Digital2Film

There has be a lot of movies released over the time of my hiatus or should I say that I've seen quite of a bit of movies. More and more I try to avoid any movie that I feel will be generic or just another cinematic universe building film because I just don't care about those anymore. Not to say that I am staying away from superhero films because superhero films aren't the only ones trying to stay in the cinematic universe building game.

Recently I have just watched Logan for the first time and I while I really enjoyed it I can't help but feel like it was a end of an era. That same feeling of having to move on. Modern movies have certainly lost their edge compared to what they used to and that not to say that they have become worse. That statement just isn't true as there will always be bad movies but the good ones will continued to be remember and often looked at when movies are released that year. No what I am talking about is the "playing it safe" factor that I see in so many modern movies.

I mention Logan because it reminded me of why I like when movies take chances and try something new even at the cost of a marketable film. After watching X-Men: Apocalypse last year I said to myself "its time to end the X-Men movies" After watching Logan, I said the same thing, but the meaning was completely opposite to prior statement. The prior, a sense that this franchise and others like it have plateaued and no longer had anything new to offer. The former, a satisfying conclusion to a long running story that now has come full circle. Nothing else it needed to tell after its already been done.

Now I know there will continue to be X-Men movies. Even as I am typing this the studio is probably announced a whole slate of movies planned to 2030. But that doesn't necessarily mean I have to watch them or even considered them a continuation. Now I days I find myself deciding when and where a movie series should end even though more sequels are released to follow.

Naruto is a long running franchise that I have kept up with for close to 13 years now. But, similar to X-Men, the series has ended. Well not exactly. The story contributed by the original creator has ended. But the "story" goes on in the form of the "Next Generation" by the studios that know Naruto makes money. I know I don't have to watch it and I don't plan to, as for me the story has ended.

Which makes me think about the future of movies, of course we will still get great stand alone films but more and more are we getting movies that are made by a chart that says what the average person does and doesn't want to see in a movie with an end result of mediocrity. Where as just a few years ago I was going to the theaters as much as I could to see every movie was that released to today where I see maybe one or two movies actually in theaters.

I feel like the announcement for the PS4 Pro was one of the most confusing announcements for any console since the Wii U. While I got the gist of what they were saying only after the fact by doing research it still isn't clear to most people what exactly this new console is.

A lot of the confusion has to do with the fact that this current console generation is basically behind by a generation due to the PS3 and Xbox 360 lasting way to long then the life span needed to be. So an incremental upgrade to the current gen consoles makes sense as it catches everyone up in a way that doesn't abandon everyone who had just bought the consoles brand new in the last two years.

UPSCALING

The best way to describe this new console is a 4K upscaling as the hardware isn't actually powerful enough to run games at native 4K. Even the most powerful modern PCs have a hard time rendering games in 4K at a smooth experience. Its much better than it ever was but it still isn't quite there just yet.

Upscaling is a way for them to bypass this by taking a lower resolution and sharping the pixels and making them larger. The games will look better but it won't be making the actual graphics look better. It is really only the image that is being affected not the actually processing of the graphics.

So the PS4 Pro being marketed at a 4K machine is a bit misleading seeing how most games won't be real 4K. It is however a good way for Sony to sell those 4K TV's they have stocked up that haven't been sold.

1080P 60FPS?

This is by far the most interesting aspect of the console as with new, more powerful hardware. You would assume that already existing games would run better on this new console. The PS4, while having some games run at 1080p 60fps struggles to handle games at that frame rate and resolution consistently. With the new upgrade the new console is definitely powerful enough to get games to this stable format.

The question is will the PS4 Pro take advantage of this? They have mentioned that the Pro will scale based on the resolution being output to you TV but will this improve gameplay? This is something that will be answered when the console arrives but right now not knowing is what is preventing me from buying the console.

If this ability is taken advantage of I can actually see the case being made to go out and buy one of these things even when you already have an original PS4. The majority of console owner use a 1080p screen anyway and the one thing that consoles owner do miss out on is a decent frame rate with a good looking game.

Clint Eastwood can have hit and misses in his films but over the years he has been tackling true events stories from recent years and portraying them in a way that feel very real and unbiased. Is his latest film a hit? Tom Hanks is always a likable actor and most characters he plays are always likable and here, its no different. We follow the story of Chesley Sullenberger, who became a hero after gliding his plane along the water in the Hudson River in 2009.

What really caught my attention was how this movie really focuses more on the aftermath of the plane crash than the actual crash itself. We do get the see the crash but it is much later than I would've expected, where most movies would have something like this as the first scene of their film. A lot of this movie is about the aftermath drama as companies are looking for a person to put the blame on this as you watch as Sully tries to defend himself. Of course the situations are never that simple as the people after him really try to pick everything apart to find every flaw that they could use to blame him.

My only complaint about the film is that I felt that it would've been better told if all the even were in chronological order. I understand why flashbacks and past experiences are shown as it takes a break from certain scenes but most of the time I like to see things play out one after another. This movie has a number of flash backs including the plane landing and even dream sequences showing what could have happened if things didn't go the way they did. Not many movies take the time to dive in this much to a situation and it was nice to see that here.

Sully's biggest strengths was the runtime. The movie isn't that long and is paced in a way that could've been misused very easily if they wanted to extend the time. It feels way to early to say if this film will carry on to the Oscars season, because a Clint Eastwood true even story seems like a movie that would be, but regardless this a good movie and I would say one of the better ones of this year. I think it will be best to catch this film in a matinée price if you are looking for a good drama that isn't just about the action set piece of the film.

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