We watched Blade Runner: Final Cut last night… I was very impressed with the changes made to the newest version.

The visuals are much cleaner and clearer than I remembered them. The night-lit skyline, which I remembered as being muddy and grey, was instead sparkling and bright. But, unlike the special editions of the Star Wars movies, the special effects were not completely re-done with over-the-top CG stuff. It was all very subtle. There was nothing I saw that absolutely screamed “new effects!” – instead, it was all simply clearer and easier to see.

I also liked that all the voice-overs were gone. Yes, I know that they’re a staple of film-noir, but in this movie they just got in the way. They were too loud, too obtrusive, too invasive. At times it sounded like somebody had just muted the movie and started talking…you couldn’t hear any of the ambient sounds/music/conversations. I think the movie works much better now that they’re gone.

A number of the scenes have been touched up a bit… Some of them are slightly longer, or shorter, or just plain different than I remember. Nothing too obvious, but it all seems to flow a lot better. There’s also more suspicion that Deckard is a replicant, which I think is a good thing. It draws out the moral questions more.

Terri asked me, after the movie, why it was called “Blade Runner” and I had to confess that I didn’t know why… As it turns out, apparently the name just sounded good.  Then she asked me why I liked it so much, if I don’t even know what the title means…

(more…)

We just got back from seeing AvP:R – and I was very pleasantly surprised by it.

I wasn’t really expecting much…  I figured it pretty much had to be better than the first one.  And after The Mist turned out to be pretty darn good I had hope.  But I never really expected it to actually be good.

This time around they didn’t pull any punches just to get a PG-13 rating…  Nor did they indulge in gratuitous violence as is so very popular these days…  Plenty of very nice references to the original movies…  Lots of good action…  Several very suspenseful moments…  A few very surprising scares…

Definitely good enough that I’m looking forward to seeing it again when it eventually comes out on DVD.  We’ll almost certainly buy it.  And I’m now very hopeful that they’ll make a 3rd movie.

I’m on some kind of neo-noir/cyberpunk kick lately…

I recently finished reading Xenocide (very disappointing) and have started in on my newest book – Neuromancer. I’ve heard tons of good things about William Gibson in general, and Neuromancer in specific, so I figured I ought to read it. I’m thoroughly enjoying it.

Very evocative writing style… Very interesting setting… Intriguing characters… I’m having a hard time putting it down.

And today I got Blade Runner: Final Cut from Terri – so I’ve got some more neo-noir goodness to watch tonight.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go hack something…

Had some kind of weird semi-lucid dream this morning…

Terri and Christopher went to see Mike this morning, so I was snoozing alone in the house.  Had some kind of dream where we’d gotten a bunch of snow and I had to wake up early to shovel it.  In my dream I was agonizing over whether I should get up or snooze longer…  Eventually I woke up absolutely convinced that I had to go shovel the driveway.

I threw on some clothes, put on my boots, stomped out to the hall closet to get my coat on…  And that’s when I happened to glance out the front door – no snow at all.  Sure, there was snow all over the yard, but nothing new.  And it was warm enough that everything was melting and dripping.

I felt kind of stupid.

Unsurprisingly, Terri made it through her surgery just fine.

She’s sore, and will be for a few days now, but it looks like everything went well.

Terri goes in for surgery this morning…  Nothing major, a truly routine procedure…  But she’s medically phobic so it’s been a rough night.

I’m not phobic, but it’s hard not to worry at least a little bit.  Especially when she’s so absolutely terrified.