Written by J.K. Rowling, because everyone needs to revisit the world of Harry Potter, comes Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. In theaters November 2016.
This is the weekend we finally get to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and I have been ready since they first announced J.J. Abrams would be heading up the new films. I am definitely seeing it Friday, and will let the film decide if it needs to be seen again Saturday and/or Sunday. Also out this week is He Never Died, the crowdfunded fantasy starring Henry Rollins. And if you are a fan of great Asian films Mojin: The Lost Legend is a good Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider kind of story based on the #1 bestselling series of novels by Zhang Muye. This particular movie is based on his book Ghost Blows Out the Light, and if it does good enough at the box office perhaps they will turn the entire series into movies, one after the other.
As you might expect just before Xmas, a bunch of good movies have been released in time for you to grab them to give out as gifts. They include the Fantastic Four reboot and the second story in the literary franchise Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials. In addition there is the incredibly silly (and politically incorrect) Ted 2, and the latest entry in another fantasy franchise, Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation. With that many new films coming out it is kind of sad that there isn’t a new idea in the collection, only studios trying to cash in on preexisting properties. There is one original new cinematic work, but it isn’t genre; Slow Learners is a romcom about the terminally dorky, and what they go through in the effort to have a real life. TV brings us Extant: The Second Season, which definitely is genre. Just the bit about the astronaut mother looking for her half-alien son to protect him from the government’s killer robots should be enough to put it squarely in the realm of Science Fiction.
In Anime, we have two tales about Earth being under attack by aliens, with Daimadaler: Prince V.S. Penguin Empire, The Complete Series and Majestic Prince: Complete Collection. We also get two butler-centric stories in Hayate the Combat Butler: Heaven is a Place on Earth, and Ladies versus Butlers! Complete Collection. Hayate at least is genre, the other I don’t know about as I haven’t watched it.
There is a new One Piece: Season 7 Voyage 4 which brings us episodes 422 through 433. Finally, Chaika: The Coffin Princess is refreshing, in that it misses a lot of the standard Anime tropes and tells its own unique fantasy story.
The Magicians is a new show coming to Syfy on January 25th, and if the show is half as good as the books, it will be on my DVR every week. They have a sneak peek on the website that looks like the first few minutes of the first episode, also looking good. It is based on Lev Grossman’s trilogy of the same name, a set of books praised by a lot of people, including Cory Doctorow, William Gibson, and George R. R. Martin. Let’s face it, any time three of your favorite authors tell you somebody else wrote important books you need to read, you pay attention.
On Wednesday we get Victor Frankenstein as told from Igor’s perspective, and The Good Dinosaur, an animated Disney/Pixar presentation. Both films are obviously taking advantage of the holiday weekend to pack in a couple of extra days worth of box office receipts to bolster their opening weekend take, but there are a few good things coming out on Friday as well. Tamasha is a Bollywood/French fantasy tale about two people wandering about an island trying to fit themselves into a society they do not belong to, while Janis: Little Girl Blue is a documentary about Janis Joplin’s rise to stardom traced through her correspondence with her family, friends, and collaborators.
Several days ago Disney released its first look at Tim Burton’s Alice Through The Looking Glass, the sequel to his Alice in Wonderland from several years ago. It definitely looks like it needs to be seen on the big screen, just like the first one did, and you will be able to do so next May 27th, provided it doesn’t get delayed.