons can't hurt them. In one scene shark catch jet in air and starts to eat it. In other it eats Golden Gate Bridge. I think smaller scale and more realism would have made movie better.
In Mega Piranha scientists have created piranhas that have limitless growth potential. Based on how story goes it seems that they can grow with out eating. Given enough time one could become larger than earth and with more time larger than universe itself. When piranhas become big enough nothing man have can destroy them. For some reason piranhas like jump to houses where they explode or to beach where they die. And for some unknown reason all piranhas want to go to Washington.
In the end piranhas are killed when one of them is hurt and others go crazy eating it and hurting themselves in process and so on. How convenient. But they did that earlier in movie too and then it didn't kill all of them. That time piranhas were trapped by barrage. Barrage was destroyed later and that should have caused piranhas to spread everywhere. It was said in movie. But in the end they were nicely at one place killing each other. Not single one survived anywhere.
Mega Piranha is entertaining stupidity fest and would have deserved whole post but now it have to do with this. To be honest I didn't expect any of these movies to be great. It would how ever be nice if these had own genre defined. I like these but I also like good movies. I want to know beforehand which one I am going to get. Usually it is easy to find before seeing the movie but sometimes you have to see the movie before you know.
There should be own genre for scifi movies that have little or nothing scientific in them. We need this because people need to know when they are watching scifi that has nothing scientific in it.
In Arctic Blast solar eclipse causes hole in ozone layer which causes super fast localized ice age. I am pretty sure that nothing can cause "They didn't know what hit them" fast cooling. Or if there is something like that the cooling wouldn't be the main problem. I am also pretty sure that they solution to fire missiles to upper atmosphere wouldn't work either in real world.
In Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus two monsters from age of dinosaurs were frozen in ice and then released because of global warming. That is not possible but I can buy that for sake of movie. What I can't buy is that they gave Shark an Octopus super powers. Both can move super fast and human weapons can't hurt them. In one scene shark catch jet in air and starts to eat it. In other it eats Golden Gate Bridge. I think smaller scale and more realism would have made movie better.
In Mega Piranha scientists have created piranhas that have limitless growth potential. Based on how story goes it seems that they can grow with out eating. Given enough time one could become larger than earth and with more time larger than universe itself. When piranhas become big enough nothing man have can destroy them. For some reason piranhas like jump to houses where they explode or to beach where they die. And for some unknown reason all piranhas want to go to Washington.
In the end piranhas are killed when one of them is hurt and others go crazy eating it and hurting themselves in process and so on. How convenient. But they did that earlier in movie too and then it didn't kill all of them. That time piranhas were trapped by barrage. Barrage was destroyed later and that should have caused piranhas to spread everywhere. It was said in movie. But in the end they were nicely at one place killing each other. Not single one survived anywhere.
Mega Piranha is entertaining stupidity fest and would have deserved whole post but now it have to do with this. To be honest I didn't expect any of these movies to be great. It would how ever be nice if these had own genre defined. I like these but I also like good movies. I want to know beforehand which one I am going to get. Usually it is easy to find before seeing the movie but sometimes you have to see the movie before you know.
Pirates at coast of Finland
I just watched Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus. Most shocking part of that movie was one part of dialog where they mentioned pirates at the coast of Finland. It was quite odd because those pirates didn't have anything to do with the story. I am pretty sure whose idea that was didn't know where the coast of Finland actually is ( http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Baltic_Sea_map.png ). I wish that movie makers would do just little bit fact checking before they start to shoot movie. But in this case we wouldn't have movie if they did that.
Movie is what you could expect from movie named Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus.
Movie is what you could expect from movie named Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus.
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
World will make sense only if you force it to
SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils Robocop - Prime Directives.
Robocop - Prime Directives is 6 hour 4 episode miniseries. It happens 10 years after first movie. Robocop has become old technology and is more machine than man. Why Robocop haven't been upgraded is not explained. Doesn't human parts accept new upgraded parts or is Robocop just machine for OCP. Robocop is valuable asset for OCP. So latter doesn't make much sense. What ever the reason spare parts are hard to find and Robocop is coming to end of his life. Robocop still does his robocop things until he becomes casuality of OCP power struggle. Robocop is programmed to kill his old partner. Human part of Robocop starts to fight back but in the end Robocop kills old partner when fighting with vigilante serialkiller. It is left open was this caused by programming or did Robocop kill old partner because it was only option to him.
