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cecile15n561919-blog · 5 years

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How To Convert MP3 To M4A On Win

QQripper is the autoloader software to automate the ripping of a stack of music discs (to transform audio tracks from music CD to digital information) to supported storage devices similar to hard disk, iPod or www.audio-transcoder.com MP3 player. Within the starting of this article, we have now already mentioned the most common the reason why people choose to convert MP3 to WAV format. We all know that MP3 is a lossy compressed file, changing it to WAV is not going to help to regain its full resolution that initially existed. MP3 file compression is basically a damaging compression where there are permanent change and loss of information which is determined by the algorithm of compression. Once compressed, the original file can't be recreated or m4a video to wav converter download free rebuild, even whether it is uncompressed through WAV format. Right here it needs to be nicely understood that no matter imperfections that exist in the MP3 file will stay there even after converting it to WAV, but will certainly not worsen. MelodyCan is extraordinarily easy to install and use with a very clear user friendly interface. Our program supports MP3, M4A (AAC) and WAV as output codecs. You can set a desired output format in MelodyCan settings by choosing one of three encoders for audio files. For instance you select MP3" encoder before changing M4P to MP3 if you happen to personal non-iPod machine. No extra sophisticated settings - simple setup of conversion and output folder structure. The following guide will present you how one can convert FLAC information on Mac within 3 easy steps. Despite the fact that Windows 10 can help more audio and video codecs, for special usages, you will nonetheless want a audio converter which may also help you change between audio codecs together with FLAC, WAV, MP3, WMA, OGG, Apple lossless ALAC, AIFF, DTS, M4A; extract audio from video like convert video MP4, MKV, MOV, WTV, WebM, HEVC to MP3, FLAC, DTS, as well as compress audio information. Then you'll be able to simply add FLAC to iTunes in Home windows 10, extract music from video to play in music players, compress audio recordsdata to avoid wasting system spaces, and many others.

FLAC first emerged in 2001 as an open-source alternative to different lossless codecs emerging at the time. These included Apple Lossless (ALAC), Microsoft's WAV (Waveform Audio Format) and WMA Lossless. However these aggressive codecs do have their disadvantages. Whereas ALAC has a loyal following amongst iPod and iPhone users, it hasn't seen a lot uptake outdoors of Apple merchandise. The WAV format can be standard, and it's suitable with iOS units, however its largest problems are that file sizes are very giant, and it can't retain "tag" data - artist, album identify, lyrics, and so on - in the way in which the other formats can. FLAC, then again, not solely supports tags however can be suitable with most music players. Apple is the one real holdout here, for whereas there was talk in 2017 of hardware help in each the iPhone 8 and X nothing has materialized. Nevertheless, there are simple workarounds for iOS and Mac users. WAV recordsdata are good to have, nonetheless, because they permit probably the most flexibility. They are perfect for making copies of songs from because of their first technology" standing. Free WAV to MP3 means that you can set your personal output quality, from a low quality 32kbps that creates a small file, to a high quality 320kpbs that creates a big file. All it takes is a number of click on of your mouse: add the information to be converted from the 'Add Files' button, choosing the output folder, choosing the output quality after which hitting the 'Convert' button. A: You may convert your M4A files to the popular WAV format. it's essential look at what sort of file it's before you do any converting. With iSkysoft iMedia Converter Deluxe you will be able to batch convert WAV to MP3 easily. In this information, we will present you find out how to batch convert on Home windows LAPTOP. Word: You may add multiple information to convert all of them in one go. Show you how to switch the transformed video or music to iPhone, Android phones.

Click General tab>click on Import Settings>click menu>select WAV format. MAC M4P Converter convert any iTunes music to mp3 or AAC on Mac It easily converts DRM protected iTunes m4p to mp3, m4a video to wav converter download free m4a to mp3, m4b to mp3, m4p to AAC and various audio information to unprotected MP3 file codecs at high speed, with CD high quality. So, when you have a slower internet connection or restricted laborious drive house, MP3 could be your file format of selection. Should you're nervous about quality loss, don't fret an excessive amount of about it. While, yes, there is a noticeable drop off in sound high quality, MP3 recordsdata fall sq. beneath the nice enough" umbrella. When convert m4a to wav, musical information lose nothing comparing unique m4a stuff. The original stuff lose a part of information when coded to different lossy format. Initially I thought I'd try to convert the m4a files as the syncing makes it straightforward and high quality is okay. A unix or perl script would be great. Or is there a voice memo app that produces wav that can be synced simply so I can add the information simply. FreeStar Free WAV MP3 Converter additionally helps batch converting so you'll be able to arrange the program to transform complete albums with little bother.

