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Superman/Batman: Apocalypse: Two-Disc Special Edition, a review by addicted2dvd

Superman/Batman: Apocalypse: Two-Disc Special Edition (2010/United States) Warner Home Video Length: 78 min. Rating: Rated PG-13 : Violence and Brief Sensuality Video: Widescreen 1.78:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 5.1 Subtitles: English

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Stars:
Andre Braugher as Darkseid
Kevin Conroy as Batman
Tim Daly as Superman
Susan Eisenberg as Wonder Woman
Summer Glau as Kara
Julianne Grossman as Big Barda

Plot:
A mysterious spaceship from Planet Krypton crashes on Earth with a beautiful girl inside, and everyone want to meet the new kid. Superman embraces the connection to his past, Batman suspects a traitor, Wonder Woman sense a kindred spirit, and Darkseid desires a champion. But this feisty teen has her own ideas, none of which include a secret identity, a cape or heroics. It will take a life or death battle with Darkseid to uncover her true purpose on Earth. A dynamic voice cast - Kevin Conroy, Tim Daly, Andre Braugher and Summer Glau - highlights this DC Universe Animated Original Movie introducing the world to Supergirl!

Extras:

• Bonus Trailers
• Featurettes
• 2 Eps. of Superman: The Animated Series
• Green Arrow Short

This one I enjoyed very much. Probably the best animated Super Hero movie I watched in a while. It has a very good story that kept me glued to the set from beginning to the end. There is also enough action in it to satisfy anyone. I loved the way the animation was done... and in my opinion the voices were right on as well. If I have any complaint what so ever... it would be the fact that I prefer the version of Wonder Woman that can't fly! But after watching a few animated movies where she does fly now... I am even starting to get used to that. But I think my favorite thing about this movie is that you get to a certain spot in this movie and you figure it is all but over now... but guess again!... as you get several more action-packed minutes in a final unexpected fight. I may have to rank this one as one of my favorite animated super hero movies! Added to all this... this 2-disc special edition DVD has a very nice selection of extras... including a featurette on Kara/Supergirl that I am getting ready to watch next. This is definitely one I feel more then comfortable recommending.




(From What Movies I Been Watching on January 15th, 2012)

Baraka, a review by Achim

Title: Baraka
Year: 1992
Director: Ron Fricke
Rating: NR
Length: 97 Min.
Video: Widescreen 2.21:1
Audio: Music Only: Dolby Digital 5.1, Music Only: DTS HD Master Audio

Plot:
In the ancient Sufi language, it is a word that translates to 'the thread that weaves life together.' In the pantheon of modern cinema, it remains one of the most unique and acclaimed motion picture events of our time. Shot in breathtaking 70mm in 24 countries on six continents, BARAKA is a transcendent global tour that explores the sights and sounds of the human condition like nothing you've ever seen or felt before. These are the wonders of a world without words, viewed through man and nature's own prisms of symmetry, savagery, chaos and harmony.

Extras:
Scene Access
Featurettes

Can you fault a film for being too beautiful? For giving you eye candy until the eyeballs bleed? (we had to take a break after watching for one our hour because it was information overload...

I had never heard about this film until I saw the Blu-Ray release announced or even read the review (I guess in 1992 my mind wasn't set on this sort of film). There is no obvious narrative of any kind and no dialogue in any shape or form (just one scene with some Balinese men chanting), not even title cards announcing what is coming up next. "All you get" is beautiful images of nature and humans. Humans are shown in their whole variety: from New Guinea aboriginals to Japanese going about their everyday routine in Tokyo. All this imagery is intercut almost randomly, apparently with the intent to blur the lines of separation and always keep the viewer guessing what they are looking at. It works rather well at that and slowly you can see some subtle, or not so subtle, subtext (you don't have to...). Many shots are static and the film can feel like a slide show, with definitely enough time given to take it all in. Every so often there's be a close-up  of people, some looking directly into the camera. At first I thought that it looked too staged but later I realized that it was done this way consciously.