Now we get to first reminder of series that you shouldn't give your machines human like mind. Robocop punishes himself for killing old partner and becomes so violent that people start to be scared. OCP builds Robocable, updated version of Robocop, using dead body of old partner. Robocop is framed and becomes fugitive. Robocable is send after Robocop. When Robocop finds out that Robocable is actually his old partner he tries to reach to human part of Robocable. This finally happened in big fight where human part takes over Robocable. This is second time in series that OCP loses crime fighting robot because human part takes over. During this fight Robocop and Robocable are almost destroyed. Underground goods guys get Robocop and Evil Scientist get Robocable.
It is time for insane plot point to be introduced. Evil Scientist want to release computer/human virus hybrid. Yes, I mean computer virus that can kill humans. I know word virus is used for human viruses and computer viruses, but there is no mechanism which could make computer virus to jump to humans and kill humans. And in no way anything could have effect of this virus on humans. This virus is over kill. Normal computer virus would have given same effect with out totally killing realism. I won't go into that any further.
Evil Scientist implants Robocaple with devices that forces Robocable to obey Evil Scientist. This makes Robocable most interesting character for rest of the series. He got his humanity back for little while only to be taken away. Now he has to decide if he want to live as slave of Evil Scientist and possibly cause death of human race or fight against control of Evil Scientist and die in process. Good guys let Robocop keep his humanity. Rest of the series Robocop tries to reach human part of Robocable and most interesting stuff happens in head of Robocable.
During all this OCP learns third lesson why you shouldn't give too much intelligence to your machines. OCP has build S.A.I.N.T. Computer system that controls everything. Saint is given intelligence and something goes wrong. It is not pointed out what made Saint go crazy. Saint is made to kill people during OCP power struggle and Evil Scientist upload his virus into Saint. B0th could be the reason. Saint controls OCP office and is ready to control whole Delta City. Stakes are high. Crazy computer system is about to control whole Delta City with computer virus that can kill people as added bonus. Who ever wrote this series wanted to make sure that we understand that computers and machines cause dangers.
In the end it is fight between artificial intelligence of Saint and humans inside machines. Robocable manage to get his humanity back. Only for little while for this time too because he end up sacrificing himself to kill Saint and save Delta city. It was human mind in machine that saved the day, not the artificial intelligence of machine made to make our lives easier.
If you don't put too much weight to virus, this is best Robocop since first movie. I didn't go into OCP power struggle part of series or the propaganda part of the series. Now that you are here spoiled about man in the machine part of the story, you can still watch series unspoiled about those other parts. I also left some other important parts unmentioned in case you want to see this after reading this post.
Robocop - Prime Directives is 6 hour 4 episode miniseries. It happens 10 years after first movie. Robocop has become old technology and is more machine than man. Why Robocop haven't been upgraded is not explained. Doesn't human parts accept new upgraded parts or is Robocop just machine for OCP. Robocop is valuable asset for OCP. So latter doesn't make much sense. What ever the reason spare parts are hard to find and Robocop is coming to end of his life. Robocop still does his robocop things until he becomes casuality of OCP power struggle. Robocop is programmed to kill his old partner. Human part of Robocop starts to fight back but in the end Robocop kills old partner when fighting with vigilante serialkiller. It is left open was this caused by programming or did Robocop kill old partner because it was only option to him.
Now we get to first reminder of series that you shouldn't give your machines human like mind. Robocop punishes himself for killing old partner and becomes so violent that people start to be scared. OCP builds Robocable, updated version of Robocop, using dead body of old partner. Robocop is framed and becomes fugitive. Robocable is send after Robocop. When Robocop finds out that Robocable is actually his old partner he tries to reach to human part of Robocable. This finally happened in big fight where human part takes over Robocable. This is second time in series that OCP loses crime fighting robot because human part takes over. During this fight Robocop and Robocable are almost destroyed. Underground goods guys get Robocop and Evil Scientist get Robocable.
It is time for insane plot point to be introduced. Evil Scientist want to release computer/human virus hybrid. Yes, I mean computer virus that can kill humans. I know word virus is used for human viruses and computer viruses, but there is no mechanism which could make computer virus to jump to humans and kill humans. And in no way anything could have effect of this virus on humans. This virus is over kill. Normal computer virus would have given same effect with out totally killing realism. I won't go into that any further.
