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lilytalksmovies · 4 years

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Avatar vs Avengers: Endgame

I know I’m very late in the game when it comes to talking about how Endgame surpassed James Cameron’s Avatar. In fact, I’m a year late. But since this new excitement about Avatar 2, I’ve been brought back to the movie. Since 2017 when I first saw Avatar, I’ve watched it occasionally every few months (or sometimes several times in a month… and one time I watched it twice in one day.) and it has grown to be one of my all time favorite movies.

Surprisingly, I saw Endgame in theaters with a group of friends. Personally, I’m not into too many superhero action movies like Marvel or DC, but there was huge hype over this film after Infinity War, which I actually enjoyed. But, I wasn’t a huge fan of Endgame. I've only seen it two times after watching it in the theaters, and a month ago I tried watching it again after getting Disney Plus, but I couldn’t make it past the beginning.

I know you can’t really compare these two movies since they’re totally different genres of film, so instead of talking about why Avatar is better than Endgame, I’m going to write about the top three reasons Avatar’s a great movie.

1) The setting

The reason why Avatar became one of the highest grossing films in my opinion, is the world of Pandora. The environment is so unique and unreal, it’s incredible. The setting in Avatar makes the movie stand out from other popular films.

When creating the world around the Avatar film, Dr. Jodie S. Holt, the botany consultant for the movie, had the idea that since the forest was so dense, the plants could create their own light. “The idea that there is fairly low light could conceivably allow plants to evolve bioluminescence.”

As many times as you’ve seen the movie, you can always watch it again and still be amazed by the forests of Pandora.

(Avatar directed by James Cameron (2009))

2) Original movie

Unlike some of the highest grossing films like Jurassic World, Star Wars, and of course Avengers: Endgame, Avatar is an original movie. It’s not a sequel or prequel to any existing film. For being only one movie, making the highest grossing film for almost a decade is incredible.

Not only is it original in that sense, but it’s also original when it comes to the actual story. Although it has very similar plot to some older movies, it has details that have never been in film before, such as the incorporation of the tsaheylu (the bond), The Tree of Souls, the Woodsprites and just the overall culture. These details bring the movie way farther than any film has gone before. Instead of having a flat story about an alien race, James Cameron and his team were able to build this never before seen culture that really makes Avatar a great movie.

3) It’s contribution to technology in modern day cinema

Originally, James Cameron wrote Avatar back in 1994 but the technology to make the movie work was not yet ready. So after waiting nearly a decade, in 2005, he started testing. While filming and working with Weta Digital, they created a camera that’s attached to a small boom that captures the face of each actor. This would allow animators to have a closer view to accurately replicate expressions, than the actual motion capture cameras. This same technique would be later used in movies like The Hobbit for Gollum, and Steven Spielberg’s, Tintin. Their work on Avatar proved that motion capture and CGI could be heavily used in movies and still look realistic.

I praise movies that opened up a new path for modern film. Some of the motion pictures we love today could not be possible if it weren’t for some directors to step out of their comfort zone. That’s why I think movies like Jurassic Park and Lord of the Rings are such great films. Steven Spielberg was one of the first directors to use CGI in a movie instead of stop motion animation and The Lord of the Rings was one of the first to use motion capture, which would also be used in Avatar.

(Behind the scenes of Avatar and Avatar 2)

Altogether, Avatar is an amazing movie. The setting and environment are extraordinary, the details in the story make the whole movie unique and unlike any film that has been produced since. And although I have some bias, I think Avatar is better than Avengers: Endgame. I know you can’t really compare the two, but some point in the future, I may do a longer and more detailed post about why it’s better, but in the meantime I’ll be waiting on Avatar 2!

#movie #movies #movie blog #blog #new blog #avatar #james cameron avatar #james cameron #Avangers endgame #endgame

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annoyingthemesong · 5 years

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cinema basically sucks today

Booksmart was so good that it reminded me why I love the cinema: laughing with others, and sharing that experience in front of a big immersive screen, unable to turn the movie on or off, or change the channel or pause or talk over it without somebody telling you to shut up, is a great joy.

It used to be that the movies were split into two main categories- movies that were entertaining, and movies that would challenge you. By that I mean intellectually challenged, and stimulated by artists pushing a form to its fullest. Small films which would never be distributed today like they were in the 90′s and early 00′s, films like Basquiat, Dead Man, Chasing Amy, strange films like Northfork and ballsy visual films like Eternal Sunshine.. Cutting edge American independent cinema. Would Being John Malkovich be possible to make today?

These days cinema has splintered, completely decimated by online viewing habits, shortened attention span, and Netflix’s used car salesman approach to algorithmic taste making. Risks are not taken anymore, except in certain sub-categories which I will list below. Superhero movies are basically holding up the rest of the industry at present moment.

Superhero movies. Have long dominated the market, and people’s attention. For way too long. Hopefully Endgame really means that.

Legacy career holders and craft torch bearers Directors whose careers were established pre-crash, Spielberg, Scorsese, Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson and many others will always be able to make as many films they dream up. Which is a good thing. They are the ones who have held onto the intense craftsmanship-like approach to filmmaking, preferring 35mm to video in many cases, and still pushing boundaries and producing films unlike anybody else. Scorsese and De Palma and those from the prior generations, will only have a few films left in them. I worry about the day that ends.

Legacy career holders and out-of-touchers Let’s face it. Rob Reiner will never make another Harry Meets Sally. Diane Keaton will likely not get another Annie Hall, or even ‘Something’s Gotta Give’. But people like Reiner are still making film after film, albeit with mediocre results, and confused, pointless messages that just feel out of touch. They have their 80′s and 90′s fortunes, and live out their lives in the Hamptons and don’t have much to say of relevance today, just step out every now and then to make a throwaway film and then go back to eating their lobsters.

African American Cinema - The best thing about today’s market is the full appreciation and freedom I have felt watching films made by African Americans. There are some absolute talents who are shining right now- Ryan Coogler, Jordan Peele, Lee Daniels, Boots Riley to name a few. A lot of interesting stories being told here. Spike Lee is back in town too, with Oscar nominations to boot. Are these films really being seen in the cinema? Does it matter? Spike Lee made 100 mil out of a 15 mil budget, and the market is there right now. Black Americans have not in the past been properly represented in Hollywood, and now we are seeing that change. They have stories to tell which feel vital.

The Three Amigos - arguably the most consistently interesting Hollywood directors today belong to the three head hydra of Cuaron / Innaritu and Del Toro. They have won oscar after oscar, deservedly - Children of Men, Bird Man, The Revenant, Gravity and Roma are all perfect films made from pure cinematic awesomeness.

Horror Cinema - A strong market for horror has always been there in some way or another, but only recently have we seen the genre turn mainstream, and the absolute lust people have for horror films, as new talents like Jordan Peele and Ari Aster and reboots like ‘It’ take in luxury money at the box office. Is this good for art? Debatable. I haven’t seen a next level horror film since ‘The Descent’.

Sneak Ins - relatively small films, sometimes by first timers that do genuinely take people by surprise, on a small budget, make bank and jumpstart careers. Films like Booksmart, Whiplash, Fruitvale Station.

Sci Fi / Action Extraordinaire - Sci Fi has taken a hit as superheroes provide a less risky venture for producers, who would rather invest in the lineage of familiar characters and multiverse tie-ins. Challenging, original sci-fi is currently facing a crisis. Avatar 2 will probably take another 8 years despite what Cameron tells us. In the mean-time he pawns off lesser (but still visually awesome) films like Alita, and Spielberg is given free reign to try new things with the disappointing Ready Player One. Occasionally a ‘Gravity’ or ‘Ex Machina’ appears, and makes us believe in the genre again.

Modern action films, I think are terrible so I won’t even get into them.

Sequel Extraordinaire - If you’re tacked onto any franchise, you have a job for a while. From Toy Story to Fast and fucking whatever to Mission Impossible, these guys are in it for the long haul. Can’t wait to see Tom in a wheelchair working those stunts.

Biopic - History can sell.

I probably missed some.

What is noticeable these days is the multitudinous distribution platforms available to an audience. People have more say over what they want to see, so we see more of a catering to niche taste profiles. Only few examples of ‘auteur’ have emerged over the last decade.

Films will always have the power to move and sway and shock and awe. The question is, will the rigorous theater-designed craft survive the made-for small screen push.. And will people be able to experience cinema the way they used to? Do people care for small films anymore, dramas, atmospheric films, even comedies in theaters? Or have entire genres largely migrated to Netflix, HBO or Amazon series format.

