Fantasybookspot - DVD

Transformers Cybertron: The Ultimate Collection

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 07:51:31 -0400

To call myself a fan of the Transformers would be given too much weight to the term ‘fan’. Born in the late’70’s and a child of the 80’s, I, like many, was a Hasbro kid, which means I was a kid who was still young enough to make the transition from being a Kenner Kid who graduated to Yo Joe! and Roll Out!. The availability of variety, via the net of media actually reduces saturation, or rather concentration that a child can be exposed to. Consider this, as child of that era played with his Tranformers toy, went inside and watched the cartoon, and then opened up the Marvel comic and many did the same with G.I. Joe; indeed none of my peers that I can remember were not aware of the Transformers as it was a much less specialized market which is why I am still amazed at when looking back that the quality of G1 Transformers cartoon still holds up amazingly well and unlike its Joe counterpart, the Transformers cartoon was actually superior to the comic, so there is some legacy involved.

Let me admit that outside of accidentally watching some episodes of Beast Wars - a couple of which were rather clever, but overall was a tarnish I could have done without - my viewing history of Transformers doesn’t go much beyond the animated film which I still have memories of being so damn cool, as picture this: with everything on the line, Optimus doesn’t bring an army with him to turn the tide of a battle on earth: he brought the Dinobots! That aside, what we are talking about here is Transformers Cybertron: The Ultimate Collection DVD set, and I think my viewing experience will proves to be something that could parallel many others my age in regards to personal viewing pleasure and that of a parent looking at something for a child of today.

First, this - for a new viewer- essentially is a reboot or retelling of the story of the Transformers and one can buy and view this collection and know nothing that has occurred prior to, or perhaps - which most likely is the case - have only the movie (live-action) as a reference and looking for a hybrid/adaptation cartoon for the kids to enjoy. There are the familiar figures of characters like Optimus Prime and Megatron, as well as Starscream who seem for the most part very familiar in demeanor surrounded by facsimiles of previous characters and a dose of new characters as we explore different worlds. The basic gist is that the Transformer’s home planet of Cyberton is in danger of being destroyed by a Black Hole effect that was created with the destruction of Unicron which causes the Transformers to take refuge on Earth and to take up the guises of earth-vehicles (sort of ) to blend in as they look for a way to save their home, which is presented by an ancient Transformer, Vector Prime, who tells them of the need to find the lost Cyber Planet Keys, items or rather artifacts, of ancient power that were part of a past Space Bridge project of their ancestors that if found could stop the aforementioned Black Hole. The show is essentially different quests, be it on earth, or other planets to find these keys by both the Decepticons and Autobots preserving the continuous theme in Transformers that while enemies they are both fighting for, and in fact love their home, a dynamic that always made the Decepticons and particularly Megatron just a bit different from many animated villains, a facet highlighted by instances of team-ups between Prime and Megatron in different adaptations against common causes (the Insecticons come to mind).

As a fan of Generation 1 Transformers, when you start watching this set it is hard not to feel disconcerted , and admittedly you enter the experience ready to condemn and call the effort blasphemous, and getting through the first few episodes was a chore mostly because of the choice of having the Transformers themselves done in CGI while everything else is standard animation and simply getting your head wrapped around that this is no longer your Transformers. What helps this set is the sheer amount of material; there are a lot of episodes and thus Transformers Cybertron starts, albeit it slowly, creating its own space. This is four seasons of material, fifty-plus episodes, and the farther I got along, the more and more I felt myself allowing the series…truthfully I want to say exist but more appropriately to legitimately hold my attention. The use of CGI starts to morph from oddity tom something you convince yourself actually highlights the intrusion or contrast of the presence of giant alien robots in the setting we are familiar with, and you actually start wondering where it’s all going knowing that there is such a body of material ahead of you. To (partially) offset a monotony to the adventures, you do explore plenty of environments, be it different locales on earth: deserts, Atlantis, etc as well as different worlds in search for the cyber keys, from places dubbed Speed World and Jungle Planet and more than a healthy dose of naming that deal with greek mythology from Hyperborea (which also means something to SF/F heads) , Ogygia, and even a Stranger in a Strange Land reference.

