Coming Soon: Stargate Universe

I have to say, even as a big Stargate fan, the shows have been getting a bit stale over the last 2 or 3 years. So news of a new Stargate show didn’t exactly have me rushing for the TV guide to see when it was starting. Well, it starts 2nd October (US) and 6th I believe in the UK. I also have to admit that as more info has come out and the trailers have appeared I’ve started to look forward to it a bit more. Anyway, here is a trailer and an interview with Robert Carlyle.

Avatar Preview

Last night I saw a 15 minute IMAX 3D preview of James Cameron’s forthcoming film Avatar, the supposed breakthrough revolutionary film with totally photo realistic CGI. Or so says Cameron. The footage is definitely impressive. Totally photo realistic? No. The characters though are a major step forward from the attempts we’ve seen before. The Na’vi move pretty much like a human would, there are certain moments, but nothing like as obvious as issues I’ve seen in the past. The eyes and skin textures and tone are very impressive. The 3D is also well used. The depth of field is well used even in simple scenes like the scene where soldiers are being briefed. The most impressive 3D scenes though had the be the amazing night time shot with glowing vegetation and the depth of field in a scene where there is a big cliff involved with a massive drop.

The scenes shown were all from the first half of the film, as Cameron said, to not ruin any of the pay off. There was a brief montage at the end of a lot of scenes from the trailer with the human/alien battle which looked mighty impressive in IMAX 3D. The story from what you could tell seemed pretty good and it certainly had the feel of a Cameron film, Aliens I felt, in particular. Both I and my friend felt it did have a big Halo vibe as well as Aliens, Jurassic Park too and the forest environments of things like Apocalypto. I’ll certainly be in the line to see this and I’d advise that everyone who can see it in 3D IMAX, the only way to see it really.

Dr Who – Xmas Specials

After months of speculation, we finally have some more photographic evidence of who is in the finale and Tennants good bye episodes. Click the link ONLY if you don’t mind being spoiled!

Relative Dimensions Site – Finale Spoilers

New Trailers: Transformers – Revenge of the Fallen & District 9

Two new trailers. First up, one of the biggies of the summer in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen which is available at Yahoo Movies. Next up is a trailer for District 9, which I think could be very interesting. It’s based on the short film below (well worth a watch)

DVD News: Battlestar Galactica 4.5

Released June 1st, the final 10 episodes of BSG will be on Region 2 DVD. Seems to include quite a lot of extras including two extended episodes in ‘A Disquiet Follows My Soul’ and ‘Islanded in a Stream of Stars’. Now the US version also gets an extended version of Daybreak, but there is no mention of that on the Region 2 set ….  You can also pick up the complete series (minus the final 10 episodes) for around £25 to £30 from a lot of retailers at the moment, which really is a bargain.

Also some BSG Blu news. US is getting the complete series later this year. Expect a UK release too follow as well at some stage.