New plans for year 2015

New year brings some changes to this blog and YouTube channel. Biggest change is that Kvesti on Movies and Stuff show will be renamed to Kvesti on Movies and it will become bi-weekly show. It will still come on Wednesdays. I am not sure what I will do with Wednesdays when there is no Kvesti on Movies. There will be something since I will post something here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Addition to that I comment hot topics when ever I have something to say about them. I started this during December and I will continue it next year. These post will appear randomly. Only schedule I will keep is Monday, Wednesday and Friday schedule.

If all this is not enough you can join to new Kvesti on Movies and Stuff mailing group. It is mailing group where I post weekly updates on this blog and YouTube channel. You can check mailing group from link on left bar.

Videos will have new titles and new look. Look of Kvesti on Movies will change more. It will look more like 5 Minutes videos next year. 5 Minutes videos have had quite artistic effects. I try to give them new more consistent gimmick. At least I will try one gimmick I have had in my mind since beginning.

Last change won't be so visible on this blog. I will make this blog main focus of Kvesti on Movies. YouTube channel will still get love and videos but blog will be main focus. Until this point I gave same focus to YouTube channel and blog. This will be most visible on social media where there won't be as many links to YouTube channel as before.

Happy new year. See you then.

 If you liked the video you can find more videos from here.

Doctor Who: Last Christmas

This year of Doctor Who ended with high note. I had lost hope during season finale. But I liked every moment of this episode. Episode shows that Steven Moffat still has it. Too bad he doesn't have it in every episode.

Way to bring Santa to story was really clever. I think story could have worked without Santa too. But with Santa and Christmas it worked like good Christmas special should. I could nitpick on couple things like how people were in same dream but I don't want to go there.

It was good episode and ended this year with high note. I hope next season starts as good and improves things I didn't like this season.

Another video with dying light. I probably should change batteries more often and not use them until they run out of juice. Due time constraints this video has less effects. It was refreshing to have video rendering in 20 minutes.

This was really hard video to edit. I had to fight with my computer and editing software and it took much more time than I expected. Reason for that was new titles. They use new plugins I have never used before. That made things crashing. Initial settings of editing software and older graphics card with new powerful plugins wasn't winning combination. But now I think I have settings that work. I would have liked to find correct settings some other time than 3 am.

This December was quite Doctor Who heavy. Next week there will be something else. I am not sure what I do with next season of Doctor Who. It depends on how I feel and if I can follow it with the rest of the world.

 If you liked the video you can find more videos from here.

Shorts: The World's End (2013)

Simon Pegg is middle-aged alcoholic Gary King. Gary's high point in life is night when he and four of his friends tried to do Golden Mile, bar tour with twelve different bars. They didn't made it that night. Gary want to try Golden Mile again with other four. Problem is that other four have moved on with their lives and become respectable citizens.

Gary lies other four to get them to come. When they get to their old home town they find something has changed. First they think it is them that has changed. But as night progresses they find out it the town that has changed. Then not only about completing the Golden Mile but making it alive. Less you know before watching better.

Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have good track record of making comedies of movie genres including Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead. This deserves its place on that list. I hope they don't stop with this. This was first time I realized how good actor Simon Pegg really is. He is so good in roles you don't even think he is acting.

I almost did video of this movie because ending was so clever. But I didn't want to spoil it to anyone who haven't seen the movie. Let's just say I really didn't see that coming.

Update on The Interview

The Interview post is becoming most popular post of this new blog as I write. I still think my HBO Nordic rants are more popular if we look the whole time Kvesti on Movie and Stuff has existed.

Kim Jong-un started revolution in western world but it wasn't revolution he expected. The Interview got Christmas release after all. It was released on small theaters and video on demand. Video on demand being the revolutionary thing. This is first time movie size of The Interview has got simultaneous theatrical and video on demand release.

My money would be on video on demand is the future of movies if I had to bet. Large studios have been reluctant to go that way. This time large movie theater chains and Kim Jong-un forced Sony to go that way. But they didn't go all the way. There are still geographical limitations. Movie was released only in US. With all the hype it would have been wise to release it globally.

We get it to Finland in February. There is no official release date yet but original release date was 20th of February and I expect we soon get new date which is close to that if not the same. By that time hype has died and we only remember bad reviews. I might have paid for watching The Interview during this Christmas. In February I might not be as willing to do that, I personally don't want to see it and from this blog's point of view February is too late. I can as well wait until it hits Netflix or ViaPlay.

Why I think video on demand is the future of movies? It removes one gate keeper from movies. Studios and independent artists can release their content by passing movie theaters. Sony released The Interview on it own service and on several other services. If this does well in video on demand, future releases my have simultaneous video on demand releases. I don't think large movie theater chains thought through their decision to not show The Interview. Simultaneous video on demand releases are their worst nightmare and they pushed Sony to do that.

If this starts simultaneous video on demand releases we have to thank Kim Jong-un for that. Without North Korean involvement this wouldn't happened. Studios wouldn't dared to do it because they were too scared of movie theater's reaction. It is funny how things work out sometimes.

Silent Night Deadly Night (1984)

Silent Night Deadly Night is one of those movie that get lot of hate but I like. It is not a great movie but much better than it is said to be. It caused controversy when it was released. It is said because it had killer Santa. But this was not first or last movie with killer Santa. I think reason for controversy was that Silent Night Deadly Night hit too close to some of the viewers.

You see one change in this video. I dropped the half minute title from it. I liked that title but it is taking too much time in fast pace YouTube world and may cause someone to stop watching the video. I heard from few places that long titles are not good thing in YouTube videos. They are things from the past. They may work on television and radio where it is harder to change channel but not on YouTube where you can change the channel with one click.

That is not the only change that will happen to Kvesti on Movies and Stuff videos. More about other changes next week.

Fun fact. YouTube suggested tag "Silent Night, Deadly Night (Film)" for this video but it was too long for YouTube. It was first suggested tag and it was too long.

 If you liked the video you can find more videos from here.

Doctor Who: Death in Heaven

Death in Heaven is last episode of this season of Doctor Who. Episode shows quite clearly what is wrong with Doctor Who at the moment. We should forget almost everything that has happened in previous episode. Doctor Who can't stay consistent over one season. I forget one important inconsistency but I won't go in it because it is major spoiler. I realized it when Steven Moffat tried to explain it like they knew what they were doing. It is terrible that they knew what they were doing and they still did it like they don't care about consistency or that things make sense. It was about Danny and episode Listen.

This is one more video with effect from dying light. This time light didn't die completely. I think I should buy lights with power cords. Batteries doesn't seem to work with me. I can't be aware of everything because I shoot these videos alone. I see these things when I edit videos and then it is too late.

I will do Doctor Who Christmas Special video next week. I am not sure if I can make it by Monday. I see Christmas Special on Sunday evening and I have tight schedule to get it on Monday. If I can't make it by Monday it will come on Tuesday. I try to have it on YouTube on Monday but it might not happen.

 If you liked the video you can find more videos from here.

My thoughts on The Interview controversy

You get another blog post today since both are current topics and I didn't want to postpone either one.

I didn't care about The Interview before this day. I knew there was stupid comedy where they kill Kim Jong-Un. I was not going to see it. Well, now it seems I am not going to see it anyway. It was scheduled to be released on February in Finland. Now it is cancelled here too. If it ever comes available I will might watch it but it is not a big deal for me if I don't see it. I might as well not watch it if it comes available.

My biggest issue with cancelling the finished movie is that is was cancelled because of anonymous threats. It could have been just one person. Same has happened with gamer gate. One person made threats and one gamer gate's victim's speaking event was cancelled. Are we really going into world where anyone can take free speech  from someone else? This will eventually lead to very boring world when no-one can say anything that upsets someone else.

And who do you think are most easily offended? Those whose world view is based on fiction and who can't separate fact from fiction. North Korean situation is like that. They have no rational arguments to support system they have there. They have created fiction about their country and force that fiction upon their citizens with violence. If your power can't be reasoned rationally, violence is only way you can keep your power.

Now Sony showed those people that they can censor art in other countries if they threat enough or get upset enough. Hollywood movies often have American propaganda in them. But we know that is fiction. But that is not the case in North Korea. I can name few other movies where foreign leaders have been killed and those have not caused similar issues. Why now? Is world coming so sensitive that you can't say anything that could upset someone?

As a citizen of small country I can understand how it feels if big country makes movie where you leader is killed. But you can't honestly expect that no-one will make movie where you look bad after you constantly threat with war and act like North Korea has acted.

Shorts: Ascension (2014)

Yesterday I promised reviews from current HBO shows. Well, this is from Syfy but I watched it on HBO Nordic. Does that count?

Ascension is Syfy's six or three part miniseries. It was three part miniseries in HBO Nordic where each episode had two episodes of six part miniseries. I am not familiar with other Syfy miniseries. Compared to Syfy movies this was really ambitious and serious. Almost like from another planet.

Ascension is generation space ship launched from Earth year 1963. After 51 years in space, girl is killed and things start to go wrong. Same time on Earth Ascension project staff tries to keep Ascension secret. No one knows ship was launched.