Probably the most obtrusive and important distinction between free and for-pay software is speed of conversion. During testing, Freemake, the most effective free audio converter software program, took 4 instances as long as the fastest program, Change, to transform a 625MB WAV file to MP3. The opposite free converter we examined, File ZigZag , is a web-based converter device that was 30 occasions slower than Swap at changing our test file. It additionally limits you to 1 file over 180MB per day and 2GB or smaller recordsdata. If you must steadily convert information or numerous information at once, we advocate spending between $20 and $30 on a program that does not crash typically and can batch convert multiple files directly.Audio-only MPEG-four information usually have am4a extension. This is very true of unprotected content material. In case you want to specify an output directory relatively than putting files where the originals were you can replace %~dpn.mp3 with \path\to\ouput\dir\%~n.mp3 the place \path\to\ouput\dir\ have to be an present directory. Can someone advocate me a good M4A to WAV converter? I want it to have the potential in batch changing M4A to WAV? Any helpful answer can be appreciated. 2. Quick convert M4A to MP3 and some other audio codecs on Mac with ZERO high quality loss.

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sinceileftyoublog · 3 years

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A Winged Victory for the Sullen Interview: Dancing in Venice

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Ambient duo A Winged Victory for the Sullen compose for other media just as much as, if not more than, they make records for themselves. Dustin O’Halloran and Stars of the Lid’s Adam Wiltzie released their self-titled debut 10 years ago but followed it up with Atomos, an original score for Wayne McGregor’s dance company, as well as soundtracks to the films Iris and God’s Own Country. After 2019′s The Undivided Five, a more personal affair, they’ve now returned to writing for the stage, composing Invisible Cities for a 90-minute Leo Warner theatre production inspired by Italo Calvino’s novel of the same name.

Yet, Invisible Cities as a record stands alone nonetheless; O’Halloran and Wiltzie view putting together an album out of their scores as its own creative endeavor, and the product its own artistic entity. For one, Invisible Cities, the record, is half the length of the score, which followed cues from a script Warner had written for the production. And while there’s a narrative quality to the music, it follows the best peaks and valleys of a Winged Victory record. Opener “So That The City Can Begin to Exist” shimmers with strings, keys, and solemn piano, while hopeful tunes like “Every Solstice Equinox” temper the uneasy expressions of “The Dead Outnumber The Living”. Instrumentals are surrounded by something new for the band--voice--on the pulsating and buzzing “The Celestial City” and choral lead single “Desires Are Already Memories”. The track titles themselves, meanwhile, are taken directly from the novel (translated from Italian to English), but the sequencing of the record was achieved with solely the album format in mind, independent of the order the words appear in the novel or production.

Moreover, the duo feels like Invisible Cities fits within their discography. For one, the instrumentation followed what Wiltzie called “the usual process” of “guitar that doesn’t sound like guitar, piano that doesn’t sound like piano, random keyboard sounds reprocessed and regurgitated” as well as “a little brass and the typical strings we seem to fall back on.” And even though the aesthetic is a little different, primarily due to the use of voice, they feel like they could play some of the songs on the record in a live show. Talking to O’Halloran and Wiltzie over Zoom late last year, reflecting on Invisible Cities provided them the opportunity to revisit it after a busy 2020. “It’s been a great year for sitting on your butt and making music,” Wiltzie said, telling me that the band has five (!) records finished at the moment. “I’m just gonna retire and slowly release them,” quipped O’Halloran. They released Invisible Cities on their Artificial Pinearch Manufacturing label with the blessing of their usual label Ninja Tune, so they could release the record sooner than Ninja Tune’s release calendar allowed. Considering the potential for new Stars of the Lid music after Wiltzie’s solo release and the upcoming release of O’Halloran’s Deutsche Grammophon solo debut Silfur, it was probably a wise move to drop Invisible Cities in February. It’s music that resonates now and will continue to inspire in the future.

Read my conversation with O’Halloran and Wiltzie below, edited for length and clarity.

Since I Left You: Were you aware of the novel Invisible Cities before composing the score?

Adam Wiltzie: I’d read it a while ago. I haven’t known about it for that many years. It was still fresh in my brain. Dustin lived in Italy for a while, so he might have been aware of it for longer. In Italian circles, he seems to be extremely well known.

Dustin O’Halloran: I hadn’t read that particular book until this project, but I’m definitely a fan.

SILY: How did your awareness of the novel make its way into your approach? The eventual score was for Leo Warner’s theater production, but going from start to finish, did your experience of reading the novel make its way into the scoring approach?

AW: Definitely, in a kind of roundabout way. Leo ended up hiring a scriptwriter. There were so many technical people--dancers, actors, there were about 100 people total working on the entire production. He thought it would be good to have a script everyone could follow. Pre-production to the premiere in first week of July 2019, everyone was kind of working remotely in their own cities, and eventually everyone came together. We needed a way to work on it in a tangible way where everybody could follow along. The book is this very atmospheric psychedelic 13th-century travelogue. The script had more of this dialogue that happened between things not exactly in the book that they took as an inspiration. The city of Venice, one of the main characters heavily present in the production, the spirt of the novel is there but it’s not exactly how the novel goes when you see the production.

SILY: How did working on Atomos compare to working on Invisible Cities?

DO: [Atomos] was a pretty big production. That was our first time working the stage. Obviously, this was a totally different thing. That was a production with dancing, 3D elements, an abstract narrative.

