This time Movies have Ex Machina, a cybernetic tale of the birth of AI as haunting as it is thought provoking. While not as relentlessly kill crazy as the Terminator series, you do get a glimpse into the birth of that attitude among the biologically challenged, and the kind of events that might provoke it. X-Men: Days of Future Past: the Rogue Cut started with 17 minutes of additional footage we have never seen before. Some of the new footage centers around Paquin’s Rogue, who I don’t feel we saw enough of in the theatrical version. In order to make the story line changes the new scenes bring to the film work they also have modified some of the original footage with either re-edits or alternate takes. The end result is as much of a different movie as some of the Blade Runner remakes, so it will probably have to follow me home. The 1959 French classic Hiroshima, Mon Amour is being re-released on Blue Ray off of a 4K master for the first time ever this week. No, it isn’t genre, but it was one of those films that changed the way people made movies from that point on, the way Indiana Jones did. This is one of those films you need to see at least one time in your life, or you will have missed something amazing and paradigm changing.
I didn’t find any TV entries this week, but there is one contender in a much older episodic story telling tradition. Beowulf is performed in the original Bardic style by Benjamin Bagby, Anglo-Saxon harp in hand and voice in full throat, singing in Old English. He has given this performance at the Smithsonian and at Carnegie Hall, to name a few. This is as close as most of us can ever hope to get to experiencing one of the tales that shaped our last few thousand years on Earth the way it was meant to be heard.
In Anime, Familiar of Zero: F is Season 4 of the series; ever since she first accidentally kidnapped him from Earth (yep, she did that by accident; she is just a tad clueless about how to get her magic to work), their relationship has been growing. But so has the list of powerful beings trying to take them out… permanently. In Recently, my sister is unusual Mitsuki is trying to adjust to her new life and brother, when an amnesiac ghost girl needs her help to pass on to the next world.
Is the Order a Rabbit? is a very kawaii show involving a cafe, a mysterious rabbit, one heavily armed girl, and some possible telepaths. One Piece is releasing both Collection 13 with Episodes 300 through 324 and One Piece: Season 7 Voyage 1 with episodes 385 through 396. I find it interesting that the one with 24 episodes is $2 cheaper than the one with 11 episodes, probably because it is about a year older.