I liked attempt to keep series realistic and authentic. There are few things that are not that realistic but most of it is realistic and everything looks like in space ship launched during 60's. There are few fighting scenes which could have been left out to keep this more realistic. Fights had realistic reasons and didn't feel like they were there to provide action. This was serious science fictions with few exceptions. Those exceptions come later on series and felt little like easy plot devices. They may matter to someone who wants realistic science fiction but I can live with them.

I kept this spoiler free. I might do spoiler review later where I can go deeper into what I think about the series. If you are into science fiction you should check Ascension. I assume it will get cult following. It is that good and original.

HBO Nordic review

HBO Nordic rants have been most popular posts of this blog. I realized that I have never reviewed the site. Well, I had not tried it before this. Two years ago HBO announced HBO Nordic streaming service which showed HBO shows same time as in United States. People were excited. Service got postponed and Netflix came without hype. They just announced their service was available in here.

When ViaPlay started to promote their service wind was taken from beneath the HBO Nordics wings. Service got postponed even further. When it was available testing required 13 month contract. First month was free. Netflix and ViaPlay had one month trials without any commitment. Service had technical problems which didn't help at all. All this made fans furious.

All this meant that I was not very interested of trying the service. Later HBO Nordic started to give real trial period with out commitment. HBO is known for its quality shows. But it was not HBO's show that got me to try the service. It was third season of Continuum. I will make videos of that show. So no more of that this time.

HBO Nordic is lot like WWE Network. Both are made by content providers that sell their service by their original content. If you want to stream their content you have to use their service. This means services don't pay too much attention to usability. You can watch the content and that is enough. I reviewed WWE Network earlier here.

In HBO Nordic's case this means lack of search function and autoplay of next episode. You have to go through lists and start every episode you watch. You can add episodes to watch list which helps finding shows later but it is still not too convenient. For some reasons episodes in Watch list show episode name but not show's name.

Movie selection is quite terrible. But lets be honest you don't get HBO Nordic because of movies. Service have enough movie that it can tell it has movies. Tv shows are the reason you get HBO Nordic. Tv shows are not limited to HBO's shows. There are also other shows like Continuum and at least Continuum had newer seasons than Netflix had.

I won't go into HBO's shows. Everyone knows Game of Thrones, True Detective and others. Those are what sell HBO Nordic. It is not user experience. I didn't try iPad application which got quite terrible reviews. Website is not done usability in mind and based on reviews iPad application has even more issues.

At the moment I don't know what I will do with HBO Nordic. I probably give it couple months and decide after that. This means that there will be more current HBO show reviews from now on until I cancel my subscription.

Megamind (2010)

After few videos with comic looks we get back to normal looks with Megamind. Megamind is one of DreamWorks Animation's parodies which stopped studio to make parodies. Another was Mosters Vs. Aliens. Both movies are not that bad. They just could have been better. Ideas behind both movies were better than movies. How ever Megamind is best Superman movie I have seen. Superman movies don't study aspects of the character I want to see. It takes parody, copy or alternative universe to go there.

I had fever when I edited this. I could not postpone it anymore. I hope I didn't anything I wanted to cut there. First rendering had same part twice and I had to render it again. Good thing this only took three hours to render instead of seven hours it took for cartoon look videos. This was last of three videos I shot in one session. I shot too bright video. It didn't matter as much in cartoon look. Here you can see more problems. But I think I got it useful. Worst thing was that I had close to perfect lighting and then I turned one light on and that made image too bright. Problem was with camera settings but without that one light settings would have worked.

 If you liked the video you can find more videos from here.

Doctor Who: Dark Water

First part of season finale shows what is wrong with Doctor Who at the moment. We learn who Missy is. But to be honest it was disappointment. Her plan was also quite disappointing and didn't make much sense when you started to think about it. I go deeper into that in video.

You can see some improvement in video quality. I have upgraded my editing software and found some nice new tools. Now I start to get closer to what I want. I still need to learn more but I am getting where I want video quality wise.

I will do Doctor Who Christmas Special on week after Christmas. I am not 100% sure if it will come on Monday. Special is shown in Finland on Sunday evening and it may be too late to get video out on Monday. I will try that. If it doesn't work. I will publish it on Tuesday or switch Kvesti on Movies and Stuff to Monday on that week and 5 Minutes with Kvesti to Wednesday.

If you liked the video you can find more videos from here.

Shorts: Gravity (2013)

George Clooney seem to select serious science fiction movies when he does a genre movie. He was in Solaris(2002) and now in Gravity. Well, you could argue how serious Gravity actually is. It is serious compared to some other movies that fell under scifi banner. But it is not as serious as it could have been or as serious as it tries to look.

Movie tries to look serious scifi movie, but it has too many close calls and characters do too many stupid things for movie to be really serious science fiction movie. But that doesn't make it bad movie. When movie tries to sell itself as realistic, you tend to see even minor flaws. Beginning of this review might sound negative because of that.

Movie itself is great, when you forget, what it tries to be and what it could have been, if it was what it tried to be. Movie looks great. Both actors give good performances. Story keeps you hooked even thought I would have liked more breathers. After all this was marketed as slow pace and realistic movie. You might be disappointed if you expected something like that. If you take it as it comes, you might like the movie.

Mad Max: Fury Road - Official Theatrical Teaser Trailer comments

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior was great movie. Mad Max: Fury Road seem to be remake of it. I knew this was coming but nothing more than that. If it is remake, question is, do we really need remake? What it could do better than the original? Stunts and effects. But is that enough for new movie. Next year we get new Jurassic Park, Terminator, Star Wars and Mad Max. Are studios running out of ideas or are they just playing safe?

I will see all of them at premiere because I have this blog and YouTube channel. Otherwise I really don't know what I would do. I like post apocalyptic movies. So I could see this at cinema.

Tom Hardy looks good as Max. Effect look good and that may be problem. They look good but not realistic. Mad Max 2 was so good because everyone acted realistically. Like they were living in world where bullets and gas were running out. This looks like there is unlimited supply of both.

This is written and directed by George Miller like all other Mad Max movies. Does he still got it or is he going for more mainstream? Are they going for rated R or PG-13?  Is movie really as action packed as trailer makes it look like?

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

I am not biggest fan of Captain America. I still have n't seen the first movie. I skipped this one until it came to streaming services. After I watched this I learned I shouldn't have skipped this. But I am not planning to watch first one any time soon. Maybe if it comes to streaming services. But I don't think it will happen soon. Before anyone says it is Netflix, I have to say it is not on my local Netflix. We have more limited selection than United States.

Another video with comic looks. I like this version more than Daredevil one. There is small change. I will do some changes to next video which uses comic style. This still is not quite what I was after. Rendering these videos will take seven hours and you can't see what video will look like during editing. That is why I can't get exactly what I want but I am getting there.

Next few videos are more traditional looking. I will use this style only if there is connection to comics. I am not sure when next comic related video comes. One is written and one is planned.

If you liked the video you can find more videos from here.

Doctor Who: In the Forest of the Night

It was worst Doctor Who episode this season. Was this episode written for Matt Smith's Doctor? This was more like his Doctor's episode than Peter Capaldi's Doctor's episode. After good science fiction episode we got fairy tale nonsense. I have hard time finding anything good from this episode. I could have gone much longer telling what was wrong with the episode. I kept video this short because I just want to forget the episode ever happened.

This was last episode before two part season finale. I still have two episodes to go of this season. If I don't get to see Doctor Who Christmas Special this Christmas, I will do good last episode before season finale after Christmas. These episodes haven't always been bad ones.

I tried to get unreal fairy tale look on this video. I am not sure if I went too far. But you don't find you limits if you never go too far. My videos start to find their form. I will still be trying different things, but I think my videos will look more artistic than realistic from now on.

If you liked the video you can find more videos from here.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Teaser comments

After I commented Terminator: Genisys trailer, I might as well do same for this even thought I am a week late with this one. I have seen comments on black stormtrooper and new lightsaber but has anyone commented on the droid?

Design may look cool but it has at least couple flaw. One which would be obvious if it was real instead of CGI. How does it stays up when it stands still? It only has one round contact point to ground. It needs to spend resources on balancing unlike designs which have more than one contact points. That one contact point seem to connected to gearing. So any dirt on contact point will go directly to gears of the droid. It won't have long life time on desert where there is sand.

Of course head could flow over the ball. But that would require sophisticated technology. But trailer points to after fall of Roman Empire like scenario where technological improvement has stopped. People can still use old technology but they don't know how it actually works. They may be able to fix machines to some extent but they can't build new one. That would explain whey they are still using  TIE fighters and X-wings.

This scenario makes shot of X-wings flying just above the water quite stupid. You don't risk precious planes if you can avoid it by flying little bit higher. It wouldn't give as cool shot but it would make sense.

I didn't have any problems with black stormtrooper because I didn't think he was stormtrooper. I thought he was someone dressed as stormtrooper because he escaped stormtroopers. Another option could be, if I am correct about the scenario, they don't use clones any more because they don't have the technology any more.

New lightsaber bothered me most. It is based on real sword but I feel they didn't understood reasons behind the original design. Which makes me wonder if they have done fighting scenes or even fight choreocraphy before publishing this trailer. Those side blades, or what ever you want to call them, would be more dangerous to user that opponent. User have to be careful not to hit himself with sideblades which slows him down and limits what he could do.

