We’re now in the second AMV of my One Piece-themed anime music video min-marathon. The previous video was by PixelCreekAMVs and this second one is also by this AMV creator.
The AMV I picked from his collection of One Piece videos is titled “Party Rock” and like the previous AMV chosen it’s also one which highlights the fun, bizarre and wacky nature of Oda Eiichiro’s long-running and very popular manga and anime series. For those who might not recognize this song from LMFAO, they will probably better remember it as the song played with the dancing hip-hop hamsters and dancing robots in those Kia Soul car commercials.
I rather found this particular amv quite catchy to watch and listen to. The song is one of those party anthem songs which tend to come and go every year but combining it with One Piece just makes the song much more memorable. PixelCreekAMVs work on this video is much cleaner with a minimum amount of pre-existing credits and/or subtitles. Even if it had those I would still consider this AMV one of my current favorites.
Anime: One Piece
Song: “Party Rock” by LMFAO feat. Lauren Bennett, GoonRock
There’s nothing much else to say other than 2012 looks to be the year of The Dark Knight Rises.
2005 saw the reboot of the Batman film franchise. This first film in the new trilogy put Christopher Nolan on the map as an action filmmaker. 2008’s The Dark Knight with it being such a huge critical and, more importantly, a mega-blockbuster made Christopher Nolan a filmmaker who could do anything he wants and with whatever budget he asks for. Nolan was able to cash in some of that cred to make 2010’s Inception which was also a runaway success.
2012 is just around the corner and we have the third and final leg to Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. With the success and popularity of the two previous films to say that the hype and anticipation for this third film has reached stratospheric levels would be an understatement. This is not to say the film can’t flop, but with Nolan’s track record I am in the camp of highly doubt it.
The Dark Knight Rises is set for a July 20, 2012 release in both regular and IMAX (though not in 3D).
2010’s Clash of the Titans remake wasn’t what fantasy fans were expecting. Yes, it had spectacle and taking advantage of 3D (rage of the time due to the success of Avatar), but how the film ended up quality-wise left much to be desired. For an epic summer blockbuster film (as hyped by it’s ads and marketing push) the film felt very underwhelming. It showed in the box-office as it failed to generate Olympian-level cash though it still generated a little under $500million worldwide. I’m guessing it’s this number which greenlit a sequel to a remake of a film that never had one.
Wrath of the Titans forgoes having just two titans battle it out with Perseus (Sam Worthington) stuck in the middle. This time around the sequel will deal with the weakening of the Olympian Gods as human worship wanes while at the same time the powers of the imprisoned Titans rise. So, from the trailer alone this looks to have action that’s even more amped up than it’s predecessor. Previous director Louis Leterrier has stepped aside as director and in his place for the sequel is Jonathan Liebesman (Battle: Los Angeles…which I thought was actually quite good despite what my partner-in-writing Lisa Marie says about the film).
Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes return to their roles from the previous film. Replacing Alexa Davalos in the role of Princess Andromeda from the first film is Rosamund Pike who now takes the role as Queen Andromeda. Bill Nighy and Danny Huston join the cast as Hephaestus and Poseidon respectively.
Wrath of the Titans is set for a March 30, 2012 release which just reinforces my point that the summer blockbuster season seem to be encroaching into Spring with each passing year.
Just a little over a year ago a post was put up by resident anime/manga writer pantsukudasai56 in regards to what constitutes as the “Anime of the Decade”. He settled on Oda Eiichiro’s One Piece series both in its manga and anime form. It’s truly the one piece of entertainment in any form that could honestly call itself as epic. It’s an anime which is now nearing 600-episodes and there’s no slowing down in it’s quality and amount of storylines to be told. The latest series of “AMV of the Day” will share in that each amv used One Piece as the foundation to the video.
The first in this series is called “Remember the Name” by PixelCreekAMVs and like most in the series it will include scenes from the excellent “Marineford” story-arc which aired earlier this year. For those who have never watched an episode of One Piece wouldn’t be spoiled by what transpire in this video, but for those who do and haven’t reached the series to this point in the episode listings should be careful about clicking the video. Other than that piece of warning the video itself is quite a fun one.