Just some thoughts...

#cinema #films #indie film #movies #netflix #sucks #booksmart

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raifuujin · 6 years

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MK Treasured Edition Commentary

From here, here, and here.

Volume 1

Hello, it's me, Aoyama.

In the course of the republication of Magic Kaito I take the liberty to show my memories of this time straightforwardly. (grin)

The Revived Phantom Thief The memorable first chapter! Actually I became a Mangaka because I wanted to write about a high school phantom (grin) and so I drew it under great tension! Well and back then I was short of money which is the reason why his hatband around his tophat isn't shaded with screen tone…

The Police Are Everywhere The original title „Keikan ga ippai” referred to a movie... „Taiyou ga ippai”, a movie with Alain Delon („Purple Noon”). Detective Doron is an allusion, too, because „Delon” is written as „Doron” in Japan. (grin) By the way! The words „When you bend them, they...” Kaito announces the light-emitting diode were literally written on the package of one of those things I purchased on a public festival as a kid. (grin) Appearantly they're actually known as „glow stick”.

The Clockwork Heart A science-fiction-thriller! A rarity for Kaito (grin). I recall that I perceived it as really exhausting to draw all the parts of the robot and that I had no computer, so that I had to write Kaito's farewell letter by hand (Haha!). By the way! In the panel the robot says „I'm Kuroba Kaito... Haha!!” Kaito's pupils look kinda strange (?). There I mimicked Akemi Matsunae of which I was a big fan back then. (grin)

Kaitou Kid's Busy Day Off Back then, the 3D movie „Captain EO” starring Michael Jackson was being played in cinemas and has been satirized in this chapter, although I never thought 3D movies could have been revived because of „Avatar”... (grin) By the way! When I read the closing scene today I think that the phrase „But, ice cream... still tastes great!” is my most embarrassing quote ever (grin).

The Pirate Ship Unsurfaced A sea adventure with Kaito? This is a rarity, too! (grin) I can't remember at all why I wanted to draw this story, but maybe I wanted a confrontation between a thief from the mainland and a thief of the seas...? (Ha!) Well, and so Kaito brought his costume of Kaitou Kid even to this place...?! (grin)

The Scarlet Temptress There she is! Mistress Akako! To be honest, she, as practitioner of black magic, is the reason who drove me into the corner the most during Kaitos appearances in Conan. Well, you just have to accept these works as parallel universes. (grin) By the way, Kaito Kuroba is written on the handkerchief, this probably was a prank done by his mom (Chikage)... (grin)

Aoyama Kid ♥

Volume 2

Stay Away From Him Although it's more of a romantic tale than a thief story I really like this one ♥ Especially the panel with „Well, excuse me for being an idiot...“ is a real gem, because of how often I had to redraw it! (laughs) Additionally, Superman and Top Gun appear... which is according to my taste! It's also revealed in this story that Aoko is flat-chested. (laughs)

Japan's Most Irresponsible Prime Minister A story I used one of my then-favourite actors Hitoshi Ueki, who has passed away in the meantime, as model! I also dared to use the Japanese prime minister - this was probably really audacious... And then characters appear who look like the past leaders of the USSR and the USA, Gorbachev and Reagan... (sweating). By the way, did anyone notice the „Akako balloon“ in the night sky? (laughs)

I Am the Master! This story was purely written because I felt like it! Anyway, I really wanted to draw how Kaitou Kid makes a balls to the wall ride down the facade of a building... (laughs). I would be nice if they one day made an Anime out of it ♫ Oh well, even if Cleopatra's Vanity case should really exist, two thousand years later one probably couldn't use it anymore... (laughs)

Would You Grow Up If I remember correctly, the hang-glider associated with Kaitou Kid lifted the first time in this story. Well, one could also say that Kaitou Kid could have fled from the get-go with it, instead of stretching a rope to the Tokyo Tower first (laughs). I'd really like to bring the motorized roller skates again.

The Boy Who Bet on the Ball It has also been really daring to take real professional baseball player as a model... (laughs). I think the story was created after I talked with my editor in charge about how thrilling it would be if Kaitou Kid appeared on a pole in Tokyo Dome. Well, the Yomiuri Giants are working together with Conan in several ways anyway, so I hope they can turn a blind eye to this... (fierce laughter)

Ghost Game If I remember correctly, I was frantically busy because I had to draw „Tantei George no Minimini Daisa-kusen“ („Detective George's Mini-Mini Big Strategy“) three weeks in a row for the Sunday magazine, so I finished this chapter in a very short time... (laughs). Directly afterwards my series „Yaiba“ started, because of which „Magic Kaito“ had to pause for a while. Hard to believe that the series is continued until today...! (laughs)

Hustler vs. Magician Originally this was the true second chapter of „Magic Kaito“! But... it was rejected! Since my debut in „Sunday“ there was never a story before or after it that was rejected. It's real luck that it made it into this volume! (laughs)

Omake „Magic Kaito“ was the first Manga I was allowed to publish as a Mangaka, which could be the reason I drew this story with zest and high motivation... Oh well, this probably was my youthful enthusiasm... (laughs)

Aoyama Kid ♥

Volume 3

Star Wars The first „Magic Kaito“ story I drew in the Heisei era (since 1989 -editor's note). There are several stories in which someone tries to gain profit from using a false Kid, but this is the shining first one! At the crime scene Kid announced a lot of Kid fans have assembled and shout "Kid! Kid!". Pretty clever idea, huh? Because this has developed to a classical element until today.

The Great Detective Appears!! Entrance of Saguru Hakuba! No, not only that, the chief inspector also shows his face...! Perhaps the junior was just worried because the top policeman never appears at the crime scene? (grin) By the way, Kid is so bad at ice skating because I'm so lousy in it myself.

Kaitou Under Scrutiny The skirt of Aoko's school uniform is so long and Kid's television is so big! From this you can tell the time! (Haha!) Apropos, the newspaper appearing on the last page is called „Oshima Daily Paper“ in the original version. Most of the newspapers shown in „Magic Kaito“ were named after my then editors. I beg your pardon. (grin)

Akako's Delivery Service Kaitou Kids measurements, 1.74 m (~ 5'9") and 58 kg (~ 128 lbs), naturally are my measurements from back then! The same goes for his blood type! (grin) Back then I thought it's really cool that it's possible to figure out skin colour and age of a person just by a single hair, but today, with DNA analysis you can figure out the whole identity of the person the hair belongs to. The progress of science is frightening... (Haha!)

(Extra Chapter) Yaiba vs. Kaito! I was told to draw a short, self-contained story and this dream sequence is the result. Back when I was a kid I already loved collaborations like „Mazinger Z vs. Devilman“, so I wanted to draw something like this. This is also the reason Kaitou Kid appears in Conan... (grin)

Blue Birthday The first time the gem Kaitou is after is the name origin for the title! Because this was the first „Magic Kaito“ after a very long time I debuted Kaitou Kid's arch-enemy and I can remember how much this motivated me... but it's also a story about a nightly firework in the midst of the city which must have made a lot of trouble in the surroundings... (grin)

Green Dream Oh well, this story is nothing special, but to be honest, it's this story which grew dear to my heart. (grin) What should I say about it? The rhythm is felicitous. This story was the first time I drew Kid's „signature“ we've grown so accustomed to. You can also tell from the name of one of the persons appearing that I really loved „Furuhata Ninzaburō“ back then - a japanese police detective drama.

Aoyama Kid ♥

Volume 4

Hello, it's me, Aoyama.

Since Magic Kaito is being republished I allow myself to show my memories about the past without further delay. (grin)

Crystal Mother This is the Kaito-train story I always wanted to draw! Including some allusions to "Lupin III" or "Sherlock Holmes" it became a story during which I could live it up... (grin) Snake, who got severely hurt in the tunnel returns in the following chapter completely unharmed. That's what I call "tough“! (Ha, ha!)

