The genre film this week is Pandemic, but I would rather seem Miles Ahead. The first is about a plague that threatens to wipe out all life on Earth and turn us all into Zombies, and I have already seen that movie twenty times too often, each time with a different cast. Miles Ahead is an indiegogo funded film about musical genius Miles Davis at a critical point in his life that I think has a lot of promise. So this time around I will be listening to the music.
Humans, Season 1 is about Synths, near-human robots who may be more than they appear. It was shown on AMC (US), the BBC (UK), and ABC (AU) and is based on the Swedish science fiction program Real Humans, which has won a number of awards. Kudos Film and Television remade it for English speaking audiences with a somewhat changed plot line, and Acorn is releasing the uncut UK version on disc.
In Anime, the Utawarerumono OAV adds three new stories to this world of magic and combat, with just a bit of silliness thrown in. The other two new releases are about the genre rather than genre themselves; Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-Kun is a rom/com about a Manga artist, while Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend is a rom/com about a high school otaku who decides to build his own game about a girl in his class.
Edgar Rice Burroughs has created some amazing characters, and his most recognized is coming back to the big screen in The Legend Of Tarzan. On July 1st we will get to find out if they are doing this classic story justice, and if they are, we will have a reboot of the entire massive collection of tales, both big and small.
The movie Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is based on Ransom Riggs New York Times best seller debut novel (his previous book being a study of the methods of a Fictional Detective, rather than a fiction itself), and it looks like Tim Burton has set the tone quite nicely for this fantasy. It will be on the big screen on September 30th, and I am looking forward to seeing how they did with it.
IBM Japan has created the VRMMO project Sword Art Online: The Beginning, and when they asked for 200 Tokyo-based Alpha Testers the other week, over 100,000 people tried to sign up. Why all the excitement? For one thing, this may be the first time a fully realized 3D Immersive Virtual Reality MMOG was ever created based on a series of Lite Novels and Anime stories. For another, the books and Anime are all about living in a fully realized 3D Immersive Virtual Reality MMOG, which gives it just that touch of recursive irony that can really draw the fans. Finally (although I could keep pointing out additional reasons), this is IBM; who better to build the future of computer enhanced VR environments in the year when VR goes mainstream?
They are deploying their Cognitive System architecture, previously used to create tools like Watson, to be the basis of their AI control for NPC and Environment functions, which has to rival the power of the systems described in the books and Anime. They are also invoking SoftLayer, their own software-switched network control system that builds cloud environments with the click of an icon and actively keeps them robust and lightning-fast. Here is a video to give you the idea of what they are doing. If you are an SAO fan, be aware that the Alpha testing is over, and the Beta testing is about to roll out! Be sure to check out the Sword Art Online: The Beginning YouTube Channel for more video updates.
2 films worth checking out this time, beginning with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the long awaited DC entry into the Group Superhero movie field. Identicals, originally titled Brand New You, is a highly unconventional romantic thriller that will have you guessing throughout who is actually who. It takes place in a near-future world where a select few can get a life-upgrade, taking over the life of someone who has a better job, a better spouse, and a better place in the world. When one of those being replaced refuses to die as intended, he must fight to get his own back.