Home Blog Page 1556

Google Creates Parent Company ‘Alphabet’

Monkeys Fighting Robots

Larry Page, CEO of Alphabet wrote this on the Google News blog.

What is Alphabet? Alphabet is mostly a collection of companies. The largest of which, of course, is Google. This newer Google is a bit slimmed down, with the companies that are pretty far afield of our main Internet products contained in Alphabet instead. What do we mean by far afield? Good examples are our health efforts: Life Sciences (that works on the glucose-sensing contact lens), and Calico (focused on longevity). Fundamentally, we believe this allows us more management scale, as we can run things independently that aren’t very related. Alphabet is about businesses prospering through strong leaders and independence. In general, our model is to have a strong CEO who runs each business, with Sergey and me in service to them as needed. We will rigorously handle capital allocation and work to make sure each business is executing well. We’ll also make sure we have a great CEO for each business, and we’ll determine their compensation. In addition, with this new structure we plan to implement segment reporting for our Q4 results, where Google financials will be provided separately than those for the rest of Alphabet businesses as a whole.

This new structure will allow us to keep tremendous focus on the extraordinary opportunities we have inside of Google. A key part of this is Sundar Pichai. Sundar has been saying the things I would have said (and sometimes better!) for quite some time now, and I’ve been tremendously enjoying our work together. He has really stepped up since October of last year, when he took on product and engineering responsibility for our Internet businesses. Sergey and I have been super excited about his progress and dedication to the company. And it is clear to us and our board that it is time for Sundar to be CEO of Google. I feel very fortunate to have someone as talented as he is to run the slightly slimmed down Google and this frees up time for me to continue to scale our aspirations. I have been spending quite a bit of time with Sundar, helping him and the company in any way I can, and I will of course continue to do that. Google itself is also making all sorts of new products, and I know Sundar will always be focused on innovation — continuing to stretch boundaries. I know he deeply cares that we can continue to make big strides on our core mission to organize the world’s information. Recent launches like Google Photos and Google Now using machine learning are amazing progress. Google also has some services that are run with their own identity, like YouTube. Susan is doing a great job as CEO, running a strong brand and driving incredible growth.

Alphabet Inc. will replace Google Inc. as the publicly-traded entity and all shares of Google will automatically convert into the same number of shares of Alphabet, with all of the same rights. Google will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alphabet. Our two classes of shares will continue to trade on Nasdaq as GOOGL and GOOG.

Monkeys Fighting Robots Youtube

HBO Teases ‘Westworld’

Monkeys Fighting Robots

With the second season of True Detective wrapped up, HBO needed to tease fans with a new series. They did just that Sunday night with a 30-second teaser for the 2016 series Westworld.

J.J. Abrams, Jonathan Nolan and Bryan Burk are the executive producers on the project based on Michael Crichton’s book/film Westworld. Crichton wrote and directed the 1973 film, which starred James Brolin and Yul Brynner as the murderous gunfighter. Westworld also spawned a sequel, Futureworld, starring Peter Fonda. It was less well received. Nolan is the creator for the HBO series.

Described as “a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin,” the series tells the story of a futuristic theme park called Westworld.

Westworld stars Anthony Hopkins, James Marsden, Evan Rachel Wood, Rodrigo Santoro, Thandie Newton, and Ed Harris.

1973 Poster

Westworld

Monkeys Fighting Robots Youtube

‘True Detective – Omega Station’ Recap: An Open Letter to Nic Pizzolatto

Monkeys Fighting Robots

Dear Nic,

I feel like I can call you Nic at this point. I feel like I know you. I know you are a talented writer, with a penchant for dense, stylish noir prose. I know you have delivered two vastly different seasons of True Detective, one universally lauded, the second universally befuddling. I admire what you tried to do in season 2 of True Detective, deliver an Ellroy-esque narrative labyrinth of broken people and dreams. It didn’t always work out, did it? I mean, sure, things got incredibly strong and promising with each passing episode, reaching new heights in the penultimate episode last weekend. And then, well, was there any other way to end this bizzaro second season outside of delivering a wild-ass mess of action and self-satisfying seriousness over ninety minutes? Probably not.