AW: I didn’t know at the time what a big deal it was to be working with Wayne. How are you gonna top that? The whole experience was really great. There were elements of what we were doing with McGregor with dance, but one major difference was the soundtrack, the score we did for Wayne’s, we played it live all the way through. The new one is a hodge podge. There are so many elements going on. I look at Atomos--I don’t want to say 50-50, but dance and the music are at the forefront. Here, music is more of a supporting role, if that makes any sense.

SILY: How does that change your approach to scoring, knowing what exact role it’s gonna play in the overall experience?

AW: A lot less pressure, that’s for sure. Hopefully, some day it’ll come back on tour again. It’s a little bit mental. There’s so much going on. I can barely even make sense of it.

DO: I hadn’t seen the production--Adam showed up at the rehearsal--but it was in this abandoned train station in Manchester. It was massive. They built a canal of water to emulate the Venice Canal, and boats.

AW: It was almost a film production, but taking place in a live format. Definitely very ambitious.

SILY: Listening to it, not having seen the production, I can still hear what sounds like cinematic cues. Do you imagine those images in your head, cinematic or theatrical, when composing?

AW: This production was more like a film score because you had a script. Doing really specific scenes.

DO: There was a lot of dialogue and Shakespearean acting. The main actor who played Kublai Khan was a strong theater actor. There was much more of a theater element to the acting.

SILY: To what extent does this as an album exist separately from its context? Can it be fully appreciated as a recording in your minds?

AW: I think so. Obviously, we’re both a little bit biased so it can be hard to have some perspective. But I see a connection with all of our records. Not everybody knows that Atomos was part of a dance production. I like to think it’ll be the same for this, taken out of the context of being there in person. Reading comments from when we dropped the first single, I saw people saying, “Oh, Invisible Cities, like the Calvino book!” without realizing it actually was the book. I think most people don’t really know. It’s a good thing. If you see the production, that’s great, but it’s not gonna show everywhere. You can let go and just enjoy the record. That’s the experience we wanted it to have during the editing process, where we could edit it down to 45 minutes to work as a solid record.

DO: Maybe more than our other works. There’s a bit more storytelling in this. With Atomos, it was pretty much like making a record.

SILY: Thinking about your discography, you have now four technical studio albums including Atomos, and almost as many film soundtracks. When I think of A Winged Victory for the Sullen, so much of it is composed for other media but stands on its own at the same time.

AW: That’s what we hope for. Anybody scoring, that’s a composer musician’s dream. You want the listener to be able to listen all the way through.

SILY: Where did the track titles come from?

AW: They come straight from the book, obviously translated from Italian to English.

SILY: Do those appear in the same order in the novel as they do in the track list?

AW: It doesn’t start from the beginning to end. The goal was to have a good side A and side B. But they are related to specific cities. There’s one on side B, “There Is One Of Which You Never Speak” which is a direct reference to Venice. The city titles are a little bit scattershot. I was reading back through the novel as we were editing, over the past few months of being in lockdown, and we started trading phrases back and forth, and Dustin thought we’d give it a try. It’s been an interesting way to do song titles, not that I invented this concept. I like the phrases. You kind of get lost in them.

SILY: Many of them seem to conjure the mood of the track, like “The Dead Outnumber The Living”. Very uneasy, expressive tones.

DO: When you have a book that interesting, it’s so psychedelic. If anything, I hope people discover Calvino. He’s very under the radar for American readers. For me, he’s such a good writer, very much of the earth, this kind of fantasy realism that’s super inspired.

SILY: Why did you release “Desires Are Already Memories” as the first single?

AW: Dustin chose it. I couldn’t really pick one. Normally, every record, I pick an obvious single, but I couldn’t for this one, so I said to Dustin, “Hey man, pick the single.”

DO: It’s the most different sound to date. I just thought it was a nice change for us and people would be interested to check the rest out. We definitely have our sound and elements we work with. It’s always exciting to get away from the things we normally use. We didn’t ever go into the project with any idea of what the instrumentation would be. Whatever we explore, there’s a lot of processing that happens, a lot of experimentation. It’s always great to bend these classical or traditional instruments to try to find ways to bring them life. That track was combining things I hadn’t really heard before.

SILY: What’s the inspiration behind the album art?

AW: On the previous record, The Undivided Five, Ninja Tune gave us some choices, and we started working with this guy Davy [Evans]. We connected emotionally with his images. We just liked him. He was a nice easy guy to work with. Very organic.

DO: I just like that his work feels so otherworldly.

SILY: Do you have a favorite track on the album?

AW: For some reason, I don’t know why, but it’s “Despair Dialogue”. This distorted guitar sound I got in the left channel at the last 45 seconds is one of my favorite guitar sounds I’ve ever gotten. The music is used as support for a spoken word moment between two main characters, so it’s not super loud in the mix. But sometimes things just happen accidentally, and it really grew on me later. I didn’t think it would even make the cut, and now it’s the one I enjoy the most.

SILY: I really like the distorted quality of a lot of the record that belies some of the more beautiful passages--but they’re beautiful in their own way, too.

AW: There are some textures we were pushing a little bit more for this one we haven’t necessarily done. I can’t say less pretty or dark, but there were things I noticed I’m not sure the casual listener does so much, but emotions we would counter some of the melodies with.