The presence of three human children (Lori, Bud, and Coby) who aid the Autobots add the element of connectivity and to kids and simulated interaction, as they aptly play the role of the human contact. Their role is sometimes forced, and often begs the questions of how they explain their presence in these events around regular life (because they are young kids), but serves a role and to the shows credit you see an attempt to every now and then offer a glimpse of their families to attempt to answer these questions on some level and to act as an offering to wondering adults. They also serve as the ‘and now you know” element in the show which is rather heavy-handed throughout for me, but I would view as a plus to me in the presence of young kids that we already hadn’t lost to pseudo-angst, thought it is not exclusive to them as the Autobots frequently take moments to point out a moral. If anything truly could be labeled as a continued annoyance, it is the tendency for every time a weapon is used ,the Autobot of Decepticon has to announce it and its name, usually after Transforming (which also tends to be announced) and certainly worst of all, the use of the cyber keys to ‘power-up’ Transformers that always force us to watch (several times an episodes) a Transformer essentially calling upon the power of Greyskull, all of which are cut scenes that amount to take any fluidity away from the what would otherwise would and should be the coolest parts of an episode. It kind of goes against the lesson of Macross, that while could be accused of being overly dramatic at times (what I would call awesome) when it’s time to battle you got to let loose and let it be fluid - in this regard Transformer Cybertron gets in its own way and actually instances of action turn out to be great times to leave the room to refill a drink. There are odd allowances one has to get over that have to be overlooked for even kids to enjoy the series, and that is that Optimus Prime, who in all incarnations is supposed to be the greatest of leaders of a technologically advanced race of beings comes off as tactful and intelligent as an average child and thus what you have is a show that continually battles itself as it has a story to tell but can never maximize that story by having to be i aware that six year olds are watching it, and what you don’t want is a show that is so caught in the middle that you have young children asking how is Optimus not noticeably more knowledgeable than the human kids in the show (not to mention themselves) - and I realize this is supposed to be empowering and to cement a place for the kids in the show who act like avatars for kids watching, but the presence of humans featured in just about all forms of Transformers have always in my view been a detraction excluding maybe Spike, who just because of age allowed for much of what occurs with trio in this series to be more of a non-factor. With further thought, however, you realize this is not so much different from previous shows as the Autobots have always been just ‘dumb enough’ to not in fact be evil, and the Decepticon, for all the examples that show Megatron as being a badass always are just quick enough to call a retreat to not win.

Among the amount of sizeable product mentioned in this set you will find no special features. A fan of such extras in specific movies, I’m not at all sure what could have been included that could have proven interesting to me, which may indeed be the fault in itself.

The obvious violence that would be implied between combative factions of warring giant robots aside, Transformers Cybertron turns out to be collection that I can’t deny would be an awfully nice little show for very young children, that eventually becomes more than bearable to parents - though completely unwatchable by unsheltered teens - having to watch to with them and at a nice price point as this is a rather immense volume of work that represents - I think - real value in terms of hours-per-dollar. This is billed as a loose sequel to previous shows, Transformers Armada and Transformers Energon but if I hadn’t read that elsewhere, I would have never known, as this DVD set functions extremely well on its own and as noted earlier, is for all intents and purposes is its own mythos. One that I can appreciate equally for existing as being separate from the true Golden Age of both Autobots and Decepticons, represented by my Transformers - where Walther p38’s and microcassette players are still cool.

Jay Tomio
The Bodhisattva

The Spiderwick Chronicles (DVD, Blu Ray)

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:34:54 -0400

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I was a Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi "virgin", as I had never read any of their books before. I was going into THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES Blu Ray movie tabula rasa. This can be a good thing, as there are no expectations, and a bad thing as I have no real background as the viewer.

All the actors did a good job with all the blue screen work they had to do, while interacting with the fantasy creatures created by powerful computers. They also portrayed a regular family with brothers/sister interaction very well. I particularly liked Sarah Bolger playing the character of Mallory Grace and how she deals with her younger brothers. Everyone that has an older sister can relate here.

From the voice acting standpoint, the CGI characters came to life. Hogsqueal, who at first I thought was too simple for the story, came around a bit in the end. The humor of the character does lend itself to some entertaining moments throughout the film. Mulgarath , the ogre, was the main villain in the story, but at the end of the day while he seemed so very evil, it did not feel like the character had been built up enough that I felt he had the chance to take over the world.

This is really where the issues come into play. The movie felt very rushed, and I am sure it had to be due to the fact it was covering 5 books in the span of a single movie even if the books were not huge volumes. We are rushed in without too much background and this causes our investment in the characters to be rather small, leading to a low level of concerns for their fate. The story should have been paced over two movies to give the character time to develop on the screen, which I can only assume they did in the book, or there should have been a warning that reads, “read books first for true background before watching”.

The strongest part of the movie stems from the special effects, which are pretty darn special. Mulgarath, the Troll in the tunnels and the goblins themselves are extremely well done and mesh with the environment seamlessly. The battle scenes draw you in and bring what you only thought you could render in your imagination on the screen. These are the scenes that up the excitement factor for the movie and make us sit up and take notice. Mulgarath, with his morphing from one character to the next is truly a marvel of special effects.

The two things from the Blu Ray Extras that stood out (don’t know if they are also on the DVD) were the making of the fantastical creatures in the ILM computer labs as well as the interviews with Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi. There are other interviews with the rest of the actors and then some deleted scenes as well, what one has come to expect from the extras section.

Overall, a rather rushed effort that is really too scary to lend itself to a young child’s viewing. Maybe being a well versed fantasy reader had an effect on my review, or maybe reading the books may be necessary to fully enjoy it. The special effects save this movie for a lower score from this reviewer, and everyone should see them in glorious High Definition at some point.

Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:42:53 -0400

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Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs

Here I go again on my own…(Whitesnake 1987). Just seems an appropriate way to start out our review of the new Futurama episodes packed into a DVD for a movie length feature. This will eventually air on Comedy Central Network as a bunch of 30 minute episodes, and we can only hope that it will get picked up for some direct to TV shows as well. If you are unfamiliar with Futurama, it is a Matt Groening creation of a man (Fry) who is frozen in 1999 and thawed out in the 31st century. Futurama gives all the people that lived through the 1980s nice Easter Eggs of funny things to watch for when Fry deals with the many situations at hand.

Review of the movie storylines

I am going to pick up some of the story lines and sub story lines and comment on them without hopefully spoiling anything for the viewers. We start a bit after the last movie (see the continuity) and there is a big ‘ole tear in the universe.

One of the first storylines we get is of Colleen and Fry, who are dating (we can see a whole dating theme throughout the movie). Unbeknownst to Fry though, the future must look upon polygamy in a different light as Colleen has boyfriends from all corners of the world as well as walks of life. Fry is really digging her (what happened to him and Leela) and tries to make it work, but Fry cannot take the sharing of his girlfriend for that long. This lends itself to some humorous moments but it is really only a setup for the central plot of the movie with the big ball of tentacle loving that Yivo puts on the planet.

Sprinkled in the storylines we have a neat little one about Bender and his fascination of what he originally believes to be an imaginary League of Robots from his robot youth. Nice spoof concept here as well as being a necessity for Bender’s climactic act at the end of the movie. It is a great setup, even if it is originally a solid storyline from the get go. Hang on ‘cause it makes the movie in my opinion.

Professor Farnsworth and Doctor Wernstrom, as always, get to competing with each other on who gets to encase the world in their version of some clear crystalline structure. Having a nemesis is awesome, and the back and forth between both of the characters works as usual. A nice cameo voice from Stephen Hawking flesh this part of the movie out as well.

Ok, so back onto the central concept of the movie, which can be summed up as “dating”. The previously mentioned big ball (think planet or so sized) of tentacles comes to earth and wants to spread his love to the people of Earth by sticking his tentacles into their necks. Fry, who was the first to meet Yivo, soon becomes Pope of the tentacle shenanigans with most everyone on Earth being ass-imilated (intended). But as Leela escapes she comes to find out the tentacles are genitals or genticles and everyone now feels disgusted. So is that it? No, Yivo feels bad that he/she pretty much raped the inhabitants of Earth and now wants to go on a date with the people of Earth. Some funny dialogue ensues with some answering machine messages and the Head of President Nixon pulling out some quips from behind his ear.

The inhabitants of Earth figure they will go back to Yivo’s Universe and what they come to find out is that it is a pretty good approximation of Heaven and everything is pretty satisfied.

This is Futurama though and here comes Bender being Bender. While everyone is loving the Yivo life, Bender brings his robot army he got from the robot devil which he used to take over the League of Robots and “rescues” all the humans from Yivo. Bender is a friend to a fault and I love that about the character. His trying to save them actually ends up taking them away from the perfect life, and to Bender it is all in a days work. This is by far the climax of the movie and stays true to character.

There is one storyline in the movie that really for me was the reason I knocked it down a few notches, and that is that Kif Kroker asks Amy to be his Fon-Fon Rue and have the ceremony on his home planet to make the union. I never really like the Kif character and his role to begin with, but this just seemed forced and out of place. Then to top it all off *spoiler* we have the Kif resurrection at the hands of Yivo. Come on, I for one would have been pleased to see him go. The Amy and Zapp sex may have some future implications going forward and that I do enjoy. Switch out this story line and come up with something else and this is then in the top notch halls of Futurama.

Extras

Let us not forget the extras of this DVD because they are pretty solid. I am not a huge fan of extras, and had this not been for a review I probably would have skipped them. I would have been a darn fool to do so though. We have the norm, with some commentary by Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Billy West, John DiMaggio, Maurice LaMarche, Michael Rowe, Claudia Katz, Peter Avanzino and Lee Supercinski.

Futurama The Lost Adventure, which are the cut scenes from a long lost video game. The commentary on the top of the computer scenes are really funny as well. There are two audio tracks, one with the creative people commenting and then the actually audio for the cut scene episodes. It is almost worth watching twice, one for each audio track. The characters are cell shaded 3-d models and it looks pretty good actually, the robots may even look up to par with the cartoon. The scenes all together add up to an extra long episode of Futurama. The Professor’s project the Re-animator is pretty funny, and seeing Devastator in his cameo (hey as well as Zoidberg) was also nice. So this extra is actually more than an extra but really like a second episode.

