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I wonder if at any point the makers thought that naming something ever-so-close to everyone's favourite WB cartoon dog (now a pair of major motion pictures by the same studio) would be just asking for trouble?

The problem isn't raw materials for construction. We're literally swimming in 'em. The problem is going to be energy production. Oil and coal will be around for a little bit longer, but 50 years down the line when the rest of the 3rd world (and all of China) is turning on their lights at night, and you're talking about serious energy concerns. "Alternative" isn't an option, it's going to be a necessity.

The other problem is that NASA is dealing with space exploration in the completely wrong way. I wish they were bigger Sci-Fi geeks, because just about every single example of our future's spacecrafts are designed and built in space. It's stupid to be expending this much effort to go up and down when you could be having interstellar flights lasting months for the same amount of energy.

What the X-Prize is really all about is that we need to be able to get into space reliably and back again, it should be cheap, and it should be relatively safe. NASA has been spending a large part of its dough in past years to develop something that is fully capable of being produced by commercial interests today. But for real space travel, you need scientists on board for long periods to work "in-the-field" so to speak. If you need them to go to the surface of a planet, you just use shuttle craft.

What annoys me is that they (NASA) should be putting their cash in interstellar space vehicle design, in-space production, and power requirements for these ships. There's no reason we can't have people studying Mars while orbitting it -- if you need food for three months, you just tack on an extra cargo hold to your ship and have only the mass / energy considerations to think about.

Nowadays the primary concern is "I've only got so much payload because this thing has to break loose of the Earth's gravity intact." So they're flinging satellites to the far edges of our solar system, keeping their fingers crossed for the sometimes decade-long wait to find out if their fragile, expensive equipment functions correctly.

Why does NASA ignore what is so obvious to the rest of the imaginative world? Most sci-fi and anime fans already knows there are escape velocity/atmosphere vehicles, and interstellar vehicles (and know that the two don't mix very well with each other).

It's nowhere near as cool as the drilling machines from The Matrix Revolutions.

From the FAQ:
What will combat be like?
Combat will be intense and spectacular, with over 300 animations for each martial art and weapons style.

Read it again -- the FAQ states that the game has "over 300 animations for each martial art and weapons style" which seems impressive. However, consider all the annimations that will simply be variations, idle animations, basic movement, and that number sounds a lot less impressive.

Prince of Persia used over 700 animations just for the Prince's very small set of moves. 300 animations does not at all equate to a large variety of motion.

The link I had to Street Smarts finally loaded after I'd already posted. Seems they do film around the country.

Yeah, that's what I thought when I saw the preview.

This new "MATRIX" sounds worse than the two sequels put together. And in the fictional and non-fictional sense, both matrixes were just plain bad for humanity!

Here's one, and here's another.

There's this movie and this one too.

They are about the war in Troy but but are just a loose adaption of the plot of the Illiad. Don't know how one would go about adapting the poem itself to the screen. Which translation would you use? I prefer Fitzgerald's translation

Warner Bros takes Billy to court over using the name Reloaded.

Actually what I'm thrilled about (even if others say its horribly inefficient) is the 3D accelerated desktop that is supposed to be in Longhorn, and doing away with 2D acceleration. The Mac has it, why can't we?

Though I doubt Reloaded will have it as it would take away the Longhorn hype

Warner Bros takes Billy to court over using the name Reloaded.

Actually what I'm thrilled about (even if others say its horribly inefficient) is the 3D accelerated desktop that is supposed to be in Longhorn, and doing away with 2D acceleration. The Mac has it, why can't we?

Though I doubt Reloaded will have it as it would take away the Longhorn hype

Though I agree that Disney still is a powerful media conglomerate and as a brand name it sure has appeal to mass from kids to retired, animation from Disney has lost a lot of momentum compared to its heyday. Animated feature is no longer dominated by Disney, as 3D animation is becoming the mainstream in the film biz. This has been proven by success of animated feature from other studios, like Dreamworks and Fox. Meanwhile, in 2D animation world, there are some indication that Disney might have lost touch in animation business. Boxoffice success of Disney animation is no longer guaranteed unlike old days. While Disney is apparently aware of this trend, they are yet to come up with viable alternative to their ex-partner, Pixer.

Is 2D animation dead? I think not, and neither some studios. But from what we have seen in success of Pixer/Dis films, it is undeniable that Pixer has a better ground to compete in animation after this separation.

They are by no means trusted to the level of Disney in a family atmosphere.

Sure, WE trust Disney for its purity. Disney is clean as long as it doesn't engrave their banner on top of crap they make under other brand name they own.