True Detective

I like the way “Omega Station” began and ended, Nic. The opening scene reminded us why we are watching this whole thing in the first place. The cathartic pillow talk confessional between Ray Velcoro and Ani Bezzerides was emotionally fraught and continued to strengthen the two characters I feel you cared about the most in the writing room. Bravo with Colin Farrell and Rachel McAdams, they really kept this whole thing afloat. They started things off in “Omega Station” with promise, but then we had to sit through that second act.

The midsection was heavy and aimless. Then again, that midsection dealt with the Caspere murder and corruption and the whole diamond heist from 1992 or whatever, and let’s be honest, nobody cared about that. You didn’t. The entire murder mystery was a red herring, from the diamonds to the murders to the hard drive, which had this magical security feature where it erased itself. Thankfully, that entire plot was wrapped up with still an hour left to go in the season finale. That left plenty of time for us to get back to what anyone cared about: Ray, Ani, and Frank.

True Detective

Boy, getting Vince Vaughn to a place where he handled the character of Frank Semyon with some aplomb was quite the chore, wasn’t it? I didn’t think Vaughn could ever manage to pull off Frank Semyon the way he needed to, but eventually he began slipping into this role once you gave him more to do than stand around and scowl. When Frank sends Jordan to Venezuela, promising to meet up with her in two weeks, we all knew that wasn’t going to happen. Frank even knew, and it made these final scenes with the gangster with a heart of gold carry plenty of weight. Frank’s death scene was Homeric, Shakespearean, Ellory-ian, as he was done in by an enemy he had ignored. Though his trek across the desert as he bled out, running into the ghosts of his past, was a bit heavy handed, you must admit.

And Ray, poor pitiful Ray. Colin Farrell deserves an Emmy nomination for his performance this season, though I feel he won’t get it. The gauntlet of emotions you sent this sad sonofabitch through was incredible. I held out hope for Ray after seeing him smile when he tells Ani he is on his way, and the two will escape to Venezuela together. But I knew True Detective isn’t about unexpected happiness, so I knew down in my heart of hearts Ray would die unceremoniously, having let everyone in his life down. Poor bastard.

True Detective

Nic, I feel like the scene where Ray makes an ill-advised trip to see his son on the playground one last time was a touching moment, mishandled by the fact you had Chad Velcoro sitting with some friends at a table on the playground with his grandfather’s blocked police badge. That has to be a pain in the ass to carry around, and why set it on the table? Oh, right, so Ray can see it and understand his son still loves him. Oh yeah! HIS son! Turns out Chad was his kiddo all along, we found that out as Ray was being gunned down among the redwoods (which was predicted by his father in the purgatory Conway Twitty concert in episode three).

As for Ani, well, now she has to carry Ray’s child around Venzuela and having to hang with Jordan. It’s an odd pairing, but hey, they’re the only ones who made it out alive. The men had to handle man shit, leaving the women to fend for themselves and be moms. Dancing on the razor’s edge of sexism here, Nic. But it’s okay. Ani deserved a fresh start, her demons were not as self-imposed as the dude’s demons. Too bad she has to talk to Jordan all the time, maybe she won’t be eating lemons and making those faces during their conversations.

Like I said earlier, I admire what you attempted with this new True Detective. I might even argue more of it worked than did not. But that would be an uphill battle. If you ask me (and you most certainly are not), I think your reach far exceeded your grasp here. There was a way for this second season to be even better than the first, but its belly was too full on exposition and storylines on top of storylines. So much was going on, and so much of what was going on didn’t make a damn bit of difference. You had three compelling characters, plus Taylor Kitsch, but you had very few tangible things for them to do. Bring in reinforcements for season three of True Detective, a few “no” men to tell you what works and what doesn’t. Maybe that will help you streamline your convoluted ideas.