Red Tear Back when this story was published the first time, the thre first pages were in color! In fact, this created a mystery: „The gem on page 1 is blue, but the one on the cover page is red... Why oh why?“ Great that we can revive this mystery in all its glory! (grin) By the way, the closing scene in which all the photos containing the fondest memories are projected against the wall is an homage to the closing scene of the movie „Cinema Paradiso“. ♪ I used this highlight again in „Detective Conan – The Last Wizard of the Century“. (grin)

Black Star The first confrontation with the one and only Shinichi Kudo! In this story, Kaito says: „The inspector couldn't catch him even if he used a satellite system!“ But really, it's kind of surprising that he hasn't caught him before, isn't it?! (grin) Shinichi is firing a pistol? Akako wants to use magic to get rid of Shinichi? Little Kaito is flirting with Aoko? What a crazy story! (grin) Well, the scene in which Akako uses her magic powers was cut from TV syndication, but it was restored for the DVD, so everyone who wants to watch it, can do so now. ♥ Oh yeah, the title „Black Star“! I believe there are some readers who ask themselves why this gemstone served as the namesake of the story even though it's just mentioned in passing at the end. That's because Kaitou Kid himself is the "Black Star" after all ★ – hence the title! ♪

Golden Eye The first duel of the phantoms! (... maybe.) Catherine Zeta-Jones was the model for the character Ruby Jones. ♥ Well, they don't look very much alike... (Ha, ha!) In this story it's made clear that Kaito was born in June and Aoko in September! Exactly... Kaitou Kid may be a thief, but he is also a magician, so it really delighted me to slip in the name of the grandiose real-life magician Harry Houdini. (grin) There are a lot of tricky moments that show how much Detective Conan "poisoned" this story... (Ha, ha!)

Dark Knights The mask Nightmare is wearing is based on one I bought during a vacation in Spain, because I really liked it. It now hangs at the wall of my living room. (Ha, ha!) Again, in this story is a lot to analyze and moreover, it ends in a thought-provoking, grim mood, which isn't very typical for „Magic Kaito“. On the other hand, this isn't bad either, isn't it? Superintendent Chaki, an old acquaintance from Detective Conan, had his origin in this story. Further on, Hakuba's nanny „Baaya“ has her very first appearance in here! Actually, it's said that there is another nanny for him who has a more docile personality, but that's a different story altogether... (He, he...)

Phantom Lady (Preannouncement) This story revolves around how the original Kaitou Kid obtained a wonderfully beautiful jewel for the first time. ♥ It will be the first in Volume 5... I wonder when it will be released? (grin)

Volume 5

Hi, it's Aoyama ! Since a new volume of ''Magic Kaito'' came out, I have to delve into my memories from the past. PHANTOM LADY I wrote this story about Kaito's parents four years ago. I had stopped writing Magic Kaito for Conan and I thought : ''Wow, so much time has passed ?'' (laughs) If I recall correctly, his mother mutters ''Kaito, it's time for you to know'', and the story's finally here ! It's this story that finally revealed that Kaito's mother's name is ''Chikage''. It was my first time digitalizing a manuscript, I was glad I managed to portray the security sensor similar to phantom thieves stories so cooly, but I had to drew one night scenery after another, and that took time and so I almost didn't make it in a deadline. By the way, this story leads to Conan's Ryouma case, in volume 70. Read it if you're interested ! MIDNIGHT CROW When it was decided to animate the series, I had a meeting with the animation staff. We asked ourselves ''How are we going to finish the story ?''. So I suggested : ''Why not do one about a black Kaitou Kid that would be published in the Sunday ?''. And that's how I wrote Midnight Crow. I will never forget the staff's face when I told them ''Actually, Touichi is alive'' (laughs) Ikeda-san, Touichi's voice actor, had difficulty saying the line ''When you come in contact with an audience, it's a scene of duel...'' quickly ! <3 The ''sucker trick'' line comes from Kaito Kid's anime screenwriter Kunihiko Okada, who I thank very much. In the Phantom Lady chapter, Kaito's work as Kid was given by Chikage, but in Midnight Crow, he's supposed to quit because a lot happened in Las Vegas... but it's another story (laughs) SUN HALO This chapter was written to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Magic Kaito, so it had to be a love comedy <3 When I drew the chapter, Kaito's bike is a Suzuki GSX 250 R. I had forgotten that it was supposed to be broken, so I had Jii-chan say that a ''doctor friend'' helped him... I leave that to your imagination (laughs) Speaking of characters, Lucifer appears again ! As I thought, Akako uses red magic ! (Fortunately Akako doesn't exist in Conan's world (laughs)). The entrance hall in the chapter is based on Tottori's entrance hall, so please go there if you visit Tottori ! By the way, in Sun Halo, Aoko rides the bike with Kaito ! NONCHALANT LUPIN It's a short story I sent to a shounen magazine, and I got an award for it. As you can see, it was a prototype for ''Magic Kaito'' (laughs) The forms are different but there's no card gun. I drew this because the editor I had at that time told me : ''Show me a story you want to write''. It's my second work ! Now that I look back, I'm embarassed because it looks bad. (laughs) Anyway, the hero's name is Lupin, and the name of the story ''Nonchalant Lupin'', but I don't know where he's nonchalant... (laughs)

#reference #These are the ones that bug me the most about the translations honestly #Because these are the comments where people like to point and say 'DC and MK aren't the same world'#When the terms used only really indicate that their stories are separate; not their worldds #They're more separated into 'DC world' and 'MK world' in extremely loose terms that don't actually mean 'separate universes'#More just things like 'Akako is only going to be in MK because she can't appear in DC'#Which. Really gives more argument for their universes being the same; if there can't be a 'DC version' of Akako without breaking DC #Means if Akako were to appear in DC; she's implied to have magic; which could only be if she's the same Akako as MK #...Anyway; last post about this; unless more MK stuff comes up or I missed some #Which is possible; there's a lot of random information everywhere

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truemedian · 4 years

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Former HTC CEO Peter Chou reveals his next project: a social 5G VR headset

Engadget The Mova is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 chipset (instead of the 835 as used by the Focus and the Quest), 6GB of RAM (instead of the usual 4GB) and a 4,600mAh battery (the Quest has 3,648mAh). XRSpace didn’t specify the nature of the 2,880 x 1,440 display panel nor its field of view, but we do know that it has a slick 90Hz refresh rate and a whopping 702 dpi pixel density, both of which are much higher than its rivals, and due to using a smaller display panel. Questions remain, however, for when we get to try the device: would you prefer higher pixel density or a larger view?The Mova will ship with a single controller for gaming purposes, but it’s designed to be used with hand tracking as the primary control method. This, in theory, would lower the learning barrier for most people, and they would probably use the headset more often because of its less fiddly nature. But the company wants hand gestures to be a core interaction in its virtual world, Manova. And this is where things get different from VR headsets that we’ve seen already.Once you’re inside one of the Manova spaces (more on that later), you can toggle most common social gestures with natural movements: you can shake hands with other avatars, give high fives, do fist bumps or toast with a glass. You can even grab and throw objects, meaning you can shoot hoops or throw darts with your buddies who are actually miles away in real life. There’s also a gesture for teleportation: tap in the air with your index finger to toggle an arrow, then point at your desired spot and tap again to teleport.Since the Mova is a 6DoF VR headset, you can walk around physically as you do virtually. The biggest surprise here is that the inside-out cameras here can apparently just about track your legs, so you’re able to play simple soccer games with others in VR as well. It sounds intriguing, but I’ll wait to see how this fares once I’ve tried the headset properly.For the same reason, XRSpace lets you put on a full-body avatar by default, as opposed to making do with floating half-body versions like some VR social platforms do.

Engadget Avatar features are easily written off as gimmicks, but Chou believes it’s core to making VR work when it comes to social interactions.“Today, one of the reasons why VR is not that exciting, is not getting that level of immersiveness, is that it's lacking very good digital avatars,” the exec reasoned. “Today, most of the digital avatars are cartoonish and half body, really not something that we can call your ‘digital self.’ So what we really want to do is to let people really actually recognize this is you.”These upgraded avatars, along with higher-quality skin textures, AI-based natural facial expression and natural limb movements, come from the time Chou spent working at effects studio, Digital Domain.Chou hopes that users would then stick to the same “digital self” when meeting with families and friends, or when joining meetings and lessons. But of course, there’s no stopping you from making your avatar look bizarre for the more casual applications. “We don't prohibit that.”