SILY: Anything you’ve been watching, listening to, or reading lately that’s caught your attention?

AW: Morricone just died, and there’s this really great biography of his called In His Own Words. I didn’t realize how tortured he was by directors. For how famous he was, he was really miserable about it. I also read The Complete Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, about the Civil War. It’s really bleak.

For some reason, I have Adult Swim over here, and I’ve been watching Mike Tyson Mysteries and Robot Chicken. I don’t know if I’d recommend them, but they’re pretty funny.

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hashirblogs1995-blog · 5 years

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How Much Sleep Do You Need?

Alright, therefore sleep is vital, however, what proportion of sleep does one extremely need? To answer that question, let's take into account Associate in a Nursing experiment conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Washington State University. The researchers began the experiment by gathering forty eight healthy men and girls United Nations agency had been averaging seven to eight hours of sleep per night. Then, they split these subjects into four teams. the primary cluster had to remain up for three days straight while not sleeping. The second cluster slept for four hours per night. The third cluster slept for six hours per night. and also the fourth cluster slept for eight hours per night. In these final 3 groups—4, 6, and eight hours of sleep—the subjects were command to those sleep patterns for 2 weeks straight. Throughout the experiment the topics were tested on their physical and mental performance. Here's what happened… The subjects United Nations agency were allowed a full eight hours of sleep displayed no psychological feature decreases, attention lapses, or motor ability declines throughout the 14-day study. Meanwhile, the teams United Nations agency received four hours and half dozen hours of sleep steady declined with every passing day. The four-hour cluster performed worst, however the six-hour cluster did not fare far better. specially, there have been 2 notable findings. First, sleep debt could be a additive issue. within the words of the researchers, sleep debt “has a biology price that accumulates over time.” once one week, twenty five % of the six-hour cluster was falling asleep indiscriminately times throughout the day. once period of time, the six-hour cluster had performance deficits that were an equivalent as if they'd stayed up for 2 days straight. Let Maine repeat that: if you get half dozen hours of sleep per night for 2 weeks straight, your mental and physical performance declines to an equivalent level as if you had stayed awake for forty eight hours straight. Second, participants did not notice their own performance declines. once participants hierarchic themselves, they believed that their performance declined for a couple of days so tapered off. In reality, they were continued to induce worse with daily. In alternative words, we tend to area unit poor judges of our own performance decreases when we tend to area unit looking them. The Cost of Sleep Deprivation The irony of it all is that several people area unit full of sleep deprivation so we are able to work additional, however, the visit performance ruins any potential edges of operating extra hours. In u. s. alone, studies have calculable that sleep deprivation is cost accounting businesses over $100 billion every year in lost potency and performance. As Gregory Belenky, Director of the Sleep and Performance research facility at Washington State University puts it: “Unless you’re doing work that doesn’t need abundant thought, you're commercialism time awake at the expense of performance.” And this brings United States to the necessary question: At what purpose will sleep debt begin accumulating? once do performance declines begin adding up? consistent with a large vary of studies, the tipping purpose is sometimes round the seven or seven.5 hour mark. usually speaking, consultants agree that ninety five % of adults got to sleep seven to nine hours every night to perform optimally. Most adults ought to be aiming for eight hours per night. Children, teenagers, and older adults generally would like even additional. Here's a helpful analogy for why sleep is therefore necessary. The Theory of additive Stress Imagine that your health and energy area unit a bucket of water. In your regular life, there area unit things that fill your bucket up. Sleep is one in all the most inputs. These also are things like nutrition, meditation, stretching, laughter, and alternative kinds of recovery. There also are forces that drain the water from your bucket. This area unit outputs like lifting weights or running, stress from work or faculty, relationship issues, or alternative kinds of stress and anxiety. The forces that drain your bucket are not all negative, of course. to measure a productive life, it are often necessary to possess a number of those things flowing out of your bucket. operating exhausting within the gymnasium, at school, or at the workplace permits you to supply one thing useful. however even positive outputs area unit still outputs and that they drain your energy consequently. These outputs area unit additive. Even a bit leak may end up in vital water loss over time. Keeping Your Bucket Full If you would like to stay your bucket full, you've got 2 choices. Refill your bucket on a daily basis. which means creating time for sleep and recovery. Let the stressors in your life accumulate and drain your bucket. Once you hit empty, your body can force you to rest through injury and health problem. Recovery isn't negotiable. you'll either build time to rest and rejuvenate currently or build time to retch and scraped later. Keep your bucket full. Ok, however, are you able to Catch informed Sleep? Extra sleep will remedy a number of the negative effects of many dangerous nights of sleep. New analysis found that catching informed sleep on the weekends brought daytime temporary state and inflammation levels back to baseline; but, psychological feature performance failed to rebound. What specifically will that mean? If you are not obtaining enough sleep throughout the week, you can't rely on catch-up sleep on the weekends to revive your focus and a spotlight. the sole thanks to keeping levels of these performance measures high is to create certain you are obtaining adequate sleep nightly. Now, will this mean you should not even attempt to catch informed sleep? No. If you already sleep underprivileged, you ought to positively attempt to get some additional sleep. however, the most effective issue to try and do, each for immediate performance and for the long-run, is to prioritize sleep each night—not simply on the weekends however Sleep Works The Sleep-Wake Cycle The quality of your sleep is set by a method known as the sleep-wake cycle. There area unit 2 necessary components of the sleep-wake cycle: Slow wave sleep (also called deep sleep) REM sleep (REM stands for speedy Eye Movement) During slow-wave sleep the body relaxes, respiratory becomes additional regular, pressure falls, and also the brain becomes less alert to external stimuli, that makes it tougher to get up. This section is essential for the renewal and repair of the body. throughout slow-wave sleep, the pituitary releases internal secretion, that stimulates tissue growth and muscle repair. Researchers additionally believe that the body's system is repaired throughout this stage. Slow wave sleep is especially essential if you are Associate in Nursing jock. you may typically hear concerning skilled athletes like Roger Federer or LeBron James sleeping eleven or twelve hours per night. As one example of the impact of sleep on physical performance, take into account study researchers conducted on the Stanford basketball players. throughout this study, the players slept for a minimum of 10 hours per night (compared to their typical eight hours). throughout 5 weeks of extended sleep, the researchers measured the basketball players accuracy and speed compared to their previous levels. penalty free throw shooting proportion enlarged by nine %. 3 purpose shooting proportion enlarged by nine.2 percent. and also the players were zero.6 seconds quicker once sprinting eighty meters. If you place serious physical demands on your body, slow wave sleep is what helps you recover. REM sleep is to the mind what slow wave sleep is to the body. The brain is comparatively quiet throughout most sleep phases, however throughout REM your brain involves life. rapid eye movement is once your brain dreams and re-organizes info. throughout this section your brain clears out tangential info, boosts your memory by connecting the experiences of the last twenty four hours to your previous experiences, and facilitates learning and neural growth. Your blood heat rises, your pressure will increase, and your pulse rate races. Despite all of this activity, your body hardly moves. Typically, the REM section happens briefly bursts concerning three to five times per night. Without the slow wave sleep and rapid eye movement phases, the body virtually starts to die. If you starve yourself of sleep, you cannot recover physically, your system weakens, and your brain becomes foggy. Or, because the researchers place it, sleep underprivileged people expertise enlarged risk of infective agent infections, weight gain, diabetes, high pressure, cardiopathy, mental disease, and mortality. To summarize: slow wave sleep helps you recover physically whereas rapid eye movement helps you recover mentally. the number of your time you pay in these phases tends to decrease with age, which suggests the standard of your sleep and your body's ability to recover additionally decrease with age. Age-Related Sleep Changes According to Harvard graduate school researchers, “As folks age, it takes longer to nod off, a development known as enlarged sleep latency. And sleep potency – the proportion of your time spent asleep whereas in bed – decreases yet.”

