Blobs and Ends

I woke up today, convinced it was Thursday. Not a great start.

I haven’t done one these miscellaneous dumps for a while, so here it is.

FIRST

The Russian vampire movie Empire V. I’d heard a little about it but not much. It looks interesting.

Not a ripoff of Midnight’s War but it does feel like a direct competitor.

NEXT

NEXT

Phil Tippet, the heir to Ray Harryhausen, stop motion animator wizard whose work you’ve seen on almost everything stop-motion in it since Star Wars has completed his masterpiece. Mad God, he’s been working on this during his spare time for better than a decade.

NEXT

Oh no please no.

I feel so sorry for you One Piece Fans

Netflix is at it again. This looks and feels exactly like their garbage tier version of Cowboy Bebop. Live screen adaptations of anime are nearly always a failure. The Japanese can occasionally get close but no American production company has the slightest chance in hell of getting these things right. They think, react, and write in terms of American cliches and stereotypes. These rarely if ever translate well from Japanese cliches and stereotypes.

It’s kind of like those old English dubbed Godzilla movies. The languages are so different you frequently would still be hearing the American voice actor talking after the Japanese actor had not only hung up the phone but walked out off screen.

Why does Netflix keep trying? Because the American franchises have all been destroyed. they have to go overseas in order to find new stuff to wreck.

NEXT

Okay, this is more like it.

I’m not wild about the time travel element and the animation looks cheap but I was a huge B5 nerd when that was a thing.

I’m glad Straczynski made Claudia Christian kissed and made up. This is one of those rare shows that doesn’t really have to be all that good for me to enjoy it.

In this case, close enough is close enough.

LAST

And finally, there is Dune II or Dune the Other Half if you prefer.

I loved the first part. Villeneuve knows how to paint on a big canvass. It was one of those few films that I am willing to pay to see on IMAX screen.

I’m a bit doubtful as to the choice of Zendaya Coleman as Chani. She started out as a Disney child-actress and kid talents rarely turn into adult talents. That said, I was startled by how pleasant a surprise Sharon Duncan-Brewster’s race swapped and gender bent Liet Kynes turned out to be. Maybe Zendaya has more ability than I thought or maybe Villeneuve can shoot around her limitations. Either way I’m not writing this one off yet.

Mostly because Christopher Walken appears to be absolutely killing it as Shaddam IV, Emperor of the Known Universe.

I should have a higher effort post tomorrow.

Okay, I’m done here.

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