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Sundown

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Bridge Bunny (7/15)

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  1. I actually took a figure drawing class with Marshall Vandruff who is an excellent anatomy teacher and once had Liefield as a student way back. He mentioned that Liefield didn't seem very focused on doing the work he needed to up his game at drawing anatomy-- then went off to make a bajillion dollars. Anyway I have to agree that while Jim Lee is sill very competent, his stuff just doesn't look as good as his X-Men days. His style was perfect in adding tone and depth to the drab 4 color newsprint of the era. His proportions were more dynamic and accurate too. His recent stuff just doesn't have the same impact and life--and everyone still looks like they came out of the 90's with cargo pants and a million pockets.
  2. You Rang? Unfortunately, I don't have the original scan on this computer, and I'm not sure I can find it anymore, but you get to look at my avatar.
  3. I also agree that Bruce didn't get to star as much as I wanted him to. He needed more obsessing, emo scenes. Instead, he was always doing something and coldly expedient with only moments to brood. I also think the movie needed to Batman's gravelly voice was also a bit over the top-- it kept reminding me that Batman was really a freak in a costume, rather than the real persona, with Bruce Wayne as the disguise. As a result, it was harder to take Batman's lines seriously opposite Joker's awesome performance. As good as the movie was, I think they underutilized Bale's acting chops and didn't give him enough screen time.
  4. Saw the trailer at the Batman showing. Looks fantastic visually. Somehow stays visually faithful to the old books while being modern and edgy. I could recognize almost all the scenes shown as being from actual pages of the book... should be good, and might end up being one of the more faithful superhero movies. If some things look cheezy in the movie, it helps that they were meant to in the comics and the book was a deconstruction of the super hero genre in the first place.
  5. Very solid, and really picks up in intensity and meaning toward the second half of the film. The beginning was a little harder for me to get into, probably because of my huge expectations and because it wasn't paced as briskly as Iron Man-- and it wasn't as easy for me to see the overall arch of the story with all the disparate plot elements, but when it pulled together about midway, the movie got really good. There was one plot point that could have ruined the movie for me before a reveal made sense of it later on (and in hindsight, fixed other things that felt "wrong" during the course of the movie as well). I do think it could have been paced better, and would have been stronger if there was a bit more handholding in regards to where the plot was going. Because there will no doubt be comparisons-- I think Iron Man was a tighter, better executed movie, while the Dark Knight offered more substance and material that can be explored in repeated watchings at least a few more times.
  6. The Beagle looks fantastic. The painted prototype retain all the sharp edges reminiscent of the 80's design that looked smoothed away in photos of the old prototype. The small-ish legs don't even look that bad, though I would have preferred them to be bigger even at the expense of the unarmored rider's proportions. Stig's expression is spot on! It captures his character and personality vivdly enough for me to experience a brief moment of serious nostalgia.
  7. Yes! Yes! Same here. I'd like to get my hands on one of these if anyone can hook us up-- assuming in the end they're cheaper than getting one customized by one of the gurus here.
  8. Even as a 1/48 lover, I have to admit the 1/60 battroid looks fantastic from a 3/4's view. It's got a great bulging chest profile with the heatshield angling like it does in some of the anime and art. I'm still disappointed about the shape of the intakes and the upper legs, the unnecesesary bulge in the canopy, and the rainbow canopy is entirely gratuitous, gimmicky, and doesn't look right at all-- but from certain angles in certain modes, the 1/60 has its own charm.
  9. Very solid. CG was pretty meh but serviced the story well enough. The best action sqeuence had nothing to do with the Hulk CG.
  10. Given the analogous relationships between Mac 7 and the Star Wars Prequels to SDF and the Original Trilogy, please don't give George Lucas any more ideas.
  11. Episode 10 was pretty good. It actually made Zero watchable, even if it remained equally nonsensical. It injected emotion and reinterpreted/double meanings into characters that were previously bland. The flying wolf pokemon thing was just outright silly, but it's one of the episodes with stronger character writing.
