"Club Penton" - Ask questions to Hollywood insider "Penton-Man"

[GabrielB]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Definately not. There is DNR, processing and bit starvation that are miles above it in the list. Fitting a movie that long into 22GB is no easy task, but they managed somehow

I've seen footage that hadn't been sent through the smoothie machine, it's not lacking

Well we have to disagree on this one. And I was not even referring to the BD release but mostly to my memory of the theatrical presentation + Imax showing and Genesis in general. The Genenis on Imax just broke apart. It was awful.

The Genesis in general I find it to lack the depth and richness you can achieve in film. The image it yields feels fragile. Whereas with film it's steady. I know it's a good camera but in my mind there is just no comparison. Again my opinion.

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

Jeff is oh-so-correct on this one, I saw it in IMAX and the HD version looks like DVD compared to what it could. It was very disappointing.

Yes... Exactly. That's why maybe it would have looked better if shot on film? I found I am Legend in Imax much more pleasing even though DNR was supposedly applied to the presentation.

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

For the record, the Director (Bryan Singer) shot a screen test of one of the actors both in Super 35 and 65mm. He was so amazed by the resolution and lack of grain of the 65mm capture that he initially contemplated shooting all of the movie in 65mm.

Yes and that's why I was like WTF when he said something like, "now that we got better than film...." speaking about the Genesis. It was in one of the video blogs here but are now offline unfortunately so I can't quote him correctly.

Lack of grain on Genesis? Plenty of noise.
Hey look! Valkyrie was shot on film! Ummm.

I'm just praying they reboot the franchise and Singer has nothing to do with it honestly and they give it to someone who can become the great creative leader of a Superman saga.

[BluDomain]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

I agree that $90 SRPs is a bit over the top

Well, it does give credence to the idea that restoration of old
classics doesn't give enough return for the cost. Anyone want
to tell the choir to run out and buy the first week to show
support....BS. Warner is telling people with these over the top
prices with filler special editions that they really don't want to
do them.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Vincent Pereira

There's actually a short bit in the documentary on SUPERMAN RETURNS of Singer holding up a piece of 65mm negative talking about his plans to shoot the film in that format. It's never mentioned again, and later of course we see the DP talking about shooting using the Genesis.

Vincent

Dang, these documentary extras are getting so revealing there won’t be much for me to talk about in the future.
After some of you guys watch Quantum of Solace, let me know if there is any specific mention of this opera tidbit (second to last paragraph) hidden in one of the featurettes somewhere……
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=7663
and if it is, then I’m curious as to whether they talk about how they synced up the 8 Dalsa Origin 4k cams for the skydiving sequence.

Superman Returns isn’t the greatest example to use as to the worthiness of the Genesis camera as it was shot during the early life of that camera and truth be told, the original cameras had some sensor errors (which have since been rectified) which manifested themselves with some artifacts but, not the video pre-processing manipulation artifacts that Jeff has accurately described.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by GabrielB

I'm just praying they reboot the franchise and Singer has nothing to do with it honestly and they give it to someone who can become the great creative leader of a Superman saga.

Maybe they can get someone who doesn't feel beholden to the mediocre Donner films and knows how to craft a plot without Krypton-size holes in it.

[GabrielB]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

The plethora of black flies and mosquitoes at a Mont-Saint-Anne international mountain bike race I participated in awhile back, will forever endear me to the fortitude of Les Québécois.

What month was that? Maybe you were there when they emerged at the beginning of the summer. Or maybe you didn't let them get used to you, you know. There are sensible animals... And so fragile...

And sorry, all the chicks I know don't really wonder and anticipate when Warner is gonna surprise us with their policy change regarding their BD releases for example. Well, they don't really care about Blu-Ray... Why is that I wonder... Are they blind and deaf you think?

Originally Posted by Oliver K

With a rich patron and lover of the arts so to say he might be getting a little credit as supporter of the restoration after the end credits or an insert up front and that is that - much more discreet.

Yes we can always dream...
But would studios even accept that? If Bill Gates wanted to budget a full blown restoration of Howard the Duck out of his pocket because he likes it so much, would the studio be even willing to accept the free gift?