#sleep #how much sleep needed

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crashbarrier · 7 years

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Everything that is wrong with “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” that shouldn’t be

This is cross posted from my LJ, so is a little “behind” on date - (and yes i forgot Tumblr is a blog - duh!) Anyway, context.. I went to see Valerian at teh cinema because it’s one of those films that my partner and I recognise as being a ‘Cinematic visual masterpiece’. Which should be seen on the big screen. Although we went for 3D rather than IMAX because it didn’t seem to need the IMAX touch – though maybe we should have gone to IMAX because the focus was totally off on the 3D and we have issues with “Ghosting” and the occasional tearing of the image.. which was just weird - but not enough to give me motion sickness. but I digress.

Beware here be spoiler and ranting

Basic Premise of the story – (note this is a very cursory overview), we have a brief overview of earth going into space and becoming a hub of space commerce, the international space station grows and grows to become a port of call for intergalactic travelers. Eventually it becomes too big, threatening the planet (I guess it’s because it could plummet to the earth and create a disaster on a level that would wipe out the planet) so it is pushed into space. And by the 28th century (earth time?) it has carried on traveling but has grown has been is re named “Alpha” and is the “The city of a thousand planets” a hub of knowledge and mostly co-operating cultures (it’s a little like Zootopia the city) . .

Cut to a planet Mul (pronounced Mewl) where we see a peaceful idyll enjoyed by a race of what look to be aquatic based life forms (that, strangely enough, look a lot like the Maasai of Africa if they lived on a beach) who are living their daily life, doing their thing, harvesting pearls (which contain huge amounts of energy), and then using these weird little lizard creatures (Mul converters) to create more pearls and return them back to the planet, in what seems to be a form of sacrificial offering (sacrifice as in offering dumped into a pool of water). When suddenly the skies darken and death starts to rain from above. Large pieces of space ship being to drop into the atmosphere and hit the ground. In panic and curiosity the people investigate one of the large pieces and find a spaceship, they climb inside and shut the door to protect themselves. In doing so the handle falls off so the door cannot be opened. Trapped inside they are unable to open the door for their princess who is trapped outside while a wall of fiery death is approaching. They watch their princess die as the wall of fire approaches… in her death the princess releases a flash of light (which is her soul) which flashes out into space and….