Engadget Rather than relying on an existing VR platform like Viveport or Steam, XRSpace has bigger ambitions when it comes to content and services. The main foundation of that is Manova, which is basically XRSpace’s take on VR social platforms like VRChat or Rec Room. This hub is also your headset’s main interface.With private spaces, you can meet up with family, friends or acquaintances in your virtual home, meeting room, classroom, cinema or even private beach. You’ll obviously be able to watch videos, play mini-games, or fiddle with virtual objects together in those scenarios.If you want to make things a bit more realistic, the Mova headset offers a feature called “Space Scanning” which, as you can probably tell by the name, can scan a physical room and turn it into a virtual space. In a quick video I saw, the user would simply walk around a room and let the headset’s front optical sensors do the work. I couldn’t tell what the scan quality was like, but apparently you’ll able to redecorate this virtual room before inviting people over.To bolster this ambitious feature pitch, the startup has already secured one of Taiwan’s largest real estate agencies, YC House, to launch VR house-viewing tours in Q3. XRSpace is also working with furniture retailers and travel agencies to take advantage of this feature, so that customers can preview their purchases or destinations before making the jump.XRSpace is also working on bringing VR education and VR collaboration to institutions and companies. In Taiwan, there are already at least four schools on board to integrate Manova for remote learning. Similarly, XRSpace claims that its bank customers are also interested in using Mova as a remote meeting and training solution.

Engadget Things get a lot more interesting when you head out to public spaces. You start from a city center which acts as a hub, from there you can head to parks, beaches, night clubs and cinemas, in which you can hang out with friends or meet people from around the world.Then you have MagicLOHAS, which is essentially a suite of wellness activities that you can participate with other people in VR. There’s yoga, tai chi, meditation, dancing, stretching and even brain training, all of which can take place on top of a mountain, by the sea or in the woods. XRSpace tapped a handful of wellness experts to add virtual instructors to each activity, but users will have to wear body trackers — sold separately — to leverage this service.The remaining public spaces are basically portals to music, VR videos and VR games. The music part will be handled by carriers, whereas videos will come from partners like AirPano, Insta360, Digital Domain and various local content partners. In Taiwan’s case, Vogue and GQ are already on board, and XRSpace is also working with a local baseball team to integrate live signal into Manova’s virtual stadium.As for VR games, the notable ones include Resolution Games’ Angry Birds VR and fishing game Bait!, along with Futuretown’s mini-golfing game Cloudlands 2 and shooting game A-10 VR. It’s unclear how many of these titles will be compatible with the headset’s hand gesture input, though, and it’ll need to convince many more game developers to pick up its SDK — available today — in order to catch up with the competition in this space. Meanwhile, Oculus is already adding gesture-based games to the Quest’s library later this week.XRSpace’s Mova is a hugely ambitious VR headset, at a time when the sector has struggled to truly breakthrough to the mainstream. And that’s before the list price of $599. While the ideas are unique, it’ll need to work extra hard to tempt regular consumers. XRSpace is hoping that carriers will help them out. For Taiwan, XRSpace is launching its headset with Chunghwa Telecom, whereas in the West, Deutsche Telekom will be bringing the Mova to Europe in the near future. We’ll be keeping an eye out on US availability and a chance to properly experience the device. In this article: resolution games, angry birds, xrspace, peter chou, mova, xr, magiclohas, digital domain, futuretown, vr, manova, snapdragon 845, news, gear All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

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putschki1969 · 7 years

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2017/08/26 Blog post by Wakana 『映画への愛が止まりませんっ･:*:･(ﾉω<`*)･:*:･～虹を見ました～』

『My love for movies will never die･:*:･(ﾉω<`*)･:*:･～I saw a rainbow～』 I saw a small rainbow the other day. But I was inside the car driving on the highway ... All I could do was take a picture through the window. The view through the window is really bad ... I am afraid you can’t see it at all *laughs* It’s right there slightly below the sun. Hello, this is Wakana (0 ¯ ▽ ¯ 0) /

As a junior high-school student I did a homestay program in New Zealand, squalls were a daily occurrence there, once the rain stopped a rainbow would appear each and every single time. I was truly amazed by this wonderful country. Well, today I’d like to do something I haven’t done in a while…(^-^) A special edition of my 【～Cinema, Drama Corner～】 (← Although I feel it has already become a regular edition *laughs*) It’s been about 4 months since my last edition. My last post on April 2 was also my first time in about 4 months. I guess I’ll will try to put out an edition like this three times a year! o(^-^ o )(ﾉ ^-^)ﾉ Well, without further ado, let’s get going! ～Cinema～『Senpai to Kanojo』

『Pets』

『Sanctum』

『Avatar』

『National Treasure 1&2』

『Elysium』

『Heroine Shikkaku』

『The Prince』

『After Earth』

『Space Brothers』

『The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall』

『Jersey Boys』

『Mercury Rising』

『Air Force One』

『Descendants』

『White House Down』

『Wolf Girl and Black Prince』

『The Sorcerer's Apprentice』

『Into the Blue』

『The Hunger Games 1, 2, 3』

『Silent Hill:Revelation』

『Just Add Magic Season 1・2』

『Kyō, Koi o Hajimemasu』

『LUCY』

『200 Pounds Beauty』

『Flightplan』

『Shinjuku Swan』

『The Shallows』

『Lost in Space』

『Surrogates』

『How Do You Know』

『Contact』

『2 Guns』

『2012』

『No Reservations』～Drama/TV Shows～『Virtual Detective Tabito Higurashi TV Special』

『Bread and Soup and Cat Weather』

『Your Home is My Business!』

『Your Home is My Business! Returns』

『Sleepeeer Hit!』

『It's Not That I Can't Marry I Don't Marry』

『Trick Season 1～3』

『Trick Feature Length Specials 1～3』

『Vampire Diaries (1st season)』 Phew, I am exhausted from writing down all of this *laughs* [Me too Wakana, me too XD] When I am watching all those films and shows, I don’t use a rental service, I am using streaming services that allow you to watch films and shows online. I am using two different streaming services. Both have exclusive content, sometimes a certain season won’t be available on one service but I’ll be able to watch it on the other one. Or I’ll feel like watching the dubbed version of a certain movie so I’ll opt for the other service again. That’s pretty much how I switch between the two.

Of course I also keep watching the DVDs and Blu-rays I own (Ghibli movies and such) but the works I listed above ↑ in my little corner are the ones I actually watched on those streaming sites. I have a viewing history in my menu so I was able to compile this list while going through it. When I start watching something I usually overdo it and end up binging everything, I feel slightly bad about that and every time I tell myself I shouldn’t do this anymore but then I think about all the things I still need to watch and suddenly I am all eager again. There’s still so much I wanna watch! I wanna watch so many scenes! I truly love movies and TV shows! Also, I am the type that usually likes to watch movies again and again. When I find a movie or show particularly interesting or I just love it a lot, I will watch them many many times. I don’t know how often I have watched 『No Reservations』 already. I wonder how many times? ∵ゞ(´ε`●) I just love it too much! On my list I also mentioned 『The Shallows』, I watched it for the first time, it starred my beloved Blake Lively and my beloved shark, a pair made in heaven! I wasn’t able to see it at the cinema so to make up for that, I watched it three times! It was very well-made!!! I was really scared ... (;´д｀) It’s been a while since I last watched a movie with a shark in the leading role. I realise they are just “movies” but it makes me very sad to see sharks being used as dumbed-down story elements, especially when they are wrongly depicted as super evil (for example when they are recklessly attacking people) …so I don’t really watch those movies often. But there are movies like "Open Water” or the above mentioned “Into the Blue” where they use footage of real sharks so I enjoy watching those films. I feel healed watching the smooth movements of real sharks, more so than the actors, I feel like they convey a soulful performance, my heart is thrilled every time. The shark that appears in 『The Shallows』 is huge, it would make news all across the world if it really existed! If it were real they wouldn’t have to make movies like this anymore *laughs* And once again, the shark was the big villain (ﾉД`*ﾟ)ﾟ･:｡. Either way, I really wanted to see this movie because of Blake (`･ω･´) (Of course there was also a ginormous shark so I was super hyped for that as well!). As expected, Blake was absolutely gorgeous and cute so I ended up watching the movie multiple times. As for Mr.Shark, I wouldn’t wanna cross paths with him in the ocean ... (Let’s continue meeting at the aquarium!) That’s it for today (^-^) Thanks for letting me talk about my love for movies (*´･人･*)♪ Lastly, here’s a picture of the summer sky that I took yesterday. Soon August will be over ... Summer is coming to an end, isn’t it? Well then, until next time ～☆(*'▽'*)/ *** Wakana ***

#kalafina #blog post #LINE translations #wakana #august 2017 #I really love Wakana's taste in movies #wakana's love for sharks is too precious

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magalarajoonideprohvetid · 6 years

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1.10.2 ramadan.man [in english]

First part, Ramadan.man_12.1_last_saved_02/07, published in Nihilist.fm on 03/07/15;

second part, Ramadan.man_12.2_last_saved_17/07, published on author’s blog on 17/07/15;

full text in estonian in 6ism2e_dpi_error:_unsupported_personality, 2016, Nihilist.fm and ZA/UM, pages 89-98;

translation by Kristi Ockba

1.10.2 ramadan.man

Ramadan.man_12.1_last_saved_02/07

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It is evening. The boys were watching yet another episode of Avatar before I sent them off to bed. The time is 22:30 and I will soon be able to eat. The first day of fasting is about to end.