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by horseflesh

Penton, and anyone one else (especially Warner people obviously)

George, it’s my opinion that many folks here would be more inclined to purchase if you were to subtract Lola’s age from Gus’s age, add a zero to the end and then multiply by 2….. and set the MSRP at that figure.

[GabrielB]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

Maybe they can get someone who doesn't feel beholden to the mediocre Donner films and knows how to craft a plot without Krypton-size holes in it.

Yes that was painful. Same lines. Same great master plan. Land! WTF is this?
And maybe one without Luthor for once?
And I'd recast Superman. (and of course everybody else) Routh looks too young. Superman is at least 30 years and looks very manly. (does that sound gay? )

Hey insiders any chance you can share something? I don't like these Wachowski brothers rumors...

[GabrielB]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Superman Returns isn’t the greatest example to use as to the worthiness of the Genesis camera as it was shot during the early life of that camera and truth be told, the original cameras had some sensor errors (which have since been rectified) which manifested themselves with some artifacts but, not the video pre-processing manipulation artifacts that Jeff has accurately described.

Umm... OK. I would look at Planet Terror to give it another chance but they added that beautiful grain so I can't see clearly... Yes we likes it, we do.... What else then?...

edit: Click has this veil of noise (I like grain but not noise) and lacks depth. Same issues? 2006 release.

[Jeff Kleist]

Dang, these documentary extras are getting so revealing there won’t be much for me to talk about in the future.
After some of you guys watch Quantum of Solace, let me know if there is any specific mention of this opera tidbit (second to last paragraph) hidden in one of the featurettes somewhere……

The documentary was done by our good friend Rob Burnett, Director of Free Enterprise(and hopefully its sequel), the X-Men films, the underappreciated Shoot 'Em Up, and the upcoming "Hills Run Red". He's very thourough, also did the superb "Making of Tron" doc. My favorite part is Kevin Spacey driving around the lot in his Lex Luthor kryptonite golf cart declaring "Superman must die" on a megaphone, with a superman doll dragging off the bumper

He has a cameo in the film as a TV reporter from the shuttle launch

Planet terror has a "restored" version on the Blu-ray if memory serves without the grain.

Last I checked pretty much everyone including Warner liked Routh

And maybe one without Luthor for once?

Watch Superman 3 again before asking for that

Singer has/had something really really awesome planned for the second one. Who knows if we'll ever see it now.

[GabrielB]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Last I checked pretty much everyone including Warner liked Routh

Last I did it was pretty even.
A lot of people liked him because of his supposedly resemblance to Reeve.
I think he didn't made the role his at all. I don't consider Reeve to be a great actor at all but he had a presence on screen that Routh surely didn't have.

I mean it's all there! It's suppose to be Superman!

Watch Superman 3 again before asking for that

Ah c'mon... When I wrote that I thought "if someone comes back at me about SIII......" It's still Lex. Same kind of baddie. Rich dude. You know...

Singer has/had something really really awesome planned for the second one. Who knows if we'll ever see it now.

Well I lost a lot of faith in him after I saw (and also revisited) Superman Returns. It regurgitated too much of Donner's film. It had no scale. Was not epic. Characters had no depth. No hard choices. So much more problems. It's not because there were not enough action. It's because the film had a MAJOR identity crisis!

I believe you when you say he had awesome plans but even then these need to be grounded into something. Spider-Man 2 worked well because it had Spider-Man before. A good foundation. Foundation would have been very weak coming into Singer's supes sequel.

And I'm not even talking about his kid. How was he gonna turn that up?

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Watch Superman 3 again before asking for that

It's funny you should mention that - I rented it last year and watched it for the first time since the 80's - I swear I think I could have done a better job with a MiniDV! Those missile defences, the script, I mean I don't think other than Pryor's scene where he tries to insert both keys at the same time that SIII had a single redeeming quality about it, brutal.

What was the budget? A twoonie?

[Bobby Henderson]

More recent movies like The Lookout and Apocalypto do more to show off the relative strengths and weaknesses of the Panavision Genesis camera. I think it produces a great HD image as long as the subject matter is lit well.