Cheers.

who have never been excited about the show.

If you have ever been to the Warner Brothers Television site it's always had zip about Angel. But plenty of crap about worthless shows like Celebrity Justice. I know they don't make the show, but they could at least have a link?!?

And if you go to "The WB's" chat site, you'll see that the Angel forum has more posts than any other forum - including the "The WB General" forum. Are they just blind to the fact that the show generates more invested fans than any other property they own?

I also know that many people (myself included) only watch that turd-of-a-show Smallville because it's on right before Angel. I hope they're prepared to watch it's viewership decline.

Finally, I think Joss Whedon put it best in his paraphrasing of Robert Frost:

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the road less traveled by and they CANCELLED MY FRIKKIN' SHOW. I totally shoulda took the road that had all those people on it. Damn."

Are we really so out of ideas?

You must not have seen the billboard ads for the Starsky & Hutch movie, starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson.

Is the entertainment industry out of ideas? In a word... YES.

So far you're both wrong. It's a combination of the two.

"Marvin The Martian has a whole host of space age tools to aid him in his efforts. The Illudium Pew 36 Explosive Space is part of his arsenal."

Here's the source, straight from Warner Brothers themselves.

Calm down, you two; you're both wrong. I sighted the site to cite at warnerbrots.com, which says that "[t]he Illudium Pew 36 Explosive Space is part of his arsenal." "BLOW UP THE OITH?!"

DS9 also did really well when it had to compete against Babylon 5.

Urban legend has it that J. Michael Straczynski went to Paramount trying to sell his idea for this innovate new space opera whose central focus was life aboard a space station. The way I've heard it told, the studio brass sat there nodding silently and appreciatively during the pitch session but ultimately said "Thanks, but No Thanks".

Then, mysteriously, a new show appeared featuring Star Trek themes and ...whaddya know! many spacefaring races mingling in intrigue and commerce on a space station! Go figure, what were the odds of something like that happening? Two shows with nearly identical scenarios hitting the air at roughly the same time? ;)

But to tell the truth the Star Trek folk were just doling out a bit of what they got back in the 60s (okay a bit of a stretch, but bear with me here). According to William Shatner in his book about the making of 60's series he told of how Roddenberry approached (I think it was CBS) trying to sell his "wagon train to the stars" (making an attempt to appeal the success of a show called Gunsmoke) to the execs there. One major selling point was how cheaply the show could be made because of his "similar worlds theory". The theory in question states that given the enormity of the universe there is a mathematically possibility that other worlds could have evolved similarly to the earth. That being the case, depictions of allien races could be achieved cheaply through inexpensive costuming techniques and alien landscapes could be achieved through location shoots. Like their Paramount counterparts of the 1990's, they sat there and said "Interesting, good, but ultimatly no thanks". Then...lo and behold look what hits the air before Roddenberry can get the okay to do Star Trek...

Why not piss off religious extremists and violate copyright at the same time by using the Tazmanian Devil as a logo?

as long as you live in a democracy the people can easily take back the power.

Not in a "democracy" where a significant chunk of people tend to vote for the candidate that the TV tells them to vote for. All major broadcast TV and cable news networks in the United States are owned by parent companies of major movie studios: CBS and UPN, ABC, NBC and MSNBC, Fox and Fox News, The WB, CNN, and Headline News, all MPAA members. Campaign contributions by five out of seven MPAA member studios are in effect offers of free advertising time, circumventing the FCC's "equal time" rule.

Universal Studios seems to think differently.

Never believe what you read on Slashdot, even if you think it looks right.

That's it Mr. Anderson, look past the domain name and see your enemy.

I don't know what will.

Look at that

The most believable CG humans I've ever seen, in full action poses, no less.

Yet another shot

FF sucks! It's too damn bad Reloaded didn't take advantage of the detail they got in these CG creations.

FF:Spirits Within had the best CG people? You have got to be joking.

That honor still goes to the Matrix sequels.

Just look at this side-by-side comparison of the real Agent Smith beside a virtual CG clone.

Sorry, FF absolutely and totally sucks. Even Gollum doesn't look that real.

http://progressive.warnerbros.com/thematrix/us/med /matrix_tr_theatrical_640_dl.zip

Assmap

Like they did for The Matrix Revolutions, you mean?

What about Troy? Any word on who wins?

I seem to recall this woman, Helen of Troy?

...there will always be people needed to FIX the robots when they break down. and OTHER robots capable of doing this job won't be around for a long time.

