Matt Reeves has grown as a filmmaker since his early days as the writer of Under Siege 2: Dark Territory. Since then, Reeves has directed Cloverfield, Let Me In, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and he has just started filming ‘War for the Planet of the Apes.
Reeves brought the franchise back to financial success with $708,835,589 that Dawn of the Planet of the Apes generated worldwide at the box office.
The new trend by filmmakers is to post set photos from the beginning of filming and with Reeves’ tweet from the beach, he joins the likes of Zack Synder, Bryan Singer, and David Ayer
War for the Planet of the Apes stars Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson, and Steve Zahn.
The film will be released in theaters on July 14, 2017.
Neill Blomkamp continues to work on his Aliens sequel and the director loves to tease fans with film updates on his Instagram account. Blomkamp’s latest post brought back the iconic pulse rifle from the James Cameron film.
“We all knew there would be pulse rifles. Obviously. Now with added RIS,” said Blomkamp.
Blomkamp is still working on the script for the fifth Alien film. Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn are planned to return for the sequel. Blomkamp’s Aliens could be released late 2017 or in 2018.
AXCEND #1 Writer: Shane Davis Artist: Shane Davis Inks: Michelle Delecki Colors: Morry Hollowell Publisher: IMAGE
The initial reaction that can come from AXCEND, is that it is going to be another superhero comic, with a Peter Parker-esque character trope as the protagonist. However, once you delve deeper into the issue, you come to find the initial inclination to be wrong. While the main character Eric Morn, could be compared to the typical Parker like character, the further into the book, one can quickly see Eric has a bit more depth, as well as some huge differences in his character. While he is also motivated by the death of a family member, his twin brother and portrayed as a loner, the plot points behind this differ greatly from the iconic backstory of Spider-Man. It draws from the same well, but delivers different results and a character closer to the current social climate.
AXCEND 1 opens up with Eric confronting a classmate, who’s bullying another student. While Eric doesn’t come off as the typical weak nerd this scenario usually entails, through the dialogue it’s revealed, not only is the bully a former friend of his deceased twin but, Eric is also the least liked of the two. Moving forward, Eric returns home to be met by his mother, who’s been trying to contact him all day about visiting his brother’s grave with her, on his one year anniversary. Eric while understanding her intentions are good, shrugs her off, simply wanting to be left alone to play video games. This is where the main theme of AXCEND is presented and expanded later in the book, through a virtual reality game Eric is playing and eventually, through unknown consequences as of now, crosses over into the real world.
What is great about AXCEND is Eric’s character, who seems dynamic, with a variety of personal issues he’s going through. While he is your typical angsty teen loner, the reasoning behind this is heavy and steeped in a story, which one can assume will be explored further, in future issues. The breakdown Eric has with his councilor alone, creates a real focus on him having to deal with the loss of his brother, who he was deeply connected to in a variety of ways. The dialogue throughout is very well written and grounded. It actually feels like real conversations, rather than forced ones that writers end up overwriting. This feels like a story that will be character driven, rather than plot. With the character’s themselves being the force behind what makes this book relatable, which is always a big plus.
As far as the artwork, it’s solid as well from the team of Shane Davis, Michelle Delecki and Morry Hollowell. Davis’s pencil work is clean, detailed and life like, really bringing the story to life. You can also see the heavy influence of mainstream superhero artwork, during the virtual reality sequences. It becomes an extremely noticeable DC style, which makes sense when you look at Davis’s background. AXCEND’s artwork is very sharp and perfect for the book, completely insync with Davis’s writing.
The strengths are clearly in the character’s themselves, which in a comic, will always make a better reading experience long term, than plot.
Whether you’re an indy fan or not, AXCEND is definitely a book recommend to check out from IMAGE. It’s solid around the board in writing and artwork, as well as character and tone. The strengths are clearly in the character’s themselves, which in a comic, will always make a better reading experience long term, than plot. Good characters create connections to the reader, creating lifelong fans who will support and follow the series. AXCEND has that quality and is worth the time to read.
The media blitz for The Force Awakens has begun in full force (pardon the pun). ESPN has now released multiple version of teasers promoting the airing of the final trailer on Monday Night Football. What do you guys think?