«Boys, today you must go to bed on your own.»

«Why?»

«Because I must now eat.»

«Why now?»

«Because it is Ramadan now. I do not eat during the day, but when the sun sets, I can start eating.»

«Why are you eating now?»

I am tired and hungry and so I snap: «Because otherwise I will die, if I don’t eat during the day and I don’t eat during the night either!» This was the wrong thing to say, but I am hungry and tired.

«I don’t want you to die!» Happy starts to cry.

«I don’t want to sleep, I want to eat,» Generous says without a care.

I love Happy’s sentimental sensitivity and Generous’ raw carelessness. I console and comfort Happy until he also decides that he would like to eat something. It is 11:00 pm. The three of us are sitting in the kitchen. Generous is eating some fried ham and Happy shares my Ramen noodles while his spaghetti is boiling. We are happy, happy to be the way we have been created. This is a tribal thing. The Vihalem tribe of United Autonomous Individuals. UAI — it’s a tribal thing. We are happy and free. Unfortunately millions of people around the world are not.

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My senses are tight, loaded. Supersensitive. I smell cigarettes before non-smokers do. At the Kristiine youth center some guy on his way out lights a cigarette. The hoodlum wanted to act tough and bend the rules. He was barred from the center for life. Serves him right, his stupid behavior didn’t just end badly for him, but also made me crave for a cigarette.

Walking down the street I can smell lovely perfumes, feminine and sweet, and the smell of cigarettes coming from those girls walking a few steps ahead of me.

There is a terrible smell coming from three guys sitting in bus number 46, just a few rows ahead of me. They smell of ethanol; it exits their bodies with every breath, from every pore. As they get up to get off the bus, I can sense garish stench of smegma. Bastard, wash your self or go get circumcised. Hobos.

I can smell the aromas of food – everywhere. All food smells good. My stomach is no longer growling. It is much too empty to growl. Food is beautiful. I am on the terrace and I am thinking how beautiful food would be in my mouth. The wind brushes through the leaves of trees. The wind is beautiful. It brushes me. Somewhere in the distance some people are making sandwiches and fruit bars. The time is 16:30 and I would be able to eat them in six hours and twelve minutes. By that time they will most probably be eaten.

I sense a some kind of smell, sweet, carried by the wind from the leaves. I do not know the source, but I can sense it sharply, suffocatingly. My senses are loaded. My senses are my superpowers. I am a starving superhero, I am Ramadan.man.

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I have started reading the Koran again. After the second Sura I always find myself thinking about Harut and Marut. Two angels, sent to earth with free will. On the first day they get everything wrong. In addition I am reading Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali’s Rescuer from Error/The Niche of Light. I so hope it will not be a disappointment. In the meantime, I skim through the posthumous catalog of the Polymer Cultural Factory, which I received from the compiler for a pleasurable barter deal. The first five chapters of Ursula K. LeGuin's The Left Hand of Darkness also seem great.

I like to read during Ramadan. This is my only passtime, self-education, my only entertainment, the consumption of which I do not feel guilty. I don’t feel guilty feasting letters with my eyes, rapaciously, as if someone were trying to take it away from me.

I am focused, fast. Hunger concentrates me. I am Ramadan.man. Superhero, with supersenses, a superreader.

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Ramadan.man’s superpowers do not include fixing things. One can say that one of Ramadan.man’s superpowers is messing things up. For instance, that’s what happened to my bike last year.

First of all I wanted to oil the wheel collar and then screw it shut. When I unscrewed them it was evident that the rings had been rusted and the wheel bearings fell apart. I should not have touched it to begin with. The same applied to the pedals; I wanted to change them but I accidentally screwed it in the wrong direction. The stem threads were completely ruined. This year, I started to clean the ventilation of my laptop and ruined the motherboard. At the same time, the desktop computer that I was using to view the tutorial to open the laptop stopped working. Yep, superpowers.

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Midsummer day. At home. No grilling what so ever. Not even meat free. I was ready for it. I built a lego house for Generous. He was extremely happy. Maybe in his eyes I have some superpowers?

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I enjoy watching films. Especially in the summer and especially vampire films. This Ramadan I finally watched a movie that has been on my list of films to watch for a long time, and this film became the winner of my top five vampire films.

The movies left out of my top five list were Shadow of a Vampire (2000), Interview with the Vampire (1994) and From Dusk Till Dawn (1996). The first one I just really liked and the second was my first. I went to Kosmos cinema to see it when I was seven years old. The third… the only guy who could pull of a 90’s tribal tattoo is George Clooney. For sure.

TOP 5:

5. What We Do in the Shadows (2014). New Zealand. Mockumentary. It is funny. Really funny.

4. Thirst (2009). South-Korea. From the same director of Old Boy. Need I say more?

3. Let the Right One In (2008). Swedes can do and show you all kinds of things in their films. For God’s sake don’t watch the 2010 film Let Me In!

2. A Girl Walks Home Alone (2014). A feminist Iranian vampire film. Thank you, Ernest, for recommending!

1. Only Lovers Left Alive (2013). An ocean of references. Music. Tangier. Drinking blood from drams.

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I sacrifice this world, the comforts of this world. And I sacrifice myself. I watch this world, I try to be only an observer. My presence is perceivable; I perceive my own presence. And at the same time I am vanished. And that doesn’t matter. The sun climbs across the building. These are it’s final rays. I look desperately at the sky and search for the moon. The sun and moon determine my situation, my condition, my position in this world, that I bring for a sacrifice. My sacrificed self-position. Sunset and dawn rays determine me as alive or an observer. The crescent starts from the right and grows towards the left. Half means a quarter and a full moon means half. The full moon scares me. Too many lunatics, who find themselves just then. During Ramadan I don’t feel myself loosing my mind, I am too tired and empty. There is just the reflections of a past madness, reflections of primal madness. I throw stones at those reflections, to get to the primal madness, to look it in the eye. I am afraid.

I cry a lot, more than I can consume water. My heart is tender and soft, this must never change, it must never petrify. I cry because people die in the hands of crazy people, because of how wonderful children can be, because of how much a brother can love his sister. I would like to cry more because of how much good there is in this world but unfortunately I can’t. My sacrifice is trivial, a trivial disciplinary exercise, a reminder and a self admiration in comparison to the millions, who must daily endure hunger and thirst. In the best case scenario, this is a preparation for times when winters are long and droughts hit the summer, and the only one’s who survive are the ones who do not care about their presence.

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Have a lovely Ramadan, only a full moon’s worth is left. Mustamäe, 07/15

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Ramadan.man_12.2_last_saved_17/07

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Hunger has disappeared. I can’t feel hunger anymore, I have no more strength to feel it. Hunger made me awake, made me want, need, desire. Hunger made me jump. 3 hours and 50 minutes. With every night I eat less, and with every day I do less. I have the feeling I am disappearing, vanishing. With every day there is less «I», my body is in permanent ratio with my ego, with the forward-leaning and active one. Imagine people who have been starving for years –– how much can they do for themselves? Their families, their communities?

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Why am I always trying—and always pointlessly—to define myself? Who I appear to be, how I label myself, as what I feel myself, to what can I connect myself? Am I a vegan, a nationalist, a feminist, a chauvinist, a capitalist, an anarchist, an islamist? Ist-ist-ist. Who is «I» without anything? What is left of «I”, if I have no history, name, background system? Who am I? A living being? A human? How much have I tried to discover what a human is? Evolution, the history of humanity, the stories of creation, genes, processes, memes. Am I able to look at my self as a noumenon or am I just a holistic phenomenon? Am I a dirt, a «sounding clay» or an intermediate link in evolutionary chain? Am I all at the same time or none of them? Creator/created, conflict, an independent communicator or a syncretist? Maybe I am not set in stone, maybe I am not a static character, but a constant adaptor? The history of «I» consists of development, movement, change, adaptation. «I» is a human. Do you feel the same?

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I sleep everyday until the midday prayer. Sleeping saves my energy. Today I had to wake up early, to make it to the MA admission test. I feel like vomiting, I feel really bad. Not sure what I would vomit. Three quarters have past, I am enfeebling.