Sideblades would stop another lightsaber only if it is not hit too close to middle of the lightsaber. If they have thought this design through, lightsaber fights will change. You can fight with that like they fought in prequels. Maybe that is why it is longer. You have to keep the distance to your opponent because you can't be as fast as with regular lightsaber. Now that I think more of it, it could make sense if movie happens in scenario I mentioned earlier. They may have forgotten how to fight like in prequels and had to learn new fighting styles where this design may work.

Shorts: Elektra (2005)

Elekrta is sequel/spin-off to Daredevil (2003). Marvel tried to make Daredevil what superhero movies were supposed to be at the time. With Elektra they tried to make a movie which was more faithful to source material. And it worked.

Jennifer Garner returns as Elektra. In Daredevil she didn't feel like Elektra. Here she feels more like that, but I still think she wasn't best choice for the role. Her face look too nice and clean. She feels like too nice girl to be assassin, who kill unnecessary many people during hits. She is better in this movie than in Daredevil. Here she is assassin, when in Daredevil she was daddy's girl who knew martial arts.

Elektra get strange assignment. She has to go to island and wait for orders. When she gets her orders, she learns she can't kill targets because she knows them too well. She knows others will come to kill them and start to protect the targets. This puts her against another assassin clan.

I remember not liking the magical powers of villains when I saw this first time. Now when I have seen talking raccoon and walking tree on screen villains powers felt more suitable for this kind of movie. Movie is not great. It is entertaining while it lasts but you forget it quite quickly. It is average but good looking assassin movie with ninjas and magical power.

Marvel have thing for female assassins. Avengers' Black Widow, Guardians of the Galaxy's Gamora and Elektra are all assassins. And I can't think of any other female superhero Marvel has brought to screen at the moment.

Terminator Genisys Movie - Official Trailer review

Everything I had heard of this movie has pointed to bad movie. This trailer how ever made me curious to see the movie. It was idea of time travel scenario where past had changed since time traveler had left the future. I don't remember ever seeing anything like it. Now that I think of it, it could make sense. I am curious to see how they do it.

But that is only thing I am curious about. Arnold Schwarzenegger is original Terminator but I am not sure should he be in this movie. I understand young Arnold being there because this rewrites the original movie. But old Arnold felt like he is selling tickets. I take my words back if he is good in this. It could easily happen.

References to previous movies felt bit forced. We have seen T-1000 as bad robot. In this trailer it felt like it did same things as it did in Terminator 2. And it didn't even look better than Terminator 2 version. We didn't see Matt Smith which was little bit of a disappointment.

Out of Jurassic Park, Star Wars: The Force awakens and this, this felt most interesting. It might be the worst. New look on time travelling makes it most interesting. In others I didn't see anything interesting. They will probably be better made movies. But the story means most to me and this has interesting idea.

Daredevil (2003)

I hinted this video might be little different. I updated my video editor and got lots of interesting new tools. I already used this kind of style in channel ad. I took it bit further this time. I probably get back to what channel ad was in future comic related videos. More effects means longer rendering times. This took over eight hours to render.

You read it right. Future comic related videos will have similar look. At least until I got bored with it or get better idea. Other videos will too be more effects from now on.

Backlash was enormous when Ben Affleck was cast as Batman, People remembered how bad he was as Daredevil. Or was he really that bad? I had almost forgotten Daredevil (2003). But was it really that bad or only forgettable? I had to check myself.

I probably should have done right after casting backlash. I was too lazy to search my dvd. Yes, I have Daredevil on dvd. I bought it when I collected superhero movies. These days I rather watch movies from streaming services. When this became available there, I had to check it.

Movie got sequel/spin-off Elektra (2005). I am not 100% sure if I have that on dvd. But it is on streaming service I use and my review of it will be published on next Friday.

If you liked the video you can find more videos from here.

Doctor Who: Flatline

I am trying something new here. I try to schedule post with video that has not been published yet. I had no problems in Wordpress when I did this. On blogger it is not as straight forward. If this works it is quite easy thought. Please don't kill me if it didn't work. I will fix it as soon as I see it doesn't work.

Flatline was my favorite episode of this season. Now I have seen the whole season and I can say that. Flatline showed Doctor Who can be serious science fiction show instead of being fantasy show. This was fact this was second good Doctor Who episode in row. Both written by Jamie Mathieson. I didn't want to butcher the name in video. So in video he is called "same guy".

This was first 5 Minutes with Kvesti episode with proper lighting. First time I had all my lights working same time. This was also first episode with new form. I didn't like far part of close/far "dialog". "Dialog" was ok, but far part didn't work for many reasons. I may bring "dialog" back if I figure out how to make it feel like dialog. Until that, 5 Minutes videos will be like this.

There have been some changes since last post. I had some problems with AdSense application. I did things in wrong order and had to get application accepted hard way. If you have YouTube channel and Blogger blog, create AdSense account for blog. It should work for YouTube too. If you created it for YouTube, it doesn't work for Blogger. I learned that hard way.

Now application is accepted and I can put ads to my blog. I spent long time to get lay out working with ads. I didn't want them to distract reader nor make blog looking ugly. I think I found good compromise. I surely hope there won't be ads with autoplay and loud audio. Please let me know if there is something distracting in ads. I try to figure out how to fix it.

I updated layout quite heavily. Side bars changed places. I think it works better this way. There are now more links on top of post. I added couple new sites there. You might want to check them if you want to see what else I am doing.
If you liked the video you can find more videos from here.

Shorts: G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013)

I wrote two posts how over the top stupid first movie was. This tries to be more serious. It ends up being boring even though it has Bruce Willis and The Rock. Both seem to be in every other action movie. It looked like this was couple days of line reading for Bruce. The Rock gives his average performance. I never thought I will see boring scene with both Bruce Willis and The Rock.

Ray Stevenson was way above the rest. He is one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood. He can really act and he has physique for action movies. He is only reason to watch this movie. Bruce Willis has one good one liner. Rest of the movie is quite boring. Stupid and boring.

Movie starts some time after events of first movie. Everything is as it was at the end of first movie. This time everything is more realistic. Over the top sets are gone. G.I. Joes and Cobras look like real solders. Movie tries to be realistic except few Snake Eyes scenes and ending. The Rock acts serious character as does Bruce Willis. Only one having fun character is Ray Stevenson.

Even though I wrote two ranting posts of first movie, it made right choice going over the top. This tries to be serious and fails. Something like Cobra and Cobra commander can't be taken seriously. This movie has stupidity like first one did, but it is not as entertaining stupidity.

Metropolis (1927)

You give the date two months before the day and then internet stops working couple hours before the video is published. I could have managed with less stress. But all is fine now. Video is there for all to see.

Metropolis has been on the schedule for review since starting the blog. I waited for latest version. I couldn't find it anywhere on blu ray or dvd. I have heard rumors of Finnish release, but I haven't seen it anywhere. Movie is probably not well enough known for big release. Then it was shown on tv and because I have decided to start YouTube channel, I didn't have to think what will be the first movie.

At one point I planned to make this look like black and white silent movie. I decided to make this look like normal video. That could be wrong decision if my idea for next episode works. If it works silent movie looks would have been small thing. If I go for more artistic style, I probably do"director's cut" of this video with silent movie looks.
If you liked the video you can find more videos from here.

Captain America: Civil War name rant - 5 Minutes with Kvesti

Something goes wrong first time, when you don't watch your video in YouTube before publishing it. I had to take original video down and do new mix, render it and upload it. I seem to learn everything hard way. This time my lights worked. First Kvesti on Movies and Stuff video shouldn't have similar problems. I have checked it couple times. It will be published on Wednesday.

When I shot this video, I had not seen previous Captain America movies nor Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Now I have seen Captain America: Winter Solder and first season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I will do a video of Winter Solder. I am not sure about Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. video at the moment. That could happen too. But after seeing those my points still stand. Avengers: Age of Ultron may change something, but no-one has seen that yet.

This will be last non-Doctor Who 5 Minutes with Kvesti video this year.  If I want to catch rest of the world before Doctor Who Christmas Special I have to make all December's 5 Minutes with Kvesti videos Doctor Who videos.
If you liked the video you can find more videos from here.

Shorts: Fast & Furious 6 (2013)

Fast & Furious movies seem to try everything. After first series got two movies that cashed with franchise's name. Movies lacked most important element, because Vin Diesel didn't want to do sequels. He came back to fourth movie, which was good. Fifth movie changed the formula little, but was still entertaining. This movie takes our heroes to world of espionage.

Letty comes back from the dead. She didn't die in fourth movie. She just lost his memory and works for Shaw, who is stealing high tech weapons. Letty on wrong side makes Toretto join forces join forces with Hobbs. This starts hunt for Shaw and mission to save Letty.

Movie moves too far from what Fast & Furious movies were. They still drive fast and do stunts with cars. But Fast & Furious elements feel like they were added later. Deep down this is James Bond like movie, which would have worked better with fewer characters. Fast & Furious gang has become special forces solders. I don't remember them to use guns and have fist fights this much in previous movies.