Evil Scientist implants Robocaple with devices that forces Robocable to obey Evil Scientist. This makes Robocable most interesting character for rest of the series. He got his humanity back for little while only to be taken away. Now he has to decide if he want to live as slave of Evil Scientist and possibly cause death of human race or fight against control of Evil Scientist and die in process. Good guys let Robocop keep his humanity. Rest of the series Robocop tries to reach human part of Robocable and most interesting stuff happens in head of Robocable.
During all this OCP learns third lesson why you shouldn't give too much intelligence to your machines. OCP has build S.A.I.N.T. Computer system that controls everything. Saint is given intelligence and something goes wrong. It is not pointed out what made Saint go crazy. Saint is made to kill people during OCP power struggle and Evil Scientist upload his virus into Saint. B0th could be the reason. Saint controls OCP office and is ready to control whole Delta City. Stakes are high. Crazy computer system is about to control whole Delta City with computer virus that can kill people as added bonus. Who ever wrote this series wanted to make sure that we understand that computers and machines cause dangers.
In the end it is fight between artificial intelligence of Saint and humans inside machines. Robocable manage to get his humanity back. Only for little while for this time too because he end up sacrificing himself to kill Saint and save Delta city. It was human mind in machine that saved the day, not the artificial intelligence of machine made to make our lives easier.
If you don't put too much weight to virus, this is best Robocop since first movie. I didn't go into OCP power struggle part of series or the propaganda part of the series. Now that you are here spoiled about man in the machine part of the story, you can still watch series unspoiled about those other parts. I also left some other important parts unmentioned in case you want to see this after reading this post.
Monday, December 24, 2012
Cargo (2009)
I recommend this movie if you liked Alien, Blade runner, Moon or new Solaris. There are other movies with same name. This is swiss scifi movie from 2009. There aren't too many this kind of movies. Don't be scared that they don't speak english in this movie. It is not masterpeace as movies that I mentioned but it is worth seeing if you liked those movies.
Invaders from Mars
SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils Invaders from Mars.
It is funny how differently you see some movies each time. For me Invaders from Mars is one of those movies. Movie is one of those red scare science fiction movies from '50s. In movie martians come to earth to sabotage rocket experiment with reprogrammed people.
I saw movie for the first time over 20 years ago when I was much younger. From that time I remember martians capturing people and returning them reprogrammed with scars at back of their heads. I think I remembered that because changing of main characters parents was made so well. And at that age idea that people could be reprogrammed was scary.
Second time I saw the movie was few years ago when I found it on dvd. That time I saw red scare part of the movie. You could easily replace martians and scifi elements with soviet spys and brainwashing. Story would still make perfect sense.
Today I watched the movie for third time. This time I watched more analytically because I planned to write about it here. This time saw middle part that I have missed earlier. I have seen it but from the first time I remember the beginning of the movie and from second time the end of the movie. Middle part is lighter and more generic scifi than darker beginning with reprogrammed people and red scare later part of movie.
In middle part we have prototype '50s scifi movie scientist with his doctor girlfriend and little boy trying to find out what is going on. Since last time I saw this movie I have followed more what happens in science and skeptic movement. With this background all the ufo BS and bad science got my attention. Ufo BS had to be there since movie is about martians. As for bad science I am not sure how bad science of the movie was at the time movie was made. Science has advanced since movie was made but I think what they said in movie was not scientific even when movie was made.
I hope next time I see movie I can see great shots and cinematic value of the movie. That requires that someone restores movie and releases it again. This movie is worth it. If someone does that I hope they keep the original ending where it was left open did martians actually landed or was this just a bad dream or did the boy saw the future. In version I saw the ending was changed to more happy and defenitive ending. It ate impact of the movie.
Sunday, December 23, 2012
The A-Team
SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils The A-Team.
I know I am not the target audience. I am not going to talk about whole stupidity of the movie. All those "great plans" which would go totally wrong if other guys didn't do stupid things one after another. Those guys wouldn't survive one mission with those "plan" against real bad guys.
But was that movies lesson that it is ok to be violent and kill people and you could have peace of mind after doing that? This was in "Mr T" storyline. He wasn't called Mr T in the movie but this movie don't deserve me checking the correct name and you know who I am talking about.
During his jail time "Mr T" found unviolent filosophy and promised not to kill anyone. This almost gets "Mr T" killed when at one point of the movie "Mr T" don't defent himself against one of the bad guys. But don't worry kids. At the end "Mr T" finds his warrior spirit and kills again. The same bad guy that almost killed him earlier.
