4k-UHD/Movie Review: Avatar

 

Avatar is a visually stunning movie from 2009, directed by James Cameron, starring Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Joel David Moore, Stephen Lang, and Giovanni Ribisi. The movie's premise is that while Earth's natural resources are being depleted, a moon in the Alpha Centauri solar system called Pandora has a valuable mineral called "unobtanium" that a company called the Resources Development Administration wants to mine. The problem is that the native population, which includes a race of 10-foot-tall humanoids called the Na'vi who live in harmony with nature, is in the way. The moon's atmosphere is inhospitable to humans, but the company has built Avatars, Na'vi shell bodies that humans can link their consciousness into. The company hires a group of scientists to act to use the Avatars to interact with the Na'vi and try to get them to move off of their land so that the unobtanium can be mined and uses the military to provide protection against the many threats the moon poses.

This is one of two 4k sets that are available. Even though this is labeled as an ultimate collector's edition, the version that is just labeled "Collector's Edition" has more features. This one is a three-disc set. There is a UHD disc and one regular blu-ray disc that just contains the movie. The A/V quality of the UHD disc is fantastic and can be considered reference quality. The third disc is another blu-ray disc with all the special features. The special features mix new material created for the 4k release with some (but not all) of the legacy material created for the original physical media release. The new content includes a roundtable discussion with one of the producers and the prominent cast members called "Memories of Avatar" and a featurette called "Avatar, a Look Back" with new interviews with the cast and crew members. The legacy carry-over content includes the hour-and-a-half-long documentary titled "Capturing Avatar" and the hour-and-a-half worth of making-of featurettes. This set does not include the extended edition of the movies, the trailers, the stills gallery, the VFX featurettes, etc., contained in the original Extended Collector's Edition blu-ray release. If you own that set, you may want to hang onto it if you get this one.

The movie is very good. The story is based on the concepts of colonialism, imperialism, and the treatment of native populations throughout history. It also hammers the themes of environmental damage and corporate greed. It is well-written and well-acted, but the fantastic special effects are the main appeal. This movie took a leap similar to what The Matrix did back in 1999 in terms of special effects and integrating CGI effects into film, making the CGI characters and sets nearly indistinguishable from what was built practically. Even if you are not a huge fan of Sci-Fi, this is still worth watching. 

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Ultimate Edition)

 

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the second movie in the franchise (and adapted from the second book), released in 2002. The movie was again directed by Chris Columbus and brought back all of the main cast members. The additions to the cast in this movie include Kenneth Branaugh who is the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart, Jason Issacs as Lucious Malfoy, Toby Jones as Dobby, and Christian Coulson, who plays a young Voldemort. Bonnie Wright's role in this movie is expanded as Ginny plays a larger part in the story than her minor appearance in the first movie. 

This part of the story got much darker than in the first movie/book. It was imperative that the actors playing the main (child) characters improved from the first and they did. They were still quite young in this movie since it was shot basically right after the first one. But you can tell that their performances were far less forced and came more naturally than in the first one.

Like with the first movie they had to cut material from the books out of the movie. More material was cut for this movie than in the first one, but since the second book was still fairly short, they did not have to cut a ton of the material from the book, and they did keep the important parts of the story. Thus, the story flowed very well. The standout character introduced in this film was Lucious Malfoy. Jason Issacs had the sinister, evil slimeball character down. There was not an ounce of sincerity in anything that Malfoy said or did (aside from the evil parts) and Issacs played it perfectly. Dobby's role in this movie is true to what was in the book, but that does change in subsequent movies. He did provide some comic relief and helped to move the story along.

This is another three-disc set with one disc containing the theatrical and extended editions of the movie. The Ultimate Edition of the movie has a picture-in-picture director commentary, and the rest of the bonus content is on the second and third discs. As for the extras, like the first Ultimate Edition set you get a lot of behind-the-scenes material. The second installment of Creating the World of Harry Potter (which runs just under an hour and a half) focuses on the various characters. Again they discussed characters from all the films, but the slant was toward the second movie. There are also a lot of deleted scenes (most of which ended up in the extended version of the movie), screen tests, a conversation with J.K Rowling, and then some interactive material. There are also character cards and a booklet devoted to creating the characters.

The A/V quality is wonderful again, and the special effects look even better and more seamless than they did in the first movie. Again if you are a fan of the movies and books (more than just a casual fan) and want the most extras you can get then you want to add this to your collection. 