Also in the bonus features is a story board of the movie, which is neat to see how things are laid out and pitched. There is also a section that has some bloopers while the actors are doing their audio voiceovers. Meet Yivo allows us some insight into the voice actor (David Cross) who does Yivo. It is always really cool to see the real actors doing the voices of cartoon characters, even though it can be weird at the same time. The Deleted Scenes are always a nice touch, even if some of them never made it past the story board phase. Geek feature where the 3d animators show us how their job works worked for me as well, it always interesting to see how these things are done. The Deathball background was one of the weaker parts of the extras as I really was not fond of that portion of the movie anyway. And now on to the second best extra. A preview of the next movie, which is a Dungeon and Dragons spoof called Benders Holiday, which we should be able to check out Holiday 2008 (Christian and Jewish Holiday I would assume if anyone is keeping track). Obviously with our fantasy reading background this is on the super hype meter for me.

Summary and waiting for next one

The thing I enjoy most about the Futurama characters is the consistency of their actions as well as the overall tidbits that get carried over from one episode to the next; why hasn’t any company made a Slurm drink yet? TBWABB seems like it might have had too much closure on the story, which at this point we cannot tell if it is a good thing or not. A Beast with a Billion Backs may not be the best episode(s) of Futurama that has ever been produced by Matt Groening, but being very cliché here, a good episode of Futurama is still better then a great episode of most other comedy television. We had one storyline bomb in the Amy/Kif one, and we had a little bit of a lull in the latter parts of the DVD, but Bender saving them all really upped the ante. Even though the scene was at the end and didn’t seem like a huge thing, from the Futurama standpoint and the character of Bender it was just brilliant.

Futurama is my favorite cartoon sitcom, passing the Simpsons, King of the Hill, American Dad, and Family Guy (which I feel has gone too far in some of its humor). Bring this show back into the regular rotation with a regular season Fox, it is missed. I haven’t watched the Simpsons in ages, but I have re-watched every Futurama at least 10 times and it still is on my DVRs schedule.

Since I got to watch this one early it means an even longer time before I get to watch the third part, as Bender would say “Well I’m boned”.

Enchanted - Walt Disney Pictures

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:30:39 -0400

Enchanted starts off with that old school classic Disney feel showing the opening book and music introduction. It is unmistakably Disney. From there we are treated to the cartoon aspect of the film, which is a subtle exaggeration and fun parody of pretty much all Disney cartoons that have been produced. When animated Giselle calls the animals to come help her with her singing voice and the forest empties out like the end of a concert the fine ride is just starting.

Once out of the animated world and flung head (or dress) first into the bustling world of New York do we really get to see Amy Adams play the perfect princess. The character of Giselle works so well because she maintains the naïve attitude as well as the special powers of song, of a princess living in a fairy tale world when she comes to New York. “It’s like you escaped from a Hallmark Card…”, the character of Robert says to Giselle, which pretty well sums it up. The rest of the characters that come over from the cartoon fairy tale world have their same characteristics and powers that were available to them in their own world of Andalasia. Where Giselle can call the animals of the forest (rabbits, chipmunks, foxes) to help her clean and sew in Andalasia, in New York they come in the form of pigeons, rats, and roaches which do the same. Total parody, and really funny.

For the astute Disney fan many of the scenes pay homage to older Disney movies and cartoons, which include Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, Cinderella, etc… I thought this was a very nice touch to a wonderful movie. I understand the Blu Ray version points them out via a bonus feature for those of us who don’t put the hidden aspect of the two mouse ears together.

When a Disney live action movie can be enjoyed by a 30 something year old father and his son, you know you have something worth picking up on DVD. I found Amy Adams really stole the show with what I would call the perfect portrayal of an animated princess that comes from a world where there is only the day of happily ever after. James Marsden plays a nice compliment with his depiction of Prince Edward, the prince of Andalasia, and Patrick Dempsey as Robert the single father New Yorker rounds out the male love interests. Susan Sarandon plays Queen Narissa the evil wicked step mother witch who wants to keep the throne to herself and keeps the action coming from every which angle. Another personal note while watching Enchanted was that I really enjoyed all of the musical numbers in the movie. This is a rare occurance these days, but I felt that the music from Alan Menken was superb and the pacing of them through out the movie worked extremely well. Each number was at least as interesting as the last and they did not seem to interrupt the story, but rather add to it.

Bonus Features – We have what we would consider “the norm” in bonus features these days on the Enchanted DVD, with deleted scenes, bloopers, some behind the scenes, and then the Pop Up Adventure.

Pip’s Predicament is a well done special effects pop-up adventure of how Pip goes to rescue Prince Edward in Andalasia so he can then come to New York to save Giselle. The deleted scenes were nice and we also get a nice description of why they were deleted.

Note: DVD Version watched on a Playstation 3 with a hdmi connection to a Panasonic 43 inch rear projection.