Today’s episode gets very political as Hazuma, the man who will become Black Jack is once again faced with a medical dilemma that makes him question his actions. It is important to remember the show is taking place during the Vietnam war. It turns out that Hazuma’s neighbor is a member of an anti-war movement and is currently harboring two deserters from the American Army, one of which is suffering from debilitating headaches. Since they obviously can’t go to the hospital they insist that Hazuma helps them. After the initial examination, Hazuma realizes that the only way to the save the man’s life is to operate.
Instead of realizing now would be a good time to go to the authorities to ensure their friend lives, the protesters becoming incredibly self-righteous and insist that Hazuma has to do the operation. Hazuma refuses insisting such an action would cause him to lose any chance of practicing medicine in the future. Just as he is about to leave he realizes not operating is the same as letting the man die. If he wishes to be like the doctor who saved his life he has to perform the surgery. No matter the consequences to his career. Is the surgery a success? Or is Hazuma’s medical career dead in the water?
The drama of this show presents is genuine. Hazuma simply wishes to become a doctor and save lives. Still he keeps running into moral obstacles and ghosts from his past. Literally ghosts in today’s episode as he sees visions of the surgeon who inspired him when he was a kid. Viewers will keep rooting for Hazuma to stay the course and be the amazing doctor we all know and appreciate he becomes in the future. By the look of the preview of the next episode, this won’t be the last time Vietnam interferes with Hazuma’s life.
Young Black Jack is simulcast streaming from Crunchyroll.
This episode picks up with Kimito getting used to his usual day at the Seikan Academy. Activities include getting woken up by a maid, who immediately remarks how much she hates him and having to use the backdoor because the girls at the school would surround him out of curiosity. After that, it’s pretty much just Kimito getting used to being in a school with nothing but rich girls. This time around we marvel at the fact that the girls have never eaten cup ramen before (which is basically just the instant coffee joke from Ouran High School Host Club with a different cheap food as a substitute). Reiko feels the occasion is so special that they need to break out the good dinner wear in order to enjoy it properly.
The main focus of this episode is to point out where the two main females are on the social hierarchy. Reiko is the typical “Queen of the School” character who can do no wrong in the eyes of others. Meanwhile on the other end of the scale, Aika so shy and reserved around others she prefers to eat her lunch on the toilet. Poor girl.
More relationship development occurs as Kimito gets to know both Reiko and Aika better. Aika learns about manga and starts to believe High Schools commoners have psychic powers. Kimito takes advantage of her gullibility and makes her believe she can stop time. This leads to Aika flashing her panties and when she finds out she’s been played, Kimito gets slapped. Meanwhile with Reiko, Kimito shares a dance at his welcome party and sees her naked in the shower. This leads to Reiko falling in love with him because…anime logic?
It’s a series that fun so far but harem tropes are already in play. This will probably not be the show that breaks the mold but will instead be one that will appeal to those that love this particular genre. For now there are worse things that anime fan can be watching this season.
Shomin Sample is simulcast streaming from Funimation.
Another episode looking at Peridot trying to get along with the Crystal Gems and ending up butting heads with one of them instead. This time, it’s Amythest who she finds conflict with. As the episode starts, Steven and Amethyst find Peridot’s constant recording of notes and her way of having a bizarre technical name for everything amusing. The fun continues as the trio head back to the kindergarten for supplies and Peridot keeps making base observations about Pearl and Garnet that Amethyst is still entertained by. It’s not until Peridot starts making crash technical remarks about Amethyst herself where problems start to arise.
Back at the Barn, Amethyst starts giving Peridot the cold shoulder for the comments. Then the machine the team has been working on goes out of control and Peridot saves Amethyst from getting hurt. Afterward, Peridot plays Amethyst an apology she made on her recorder and Amethyst forgives her. It looks like Peridot is slowly becoming a member of the team.
We learn more about Amethyst as we watch Peridot try to make friends. Turns out that despite her ability to change her shape, the fact she was born so close to earth results in her always being a smaller size in her base form. It’s a little bit more information about one of the main cast. If anything Peridot’s arrival keeps helping to answer the questions that fans have been asking about the show since the start. Hopefully, the next episode will find Peridot trying to make friends with garnet. Good luck with that!