Regardless, I will be there waiting for season three of True Detective, wearing a white suit and a red rose.

Yours Truly,

Larry

Monkeys Fighting Robots Youtube

‘Fantastic Four’ What Might Have Been B-Roll Footage

Monkeys Fighting Robots

The Fantastic Four bombed at the box office this past weekend and even the director Josh Trank took a few shots at FOX for re-editing the film. Which makes it even more bizarre that FOX would release some of the b-roll footage which shows completely different scenes. You can see that there is some version of a flying car and you can also see that Johnny Storm looks to be severely injured during battle as Sue attends to him.

JOSH TRAK VS FOX

Hopefully FOX, in an attempt to recoup the $130 million invested in the film will release a directors cut so fans can see a true version of Trank’s vision.

'Fantastic Four' B-Roll: What could have been.

The more inside news that comes out about the making of the 'Fantastic Four,' the more is sounds like Josh Trank's vision was never realized. In the b-roll clips you can see the Fantastic-Car and the apparent death of Johnny Storm. It looks like the final battle might have been bigger and better if Trank was able to finish his film.

Posted by Monkeys Fighting Robots on Monday, August 10, 2015

Monkeys Fighting Robots Youtube

International Teaser For ‘Star Wars: the Force Awakens’

Monkeys Fighting Robots

An international trailer for Star Wars: the Force Awakens dropped on the internet last night. There are a few new scenes and the look and the feel are more in line with the original trilogy.

Lucasfilm and visionary director J.J. Abrams join forces to take you back again to a galaxy far, far away as “Star Wars” returns to the big screen with Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Episode VII in the Star Wars Saga, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, opens in theaters December 18, 2015.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens, directed by J.J. Abrams from a screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan & Abrams, features a cast including actors John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o, Gwendoline Christie, Crystal Clarke, Pip Andersen, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max von Sydow. They will join the original stars of the saga, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker.

The film is being produced by Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, and Bryan Burk, and John Williams returns as the composer.

Monkeys Fighting Robots Youtube

Review: Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers Episode 6

Monkeys Fighting Robots

Review: Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers Episode 6

The episode begins with a reminder that our intrepid heroes are busy being a bunch of idiots. Gee, I wonder who possibly could have manipulated a sword without entering the temple. I dunno, maybe it’s the one who is pretending to faint so people will forget she can beat the crap out of everything. You know. The one that can control blades. Honestly, how was Adelet going to fake his mark in a prison cell?

Then we have to watch Adelet not have a brain for a while even though last episode everyone was admonished for not suspecting Maura just because that she was well known. He gets his ideas shot down quickly, and all of the other Braves except for Nachetanya (and Maura, who says it is too early to judge) are pretty much ready to kill him. Nachetanya is such a good actor that I almost believed she wasn’t the culprit. Almost.

Review: Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers Episode 6

The Braves attack Adelet, and he knocks Flamie out with poison, threatening her with more if they try to kill him again. Of course, this just makes everyone more sure he is the fake Brave. He escapes the temple with Flamie as a hostage, but takes a dagger in the back as he does so. Unfortunately for Adelet, he passes out before he can remove the dagger. The others stop pursuing him after nightfall. They know Flamie is still alive because the crests haven’t changed. Nachetanya keeps up the drama and nobody questions her at all because I guess princesses are supposed to just trust people unconditionally. Tch. Yeah, right.

Meanwhile, we get some backstory from Adelet. He had a nice home life as a child and was more interested in cooking with his mama than fighting. Then the next scene is of him angry and emaciated, asking an old to train him to be the strongest in the world so he can get back what he lost. The old man kicks him a couple yards and orders him to smile if he wants to be strong, even if he wants to die. Adelet does so and is struck again and told to laugh at despair. My poor heartstrings! As a new mama myself, this part was a bit painful to watch.

