Was it just me or did the Super Bowl commercials kinda sorta suck this year? I mean, I expect the game to always be long and boring but I can usually count on seeing at least a few memorable commercials. Howevever, with a few notable exceptions (mostly involving puppies and horses), this year’s crop of commercials were just boring. You could tell that advertisers were going so out of their way to keep things positive that they forgot that commercials also need to be interesting.
However, there was one commercial that seemed to excite everyone on twitter and that was a brief 49-second commercial for the return of 24. Judging from this commercial, Jack Bauer is back and he’s as violent as ever. And, apparently, he has some issues with the British.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 continues the reboot Sony began with the Spider-Man franchise minus Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire. While The Amazing Spider-Man did quite well in the box-office when it came out in 2012 the general consensus with fans and critics alike was that it was just another origins tale that rehashed events from the Peter Parker story that was already well-known to comic book and non-comic book fans alike.
This sequel will now bring in villains and some plot points that fans have been waiting for since the franchise first began in the early 2000’s. We have Jamie Foxx and Paul Giamatti as the villains Electro and Rhino finally appearing on film with hints that other iconic Spider-Man villains such as the Vulture and the Hobgoblin probably having a cameo. This sudden flood of villains looks to be Sony’s attempt to set-up a Sinister Six film that would be the studio’s way to counter the success of Marvel’s and Disney’s success with The Avengers.
Time will tell if this gamble will end up paying off for Sony and many comic books wish it won’t since there’s a chance it would return Spider-Man to Marvel Studios thus making him available to appear in future films as an Avenger.
Sony went to unprecedented lengths to make sure people knew about the new trailer arriving on Super Bowl Sunday. We had a teaser teasing the trailer for the Super Bowl. Then we had the brief teaser shown during the Super Bowl. Below is the full 3-minute plus trailer that was shown on-line soon after.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is set for a May 2, 2014 release date.
Yes, it is another Transformers film about to descend on the population this coming summer.
Could we finally get a quality one after the last two which got worse and worse with each new entry? I can’t say for sure, but this fourth entry does have one thing going for it and that is the lack of Shia LaBeouf. Instead we get Mark Walhberg in the lead human role. Optimus Prime and Bumblebee return with new robots filling in the rest.
If there’s one thing about Transformers: Age of Extinction that will get me to see it once it comes out is the fact that it has Grimlock and his merry band of Dinobots finally making their appearance. Yes, Grimlock and that’s all I need.
Transformers: Age of Extinction is set for a July 27, 2014 release date.
Noah is Darren Aronofsky’s follow-up to his critically-acclaimed film Black Swan(which was reviewed by Lisa Marie Bowman herself) and he looks to tell the tale of Noah’s Ark from the Book of Genesis.
When news first came out that Aronofsky would follow-up Black Swan with a biblical epic that retold the Flood and Noah’s role in saving those not corrupted according to Heaven was a sort of headscratcher. The teasers and trailers that has come out about the film hasn’t really fired up the masses. Some think it as another sword-and-sandals epic that’s late to that particular subgenre’s resurgence. Some think too much fantasy elements has been added.
One thing I’m sure of is that Aronofsky will not make an uninteresting film.
It’s becoming a sort of yearly occurrence to have a Marvel Studios film premiere a special trailer during the live-broadcast of the NFL’s latest Super Bowl event. Last year, it was a special Super Bowl trailer of Iron Man 3 (an extended version soon coming out after). This year it will be Captain America: The Winter Soldier that will get the special Super Bowl treatment.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier has been gaining some major buzz since the release of its first teaser trailer from a couple months back. Where Thor: Dark World used fantasy as an overall theme for its look and story, with the sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger the filmmakers have taken on the look and feel of a techno/conspiracy-thriller. TheWinter Soldier looks to be like something that wouldn’t seem out of place if made during the cynical and distrustful era of the 1970’s when conspiracies and distrust of those in power dominated the headlines.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier is set for an April 4, 2014 release date.
Also, we have the UK and Ireland version of the trailer which show a brief glimpse of Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) who is the descendant of Peggy Carter from the first film.
…and there hasn’t even been a commercial yet. Ok, I admit this might seem petty on the surface, but I’m pretty goddamn pissed off. Over the years, I’ve experienced Super Bowl advertisements degenerate from clever, creative entertainment to raunchy, sensationalist garbage, and I’ve accepted it. I’ve seen right-wing nut jobs fork over millions to air their political garbage–anyone recall Focus on the Family’s anti-abortion ad a few years ago?–and I’ve kept my mouth shut. But what I saw in the pre-game show today took tasteless to a new level. For those of you who missed it, Fox got the rights to the game this year, and they exploited their control of the content to interrupt pre-game coverage for a half hour of Fox News and Bill O’Reilly lambasting the president.
Think about that, and forget your opinion of Barrack Obama while you do it. We’re talking about the most televised event in the world, and its exclusive broadcaster this year has set aside tens of millions of dollars worth of content time to advertise for the extreme right wing of the Republican party. “Oh, Bill O’Reilly is relatively moderate, and they just plastered a Fox News logo over it; they didn’t bring up many sensitive issues.” Fuck that. If the KKK sponsored a Super Bowl ad for white hoodies you’d all be shitting bricks. And this isn’t a conventional ad–a business transaction–a hunk of advertisement paid for in full. This is coming directly from the network that ought to be responsible for monitoring advertisement content throughout the game. This isn’t a matter of turning a blind eye for a pay check; Fox shamelessly wants you to know that this program has been brought to you by good, god-fearing straight white people (and their wives).