I wasn't impressed with the image quality of Get Smart. Some issues were camera-related. Others were WB-policy related (cram the movie on a BD-25 and do all sorts of detail killing manipulation).

[GabrielB]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

It's funny you should mention that - I rented it last year and watched it for the first time since the 80's - I swear I think I could have done a better job with a MiniDV! Those missile defences, the script, I mean I don't think other than Pryor's scene where he tries to insert both keys at the same time that SIII had a single redeeming quality about it, brutal.

What was the budget? A twoonie?

Did you watch Superman IV recently as well? It's even worse.
Wires are gonna be funny to watch when this title finds its way on BD.

[GabrielB]

Originally Posted by Bobby Henderson

More recent movies like The Lookout and Apocalypto do more to show off the relative strengths and weaknesses of the Panavision Genesis camera. I think it produces a great HD image as long as the subject matter is lit well.

I haven't seen Lookout yet. Good advice. Yes I also find it shows one of its greatest weakness in low-light.

[Jeff Kleist]

Last I did it was pretty even.
A lot of people liked him because of his supposedly resemblance to Reeve.
I think he didn't made the role his at all. I don't consider Reeve to be a great actor at all but he had a presence on screen that Routh surely didn't have.

I mean it's all there! It's suppose to be Superman!

Christopher Reeve is the one and only Superman. All those who come after him should look like him and play Christopher Reeve playing Superman-which Routh did.

Singer made the real Superman 3, and tried to do something different. and it didn't click with everyone

the Pryor Superman 3 shows very much why you shouldn't allow people who aren't passionate about a property near it. For Lester it was simply a paid gig. The man wasn't even allowed to read comics as a child. For every Nick Meyer there are 100 Richard Lesters (who has done other good films, but he obviously was just clocking in for a check here)

I think if people get a chance to see Superman Returns Again/Man of Steel they'll appreciate Returns more.

[Vincent Pereira]

I thought Routh did a fine job, but think Kate Bosworth was terribly miscast. WAY too young for Lois Lane (especially given the SUPERMAN RETURNS plotline of Superman having been away for several years).

Vincent

[Doctorossi]

SPOILERS!












I love that Lois Lane pines in utter heartbreak over the mysteriously disappeared Superman and yet nails some other dude so fast that she thinks the child Superman fathered is his. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense!

[Grubert]

Originally Posted by GabrielB

I haven't seen Lookout yet. Good advice. Yes I also find it shows one of its greatest weakness in low-light.

See also Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. An exceptional movie in so many aspects. (But cinematography is still a bit flat.)

[Geoff Gibson]

I thought Routh was a fine Superman, and I really like Langella. I did not care for Bosworth. I'd have rather seen Selma Blair. As for the film itself it had its ups and downs. It was exceedingly well made -- as you'd expect from a talented guy like Brian Singer. And there were a few "wow" moments. But I felt that he really missed the core of the character.

If indeed, it was the "real" Superman III (which I would embrace) -- the major contrivance -- that Superman left earth after encountering Zod to search for more survivors -- the Singer's Superman is a liar. At the end of Superman II he effectively promised the president he was going nowhere. Now he changes his mind? Superman -- portrayed correctly (as recognized by Donner and Manckewicz) was not a hero with feet of clay. I cannot see him doing that. And for me that was a major flaw right there. Add to that the "super stalker" bit with the kid and Lois and I'd just as soon see Singer on a different project. The guy is super talented. But he doesn't get Superman. At least not to me.

(And I don't get me started on the kid!)

[horseflesh]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

George, it’s my opinion that many folks here would be more inclined to purchase if you were to subtract Lola’s age from Gus’s age, add a zero to the end and then multiply by 2….. and set the MSRP at that figure.

I'm hoping there's no more than 2 years between Gus & Lola.

I wouldn't mind paying (Amazon's) $28 for each of these films if they're given the right treatment, but $60 apiece for the same disc(s) housed in a cardboard box filled out with superfluous junk (sorry to George and his marketing people) is beyond the call of duty.