[Balthazar B]

No.

Forgive me director, for I have sinned...

Or, let me be frank: as soon as I heard him blather on about how terrible a crime against humanity it would be to watch this on a tiny, pathetic home system simply because, horror of horrors, the studio had forsaken his superior vision by allowing it to be, my gawsh and glory, streamed on the same day it hit the theaters, I knew the movie was at best mediocre*, perhaps worth seeing once, but no better, since any great piece of popular art—and, let's face it, science fiction is the pop art of pop art, whether couched in terms of clanking mechanotopias or otherworldly metaverses or lands of magic and mysterious forces**—should be seen far and wide.

And so, yes, I have committed the grievous sin of demeaning this wondrous work by watching it on a lowly 4K JVC projector in a dedicated home theater room, with speakers and sound system tuned over years to produce better sound than I have ever heard in any theater—though of course my ears may be old and decrepit or hopelessly biased and unrefined—in a completely silent environment, alone in the best seat in the house, drinking a Falcone Syrah and eating a home-made wood-fired pizza. I am well and truly sorry for such a transgression.

Or, ah, not.

Here's the thing: maybe the director really believes that his movie is only truly experienced on a big screen, and he's only worried about people watching it on phones. But I found his attitude insulting and suspicious, since it aligns so well with the desire to (a) get people to theaters to make more money, and (b) limit exposure to the film so as to better control the review narrative.

And yeah, I'm biased, and I get it. But when I tell you to buy one Vidar, not two, or get headphones you like before buying any of our gear, I'm really hoping you understand this is the most honest advice you're going to get, because it steers money away from us, and acts counter to our interests.

*Mediocre is not necessarily an insult. I don't feel like I need my life back after watching Dune the Movie, 2021 Edition. Though I won't watch it again. And I really wonder what a Blade Runner Final Final Super Never Better Edition version of the 1984 Dune might be, if they cut the awful VO and maybe, just maybe toned the Harkonnens down a bit. We get it, they're baddies. The 2021 Edition did much better with them.

**I see fantasy as being basically a subset of SF, worlds in which nanotech has progressed so far (and then fallen) that unbelievable things can happen, and some can be activated only with the most arcane knowledge. Yes, I know, I am insane.

Final word: I do not envy anyone trying to take a book—especially a doorstop like Dune—and trying to make a movie out of it. A movie, at best, has about a novelette's worth of content in it (about 10K words). A typical novel will be 10X that. Dune is 25X that. Dune also relies hugely on exposition and internal dialogues, which are anathema in a show-don't-tell medium like movies. To make Dune really, really work as a movie, it would take a complete teardown of the novel—which would anger readers—to set up the conflicts in a real, relatable way. Think of Star Wars. The shooting starts immediately, and in a few minutes we have the big crazy looking masked dood with a breathing problem killing people who piss him off. How do you do something akin to that with Dune? How do you set up the Atreides/Harkonnen/Emperor conflict? I would argue that looking at how Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep was transmogrified to Blade Runner. Literally almost nothing remained from the book--not the dial-a-mood, not the weird religion, nothing but the idea of replicants. The movie is very, very different, but it set the tone for...holy hell, so much damn SF on the screen it's almost sickening. The city scenes in Altered Carbon could come right out of Blade Runner. That's 1982. Is there such failure of imagination we can't even dream something that looks different? Are we just reusing the 3D models from other movies? How did the 1984 Dune look so amazingly different and without referent, and today we get something that looks uninspired—but "big." Sigh.

There's very little in the way of memorable science fiction films, really, compared with the sheer volume over the years. Most of the ones that seem to last with me feel almost parenthetically science fiction. Children of Men, La Jetée, Ex Machina, Dark Star. The one scene in Robocop where Murphy experiences the memory his wife, and realizes who he is and all he's lost. The tears in the rain monologue in Blade Runner. I'd love to see what the Coen Brothers would make of The Sirens of Titan. That would be insane (and yeah, I know the Coens have stated they'll never adapt/direct a science fiction film).

Thanks for your thoughtful riff on the Dune thing. I'm not sure Dune can be successfully made into a film true to the book (any more than, say, Gravity's Rainbow could). Haven't seen the new iteration yet, but the '84 version was just a postmodern mess. Maybe it would work better adapted as a comedy, or a musical.

To get back to the Schiit, and speaking of tears, I'd love to have something suitable and monoblocky to insert between the Freya+ and the rather-challenging-to-drive Gallo Ref speakers. Oh, and that'll pass the WAF hurdle.