… Seems to hit our titular character (Major) Valerian (Dane DeHaan) who is R&Ring on a holo-beach simulation based on his ship. Which he shares with his subordinate (Sergeant) Laureline (Cara Delevingne). Valerian and Laureline are agents of a galactic wide military organisation, they appear to answer directly to a governmental office within the planetary government. Contacted by the Minister of Defense they are sent on a mission to retrieve a stolen “converter” which is being sold in a black market deal in a universal market. Cue a heist movie? Where they grab back the stolen merchandise which is one of the little creatures from Mul which they take to the space station Alpha to return to the Galactic Federation via Commander Arun Filitt (Clive Owen) . Valerian and Laureline are then assigned as bodyguards to the Commander while he has possession of the “converter”.

During a meeting of the space station’s council, they are attacked by a previously “unknown” group of people who incapacitate the people and kidnap Commander Filitt. Valerian chases the perpetrators into an area of the space station that is currently registered as a dangerously radioactive area. And after “misc adventures” himself and Laureline discover that the survivors of Mul are living there and creating a way to re-create their now dead world. The Commander (who inadvertently destroyed their world by ordering a devastating attack on an enemy they were fighting in a war that ended up next to Mul) is seeking to cover his actions (as he was warned the planet had non-primitive lifeforms on it but chose to use devastating weaponry on the enemy and so triggering the rain of death that killed Mul) of effectively perpetrating war crimes. By wiping out the only witnesses – the Pearls. It turns out the pearl that Valerian picked up during the deal gone wrong for the converter and the Mul Converter are needed to create the power needed to create a facsimile of the planet Mul on a space craft that is going to be launched into space. Cue fighting and stalling and craziness culminating in the launch of the Mul Pearl ship, the reveal of the Commander’s complicity in the destruction of the planet Mul, the death of several security and command staff of Alpha and the capture of the Commander. Leaving Valerian and Laureline in space in an old International Space Station pod awaiting pick up by their organisation/or space ship Alex. With the two seemingly solidifying their relationship???

The only initial comment I have for this movie is that it is half a good movie. In the same way that the Live action movie of Avatar the last air bender (’The Last Airbender’) was half a good movie. Visually it is amazing, no expense has been spared to reproduce the universe created by the original comics. But unfortunately the same level of detail has not been spent on the script, which is sloppy and lacklustre, the editing which spends a long time lingering on the effects heavy scenes, and the acting.. Which lacks any form of charisma what so ever.

I realise that this might put you off watching this movie but visually it is amazing. And if you have a subscription or something it is worth seeing it on the large screen just for the “Space” alone. Unfortunately I suspect once it loses the enormity of the screen, and the depth of the 3D, like Avatar the Cameron movie, it will look a little like a collection of cut scenes from a computer game because unlike The 5th Element it lacks the charisma and pacing of story which makes the movie cohesive.

The main over all glaring complaint I have is the so called “love” story that takes place between Valerian and Laureline, because it has no love it in what so ever. There is no on stream chemistry between the two. Their interactions are on a level with two people who know each other but aren’t really attracted to each other. To be honest that could have been cut out and you would not miss it at all. Plus the ‘character’ of Valerian is totally un-empathic. He is 2dimensional, appears to be a serial womaniser, he makes no emotional connection to his paramours collects them as a “playlist” and the to make it more off, it appears that he they are his subordinates so he uses his position of privilege to “seduce” his female Professional Military Subordinates into a physical relationship……. So.. sexual coercion by a superior to a subordinate???

As a viewer of the movie I found it extremely hard to empathise and follow/side with this character He epitomised absolutely everything wrong with a white male privileged lead character. He is also a complete mystery as to his motivations he appears to be a reckless Maverick who gets the job done but forgets things like innocent bystanders and collateral damage, however he then starts to spout rhetoric about following the rules and being on point for the galactic federation?? On one hand he’s “I am unable to open up and let people in” but then proposes marriage to the Sergeant for no good reason than “I like you because I can’t have you”.. infact throughout the whole movie the only truly meaningful relationship he has is with Bubble, the exotic (truly exotic) dancer alien who he abducts?? To use in a dangerous mission to rescue?? Laureline.

Laureline is an equally schizophrenic character.. on one hand the epitome of the “strong female lead, functional practical and thinking, yet on the other hand she seems to somehow “fall in love” with this serial womanizer for no other reason than he keeps pestering her. Everything that I thought we have ditched in lead female characters over the last 10 years is revealed here.. She does a lot of the leg work but is overshadowed by the male lead. She is “strong” and “opinionated” but “falls in love??? with the shallow lead character” I assume because, al-la Disney princesses, he has pursued her to the end of the movie and not taken NO! As an answer (danger-danger Will Robinson….Danger! - in the real world this could be stalking???) she is the only character who actually knows what is going on, but is mostly ignored by the lead character except as an object of sexual pursuit (indeed, even the professional strike team at the market spend a lot of time giving her the puppy eyes rather than acting in a professional manner). Laureline’s sole purpose it appears, is to be artificially thrust into dangerous situations so the male lead will “rescue” her and be a “hero”. She is side-lined, ignored and backburnered until needed by the narrative to look “pretty” and be rescued. Indeed she spends a lot of her time in revealing, outfits that seem to only gain coverage when she needs to do stunts.. (I will note that while I can understand that she is, largely living in controlled environments which mean that clothing to keep warm is not necessarily a thing, she is a professional military agent on duty.. so I would have thought even a vaguely “professional” level of attire would be a thing, and possibly putting on even a uniform jacket when speaking to the Superior might be a thing.. - again there is the possibility that the organisation she works for has a hiring policy similar to that in ‘Barbarella’ but even so, it just felt off. )

