[trailer] John Carter

[Ariana_FFD]

The critic from Variety blasts it...which is actually a plus in my book.

Though the 9-foot, green-skinned Tharks look much as Burroughs described them, they are curiously unappealing to human eyes, just one of the stylistic decisions that reinforces the superiority of James Cameron's "Avatar." For the kind of sex appeal that brings teenage libidos to a boil, one need look no further than the Red Martians, especially Helium princess Dejah Thoris (Lily Collins), with her tan skin and henna-style body art.

So the movie captures the vision of a beloved series of books...but ultimately fails because of it? And because Cameron's Avatar has aliens you'd want to have sex with, it's inherently superior?

You know i questioned that henna body art myself! Seriously if she was red with deeper henna work it might have been ok. But i am only going by my own visuals i formed reading the description of her in the original novel. BTW in the Frazetta pic i posted, you can see her color is a ruddy red compared to JC's. Frazetta's Tharks are creepier too!

Ariana

[Fretmute]

So the movie captures the vision of a beloved series of books...but ultimately fails because of it? And because Cameron's Avatar has aliens you'd want to have sex with, it's inherently superior?

I'd've thought that one with tresses such as yours would know that Style is King.

[hentzau]

The critic from Variety blasts it...which is actually a plus in my book.

Though the 9-foot, green-skinned Tharks look much as Burroughs described them, they are curiously unappealing to human eyes, just one of the stylistic decisions that reinforces the superiority of James Cameron's "Avatar." For the kind of sex appeal that brings teenage libidos to a boil, one need look no further than the Red Martians, especially Helium princess Dejah Thoris (Lily Collins), with her tan skin and henna-style body art.

So the movie captures the vision of a beloved series of books...but ultimately fails because of it? And because Cameron's Avatar has aliens you'd want to have sex with, it's inherently superior?

You know i questioned that henna body art myself! Seriously if she was red with deeper henna work it might have been ok. But i am only going by my own visuals i formed reading the description of her in the original novel. BTW in the Frazetta pic i posted, you can see her color is a ruddy red compared to JC's. Frazetta's Tharks are creepier too!

Ariana

Interview where Andrew Stanton talks about the red skin issue...

Then for the red men I wanted to go as red as I could get away with and it turns out you can’t go that red without it looking really weird. (Laughs) I was fortunately enough in my early talks I was talking with Roger Guyett at ILM before we knew which visual effects house we were going with and they had been struggling with the green woman on STAR TREK on JJ’s STAR TREK and the hell that they had to go through just to make that one green woman work and even then they weren’t completely satisfied kind of made me realize that to go to an entire nation of people in an unnatural red was pretty much unobtainable without it looking really processes and fake or just making them look sun burnt. No matter what we did… So I said, “Look, everybody buys a certain complexion” and they kept being referred to in the books as “copper skinned,” so I said “Well Jesus, let’s just make them a copper tan like Mediterranean skinned people and let’s give them lots of red tattoos, because then it’s a term of reference for them. It’s not that they are literally red men, but they call them the red men, because they are tanned and because they’ve got red tattoos all over them.” I thought that was a very interesting cultural technique to add to it that would give them a kind of gravitas of history that you would believe it’s a nation that had all of this history behind it and cultural habits and routines that we didn’t know all about, just like when you visit a country and you don’t know everything about them. I thought it would evoke that, so I thought that was a pretty smart way to get around something we just couldn’t achieve.

I'm not 100% sure I buy into that argument, but AS seems like enough of a Burrough's fanboy that if he could have gotten the red skin to work he would have...

[GreenGoo]

Huh. I would have thought that post processing was at such a level that skin tone could be altered in the computer lab. In fact it seems like a nearly trivial thing in this day and age. But I'm not computer artist.

[Ariana_FFD]

Come on after Avatar i honestly think the "Red" skin issue is totally a mute point to achieve. I did a graphic of a Blue Skinned character that i created by adjust only the curves on her! If i can do it they should be able too as well!!! See sample.