There is no drama. Nobody questions what they do. They do it because they always help the family. It was like characters didn't have any personality and didn't care about anything. And they could do anything they wanted. There were cool action scenes, but movie felt like calculative movie, which gives audience little of what they want, but doesn't tell anything. Last scene made this movie felt like long trailer for next movie.

First I was excited about next movie. Then I started to think, it will probably be another Fast & Furious movie cashing on franchise's name. Just like this movie.

Doctor Who: Mummy on the Orient Express - 5 Minutes with Kvesti

Another dark video. Next week I will have brighter videos. Then I probably get back making darker 5 Minutes with Kvesti videos. Not as this dark thought. I didn't realize how dark it would be when I shot it. This was second video with dying light.

This is first video with music. All videos from now on will have music. I will do more music, every video will not have same music. But before that you will hear same music more often.

From next week on my 5 Minutes with Kvesti videos will be published on Mondays. Wednesdays will have Kvesti on Movies and Stuff videos.
If you liked the video you can find more videos from here.

Enough of blogging and YouTubing posts

...After this one. Next Monday will be first Monday to have 5 Minutes with Kvesti episode. Next week's Wednesday will have first Kvesti on Movies and Stuff episode. Then you will see why I started my YouTube channel and what is my vision of YouTube video.

Well. To be honest you will see part of  that on next Wednesday when next 5 Minutes with Kvesti is published. Original plan was to continue with 5 Minutes with Kvesti as they were until first episode of Kvesti on Movies and Stuff. But why hold 5 Minutes with Kvesti back only to make first episode of Kvesti on Movies and Stuff to look better.

Wednesday's video won't be in new format of 5 Minutes with Kvesti. It is hybrid between old and new formats. I am so excited put it on the net. It might blow your mind, since I am going to territory I don't remember anyone gone before. At least that far. 5 Minutes with Kvesti has evolved quite far from original idea of putting camera on and ranting in living room. Now it is more artistic. You will see that on Wednesday.

My blog here at blogger is now one month old. This should mean that popular posts of month and all time should give different posts from now on. I am still wondering how much penalty I got from taking new domain. I have changed my blog's address twice in a month. Should have taken the domain name same time as I changed the platform.

I have got few hits from search engines, but not as much as I did in Wordpress. Maybe that will return to normal in future.

Shorts: Invasion U.S.A. (1985)

It is stupid. Story makes no sense. Acting is bad. But it is one of the best 80's action movies. If you wonder, where all the Chuck Norris jokes come from, you should check this movie. It has explosions, car chase and Chuck Norris shooting two machine guns same time. What more could you want? Consistency? Things to make sense? You won't get that.

Movie tells about Soviet guerrilla invasion to USA. It isn't told it was Soviet invasion, leaders' names imply that. Chuck Norris is Matt Hunter, former agent, who just want to leave spying world behind. He can't because his nemesis Mikhail Rostov is leading guerrilla invasion. Rostov attacks Hunter's home before the guerrilla invasion. Hunter's friend dies in attack and Hunter wants revenge. Nobody but Hunter can stop the invasion.

I could nitpick for ages how inconsistent the story is. But that is not the point. This doesn't try to be realistic or make sense. This is series of scenes giving audience what they want to see. Movie doesn't spend too much time showing aftermath of violence. If it shows explosion, it shows the explosion and then cuts the next scene before debris hit the ground. It feels like genius cutting. When Matt Hunter drives the street, where everyone hates him and his car, we see how lonely he is, trying to save people who hate him. He just don't care, if they hate him. Does that hating make sense? No, but it tells us something and shows how lonely Matt Hunter is and how little he cares.

Invasion U.S.A. is prime example of 80's action movies. Cool one-liners, lone hero and bad guys are evil. Another guerrilla leader Nikko seem to have second thought of what they are doing, but Rostov is one dimensional and evil for both of them.

Interstellar - 5 Minutes with Kvesti

So I joined the Interstellar hype. I don't feel like it is the greatest movie ever made. It good, but not that good. In video I tell what I think about the movie. This video is spoiler free. My opinion is, you should see this movie as unspoiled as possible. I still haven't seen the trailer for the movie. I will do spoiler video after movie is released on home media.

I shot three videos same time for a first time and I had some problems with lights. One light was out of power and other died during shooting videos. Next week's video has same dying light. I changed batteries for third video. I liked this darker look so much I might do something similar in future videos.

This and next two 5 Minutes with Kvesti might be last with this format. They are last before first episode of Kvesti on Movies and Stuff. After that I will take these videos closer to what Kvesti on Movies and Stuff will be. Original plan was to have these as totally different shows, but now when I have done few of these and one Kvesti on Movies and Stuff episode, I feel original plan wasn't that good. Shows will be different, but not as much as original plan was.

Next week's video is another Doctor Who video.
If you liked the video you can find more videos from here.

Making bad decisions and few words of Interstellar

Ever since I started to take this blog and YouTube thing seriously, I have realized how many bad decisions I have made since I started this blog. I should have chosen Blogger instead of Wordpress and have domain name from get go.

I continue to make bad decision. I decided to value consistency over few hits I could get by publishing Interstellar video couple days earlier. 5 Minutes with Kvesti videos will be published on Mondays in future. But publishing one now on Monday would be confusing. This costs me few hits, but that's how I roll.

Talking about Interstellar. I have before mentioned over 6 minute video coming on Wednesday. To me movie felt like 2 hours of masterpiece in 3 hour movie. I would have made it shorter and changed few things. You should see it unspoiled. Less you know the better. If you liked 2001: A Space Odyssey, you probably like Interstellar. If you hated 2001: A Space Odyssey, you could have issues with Interstellar. Interstellar is more commercial that 2001: A Space Odyssey, but they have similar spirit.

Talking about decisions. I need to make a decision, should I buy new microphone or change format of my 5 Minutes with Kvesti videos. Current format of close and far shots give possibility to do dialog, but it is demanding for microphone and I need to do some mixing magic to make it sound usable. On far shots I am too far from microphone and that has an effect on audio quality. I don't have to worry about image, because my camera has working autofocus. Audio is different thing. I have three weeks to decide what I will do. I hope I don't make another bad decision.

First episode of Kvesti on Movies and stuff is shot and cut. It still need some mixing and editing. It is on schedule to be published on 26.11.2016. Then you will see why I started my YouTube channel.

Quick update

So I became real, serious blogger and bought domain name for this blog. I thought it would have been bigger deal. But it was so easy I should have done it earlier. Other thing I wanted to tell you is, I joined Bloglovin and you can follow this blog there too. You can use this link: Follow my blog with Bloglovin. Or from left side bar.

Shorts: The Toxic Avenger part 2 (1989)

You pretty much know what you are getting when you go to see The Toxic Avenger movie. Splatter and exploitation comedy with warm touch. I saw cut version of The Toxic Avenger. This certainly wasn't cut. I don't know how much further this sequel went. If you liked first movie, you will probably like this movie too. This time there is no need for origin story and we get Toxic Avenger right from get go.

After first movie Tromaville is with out crime and people dance on the streets. But that is not good for evil corporation Apocalypse Inc. After their first attack fails Apocalypse Inc. makes a plan to send Toxic Avenger to Japan to look for his father. In Japan they have chemicals that take away Toxic Avengers powers. Toxic Avenger goes to Tokyo, where he fights local gangsters.

Most hilarious thing in this movie was Lloyd Kaufman's "live broadcast" for [insert film festival's name] in [insert name of  the place where film festival is held]. That was funny at begin but felt too long by the end. That it problem of this movie too. Everything felt too long. Jokes would have worked better shorter. I liked this more than first movie even thought I wasn't feeling too good when I saw this.

Doctor Who: Kill The Moon - 5 Minutes with Kvesti

I don't even want to know, why we had mid-season break in Finland. I would only make me angry. Break is over and I can continue to review Doctor Who episodes. I won't do these reviews weekly. For example next week's video will be about Interstellar. These videos speculate episodes without knowledge of what happens later. If you are watching episode for a first time you can watch video after watching the episode to hear my thoughts of the episode.

This video is first with my new light and last to be shot on weekday evening. This is also last video I did with write-shoot-edit-repeat formula. I changed to to write x episodes - shoot y episodes - edit episodes when I have time or I need to have episode finished cycle. This should save some time and give better episodes. Kvesti on Movies and Stuff will always be about older topics. I doesn't matter when I shoot the episodes. 5 Minutes with Kvesti have more current topics, but not every week.

Hope you liked this week's video. Next week it will be about Interstellar.
If you liked the video you can find more videos from here.

Shorts: Abraham Lincoln - Vampire Hunter (2012)

So, this thing exists.Story of Abraham Lincoln with vampires. I don't know the source material. It might be what this movie should be. Less serious. Movie is in troubles when it mixes vampires with real life of Abraham Lincoln. Real Lincoln's law studies and career in politics didn't made sense for vampire hunter. Like he just decided pursue career in politics for no real reason. It was in movie because real Lincoln did that. Vampire Hunter Lincoln wouldn't have done that.

When you see name Abraham Lincoln - Vampire Hunter, you expect something insane. You will be disappointed. Movie tries to be serious action movie and keep it's characters relatively historically accurate. You shouldn't do it with this kind of movie. It should be funny and over the top. It feel weird to see character fighting vampires with axe when same character tries to look historically accurate politician in other scenes.

