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Something to Do: Movies

The film worth checking out this Friday is Arrival, told from the viewpoint of the linguist who is recruited by the military to assist in translating the aliens communications. I will be in the theater for this one! As far as I know this may be the first ever Ted Chiang story to be turned into a movie, in this case the short story: “Story of Your Life”. Ted has won four Nebula awards, four Hugo awards, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, four Locus awards, and a boatload of other top honors in the Sci-Fi universe. The story had a very small scope, if what I have seen of the trailer is any indication Hollywood may have grabbed that ball and run with it in directions the author never intended, but I am still looking forward to seeing what his first outing on the silver screen may have brought about.

And remember, next Monday the 14th is the Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks presentation in theaters across the US! The lost episode when Hartnel regenerated into Troughton; sadly only the audio survived, so they animated the video.

Something to Watch: Discs

TV brings us Daredevil: The Complete First Season, a rather brutal addition to the Marvel TV collection that has a good story to tell. Marvel is doing better than most at creating continuity between their Movie and TV storytelling, with the Netflix branch of the franchise focusing on the superheroes who called Hell’s Kitchen home. Movies have a couple of animations for us, Phantom Boy being a French production about a kid who can astral project and the policeman he works with to bring down a violent criminal being the first. The second is the rather more adult Sausage Party, which is funny as hell but NOT appropriate to share with your children.

In Anime, Sky Wizards Academy: The Complete Series is about an inept combat team and the outcast who was assigned to train them to fight against the armored insects that now control the Earth. 07-ghost tells of the destruction of a nation after a Thousand Years War, and the survivor who is about to turn everything upside down. Omamori Himari: Complete Collection has a cat girl guardian, a bunch of attacking demons, and the last remaining member of a demon killing family that wishes he was anywhere but here. Strike the Blood is all about Vampires who bounce from body to body, and the killer girls sent to snuff them who seem to spend a lot more time protecting them.

In The Heroic Legend of Arslan Season One: Part Two, trust me when I say Arslan is not having a good time, but you might enjoy the story noticeably more than he does. Overlord: Complete Collection the ultimate “trapped in a game” anime, and it certainly seems to be a lot of fun. Finally, Shomin Sample: I Was Abducted by an Elite All-Girls School as a Sample Commoner win’s this weeks award for most off the wall title, but it does look like an interesting animation.

Premature Trailer

Think Ground Hog Day meets American Pie and you will be somewhere in the ball park. Yet another variation of living the same day over and over again until you get it right, the time travel story Premature looks like it just might end up being silly fun. While the movie was built in 2014, it has been bouncing around on the indi circuit for a few years and is just now making its way into the public realm.

VR: Change Your Reality: Doctor Strange

Marvel’s Doctor Strange will be hitting theaters this weekend, and as a great tie in between that visually interesting comic book movie environment and the VR colonization of mainstream media in 2016, three of the best Google Tilt Brush artists are participating in a global event. In Hong Kong (Stuart Campbell), New York (Danny Bittman), and London (Steve Teeple) they will be sharing their creations for all to enjoy.