This week it is more Tim Burton animated silliness with Frankenweenie, an all star retelling of the classic Frankenstein tail. This is a great one to take your kids to, because afterwards you can have a meaningful discussion with them on the dangers of wild experiments using their high school genetic engineering labs for a little recreational recombinant DNA monster building.
There are a number of good movies this time around, with Iron Sky telling the story of Nazi’s on the moon coming back to take over the Earth decades after they fled. I can’t quite decide if this one is more action/adventure or comedy, and I was fairly surprised when it had its world premier in Berlin. Definitely in the comedy category, Dark Shadows is Johnny Depp, Tim Burton, and a bunch of their friends having silly fun. Flying Swords of Dragon Gate is the historical epic adventure entry for the week, being a remake of the Dragon’s Inn series of movies starring Jet Li. If you are a fan of Asian martial arts films you will find you recognize a good percentage of the excellent cast, but that is the only name the average American moviegoer would recognize. Winner of the Silliest Name title this time goes to Atomic Brain Invasion.
New in TV we have season two of the series Nikita, just in time to catch up with it before the next season starts on the 19th. I am guessing they dropped La Fem off the front end of the name so you wouldn’t confuse it with the last time somebody did it as a TV series. Old in TV we have The Six Million Dollar Man: Season Two, a new release for all you Steve Austin fans.
In Anime, Strike Witches: Season Two continues the aerial combat antics of the girls with the propeller boots, in an alternate history where the enemy during WWII was aliens from outer space. Rental Magica: Collection 2 brings the second dozen stories in this magical competition series, with the Astral team hard pressed to resolve their issues, including the protagonists vision problems. I can include Mayo Chiki in today’s listing because the plot line includes both martial artist ghosts and cat girls, but it is really just a high school level romantic farce leaning towards the raunchy.
The Air and Space Museum has a couple of nice presentations they have put together about how Hollywood has approached showing what going into space will look like over the years. On the Rocket Pioneers page they have a list of early rocket scientists, pretty much the men who invented the entire concept of using rockets to get humans into space. As you read through the entries you will see references to the various science fiction movies they consulted on, such as Fritz Lang’s Frau im Mond. Be sure to check the film clips at the bottom of the page while you are there. They also have Hollywood Spacesuits, and the subtitle to the article says it all: A sci-fi historian’s guide to movie spacesuits, from wacky to realistic.
This week we have a couple of good options to select from. Looper is the story of a time traveler who has to avoid being murdered by himself, starring Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as old and young Joe. If you are in the mood for comedy rather than action/adventure, Hotel Transylvania is an animated love story about Dracula’s daughter and the human she is sweet on. Obviously, dad does not approve.
Topping the list this week is The Avengers, one of the best films I have seen in quite a while. Everything else would pale against this film anyways, but when the only other live action feature film has a title like Strippers vs. Werewolves, one wonders why they bothered.
However, there is a movie series release worth noting: Bond 50: Celebrating Five Decades of Bond. Supposedly this box set has every James Bond movie ever made, 22 movies in Blue Ray format, but that’s not really true. Obviously it doesn’t have Skyfall, but the Woodie Allen version of Casino Royale is also conspicuous by its absence. Each movie lives on its own disk and includes hours of extras, so this does end up being quite the collection.
In TV, American Horror Story: The Complete First Season also comes out. I am not a horror fan, but this series has its moments and so is worth mentioning.
For western animation, the TV version of The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Volume 5 will be released in support of the primary film.
For animated feature films, Resident Evil: Damnation will also be released, but while this isn’t western animation it also isn’t Anime. It is more of a Machinima filmed in the 3D gamespace that the franchise grew from.
In Anime, Steins;Gate: The Complete Series Part 1 is one of the more convoluted and interesting time travel stories I have ever seen. Our primary mad scientist keeps sending text messages to the past through the microwave, at first to try to correct what he sees as a few interpersonal relationship hiccups with girls he wanted to be with. As each message changes the past, and therefore the present he lives in, things go from bad to worse on so many levels, and every effort to get back to the timeline he started in just digs it deeper. This package has the first dozen episodes, which gets you half way through the story. It is a special edition in both blue ray and DVD formats, so it is a bit pricey. The only extras I see are commentary on 2 episodes and a map of Akihabara, so I plan to wait for either a good sale on this package or a more cost effective release, but it absolutely will become part of the permanent collection.
The other two new anime series are historical epics. In Hakuoki: Season 1 a young woman disguises herself as a boy to seek out her father and his magical elixir of speed and strength, but ends up with the Shinsengumi as they battle the vampires of Kyoto. Croisée in a Foreign Labyrinth: Complete Collection is about revolution; the industrial revolution in Europe at the same time as the cultural revolution in Japan which opened the country to the western world. Our protagonist may be just the one to bridge the gap and help both sides grow into their new forms.
One Piece: Complete Collection 8 is the returning anime this time around, bringing more fun adventures from the Straw Hat Gang.
More J.R.R. Tolkien classic storytelling is coming to the big screen! Yes, we have all known this for years, and yes, this trailer has been online for days (or at least 1.5 of those day thingies) but DAMN it is good to finally get a glimpse of it! I am so ready for the next set of feature films from this franchise!