Update: (13) scenes depicted from ENCHANTED along with the Classic Disney scene that was referenced in the film, right click and save as for the higher res version

Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight Movie

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 18:22:04 -0500

There were high hopes, hell people were looking to take a ride back to their childhood (tweenhood?) where we could see one of our favorite fantasy books come to life on the screen. My first thought was, this would have been real cool as a live action movie, but I sure do love cartoons as well, so no hopes were dashed…yet.

The Good, the Bad, and the ugly CGI.

There really was a lot of good in this movie. I have heard of lot of comments based on the trailers and how people did not like the animation, but I thought the animation was real good. Yes it has a nostalgia feel to it (ala the Hobbit), but isn’t that the audience it is intended for? Regardless of the intended audience, the animated versions of some of my favorite characters are all well done and I enjoyed watching them.

The voice acting was also top notch with Michael Rosenbaum as Tanis, Kiefer Sutherland as Raistlin, Lucy Lawless as Goldmoon, and star filled for the rest of the cast as well. The only iffy one was Jason Marsden as Tasslehoff, not that Jason was a bad voice actor, its just his voice just did not work for me as Tasslehoff.

Another positive was the fact that the script kept true to the storyline. For the die hard fans this is very important and I feel that in many movies things that a fan would find integral to the story are often left out or glossed over. Now, they can not put everything from a few hundred page book into less then two hours, but they did a damn good job.

Then...

There was a decision to make the dragons and draconians CGI (Computer Generated), and this is where the problems begin. To sum it up, they just do not fit in with the animated work. It is like you are watching two different movies that fell on the cutting floor one on top of the other. The other issue is during the battle scenes the CGI and animated characters interaction is “off”. Animation gets lost behind CGI, swords plunge through CGI characters from further away then they should. A scene that describes it all is when we see what are supposed to be monks on the road by Solace, well the monk robes are CGI, so guess what is under them? A spoiled moment for the audience. Reading some interviews, it seemed that Weis and Hickman thought the 3D would make it more exciting...no...it did not.

Another overall issue I had with the transition from the word to the animated were the little enjoyable nuances of the characters that gave them personality in the book. They are overdone in the movie, ruining that aspect of the characters. A few particulars that I will point out are Raistlin’s coughing from his time at the tower, the way Caramon reacts to Tika when they come back to Solace, and Flint being afraid of the water during the escape. These are all very subtle in the book and in the movie are taken to the extreme and therefore look rather silly. I also thought the violence was a tad bit overdone (people hanging from trees during Solace attack), but maybe I am just nit picking now.

Overall, cut out the CGI, tone down the quirks and we have a great animated movie. Problem is I do not see this happening for the next part of this classic saga turned animated movie. It is like the pearl still stuck in the oyster, pretty surrounded by ugly. Fans of the series would be better served by the Graphic Novels that Devil's Due put out, and people unfamiliar should read the books, they are classics.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Sat, 17 Jun 2006 12:17:22 -0400

Advent Children is an animated fantasy action movie set two years after the game Final Fantasy VII (FFVII). It may be very confusing for those who aren't familiar with the game series and particularly with FFVII, but I highly recommend it nonetheless.

Fortunately, if you're watching the DVD you get some helpful bonus features, particularly a featurette which explains the plot of the game - in fact, it's made of game footage. Even so, the movie requires some attention. Don't worry, a lot of the best anime is much less comprehensible.

'Basically', people in the city of Midgar are being afflicted by a plague called Geostigma, which turns out to be the body's immune system attacking cells from Jenova, an extraterrestrial viral lifeform.

A group of three supervillains are trying to find the remains of Jenova, who they touchingly refer to as their mother. As heartwarming as their concern is, their plans will bring about the apocalypse.

The hero of the game, Cloud, is now a delivery boy, but must again save the world, with the help of some old friends. In fact, during the major fight scene against a host of game monsters, a whole gang of his friends appear out of nowhere. As far as I can tell, the only reason for this is to satisfy fans of the FFVII.

Apart from nostalgia for Final Fantasy veterans, the biggest drawcard for this movie is how cool it is. In a shared creation like Final Fantasy, that has been worked on by some supremely creative individuals, you'd expect the movie to be good.

But the makers pulled out all the stops and delivered a coolness factor of 11/10. Seriously, the stunning settings, characters, creatures, action are all incredible, and even if you're baffled by the plot, you'll find plenty to take your breath away.

In the 'making of' feature included on disc 2, the animators describe how they took a step away from realism in their depiction of characters and action - after all, what then would be the point of producing an animated film? So we have incredible, over the top fight scenes and stylised characters.

It's worth mentioning the concept of Bishōnen, Japanese for 'beautiful youth'. It's common in anime to depict male characters in ways that would be considered effete, or androgynous to Westerners, who prefer beefcake in their heroic fantasy. Guys, if you have a strong reaction against male beauty (or for it!), you might want to think about where that's coming from, psychologically.