Ariana

[Odin]

Okay, folks, I need a ruling. Is it too soon on this?

totally a mute point

[pr0ner]

The film score is the MP3 deal of the day on Amazon. (I posted the link that I got by going through the OO referral page...no clue if it carries over the referral link properly though.)

Glad to see this is a Michael Giacchino score. He did one of my favorite soundtracks ever (The Incredibles.)

Giacchino runs hot and cold for me. The latest Mission: Impossible score, for example, was decidedly meh.

[GreenGoo]

Okay, folks, I need a ruling. Is it too soon on this?

totally a mute point

Yeah, a little.

[Ariana_FFD]

BUT! Darn the more i see the trailers, i really don't care so much about her skin or his lack of a more heroic stature! I want to see the City and the creatures and those freakin' awesome looking ships!

Friday can't come soon enough...

~A~

[hepcat]

Okay, folks, I need a ruling. Is it too soon on this?

totally a mute point

She may have meant silent, who knows?

[Ariana_FFD]

Okay, folks, I need a ruling. Is it too soon on this?

totally a mute point

She may have meant silent, who knows?

UGH! MOOT! Hey I'm stretched by the puter stress i am under.... Maybe I should have been mute! LOL!!!

Funny... 1 point for the p'nut gallery... Only took me 5 posts to get a clue, that should count for something!

Ariana

[hepcat]

Trust me, most of us have done far worse at one time or another.

[Odin]

Trust me, most of us have done far worse at one time or another.

And been hammered for it!

[Ariana_FFD]

What can i say?
Good morning! 2 more days to JC!

I am around but pestering dell by phone for a new system. Wish me luck!

HugZ!
Ariana

[GreenGoo]

Will probably wait for it to be released to the home market, but it might inspire me to pick up a book or two.

The cheese factor might be too much for even me to tolerate though.

[Odin]

Good luck! Give 'em hell!

Don't forget to check their "factory refurbished" machines. From what I've seen, most (nearly all) of them are actually units that were refused delivery or canceled after they'd been built and/or shipped, so they're "used" only in the sense that they weren't built specifically to you. I saved a couple hundred on my wife's laptop that way and it has worked out great for us.

[hepcat]

Good luck! Give 'em hell!

Don't forget to check their "factory refurbished" machines. From what I've seen, most (nearly all) of them are actually units that were refused delivery or canceled after they'd been built and/or shipped, so they're "used" only in the sense that they weren't built specifically to you. I saved a couple hundred on my wife's laptop that way and it has worked out great for us.

+1 I order all our servers and laptops from Dell and I always suggest checking their outlet store for deals to our folks who want personal systems. Dell also has great warranties that are usually included.

[LordMortis]

Dell also has great warranties that are usually included.

Dell business warranties (and business customer service) rock. Dell home warranty (and home customer service) is a drinking game of darts. To drive that point home, Dell home machines have more better technology for substantially cheaper but that cutting edge technology on the cheap holds up much worse than does their business related machines... forcing you to work with the often less helpful and less responsive purveyors of warranty service on the home end.

[Odin]

Dell also has great warranties that are usually included.

Dell business warranties (and business customer service) rock. Dell home warranty (and home customer service) is a drinking game of darts. To drive that point home, Dell home machines have more better technology for substantially cheaper but that cutting edge technology on the cheap holds up much worse than does their business related machines... forcing you to work with the often less helpful and less responsive purveyors of warranty service on the home end.

Spring for DELL Completecare and never worry again. My last DELL desktop had its share of issues (arguably more than its share), but through my 4-year Completecare warranty, I got:

1. A completely new 24" LCD monitor (when it was determined that the built-in USB hub was causing my PC to blue screen repeatedly)
2. A new motherboard
3. New RAM
4. A new HDD (I think - I may have told them to keep that one since we'd determined the HDD wasn't at fault and I didn't want to transfer my data. Hard to remember, though - there might have been a second incident where the drive was replaced)
5. A new GeForce card
6. A new multi-smartcard reader (we discovered after he'd replaced it that the old one was just unplugged - probably a relic of a previous visit).

