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Death of Rats Airship

I enjoy the heck out of online Virtual Reality environments, and this is a perfect example of why; I get to be the Death of Rats (one of my favorite Terry Pratchett characters from his Discworld series), flying one of the Airships featured in the recent Steampunk movie version of the Three Musketeers. The universe these pictures were taken in is Second Life, which has been around for a while but is still an awful lot of fun. I had found that ship an hour or two after the Role Playing class I attended (last picture; it is difficult to see me hidden by the wings of the fairy sitting behind me), where the instructor was a red demoness on a bar stool, with her assistant teacher being a 10 meter long yellow dragon. Some of the smaller non-humans brought their own seating arrangements, like the cushion the mouse lady in the lower right corner of the picture is using.

Steampunk Death of Rats
Steampunk Death of Rats
Flying up to the Airship
Flying up to the Airship
Role Playing class
Role Playing class

Something to Do: Movies

There is one Armageddon type movie this week in the form of The Divide, where survivors of a nuclear attack are trapped together for days in the basement of their apartment building. I am sure there will be plenty of human drama in this, but I have no intention of seeing it. I think the 3D remastering of 1991’s Beauty and the Beast has a much better chance of being entertaining. In fact, I would be there without the feature just to see the new short that will be warming up the screen beforehand Tangled Ever After.

Something to Watch: DVD’s

In movies we have a very interesting historical epic, 1911, staring Jackie Chan, Bingbing Li, and Joan Chen, amongst others. It tells the story of the defeat of the warlord fueled empire and the near-unification of China (there were still pockets owned by the British, Japanese, etc.) just after the turn of the last century. Jackie Chan is also the director for this film, bringing yet another slice of history to the world in the form of a story you can care about, as he has done so often of late. I think in the long term these productions will stand out as his legacy, and I find it ironic that the slapstick kung-fu comedies that we all know and love has been what has given him the financial backing he needed to create this series.

And then there is The Scorpion King 3: Battle For Redemption, which would be a direct to video release, except it looks like it will also be in a few theaters the week after the DVD is released. The cast does include Billy Zane and Ron Perlman, who between them probably account for a noticeable percentage of the 6 million dollar budget. This is a sequel of a prequel to a sequel of a remake, and I will not be holding my breath in hopes it will be watchable. Three guesses which movie will be coming home with me this week.

The winner in TV this time around hands down is Primeval: Volume Three. The title is a bit confusing, since most folks (and even Amazon, it appears) might think it meant season 3. But volume 1 was season 1 and 2, volume 2 was season 3, and volume 3 brings us season 4 and 5. There is also a quality documentary available, Nova: Finding Life Beyond Earth, from my favorite PBS science show. We may be on the verge of finding out if we are alone or not, and this episode gives you all the latest updates.

One amusing release for western animation in the form of Penguins of Madagascar: Operation Blowhole, doing a great animated James Bond parody.

For true anime, Akikan! – Complete Collection fits the bill, with a unique Japanese concept; inanimate objects as characters. This time around the soda cans are also people, and there is a bit of a war on between the Iron and Aluminum Can tribes. I am sure it will be no surprise to discover the cans become beautiful girls in their anthropomorphic form. Finally, Tweeny Witches – Complete Collection explores how an un-magical human and her two magical best friends team up to take control of their lives.