Star Trek: The Next Generation Blu Ray Sampler review

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION

BLU RAY SAMPLER REVIEW

It’s hard to believe this but Star Trek: The Next Generation is 25 years old this year. Back then it big shock for Trek fans to see a new series that did not feature Kirk, Spock,McCoy and the original crew but the show not only won the hearts of Trek fans it became a great show in it’s own right. The characters of Picard, Data and Worf up there among the favourites of the fans.

Now following The Original Series having been remastered brilliantly onto HD, it is now the turn of The Next Generation. Season One is not out until the late Summer but in the mean time CBS/Paramount have released a Sampler featuring the feature length pilot “Encounter at Farpoint” and two fan favourites, “Sins of the Father” from Season Three and “The Inner Light” from Season Five. After watching these episodes on blu ray, all I can say is that I cannot wait for the next boxset. The picture has never looked so beautiful and it sounds great.

The remastering of Next Gen is different from The Original Series, with Next Gen being a show that was shot on film but processed onto videotape for editing means that they have to go back to the original film stock and physically reconstruct the episodes. It is a big job which will take a long time but after watching these episodes on the sampler it is definitely going to be worth it. The contrasts and the detail show up a lot better, detail that was blurred when it was brought onto videotape.

The colours are a lot richer than on video and DVD.

Unlike The Original Series new CGI shots have not been recreated for all the space shots. They have gone back to the original model shots and touched up the effects some with CG, especially the ones done previously on videotape such as phaser blasts. The Klingon Homeworld was redone with CG but matches perfectly with the original. It is basically the original effects as they should have looked.

Yet they are using the project to correct some visual effects errors. One such error was from “Encounter at Farpoint” in which the Enterprise fired a particle beam from the captain’s yacht but now is correctly emanating from the phaser array.

It should be noted that 13 seconds of film from “Sins of the Father” was not located so they had to be upconverted from the original videotape. There is a noticeable difference as it looks a bit blurred in comparison for those few seconds but if you’re not looking for it then you may not notice it.

But as another reviewer said it just shows how massive a task CBS have in store by going back and remastering this wonderful show.

The sampler was a only £6.99 and inside there is a coupon to get £5 off season one when it comes out. The sampler is simply a tease for what is to come and after watching it I am pumped for the boxsets.

The episodes themselves are not choices to showcase off the tweaked effects as they are more character based. “Encounter Farpoint” makes sense as it is the pilot episode. I cannot wait to see episodes such as “Q Who” and “Best of Both Worlds” on blu ray.

Make it so!

Post Christmas Day Blues

Well it's that time in the Holiday season when you begin to feel a little down, the excitement of the presents and the family all together for the day eating turkey and the now traditional Doctor Who Christmas Special have once again all past.

Although I don't get as excited as I did when I was a kid I still feel a little blue once the big day passes as the new year always depresses me. All I can do is look forward to the new year and in 2012 I want to make it the year that everything counts. This will be the year things will go my way.

Happy new year

BATMAN LIVE REVIEW

Holy Stage Productions Batman! Yes it's the oldest cliche in the book when it comes to starting any review on a Batman production. A live stage production based on DC Comic's greatest hero, Batman, could have went to the camp tone of the sixties series with Adam West. However, fortunately it did not.

In fact the tone of Batman Live was very reminiscent of the Animated Series I loved so much from the 1990s. Not surprising as it was written by Alan Burnett, who had written for that wonderful show.

Batman Live has a lot of wonderful Circus Acrobats and a little bit of illusion in it, and although this might sound like it is moving away from Batman, several of the main parts are set in a circus and therefore it was great that the Live show was a new take on the origins of Robin. 

The aerial work with the stunts such as Batman flying with his cape open was fantastic. The fight sequences, apart from one with Catwoman, were brilliantly chereographed.

Performances all around were excellent, especially from the performers playing The Joker and harley Quinn. Very reminiscent of Mark Hamill's performance on the Animated Series and Harley Quinn was pitch perfect from the Animated series counterpart.

Joker was a touch more camp than the more recent Heath Ledger interpretation but I feel the one on the show feels true to how I see Joker as Mark Hamill's one is one of the definitive takes on The Joker. 

I found the story engaging and the aerial work fantastic. The computer graphics on the back wall worked great to move the story along.

A great show that every Bat fan needs to see.

Fright Night 2011 Review

A few years ago I saw a good chunk of an 80s horror film called Fright Night. What I saw of it I loved and I liked all the eighties ness of the film. It had a wonderful camp vibe to it that was just good fun.

A friend loaned a copy of the film to me a few months ago and finally saw it completely and loved it. Chris Sarandon was camp yet suave as the vampire Jerry Dandrige and I thought that Roddy McDowell was brilliant as the horror actor Peter Vincent, the 'vampire killer'.

This brings me to the remake which I was a skeptical about, then again there are just too many remakes these days. However, I have to admit I found that I liked the remake more than I thought I would. I found it  entetaining and eschewing the 'crapness' surrounding vampires at the current moment with the likes of Twilight. 

Now how does it rate in comparison to the original. I still think the original is t he better one of the two but the remake is definitely still worth a watch.