It’s not the cleanest looking AMV (subtitles, opening and closing credits animation, etc), but in sheer scope of fun and showing One Piece at it’s most bizarre and ludicrous then this video definitely succeeds. It uses the very popular song “Remember the Name” by Fort Minor (feat. Styles of Beyond) from a couple years back. PixelCreekAMVs does a great job of giving each crew member of Monkey D. Luffy’s pirate ship a chance to shine in the video. He also does a great job of picking the right scenes for each line of lyric that the roughness of the overall look of the video becomes nitpicking.
As a recent convert to One Piece this AMV definitely a good way to show the show at it’s most fun and, maybe, even make some newbies to the series want to keep watching or start on it.
Anime: One Piece
Song: “Remember the Name” by Fort Minor feat. Styles of Beyond
Ok, the first Ghost Rider wasn’t what one would call something great or even good. I’d say that in the scheme of how we judge films that one was quite awful. Yet, it also had a certain charm which made watching it on cable. Maybe not paying to see it makes it more enjoyable in a “guilty pleasure” sort of way. The fact that 2007’s Ghost Rider actually made a profit is why we have this sequel now set to come out in a couple months.
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance was suppose to be a sequel, but people involved in the project say it’s a sort of retooling/reboot. Whatever they need to do to make themselves justify this second film is ok by me as long as it’s entertaining in the end. From looking at the trailer, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance has less of the camp of the previous film and is all about action. Some of the action scenes look to be ludicrous, but cool looking and having directing-duo Neveldine/Taylor of Crank series and Gamer controlling the project means be prepared for even more over-the-top action.
If this film can be entertaining in a grindhouse way despite it’s flaws (like another early year film of Cage’s in 2011, Drive Angry) then I’d say making this second film would’ve been worth the price of admission (at least a matinee-ticket).
To cap off the night as I recover from that arrow I took to the knee I would like to share one of the many reasons why YouTube continues to be the gift that keeps on giving.
Two very talented ladies decided to take it upon themselves to cover both the main themes to Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim as a medley. To say that they knocked it out of the park would be an understatement. To think they accomplished this by listening to the two themes and creating the musical arrangements themselves without any sheet music just speaks to their talent as musicians.
One of my favorite video game titles of 2010 was the Remedy Entertainment and Microsoft Studios psychological thriller game Alan Wake. This title was a psychological thriller mashed up with survival horror that was influenced by Stephen King stories and David Lynch’s eccentric tv series, Twin Peaks. It was one of the few games which put a major scare to me whenever I played it which was usually at night. While the game didn’t sell copies in the Modern Warfare 3 level it did sell enough that it gained quite a huge fan following who clamored for more of Alan Wake and his fight against the malevolent Dark Presence. (Lisa Marie’s been trying the gaming thing lately and I must admit that Alan Wake is right up her dark sensibilities). Fans ended up getting two DLC chapters with “The Signal” and “The Writer”.
There had been rumors and talks about a proper sequel in the works within Remedy Entertainment, but such things continued to be unsubstantiated. While a rumor of sequel continued to persist the developers finally announced that there will be a new Alan Wake game, but it wasn’t going to be a sequel. It was to be a stand-alone Xbox Live Arcade title that should keep fans of the franchise happy while a sequel was being bandied about within the studio (I believe a sequel is already in development but still unconfirmed). This latest title was to be called Alan Wake’s American Nightmare.
The trailer for this title first premiered at Spike TV’s VGA 2011 and the game has tentative release date sometime around the Q1 of 2012.
Mass Effect 3 is one of the most-anticipated gaming titles for 2012. It will be the third and final title that chronicles the character of Cmdr. Shepard and his fight to save the galaxy against the extragalactic threat of the “Reapers”. It’s developer, BioWare, has been quite busy since the title was first announced with showing gaming fans some tidbits about the game’s development. Most of the trailer which has come out about this game has been a mix of pre-rendered CG animation and actual gameplay footage which at times seems to be quite indistinguishable from each other.
