DVD Logging
Aug. 16th, 2015 12:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckArrow season 1 DVD 1 - I'm not sure how I feel about the level of violence in this. It's sporadic rather than constant, but it gets beyond what I'm comfortable with from time to time. I'm also not sure how I feel about the characters. I think I'm still trying to figure out who they are. I am, however, looking for series in English that I can watch without Scott but that he won't mind me watching if he happens to be around. He's already watched all of Arrow that Netflix has available streaming, so, if I go forward without him, he doesn't mind or end up lost.
Batman: Under the Red Hood - I found it really difficult to give this much focus. Nothing about it grabbed me. I think the problem is that I don't actually care much about Batman in any incarnation. I suspect that the story would have a lot more power if I had had any sort of emotional investment in the characters to begin with. I didn't, and the movie didn't make me care. So, probably much better for established fans.
The Book of Life - I must confess, I didn't see why the young woman should marry either guy. I wonder who would have won the bet if she'd met someone else? I went back and forth between thinking the art was pretty and thinking it was chunky and ugly. I also found the entire scheme of the afterlife creepy because everyone is doomed to end up, eventually, in the land of the forgotten dead. I don't see any way around it, not in the long term.
Case Closed season 5 DVD 1-2 - There wasn't anything particularly noteworthy about these mysteries on these DVDs. They weren't bad stories, but they also weren't anything but purely episodic.
Dae Jang Guem series 2 DVD 2 - After sitting at five minutes into the first episode since some time in September, I gave up and sent the DVD back to Netflix. If I haven't watched it in that time, I'm not going to. I'll put it back in my queue and put it near the bottom. I do like the show a lot (especially the large number of female characters), but I haven't felt together enough to watch three hours of subtitled drama.
Downton Abbey season 1 episode 1 - We watched 2/3 to 3/4 of the first episode and really, really wanted everyone to die except for Bates and the Dowager Duchess (and she only got a reprieve because Maggie Smith is just that awesome). I think this is a really bad match for our viewing taste, but I wanted to try it because I'd seen so many people talking about how extremely wonderful it is.
The Inexplicable Universe: Unsolved Mysteries - Boring and tedious. This is basically a series of filmed lectures with almost no AV aids to help make points. I played most of the DVD (which runs several hours) mostly because I couldn't be bothered to get up and put something else in. On the plus side, Neil DeGrasse Tyson has a very soothing and pleasant voice.
Leverage season 5 - We thought this season was, in general, weaker than preceding seasons. It wasn't by any means bad, but a lot of episodes lacked the twist that we expected from Leverage. I still enjoyed the characters a lot, and I think that I ship-- well, as much as I ship anything-- Eliot/Hardison/Parker. I really like the three of them together. The last episode worked pretty well, but I was a little confused by the early set up.
Once Upon a Time season 1 DVD 1 - A few years ago, Scott and I got this, watched the first three episodes, and decided to send it back unfinished, mostly because Scott didn't like it. Then, for some reason that's opaque to me, Scott watched the rest of it streaming from Netflix. He's watched every new season as Netflix makes it available. This has left me more than a little annoyed, to be honest. Still, this is another series, in English, that I can watch with or without Scott. I'm not actually convinced that I like any of the characters, however, and the kid actively annoys me.
Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno - Scott and I took a while to watch all of this because we kept forgetting we had it half finished. I liked it a lot. The acting is pretty good, and the actors are generally attractive. I'm not sure the Aoshi subplot works at all, unfortunately, not without the sort of set up the anime and manga gave it. I'm also not at all happy with Kaoru as a damsel in distress.
Sleepy Hollow season 1 episodes 1-2 - This had too many horror elements for our taste. Scott and I both liked the general premise of someone displaced in time dealing with our era, and we liked Abby. We just don't enjoy monsters/horror. I suspected this would be our reaction, but I wanted to try it just in case I was wrong.
The Tale of Princess Kaguya - Scott and I watched about half of this movie before stopping it. We simply weren't enjoying it at all.
Young Detective Dee: The Rise of the Sea Dragon - It took me a lot longer to finish this than I hoped. Some of that was that Scott was actively uninterested, and some of that was my inability to shut down my laptop and focus on something else. Watching something with subtitles really requires more attention than I can give it while I'm web surfing or writing or whatever. I also simply kept forgetting we had the DVD. At any rate, this movie is fun. The court costumes are gorgeous. The acting is good. The fight scenes are well choreographed and executed. The plot is ludicrous, but I rather expected that. Overall, I enjoyed it.
