All-Star Superman Specs Announced

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Admiral_Young, Nov 30, 2010.

  1. Admiral_Young

    Admiral_Young Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    My apologies Christopher, totally blanked out when I read your post and didn't see that you were specifically asking about the rental blu-ray.
     
  2. davejames

    davejames Vice Admiral Admiral

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    They didn't early on, but I'm seeing it more and more now. Sometimes they even have "Rental" printed on the disc itself.

    One movie I really wanted to see some special features for was Social Network, but all you get at either Redbox or Blockbuster is just the one, bare-bones disc.
     
  3. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Oh, okay, that's what I thought. So my question is still unanswered.

    One question that maybe can be answered, though: if one has a conventional, non-HD television set, the kind with a picture tube rather than a flat screen, would there be any visible advantage in watching a Blu-ray disc rather than a conventional DVD?
     
  4. davejames

    davejames Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I'm no tech expert, but I can't imagine there would be. The best resolution those TV's could ever get was like 480 or something, and even DVD's were held back quite a bit from showing their ultimate resolution. So a blu-ray isn't going to make any difference at all.
     
  5. Admiral_Young

    Admiral_Young Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Aw. This thread is being cluttered by technical questions. Perhaps I should have started a separate thread after all. Alexis does a great job as Dr. Quintim who is one of my favorite characters in "All Star Superman". This just had a really great cast.
     
  6. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    That's what I figured. Didn't hurt to ask, though.
     
  7. Skywalker

    Skywalker Admiral Admiral

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    Of course all the good stuff is on the Blu-ray nowadays. They want you to adopt the new format, so they put all the goodies on there and usually leave the DVDs barebones.
     
  8. AviTrek

    AviTrek Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    First screen technology has nothing to do with HD. I've seen CRT HDTVs and LCDs that are non-HD. But assuming you have a standard 640x480 resolution TV then you won't be able to see any benefit from Blu-ray.

    Theoretically you can still here the uncompressed audio, but if you don't have an HDTV I'm going to assume you don't have decent speakers to hear the audio either.
     
  9. Admiral_Young

    Admiral_Young Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Guys really...it sucks we can't edit the title of our posts, grrr! Kind of want discussion on the movie it's self not really technical commentary on the merits of Blu-Ray.
     
  10. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    I have a Sony A/V control center that the audio goes through to my "box" speakers, which are old but of reasonable quality, since they're used for my audio system as well. Because my TV doesn't have good speakers of its own, I generally just use it as a monitor for the cable signal that goes into my VCR.


    Anyway, my questions about rental may have been moot. My local Blockbuster is closing (because the adjacent grocery store bought the lot, not because of the company's overall problems, purportedly) and isn't getting new videos anymore, and the next-closest one is too far to be worth driving to with gas prices as steep as they currently are.
     
  11. If you watch DVDs on a good up-scaling player, then I actually agree, the difference isn't that noticeable. Like, watching it on a PS3 with HDMI... I honestly don't know if i'm watching DVD or BR.

    However I plugged in my old PS2 to my 40 inch HDTV and played a DVD on it and it looked like ass.
     
  12. davejames

    davejames Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Hmm, just saw this, and while I'd say it's one of their better efforts (especially compared to that Apocalypse one which put me to sleep)... something definitely got lost in the translation I think.

    Adapting a comic like this really required a delicate touch and different approach, but too much of this felt like just another DC animated movie to me. The underlying sense of wonder and fun and, most of all, whimsy that came through so strongly in the comic's story and art really seemed to be lacking. There were little hints of it here and there, and some of it came through in the music, but not nearly enough.

    I mean, all you have to do is look at the big reveal of the Fortress's interior. In the comic it's a moment which feels truly fun and magical, but here it just falls completely flat, the huge room reduced to just another one of those flat and generic paintings that looks like it came out of the old animated series.

    Of course to be fair, I'm not sure anything short of big-budget, Pixar-level animation could have really done this comic justice, but I was still expecting a bit more of that magic to come through than it did.

    I did think the voice cast was good though. And despite everything else, the ending was still pretty effective and moving.
     
    Last edited: Feb 24, 2011
  13. Mistral

    Mistral Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Watched this last night w/my kid. He kinda drifted but I loved it.
    Not bad for a cartoon, not bad at all....
     
  14. Dream

    Dream Admiral Admiral

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    I hate you. I wanted to start a topic about the film itself, but you had to bump this months old topic. :p

    I liked the movie by the way, though I wish there could have been a little more action. This movie is up there with Superman: Doomsday and Batman: Under the Red Hood movies.
     
    Last edited: Mar 1, 2011
  15. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    I find that encouraging. I've often wished these movies would dial back on the action some to make more room for the plot and characters.
     
  16. Admiral_Young

    Admiral_Young Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    @Dream...lol. I should have just waited or started a new thread but got to see the movie early and needed to post my review. "All-Star Superman" is really at it's core a great character profile piece on Superman himself and to an extent Lois Lane and Lex Luthor as well. The action sequences in the film and with the original comic are really secondary and are used as a way to enhance the character if that makes sense. There were problems with the adaption...the main being that 70 minutes is simply too short for something that is this extensive and "meta".

    I love this so much that I'm seriously considering getting the Absolute version.
     
  17. Mistral

    Mistral Vice Admiral Admiral

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    They have a version that comes with vodka? :eek:
     
  18. drychlick

    drychlick Captain Captain

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    i saw it it was good! But please MORE action please! my blockbuster not have but got it off on demmad :)
     
  19. Admiral_Young

    Admiral_Young Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    All-Star Superman the comic doesn't have a lot of action in it. That's not really the point of it.
     
  20. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    As it happens, I just saw this via On Demand myself -- a service I didn't even realize I had until last week. Although I had to do some searching on the cable company’s help page to figure out the right code to enter to buy the movie; they don’t make it easy to find or give any clear instructions. Unfortunately the movie was “formatted to fit your screen” rather than letterboxed, so I didn’t quite get the full experience. But at least I’ve seen the movie now, and it was worth it. Definitely one of the best DC Universe DVD movies they’ve done, though of course they had to leave out a lot of great stuff from the comics miniseries, and the actors playing Superman and Lois were a little bland.

    I felt they did a good job of creating a look that reflected Quitely's style while being cleaner for animation; in some ways I actually prefer it to Quitely's art. I was disappointed that they didn't use Leo Quintum's coat of many colors but just put him in a solid violet jacket.