This video came from NASA itself, and shows the ATHLETE rover (All-Terrain Hex-Limbed Extra-Terrestrial Explorer) deploying in boogie mode; what a hoot.
Terrestrial Human
Yes, another new trailer from Comic-Con, this one for the movie RED: Retired, Extremely Dangerous. This one is almost the last RED trailer I posted, but it does have a few new scenes. It doesn’t really matter to me how good this is; I will see any movie that includes Willis, Freedman, and Malkovich in the lineup.
Just to add to the confusion, there was another movie trailer for a film called Red at Comic-Con. In the other one, Felicia Day is a descendant of Little Red Riding Hood who hunts down Werewolves. Based on the obvious Graphics Novel, this is a Made for TV Movie from the Sci-Fi Channel, which normally would mean a really bad film, not even good enough to be a B-Movie. But there have been some exceptions, and I am really hoping this is added to their number, because I absolutely loved the comic book. Or am I confusing it with the one Ron Howard is turning into a movie?
There were a boatload of new trailers released at Comic-Con, most for movies I have been waiting on for a while. Somehow I flat out missed Sucker Punch, which surprises me. Based on the trailer, this one looks great!
Playing Doctor Who, that is. It has frustrated me for years that the BBC kept developing all kinds of wonderful online games that folks in the UK got to play, but the rest of us were locked out of. They have finally come up with a solution for that: Direct2Drive Dr Who is now an option for those of us on this side of the pond. Admittedly it costs money (4 or 5 dollars compared to free to folks in the UK), but since the previous games were not legally available at all I consider this a serious improvement, and will be handing them some cash.
In the meantime, you CAN have some fun working out the Doctor Who Jigsaw Puzzles, and they are a bit of a hoot.
There aren’t any new F/SF films coming out this weekend, at least not that I can find. So it might be a good weekend to try to catch up with anything already out that you haven’t seen yet. For instance, this just past weekend most folks probably caught Salt, so Valhalla Rising is a good option. The weekend before Inception lead the pack, so you might have missed The Sorcerer’s Apprentice; but even if you caught both, The Wild Hunt remains available. I definitely do NOT recommend The Last Airbender; somebody kept poking me to stop me from snoring through that movie, but I am not sure why.
The leader for fantasy movies this week is Clash of the Titans. While I thought the movie took itself a little too seriously, it was still a fun flic. A much more serious topic is explored in the science fiction film Repo Men, where it doesn’t bode well to be late with your payments for your body parts. For problems of a planetary scale, there is Ray Bradbury’s Chrysalis. Based on a short story by the famous author, it explores a theme of ecological catastrophe and human evolution. Out of the foreign films this week, Just Another Pandora’s Box caught my attention by the title alone, but on investigation it looks like this comedy/fantasy has enough laugh power to be worth the ride. Finally, Welcome to Earth made the film fest rounds, and even got mentioned for a few awards, so it should be worth checking out, in a direct-to-DVD kind of way.
SG-U Stargate Universe: 1.5 brings us the second half of season 1. While I have been really enjoying the series, the release style annoys me tremendously, so I will not be adding this to my collection until I can find it on sale. Like Battlestar Galactica before it, they have only released half the season but are asking a full seasons worth of money for it (it lists at $39.95). This is not a trend I am willing to support with my wallet. Both Flash Forward and Eureka also released half season box sets, but with a list of $29.95, most outlets sold them for $20, or half of what a full season goes for; that’s a price scheme I can live with. A 1972 British TV series not previously available in the US also comes out on Tuesday: The Black Arrow. My first thought was a variation on the Green Arrow, but it looks to be a bit more Robin Hoody.
The Machinima legend returns with Red Vs Blue: Reconstruction, season 6 and 7 of the series. After being on opposite sides for so long during the Blood Gulch era (seasons one through five, previously released), they now team up to solve a new problem. For new Anime there is only one real choice this week: Hell Girl Two Mirrors: Collection 2, which finishes up the 2nd season. I look forward to finding out how Hell’s debt collector has her own fate resolved. As usual, there are a few classics being re-released in reduced cost box set editions, like Love Hina and Magic Knight Rayearth