Note that by "new" I mean "factory refurbished," but close enough for my needs.

Not all of these things NEEDED to be replaced, but when I had an issue they'd send a guy to do on-site service within 24 hours and he'd usually show up with several boxes of factory-refurbished parts to swap out during diagnosis. I think I was also in the "DELL XPS Premier Club" because it was an XPS system, so that played some role in the level of service I received as well.

Now, my service wasn't without complaint. Some of the Indian call center techs were competent only to read from a script, and at some point they screwed up my warranty so it looked like it had expired several years early. I was only able to get that fixed because I had kept the credit card I originally used to order the system (even though the card itself had been canceled and re-issued with a new number. I happened to be using the old card as a stand for my guitar tuner).

If I hadn't had that coverage, though, I'm sure I'd have broken down and bought a new PC by now after one of the failures it had. Instead, I'm heading for my 5th year and it's still chugging along.

[LordMortis]

I'm going to assume Complete is similar if not identical to the business warranties we purchase

(checks an invoice). It's an awful wordy way to say 3 Years of NBD onsite support, with good phone tech, but it's so worth it, especially for laptops, which will break within three years of constant traveling with typical end user, non ownership levels of care.

934-7368 1 Dell Limited Hardware Warranty Plus Service Extended Year(s)
929-0587 1 Dell Limited Hardware Warranty Plus Service Initial Year
937-7522 1 ProSupport: Next Business Day Limited Onsite Service After Remote Diagnosis 2 Year Extended
939-1890 1 ProSupport: Next Business Day Limited Onsite Service After Remote Diagnosis Initial Year
989-3449 1 Thank you choosing Dell ProSupport. xxxxxxxxx
953-6032 1 ProSupport: 7x24 Technical Support, 2 Year Extended
956-5310 1 ProSupport: 7x24 Technical Support, Initial

[hepcat]

Wow, this went off topic rather abruptly.

[Ariana_FFD]

Good luck! Give 'em hell!

Don't forget to check their "factory refurbished" machines. From what I've seen, most (nearly all) of them are actually units that were refused delivery or canceled after they'd been built and/or shipped, so they're "used" only in the sense that they weren't built specifically to you. I saved a couple hundred on my wife's laptop that way and it has worked out great for us.

Damn! I saw an $8,000.00 refurb Inspiron laptop with crap in it! LOL!!! I can buy from Digital Storm at those prices! No T5400's available today either.

My GX745 is a refurb and boy they had to put in 4 mobo's, 6 CPU's, 2 fans, and 1 PS! I have a business, so my warrenty was the same. Different type warranty from 8 years ago, but basically the same.

Ariana

[Ariana_FFD]

Wow, this went off topic rather abruptly.

Hey i can paint myself red and parade around the thread!

I am still looking forward to the movie...

Ariana

[Kraken]

Wow, this went off topic rather abruptly.

OK then, back on topic. Here's a curmudgeon who believes that the Hollywood treatment can only disappoint. His review is based on seeing the trailer. But he still makes an interesting point.

It does about as well as one could reasonably expect of a movie that cost a quarter-billion dollars to make and market, with all the handicaps such a price tag implies: the anxious executives, the focus groups, the hideous undead influence of Walt Disney, all the extra hands laid on the project to steer it toward well-hedged predictability.

[Ariana_FFD]

OK then, back on topic. Here's a curmudgeon who believes that the Hollywood treatment can only disappoint. His review is based on seeing the trailer. But he still makes an interesting point.
[/quote]

Interesting thoughts on this....

Ariana

[hepcat]

Okay, all set. There's a 4pm matinee tomorrow afternoon at the Evanston Century 12. I go into work early I can leave by 3pm. Any Chicoganites that want to join me, just let me know.