  12. I agree that Episode 8 was a huge letdown after 6 and 7. I actually like character driven plots, and found this episode tedious and juvenile. Yes, the fan service was again, annoying-- so far, *every* episode has had moderate fan service, *far* in excess of all the other Macross series which featured it only in occasional, select episodes and usually in context. Instead, MF seems to craft its hijinks and scenes explicitly around the opportunity to show Sheryl (and to a lesser extent, Ranka and Nanase) in titillating situations. But even overlooking all that, there just wasn't much real magic, charm, or chemistry between the characters. I mean Alto and Sheryl obviously get along in a wierd way that Alto fails to understand-- but the problem is, as a viewer, I felt like I didn't quite understand it either, and couldn't really find the charm in it. Maybe aloof males just don't make very interesting romantic pairings-- which is ironic considering that he's become one of the more relateable and likeable characters. His expression of bored exasperation to the *weird* interaction between Nanase, Ranka, and Luca on the steps echos my own frustration with the relatively boring schticks of the "character driven" episodes. So overall, a pretty huge letdown. I'm really not digging this schizophrenic yo-yoing between pedestrian high school innane-ness and a real war story, contrived to allow kids to be key players, whose friends (or themselves) are *nearly killed by aliens*, and then allowed to go back to their high-school lives and chase slug-squirrels as if nothing had happened. Ranka as a singing carrot in a Zentran grocery store is however, priceless.
  13. Something I was never sure of... is the Tomahawk's visor glass supposed to be red or green? It's red in some of the old model box cover art, and sometimes it's green in the animation, like my avatar. Which one is it? Both? Maybe we'll get a darker repaint down the line with a green visor if Yamato wants to milk the mold.
  14. Saw it yesterday. Was moderately entertaining, but featured very prominant Lucasian flaws-- including the very first shot, with a obviously CG prarie dog mugging for the camera. I think the shot could even have worked if it were real, but instead it sort of screamed, "watch me, George Lucas, shove CG animals in your face in my cleverness!" It was almost too easy to spot what scenes Lucas was responsible for, and which scenes remained untainted by his touch. The man just doesn't seem able to keep his gleeful, giddy, childish (not child-like) sensibilities in check, and I can see him rubbing his hands at ways he can work in eye-rolling animals and tarzan schticks into the film. Anyway, I'm one of the ones who hate and if I could get over that, it was a decent watch. I do find Von Daniken's theories fascinating even if they represent horrid "archaeology", so part of me wanted to see where the movie would go with that premise, even as the other part rebelled against those elements. I have to watch Doom and Last Crusade to see where it ranks, but Crystal Skull wasn't as collosally tragic as it could have been. I didn't care for how much of the puzzle solving was taken away from Indy, and instead given to a babbling Oxford, , rather than have Indy come up with a brilliant answer to his predicament, and the writing almost struck me as predictably lazy. I also agree that the ark in the broken crate, as neat as that was, lacked subtlety. Instead, a crate with a curious scorchmark on its side would have been sufficient. The movie also made the ultimate mistake of
  15. Just saw it. I think this might be the best episode so far-- storytelling-wise anyway, as it went light on the homages so they didn't feel like rip-offs and brought compelling story elements of its own. The buildup worked well with the song, and I enjoyed the pacing towards the end even though nothing really happens. Maybe I was just feeling emo. The Quarter's design looks interesting, though we haven't got that many clear shots of it yet, but I like the feel of what I've seen so far and the way the design elements harken back to the SDF-1 and Prometheus. Fan service was also much more restrained and I can almost take Sheryl seriously. But a character who looks uncannily like Misa Hiyase, who wears the same style of uniform, who just happens to find herself the flight controller? Who would have thunk that? I will enjoy her character in that role of course, but I have to say that's pretty much a Misa Hiyase ripoff. Still good, overall, even despite the drop in animation quality.
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