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Something to Watch: DVDs

Top of the movie list this week is Thor, another world class entry in Marvel’s steady build to The Avengers. A related release is Marvel Knights: Thor & Loki, Blood Brothers, which is a motion comic, that bastard child of comic books and animation. Personally, I like motion comics, particularly the ones with quality artwork, which this seems to have. Also of note this week, Star Wars: The Complete Saga finally has it’s Blue Ray release. The only reason it didn’t get top billing this week is that everyone who is interested already owns all these movies, so this becomes a way to sell you again something you already own. Now if they had a trade-up deal, where you got half or more of the money you originally paid for them off the cost for the new set when you turned them in, this release would have definitely gotten top billing. Finally, a few Asian films getting US releases this week. First, True legend tells the story of a retired Qing dynasty general who is attacked and left for dead, with his son kidnapped. The true story of what he went through to train up and get his son back was the source of the “King of Beggars” legend. Then a classic film that helped pave the way for independent women in martial arts movies, 1968’s Golden Swallow tells a tale of a woman falsely accused of crimes committed by another.

Carrie Fisher: Wishful Drinking isn’t a movie but rather a documentary, but I think it will be well worth checking out, if only for her commentary on being Princess Leia.

The top TV spot this week is a bit hard to judge. For me it is a tossup between Sanctuary: The Complete Third Season and Supernatural: The Complete Sixth Season. I have enough arguments for and against each series being the stronger contender that they pretty much even out. And it is entirely possible that Camelot: The Complete First Season might beat them both out; I don’t know because I missed scheduling that series on my DVR and haven’t seen any of it yet. Luckily it is available on Starz Video on Demand, so I will watch a few episodes before making any decisions as to how good it is. Also new this week is about the only reality show I watch, coming out with Mythbusters: Collection 7. If I had the right kind of engineering background, this show would be my dream job. Finally there is The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Fourth Season, which I mention for completeness. I want to like that show, I love the premise; if only it didn’t have the laugh track I might be able to watch it without cringing.

For western animation, Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space is still more wackiness from Dreamworks, and has the original cast including Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, and Kiefer Sutherland. If you liked the original feature length movie you will no doubt want to add this short to your collection. I know it will certainly be following me home the day it comes out. In fact, I will be looking for the bundled set, where they combine it with Scared Shrekless, another great short available for the first time this week.

in Anime, MM Complete Collection is a twisted tale about some very troubled people, and I am not sure having them all in the same support group is the best option for them (including the god; he is also a bit twisty). Then there is Kekkaishi Set 2 continues the story of the teenage boy training to kill monsters with his childhood sweetheart. This release brings us to the half way point in this particular story arc, since each box set contains 13 episodes and the full series has 52.

Something to Do: Movies

In limited release this week, Shaolin looks like the most interesting selection. It is a historical epic of the feudal warlord period of China’s history (yes, I know that only narrows it down to a few thousand years, but the fact that they have rifles helps narrow it further, to the last several hundred years). The name from the cast everyone should recognize is Jackie Chan, and as you can see from the trailer the cinematography is excellent as is often the case with Chinese made epics.

Something to Watch: DVDs

X-Men: First Class leads the movie field this week. This one was very impressive on the big screen as a reboot of its franchise, and I think the solid storytelling will have it fare just as well on the small screen. The other major movie offering that looks interesting is Hanna, a rather intense thriller about a teenage assassin. On the import front, Clash of Empires was originally called The Malay Chronicles: Bloodlines, and is set against a backdrop of the ancient civilizations of Rome and China from the second century AD. It tells the story of a Roman prince traveling to wed a Chinese princess, with a lot of the filming taking place in Malaysia. Expect a lot of combat in this one; the trailer looks quite interesting. I should also mention The Last Kung Fu Monk for completeness’s sake, although it won’t be following me home.

There are two quality choices in the TV category this time around, with the obvious winner being Fringe: The Complete Third Season. This brilliant show just gets better with each season, and as usual the box set is coming out just in time for you to re-watch it all before kicking off the new season. The other release is the short lived No Ordinary Family: The Complete First Season, which I personally enjoyed and was sorry to see cancelled.

The new Anime offering this week is Bleach: Box Set 10, in a franchise that just keeps going. For re-releases, To Love RU is now being made available in a single boxed set rather than the two boxes it previously came out in. A number of recent classics are being offered in more cost effective packages, including Burst Angel – The Complete Collection which you can find for as low as $21 if you shop around, Black Blood Brothers – The Complete Series [S.A.V.E. Edition] can be found for about $15, and Peacemaker – Complete Collection is running at just about $25 if you shop around.

Black Rock Shooter on TV

Yes, it is true; the game is migrating to the small screen. Black Rock Shooter on TV will lead the winter lineup in January on Fuji TV’s set of programming. Hatsune Miku sings the theme song for the series with the musical group Supercell and the composer Ryo, and a one hour OVA was previously put together by Studio Ordet with a release to magazines. As of a few days ago, a game edition of Black Rock Shooter with animation by ufotable also hit the shelves. If you are a fan of the game, keep your eye out for the Anime.

Something to Watch: DVDs

The movie choice for the week for me is Gantz, the live action variant of the Manga and Anime favorite. While some of the reviews I have read complain about it’s pacing, I really don’t care, I just want it for my collection. And if it bothers me enough, like anybody else I could always re-edit it to exclude the boring bits. Anyways, this is just the first in the set; Gantz 2 will be out soon, so I will reserve judgement until I see how the entire work fits together. Red Faction: Origins is the only movie of interest out this week in English, giving some serious detailed background to the game environment that spawned this film. From Thailand, Panna Rittikrai’s latest offering BKO: Bangkok Knockout is also out this week, continuing the work he did in Ong Bak and Chocolate.

Police, Adjective is not genre but rather crime comedy from Romania’s Corneliu Porumboiu that has won awards from all over the globe, and Norwegian Ninja is action comedy based on Norway’s major government scandal of 1984 (pick up some great wallpapers from the flic here). I pretty much had to mention these two, since they are each different in their own way from anything else you might have seen.

Notice how I went out of my way to avoid mentioning A Big Box of Zombies, with 8 zombie movies that were made from 1936 to 1971. While it is important to study your enemies to be ready to defend yourself come the Zombie Apocalypse, I really don’t think that this collection is the optimal way to do that. But it is fun. *grin*

TV this week is the latest version of a classic: Nikita: The Complete First Season. The successor to 1990’s La Femme Nikita movie and the subsequent TV series that ran from 1997 through 2001, this new spin on the story is a whole lot of fun.

In Anime, Neo Angelique Abyss: The Complete Collection tells of life on Arcadia, where evil demons battle the small number of Purifiers set against them. The humans are not doing very well, but Angelique may hold the secret that will allow them to survive. Ikki Tousen: Great Guardians Part 1 was supposed to be released this week as well, with Part 2 coming in October, but Media Blasters has announced that they have evaluated the market and decided to do a single box set release of the entire series, but that will not be available until March of next year. Great Guardians is the third season to become available in the US, although there is now a 4th season in Japan and they are working on a fifth.

Wildstar trailer

There is a new Sci-Fi MMO coming out called Wildstar from NCsoft and Carbine, and based on the trailer it looks like a world of fun. You get to select whether you want to be an Explorer, Soldier, Scientist, or Settler (three of the four classes are represented in the trailer) and head out for adventure on unknown worlds. At the moment you can sign up to help test the beta version, but I haven’t found a reference to when it goes into live mode. Thanks to the folks at Crunchyroll for the heads up on this one.