It is bad brainless action movie but that was too low. I did saw it comming when "Mr T" told about non-violence but in this it was bad taste. Tons of kung fu movies are about kung fu master who promised not to fight again and in the end fighting again. In those movies violence often leads to destruction of hero too. Not in this movie. Here it is just thing you should do and not doing so gets you killed.
John Carter is not that bad
SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils John Carter.
Joh Carter is the flop of year 2012. But the movie is not that bad. Marketing campain made it look like big action movie. But movie itself is quite slow paced and there is not that much action. I would say it is as much action movie as Dune was. Which I don't see as bad thing.
Only really annoying thing in movie was John Carters jumps and him beeing super strong. I guess that was from source material. It spoiled movie little bit. In real Mars he wouldn't have that much strength. I know there aren't people in Mars and you can't breath there. But that jumping was little too much.
Other than that movie is quite entertaining if you don't expect big action movie. What makes flop even worse is that story was interresting and now it will be cut short. Who therns really were and what was their agenda. Should I read that from books? No. I want to see it in movie.
In this movie therns were powerful people on background with their technology and hidden agenda. City of Helium was about to invent new technology and therns gave their help Zodanga who was in war with Helium. Why? Therns were also in Earth and could travel between Earth and Mars. What they did here?
It was hinted that planet Mars was dying. How that effect civilizations on planet? In first movie that was on backgound since first it was introduction to world and characters. There is so much interresting stuff for sequels that it is really shame that we will never see them. This almost makes me want read the books or listen audio versions of them, Latter if it goes to that. I tried to read one of the book sometime ago but didn't find it interresting back then. Please make sequel and market is as what it actually is. Please.
Saturday, December 15, 2012
More HBO Nordic rant and ViaPlay
I think it is good to give more background to HBO Nordic Fail post. In Finland we usually are at least one season behind American schedule. We just got NetFlix and we had sometime before ViaPlay and then there are some minor players on this kind of services. ViaPlay was minor player before NetFlix came. Now they have gained popularity after NetFlix showed that online streaming services can work.
Because FU HBO Nordic I took One month free trial of ViaPlay. On usability NetFlix is far ahead of ViaPlay. But ViaPlay have different movies. On picture quality ViaPlay was there with NetFlix while viewing from computer. ViaPlay is good addition to NetFlix. Both are so cheap that you can easily have both. If movie is in both I will watch it from NetFlix but there are other good movies in ViaPlay too.
When HBO Nordic announced its launch there were lot of people ready to give money to anyone bringing good netstreaming service to Finland. We knew that NetFlix had some plans but nothing was announced. ViaPlay was there but people watched its cable tv parent ViaSat. Hype was there. Momentum was there. There were lot of people wanting to buy. But nothing happened. Launch was delayed.
Then out of the blue came NetFlix. No hype. No warning. It just came. Reasonalbe price and terms. It worked. I won people to its side. Some started to test ViaPlay also because both had free month offer. But people still waited for HBO Nordic. They had to wait for longer and longer.
HBO Nordic is sitll not launcehd to everyone. It is invitation only service still. And you have to pay for one whole year just to test it. Those who have had change to even buy service are those who were most interrested about service. Ones who subscribed newsletter first and ones who bought devices with free HBO Nordic subscription bundled. Now those people are hating HBO Nordic. Regular people haven been able to buy service. That tells something how launch was handled.
I try not to return to HBO Nordic subject before I have something good to tell about it. I haven't given up on them but lot of things have to change before I take it. Now I am just totally PO'ed about this whole thing. I really wanted it and they just failed the whole thing.
HBO Nordic Fail
I wrote something to my Google+ wall about HBO Nordic Launch fail. Some of it is based on "facts" from messageboards. So I am not sure if everything is 100% sure. With that disclaimer I put it here. HBO Nordic is NetFlix like service containing fresh HBO content. When this was introduced it was told to be first this kind of product from HBO. I don't know if that has chanded since. With these forewords here is my rant about HBO Nordic launch.
"HBO Nordic really messed up their launch. They had lot of potential customers but now most of them don't want to have anything to do with HBO Nordic. First they delayd their launch for ages and always promised soon. Now the thing finally happened. They want anyone who even tries the service to subscribe for whole year. I am not going to do that. I am not only one. There are competitors that give you first month free and then you can cancel any time. In HBO Nordic you have three months cancellation period.