I should also mention that the movie is pretty funny. There's some physical humour, Final Fantasy in-jokes, and comic dialogue, especially between Reno and Rude the Shinra henchmen. Probably the funniest moment is when when we hear supervillain Loz's ring tone, which is the victory fanfare played after battles in the game.

Director Tetsuya Nomura was the character designer for the FFVII game, but had been involved with the franchise, and SquareSoft since 1992. FFVII remains the most popular edition of the game series, and one of the best selling games of all time.

Is it science fiction, is it fantasy, does it matter? The Final Fantasy universe has been developed over two decades in a wide range of media, and depicts a world where a natural magical life force has been used to create high science. Maybe it's a reverse of Arthur C. Clarke's famous line: any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology. Hehe.

Advent Children reminds us that CGI, and animation, aren't just for children, and hopefully throws down the gauntlet to Western film makers.

A must see for Final Fantasy and anime fans (add it to your collection!), a strong recommend for anyone else. I loved it.

Steve Wilson

Blood: The Last Vampire

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 07:59:57 -0400

Japan, 1966. A secret agency of the United States government is tracking down and killing vampiric creatures around the Yokota Air Force base. Bullets don't kill these hideous monsters: like the vampires in I Am Legend, they need to suffer a major wound. So, the Americans seek the help of Sayu, a samurai-sword-wielding vampire girl.

Dressed in a Japanese highschool uniform (think 'sailor'), this grim and ageless killer is enrolled in the base's school to track down some shapeshifting 'Chiroptera' ...

Even though it's under an hour long, Blood: The Last Vampire is a great anime feature. The thing you notice most about it is the amazing art for the backgrounds and character design. It has a gorgeous, sepia-tinged look to it, and a dramatic use of light and shadow that really makes the most of its mix of digital and traditional artwork.

Due to the film's shortness (I believe it was intended to be part of a three-part series), there's not much room for backstory or character development. But there is plenty of action, and an intriguing twist on vampire mythos in an unusual setting.

Some people seem not to like the way that Blood drops you in the middle of a story, and ends suddenly without much explanation. I question the intelligence of those people. I had no problem understanding what was happening, and didn't find it confusing or disjointed. Anyway: be warned that it is fast-paced, and you might be confused.

I really enjoyed it: a pouty, elfin-looking vampire girl fighting monsters with a samurai sword in a Vietnam-war-era military base in Japan? Awesome! The problem is that it was so short, and it leaves you wanting more.

One aspect of the film that did annoy slightly me was the school nurse. She's really just set up to be a victim, stumbling from crisis to crisis. The best thing about her was the way she looked as she frequently froze in jaw-dropped astonished horror, which had me laughing with delight.

My compliments to character designer Katsuya Terada. The nurse, Sayu, the monsters, all of them were realistic, expressive individuals.

Blood is a really cool and stylish anime, and it should be on your wish list if you're into anime or vampires. Otherwise, I'd suggest maybe checking it out first as a rental to make sure you'd like it.

Following the success of this original, Blood has expanded as a franchise to include games, novels, manga and a TV series.

Red Dwarf, Season 1

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 21:42:10 -0400

Revisiting the first season of this seminal British sci-fi sitcom after almost twenty years, I found it to have aged well. Sure, the effects and sets are cheap and cheesy, but I found the stories to be as entertaining and funny as I remembered.

The opening and closing credits are as powerful as ever. The first shot you see is of a space-suited man painting a wall red, which pans out to show that he's painting the hull of a colossal space ship, the Red Dwarf.

The composer of the score does an great job with the majestic music adding to your sense of the utter insignificance of the human in the face of the colossal architecture of the ship. The closing credits feature a catchy and irreverent pop tune (with a hint of despair to it) about how cold and lonely it is in space, and how preferable it would be to lie on a beach in the sun.

Red Dwarf is about ordinary people. They're not driven to explore space and better the human race. For them, it's just a job, and not a very good one. The characters are the lowest of the low, lower than redshirts, barely even antiheroes. They're not smart, or brave, and they scrape through their adventures by luck. Red Dwarf was a real tonic for the sanctimonious Star Trek: the Next Generation.

The Red Dwarf is a mining vessel, five miles long, of the Jupiter Mining Corporation. All the ship's crew have been killed in an accident, except for one man and his non-human companions. They're lost in space, three million years in the future, and even if they do get back to Earth there'll be nothing left of their lives.

The main characters are:

Dave Lister: a slobby, obnoxious, but amiable third technician who was just working on the ship until he could save enough for his plan of moving to Fiji with console operator Kristine Kochanski. When the ship's crew were killed, he'd been enclosed in a stasis chamber as punishment for concealing a cat on the ship.

Arnold J. Rimmer: second technician and Lister's superior. He's officious, universally disliked, an ambitious failure, and the complete opposite of Lister. So the comedic implications of their being roommates are obvious.