Review: Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers Episode 6

Adelet wakes up from remembering his past and finds that Flamie has dressed his wounds. She still doesn’t trust him, but saved him in case she’s wrong and he is a genuine Brave. She starts a fire by ordering gunpowder to burn, which is pretty awesome. We get more confirmation that nobody else could have entered the temple before Adelet. Adelet decides there must be an eighth person who snuck into the temple and set off the seal, and the plot of these two enemies was to turn everyone against Adelet.

Well, Flamie thinks Adelet is full of crap (hasn’t Adelet ever heard of Occam’s Razor?) and says she won’t help him find the eighth “Brave”. We learn that Adelet is following the old man’s advice and is always smiling as a show of willpower. He says he will never give up. Flamie asks why he wanted to be one of the six Braves. The episode ends with Adelet being amazed that Flamie cared about someone other than herself.

Review: Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers Episode 6
Adelet in his “Space Ghost” pose.

I have to admit I really don’t want there to be two enemies. If there are two enemies there’s no reason for the seventh to be Nachetanya, because she wouldn’t be needed to manipulate the sword and dias. I was suspecting her for a while because it seemed in the beginning that she hadn’t considered becoming a Brave before Adelet said he’d like to travel with her. Perhaps she’s a fake but it’s just to come along and not to be an enemy, and someone else is taking advantage of the turmoil? That seems a lot less likely. In any event, I hope she stops that damsel in distress crying crap soon. She is supposed to be a butt-kicking princess, and I’m sick of her whiny whiner act. I’ll be really disappointed if she turns out not to be an enemy and really is just another wuss-princess.

Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers airs on Crunchyroll and updates Saturdays at 3:30pm.

Monkeys Fighting Robots Youtube

Step yo’ game up God Eater! – ep. 4

Monkeys Fighting Robots

Well we got everyone back at base safe and sound with little to no trouble. One thing that I noticed last week was that even though the situation seemed dangerous, while they were on the plane, everyone in 1st unit is just so bad ass that nothing really feels like a threat. So just like the activities in this episode, I didn’t really feel any danger when the Aragami were around. Which is definitely bad. A show should never make a monster adversary lose its threat to the audience and the world. But God Eater has basically turned Aragami into crops you can farm for. Which is ironic because they actually harvest some Aragami this episode.

It seems that as of late the only things that are keeping me interested in God Eater is the awesome animation and Alisa’s hot bod. And honestly that’s not enough to keep me engaged in a show. If anything I feel like I could just go google searching Alisa and get the same satisfaction I do from watching these episodes. Because at the rate its going, God Eater is shaping up to be a major disappointment.

Like I said earlier, with everyone back at base things are starting to feel safe again. And now with 1st unit getting three new members in Kota, Alisa and, Lenka, they seem like they’ll be nearly unstoppable now. Kota is a pretty good addition to the group. I really didn’t expect to see him around again since that first episode but I guess he’s been training in the day or two that Lenka’s been in trouble. But he’s a nice addition to the team even if he doesn’t seem to pull his weight as much as the others. He brings a dynamic of not being another stoic bad ass, like the other five members of 1st unit. Theres also an interesting situation going on with his mother, who seemed actually mortified to hear that Kota passed his training to be a God Eater. Other than that though, he seems pretty bland so far. So he sort of fits right in with the rest of 1st.

Alisa is hinted at having some sort of medical problem and she also is so stupid that she can’t figure out how to work with others. I mean what is the Russian training to be a God Eater like? I highly doubt they would let someone who is this inept at teamwork be a God Eater, let alone just throw them into a unit and commence field missions. She either needs to get knocked down a peg by an Aragami or someone needs to slap her up, preferably Tsubaki.

One good point is that we’re getting to see the final goal of this endeavor, and just by the description it sounds really flawed. The plan is to get all of mankind and put them in an island where they will be safe from Aragami. But that’s only land Aragami, no idea what they’re going to do about the rest. I mean we already know that there are aerial Aragami, so I’m willing to bet there are aquatic Aragami too. But I guess this logic sounds good enough to Lenka because he is just too amazed at how big the island is to think about this plan called the “Aegis” project.