I got invitation to HBO Nordic but didn't accept terms. I am not sure if all the terms are even legal. HBO Nordic want to go to Finnish court but using Swedish law. I don't know how that could even be possible. Sounds more like con that legitimate company.
Those who got free subscription bundled to something else tell that you can't watch anything with HD-resolution from PC. Supported devices doesn't include AppleTV and you can't use it with iPod via AirPlay. Only supported devices outside tablets and mobilephones are Samsung smartTVs. Based on internet those don't work either.
This is case study material how not to launch your product. For those outside nordic countries, you are not missing anything because you don't have this service. At the moment it is pretty much useless and potential customers don't want it. Maybe they could try it for free but that is not the case at the moment."
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Honest Trailers - Prometheus
I haven't seen the movie. I don't plan to see it before it comes to Netflix and I don't have to pay any extra. Based on what I have heard from other sources this is all I have to know about the movie.
Movie has to have something wrong when podcasts that never talk about movies gives whole podcast or part of podcast to tell how bad movie was.
This comes from someone that thinks first Alien is one of the best movies and Blade runner is the best. I will write my comments about Prometheus when I see it but don't expect that to happen any time soon.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Star Trek Into Darkness Official Teaser
It took some time for me to watch first Star Trek reboot. As a movie it was ok. But I don't think it should have been Star Trek movie. There was too much action and not enough filosofical content which is what made Star Trek so good.
Teasers doesn't tell much about movie but based on this one it seems like this one is similar to first one. My opinion is that they shouldn't call these Star Trek movies. They should have different name for these.
How ever I will probably see this and like it. But I don't like that it is called Star Trek.
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Keanu Reeves
I watched Johnny Mnemonic again. It is one of my favourite movies. Not one of the best but like to watch it since it has so much good in it. One thing that is not good is Keanu Reeves. His controlled acting style doesn't suit the movie. Maybe he was only big enough name availabe and interrested about the movie. Still I can't stop thinking what the movie could have been with more suitable actor in main role.
Another similar case is Constantine. I like movie but it would have been better with another actor as main character. Reeves is still too controlled in his role. Actor who would have gone further would have make movie better. For some movies limits come too early for Reeves.
His style suits perfectly for first Matrix. For that movie I can't think anyone better. For sequels his controlled style doesn't work that well. To be honest that is not the main problem of sequels. I haven't seen remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. I liked original. For that role Reeves might be suitable. When it comes to our local Netflix I will watch it and comment it here is there is reason to do so.
As for Rollerball remake I didn't think Reeves was bad in that movie. The whole movie was just bad. I don't want to see it again to check how Reeves was on that movie. Original movie is one of my favourites. One more reason to hate remake.
Reeves have been in other big movies. I can't remember how he have acted on them. For me it is bit strange how Reeves is such big name and have been in such big movies. I am not hater but for me Keanu Reeves in movie lowers the expectations. He have chosen some good movies but still he being in them doesn't improve movies. Maybe he likes same things as I do and is biggest name to pick certain kind of scifi movies.
I wish he would improve his acting and lose the controlled style. He can pick good stories. Without his controlled style those movies could be really good ones.
Another similar case is Constantine. I like movie but it would have been better with another actor as main character. Reeves is still too controlled in his role. Actor who would have gone further would have make movie better. For some movies limits come too early for Reeves.
His style suits perfectly for first Matrix. For that movie I can't think anyone better. For sequels his controlled style doesn't work that well. To be honest that is not the main problem of sequels. I haven't seen remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. I liked original. For that role Reeves might be suitable. When it comes to our local Netflix I will watch it and comment it here is there is reason to do so.
As for Rollerball remake I didn't think Reeves was bad in that movie. The whole movie was just bad. I don't want to see it again to check how Reeves was on that movie. Original movie is one of my favourites. One more reason to hate remake.
Reeves have been in other big movies. I can't remember how he have acted on them. For me it is bit strange how Reeves is such big name and have been in such big movies. I am not hater but for me Keanu Reeves in movie lowers the expectations. He have chosen some good movies but still he being in them doesn't improve movies. Maybe he likes same things as I do and is biggest name to pick certain kind of scifi movies.
I wish he would improve his acting and lose the controlled style. He can pick good stories. Without his controlled style those movies could be really good ones.
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