The latest trailer for this game first premiered at this weekend’s Spike TV’s Video Game Awards. To say that the reaction to the trailer was a near-unanimous geekgasm would be an understatement. If there was a game that will pull gamers from their near-obsessive playing of Bethesda’s Skyrim it would be BioWare’s Mass Effect 3. This trailer is all gameplay and shows some of the latest gameplay mechanics (such as the dodge roll moves) during one of the game’s many stages.
I, for one, have already preordered and fully paid my N7 Collector’s Edition copy of this game and will just have to wait for it’s release date of March 6, 2012.
With Skyrim having taken over my life for the past month or so I’ve been quite remiss with my duties on the site, but no more!
To help me catch up on things around these parts I’ve decided to join the rest of blogosphere and post the latest official trailer for what looks like the offspring when Transformers and 2012 decided to mate. What we get is Peter Berg’s ludicrous, but looks to be quite fun, film adaptation of that classic Hasbro wargame toy. Battleship looks to fill up 2012’s lack of a new Transformers film.
Some have begun to call this the Rihanna film, but I rather think that she’s just a piece in the machine that is Hasbro’s latest attempt to rule the entertainment world with their films based on their classic toy lines. I was very iffy about Berg doing this film, but after two trailer and this one showing more scifi carnage and action I may just put this on my “guilty pleasure” list for 2012.
The latest “Song of the Day” comes from those metal gods who make up the power metal band, Blind Guardian. It’s a song which begins their latest full-length album, At The Edge of Time, and also a reworking of the song the band created for the console rpg title, Sacred 2: Fallen Angel. The song I’ve chosen this time around is “Sacred Worlds”.
The song was originally titled “Sacred” and was introduced in the game the band made it for during a quaint sequence where virtual, fantasy versions of the band do headbanging show in your typical fantasy inn populated by orcs, goblins, trolls and other find gentle creatures. While the original song was great on its own when the band reworked it with a brand new orchestral intro and outro the song took on a more epic sound.
It’s a pretty long song at a running time of 9:17 and is one of the better songs in Blind Guardian’s latest album. It’s also one of thew songs in my Skyrim playlist which I listen to nonstop while playing in Bethesda Softworks’ latest epic rpg title.
Sacred Worlds
The realm’s bleeding It suffers Old and weak
No further arguing There is war at hand The system’s failing Engines running
Then after all I sense the end is dawning These lunatics deny the truth
I know I will not fail There’ll be
War it’s now or never We shall stand together One by one This world is sacred (I’m coming home) War it’s now or never We shall stand together One by one This world is sacred I’m coming home
Coming home
You chase in twilight And you know You will be on your own On your own
The misery shown I’ll be alone in this hour I’ll face the unknown Witness the end
I’m bleeding, I’m fading Here in my final hour When long-lost memories return And a voice keeps calling “All dead and gone It’s out of hand Life is in motion” I’m wishing, I’m fading “Time to wake up Face the truth”
I’m sinking I’m drowning There’s no doubt, no regret “Time to reveal now” This is no illusion It is real Carry on the flame It’s not over now Watch me, I will rise Time to reveal now
I know I will not fail Anymore
I’ll go on forever All that really matters Blessed realm This world is sacred (I’m coming home) War it’s now or never We shall stand together One by one This world is sacred (I’m coming home)
Yesterday’s gone There’s no today, no tomorrow I’m raised from the dead The ritual failed
There at the gates I’m left alone in this hour Driven insane I am left alone
And now I drown in deepest shadows While the golden hall is sealed I’m wishing I’m fading And I’m part of the machine
My eyes are the eyes of a dead man And I feel the unholy stream The source of my power T-energy I’m in control
I will live forever All that really matters Find the one This world is sacred (I’m coming home) War it’s now or never We shall stand together One by one This world is sacred I’m coming home
I spread my wings But keep on falling I should have known I can see it coming The war is over There’s whispering in the wind Just let me out of here There is no way There’s no end While all the suffering goes on All that I know Is that I’m not insane It’s not over