John Boyega who will be playing Finn in Star Wars: The Force Awakens just posted the following snippet on his Instagram account. Could this be a snippet from the trailer that is set to play during Monday Night Football? All I know is that Monday can’t get here soon enough!
Okay, so there is a part of me deep down that really disliked this episode of Comet Lucifer and want to tear it a new one. The only reason I am not going to do that is because it’s still early in the show and I guess I haven’t grasped the entire tone of what it’s going for. That said, there are many things in this episode that made it feel like a big fucking waste of time.
Episode Summary (get ready for some stupid stuff)
So life goes on as normal, I guess. Even though Felia and Moura have moved in and we know Moura can transform in a giant robot, everyone is treating it extremely casual. That is until Do Mon’s pot of curry is spilled over (his roof being destroyed was no big deal, but wasted food is grounds for kicking everyone out for the day). So Sogo, Kaon, and Felia are left to explore the town.
Then some wacko who sees Felia’s magic decides to take control of the whole cities electronics to scare, I think, Felia because he is intrigued by her. It takes till the tail end of the episode for Sogo to activate Moura and Moura takes out a hijacked mech. This also puts the random guy out of commission because of collateral damage. The episode ends with the brown-haired military guy recruiting this random for some sort of team he’s forming, which probably also includes that blood thirsty boy.
Episode Thoughts
I knew this would come eventually. There would come a show that intrigues me visually and has a couple okay opening episodes. Then it would proceed to immediately shit the bed. Okay maybe that’s not what Comet Lucifer has done just yet, but if the rest of the episodes are like this I don’t know what I’m going to do. So lets start off with the negatives so I can finish this article with some positivity.
So yeah there’s a lot of dicking around this episode with the protagonists just walking around town and Felia being amazed at everything. I think this is super unnecessary because we got plenty of that last episode. I get it, everything is new to her, move on. Don’t get me wrong I don’t expect Felia to not be amazed by the town life but I don’t think it was necessary for half of an episode.
Also there’s a point where a sandwich shop owner mentions that Kaon and Sogo might be on a date. Kaon refutes it and gets all embarrassed. Then Sogo (who was standing two feet away from her) asks what she’s so embarrassed about. That was stupid. It falls under that unaware love interest male trope, but when its this obvious its painful. Although its stupid it doesn’t compare to some of the other absurdities that happen in the second half.
This random glasses guy, who I’ll refer to as glasses for the episode, was making me roll my eyes for the rest of the episode. Glasses clearly doesn’t know how to show affection in any way possible. But not only that but he for some reason likes to hold responses to questions other people ask until several minutes later. There’s this point where the protagonists apologize to Glasses for dropping cake on him and they ask him if he’s alright. He gives a normal response, then two scenes later responds to the same question truthfully with devious connotations. Do people actually do that? Maybe only the crazy ones.
Comet Lucifer also has one of the biggest misintentional fakes I think I’ve ever seen. Theres a point where one of Glasses’ robots is chasing after them and Sogo stares at it all intense, and then does nothing. What the fuck! Why didn’t he activate the crest and have Moura get in there. Did he just want to stare down the robot before turning tail and running? It so made it seem like he was going to deal with this robot and activate Moura, but he doesn’t. There’s another scene where he attacks it with flying scooters, so I assume it wasn’t out of fear. Did he just forget? This episode is littered with points in where the plot moves in the most retarded way and listing them would be too much of a chore. You’ll just have to go see for yourself. But believe it or not there is a reason for me to not give up and continue watching this show.
One of those reasons is that despite the convenience and convoluted way they introduced Glasses, he’s going to be sticking around. The execution was bad but the concept of the chief guy collecting dangerous people for his team is kinda interesting. Plus we won’t need an introduction because this episode showed us exactly what Glasses is all about. Still the convenience of the chief and Glasses just running into each other is annoying.
Also it’s just the fact that nothing really did happen this episode. There really wasn’t anything that changed the story. In fact well still don’t know the story. So that’s what I’m holding onto for the most part. This show seems to have a bunch of good ideas and a good foundation, but they seem to be tripping in execution. If they keep tripping into important plot points and character moments, I am not going to have a fun time. But hey, at least the opening is pretty!
