DVD adventures in China
4.20.2009
There's a DVD shop not too far from the apartment that my roommate and myself occasionally drop by. While they carry your usual selection of Chinese cinema releases, their specialty is foreign films, 80% of which are from the US. Needless to say, these movies aren't imported from overseas. Even though they look pretty convincing and even come with the official DVD sleeve insert and box packaging, they're replicas. But aside from the occasional misquotation on the jacket and a blip here and there during viewing, you really can't tell the difference, and at 7 kuai each ($1 US), our movie collection has bulked up pretty quickly. And yesterday, my roommate found this gem: the newly-released "X-Men Origins" movie.
Now, having been out of the US for 7 weeks, I assumed I'd been pretty out of the loop with this stuff, but as far as I could remember, this movie had only just come out in theaters. After 20 seconds on google, I found out I was wrong. It doesn't come out till May 1st, a week and a half from now. Oh man.
Turns out it's an early version of the film (though in its entirety). What makes it particularly amusing is the lack of a bunch of key special effects and editing, to the extent that you get to see cables on the actors and green screens behind them. Amazing! And in the shots that require total CGI, there are just grey, opaque 3D models moving around to sound effects.
But I sat through the whole thing nevertheless, imagining the scenes in their final, polished cut, and I gotta say, it's still not a very good movie...
posted by Mr. Linty @ 5:10 AM,
4 Comments:
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At 9:13 AM,
Tystarr said...
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Maybe you start exporting cheap dvds on the side to the US.
You could make a killing. -
At 10:18 AM,
Mija said...
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a friend saw this version and she said it was so bad. That not even the lack of cgi finishing was an excuse for how bad the story line was.
And apparently Hugh Jackman is livid that unfinished version was sneaked out. Some fans say its a publicity stunt. Who knows, I hate what they did to X-men :/ -
At 12:43 AM,
said...
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Since you think it's ok to buy, support and watch pirated goods, perhaps you will be ok with us making knock offs of your shirts?
How can you even have the nerve to get upset when it happens to you since you think it's ok to do it to others?
Get some integrity and now we know to have the FBI come to your little linty fresh home/office when you return with all your ILLEGAL movies. -
At 11:06 AM,
Horse N. Buggy said...
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I saw a similarly unfinished version of Serenity - it was interesting. However, my experience was a sanctioned prescreening to generate hype.
And, uh, you know that you can't bring those back to the US with you, right? Remember how John and I got searched? They were specifically looking for stuff like this.