Book Review: The Apostle (Scot Harvath Series #8)

 

The Apostle is the 8th book in the thriller series based around the character of Scot Harvath. It was written by the series creator, Brad Thor, and published in 2009. This book mostly resets the storyline and is not heavily tied in with the events in the prior novels. This one has two parallel storylines. The main storyline, which is the one that involves Harvath, involves the kidnapping of an American doctor in Afghanistan. The doctor is also the daughter of one of the newly elected President's largest donors and political advisors. Harvath is hired to lead an off-the-books mission to go to Afghanistan and free an al-Qaeda leader, which is the ransom demanded for the doctor's release. The second storyline involves an investigation by a member of the Secret Service named Elise Campbell prompted when she overhears a conversation that threatens to bring down the new President, Robert Alden.

The hardcover version of the book is just over 350 pages, which is on par with the length of the other books in the series. Like in the prior novels, Thor blends action and suspense (especially in the main storyline) with political drama and intrigue. The book jumps between the two storylines frequently (usually there are 1-3 chapters devoted to one storyline and then the book shifts to the other storyline for 1-3 chapters), which makes it a bit harder to read since you have to pay attention to both storylines at the same time. Thankfully, the chapters are relatively short so you do not get 100s of pages devoted to one storyline and then switch and have to remember what was happening in the other storyline. If you liked the prior books in the series, or are a fan of the genre in general, this is well worth your time to read. 

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: Ultimate Collector's Edition

 

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone is the 2001 movie starring Daniel Radcliff, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltrane, and Richard Harris. The movie was, of course, based on the wildly popular series of books written by J.K. Rowling and was directed by Chris Columbus. If you read the Harry Potter books before seeing the movies, the movie adaptations will take some getting used to. A lot of the content from the books got cut from the movies (especially in the later movies). The book version of The Sorcerer's Stone is short, so the least amount was cut when making this movie. Even so, not everything in the book made it into the movie. Once you get a feel for how much they have to cut from the books to make the movie and get used to the characters (and the actors playing them), the movies are almost perfect. 

The Ultimate Edition blu-ray set is a three-disc set. The first disc has both the theatrical and extended editions of the movie. The extended edition adds about 7 additional minutes to the total runtime. It basically incorporates some of the deleted scenes into the theatrical edition but does not add anything all that substantial. The only bonus feature on the first disc is a picture-in-picture video director's commentary track that can be played with the theatrical edition of the movie. The other two discs just contain the other special features. The A/V quality of the movies is great. The special effects look amazing, even though they are a bit dated, but the CGI characters look almost like real characters. The big ticket item on the Ultimate Edition is the extras, specifically the five-part documentary series that is the focus of the second disk. In this set, it is Creating the World of Harry Potter. In it, the production staff talks about finding the cast, filming, and how they created Howart's, the Quidditch arena, the various locations used, etc. Not just in the first movie, but throughout the series. You also get things like trailers, TV spots, Deleted Scenes, and a bunch of interactive content.

The only drawback to this film is that the kids were so young and inexperienced as actors that their performances were very inconsistent and forced at times. The veteran actors had to do a lot of the heavy lifting in this movie, but luckily those who did the casting found actors who could learn quickly and develop great skills so that even by the second movie they had their characters down and really became those characters. Of course, all of the adult casting was great. Snape is played perfectly by Alan Rickman, and Richard Harris is perfect as Dumbledore. The only bad thing about the movies was that Harris passed away before they were complete and the actor they brought in to replace him (Michael Gambon) while good, was just not the same. He played Dumbledore differently and did not give the character the same feel as Harris did.

All in all, this movie sets up the series well. It introduces the characters, blends the humor with elements of the dark material that would come in the subsequent films, and tells the story from the book as well as could have been done. As I mentioned, there are portions of even the first book that had to be cut out, and as the books got longer and longer more would have to be cut. So, you have to look at the movies as their own entity and the books as their own.  

If you love the books and want to get the most out of the movies (or if you just love the Fantasy genre), this is a must-have for your collection. Even though it is probably the weakest of all the movies, mainly because the kids were all so green as actors, it is still an excellent film and absolutely worth the time to watch.

Workout Update: T25/Lift-4/645 Corrective and Foam Rolling- Day 39

Day 39 was Cardio 1.0 in T25 and Shoulders (which was an interval workout) in Lift 4.

The T25 workout and the HIIT portion of the Lift 4 workout went pretty well. I could do more unmodified versions of the moves for a longer period of time. I was mostly able to stay with the increased weight in the lifting portion of the Lift 4 workout, but I did have to drop the weight I was using for swimmers after the first set.