Rimmer was killed along with the rest of the crew during the accident (which he caused), and has been reanimated as a hologram to keep Lister company. Out of the entire crew, he was the one Lister had spoken with the most (despite most of their conversation being insults).

The Cat: vain and self-absorbed with an enormous wardrobe of garish zoot suits. He's the evolved descendant of Lister's cat, and the last of his kind (the others abandoned the ship after a religious dispute).

Holly: the ship's senile computer, allegedly with an I.Q. of 6000. Played in a wonderful deadpan by Norman Lovett as a disembodied head on a screen.

Despite being only six episodes, the first series quickly became a hit in the UK:

1.1 The End: this episode sets the scene: we meet Lister and Rimmer at their demeaning jobs repairing vending machines. Lister is put in stasis and reanimated three million years later to find an empty ship ...

1.2 Future Echoes: the ship reaches light speed and the crew start to see 'echoes' of future events. Rimmer sees Lister being killed in an explosion, and Lister tries to prevent this destiny from occurring.

1.3 Balance of Power: Lister wants to activate the holographic recording of his secret love, Kristine Kochanski. To do this, he'd have to deactivate Rimmer, who refuses. Lister decides to take an exam so he'll outrank Rimmer and be able to order his cooperation.

1.4 Waiting For God: Lister discovers that the cat race had erroneously deified him. He's horrified at the thought that holy wars were fought in his name. Meanwhile, Rimmer is analysing what he believes is a craft built by aliens who can give him a new body.

1.5 Confidence and Paranoia: a mutated virus infects Lister and causes his hallucinations to become real. Personifications of the confident and paranoid aspects of his personality appear.

1.6 Me²: a second hologram of Rimmer is activated, and the two move in together. Rimmer 1 discovers that maybe hell isn't other people after all ...

Red Dwarf is a landmark in the history of science fiction shows and is definitely worth your attention. Sticklers be warned: it pays little attention to continuity, and even less to scientific accuracy. It's a lot of fun though.

The League of Gentlemen, Season 1

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 22:04:28 -0400

The League of Gentlemen is a British horror-comedy series that's something like The Wicker Man crossed with The Young Ones (Amazon says 'Monty Python meets Twin Peaks').

The show is set in the depressed northern-England town of Royston Vasey, which is full of wonderful, memorable characters who are by turns sinister, grotesque and pathetic.

Each is played by one of the comedy team the series is named for - the League of Gentlemen (Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith and Jeremy Dyson).

BBC

The show is one of the blackest comedies out there. The Gentlemen are experts in taking you out of your comfort zone with bad taste and pathos, then quickly having you rolling around laughing at their cruel and dramatic humour.

The show is shot in an atmospheric and cinematic style, and the actors, to me, bring a theatrical feel – they have a stage background as a comedy troupe.

The show consists of a number of storylines about several major characters. Overarching is the approach of the ‘new road’ to town, with some of the locals feeling threatened about the strangers it will bring.

The first person we meet is Benjamin, a normal young man who has arranged to come to Royston Vasey on a hiking holiday. He plans to stay with his aunt and uncle, and is expecting a friend to join him.

Unfortunately, his friend doesn’t show, and he’s forced to stay with the … eccentric … Denton family longer than expected. The Dentons have an enormous number of rules, and two scary twin daughters. Harvey Denton breeds toads … and somewhat resembles one.

The most popular character characters are Tubbs and Edward, the proprietors of the Local Shop. Any non-local who visits their dingy and isolated convenience store is in trouble (this explains the fate of Benjamin's friend).

Other favourite characters include:

• Barbara, the pre-operative transsexual taxi driver, who regales her passengers with graphic surgical descriptions;
• Hilary Briss, the town butcher who secretly supplies an unnamed and addictive meat product to a select clientele;
• Mister Chinnery the town vet who is cursed to bring spectacular death to any animal he treats; and
• Pauline, the pen-obsessed unemployment officer who mocks and patronises the unwilling unemployed that attend her job skills classes.

As you watch the series, you'll pick up a series of references to some classic horror stories and movies (such as The Wicker Man).

The League of Gentlemen is a brilliant, cult comedy. For me, it was a must-buy, and I recommend, no, insist that you check it out.

Ultimate Avengers: The Movie

Fri, 17 Feb 2006 09:52:44 -0500

Based on the Ultimates series by Marvel this movie contains sub-par animation. Basically, if you hated the animation last few episodes of the Xmen animated series on Fox, you won't like it here. While it isn't that bad, I think Marvel should have coughed a little more cash if they had wanted to make an excellent movie.

Which it is; it's quite excellent actually. The voice work is spot on, the story stays true to the comic books, the character designs are great, and character developement is handled well. Granted we don't see a whole lot into the personal lives of the Avengers, but that's saying much since this is sleighted to have sequels.

