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.
Hey, Oscar watchers! The WGA Awards were handed out earlier tonight and the Oscar race has gotten even murkier! The fact that Her won for best original screenplay isn’t all the unexpected, though a lot of observers had predicted American Hustle would win. However, the victory of Captain Phillips over The Wolf of Wall Street and Before Midnight was definitely an upset.
(Take note that the acclaimed and Oscar-nominated screenplay for 12 Years A Slave was not eligible for a WGA nomination.)
“August: Osage County,” screenplay by Tracy Letts based on his play
“Before Midnight,” by Richard Linklater & Julie Delpy & Ethan Hawke; based on characters created by Richard Linklater & Kim Krizan X – “Captain Phillips,” by Billy Ray; based on the book “A Captain’s Duty” by Richard Phillips with Stephan Talty
“Lone Survivor,” by Peter Berg; based on the book by Marcus Luttrell with Patrick Robinson
“The Wolf of Wall Street,” by Terence Winter; based on the book by Jordan Belfort
DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY
“Dirty Wars,” Jeremy Scahill & David Riker
“Herblock – The Black & The White,” Sara Lukinson & Michael Stevens
“No Place on Earth,” Janet Tobias & Paul Laikin X – “Stories We Tell,” Sarah Polley
“We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks,” Alex Gibney
Why? Well, first off, we all know that February is the most romantic month of the year. February is Valentine’s Day, romantic movies, flowers, lingerie, and chocolate. February is also the month when, in a lead up to the Oscars, TCM devotes a good deal of its programming to showing Oscar nominees of the past.
As I’ve mentioned in the past, one of my dreams is to watch and review every single film that has ever been nominated for best picture. Now, realistically, I’ll never be able to accomplish this goal because the 1929 Best Picture nominee The Patriot is currently a lost film. But, even if it does mean that I’ll only be able to see 510 out of the 511 nominated films, it’s still a dream that I’m pursuing and, with the help of TCM and the month of February, it’s a dream that’ll come true.
Take, for instance, Battleground. This 1949 Best Picture nominee (it lost All The King’s Men) recently aired on TCM. I’m not exactly a fan of war films but, since it was a best picture nominee, I still made sure to DVR and watch it.
Set during the final days of World War II, Battleground follows one platoon of soldiers as they fight and attempt to survive the Battle of the Bulge. The platoon is made up of the type of characters that we usually expect to find in a WWII film but, fortunately, they’re played by an ensemble of likable actors who all bring their familiar characters to life. There’s Jim Layton (Marshall Thompson), the newest member of the platoon who nobody wants to run the risk of getting close to. There’s Holley (Van Johnson), the cheerful soldier who is unexpectedly thrust into a position of leadership that he might not be right for. Roderiques (Ricardo Montalban) is from Los Angeles and is amazed by the sight of snow. “Pops” Stazak (George Murphy) is the type of older soldier who you would totally expect to be nicknamed “Pops.” Bettis (Richard Jaeckel) is scared of combat. Kippton (Douglas Fowley) spends nearly the entire film looking for his lost teeth. And finally, of course, there’s the hard-boiled but warm-hearted Sgt. Kinnie (James Whitmore).
In some ways, Battleground is a very conventional film and it’s easy to wonder how it ended up getting nominated for best film of the year. (Among the eligible films that were not nominated: The Bicycle Thief, Champion, The Fountainhead, On The Town, Sands of Iwo Jima, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, They Live By Night, and White Heat.) However, the film’s nomination makes a bit more sense when you consider that it was released just four years after the end of World War II. It was a film that appealed both to the veterans who were able to relate to the film’s story and to the patriotic spirit of a country that had just defeated the greatest evil of the 20th Century.
Battleground did not exactly make me a fan of war movies but it’s still a well-made and effective film. As opposed to a lot of other war films, Battleground never makes war look like fun. For the most part, the emphasis is less on strategy and combat and more on the soldiers who are simply trying to survive from day-to-day. The end result is a film that serves as a moving tribute to the soldiers who fought in World War II.
Through the Shattered Lens 