For decades Virtual Reality has been expensive and flaky, but no more; this is the year it goes mainstream and affordable. Part of that is because of projects like Google Cardboard, allowing you to assemble your own VR headset for as little as $150 (cell phone, head set, and trigger button). Until recently there has been a lack of content for VR, but that has changed as well, with everyone from the Discovery Channel to the Dali Museum putting together presentations for it. In the case of the museum, they converted one of Dali’s paintings into a Virtual Reality exhibit entitled Dreams of Dali. Once at the museum they have Oculus Rift headsets for you to wear while exploring the VR environment they created of it.
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This week Pride and Prejudice and Zombies will be in the theaters, giving a whole new twist to the classic story. It is the kind of thing you might have gotten if Jane Austen was writing episodes of Buffy for Joss, and it might just be enough fun to watch to overcome my dislike of horror. There is a non-genre film that also looks pretty interesting, Hail, Caesar!. From the trailers it looks very amusing and the might just end up being the movie that gets my ticket money this weekend.
The movies this week include The Last Witch Hunter with Vin Diesel. I missed this one in the theaters, I will catch it when it gets on one of the premium services I already have. There are also two animated feature films, Batman: Bad Blood is a direct to video story that may have The Dark Knight on the dark side. And the 1937 animation classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs will be released on Blu Ray/Digital HD for the first time, completely remastered and restored. Finally I have to mention Simon Pegg’s Man Up, which isn’t genre but is a whole lot of fun. Supposedly. Sadly it didn’t play at a theater close enough to me so I could see it on the big screen, but I will get to see it now.
TV has Falling Skies: The Complete Fifth Season and the continuing battle of alien invaders vs. human defenders. Since that was the final season, you will also be able to pick up Falling Skies: The Complete Series in Blu Ray or DVD. We also get From Dusk Till Dawn: Season Two this week, one of a number of spin-offs generated by the original film.
Anime finally gives us the next episode of a true classic after entirely too long a wait! Evangelion 3.33: You Can (Not) Redo is hitting the shelves, and as a person who was trying to watch it 3 years ago, I am thrilled to finally see it make it into the light of day. It is a reboot of one of the iconic Anime series of all time, and now we just have to wait for the fourth and final part to be released. The other release this week is worth everyone’s attention is From the New World, where the lines between Time and Space may blur, but the lines between people are razor sharp.
Night on the Galactic Railroad is a classic from the 80s telling the story of a young kitten who faces problems well beyond his age. The Festival of Stars becomes his escape, and he and his childhood friend are thrilled as the Galactic Railroad whisks the two away for parts unknown! Then there was Blade Dance of the Elementalers: Complete Collection, where maidens try to control spirits, before the Demon King gets their contracts before them.
The name of the first track from Hysteric Lolita is Distress, their second single which is also off of their upcoming first album Not Equal which will be released on February 3rd. The second is Emotional Girl from their 2014 debut single Despair of the Spiral. I really wanted to post their brilliant new track Voice for Voice, but they haven’t released an official full length video of it yet. If you like their music you can buy it on iTunes, they have all 7 of the singles available now, or you can wait for February 3rd and get the entire 14 track album.
The Variety Artisans series is a collection of interviews that explain how all the stuff at the core of telling a story in a movie format works. This particular one is about the Oscar Ballot Guide: Animation Character Design, where you will learn the major points of making a character the audience will want to follow and become friends with. If you enjoy this one, you may want to watch the entire series.
MTV brought The Shannara Chronicles to television, and you can watch the first 4 episodes now on their web site. The show is based on the Epic Fantasy series of books of the same name written by Terry Brooks, and are the stories of the Four Lands. The story arc for season 1 is all about saving the tree that protects the Four Lands from the Demon World.