Anton Yelchin's Charlie Brewster seemed a tad too unlikeable at the start but I warmed to his version  as the film moved on, I didn't like how he treated his friend Ed, the new version of Evil Ed, at the start but he got better as he learned. Colin Farrell was pretty good as Jerry, a bit more 'blokey' with his beer and casual appearance in comparison to the camp suave of Chris Sarandon, which I loved.

David Tennant had a hard act to follow as Peter Vincent, who is now a Criss Angel type illusionist, and although I think he is a great actor I didn't warm to his Peter Vincent as much. There was a charm to Roddy McDowell that made the character enduring, a actor trying to be braver than he actually was and overcoming the fear. And he also had a wonderful camp style in the original. Tennant's Peter Vincent was a bit crude and scratching your balls just doesn't seem as funny to me than Peter Vincent driving off in the original thinking Charlie is a bit bonkers.

Overall I rate the Fright Night remake a Three out of Five.

45 years of Star Trek

45 years ago today the very first episode of Star Trek aired with the episode "The Man Trap". Although it was the sixth episode aired, the producers thought that this episode was the best one to launch the show on.

The pilot episode 'Where No Man Has Gone Before' actually aired two weeks later, which was actually the second pilot. Which is the pisode which introduced Kirk, Scotty and Sulu. Although Sulu was a physicist in this pilot and not the helmsman. It seemed a bit jarring to put the pilot third, given things like the uniforms being different, Sulu's position being different and a different doctor.

Although Spock was the only one who survived from the first pilot 'The Cage' a lot of what became his character was established here as well. In 'The Cage' Spock was very emotional and it was the first officer 'Number One' who was the logical one. When she was dropped a lot of her character traits were added to Spock and  that's how Spock became the icon that he is today.

The original piot had Jeffrey Hunter playing Captain Pike who, in comparison to Kirk, seemed more reflective and perhaps more cerebral. At the start he is thinking of resigning because of the stress of his command and losing crewmembers on a mission.

When I watch Pike I do see the prototype of what became Picard on the Next Generation. But he did not have the energy that Bill Shatner had when he played Captain Kirk. There is an energy Shatner brings to Kirk, even now at 80 Shatner still has the energy of a man half his age. He made Captain Kirk and to me will always be the real Kirk.

I am currently going through the Original Series again and this is the first time I have been watching them remastered. The new remastered effects add a freshness to the episodes but what I love is that they are very faithful to the original episodes and they don't take you out. The true gem of the remastered episodes is seeing the true beauty of Matt Jeffries' designed Enterprise. 45 years later and that ship is still a beauty.

Even though the JJ Abrams' movie is not my preferred take on Star Trek, it is wonderful that the movie is keeping the Trek flame alive and getting stronger once again. Star Trek in all its incarnations is a wonderful universe to be in and the scharacters and stories always inspired me.

So lets raise a toast to Star Trek. May it live long and prosper.

Quantum Leap Music Video

Well the modified music video is up for my tribute to Quantum Leap.

http://www.youtube.com/user/thestring5?feature=mhee#p/a/u/0/wahvm_IFcro

I am happy with the positive feedback I get from friends and posts online about how much they love these music videos that I produce.

Editing is becoming something I am enjoying with each new project.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes Review

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES

Too many classics are being rebooted or remade these days that I feel that a generation of cinemagoers will never appreciate the original. That is not to say that reboots and remakes are a bad thing but nine times out of ten they are usually inferior to the original.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a welcome reboot as I found myself really enjoying it. At one point when I first heard about it I thought it would be a remake of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes but it seemed to only take elements of the apes revolt against man. The story I found very engaging and I am not ashamed to say that I was rooting for the apes. Well, anyone who know Planet of the Apes knows what the eventual outcome will be anything.

One thing I was initially skeptical about was CGI replacing actors in make up. The make up  was so iconic for the original, which Rick Baker had developed upon for the Tim Burton remake a decade ago, to me was part of  the charm. There was something about actors in prosthetics that I felt would be lost in the CGI. However, it seems we have come along way in CGI and the CGI for the main ape character Caesar (as played by Andy Serkis) was incredible. The CGI brilliantly captured his performance and for the most part he felt real. 

Although there is still advantages, in my opinion, to having actors in make up for the apes for their later evolution if this rebooted series continues. But the main ape characters could be augmented by CGI and background apes could be CGI.  

Actors like Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter and Tim Roth made us believe that they were evolved apes rather than just actors wearing make up. Andy Serkis still gave a great performance as well.

James Franco was pretty decent in the lead human role of Will Rodman. It was great seeing John Lithgow on screen again playing his Altzeimer’s suffering dad and I felt he did an excellent performance. A cure for Altzeimer’s being the catalyst for the intelligent Caesar in the movie.

Well I don’t want to say too much on that part as I don’t like to spoil.

There are a lot of lovely references to the original Planet of the Apes. A few of the apes and characters are named after the actors and producer of the original series. A character is called Jacobs, after the producer Arthur P Jacobs no doubt.

And of course two of Charlton Heston’s classic lines are uttered in the film.

Of course it would be hard to top the original 1968 classic, it still stands up as one of the best sci fi movies of all time but this film is a worthy addition to the apes series.

I give it 4 out of 5.