The epic historical fantasy The Assassin has some of the best cinematography I have seen in many years, and deserves to be watched on that count alone. But when you add in the plot and the sub plots, the characters, the costumes, the FX, the sets, the props, and all the other details that go into making a modern film, this one has it all. Well, except for the dialog, and it probably has that for people who speak the language it was written in. The Assassin is worth checking out, if only to find out if it is as good as its advertising indicates.
Terrestrial Human
The announcement was made at the recent NY Comic Con that the Tiger & Bunny franchise is going to get a Live-Action film. Not only that, but it will be a Hollywood film produced by Ron Howard, Masayuki Ozaki, and a few others. This one might be quite good, given the folks involved.
Well Go USA recently released The Avenging Fist on DVD, a combat fantasy in a future where all weapons are outlawed. The super-powers of the human brain have been unlocked by the Power Glove, which is in the hands of the police. Some of the few remaining survivors of the Glove’s human experiments band together in order to stop the evil it generates. Yes, this is full of over-the-top martial arts silliness, and the comedy this invokes wasn’t actually intended, but that just adds to the fun.
There is a new tale in the Monogatari! (or Story! in English) series; Kizumonogatari!. This is where the story of apparitions, or BAKEMONOGATARI, begins, and they present it in three parts: “Tekketsu,” “Nekketsu” and “Reiketsu.” If you have been enjoying the Monogatari series so far, it looks like it only gets better from here.
There are several interesting choices this week. The Last Witch Hunter is an action fantasy about an immortal witch hunter and his reincarnated most powerful opponent, battling it out in modern times to determine if the human race gets to survive or not. While not genre, Steve Jobs is a look at one of the people who completely changed how the world works (and plays) during and after the computer revolution, and will probably be the best film coming out this week. There is a lot of controversy about the live action Jem and the Holograms since the original Anime was at its core about women’s empowerment, with the heroine owning the record company the band played for and using the super-science of her AI computer Synergy to project holograms from her earrings. Those holograms protected her secret identity, generated illusions that baffled and confused the evil doers she was constantly fighting, and also created special effects for the band. It appears that in the new live action version Jem is not the owner of the company, not the possessor of a secret identity fighting the bad guys, not in possession of proprietary advanced technology that is indistinguishable from magic and makes her powerful. Instead she seems to be a wanna-be rock star who leveraged a YouTube account into a ticket to being exploited by a record company, which is not even close to the original story line. Or is she? The trailer seems to have changed since it first came out, I am wondering if the production company may have realized their mistake when the public outcry started over the changes they introduced. Not hopeful, but wondering.
Movies bring us Jurassic World, this year’s continuation of the classic series. In my opinion the latest addition stands up to the original in terms of action and story, and surpasses it for special effects. If you don’t already have the previous installments you can also pick up all 4 at once in the Jurassic Park Collection. Also out is a post apocalypse tale called Z for Zachariah about what may be the last 3 people on Earth after a nuclear war. I suspect the release timing for this one may be because Chris Pine stars in both sci-fi movies and they are hoping that might boost its sales. I did not see any genre TV this time around.
In Anime, Hayate the Combat Butler 2nd Season embeds 25 episodes of combat fun into the domestic matrix. Meanwhile, Space Brothers: Collection 5 has both brothers being hit with failing health while they are being overworked. Collection 5 adds episodes 52-64, so we are past the half way point on the current story.