I don't know who this movie was made for. Maybe idea was good, but it didn't work on big screen. Vampire Hunter without Abraham Lincoln would have worked better. That was more interesting story. When it came to real Lincoln, movie got boring.

Upcoming Marvel movies

Marvel announced their upcoming movies last Tuesday. I won't do video about them like I did with DC movies. I think that DC video didn't work and Marvel video wouldn't work for same reasons. It would only be list of movies and I wouldn't have much to say about most of them. So I would write this post instead.

Announced movies are

- Captain America: Civil War 2016
- Doctor Strange 2016
- Guardians of the Galaxy 2  2017
- Thor: Ragnarok 2017
- Black Panther 2017
- Avengers: Infinity War - Part 1 2018
- Captain Marvel 2018
- Inhumans 2018
- Avengers: Infinity War - Part 2 2019

I will do video of Captain America: Civil War. That is the movie I have most to say. Movie probably won't follow the comic. More about that in video that come within few weeks.

Doctor Strange movie has been rumored for some time. This is probably his introduction for Infinity War. He had role in Infinity Gauntlet story on which Infinity War is based on. This movie will probably introduce fifth Infinity Stone. My guess is fourth Infinity stone is Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was already introduced in first movie's end credits. This will probably have sixth and last Infinity stone. That would make Thor: Ragnarok the movie in which Thanos collects all six Infinity Stones. If only five Infinity stones have been introduced before this, sixth will be introduced in this movie.Name would suggest, this will have sixth Infinity stone.

Black Panther movie will probably be outside of Infinity War continuity. I can't say much about this.

Avengers: Infinity War is divided into two parts. It will have Infinity Gauntlet story which have been build in many movies. My guess is Captain Marvel and Inhumans movies will be connected to Infinity War story somehow.

These movies are what we expected. Most notable thing in this list are absentees. No Black Widow nor Hulk movies. There have been speculation lists with Hulk: Planet Hulk in them. I didn't believe them to do that story. But those lists had Captain America: Civil War and Thor: Ragnarok. Is Hulk movie still coming or was it planned at some point? And why not Black Widow movie?

Riddick (Extented Cut) - 5 Minutes with Kvesti

Second video is dark as its topic. Maybe too dark. I aimed to get Gibarian at space station on Solaris (2002) feeling to close shots. I am not sure if it works. I had problems with lights while shooting this. I had to do this with only one light and use that light creatively.

I have wondered why they had different ending in extended cut. I felt it was good topic for a video. I hope you enjoy it too. I like all Riddick movies. I want to see more of them. I wish they didn't put themselves in to corner with extended cut ending.

To other topics. Marvel announce their upcoming movies yesterday. For a ten minutes I though of making video of it. But I have next two weeks videos planned and I don't want to postpone either one. So I will write blog post of announcement. Post will be published on Friday and Friday's short review will be postponed to Monday. I will do one video on upcoming Marvel movies, but it won't be next two weeks and not about every movie. More about that on Friday.
If you liked the video you can find more videos from here.

One month to 26th of November

...And first episode of Kvesti on Movies and Stuff. My original schedule was to have first episode ready by now. It was also a plan to make that before first episode of 5 Minutes with Kvesti. That is already online and second episode is done and scheduled to be published next Wednesday.

Well... I haven't started to make first episode yet. I have some assets ready, but writing and shooting haven't started. But I don't think that will be problem. 5 Minutes with Kvesti episodes have taught me a lot of video making. There is still one month to go. There is still plenty of time. I have formula planned and next two weeks I can use for first episode.

Original plan was both shows to have weekly schedule. At the moment I am not sure if Kvesti on Movies and Stuff will have weekly of bi-weekly schedule. 5 Minutes with Kvesti will be weekly show. Having Kvesti on Movies and Stuff on weekly schedule might be too time consuming: 5 Minutes with Kvesti currently takes more time than I expected. Kvesti on Movies and Stuff is more ambitious than 5 Minutes with Kvesti. I try to have original background music and some sort of graphics. And it will be longer. That will take more time.

I started this project month ago and it seems to be going well at the moment. First episode of Kvesti on Movies and Stuff will be out 26th of November. What I didn't plan was my new online presence. Kvesti on Movies and Stuff is on Facebook, Google+, Tumblr and YouTube. First two are for sharing links at the moment. Tumblr will be for Q&A, behind the Scenes stuff and trailers. I have dropped trailers from this blog. If you want to see trailers, you should follow me on Tumblr. I put links to my blog posts and YouTube videos there too, but I will have original content for that site too.

Then there is my personal Twitter account, which will have all the above and more. You can find links to everywhere on top of this post or at sidebar.

I have started to write short spoiler free reviews. You can expect them on Fridays. If I will write more of them, I will publish them on other days too. First of those came last Friday.

If you want to help me on this project, subscribe my pages and like/share my posts and videos. That will help me get better positions in searches. By changing from Wordpress to here, I lost my blogs positions in search engines. Well, I still have them, but they point to old blog and I will lose them after search engines can't crawl old blog.

Shorts: R.I.P.D. (2013)

Take Men in Black. Change aliens to dead. Tommy Lee Jones to Jeff Bridges. Will Smith to Ryan Reynolds. Make it less funny. And you pretty much got R.I.P.D. Ryan Reynolds is cop, who was killed by his partner. He is recruited to Rest In Peace Department. Jeff Bridges is his wild west sheriff partner. They hunt dead, who have stayed among the living.

Movie feels like cheap copy of first Men in Black. R.I.P.D is like Men in Black's agency. Dead turn in to monsters that look like Men in Black's aliens. Main characters are like alternative reality versions of agent J and agent K There are references to scifi classics like Blade Runner. How ever I would have preferred not to have that reference.

Worth checking if you want to see something similar to Men in Black. It is not good. Only average. But if you want something like that, you could make worse choices.

Upcoming DC Movies - 5 Minutes with Kvesti

Finally, the first episode of 5 Minutes with Kvesti. There are few things I will do differently next time. If I didn't set deadline and wasn't this lazy I might have shot this again. Next week you will see what those things are. There will be little changes.

Originally this topic was schedule for second episode. But then Warner bros announced their pipeline for DC Superhero movies and I couldn't rant how they don't have a plan. My plan was to add Amazing Spider-Man movies to same rant. Maybe that movie series will get own rant video when we hear more what Sony is planning t do.

Original topic for first video will be topic of next week's video. It is not as hot click bait. For this I couldn't wait for a another week.

...and, yes, that is Harley Quinn t-shirt.
If you liked the video you can find more videos from here.

Building My Online Empire

Kvesti on Movies and Stuff just landed to Tumblr. You can find it from http://kvestionmovies.tumblr.com/. Currently it is just place to share my YouTube videos and Blogger blog  posts. In future I may find better your for it. Feel free to follow me there too. Twitter is best place to follow me if you want to get all things I create.

I might start to write short reviews. After seeing how much hits this blog gets I got inspired to write more. Videos will get highest priority, but if there I a movie I like to review, which won't get video review, it will get blog post here.

Hardest thing in blogging platform change seems to be waiting blog be added to search engines. And of course losing all the links to site previous platform. I am eager to see how much traffic search engines bring to this site. Neither Google or Bing has indexed this blog yet. I don't remember how long it took with original blog. Funny thing is, links to this blog on appear in search results, but blog itself doesn't.

I hope it is not flagged as spam. One reason I wrote this is to get original content, not just copies from original blog. I hid original blog from search engines, but they still remember it.

I have had three posts about blogging. Next Wednesday is the publishing date of my first real YouTube video. I don't count teaser or trailer as such. Then this blog gets back to what it should be.

Few words considering move from Wordpress to Blogger

My biggest surprise is statistics. This blog has already surpassed my Wordpress blog's this week's hit count. This blog has been online less than a day and no search engine finds it at the moment. Wordpress blog has been online almost two years and it is on search engines.

I suspected Wordpress statistics doesn't work. This clearly show I was right. First I suspected it when I started to get more likes than views. Then there was that one time after which views dropped to fraction of what they were before. How much harder it would have been to change platform if I knew real view count which is ten or more times of what was shown to me. How much more motivated I would have been to write new posts?

I only have few links in tweets for this blog and it gets more hits than my Wordpress blog. I can actually see the change when I am doing something. I had similar links in Twitter for Wordpress blog, but I didn't see any change there. Like less than every 10th hit counts as a hit in Wordpress.

One thing is better in Wordpress. Adding media is so simple that it could be easily abused. I could add YouTube videos that weren't published yet. I haven't found way to do that here yet. This is much more sophisticated and that kind of functionality is not available. I can't share scheduled videos from YouTube or give url of scheduled video here. At the moment I can't test different things since importing over 300 blog posts here has tagged me as "non-human", machine, bot or something like that.

If there is easy way to do that, I would like to know it. My goal was to post videos here soon after they we published in YouTube. That would be easiest if I could schedule posts which contain scheduled videos. I would also like to know how to be recognized as human by Blogger.

Welcome to Kvesti on Movies and Stuff on Blogger

You may know this blog from Wordpress. Old posts are still there, but blog has now moved to here and all new posts will come here. Most old posts are here too. Most because export-conversion-import wasn't kind for videos in posts. I have removed all posts containing trailers. All they had was embedded trailer and you can find trailers from YouTube if you want to see them.