The one thing this movie didn't have is a sense of trying to push some moral principle, or political view, or sales ad or what have you. You always get that sort of thing with Saturday morning cartoons. This movie is definately more adult oriented, not in the gory, profanity infested manner that people usually associate with the word adult, but more along the lines that things arn't sugar coated. There's violence, violence happens; there's a lack of one-liners, thank God; and things are kept as realistic as feasibly possible within the context.

Overall I think this is definately a DVD worth having.

Cheers!

_{Fantasybookspot - fantasy book reviews and fantasy book author interviews}

Sin City

Wed, 28 Dec 2005 02:53:06 -0500

Without a doubt, "Sin City" is one of the most visually impressive movies I've ever seen. I went into it knowing almost nothing about the "Sin City" graphic novels (which I've regrettably not read as of this writing), but the look and feel of the graphic novel format in general has not been lost in translation to the big screen. The film is almost entirely done in black and white, with the occasional splash of color used very effectively, as well as the fantastic stylized blood and gore. At times, I found myself hard-pressed to say whether the movie had been shot as a "real" movie or done as pure animation.

The rest of the movie doesn't fail to match up to the high standards set by the visuals. The plot consists of 3 main stories that all connect in a fashion reminiscent of movies like "Go" and "Traffic", peopled with a fantastic ensemble cast featuring everyone from Bruce Willis as a cop on the verge of retirement to Mickey Rourke as a ruthless psychopath, with even Josh Hartnett putting in a brief (but intriguing) appearance as a mysterious hitman.

I particularly liked the voice-overs used for much of the movie to tell each character's story as they blast and shoot and kill their way through the gritty streets of Sin City, giving a good depth to each of their stories. The over the top comic-bookish violence and cinematography also adds to the overall feel of the movie without seeming ludicrous or pointless.

In the end, I can't honestly say much to mark against "Sin City". It's a fantastic effort and one that I doubt could have been done by anyone else except the talents involved.

_{Fantasybookspot - fantasy book reviews and fantasy book author interviews}

Tripping the Rift

Mon, 05 Dec 2005 16:02:16 -0500

This is actually our first review of a DVD set at Fantasybookspot (I guess we are the bookspot tangle at this point). I had never heard of Tripping the Rift before getting the call to do this review and I have to say had I never gotten that call I really would have been missing out on something special. Let me give you a little background on myself when it comes to animation, I just love it so I was primed and prepped for this dvd set. I made sure I did not watch them all in one sitting but rather over the time frame of a week so that I would really be able to get a feel for the series. I have to admit I even watched some of the episodes twice in the span of a day or two as there was just so much going on that I did not want to miss anything. Well lets get into the review itself.

"Tripping the Rift" is a true successor to Futurama in the genre of animated space humor. While it is more adult then what one would expect to find on a Saturday morning, for the adult it is well worth the trip. The stories are original enough to keep you watching but familiar enough that we can all relate and get a communal chuckle. The few things that may cause you pause are the truly over the top adult humor, this is not a show the children should be watching, sometimes I even went "Wow". There were some episodes that a tad graphic as well in terms of violence that even as an adult could have been too much. I like the exploding heart just as much as the next guy but while Im eating a veal dinner it just looks too similar for me.

The CGI animation is just stunning and very crisp; I guess at this point I have to give a little feedback on where I watched the dvds. Welp here we go, I was watching on a Maxent Plasma 42 inch with an upconverting Toshiba DVD player and it was just gorgeous. What detail went into the characters, their motion, and the backgrounds is awe inspiring. Watching what happens in the background is just as interesting as following the story. We see such detail in each of the background characters in a scene that takes place in a space port and all the funny things that they are doing it is hard to not get lost in what I will call the "back funnies". Ok, no one said I was the most creative person.

As with the "back funnies" (ok this is the last time you are subjected to that term) there is also hidden easter egg humor strewn throughout the stories. Most of it is star wars related so all the Star Wars geeks should get a kick out of it. We have a bountry hunter with a ship just like Boba Fett, we have Darph Bobo who is commander of the Dark Clowns (think Stormtroopers and the Empire"), and a multitude of others. (I don't want to ruin all the stuff) Chode, who is the commander of the ship Jupiter 42, is our funny captain whoes adventures we follow as he skips the fine line between Darph Bobo and the Confederation. We have some lightsaber battles and all the stuff one would expect from some Star Wars but with the added sex, drugs, and prostitution. Not to be outdone though we also have our Star Trek humor sprinkled throughout as well which includes the Confederation (Federation) and some good captains chair jokes with Chode who looks nothing like a Kirk, but sure acts like we all know Kirk wanted to. The rest of Chode's crew is just as interesting but why don't you watch and find out for yourself.

All in all, it is a great diversion that you may want to share with your friends that have an adult funny bone. Ok that didn't sound so good, but that is the type of humor we are here to discuss. Back on track, I really enjoyed the first season and look forward to what sort of surprises we can see in Season 2. Season 1 is now on DVD and you can also watch Sci Fi channel for the new episodes.

_{Fantasybookspot - DVD Review}