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You know this refugee thing. I have spent too much time on it. I wrote many pages on what I find to be wrong with it. It’s crap, both what I wrote and how it is dealt with. I am not willing to criticize, argue nor ramble anymore. I basically refuse to fall into the spiral of online commentaries, where some guy wants to say some absurdity and expects someone to answer. I don’t see a reason for this, I can’t see what good it does, it is not good for me, it is not good for my emotional and psychological wellbeing. All people have equal rights, the right to life and freedom. For all! There is no difference whether the color of your skin is «white» or «black», whether you are a woman or a man, your right to life and freedom does not depend on your passport or your personal ID, it depends on working heart. And you have the right to strive towards life and freedom.

Fuck, I started preaching again. You know what I mean… Think good, speak good, do good.

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We went to watch Minions with the boys. It was the 10:00 PM screening. As true westerners we broke our fast in the middle of the movie with nachos with melted cheese and Coca-Cola. After the movie we came home. Whilst waiting for the elevator, Happy noticed CCTV cameras in the waiting area and said: «This is freakin’ creepy.» Right on, boy, this is creepy. While the West killed God, the All-Seeing eye, we birthed Big Brother who watches over our every step, every action, every time we scratch our asses. Freakin’ creepy.

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It’s 1:42 AM and freshly asphalted road underneath Tammsaare/Järvevana viaduct is sprawling in front of me. Tires chirr on fresh asphalt, and thou the rear wheel is wobbly and chain covered with dirt, my bicycle scampers surprisingly fast. Today was the last tarawih prayer; I am glad that I was present. It was good, good for my body, soul and mind; they needed it. An hour and half of praying, four raka‘āts of evening prayer and twenty four raka‘āts of tarawih prayer. An hour and half out of that four hours, during which I could have been consuming, eating and drinking. Penultimate sacrifice before the end of the lunar-month. Last time I saw moon crescent was seven days ago. Clouds were slicing it horizontally into pieces. Now I can’t see it anywhere. Moon is dead. Dead to be born again. And the circle starts again.

This Ramadan is the twelfth Ramadan of my life. Every one of them has been different, but that doesn’t matter. Tomorrow is left. I must remember the two days I traveled and two days I fasted in Mecca time. Two full nicks and two half ones. I hope the rest will be accepted.

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Tonight, I read the children’s encyclopedia for Happy. In the beginning there was the Big Bang. It seemed to me that he did not fully understand all of this talk of compression of matter and the ever-expanding universe. Or I was not able to fully explain it to him. It was all too abstract, it was much easier to talk about planets and stars. I assume it is quite similar, if I had to talk about God to him.

Doubt, doubt is constant. Doubt follows me all the time. I doubt in everything – actions, principles, the actuality of my faith, the existence of God, my existence, the norms of society, reality. Doubt is good. Doubt is an earthquake that destroys badly constructed buildings to build new ones. Doubt makes the mind soft like crying does for to the heart. The mind must not harden, a petrified mind is evil, it is not capable of dialogue.

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Happy Holidays! Mustamäe, 07/15

#literature #badliterature #pulp fiction #transgression #transgressive #punkmuslim #ramadan #ramadan.man #6ism2e_dpi_error #Nation of Islam #islam

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excessively-english-jd · 7 years

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Hi! For the ask thing, 9, 13, 22, 50 and 87 :)

9: do you like singing/humming to yourself?

Haha yes, probably too much :p I sing and hum all the time.

13: what's something that made you smile today?

Getting to talk to B again ^^ He’s had friends over so he wasn’t around much but he is now~

22: are you a morning person?

Lol, no. I don’t wake until after 9 if I don’t have to.

50: what's an odd thing you collect?

Hmm possibly my Les Mis tickets? For the past few years I’ve decided to start collecting all of my Les Mis theatre tickets. I also collect all kinds of little scraps of things like tickets to museums or exhibitions, train tickets, cinema tickets, I have a security check band I got at Queens lol.... Only other collections I really have are fossils, books and my old Sims 2 collection.

87: what are some movies you think everyone should watch at least once in their lives?

Jurassic Park.

Nah uh... I think Avatar is a really good movie with amazing effects, that should probably be a must-watch. The classic/renaissance Disney films.Actually, seriously, Jurassic Park is a hella decent movie. But I’m not really sure tbh??

#ask #smilingteaologist

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mymytutorgirl · 5 years

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The Maleficent-(2014)

It was a new morning and a new day. I was just following my routine, which, nowadays, include me getting up at 5:30 am, getting ready and leaving for the gym max by 6 am. I work out and I come back by 8:15(usually when I don't have to go for college). Today was that day. For the past few days, I had not been feeling well. It was not that something was physically wrong with me, but mentally, internally I felt something was missing. Like I was losing out on something. Today, while I was having my breakfast, I thought of watching something. Some movie. Some TV series. Anything. Then I remembered a conversation that i had with one of my friends, that Maleficent 2 was hitting the theatres soon. And trust me, I am one of those people who take pride in the fact that I watch a lot of Hollywood movies/TV series so you can understand how I felt at that time. It was a challenge. And as Barney Stinson would say, it was accepted.

I watched Maleficent today.

What started as a classic Disney movie sure changed its course in the first few minutes. Angelina Jolie played the character of a good-turned-evil fairy Maleficent, who was wronged by her one true love and ends up taking revenge from his daughter. It is said to be “the actual story” of the sleeping beauty from the point of view of the evil step-mother. I highly doubt that though.

Hollywood has always been extravagant on visual effects and this movie was no exception. I was intoxicated with the special effects used especially in her flying sequences that it almost gave me Avatar feels.

Honestly speaking, it isn't something that I would like to watch again. It is good for a one time watch. However, I would like to point out certain instances which I really admire from this saga. the fact that it was Angelina Jolie’s own daughter who played the young aurora because she was the only child who wasn't afraid of Angelina( PS: I read it somewhere). And um, yeah, thats about it.

I did not find any out of the ordinary or amazing moments in this movie but I know for a fact that kids will appreciate it. They should grow up with Disney and that is the purpose of these movies. It creates a balance between fantasy and real life. And I personally feel, that every kid should have a say in that matter. Fantasy or real. Because that will only decide if that kid would grow up fighting the war between DC AND MARVEL or as Martin Scorsese said, will appreciate the offbeat cinema.

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djgblogger-blog · 6 years

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3 initial thoughts on Ready Player One

http://bit.ly/2JkkO1d

youtube

The long-anticipated, Steven Spielberg-helmed Ready Player One has just been released in UK cinemas this week, and as a film of obvious interest to DreamingRobots and Cyberselves everywhere, we went along to see what the Maestro of the Blockbuster has done with Ernest Cline’s 2011 novel (which the author himself helped to adapt to the screen).

youtube

We went in with a lot of questions, not least of which included:

How would Cline & Spielberg update the material? (in terms of VR technology, 2011 is so 2011. )

How would the film engage with the modern politics of the Internet and gaming?

How would Spielberg use the most up-to-date cinematic techniques and effects to enhance the film? (would this be another game changer?)

What would the film have to say about our future? the future of gaming? of our interconnectedness? social media? what would the film have to say about the future of humanity itself?

A one-time viewing and a next-day review are, of course, too early to answer such big questions with any certainty. Fortunately, however you feel about the film itself, it will reward many multiple viewings on DVD as even the most unsatisfied viewer won’t be able to resist pausing the action frame-by-frame to catch all the references and fleeting glimpses of their favourite video game characters of the past.

But for now, here are 3 initial responses for discussion/debate:

1. Ready Player One is a morality tale about corporate power and the Internet

Cline’s original novel was very much a paean to plucky independent gamers resisting the ruthless greed and world-conquering ambition of the Corporate Villain (while simultaneously, strangely, lionising the richest and most world-conquering of them all, James Halliday, the Gates-Jobs figure transformed here into the benevolent deus ex machina that built his trillions on creating the OASIS). The film remains true to Cline’s vision, and perhaps even heightens this black-and-white, goodie-versus-baddie (IOI), with a brilliantly cast Ben (‘Commander Krennic’) Mendelsohn and a tragically under-used Hannah John-Kamen heading an army of faceless corporate infantry.

But while this wouldn’t have been at the forefront of Cline’s thinking in 2011, it is impossible to watch this film now, today, and not think of the erosion of net neutrality that was set in motion by the FCC’s December 2017 decision and, more recently, the exposure of Facebook’s data breach by Cambridge Analytica, which has finally woken more people up to the reality of mass surveillance and what personal data corporate giants have and how it might be misused.