And the “Aegis” project is the reason our heroes are venturing out and farming Aragami this episode. And these scenes where they are hunting are super boring. It’s almost equivalent to watching someone farm for xp in an MMORPG. And to top it off the characters are so bland that they can’t make even make it interesting with dialogue between them, so there is literally nothing to keep you interested or invested in these scenes. The only time I actually cared was when Tsubaki confronts Alisa for being a stuck up bitch. And that is even played of like, meh. I swear, if these farming scenes keep up, I’ll be thoroughly disappointed.

Oh wait, when I said the characters were bland, I guess I misspoke. Because there is one thing redeemable trait they all have, but we already know what it was and so didn’t need the reminder. Their compassion for humanity. They find a group of survivors on the way back from farming and decide to bring them to their fortress. And immediately I knew this wasn’t going to work out for these people. The show was obviously setting it up for tragedy and nothing else. We already knew all our characters are selfless bland characters, so we didn’t really need to see it again. But the kicker is that they have nothing to do with the people being rejected from entering the fortress. Nope, it’s not our heroes fault, it’s the guards who won’t let potential God Eaters into town.

Now while I do sort of like the concept that the only allowed inhabitants are potential God Eaters and their families, the whole group being rejected that way feels cheap to me. It was clearly there to keep showing how much 1st unit cares about other people and are selfless, but still needs to throw tragedy in, just because. This way we can have the heroic characters that are admirable but aren’t to blame for the bad things that happen, because its out of their control, yawn. I think it would have been better if they found out the little girl had potential for being a God Eater and dragged her away form her family to begin her training. But to just turn them away was just meh. And ultimately thats what this whole show is starting to feel like, one big pile of meh. Come on God Eater, get back to me when you have characters worth caring about and a plot that makes me want to see how it ends up. Because currently you seem to have neither.

Monkeys Fighting Robots Youtube

Anime News Highlights for the Week of 08/02/15

Monkeys Fighting Robots

Want to know what’s interesting in the world of anime? Here some anime news highlights from the past week.

Crunchyroll to start streaming God Eater

Crunchyroll to start streaming God Eater

Don’t get me wrong, Daisuki has potential. Specifically, I appreciate their iOS player, and the ability to scrub the video forward and stop where I want easily. However, their web player quality is pretty lackluster. I want to see beautiful, HD God Eater. And yes, I know it’s on Hulu, but if I can watch it without ads, I will. Crunchyroll hasn’t specified a release date yet.

As an aside, God Eater has skipped a second week of broadcast time. I hope it doesn’t end up like Blood Blockade Battlefront, with the last episode never airing. Talk about embarrassing. I keep imagining a Shirobako “Jiggly Jiggly Heaven” situation.

Poll results for Japan’s summer 2015 anime favorites are up

Poll results for Japan's summer 2015 anime favorites are up

It always surprises me to see poll results for anticipated Summer 2015 shows from Japan differing so much from what American fans seem to be talking about. It isn’t the fact that School-Live! is at the top so much as the fact that Gangsta is so near the bottom of the list.  Also, it’s a travesty that Castle Town Dandelion is not at the very bottom, because that show is bad and it should feel bad. Oh well. At least Pillow Boys didn’t make it.

  1. School-Live!
  2. Prison School
  3. Durarara!!×2 Ten
  4. Charlotte
  5. WORKING!!!
  6. Snow White with the Red Hair
  7. Non Non Biyori Repeat
  8. The IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls
  9. Rampo Kitan: Game of Laplace
  10. Himōto! Umaru-chan
  11. GATE
  12. SHIMONETA: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Doesn’t Exist
  13. Aoharu x Machinegun
  14. Junjō Romantica 3
  15. GANGSTA.
  16. Castle Town Dandelion
  17. To Love Ru: Darkness
  18. Ushio & Tora
  19. Overlord
  20. Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers

How do you think the polls will come out for English-speaking fans? Take the poll on Anime News Network and help them get an accurate count! In case you’re curious, I voted for SHIMONETA.