Batman: Under the Red Hood - I found it really difficult to give this much focus. Nothing about it grabbed me. I think the problem is that I don't actually care much about Batman in any incarnation. I suspect that the story would have a lot more power if I had had any sort of emotional investment in the characters to begin with. I didn't, and the movie didn't make me care. So, probably much better for established fans.
The Book of Life - I must confess, I didn't see why the young woman should marry either guy. I wonder who would have won the bet if she'd met someone else? I went back and forth between thinking the art was pretty and thinking it was chunky and ugly. I also found the entire scheme of the afterlife creepy because everyone is doomed to end up, eventually, in the land of the forgotten dead. I don't see any way around it, not in the long term.
Case Closed season 5 DVD 1-2 - There wasn't anything particularly noteworthy about these mysteries on these DVDs. They weren't bad stories, but they also weren't anything but purely episodic.
Dae Jang Guem series 2 DVD 2 - After sitting at five minutes into the first episode since some time in September, I gave up and sent the DVD back to Netflix. If I haven't watched it in that time, I'm not going to. I'll put it back in my queue and put it near the bottom. I do like the show a lot (especially the large number of female characters), but I haven't felt together enough to watch three hours of subtitled drama.
Downton Abbey season 1 episode 1 - We watched 2/3 to 3/4 of the first episode and really, really wanted everyone to die except for Bates and the Dowager Duchess (and she only got a reprieve because Maggie Smith is just that awesome). I think this is a really bad match for our viewing taste, but I wanted to try it because I'd seen so many people talking about how extremely wonderful it is.
The Inexplicable Universe: Unsolved Mysteries - Boring and tedious. This is basically a series of filmed lectures with almost no AV aids to help make points. I played most of the DVD (which runs several hours) mostly because I couldn't be bothered to get up and put something else in. On the plus side, Neil DeGrasse Tyson has a very soothing and pleasant voice.
Leverage season 5 - We thought this season was, in general, weaker than preceding seasons. It wasn't by any means bad, but a lot of episodes lacked the twist that we expected from Leverage. I still enjoyed the characters a lot, and I think that I ship-- well, as much as I ship anything-- Eliot/Hardison/Parker. I really like the three of them together. The last episode worked pretty well, but I was a little confused by the early set up.
Once Upon a Time season 1 DVD 1 - A few years ago, Scott and I got this, watched the first three episodes, and decided to send it back unfinished, mostly because Scott didn't like it. Then, for some reason that's opaque to me, Scott watched the rest of it streaming from Netflix. He's watched every new season as Netflix makes it available. This has left me more than a little annoyed, to be honest. Still, this is another series, in English, that I can watch with or without Scott. I'm not actually convinced that I like any of the characters, however, and the kid actively annoys me.
Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno - Scott and I took a while to watch all of this because we kept forgetting we had it half finished. I liked it a lot. The acting is pretty good, and the actors are generally attractive. I'm not sure the Aoshi subplot works at all, unfortunately, not without the sort of set up the anime and manga gave it. I'm also not at all happy with Kaoru as a damsel in distress.
Sleepy Hollow season 1 episodes 1-2 - This had too many horror elements for our taste. Scott and I both liked the general premise of someone displaced in time dealing with our era, and we liked Abby. We just don't enjoy monsters/horror. I suspected this would be our reaction, but I wanted to try it just in case I was wrong.
The Tale of Princess Kaguya - Scott and I watched about half of this movie before stopping it. We simply weren't enjoying it at all.
Young Detective Dee: The Rise of the Sea Dragon - It took me a lot longer to finish this than I hoped. Some of that was that Scott was actively uninterested, and some of that was my inability to shut down my laptop and focus on something else. Watching something with subtitles really requires more attention than I can give it while I'm web surfing or writing or whatever. I also simply kept forgetting we had the DVD. At any rate, this movie is fun. The court costumes are gorgeous. The acting is good. The fight scenes are well choreographed and executed. The plot is ludicrous, but I rather expected that. Overall, I enjoyed it.