And when the robots can repair themselves, they'll still need us to supply the power ... oh, sorry, that was just a movie, right?

Yeah, right!!!
Let's see one of us create a huge Matrix spoof moovie starring ourselves and show it at some large gathering or post it on the Internet. Warner Brother's and the MPAA's copyright nazis would be on us like stink on a big hot pile of fresh feces!!!

What bothered me is I didn't notice one single piece of dialogue in either Reloaded or Revolutions that eluded that the Animatrix and all the history behind it even existed.

Okay, I thought it neccesary, after hearing this to point out to everyone that if for some reason, you didn't feel like all of your questions were answered, or that the movie was convoluted, that there's MORE content that's external to the movies than there is in the movies.

If you want to fully understand the story, I would suggest the following for starters:

The Animatrix
There are 9 total episodes, 4 of them can be downloaded for FREE off of their web-site.

Comics
There are 24 graphic novel shorts, that have a lot of information, and are FREE.

Enter The Matrix Game
Okay, the game sucked, but it had a lot of back story. It explains what happens after the episode "Osiris" in the animatrix. The letter is dropped at the drop point, and then what? The plot of this game explains that.

But the idea that the humans were generating electricity is proposterous. I have said it since the begining of the Matrix series...

Me too. Fortunatly, there was a better explanation provided right from the start.

This story By Neil Gaiman, wich was allways available on the matrix website and is on the Matrix DVD, offers a much sensible solution.
AND it is provided by an Agent of the Matrix, who actually knows what he's talking about, and not by Morpheus, who specifically states that the people of Zion don't know why the machines keep us in the Matrix, they just guessed.

... check out The Miller's Tale in the Matrix Comics.

Are you suggesting Aki has competition?

Oh, but she does! You must be familiar with Jue from "The Animatrix," is the hottest thing in polygons!

(As for the "allmovieportal" site-- beware! Good content, but what a slow-loading pop-up-ridden unnavigable piece of junk)

Obviously the Oregonian screwed up. Since the official website had no credits for the third movie but did have credits for the first movie I went with the Oregonian's bad report.

Exactly. They are also releasing a comprehensive comic book series. Although there is no official word, I would not be surprised to eventually see an animated series of some kind.

The computer screens in The Matrix on the Nebuchadnezzar are not running Linux but proprietary hardware running proprietary firmware/software - AMX touch panels I worked for AMX at the time but was not involved with the movie.

http://thematrixonline.warnerbros.com

I think people in every country not specifically named in the announcement (well, they listed cities in usa, england, rusia and japan) will be in doubt for some time more, at least I have the same question but for Uruguay.

hex code is 10383910. here's a direct link
http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/rv_cmp/trail er_theatrical_1024dl.html

The Ultra version is now available. The rest of the hex code was posted on the news page. The hex is 10383910.

Here's a direct link
http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/rv_cmp/trail er_theatrical_1024dl.html

Here are the address of the three movies:

http://progressive.warnerbros.com/thematrix/us/med /rev_theatre_0x3839_640_dl.zip

http://progressive.warnerbros.com/thematrix/us/med /rev_theatre_0x3839_480_dl.zip

http://progressive.warnerbros.com/thematrix/us/med /rev_theatre_0x3839_320_dl.zip

Here are the address of the three movies:

http://progressive.warnerbros.com/thematrix/us/med /rev_theatre_0x3839_640_dl.zip

http://progressive.warnerbros.com/thematrix/us/med /rev_theatre_0x3839_480_dl.zip

http://progressive.warnerbros.com/thematrix/us/med /rev_theatre_0x3839_320_dl.zip

Here are the address of the three movies:

http://progressive.warnerbros.com/thematrix/us/med /rev_theatre_0x3839_640_dl.zip

http://progressive.warnerbros.com/thematrix/us/med /rev_theatre_0x3839_480_dl.zip

http://progressive.warnerbros.com/thematrix/us/med /rev_theatre_0x3839_320_dl.zip

Here's the links to the *.zip versions...

PC: Small..., Medium..., Large...
MAC: Small..., Medium..., Large...

Here's the links to the *.zip versions...

PC: Small..., Medium..., Large...
MAC: Small..., Medium..., Large...

Here's the links to the *.zip versions...

PC: Small..., Medium..., Large...
MAC: Small..., Medium..., Large...

Here's the links to the *.zip versions...

PC: Small..., Medium..., Large...
MAC: Small..., Medium..., Large...

Here's the links to the *.zip versions...

PC: Small..., Medium..., Large...
MAC: Small..., Medium..., Large...