I suppose they’re not going to lose any viewers over it. I’m still watching–albeit on mute now until the ball’s on the ground–and the money’s already on the books anyway. It was just more dope for the already brainwashed really, and a little salt in the wound for anyone who believes in social justice. But if the NFL accepts without further comment that an endorsement of Fox Sports means an endorsement of Fox News and everything that subsidiary stands for, it’s time we all called it a fun half-century and took up soccer or cricket or something.
This entry will be filled with spoilers. Please don’t read it if you haven’t watched Pacific Rim. The film ends with the destruction of the portal and the alien colonists. With the portal closed and the colonist dead, there are no more Kaijus. How can there be a sequel? I have a few ideas about how there can be Kaijus in a sequel, these ideas are based on anime and Kaiju films.
Each idea has the following elements in common:
A rogue element within the K-Science Lab creating the Kaiju
A variant of Newton “Newt” Geiszler’s Kaiju Drift (mind meld) device used to control the Kaijus
Genetically modified and mechanically enhanced brains to facilitate Drifting with human pilots
The hive mind trait of a Kaiju’s brain enable pilots to communicate with each other through a radio-telepathy frequency.
The first idea involves harvesting genetic samples of defeated Kaijus to grow clones for despots and madmen for the right price.
The second idea is derived from the millenium incarnation of Mecha-Godzilla. The rogue K-Science Lab technician would use kaiju skeletons to create the framework for bionic Kaijus. Each bionic Kaiju possesses Jaeger weaponry. A variant of this idea is to use the Mecha-Godzilla iteration from the animated series based on American Godzilla film. A Kaiju would be repaired and revived with Jaeger parts in the same vein as Deathlok (Marvel’s zombie cyborg soldier).
(Cyber-Zilla from Godzilla: The Series by Dino Master)
The another variant is based on an obscure anime called Argento Soma (where a giant monster, Frank, was created from the remains of fallen monsters). The scientist would cobble together a kaiju from the parts that remained after battle.
(Frank by ミヤマカラマ)
The third idea involves splicing creatures like reptiles, crustaceans, and arachnids with Kaiju DNA to create new biological weapons. In one extreme case, a human-Kaiju hybrid exists.
I meant to write this up some days ago when I actually finished this set, however I couldn’t figure out how to insert a link in here (and still can’t) so as is typical for me, I got pissed off and just gave up. However, with a show this good, it would be very remiss of me to not share it. I have already written up on the series in general with an Anime You Should Be Watching post (which is what I meant to link in here, but alas, the Add Link button remains greyed out) so this is just about the third and final season of Aria.
As I mentioned in that previous review, this show is the very definition of Slice of Life shows. In the previous seasons of Aria, it’s largely about the wonders that Akari sees on her new homeworld of Aqua (Mars), and the people she meets and befriends. Throughout those times, she and her friends are striving towards becoming Prima Undines, basically gondoliers like we have in Venice. This season the focus is much more on Akari and her friends realizing their dreams and the passing of the torch from the Three Great Water Fairies. But, like with all slice of life series, the destination isn’t what’s important. No one who watches this would think that Akari is going to fail her exam. We know she’ll become a Prima. The important thing is the journey, and seeing Akari and her friends come to terms with the fact that when they do reach their goals, that things aren’t going to be able to stay the same as they were before. Needless to say, there’s going to be a need for a lot of tissues. It’s not tragic sad like a Clannad is, but rather just so packed full of emotion that even thinking about certain scenes, such as Alice’s promotion, is enough to choke a person up. This is that episode, for anyone curious.
This set, released by Nozomi Entertainment which is the licensing arm of anime retailer The Right Stuf, is very beautiful. The artbox that was used is a nice, sturdy chipboard box with lovely artwork on it. The set contains all 13 episodes of Aria the Origination, the 7 episode picture drama (just think of a regular anime with little to no actual animation), and the OAV Aria the Arietta. It also comes with an episode guide booklet, and a disc with 2 hours of extras containing cast and staff interviews. There is no dub on it, so everything is in Japanese with English subtitles.
A few random thoughts I had about this set. First off, I really like how the opening theme song is played as part of the show. The vast majority of anime just have a set opener with the same animation every time. Aria has always made it so the opening just starts playing as we’re eased into the show, so in effect the OP animation is different every time. Secondly, just how freaking old is President Aria? On Aqua, apparently they have cats that are much more intelligent than Earth cats in that they seem to understand human speech. Of course, maybe our cats understand us perfectly and just don’t deem us worthy of responding, I don’t know. Anyways, President Aria is one such cat, but it’s shown that the founder of Aria Company, whom everyone calls Grandma, first came across and befriended President Aria back when she was an undine with another company. At that time she was probably at most 25, and now appears to be in her 70’s. So President Aria is at least 50, and still as active and pudgy as he was back then. I guess Martian cats live a very long time.
All in all, this was a treat to see. It’s definitely not a show that you’ll want to marathon, since it’s so slow paced. It’s best to be enjoyed an episode or two at a time, so you have time to properly digest each episode. Whether you need a pick me up, or just want to relax after a long day, there’s an episode of Aria that can fit the bill at any time. The great thing about Aria is that other than the last 3 episodes or so, you can really watch it in any order that you wish, and the story being told will make perfect sense.
Through the Shattered Lens 