I have to say that the level of Misogyny in this movie is spectacular. Indeed it was like watching a film from the 1980’s – 90’s but without the filter of “it is from a different time where this is acceptable”. All of the main important characters are male (although they are a diverse set of male characters) what females you see on screen appear to be there for the visual diversity alone – case and point. The team are on Alpha receiving orders from the Minster of Defense. The minister addresses the group as Gentleman an Lady (singular – referring to Laureline) however there is a female aide stood with the crowd …so it is “ladies” the aide is completely and utterly ignored (yes this could be an error on the part of the director setting up the scene after the dialogue had been created but still!).. in fact this same aide character is present in the command room throughout the film and has little to no reason to be there she is ignored, and never really acknowledged. All the real, meaty action stuff is done by the male characters. A wonderful example of the “token female presence- there to lend visual diversity but little more than set dressing” - when all the action kicks off and the robot shocktroops mow down the command centre, the female aide takes cover with the coms officer?? (he may have just been a lieutenant) the commander shouts across the room to get to a console in the centre of the room, the Commander (whose name i have forgotten) never once addresses the female officer, or even acknowledges her existence to find out if she is okay.. as far as the scene shows she could just be a piece of the office furniture.

Laureline “falling” for Valerian due to his faithful ‘pursuit’ is just painful to watch. She spends the whole film ignoring his come-ons, being sarcastic and rebuffing his advances then at the end.. falls into a clinch with him for no good reason than it’s the end of the movie and this is what should happen :o .. There is absolutely no chemistry between these two characters at all through out the movie, except for snark and rebuttal. The only level of relationship implied at early on is officer and subordinate, which no real attraction shown by the subordinate to the officer. The conversations are short and flat, with no outcome that would indicate a reason for them to be together at the end.

Indeed you could re-edit the movie and remove any and all references to this supposed romance and you would never know it was there..over all it is just completely distracting and superfluous to the main story..

Now I have to explain.. I don’t normally notice Mysogyny, i have always self-identified with the protagonists (usually Male) so i seriously do not notice female side-kicks and/or characters as anything other than story devices (literally ambulatory plot progressive device - Its a by product of growing up on a diet of action movies from the 80’s/90’s) but for even the idea of Mysogyny to trigger my stunted and tiny Mysogny radar then there has to be somethign wrogn with this plot..

I mean the fact that such a character as Laureline, could be created and placed on screen in today’s cinematic world, just flabbergasts me.. given the degrees of complaint put forward of 2 dimensional female characters, of sexual objectification, etc.. This woman, who is a professional, military level, security agent spends the whole movie being hit on by her superior officer, and pretty much any male character she meets. It is just astounding. Even the exotic dancer/prostitute character Bubble has an easier time of it than Laureline. It is writing like this that is fundamentally dangerous because it give impressionable males and females the idea that as a male if you have an object of your desire then you pursue them until they capitulate and say “yes” (which isn’t a proper yes, it’s a coerced yes) they they “will be yours”...

Simultaneously impressing upon females that if a guy pursues you for a long time, and does not take no for an answer, that even though you show no interest in them what so ever, then you should capitulate (presumably as a reward for persistence rather than any real emotional connection) this type of relationship advice is so very dangerous. And is very much on par with Mr Grey from 50 shades of grey… (you know creepy stalker dude who pursues an reluctant woman until she gives in etc).

Now you could say I am reading too much into what could be thought of as a shallow piece of fluff, but seriously if I am picking up on these vibes then there is something fundamentally wrong with the writing and characterisation. Because I do not identify with female characters and as such never truly see the whole White Male Privilege thing unless it is pointed out.

The film itself is bloated.. it reminds me of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”, or even the cityscapes from the live action “Ghost in the Shell” (Funnily enough another movie that employs Weta for effects???), we spend so much time effects-wanking. Pouring over effects lovingly created with a multiplicitude of levels and detail… that we give up Story time so background that could have been used to flesh out the story as a whole is dumped for lovingly detailed fly-bys of the various places we are in.