There is little chance that Spielberg and Cline had either of these potential dangers in mind when the film went into production. And such issues shouldn’t be vastly oversimplified in real journalism, but storytelling is always a good way to make people understand complex issues and motivate them to action, and if RPO‘s simple story of goodies and baddies can become a cultural rallying-point for the dangerous mix of unchecked capitalism and our social interconnectedness, then that is a Good Thing

2. Spielberg’s film goes a certain way into correcting some of the problems of the original novel (though could have gone further).

Through no real fault of the author, opinions on Cline’s once much-lauded book were revised, post-#gamergate, and what was once seen as an innocent tale of a young (definitely boy) geek’s nostalgic travels from social outsider to saviour of the world (cf. also Cline’s Armada) came to be seen by some instead as a symptom of everything behind the vile misogyny of white male gamers, backlashing out at anyone that didn’t see how they were the best and most privileged of all people on this earth.

Let’s be clear: the gender politics in the film are far from ideal. How is it, for example, notes another reviewer, that two of the main female protagonists are so ignorant of basic Halliday-lore? And there is still a bit too much of White Boy Champion of the World in even this version of Cline’s tale. However, having said that, other critics, too, have noticed a much-improved gender consciousness in the film.

But what is clear from Spielberg’s offering is that women are as much a part of gaming culture as men, and have every right to occupy the same space, and anyone who thinks otherwise can be gone. Without wanting to give anything away, it is enough to note that Art3mis is a legend in the OASIS, a skilled gamer that Parzifal worships, and that one of the OASIS’s best designers/builders (or programmer) is also a woman. Outside of the VR world, the real women behind the avatars are among the best-drawn characters (albeit in a film not overburdened with character depth, but then this is a Spielberg popcorn speciality, not one of his Oscar worthies). Both Olivia Cooke and Lena Waithe are given space to live and to be (the former, in particular, being a much more interesting protagonist the poor Wade Watts, who really is little more than his avatar), and as previously mentioned, John-Kamen is a much more frightening villain than Mendelsohn’s corporate puppet.

This film shouldn’t be heralded as a feminist triumph or a shining example of post-Weinstein Hollywood, but it is a step in the right direction, and it might mean a few more people can forgive Cline for the white-boy wank-fest that they perceive (not without some good reason) the original novel to be.

3. Despite some nods to progressive politics, the film holds deeply conservative views on human nature.

A big attraction of the novel and the excitement of the film, for DreamingRobots and Cyberselves, was the way the novel created worlds in a new reality, and explored the ideas of what humans could become in such spaces no longer bound by the physical limitations of our birth. It’s what we’re looking at with our experiments in VR and teleoperative technologies, and we ask the questions: what happens to human beings when we can be transformed by such technologies? What might our posthuman future look like?

The film does not ask these questions. In this respect, again, the film does not deviate from the original novel. The novel, for all its creativity in imagining such virtual realities, before they were fully realised in real-world technology, was still very much about recognisably human worlds. The film actually regresses to a vision of human experience where the worlds of flesh-reality and virtual-reality are more clearly demarcated. In the book, there was at least a certain bleeding between these two worlds, as events in the virtual world could have consequences in the real world and vice versa. In the film, however, only real-world events have impact on the virtual world. Events in the virtual world do not impact upon the real, and the two storylines, the two battles between goodies and baddies in the virtual and real worlds, are clearly separate. (Highlighted by the fact that there are distinct villains for each location: John-Kamen’s F’Nale Zandor never enters the virtual world, while T.J. Miller’s I-R0k exists only in the virtual. Only Mendelsohn’s Sorrento is the only villain crossing that boundary.)

Spielberg’s vision of 2045 is clearly dystopian: you can see it in the ‘Stacks’, where so many impoverished are forced to live, the utter dominance of mega-corporations, and the inability (or unwillingness) of the state to provide for or protect its citizens. But while so many of the citizens of 2045 take refuge in the paradise that is the OASIS, Spielberg makes it clear that this world is merely a symptom of the dystopian world of the flesh. The opium of these alienated masses, in fact, amplifies the miserable situation of these people. We’re supposed to pity the people we see, caged in their headsets, who can’t play tennis on a real tennis court, or dance in a real nightclub, or find love wherever real people find love.

This is clear at the film’s conclusion, but as we don’t want to give away spoilers, we’ll leave it for you to see for yourselves. But what is evident throughout is that the virtual world should only be a place where gamers go to play – it is not a place where humans can live. And it is only in the world of flesh that humans can really, successfully exist. Again, this is evident in Cline’s novel: ‘That was when I realized, as terrifying and painful as reality can be, it’s also the only place where you can find true happiness. Because reality is real.’

As one reviewer has so succinctly put it:

But here’s the thing. Ready Player One is a tragedy. What seems like a fun adventure movie is actually a horror movie with a lot to say about the way we live now, the way we might live in the future, and the pitfalls and perils of loving video games too much. This is Spielberg reflecting on the culture he helped create, and telling the audience he made mistakes.

The only objection I have to the above quotation is the idea that the film has a lot to say about the way we might live in the future. Because our future will most certainly be posthuman, and this film cannot shake its humanist origins, and its deeply conservative understandings of how we might use technology. In this film, that posthuman being, and the technology that enables it, is as much of a threat to human life as a Great White shark or rampaging dinosaurs.

The film, therefore, cannot at all accommodate what will be the most imperative issues for human beings in the very near future. Such a binary understanding comes straight from the classic humanist guidebook: fantasy is fine, technology can be fun, but what’s real is what’s real, and what is human is human. That meddling in human’s true nature can never bring us happiness, and it is only by eschewing anything external to our true nature can we be truly happy, or truly human, are the usual humanist scaremongering about technology that we’ve seen time and again, since Mary Shelley’s classic Frankenstein did so much to create our present fantasies.

Nevermind that such a worldview ignores the fact that there has never been such a creature, a human being unimpacted by technology. Nevermind, too, that Spielberg’s entire cinematic oeuvre is fantastically, stubbornly, deeply and, sometimes, beautifully humanist (even when, or perhaps especially when, he’s telling stories about big fish or aliens). It is nevertheless a disappointment that such an opportunity, that such a potentially transformative film about the future and how we can be re-shaped by technology, plays it safe and retreats to a nostalgia for a kind of human being that is increasingly becoming obsolete. It would have been nice if Ready Player One was a great film about posthumanism, addressing the vital issues about technology that we are increasingly facing. But alas Perhaps we should dive back into Spielberg’s catalogue and watch A.I.

Having said that, Ready Player One is a fun film and we will be taking our children to see it ironically, perhaps, for the message that games are fun but sometimes yes, you do need to turn them off. (It is definitely worth its 12 Certificate, though, so parents of younger children be warned. And of course we’ll buy it on DVD, to catch another glimpse of our favourite gaming characters.)

(Which films do you think better address our posthuman future? Suggestions below, please!)

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thejohncamp3ablog · 7 years

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Is the DCEU in trouble, i don't think so by looking at the stats!

Contrary to popular belief, i think all in all DCEU will emerge as the winner in the long run !

A few things based on some hard facts and numbers rather than opinion and of course, I do point some speculation, which can be perceived as my own opinion in regards to the success of the DCEU or DC Films.

We have all been witness to internet false news, scoops that don’t turn out true, negative articles towards the DC Extended Universe. So far it sounds like a bunch of old man that do not want to see Super hero movies with a deeper script than punch, get punched, fight back!

It started with Man of Steel back in 2013, which critics call divisive, but monetary the movie is the biggest Superman solo grossing movie, now in terms of sold seats Superman 1978 might take the crown, but back in 1978 we didn’t also have piracy on the internet, BluRay/DVD sales, streaming etc. , so let’s just assume that a movie did what it did and then VHS sales were hard to track due to the lack of internet, tracking sites and tools for us mortals to use and find how much it generated after being released on home entertainment. I am sure that someone at Warner’s knows how much it did in VHS sales, but I personally don’t have this info. Basically, coming to the conclusion that both movies did fairly good in their respective times and conditions of release.