 

[Plautus001]

Off topic:

For quite awhile I have wanted either the Focal Elex or EMU Teak.

Focal: true reference, baby Utopia, balanced, but Scary Q&A

EMU Teak: Fun, V Shape, not worried about fixed cable.

Further off topic: anyone have a lead on converting Fostex T50RP mkIII to mcmx balanced?

 

[ImagesbyMurray]

No.

Forgive me director, for I have sinned...

Or, let me be frank: as soon as I heard him blather on about how terrible a crime against humanity it would be to watch this on a tiny, pathetic home system simply because, horror of horrors, the studio had forsaken his superior vision by allowing it to be, my gawsh and glory, streamed on the same day it hit the theaters, I knew the movie was at best mediocre*, perhaps worth seeing once, but no better, since any great piece of popular art—and, let's face it, science fiction is the pop art of pop art, whether couched in terms of clanking mechanotopias or otherworldly metaverses or lands of magic and mysterious forces**—should be seen far and wide.

And so, yes, I have committed the grievous sin of demeaning this wondrous work by watching it on a lowly 4K JVC projector in a dedicated home theater room, with speakers and sound system tuned over years to produce better sound than I have ever heard in any theater—though of course my ears may be old and decrepit or hopelessly biased and unrefined—in a completely silent environment, alone in the best seat in the house, drinking a Falcone Syrah and eating a home-made wood-fired pizza. I am well and truly sorry for such a transgression.

Or, ah, not.

Here's the thing: maybe the director really believes that his movie is only truly experienced on a big screen, and he's only worried about people watching it on phones. But I found his attitude insulting and suspicious, since it aligns so well with the desire to (a) get people to theaters to make more money, and (b) limit exposure to the film so as to better control the review narrative.

And yeah, I'm biased, and I get it. But when I tell you to buy one Vidar, not two, or get headphones you like before buying any of our gear, I'm really hoping you understand this is the most honest advice you're going to get, because it steers money away from us, and acts counter to our interests.

*Mediocre is not necessarily an insult. I don't feel like I need my life back after watching Dune the Movie, 2021 Edition. Though I won't watch it again. And I really wonder what a Blade Runner Final Final Super Never Better Edition version of the 1984 Dune might be, if they cut the awful VO and maybe, just maybe toned the Harkonnens down a bit. We get it, they're baddies. The 2021 Edition did much better with them.

**I see fantasy as being basically a subset of SF, worlds in which nanotech has progressed so far (and then fallen) that unbelievable things can happen, and some can be activated only with the most arcane knowledge. Yes, I know, I am insane.

Final word: I do not envy anyone trying to take a book—especially a doorstop like Dune—and trying to make a movie out of it. A movie, at best, has about a novelette's worth of content in it (about 10K words). A typical novel will be 10X that. Dune is 25X that. Dune also relies hugely on exposition and internal dialogues, which are anathema in a show-don't-tell medium like movies. To make Dune really, really work as a movie, it would take a complete teardown of the novel—which would anger readers—to set up the conflicts in a real, relatable way. Think of Star Wars. The shooting starts immediately, and in a few minutes we have the big crazy looking masked dood with a breathing problem killing people who piss him off. How do you do something akin to that with Dune? How do you set up the Atreides/Harkonnen/Emperor conflict? I would argue that looking at how Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep was transmogrified to Blade Runner. Literally almost nothing remained from the book--not the dial-a-mood, not the weird religion, nothing but the idea of replicants. The movie is very, very different, but it set the tone for...holy hell, so much damn SF on the screen it's almost sickening. The city scenes in Altered Carbon could come right out of Blade Runner. That's 1982. Is there such failure of imagination we can't even dream something that looks different? Are we just reusing the 3D models from other movies? How did the 1984 Dune look so amazingly different and without referent, and today we get something that looks uninspired—but "big." Sigh.

Oh gawd......

My wife is deaf- support at cinemas is non-existent.

 

[tincanear]

Off topic:

For quite awhile I have wanted either the Focal Elex or EMU Teak.

Focal: true reference, baby Utopia, balanced, but Scary Q&A

EMU Teak: Fun, V Shape, not worried about fixed cable.

Further off topic: anyone have a lead on converting Fostex T50RP mkIII to mcmx balanced?

for Fostex balanced conversion, there is DIY


otherwise might be cheaper to just sell them, and save the money towards the EMU or Focal Elex.