In all reviews I read the Blu-ray image has been hailed as superb. It definitely held up for my eyes on my 46" screen. Lots of detail is shown and it's apparently one of those movies Blu-ray was made for. The film was scanned with an 8k process (or how that's said) and it shows wonderfully. If you like this sort of stuff then this and Planet Earth are essential to own on Blu-ray.



I guess the film is rather similar to Koyaanisqatsi which is I will now desperately await for release on Blu-ray.

(From Baraka on May 24th, 2009)

Farscape Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: D'Argo has brought an alien onboard who claimed that he could cloak the electromagnetic field of Moya's. They would become invisible to sensors which has become necessary since Scorpius deployed wanted beacons all over the place. Thy make a test run on Farscape-1 and it actually works and then they agree to follow T'raltixx to his home planet, but they have to pass a cluster of five pulsar stars and their light has side-effects on less-developed life-forms. Soon the crew starts to get aggressive and suspicious towards one another but it doesn't stop even after they passed the pulsars. Something else is going on.

My Opinion: The funny thing is that John didn't wear the "armour" shown in the picture above when he was nuts, but when he started to get a clear head again. I love it when fictional characters go crazy and paranoid, it's a lot of fun to watch them: "Why don't you want to show me the record, what are you hiding? ... So now you suddenly want to show it to me? Why? What's on it?" and so on. And why was John the hero of the day? Because Humans have less precise senses and aren't affected as much by the light. Inferiority can help survive.

Synopsis: Chiana finds a Peacekeeper recording device which documents that Aeryn has been on Moya before and that her squadron has killed the former pilot. Aeryn didn't know that it was Moya because she had been on many Leviathans. Slowly she begins to remember what happened back then and how Pilot became Moya's pilot. But she's not the only one remembering, Pilot does it as well and he's not amused.

My Opinion: Everyone has a past and naturally Aeryn's isn't one painted in pink. I really liked the flashbacks because it gave both Aeryn and Pilot more background and once again it wasn't all black/white. OK, Aeryn's past was black, but Pilot's past wasn't exactly white. And again there are some parallels to Stargate SG-1: Both Teal'c and Aeryn had to leave everything behind even though Teal'c's leaving was more a choice than Aeryn's. Both were necessary to get the show moving but both seemed sudden. And both series showed in later episodes such as this one that it wasn't such a sudden move after all. It just seemed that way because we the viewers didn't know their past.


Synopsis: Rygel and Chiana trade for some items and Chiana discovers a picture that seems to depict her. But the picture is changing, it seems to predict the future: First her legs get broken and then she dies in a fire. The crew is still shocked about this when the picture suddenly shows D'Argo and his death. Every attempt at destroying the picture fails and they fear to get picked one-by-one. Back at the trading ship they find out that the picture is a creation by Maldis - the sorcerer who captured John and was defeated by Zhaan.

My Opinion: I'd would have liked to see Maldis longer, he's such a good diabolic character. But to introduce him earlier would have meant to reveal the answer to soon. This way the episode turned from "weird in the beginning" to "really weird in the end". I love it. The special effects may not be so special but you have to have the idea and the ultimately go through with it and tell the story.

Synopsis: The crew is seriously starving and Zhaan begins to blossom (literally). She needs meat or she will die. So Moya lands in the corpse of a Budong*, the greatest space-living creature known. There is a mine and a colony in which Chiana and her brother have lived a while ago. The minerals in the Budong's bones are valuable, but it's dangerous because there live other creatures, too, who feed from the rotting corpse or a miner.

My Opinion: I loved the way John killed the Keedva. It simply had to be a homage to Luke's killing of the Rancor in Return of the Jedi. But I also liked how Chiana was willing to do anything to get meat for Zhaan and how D'Argo couldn't bear it because he cares for Chiana. We've seen traces of this development in previous episodes but after the kiss in the end it's very obvious.

*The classification of the Budong on the Farscape Wiki is also fun to read:
Height of average adult: Big
Average length: Really big
Average wingspan: Really REALLY big

(From Farscape Marathon on April 18th, 2009)