A good example being ‘Alpha’, where we are treated to a visual extravagansa of all of the various habitats (which reminded me so much of Zootopia), along with an N’th degree description of the people and environments they live in which takes about 5 full minutes. which was largely pointless because we only see maybe 3 environs, which could have been introduced via various pieces of dialogue while characters transitioned the space station etc. I mean look at Disney’s Zootopia - they give you the gist very quickly as Judy travels into the city via a train ride, no messing and takes probably 30 seconds to a minute.. or better still, compare that with the Guardians of the Galaxy description of Knowhere which is a bare bones voice over by Gamora complimented with a little on screen text.. less than a minute possibly 2 if you take into account the “parking the ship fly-past” ..the description is clean perfunctory and combined with the visuals tells you the viewer everything you need to know for the scene. We don’t need to see all the habitats and living areas to know they are there and it actually does nothing for the scene, especially as later on Valerian goes on an exploratory crash through every layer and habitat to get to the people who kidnap the Commander. Visually informing us the viewer of the differing levels of the space station (crashing through things appears to be a thing Valerian does a lot) in a very direct and interactive way.

Over all the film suffers the same problem that the Live-action “Ghost in the shell” has, it has a bunch of iconic scenes lovingly reproduced from the source material. However this is at the expense of the story and characterisation. It could be that Luc Besson is so overly familiar with the source material that he has forgotten that you can’t take the character at face value because you have no baseline for his character. I as a person who has never read the source material come to Valerian as depicted on the screen and find him totally reprehensible. He is arrogant, womanising, shallow and wholly unattractive as a possible love interest. He doesn’t care and forms no attachment at a fundamental level, his former entanglements being “affectionately” known as his “play-list” this is not a character that I can get behind. Especially as the actors choice in depicting the character is cold, smug and arrogant, why would I care about that person. why should I want to follow this person through their adventure? - I will note that now I have taken some time to look into the character’s background and found that he is this way because of his training and past life experiences. But there is no signals to this on screen so why do I care about this character. I don’t. His singular pursuit of Laureline is reprehensible to me, not only because he is in creepy stalker mode, but because she’s his subordinate in a position of hierarchy. And no matter how “strong” she is, she is in a position where, because of the chain of command, she is psychologically placed in a position where you do not say no to a superior officer. (This is why this sort of thing is strictly and explicitly covered by regulation in the armed services) now if she had genuinely returned any sign of affection during the movie then I would get it, but she doesn’t. But he pursues her relentlessly throughout.

Compare this with Peter Quill in Guardian of the Galaxy – a comparable character, you are shown his mother’s death, his age at which this happened and when he was abducted, removed from his family and home environment and raised in a male centric bachelor environment this is imparted over the course of a pre-credit cold opening followed by his pre-theft of the orb from Morag and his complete dismissal of his current sexual conquest who he openly admits that he “forgot she was there”.. he makes no emotional attachments (especially to women) because he is scared they will leave him. He has grown up in an environment of bachelor hierarchy where emotions and feelings are not entertained and an aura of bravado and machismo must be maintained to keep one’s standing in the pecking order. So his background is given to us, over the course of two story advancing scenes which do not slow down the pacing.. but tell us exactly what and who Peter Quill is and why he is.. With Valerian all you get is a passing comment that sets up that he is a Major in an vaguely military level organisation, and that he has had a series of female companions (mostly his direct subordinates) who he uses and looses. You are also treated to scenes of him being a maverick and reckless in his performance of his duties, but - much later on contrary to everything that has happened in the story to date he suddenly becomes fanatically devoted to his organisation’s cause??? a little character quirk that is hinted at nowhere in the preceding movie and literally makes you go ...”Wait.. what now!”

The script could have done with passing through a few other people who may be aware of the source material but not enough to allow that to colour their view of the story.. they could then fill in these missing areas and create a story.. rather than a collection of errant scenes, and characters rather than meat puppets delivering lines to make the scenes look active. The film is unwieldy and top-heavy relying on visual over substance. It expositions when it should be quiet it is quiet when it should be expositioning. You could cut at least 45 minutes of the movie out of it and you would not even notice that stuff was missing.

Also.. the continual hat tipping to the 5th Element, really only needs to be done once... We know that you used the artist from Valerian to design the world of the 5th Element. and the continuous little tips just keep reminding you that out or the two, the 5th Element is the better movie, with it’s tight story line, snappy dialogue and effects that are used to inform advance the plot. Not just be there to look at (don’t get me wrong it was ground-breaking in the terms of effects at the time and still stands out as an amazing movie)

I find it amazing that you can create a movie where the main character could be removed from the movie and it would improve the movie. There is almost no reason for the main character to be there front and centre. They are written so flat they are at best a supporting character. The aliens are amazing.. the Pearls of Mul have a fascinating story which was covered in a perfunctory way as exposition but actually that could have been the story to concentrate on.. Following them trying to survive and get back some semblance of a society. Perhaps have Valerian and Laureline as background characters dropping into and out of the scenes??? Just having the film called “City of a Thousand Planets” would have been fine I think.

It does sound like I actively despise this movie. But actually I don’t I quite enjoyed it on a light entertainment level. I think it could do with a clean-up, and re-edit. Perhaps trim some of the lingering effects shots, streamline the dialogue and re-edit round the so-called relationship between the two main characters because that is a pointless side plot in this “adventure”. I am worried however that like Avatar, it won’t hold up to transfer to 2D format, that there is not enough story there to keep you interested without the spectacle that is 3D. It will be interesting to see if this movie gets anywhere.

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