Elex on sale at (mass)drop for $549 right now....perhaps a new version with alternate (improved?) diaphragm materials is out or soon to be released. re Focal's QA issues, purchase with a major credit card with buyer protection / extended warranty.

IMO, one needs just ONE set of really nice cans, plus an EQ to adjust for tastes & "deficiencies" of various recordings

 

[Draygonn]

I'm not sure Dune can be successfully made into a film true to the book

Since this is my favorite book I held a little hope going into this movie. It was gone after the gom jabbar scene.

how terrible a crime against humanity it would be to watch this on a tiny, pathetic home system

My last few attempts to enjoy a movie in theaters ended in disaster. Dunkirk was shown on the dirtiest screen I've ever seen. Panning over it's expansive blue sky shots left no immersion possible. The Annihilation screen had a reflection off the center channel speaker. I got free tickets after each show, but neither manager seemed to think anyone else would notice. These days I watch on my 120 inch AT screen and shrug when directors demand we go to the theaters during a pandemic. Though I do wish my twenty bucks for Tenet had gone towards hiring Jonathan to give the screenplay a once-over. And that reminds me of the 20 minutes spent with my hands over my ears watching Interstellar in a theater.

 

[macdonjh]

Snip #1: And so, yes, I have committed the grievous sin of demeaning this wondrous work by watching it on a lowly 4K JVC projector in a dedicated home theater room, with speakers and sound system tuned over years to produce better sound than I have ever heard in any theater—though of course my ears may be old and decrepit or hopelessly biased and unrefined—in a completely silent environment, alone in the best seat in the house, drinking a Falcone Syrah and eating a home-made wood-fired pizza. I am well and truly sorry for such a transgression.

Snip #2: Is there such failure of imagination we can't even dream something that looks different? Are we just reusing the 3D models from other movies? How did the 1984 Dune look so amazingly different and without referent, and today we get something that looks uninspired—but "big." Sigh.

Snip #1: But movie theater sound is loud! That's good, right?
Snip #2: Yes, I think imagination in Hollywood is absent these days. I hope it comes back, but I will not hold my breath. I think, before No Time to Die, the last movie I saw in a theater was Star Wars Episode IX. Lack of original stories is the main reason. I liked the story of Altered Carbon (season 1), but I haven't re-watched it.

 

[Paladin79]

You are a man of taste, as shown in many other ways already. Lem in the 60s got 2020 AI way more right than AI researchers. His tragic sense was lightened by the finest humor.

You are most kind. Some of the best translations have been done by a gentleman at the local university. Bill Johnston

"Lem has not always been well published in the United States. Even his best-known novel, “Solaris,” was long available only in an imperfect Polish-to-French-to-English translation (though Bill Johnston’s excellent Polish-to-English translation is currently available as an e-book). "

Lem's works were so wondrous and plentiful that he was accused of being a group of writers, by Philip K. Dick I believe.

 

[Randolf711]

My lack of Movie Theater attendance has mirrored my slowing down of concert attendance. The more smart phones people have (and the longer they have them) the more they ruin my attempt to be present with Art.

(Typed on my shiny new iPhone 13 pro)

 

[macdonjh]

There's very little in the way of memorable science fiction films, really, compared with the sheer volume over the years. Most of the ones that seem to last with me feel almost parenthetically science fiction. Children of Men, La Jetée, Ex Machina, Dark Star. The one scene in Robocop where Murphy experiences the memory his wife, and realizes who he is and all he's lost. The tears in the rain monologue in Blade Runner. I'd love to see what the Coen Brothers would make of The Sirens of Titan. That would be insane (and yeah, I know the Coens have stated they'll never adapt/direct a science fiction film).

Thanks for your thoughtful riff on the Dune thing. I'm not sure Dune can be successfully made into a film true to the book (any more than, say, Gravity's Rainbow could). Haven't seen the new iteration yet, but the '84 version was just a postmodern mess. Maybe it would work better adapted as a comedy, or a musical.

To get back to the Schiit, and speaking of tears, I'd love to have something suitable and monoblocky to insert between the Freya+ and the rather-challenging-to-drive Gallo Ref speakers. Oh, and that'll pass the WAF hurdle.

I like the themes in Ex Machina: what is intelligence, what is consciousness, what is human. I agree Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Blade Runner aren't remotely the same, and Blade Runner shouldn't claim to be based on the book. Another movie I like is Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Spielberg did a great job, for me, in conveying the wonder of aliens visiting.