Man of Steel finished it’s run at 668 Million USD worldwide and added another 67 Million in DVD sales, that’s it not including the money it made from streaming and TV rights to various giants like Netflix. Now with all that being said, a Rotten Tomatoes score of 55 % is a bit of a head scratcher to me, since this movie has great and complex story, amazing visuals and one of the best musical scores out there for a superhero movie, along with TDK trilogy, Superman 78, Spider-man original trilogy, Batman 89 etc. You can like it or hate it, still the movie launched the DCEU and made many people that laughed at the idea of a Superman movie in 2013, after Superman Returns performed not especially high for WB, watch out for his next movies.

Now Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad the next movies in line to come out from the DCEU were bashed critically by the same RT reviewers, even worse than MOS, again the movies both performed very good in the Box Office, enough so that combined with Wonder Woman, it gave them enough money to go past the critically beloved MCU both domestically and internationally on average gross per movie. Have in mind that Marvel the teacher’s pet and favorite, is now a franchise associated with success on critical and financial terms, where there is turmoil just as much as any studio, directors leave, writers leave, people get replaced in parts without re-boots etc., but lacks the same negative press 24/7.

What I look at today is the more facts versus hear say, facts are that currently, the DCEU is doing the following average numbers per movie domestically $339,513,662 Million and internationally $776.500.000 Million, compared to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe $291,576,450 Million domestic average per movie gross and $743.700.000 Million. So, all said and done, if DC keeps on giving in the same financial aspect, we can expect the average gross per movie to remain in DC’s favor, I don’t see how Justice League doesn’t do 850 M plus or much more ( 1 Billion is the magic number) and I from what we have seen and heard about Aquaman, I think it is safe to say it will be really easy to reach that 800 M mark, which is all it needs for the trend to continue in 5 movies, reaching a good 5 Billion in 6 movies. For comparison, MCU’s first 6 generated around 3.8 Billion and they all were highly praised.

Now here is where things get interesting, we are waiting for a Batman movie by Matt Reeves, who made an Ape franchise profitable and this is something that we have seen lately, where anything non superhero related tanking at the BO, so expect The Batman to be a smash for WB. It’s possible that he gets back to his Billion dollar days as seen previously with Nolan’s last two movies, and as reported WB/DC are looking to do a trilogy. So we might be looking at a 3 Billion franchise there alone, something no Marvel solo character has done so far. Also, coming up is a Suicide Squad 2, a movie which in the hands of a great director like Gavin O'Connor could overperform the first one (made 745 M USD worldwide without China). So with a critically loved sequel, a better script and a great villain, this is another contender for the 800 M + club. Then we have Wonder Woman 2, the first movie is now closing in at 819 M worldwide gross, which we already know the sequel will beat as internationally people didn’t know the character as well as they do other properties from the 90s. We know superheroes can move pass 400 M USD worldwide once they are established to the local audience, so with WW2, i personally expect a 850 M + worldwide gross or more.

Then we have the Flash movie that will feature a Flashpoint story, and probably will feature some additional characters like Wonder Woman and others, so you know with the popularity of the TV show we are in for a winner here, another possible 800 M + movie is a no brainer. Batgirl by Joss, I would say, based on female lead action movies resurgence and adding the fact that DCEU fans will turn up to see it, it’s possible that this will be a 600 M + movie or least have this to be its finish number worldwide. Joker origin movie with Martin S. producing, that could be huge, depending on who they cast and the look and feel of the movie, Nightwing is another movie that by associating itself with the Bat world is a 650 M + optionally, Gotham City Sirens with a brand new Catwoman another one that can easily do 650 M +. Black Adam and Shazam, based on the fact one has the Rock and the other will be a more fun kid oriented flick, both can overperform, but at their lowest we are looking at 600 M +, then we have a Green Lantern Corps movie, which if done right can be a contender for those upper 800-900 M + BO numbers, if done right! So, with the DCEU ranking in good money, and possible sequels for Justice League and Batman, Wonder Woman fighting for that billion spot, I am definitely not worried for them.

On the other hand, Marvel are still protected by the fake news media, and their whole YouTube movie talk family, taking it easy on all their movies by default. But facts are Spider-man Homecoming (who’s profit went to Sony not Disney just FYI) is considered a success, but all I see is a Spider-man movie featuring the biggest seller in the Marvel family Iron Man that is still behind Spider-man 3 which was terrible! Also let’s not forget that Spider-man’s IP (Intellectual Property -all rights to merch and games etc.) is 3 times more valuable than Superman and Batman combined, so when MCU fans attack Batman V Superman for underperforming at 832 Million, then considering popularity, a single Spider-man movie should be easily a 1.5 + Billion dollar movie following that logic right?

I see Inhumans (already cancelled by ABC for a 2nd season) and Iron Fist holding the records for lowest rated superhero shows and movies with 7% and 17 % and I see a Defenders show in Netflix that didn’t perform better than any of the solo stuff on Netflix in terms of streaming numbers. Also, all MCU movies featuring the Avengers like: Marvel’s the Avengers, Age of Ultron and Civil War have performed with a 100 Million or more less in the BO over time, so if Infinity War doesn’t manage to rake in more than the original movie back in 2012, then the budget of the movie will kill it financially. People try to compare it to how Star Wars The Force Awakens performed in the BO* (BO- Box office), but that movie was 40 years in the making since the first original hit cinemas in 1977, and no one considers the prequels (episode 1 to 3) as successful and they didn’t really feature the original cast. So with that being said, with MCU giving people 2-3 movies per year, I think their audience has been solid but, not really taking them past a billion very often, so lets say this movie is a bigger event that The Avengers back in 2012, should be able to make 1.6-1.8 Billion right? Well, the only thing we haven’t seen from them is a full cast assembly and a good villain, the first is promised, the second is very doubtful for now. Anyway, I don’t think Infinity War will win general audience, with a plot about magic stones as much as MCU fans think, and I don’t think a pink giant will be a villain that will have regular movie goers running to the cinema, but it might catch up to the original, or do a “Iron Man 3” numbers 1.3 B USD. It is not easy doing Avatar or Star Wars numbers, Avatar at the time it came out, had a first ever 3D movie experience feel to it, not a lot of people went because they like sci fi as much, but more or less to see an event, this feel is now gone and I don’t expect the follow ups to score this pay day again.

You have each individual star in that movie from the entire MCU line up, plus additional actors for villains and supporting cast showing up, and we know RDJR charges a minimum of 15 M just to show up, not mentioning the backend, then we have Chris Evans who might have gotten 300,000 USD for the first Captain America movie, but since Winter Soldier I doubt that he gets paid even close to that number, he is getting around the 10 Million for sure, and you can assume Scarlet, Mark, Chris H. etc., are not far away as numbers, so a movie that is spending close to 200 + Million on salaries and another 200 M on the movie itself or more, should be aiming for a 1.6 B at least.

This year Marvel escaped the long stick of the critics, since they all love them so much, but we know GOTG Vol 2 was just not good at all, Spider-man was not the best movie of the franchise, it managed to save itself with the MCU origin story and Iron Man crammed in it, but was pretty basic Spider-man storytelling and Thor 3 is up with a movie advertising itself as a Thor vs Hulk scenario, which from the trailers we already know, will not happen for more than 10 minutes.

So while you little bloggers point to the downfall of DCEU and call it as such, all i see is its rise and the decrease in attention for MCU movies slowly and effectively by general audiences, even FOX are doing more interesting things with X Force, New Mutants and Deadpool 2. Even with critics pretending that movies coming from the MCU in the style and quality of the Incredible Hulk, Thor 2, Iron Man 2, Hulk (which is only referred to as non MCU, but actually continues the story in TIH as it left off with different actors), Ant-man and other super basic movies that have 0 re-watch appeal, I can tell, that if Marvel/Disney don’t start putting 110 % effort in their solo movies and stop relying on their team up’s to carry water for their other movies, they will lose the box office very soon. Not to mention that Avengers 3 and 4 have 1 year time in between them and will most likely leave audiences waiting for the full conclusion, which might leave some people pissed off.

All in all, they might perform good, considering it will be an all-out war and someone in the MCU might die for real this time, and I don’t mind if they perform good, not at all. Still I just don’t see how people would come and see your movies for over 10 years when you don’t evolve with them (your audience). Most of the fans of the MCU are young guys (of course not only, it’s all ages and genders, but they do have a lot of kids as fans as well) and they haven’t stopped growing, just because Marvel has at some point. When they reach that 25 + age range, these films will lose some of their appeal to them.

See you in all in cinemas across the world on November 17th for the first ever DC shared universe event that has the entire League united!

Geek on!

#DCEU MCU JUSTICELEAGUE WONDERWOMAN AQUAMAN FLASH CYBORG SUPERMAN BATMAN BATGIRL

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