Was forced to see stereo/3D presentation, it contributed nothing really. Certainly less in your face gimmicky but didn't use it for story telling purposes at all.

Gave good sense of tunnels, and creatures but I felt the space ships didn't stand up as well as Avatar. Generally I found the design good but execution ho hum. Sort of left me feeling I had seen excellent in-game cinematics. Ridley's uncompromising desing sense semmed all dried up, and that sound design? OMG, I was being flogged to death with obvious sound ques right from the start.

Someone tell me where I can go to complain about story... don't want to spoiler anything but, oh dear that story. 

Now I want to go back and watch it again!

Anywho, what was the Starwars site mentioned during the show? For background stuff.

OK, Teddy is obviously Jiminy Cricket. Wise and not wanting to be human (doesnt have as many smart arse quips though).

David BECOMES human, when he gets the hate on the other David back at water world head office. Killing the robot (which he feels he is not), what could be more human? Eliminate the "other".

Perhaps that is what the uber mechs are wanting, an authentic human existence coloured by the actual history/actual emotions, rather than there twee "disney-mo-co" type similcrums.
+1 for loop reality, I never got why they didn't just simulate it for him internally.

And yes I thought that it was a pastiche of moods and styles, that were to hard to reconcile, I'm glad that you guys identified for me the Kubrickien observational concept though.

P.S. I loved this movie at the cinema, but my wife (who doesnt read hard SF) hated it. I think she felt emotionaly manipulated. But I had the existential torment goin on!

P.P.S It is obvious that Speilberg just knew that he would have to revisit this and tack on a new ending (ala' CE3K aliens inside mother ship), so he just did it on the 1st draft instead!

Hmmm, given how wooden the acting and how 2 dimensional the characters (of Star Wars), surely the only good 3D star wars conversion will be Empire!

+1 cosmic radiation sickness, i just assumed that, and actually thought it lent a lot to the credability of the story.

Could a big corporation abuse human rights sooooo badly, when removed from sight alltogether (on the moon)? Do clones have human rights? What did the clone do upon return to Earth, go to court?

Why did a minerals container have adequate life support (heating etc), and how did he survive the rail gun launch?!

PS I LOVE this movie, but the models took me out of it, notably the way the dust played in moon gravity (spoiled by Mythbusters I guess). I really think they should have spent some on particle sim for that.

Have you guys looked at the artists site for production design, it is AWSOME!
http://gavinrothery.posterous.com/

SciFi fantasy.... StarWars, a Universe of Magic Beans! Avatar just needs it's Empire sequel.

The armed forces don't put grunts into Space Shuttles, that expensive stuff is reserved for scientists. So I was not surprised to see Marines in more servicable battle tolerant mech suits. They established the expensive of the Avatars (and their stupid DNA afinity problems) early on. You can put anyone in a mech but just one pilot in an Avatar.

I took my 8year old kid to it AFTER seeing it once myself. I just couldnt take him to another planet in this life time, that really is as close as it gets. Yeah I thought the 3D was Kick Ass!!!! A m a z i n g.
I found myself wondering how they made that amazing dying lizard at the end, then realised that it was CG, then realised so was the ENTIRE forest and ALL the inghabitants, that thought really stayed with me. I havent been that well fooled for a looooong time in a cinema.
The trees werent the most wooden thing on Pandora!

although half of what I make is crap.

Wow, that podcast was... interesting.

I loved this movie (it made me cry in the first 5 minutes) and I hated it at the same time (all that crap with the worm/black hole physics and red matter-WTF?).

I think it jumped shark half way with 1 to many magic beans (first was timetravel) the second being unexplained Unobtainium/red matter. At least Avatar called it Unobtanium (shorthand for macguffin), StarTrek didnt even try to patch that hole (in plot).

Anyway, my new phrase would have to be "Bridge Logic", logic that doesnt last long enough to get you off the Enterprise bridge. I forgave soooooo much in this movie, but the end could have been a redeemer, it just fell short.

Good start for a new series however.

The other David from Australia here, and I am not afflicted by spiders. However there are four friends in my head most afternoons, on my commute to work.
As a full time TV editor I have the unfortunate ability to recall most movie images precisely so the watch along really doesnt seem necassary. But how do I get GhostBusters2 out of my head!!!???
I HATE Matrix 2, it should have stayed unbooted.