HaruChika tv series to premier in January 2016

HaruChika tv series to premier in January 2016

I’m excited for this P.A. Works adaptation of HaruChika for a few reasons, not just because I generally enjoy what P.A. Works puts out (such as Angel Beats!, Charlotte and Shirobako). Being a former wind ensemble member myself, I find myself drawn to musically based anime series (including Sound! Euphonium, Your Lie in April, and Nodame Cantabile). Although it’s about a club in danger of dissolving, which definitely makes my “spider sense” tingle, the fact that this series is also a mystery show is intriguing. If they can manage to make it more about mystery and music and less about finding club members, I’m sold.

Red Ash Magicicadia by STUDIO4℃ funded on Kickstarter

Red Ash Magicicadia by STUDIO4℃ funded on Kickstarter

Although I don’t know much about Red Ash Magicicadia, what I do know is this: anime being successfully crowd-funded is awesome. I love that directors who feel too restricted by conservative anime production companies have this option to get potentially amazing works out to fans who genuinely want to view it. Red Ash Magicicadia follows in the footsteps of Under the Dog and Little Witch Academia 2.

Monkeys Fighting Robots Youtube

The Josh Trank vs. Fox drama About ‘Fantastic Four’ is not Over Yet

Monkeys Fighting Robots

Welcome back to another episode of director Josh Trank vs. 20th Century Fox. Previously on this drama, Fantastic Four is pummeled down by critics and moviegoers alike, and Josh Trank fires a tweet defending himself against the film studio.

Now, we start learning more and more about the situation, with insider quotes that lead us to believe that the final and terrible result of this anticipated movie ultimately might have been the studio’s fault. Alleged sources close to the situation tell Collider that, amongst other things, what was agreed between Josh Trank and Fox – mainly three major action scenes – were cut from the movie only days before production.

I was also told [that] the ending of the film was not even Josh Trank’s. At some point they hijacked the editing bay from him. To the point that the editing of the film was done without him.

To this, add Chronicle‘s writer Max Landis’ statements from his twitter account:

This is what might explain best this fight. In my article about female directors, back in June, I mentioned how little power directors have where big film studios are concerned, and I believe this is what Josh Trank has encountered. He maybe signed on to do Fantastic Four thinking that he’d be in control of the movie and Fox overstepped in his creative process. In addition to that, there’s Trank’s reaction to Fox, not only on social media, but even on set during production. Rumors about him being difficult to work with cost him the job of directing the first Star Wars spin-off, with Disney… or it might have been also true that he stepped out when he thought he couldn’t handle yet another big studio production which he’d have little control over.

The only fact is that Fantastic Four is a failure and Trank as much as Fox have to deal with the repercussions. Should have the studio trusted Josh Trank’s vision more? Yes. Should he have fought harder for what he thought was better for the movie? Yes. Instead, he became “erratic and at times very isolated” and Fox took over.

I find that the positive side of this is the experience the director has gained about how the industry works. Good luck in the future, Josh.

Monkeys Fighting Robots Youtube

Box Office: Fantastic Four Floundering

Monkeys Fighting Robots

According to Deadline HollywoodMission:Impossible-Rouge Nation has jettisoned past Fantastic Four into 1st place overall for this weekends box-office.The audience seems to have more faith in Tom Cruise and the sequel is now predicted to bring an estimated three-day total of $29 Million dollars. Fantastic Fourwhich was once predicted to bring in $40/50 million dollars is destined to bring in anywhere between $26/27 million dollars. It seems Fantastic Four’s precipitous fall in the box-office can be directly tied to the horrendous reviews and toxic word of mouth surrounding the reboot.

 

Mission: Impossible

Monkeys Fighting Robots Youtube