I'm very very surprised that Westworld season 1 is going to be released on UHD Blu ray on HDR (not yet final if it will be HDR 10 or Dolby Vision) and Dolby Atmos track. Impressive, even more for a T.V. series, many movies are not so well cared on UHD BD. I'm sure it will look stunning, but I don't know yet if I'll buy it or not, I have so many stuff on UHD BD on pre-order that I think I cannot afford this one.
And here's a teaser trailer for Westworld season 2, just unveiled at ComicCon... Surprisingly, many of the characters from Season 1 appear to be back -- at least, they "seem" alive.
With my new Amazone Prime free HBO trial via the PS4, I just binge-watched season 1 and was blown away. Many of the things I had come to love about C Nolan's movies I can now attribute to J Nolan--the haunting visuals of a lost child; the "dream within a dream" concept fully paying off; the toy that comes to symbolize a hidden reality; the ability to play with time and sequencing in ways that fulfill the story. Superb writing, directing and acting. I was blown away. I generally don't like sci fi, partially because of sets like the Westworld building headquarters with cramped glass-enclosed rooms and sterile atmosphere. But the device of having the hosts and guests act out narratives in a western was brilliant, and I loved how the landscapes and open country was shot. What a trip.
Looks great but doesn't address a few themes that I hope will be a focus of Season 2: the search for Wyatt (or was it purely the "host" mythology of Arnold)--is Wyatt really Teddy?; the threat of the animals getting out of their cage and infiltrating the real world (not just Westworld HQ); developing the maze lore that was started by the early hosts and tribes. Probably the second thing is the most important to me. Maeve's "instinct" to get out of Westworld altogether and infiltrate the real world was the most compelling part of the show. If they take it off the table, that will be a huge step back.
I just did the same thing, but I am in the minority. While I agree that the plot lines are intricate and interesting, I can't get past the ultra-violence in this show. Every episode featured a mass shooting, is that fun? Knowing you can't get hurt while shooting life-like robots with blood spurting out all over the place. Anyway, this aspect was IMO repetitive and boring. Having said all that, I still may watch it again, but I wished that would have bypassed a lot of the mass shootings. Not sure if this came up in this thread, but was there an explanation why the hosts lived inside a loop, but then many of them stopped looping. This really annoyed me, when Dolores and few other characters were clearly off-loop, this should have raised alarm bells in central command.
Agreed. It doesn't tackle anything new except exactly the cliches you'd expect from a show about robots. Of course, I still haven't finished the last two episodes, I sorta yawned out on the series.
Just finished season one. Primarily on the strength of Evan Rachel Wood's immense talent, I liked it. It was also uneven as heck, starting out with a black-as-pitch pilot, then pulling back into a more entertaining adventure, amd then in the last two episodes jettisoning most of that adventure rather suddenly via a metric ton of exposition (most of it spoken by Hopkins' character). So I count that as three directions that were tried in a single season. Which does not sit well with me. And the moral, if you can call it that, seems to be a call to violence. It is a hard show. Some amazing acting, but the tone changes like... like some sort of bucking steer simile.
The message I keep getting from this show, and Ex Machina, is that we as humans associate freedom with AI. Therefore, for a machine to convince us it's sentient, it must want to be free from our control. That's a problem because we have an ethical duty to put humankind in control of the machines. I also see a theme where humans are trying to become like a machine in order to create a machine that's like a human. There are a lot of deep thematic elements explored, and there's a name for those three directions in the first season of Westworld. Beginning, middle and end. Every good story has it. Love that visual vocabulary of Nolan symbolism, too. That added so much to the show.
I pre-ordered the UHD BD set and I can't wait to watch it in 2160p with HDR, I'm very very curious about the use of HDR on this series.
There must be a bell curve of variations in the programmed loops - a natural range of variation based on random external factors or even on random thoughts. So some variation is expected. But large variations do raise alarms. We saw that when Dolores was detected as being in the wrong part of town, or rather the wrong town entirely, a human employee was dispatched to bring her in to see if something had gone wrong. He dressed as a deputy to do so, and tried to grab her hand, telling her that her daddy was worried that she'd gone missing. But when Wiliam insisted that she was with him, the "deputy" backed off, suggesting that they can go wildly off their expected routine if a guest decides to take one along. Usually it is the other way around - a Host takes a guest on an adventure, such as as the old prospector promising to take William on an expedition to find a buried treasure. So, when a guest does the reverse and takes a Host on a self-styled adventure of their own, that is noticed and is checked out.
Finally watched it. I was very pleasantly surprised. Seemed to me very smartly done, although I do wonder how many seasons they can drag out of it. I know there's always a temptation to keep going if the audience is there, but no series should last longer than 6 or 7 seasons. I tend to prefer when they get it done in 2 or 3 seasons.
I have the BR on the way. I am still rocking a Panasonic Plasma and hope to keep doing so for several more years, so no 4K for me for now. But, I definitely wanted Atmos, and fortunately, this is a case where the studios gave us Atmos w/o having to spring for 4K. I do have a 4K player and could play the discs downscaled to 2K, but in this case, I can get by with the BR. Oh, and I consider the show to be the greatest thing on TV since the original X Files, so there's that.
I saw Futureworld first....and honestly I like both Westworld and Futureworld. Both are hokey....personally I wish there was a remake that combined both movies. The tv show seems to do that
Watched FutureWorld recently and it looks el cheapo production values compared to WestWorld. 50 years ago Planet Of The Apes looked mighty impressive on the big screen, awe factor for sure. Now, not so much.
I've got the Blu-ray on the way as well. No 4K for me, or plans, as Blu-ray looks fantastic to me and I have no need for a new TV or player for some time (hopefully).
I have the 4K red can UK set shipped by Arrow to home in Spain, I don't want to loose my sleep thinking about in what condition the can will arrive. I better think about what a sound and visual feast I'll enjoy with Westworld in 4K. I'll know it in around a week.
If the show ever does a season where we do get out into whatever the "real world" is, that will truly be an upgrade of the general concept of Futureworld (which involved having robots clandestinely out in the real world). The anticipation of seeing the real world, when a certain character almost left on the train, was intense. Knew it wouldn't happen though, since it would have been too expensive to build an entire outside world for just the few remaining episodes of that season. They'll have to go all-in, if they want to show the real world. More likely we'll never see the real world.
The blu-ray of season one is going to be released next week -- 11/7/17 -- who here is gonna pick it up??
