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.