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Amazing Spider Man 2 Trailer

Yep, Sony finally released it today, and it looks amazing, as befits a movie with the name The Amazing Spider-Man 2. I can’t wait for the new episode for the franchise, I like the reboot of the films a lot (although I still like the original trilogy, which had its own set of good points). I love all things Marvel, and still wish my mom hadn’t thrown out my comic book collection in the 70’s. It would be worth a fortune now, including as it did the first hundred or so episodes of Spider Man, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Thor, Avengers, and more, all of them bought new starting at issue #1.

Looking back, I realize I never collected Iron Man, Captain America, or Doctor Strange because I didn’t care for the artwork, but the same style of artwork was OK for Spider Man and a few others, because I related to the character so well. I guess you could say I loved styles like those Jim Steranko created over those like Steve Ditko made, as a general rule, and if you compare those two artists styles you can extrapolate the rest of my preferences easily enough. But the STORIES from all those universes were riveting, both for their sci-fi wonderfulness and their depth of character development with the accompanying interpersonal relationships. To this day, I want more excellent graphics with killer story lines and dramatic emotional development, and I suspect that combination is why the Marvel Movie universe has been such a delight for me. Yes, I will be in the theater for this one. Hopefully in I-MAX 3D for probably two showings in a row.

Something to Do: Movies, 6Dec13

The Last Days on Mars is a UK movie which is borderline horror and very much a thriller, but it includes some actors I like and some excellent production values. It has been out for a while on iTunes so will only be in a limited number of theaters, but I think it will look good on the big screen. Likewise the Canadian film Ice Soldiers only gets a limited run, also includes some actors I like, and has a very tasty looking trailer. Finally, the anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: The Rebellion Story will also be doing a limited run on American screens this week. The American offering this time around is Implanted, which did not look quite as interesting as the others when I viewed the trailer, so I will be waiting for that one to hit a streaming service to see it.

Something to Watch: DVD’s, 3Dec13

In movies we have The Wolverine, another excellent selection from the ongoing Marvel universe, this time from their X-Men franchise. As usual, you want to stay all the way to the end, so you don’t lose any clues about what might be coming up next. The other film of note is based on a book without so many pictures, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. That one was written by Cassandra Clare, the opening volume of her YA series The Mortal Instruments, part of The Shadowhunter Chronicles.

In TV, we continue with the 50th celebration, this weeks offering being Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited 9-11. This group is Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, and Matt Smith, and concludes the first dozen Doctors. A worthwhile grouping of the next set of characters, don’t you think?

In Western animation, Marvel’s Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United is a good companion piece for Wolverine.

In Anime, Aquarion Evol is not exactly a direct sequel to Aquarion, since it takes place 12,000 years later, but it is set in the same universe with the same underlying premise. I don’t remember the first one being quite this filled with less than subtle double entendre’s, but perhaps I just forgot; I should go back and watch it again before I start the new series. The unique series Girls und Panzer is all about the high school girls clubs which salvage, maintain, and go into combat with each other in tanks, and they are doing a duel release this week. They have the complete OVA series at 6 episodes long, and the complete TV series at 12 episodes both hitting the shelves.

One Piece continues the epic, with season 5 part 4 bringing you episodes 300 through 312. Zatch Bell mes out as the complete seasons one and two, but instead of the normal 26 episodes you might assume, this set weighs in at 104 episodes. In this series, creatures known as mamodo come to Earth every thousand years to battle it out and determine who gets to rule them for the next millennium. They can only use their magic when teamed up with a human, and the mamodo known as Zatch Bell has teamed up with 14 year old Kiyo for this round of fighting.

Doctor Who: Legacy

Doctor Who: Legacy is a free mobile RPG/Puzzle game app from BBC Worldwide and Tiny Rebel Games, yet another celebration of 50 years of the Tardis. It starts off with the most recent Doctor, Companions, and Villeins from the latest two seasons, but the plan is to expand it to cover everyone from the entire 50 year history of the series. They have versions for Apple and Android, and I should probably mention that the game supports micro-purchases, meaning you can acquire objects and characters by spending real money. Personally I went into settings and turned that function off, but every day in December they plan to have new stuff for free including K-9 and Sarah Jane Smith, and in early 2014 they will have everyone from Series 5 also available for free. The screen shot is the first point in the game where the Doctor speaks to you and invites you to become a companion; the music and artwork for this game are quite tasty.

Who Legacy screen capture
Who Legacy screen capture

Something to Watch: DVDs, 26Nov13

My favorite movie this time around just might be Red 2, the amazing sequel to the first film they created out of this graphic novel. Scratch that, nothing “might be” about it; this one is world class! Also out, Jobs is a BioPic with a proper attitude.

In TV, I count Murdoch Mysteries: Season 6 as genre because of its near Steampunk goodness, mixing the 1890s super science cutting edge of forensics, air flight, electronic communications, and so much more with some well thought out mysteries and a bunch of characters you will thoroughly enjoy. The protagonist himself most reminds me of the Mounty from the TV series Due South, another excellent police procedural.

In Anime, Accel World: Set 1 is abut an unpopular boy who spends all his time in online gaming. He is surprised one day when a popular girl approaches him and invites him to combat in a new virtual world as her knight. As usual, all is not as it appears at first glance, and when they neurolink into the game he learns about Brain Bursting, which accelerates your mind when you go into combat mode. La Storia Della Arcana Famiglia is the complete collection, the tale of what happens when and organization leader retires and puts his position up for grabs to whoever wins the fight for it. Each member of the organization has a power granted by a tarot card, as well as the usual guns and knives, so the competition will be fierce. But when he throws in his daughter as part of the prize, she gets ticked and enters the competition herself, with the goal of winning her own hand. Her card gives her telepathy to spy out the plans of her would be suitors and rivals, but she is aware every one of them also holds a card.

Super Robot Wars OG: Divine Wars is the full 2006 series, while Super Robot Wars Original Generation is the 2005 3 episode OVA that got the ball rolling. Alien invasion, giant mecha, the fate of the world at stake, you know the drill. The link I gave actually goes to Super Robot Wars OG The Inspector, a different series (the usage is different in Japan, I would have said season to mean the same thing in the US), but it will give you the idea.

The anime gem this time is the multi-award winning Wolf Children, a feature film by Mamoru Hosoda, the internationally-acclaimed director of Summer Wars. It has won dozens of awards around the world, one of the prizes it won was the Japan Academy Prize for Best Animation of the Year, 2013.