A family story I like: I was watching Close Encounters one afternoon recently. My son kept passing though the living room, every time he did I'd invite him to stay and watch. Eventually he did sit down and watch a few minutes in a row. After the movie was over I talked with him about it. In answer to, "What did you think about the movie?" he replied he thought it was cliche. When I told him it was released a couple of months before Star Wars, he was surprised. We then talked about all the movies since then which take cues from it, whether story, effects, themes, whatever. I don't know if he agrees, but a point I made is the movies which came later are cliche, not the other way around. Kind of goes back to @Jason Stoddard's point about the lack of new ideas in Hollywood.

So far as Dune is concerned, I wonder if a movie version would be more successful if the screen play was written with the assumption the book had been read. Lots of pop movies assume cultural references will be known and understood, it might work for Dune as well. The screenplay would be simpler if the vendetta between the Atreides and Harkonnen, the Emperor's cabal against Duke Leto, and the plot/ prophesy of the Bene Geserit were all taken as knowns/ given. But then, maybe not.

[edit] Another book which didn't do well on screen is Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. The Fountainhead didn't fair much better. But Dominique Francon wears a black satin dress in one scene... it's my only clear memory of the movie. Quite striking.

 

[Paladin79]

Tonight I will convert Dune to pseudo-3D on my home theater system just to see if that helps a bit. I did this with the docking sequences in 2001: A Space Odyssey and the results were impressive IMHO.

I do not mind watching it a second or third time and would most likely watch it just before Dune 2 is released, if that ever happens. Maybe in another 37 years a better version will come out, but I will not be around to see it anyway.

Speaking of reusing artwork of other movies, Jodorowsky's version of Dune that was never released but some of HR Giger's designs ended up in Prometheus....

http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2015/7-famous-sci-fi-movies-influenced-by-jodorowskys-dune/2/

 

[macdonjh]

My Oppo universal player suddenly refuses to operate. If anyone has a recommendation for a decent universal player would you please send me a PM? I don't use my disc player much, but I do like having one.

 

[Pondoro]

I have a Saga+ coming, in 10-12 weeks. Unless it is longer. The plan is to drive the Saga with a CD player, a Modi, the Saga, followed by a vintage Magnavox tube amp that has been removed from the console, rebuilt, and then wrapped in ostentatious curly maple. I know that is basically a meme now but I fell for it. Problem: the Saga won't stack on top of the Modi. The Modi won't stack on top of the Saga. I realize I should just buy a Bifrost but I'm very happy with the sound of my current two Modis and do not feel the need to upgrade. So I want to see some pictures of how you people have stacked Schiit components that will not stack. Extra credit if you used hardwood. I have enough leftover curly maple to make a stand for the Saga/Modi. I do not want to wrap them, I like how they look. I just want to stack them on an attractive stand that matches the curly maple of my old tube amp's wrapper. I know some of you have built obsessive stands for your utilitarian components, please share pictures.

 

[OldRoadToad]

Tonight I will convert Dune to pseudo-3D on my home theater system just to see if that helps a bit. I did this with the docking sequences in 2001: A Space Odyssey and the results were impressive IMHO.

I do not mind watching it a second or third time and would most likely watch it just before Dune 2 is released, if that ever happens. Maybe in another 37 years a better version will come out, but I will not be around to see it anyway.

Speaking of reusing artwork of other movies, Jodorowsky's version of Dune that was never released but some of HR Giger's designs ended up in Prometheus....

http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2015/7-famous-sci-fi-movies-influenced-by-jodorowskys-dune/2/

Lordy but do NOT get me started on Prometheus! Ridley Scott is my favorite living director and the Man behind my all time favorite film.
I shall put it as simple and to the point as I can. With Prometheus and it's related film(s), I want to WIN. The same holds true with the Matrix series. I want to WIN!

We did not.

ORT

 

[Paladin79]

My favorite IMAX theater in Chantilly Va., no matter how much or how little I like the movie the before and after can be spectacular.

Second photo is the Enola Gay. National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

And so, yes, I have committed the grievous sin of demeaning this wondrous work by watching it on a lowly 4K JVC projector in a dedicated home theater room, with speakers and sound system tuned over years to produce better sound than I have ever heard in any theater—though of course my ears may be old and decrepit or hopelessly biased and unrefined—in a completely silent environment, alone in the best seat in the house, drinking a Falcone Syrah and eating a home-made wood-fired pizza. I am well and truly sorry for such a transgression.

So, what does a guy have to do to get invited over?