It played a few weeks ago at Sci-Fi London, and now Monsters goes into limited release in the US this Friday. If it doesn’t play anywhere close to you, the web site says it goes into wide release on December 3rd. The buzz from the film fest circuit is positive, and the trailer looks great; I am so there. Also out this week, again in somewhat limited release, is the third film in the brilliant Swedish trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest. This movie wraps up the story begun in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and since the second film, The Girl Who Played With Fire comes out on DVD tomorrow, I will be re-watching both of them before hitting the theater for the final chapter.
There are no real genre movies coming out this week, but Flickan som lekte med elden (The Girl Who Played with Fire) brings part two of the trilogy that began with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo home. This Swedish series about an investigative reporter and a girl genius hacker is very much edge of your seat thriller to the core, so much so that even if you have to read subtitles it won’t slow down the movie. The third film, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest, is hitting the theaters on this Friday, October 29th.
For TV, they are finally releasing War of the Worlds: The Final Season, as well as the complete series in one box set, since it only ran two seasons. This was Adrian Paul’s last Sci-Fi TV roll before he became the Highlander. Someone is re-releasing the surviving episodes of Captain Video And His Video Rangers, America’s first Sci-Fi TV show. It ran live on the DuMont Network for half an hour every night from 1949 to 1954. If you don’t remember, Allen B. DuMont invented the cathode ray tube (also called the Picture Tube) in 1932, the Oscillograph (later called the Oscilloscope) in 1933, and Radar in 1934 (the US military asked him not to patent it so they could keep it secret). But he is best known as the inventor of the Television, and his company was selling the TV sets he invented beginning in 1938, with his TV Network going live in 1946.
Bridging the gap between TV and Anime, the American animation series Star Wars The Clone Wars: The Complete Season Two also hits the shelves this week. What I find much more exciting is the fact that Lucasfilm Animation is looking into doing a new animated series with direct creative involvement from Seth Green and Matthew Senreich.
In Anime, Birdy is back with all new adventures in Birdy the Mighty: Decode. Birdy is an interstellar agent with one minor flaw; she is more dangerous to innocent bystanders than the bad guys she pursues, and has been known to take out an entire planet while trying to stop one evildoer. This is part one of the new series, with part two coming out around Thanksgiving. You can watch the first episode online to give you an idea of what the series is like.
In the finest tradition of the Girls with Guns sub-genre, Canaan – Complete Collection takes place after biochemical attacks become common usage, and some assassins have synesthesia, giving them a distinct edge. If you liked Noir, you will love this series. Also in combat mode, Queen’s Blade: The Exiled Virgin – Complete Series takes place in a world where the Queen is chosen by being the last woman standing at the end of a series of battles. All contests are magically transmitted to crystal spheres for the entertainment of the populace. I don’t think either one of these places sounds like somewhere I would want to live, but the shows themselves are fun to watch.
Pandora Hearts part 1 seems to be a twisted variation on Alice in Wonderland meets the Count of Monte Cristo. For his birthday present they put him in a dungeon, with no explanations and no obvious way out. And Fullmetal Alchemist: The Complete Second Season (Viridian Collection) also becomes available, bringing still more world class timeline jumping steampunk into our hands at a more reasonable price.
Also out this week, Naruto Shippuden: Box Set 4 continues the ninja adventure (although there is some evidence it came out last week, since I already saw it on the shelves), while Hetalia: Season Two continues the rather silly story of WWII nations as schoolchildren. This program could actually be used as a teaching tool for that period of history, not because it is particularly accurate, but because it might catch a child’s attention and make them curious. Every teacher I know considers that the most difficult step in the education process, because once they are interested they seek out new knowledge on their own.
Yes, there really is such a contest, and you have until November 18th to submit your entry. The folks at the animation software company Toon Boom have teamed up with Shatner’s My Outer Space to put the competition together. According to the contest page you become a member of My Outer Space (it’s free), and then download three William Shatner audio clips which are 22 seconds long each. Using the Personal Learning Edition of Toon Boom Animate or Animate Pro (free download), you then design, storyboard, and animate your own video to create an imaginative finished product. Prizes in this contest include online animation courses, a full suite of animation software, and the grand prize is getting to work on a full animation project being developed at My Outer Space. Have fun building!
There is a new trailer for the UK show Misfits which is about to launch into season 2. If you enjoyed Heroes back when they were good and you like intelligent comedy, this may just be the show for you. A group of scruffy young folks on a Community Service sentence get struck by lightning and develop strange powers. This program actually won the British Academy of Film and Television Arts award for Best Drama, awarded in June. So far as I know, no one is currently planning to bring this to the US; I hope that changes soon.
TOR Dot Com didn’t do a full month of Steampunk this year, but they are doing a Steampunk Fortnight. Besides the many articles they have posted in the 42 or so hours since they started, they have also posted two excellent stories: Clockwork Fairies by Cat Rambo, and The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder. And if you can’t get enough Steampunk there, consider becoming a part of the project to Build the Charles Babbage Analytical Engine, as posted by the BBC. As someone who has ranted about Ada and Charlie, inventor of computer programming and the computer respectively back in the 1830’s, you probably already know I am supporting this one!
One of my favorite J-Rock groups is Scandal, who started out as four actresses in training. Each was advised to learn a musical instrument to round out their skill set; so they chose 4 different ones and formed a kick-ass band. You mostly only hear them in North America on Anime DVDs, when they come through on tour, or periodically on a J-Melo broadcast. And while over here they are best known for their contributions to K-ON and other anime, they have a ton of top quality non-anime music as well, and more fans than you might suspect (some of whom can sing their entire catalog in Japanese). Did I mention the have won some awards, including the Viewers Choice Awards on J-Melo?