AMV of the Day: Against All Odds

Posted on November 26, 2010 by Arleigh

I thought it was time for another edition of the latest AMV of the Day. As some know the term AMV means “anime music video”. It’s where people take scenes from an anime or several of them and edit them to perfectly match the music being played alongside it. The latest AMV of the Day is from AMV creator Chiikaboom and it’s called “Against All Odds”.

This particular AMV combines scenes from the mecha anime Macross Frontier with the song “Dream Wide Awake” from the Finnish band Poets of the Fall. I’ve only been recently introduced to this band from Helsinki by way of the Xbox 360 game Alan Wake where their music features prominently. I really like the melding of the scenes chosen from Macross Frontier with this Poets of the Fall song.

At first glance, the giant robots and singing girls may not be the subject and setting for such a serious and emotional song. In the way Chiikaboom edits the scenes with the song it really works. I haven’t been a big fan of the mecha genre of anime and manga, but this AMV has gotten me intrigued in checking out this particular anime of what was one of my favorite anime franchises in years past.

It helps that the creator of this particular AMV really has a handle at editing and adding in visual effects. Chiikaboom has become one of my favorite AMV creators and those wanting to see her other AMV projects can click the link to her name below.

Anime: Macross Frontier

Song: “Dreaming Wide Awake” by Poets of the Fall

Creator: Chiikaboom

Sucker Punch (2nd Trailer)

Posted on November 4, 2010 by Arleigh

Still recovering from the SF Giants winning the 2010 World Series so my review of the pilot episode of The Walking Dead is still in need of completion. To show that I haven’t been slacking off on my postings (Lisa Marie’s really been on a posting tear these past couple days. So proud of her.) I decided that what better stopgap until the review is up than to post the newly released 2nd trailer for Zack Snyder’s upcoming fantasy film, Sucker Punch, that seems to be a who’s who of the industry’s hottest young actresses. It has Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung and (one of Lisa Marie’s favorites) Jena Malone. To help chaperone this quintet of hotness are the mature stylings of Carla Gugino and Scott Glenn.

This latest trailer gives a bit more of the narrative to Sucker Punch, but even with that the visuals may be what brings in the audience. Snyder looks to be the king of the hyperstylized visuals in Hollywood today. Whether that translates into a well-made product is still being debated, but one can never accuse Snyder of not having the eye for the spectacular.

The trailer shows more action with dragons, anime-style mecha, samurai, Nazis and zombies. Interestingly enough the trailer skimps on the Moulin Rouge-type sequence the Comic-Con trailer showed. I’m sure those scenes will be in the final film, but Legendary Pictures look to be using the stylized action to sell the flick. I’m for it either way. If sex doesn’t sell then cool violence does in Hollywood.

I’m wondering how much Legendary Pictures ended up paying Led Zeppelin to use “When the Levee Breaks” to score this trailer. It has to be some major coinage which tells me that the studio has high-expectations about this film succeeding and raking in even more coinage.

Sucker Punch Trailer (HD)

Posted on July 26, 2010 by Arleigh

While I wasn’t able to attend San Diego Comic-Con 2010 I did try to follow it on-line as much as possible. From what I read through Twitter updates, film blog sites and everything in-between it looks like one of the highlights of the Con was Zack Snyder’s follow-up to Watchmen. His “Alive in Wonderland with machine guns” has been gaining major league hype and buzz since more details were released and shown during it’s panel.

An earlier posting I made showed the beautiful painted character posters for the cast of Sucker Punch. This follow-up post will now show the first trailer for this film which is set for a March 25, 2011 release. From what I could see in the trailer it looks like Snyder hasn’t lost his ability to put on film some gorgeous looking set-pieces. This is a man who definitely has a flair and talent for visuals. The question now (which the trailer didn’t answer in any way) is whether Sucker Punch can match it’s amazing visuals with a worthwhile story.

This film is Snyder’s first project not based on an adapted source. Maybe we’ll see his storytelling skills blossom with Sucker Punch.

SDCC Exclusive: Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch Cast Photos

Posted on July 23, 2010 by Arleigh

Zack Snyder’s upcoming dark urban fantasy called Sucker Punch seems tailor-made for the Comic-Con crowd. It stars some of Hollywood’s loveliest young women like Emily Browning, Jena Malone, Abbie Cornish, Vanessa Hudgens and Jamie Chung. It also stars fanboy favorite Carla Gugino who in past genre flicks wasn’t averse to baring it all for the sake of her art.

Sucker Punch has been described by Snyder himself as Alice in Wonderland but with machine guns, not to mention B-52 bombers, dragons, brothels. From some of the sneak-peeks into the production this particular Alice-themed flick also has zombie soldiers, a mecha-suit with a pink bunny painted on the armor not to mention some steampunk added into the mix.

Just in time for this year’s Comic-Con, Warner Brothers has released for this event some very great and stunning character posters. I am actually very curious as to which artist painted and created these character posters since they’re truly gorgeous. If I only had room in my room’s walls to frame and put them up.I also like the little details in the posters. I had to stifle a silly grin after I noticed the charms hanging off of Babydoll’s automatic pistol.

Take a gander at the posters below.

Emily Browning as Babydoll