Future of this blog is explained in older post.. They were written for Wordpress, but apply to Blogger too. First real video is coming next Wednesday. It will also be posted here.

Sorry for inconvenience for all of my Wordpress followers. I explained my reasons for this move in Wordpress. That post is not here. You can read it here.

Welcome to new home of Kvesti on Movies and Stuff blog. I hope you enjoy it here too.

Announcement

Usually I post trailer for next Monday's post at this time. Not this time. Now I have an announcement to make. From next week on I stop writing reviews and go to video mode. First real video is coming next Wednesday. It is almost done. Still need to do something for the audio and then render the whole thing.

Video will come here too, but it will be first on my YouTube channel. I schedule my posts and I got to have some tolerance to have video definitely online when I post it here. At the moment I am not sure what I will do with remaining Doctor Who episodes. I might make videos of them or write posts. I won't be able to make videos of then next Wednesday after they are shown in Finland. But I would be behind of rest of the world anyway, so I might have videos one and half week after episode is shown in Finland.

At the moment I am not sure what will happen after 26th of November. Original plan was to have two videos per week after that. But my vlog style show has changed into more time consuming version. I try to get it closer to vlog type of thing in future. When I get there is still open. Anyway there will be at least one real video every week from next week onward.

Don't expect too much from first video. It is kind of demo or pilot. It did many things hard way and somethings wrong way. If I had more time I would probably do it again. By not having time to do it all again, you get that future curiosity. Link to my YouTube channel is below. You can subscribe already to get the video when it comes out.

Check my Twitter too. I have activated there and you can follow my YouTube channel adventures more real time there. Current plan is to make this sort of video and general commentation blog. What is too long for Twitter will end up here.

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You can also find me from Twitter and YouTube.

Star Trek: The Conscience of the King (1966)

SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils Star Trek episode The Conscience of the King (1966)

I promised to do this on Doctor Who: A Town called Mercy post. While watching this episode, I realized how much I had forgotten of it. I didn't say anything incorrect in that post. Point just wasn't as clear as I remembered, but it was there.

This is from first season of original Star Trek. Things haven't yet locked and characters weren't what we are used to. Captain Kirk and Doctor Bones looked really bad in this episode. Bones was drinking during shift and Kirk acted like terrible leader. This has one of few Uhura's musical numbers. There was one other in other episode. I don't remember if there were more of them. Uhura's role was later reduced into point Nichelle Nichols almost left the series after first season. But Martin Luther King talked her into staying. One of those things which show how important show original Star Trek was.

Episode is detective story of finding out if a travelling actor is really governor Kodos, who killer half of 8000 member colony. That happened twenty years ago. Only nine persons actually saw Kodos and are able to recognize Kodos. I am not getting into problem of how 3991 survivors never saw their governor. It was never explained, but it is not important here. Kirk is one of these people, who saw Kodos. Others have died while the actor was near.

Episode doesn't keep mystery mysterious very long. Kirk isn't sure, but everyone else and evidence are sure. I remembered good man doing bad things angle was more clear. Everyone except Kodos seems to think he is evil. They just see 4000 dead people. Colony had disaster and people were doomed. Kodos made decision to kill half of the colony to give other half change to survive. How ever salvation ships came earlier than they expected and killing of half of the colony was unnecessary. If salvation ships came when they expected them to come Kodos would have been hero. At least he thinks that. No one else seems to think so. No one else haven't had situations, where they had to make similar decisions.

A Town Called Mercy reminded me of this episode. After seeing this I have to say  A Town Called Mercy studied the theme better. Here only Kodos understands his decision and his reasons to make the decision. Others, Kirk included, only see him as killer of 4000.

At time of shooting Star Trek hadn't yet stabilized its form. This felt like it was more individual story than part of Star Trek continuation. It gave characters history that didn't feel correct. Events of the colony happened 20 years ago.  Kirk and another crew member, who was there, felt too young. I mentioned 9 persons who had seen Kodos. Crew member was really young during events of the colony. How he had seen Kodos when 3991 other survivors had not?

Episode was quite uneven. Kodos story was interesting. There were too much scenes which just added the length. I remembered this to be much better. I only remembered Kodos and couple scenes. It has flaws, but it is still good episode. I watched HD version of this episode. CGI Enterprise didn't feel right, Why they didn't use original effects? Other scenes looked great thought.

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You can also find me from Twitter and YouTube.

The Salt of the Earth (2014)

The Salt of the Earth is documentary about photographer Sebastião Salgado. I chose to see this because I wanted to see something on Sunday and as a photographer this felt interesting. I made good choice. I was bit disappointed because movie showed, what a documentary about photographer could be, but then turned out to be more of a normal documentary. Movie started with powerful black and white  Sebastião Salgado's photographs. Sebastião Salgado told about shown photographs. We only saw his film noir like lighted face. When there were moving pictures, camera stood still, no zooming. Shot was framed like photograph and people moved in shot. Just like in street photography you frame the picture and wait for perfect moment to take a photo. Sometimes you frame the shot in you mind and wait for someone to walk into your frame. First minutes of the movie felt like perfect photography movie.

But it was not to be. After few minutes movie got colors and cameras started to move. Picture quality started to vary from sharp to VHS tape. I would have been perfectly happy listening Sebastião Salgado talking about his photos for whole movie. Movie had two directors, Wim Wenders and Sebastião Salgado's son Juliano Ribeiro Salgado. It felt like Wim Wenders was making art movie with professional gear and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado was making low/no budget documentary. This made movie feel uneven. Juliano Ribeiro Salgado's parts had their moments, but he never got to level of Wim Wenders. Movie was uneven, but was held together by Sebastião Salgado's powerful photos.

Sebastião Salgado is photographer, who started as social photographer. His first major project was photographing people around South America. From there he slowly by steadily went to edgier and darker subjects ending up to photograph genocide in Rwanda. Movie follows Sebastião Salgado's journey as he lose his faith in humanity in Rwanda and how he become nature photographer and find new hope preserving nature and showing wonders of nature to others. Sebastião Salgado's photos make this one of most effective movie I have seen. There are photos of real dead people. It is not like fiction where you know it is not real. These things really happened. It is more powerful this way than seeing it in television.  Sebastião Salgado's photos take these things to personal level.

Movie leaves us with positive note telling how Sebastião Salgado and his siblings have resurrected forest around his fathers farm and showing us his pictures of beauty on nature. I don't remember seeing so many people staying to watch end credits as I did with this. Marvel movies are exception because we know there is end credit scene. With this movie there was nothing like that. We just wanted to get the whole experience.

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You can also find me from Twitter and YouTube.

YouTube channel update

That mysteriuos short video means I have started YouTube channel for Kvesti on Movies and Stuff. It will have two shows. Main show "Kvesti on Movies and Stuff" will be what I have done here, but on video form. I will put more effort on that. Another show "5 minutes with Kvesti" will be more of a vlog type thing. Turn on the camera and talk type of thing. "Kvesti on Movies and Stuff" will start at 26.11.2014. It is Wednesday. When I set the date I planned to do only one show for channel. It may change to Thursday now that I plan to do two shows, but first show will be 26.11.2014. Date was set to be second anniversary of this blog. Plan is to start "5 Minutes with Kvesti" by end of this month. It depends how ready first episode on "Kvesti on Movies and Stuff" is by then.

So why go to YouTube? It felt like good idea at the time. I was thinking what I will do with this blog after second anniversary. This haven't become as popular as I hoped. I watched around my flat and realized that I have almost everything I need to start to shoot videos. I have photography equipment capable of shooting decent video. Some youtubers get great results with similar gear. I have good enough music gear to make my own music and video editing software. With little investment I could have everything I need. Many years ago I had own radio show at local radio station. YouTube channel is not too big leap from that. So I only had to make a decision to start.

On YouTube channel I can combine three things I like: movies, photography and music. Photographers seem to have best looking YouTube videos. I hope that works for me too. So far I have tested my gear to be sure everything is good enough. I am currently making title/theme/intro/what-you-wanna-call-it for "Kvesti on Movies and Stuff". Next weekend I start to do first episode. It may take two weeks to finish since I have learn many things and make decisions what kind of show it will be. After it is done I will start to make "5 Minutes with Kvesti" and second episode. I hope to have some backlog and routine when 26.11.2014 comes. Currently I feel like I have realistic time line. At least if I postpone more time consuming ideas.

What will happen to this blog? I will publish my videos here too. But I don't know for how long. Review posts will stop after I start to publish videos. I may cut down review posts even before that. I don't know how well I can do reviews in two different formats at same time. I can't review same movies. This blog may become more of forum for status updates and quick comments. What will eventually happen depends how popular this is compared to YouTube channel. It is always possible I found YouTube channel to be too time consuming for what I get from it and get back here and continue this blog as it was. At this time it felt like right time to give YouTube channel a shot.

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Doctor Who - It was fun while it lasted

Next Thursday won't be Doctor Who Thursday. For my great disappointment YLE has put Doctor Who on hold for few weeks. I will get back to Doctor Who when YLE start to show latest season again at the end of October. Next Thursday I will tell you my plans for my new YouTube channel, how things are going and what you can expect to see here in near future. I promised to do one Star Trek episode. I will do that next week.