[hentzau]

Okay, all set. There's a 4pm matinee tomorrow afternoon at the Evanston Century 12. I go into work early I can leave by 3pm. Any Chicoganites that want to join me, just let me know.

Really wish I could. I'll anxiously await your review though.

[Odin]

Oh goddammit!! It's in 3D?? FUuuuuuck!!

The only 2D showings around here are at 7 and 10 PM - way too late to go with the family. Aaargh!! So that means paying a small fortune for tickets on top of what they'd normally cost, plus my family doesn't really enjoy the 3D experience (I think the glasses bother my daughter, who's pretty easily motion-sick).

Man, I am so sick of this 3D crap. It needs to die.

[hepcat]

I feel your pain. I usually avoid 3D unless reviews say it's worth it (note: most reviews usually say it's not, in my experience), but since the only 2D showing is 1pm, I'm going to shell out the extra bucks and endure the glasses this time.

[Odin]

I feel your pain. I usually avoid 3D unless reviews say it's worth it (note: most reviews usually say it's not, in my experience), but since the only 2D showing is 1pm, I'm going to shell out the extra bucks and endure the glasses this time.

See, 1 PM would have been PERFECT for us. Dammit.

[coopasonic]

I feel your pain. I usually avoid 3D unless reviews say it's worth it (note: most reviews usually say it's not, in my experience), but since the only 2D showing is 1pm, I'm going to shell out the extra bucks and endure the glasses this time.

See, 1 PM would have been PERFECT for us. Dammit.

What kind of backwaters do you folks live in? Within 15 miles I have 17 2D showings.

[hepcat]

Chicago.

Most theaters try to maximize their investment in the 3D facilities that they've invested in by limiting the number of 2D offerings for a few weeks. I would imagine the area you live in probably has far less 3D capable theaters then we do. You should move to a more technologically advanced area. Are there any cities around you that have discovered fire?

[Isgrimnur]

Are there any cities around you that have discovered fire?

Yup. And we even figured it out without burning the whole place to the ground.

[Odin]

I feel your pain. I usually avoid 3D unless reviews say it's worth it (note: most reviews usually say it's not, in my experience), but since the only 2D showing is 1pm, I'm going to shell out the extra bucks and endure the glasses this time.

See, 1 PM would have been PERFECT for us. Dammit.

What kind of backwaters do you folks live in? Within 15 miles I have 17 2D showings.

I'm in Syracuse. We have one mainstream theater company - Regal. And Regal realized that I would opt for their 2D showings if possible, so in what I can only assume must be a personal attack on me, they've largely eliminated them.

[hepcat]

Are there any cities around you that have discovered fire?

Yup. And we even figured it out without burning the whole place to the ground.

well played, sir. well played. in our defense, we live nowhere near a large water source.

[Odin]

Are there any cities around you that have discovered fire?

Yup. And we even figured it out without burning the whole place to the ground.

well played, sir. well played. in our defense, we live nowhere near a large water source.

[Ariana_FFD]

I went to one 3D movie and that was Avatar. I thought i would lose my lunch... Sometimes 3D is going way overboard. Oh hey i take that back i saw 13 Ghosts in the original 3D. In the movie experience 3D does nothing for me at all. I too have found a 2D showing for the matinee, but decided that sunday is a better day to go because that one is a 9:45am showing.

Ariana

[Kraken]

3D movies are just one more good excuse to wait for the DVD to hit Netflix.

[hepcat]

but decided that sunday is a better day to go because that one is a 9:45am showing.

Ariana

but...but...but...popcorn! a soda! how can you have this at 9:45 in the morning!?

[coopasonic]

but decided that sunday is a better day to go because that one is a 9:45am showing.

Ariana

but...but...but...popcorn! a soda! how can you have this at 9:45 in the morning!?

err... why can't you? Did you burn that down too?