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Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno (2014) & The Legend Ends (2014)

Original names are Rurôni Kenshin: Kyôto Taika-hen and Rurôni Kenshin: Densetsu no Saigo-hen. Movies are sequels to Rurouni Kenshin (2012). Movies are more like a two part movie than two separate movies. They were shot at same time and released month apart. Movies are based on manga series. I haven't seen the first movie. I didn't feel I was missing anything. Beginning of third movie felt strange because of that, but everything important was told later.

I saw these movies day after The Suspect. The Suspect felt too long and before seeing these five hours in theater didn't feel so good idea. How ever these didn't feel too long. These didn't have similar repetition as The Suspect had. Every scene told something new. In The Suspect there were repeating scenes that only brought little new each time.

Like The Suspect these had good character that grew during the movie. There were no one dimensional characters. Even main villain had understandable motive and you even felt bad for him. Villains could see errors of their ways and turn into good guys. Protagonist Himura Kenshin was former assassin, who had learned his lesson and made oath not to kill anyone anymore. He even carries reverse-blade sword, which is sharp only on back. He only hurts his enemies.

Main villain is Makoto Shishio, who fought for Meiji government, but was betrayed by them after they won the war. He was burned alive, but he survived badly scarred. Now he wanted to take his revenge on those who had betrayed him. He had army, who hated Meiji government as much as he did. In second movie he was clear villain. In third he seemed more of a victim of government and government was not that trustworthy. But you have to have government to have civilized society. Alternative would be survival of the fittest.

Kyoto Inferno is story of enemy army attacking government. Enemy is clearly evil and government is good. Previous enemies join together to fight evil enemy. Movie ends with decoy attack and we don't see fights we expected to see. Ending is like ending of Empire Strikes Back. Heroes are left scattered and villains are still strong.

First hour of The Legend Ends is heroes licking their wounds and building for epic finale. After that we get back to where we left at end of second movie. This movie is not as clear battle between good and evil. This is more of government trying to stay in power acting untrustworthy and dishonorable. Honorable people stay with government because it is better than alternative. In this movie Shishio and his gang seem more human than in second movie. They are still evil, but they have given more human characteristics. They are evil partly because of what government has done to them and they are not completely beyond saving.

This is not scifi or fantasy, but this has the spirit Star Wars prequels should have had. These movies combines grand adventure. great heroes, love story and politics into epic entertaining movie. I sat almost five hours in theater watching these movies back to back. There was ten minutes break between movies. I never felt movies were too long or boring.

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Doctor Who: The Caretaker (2014)

SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils Doctor Who episode The Caretaker (2014).

First to things that annoy me the most in this episode. When Clara said he loved Danny, I didn't believe her. So far she has acted like Danny is only single man around and she has to make this relationship work because she has no other choice. She is too eager to adventure with Doctor and has too much fun with him. Is this bad acting from Jenna Coleman or bad writing? Danny knows Clara is not serious with relationship and has his doubts. Everything has pointed to this direction. It is always weird to see them act like lovers when they normally are like two persons trying to make relationship work because they have no other choice.

Another annoying thing was Doctor complaining about running out of time. Clearly writer doesn't understand the concept of time travel. Doctor can travel in time, do what he needs to do and come back seconds after. He has all the time in the world to do what ever he needs to do. Ponds wanted to leave Doctor because they aged faster than their friends because of all the time travelling. They could travel in time for weeks and be away from our time for few seconds.

Third milder annoyance was how episode expected us to love Clara. Clara had couple "would it be fun if our favorite character did this" scenes. Scenes that didn't make much sense in story's context, but were funny if you loved the character. 11th Doctor had lot of these scenes and they seem to creep into 12th Doctor's run. I don't mean there shouldn't be any funny moments. You see when writers expect you to love the character and don't put enough effort into writing for character. Then you get into "wouldn't it be funny" territory.

This episode made me like Danny. Too bad he was tied to Clara earlier this season. Danny and Doctor together without Clara could be interesting. Doctor with only male companion might be too much for some. Other woman is out of picture because we are told Danny and Clara will have children. Maybe they could have longer in search of Clara story. Doctor and Danny seemed to have chemistry and both are quite dark characters. It could work.

Beginning of the episode felt like Doctor would turn into nice Doctor. I am happy that it didn't happen. Doctor is still grumpy old man and rising in my rankings. I have problems with Clara. She seem to be out of the place this season. She worked better with Matt Smith's Doctor.

We saw Missy again this season. Promised land was tied to Missy's place, what ever it was. Are all those robots in previous episodes seeking for death? So far only dead have got to promised land. Does that mean there is no search for Gallifrey this season? Doctor knew about Gallifrey in 2013 Christmas special. Why he has forgotten it?

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Teaser of things to come

About that big thing I have mentioned couple times. Now I have deadline set for it.

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The Suspect / Yong-eui-ja (2013)

I haven't made up my mind how to name my posts when movie has non-English titles. Posts are in English and Google probably find them better in English. This time there were two movies from 2013 with name The Suspect. That is why I added original name to title.

Rakkautta & Anarkiaa is film festival I usually get most of my yearly dose of Asian movies. Festival has good selection of them and they don't usually get to theaters in Finland. This year I missed couple movies since I was too busy during festival. The Suspect is first Asian movie I saw this year's festival.

Protagonist is Dong-cheul, former North Korean elite agent. He was betrayed and his wife and daughter killed. Now he is in South Korea looking for the killer. I know he told in trailer he was looking for his daughter. That was stupid choice. He will be looking for his daughter after he learns she might still be alive. That was the twist of the movie and you tell it in trailer. The angle was well written and told in couple great scenes.

Movie is 137 minutes long action thriller. There is about 45 minutes too much. Cutting the action and some repetitive  flashback and this would have been good movie. It has lot of good things like interesting characters, good story and some great scenes. There were too much chasing. Flashbacks were repeated with little additions every times. Last time they told something interesting. Until that they only added length. During chase scenes I just waited them to end. The story was much more interesting and I wanted to see it.

Movie had only one clearly bad guy, who used situation between  North and South Korea for his advantage. Other characters had more dimensions in them. Some may seem to be evil at first but may later turn out to have some good in them and be victims of situations. Characters grow during  movie and we see sides of the we don't expect. Good characters give us great scenes. Best moments happen when we anticipate action to start, aftermath of action scene or calm moments during action scenes.

Characters were written well, but same can't be said of main espionage story. At times it felt like that story was put on hold. Like movie itself knew how bad it was and told it only when it had to. Either I missed something important of it or it was stupid. I am not sure what had happened if Dong-cheul's boss wasn't killed. It started the espionage story and made officials chase Dong-cheul.

Why movie had to be so long? It seem like movies have to be over two hours these days even if there is not content for more than one and half hours. This would have made good one and half hour movie if right parts were cut off. I am not against long movies. Next day I sat in theater for five hours watching two part movie and didn't feel it was too long. It depends on movie, if it works longer or not. This didn't. To underline it, movie didn't end at cigarette buying scene. It had couple scenes after that natural ending scene.

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Doctor Who: Time Heist (2014)

SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils Doctor Who episode Time Heist (2014).

The big thing and few other reasons have prevented my from going to Rakkautta & Anarkiaa screenings. I wanted to do few movies from the festival, but I don't seem to make it to screenings. Probably I should have made better plans. I will try to get to couple movies during weekend and write about them here.

Back to topic at hand. Time Heist is first average episode of eight season. Some characters may come back later, but big story line wasn't moved forward. Episode felt too much like Ocean's Eleven. Ocean's gang stole from Las Vegas casino. Doctor's gang from safest bank in the universe. Doctor's gang consists of Doctor, Clara, Psi and Saibra. Saibra is much like X-men's Rogue. When Rogue takes victim's personality and superpowers, Saibra takes victims appearance. They can't control their powers, anyone they touch is their victim. This episode didn't use implications of that power more than couple lines. Those, who know Rogue, know what that kind of power does to you and what story opportunities it gives.

All have wiped their memories. Psi has done that earlier too. He can't remember his past. Others can't remember why they are at the bank or what they are stealing. They only have instructions from architect. Gang tries to understand why they have accepted to do this and what they are doing.

Premise is interesting. Episode could have been better if it was more character driven. Psi and Saibra were interesting characters. Too bad they didn't live up to the premise. Movie focused too much to the job instead of the characters. I think the plan was overly complicated and relayed too much on change and gang to be on correct place at correct time. We were teased of thing later turn out to not being true. It was disappointing to learn the truth.

Episode surely had lot of walking in artistically light corridors, when characters had transporters capable of transporting them anywhere. Sure, corridors looked nice, but they would be very impractical in real life. What really was point of the plan? Memory wipe was to distract telepathic creature, but they could escape from it by teleporting and they could teleport anywhere in the bank. Maybe not to vault, but they could teleport everywhere they needed to be to open the vault door. To underline this, Doctor had left briefcases around bank before they started to job. So why walk and risk getting caught when you can transport?

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Pulp: a Film about Life, Death & Supermarkets (2014)

I saw this at Rakkautta & Anarkiaa film festival. Screening was followed by Q&A with director Florian Habicht, producer Alex Boden and drummer of Pulp Nick Banks.

Movie interviews people in Sheffield before and after the last Pulp concert. Band is interviewed too and there is some music from last concert and albums. But that is not the main point. Director Florian Habicht told his inspiration for movie was not to make regular rock band document like Queen documents he watched as kid. That really shows. Movie is much more art movie than your regular rock band movies. Florian didn't want to do this only for Pulp fans. That was reason why there was less Pulp than you might expect from Pulp movie.

Pulp was always more like art students that rock stars. Lyrics were more intellectual and had more depth than your average rock lyrics. Songs were about common people and their gloomy lives. This movie shows us those people. Movie is almost over the top gloomy and gray. It doesn't show Pulp as successful band. It shows band members as common people, who doesn't want to be on spotlight. Except Jarvis Cocker, who must have so terrible life because he is so well known. He can't do the normal things and that is the worst thing that can happen to you. Then comes last Pulp concert. In the concert everyone can forget their gloomy lives and enjoy the music. But it will end and everyone must get back to their normal lives.

It felt like Pulp members weren't most interesting characters of the movie. Jarvis Cocker was among most interesting, but rest of the band were quite mundane. The kids stole the show. They were only ones wanting to be famous. Older ones knew they shouldn't seek anything more than they are getting. Kids were found when crew went to interview other people. Other people got only ten minutes interview and then crew interviewed the kids for an hour. Florian Habrcht told he felt bad to have scheduled interview so short, but he knew those kids would be on the movie.

Movie is not just for Pulp fans. It is for Pulp fans and people who want to see movies where life is poor, gloomy and grey. Movie has some Pulp music and few Pulp covers by common people. I liked it even when it was bit too gloomy and let the band take back seat.

I already covered few answers from Q&A. Nick told there wouldn't be new Pulp album in near future since making albums is so hard and the band is so lazy. Alex told the last concert was shot and Jarvis Cocker has been interested releasing it, but it is not as easy as pressing the button. He didn't promise anything, but it is not impossible that it will be released. Five song from concert will be as extra material on movie's dvd release. Probably on blu ray too if they release that. They only talked about dvd. Nick told his favorite Pulp concert was Glastonbury 1995, where Pulp was called to head line the show with two weeks warning after The Stone Roses had to cancel. Band was recording their biggest album Different Class at the time. Band was scared to do the show, but it became one of their greatest. It was the first time people heard songs from Different class.

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Doctor Who: Listen (2014)

SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils Doctor Who episode Listen (2014).

Listen is latest entry in Steven Moffat's mission to make Doctor Who fans fear everything. It introduces new race, which reminds Weeping Angels and Silence. Weeping Angels moved when you didn't watch. You forget Silence when you don't see them. New race is so good at hiding, we usually don't realize they are everywhere. All three races live among us, but we don't see them. Is Steven Moffat repeating himself?

New race was just introduced in this episode. We learned almost nothing about then. They were at the end of the world after everyone else had died. What race has to do with big picture? So far we had Missy and robots searching promised land for season's continuity. Will the new race be there too? Based on how this episode left thing open, I guess we will see them again.

Eleventh Doctor had couple as companions. 12th seem to have too. Ponds had awkward moments. Clara and Danny seem to have similar problems. This episode start with failed first date. Then Clara and Doctor go to the past, where Clara talks to young Danny and this makes Danny become solder later. When Clara gets back to today, she goes back to date with Danny.

This time date fails because Clara knows things she learned in past she shouldn't know. If things aren't awkward enough yet, Clara meets her and Danny's great-grandson from the future in same café she had date with Danny.

So first date goes like this. Clara and Danny can't stand each others at first date, but try to endure until Clara leaves. Clara meets young Danny and learn more about him. She goes back to café. This time Danny leaves because Clara knows things she shouldn't know. Clara meets her and Danny's great-grandson, which conforms Clara that she and Danny should  be together. She goes to Danny's place and they become lovers. We saw this from Clara's point of view. How weird it was from Danny's point of view?

I think Steven Moffat should not write romances. He is better with scifi stories. Love story was really weird. Story about new race was much more interesting. Episode didn't have own story. I don't count Clara's and Danny's date as such. Everything was to make bigger story go forward. Clara and Danny become couple and new race was introduced. After this episode I started to fear this season will became a mess like 11th Doctor's seasons. So long we have four different stories for this season.  Each seem to have nothing to do with each others.

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Doctor Who: Season 7 (2012-2013)

SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils Doctor Who: Season 7 (2012-2013).

Let's start with season number. After this season was 50th anniversary episode. So how this could be 7th season. Well, it isn't. It is officially 7th series. 7th season was aired 1970. After relaunch seasons were called series. I don't like that name and I don't remember seeing that used very much. And classic Doctor Who is not sold as seasons. Classic Doctor Who dvds contain only stories. There is one season collection because that story lasted whole season. Everything else doesn't have whole seasons. So that is why I called this 7th season.

This season has 13 episodes and from one to four special episodes depending how you want to count them. Wikipedia counts 2011 Christmas special to this season. Netflix has 2012 Christmas special, 50th Anniversary episode and 2013 Christmas special. For this post I only count 2012 Christmas special to this season. I already wrote about 50th Anniversary episode and 2013 Christmas special.

Season had one great episode, A Town Called Mercy. Two good episodes, Cold War and Hide. Rest of it is just a mess. A Town Called Mercy happens in wild west town. Cold War happens in Soviet submarine and Hide in haunted mansion. Se pattern? These are small episodes with limited space and cast. When sets and casts grow, episodes become messy. Story doesn't stay consistent within episode and sometimes even less with Doctor Who lore. Journey to the Center of the TARDIS (Yes, this is reason Into the Dalek was named Into the Dalek) is groundhog day episode, except we never see Doctor living same events again and again. He just knows what has happened before. Tardis is filled with events from recent past or near future. It is like Clara lives in this moment and Doctor lives in time loop. Episode could be analysed in long post, but I don't think it would make much sense even after that.

The Angels Take Manhattan was end of first part of the season. It was also last episode with Ponds as companions. Amy and Rory had discussed during previous episodes, how they will and should start to live their normal lives. After this episode they had no choice. Too bad, this episode is complete mess on episode's level and Doctor Who lore level. Episode has Weeping Angels and River Song. Both were introduced during 10th Doctor's run. They became more regular during 11th's run. Main characteristic of Weeping Angels is they can't move is someone is watching them. Even if it is another Weeping Angel. When they are watched they turn into statues. They are good for horror episodes. In regular 11th's run fashion they got new characteristics and lost characteristics depending what episode required. To fully analyze this I should watch all Weeping Angel episodes, but I don't think it would be worth it. Let's just say they are different than before in this episode too.

River Song was introduced as character, whose timeline goes different direction than Doctor's timeline. When Doctor meets River first time, it is last time River meets Doctor and so on. River wasn't time traveller.  During 11th run River became time traveller, semi time lordish and daughter of Amy and Rory. I don't know when timeline thing was changed. Since season finale of sixth season she has moved to same direction in time as Doctor. Or at least in this episode. In season finale she was dead and knew how she died. Did I tell 11th's run was just a big mess?

In episode Rory sees his own death, which meant that in his future Weeping Angels send him back in time and he will spend rest of his life in the room he died. To prevent this he decides to kill himself in slight hope it will create paradox killing Weeping Angels and he could survive. He and Amy jump of the building. Paradox happened and both survive. But all Weeping Angels didn't die right away. One touches Rory sending him back in time. Amy follows him and both are time locked from Doctor. Earlier in episode this fed Weeping Angels. So did Weeping Angels die after all? If they did, why one Weeping Angel could touch Rory after Weeping Angels died?

This is getting quite long. Season finale still to come. Second part of season had new companion Clara. We had seen one version of her in season premiere and different in 2012 Christmas special. Small mystery of second part was, who Clara really is. We don't get real answer until season finale. Main villain of season finale is The Great Intelligence. It is has no physical form. It was introduced to Doctor Who 1967 and appeared again 1968. After that next appearance was 2012 Christmas special, then first episode of second part of the season and the season finale. Character wasn't very consistent during this season. It could have been named differently each time and it would have made more sense. Season finale didn't have much of a build up. Previous episode had nothing to do with season finale. Everything was packed in one regular episode.

In season finale The Great Intelligence goes to Doctor's time line killing Doctor many times. This start to change the whole reality. Clara follows The Great Intelligence and become different versions of herself saving different versions of Doctor time and time again. So if Great Intelligence have tried to kill Doctor and Clara has saved Doctor countless times during Doctor's life time, why we haven't seen them more before this season? During this season we only saw Clara saving Doctor, not The Great Intelligence from Doctor's time line trying to kill him. Unless first episode of second half was one, but that didn't have different version of Clara helping Doctor. You shouldn't write stories like this if you don't care about implications. Whole thing just becomes a big mess without real continuity. It is just what 11th run mostly was. A big mess. 50th Anniversary and 2013 Christmas special kept things more consistent. As has beginning of eight season. There is a change Doctor Who will come good again. 11th run only had few good episode in a big mess.

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