Summer Movies 2013

Non-anime/manga-related TV, movies, books, and comics, especially but not limited to pre-2000 titles
_D_
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Re: Summer Movies 2013

Post by _D_ »

Went to see Oblivion last night at cheap night. Good film for only $4.70. Iron Man 3 I'll be going to this weekend. They are also previewing the new Thor film out later this year as well, Elysium (done by the people who gave us District 9) looks good. Amazing Spider-Man 2 is filming in Toronto and Vancouver is filming Godzilla. I checked out the trailer for Gatchaman but like the live Space Battleship Yamato of a few years ago, it appears to be for domestic Japanese consumption only. Going back and checking out old episodes of Gatchaman, II and F it's surprising how non Japanese looking the characters are, as well, since the Organization is UN based, how many episodes take place outside of Japan. This is not self evident from the all Japanese cast and locales in the live film. I dunno where they want to go with it...

Any idea when Pacific Rim is releasing in Japan? That one might play well there. Also, can anyone tell me if there is a fan market for US/European films and TV that haven't been shown on Japanese TV? How about fan subbers? The releases I've seen of late because of digital technology mean that just about anything from anywhere turns up subbed. Languages I've seen of late include Chinese, Hindi, Russian, German, etc. for shows that may have been on only a few hours earlier! Never hear of anything out if Japan though. Are there say, Game if Thrones fans in Japan? Or is it an internal otaku thing? I'm so out of touch these days.

Current series I was watching:

Game of Thrones season 3
Continuum season 2
The Vikings (only went 9 episodes but will be filming season 2 starting this month)
Defiance (might cut it off after another couple episodes)
Arrow (only a few more episodes in the season)
Orphan Black

Many others also watching Dr. Who but I stopped a couple seasons back. Summer series like Falling Skies will be back soon.

You can of course watch these shows if you have XBMC and the right repos. Many people I know use that and have got rid of cable TV altogether. I can't live without live TV and over the air here is only 3 channels, so satellite TV can't be easily replaced...
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greg
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Re: Summer Movies 2013

Post by greg »

I found a Japanese Wikipedia article on Game of Thrones (ゲームオブスローンズ). Apparently there is a Starz Channel in Japan, and this show just started in January 2013. My friend told me about it. I vaguely knew something about it, mainly because a guy who has the initials "J.R.R." wrote a series of fantasy novels and such. I remember coming across that many years ago and found his initials interesting. Did J.R.R. Martin alter his name or something in homage to J.R.R. Tolkein? Hmm...

I've no idea about what sort of underground fandom there is in Japan. I've no idea how popular something like Dr. Who is in Japan, despite how big it is overseas.

I just talked to my sister in America and she told me about Defiance. It sounds like an alien invasion series like Falling Skies, although it takes place post-Earth victory over the invaders? I'm really out of it. Then again, I hardly paid attention to TV even when I was living in the US. (I do, however, have every episode of Yo Gabba Gabba memorized, thanks to my daughter.)
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_D_
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Re: Summer Movies 2013

Post by _D_ »

Defiance is a western with SF elements, unlike Firefly which was SF with western elements. Both are sort of post US Civil War stories, though Firefly was very well written IMO. So far, haven't taken to Defiance at all and haven't played the game associated with it.

George R. R. Martin has been writing these mature volumes of the Song of Ice and Fire for many years. He has worked in television before, going back to the old Beauty and the Beast series with Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman. The series is very good, with a very high rating among fans:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0944947/?ref_=sr_1

Many of my friends who don't like these kinds of genre shows love this one. I've read all the books and they are really fantastic but very involved. Very hard to put down once you start. There aren't many episodes in a season because of the high production costs, so I can see why it was delayed in getting to Japan. Definitely worth it for you to check out...
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Path
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Re: Summer Movies 2013

Post by Path »

_D_ wrote:
Many of my friends who don't like these kinds of genre shows love this one. I've read all the books and they are really fantastic but very involved. Very hard to put down once you start. There aren't many episodes in a season because of the high production costs, so I can see why it was delayed in getting to Japan. Definitely worth it for you to check out...
I'm noticing this as well. The fact that I can talk to even my coworkers (the most boring office people ever) about this show astounds me. I remember begging my friends as back as the late 90s to give the books a shot, nobody would. Most of them still won't, but at least we can talk about the show now. Plus I get to smile gleefully as things unravel that I know about but they don't.
_D_
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Re: Summer Movies 2013

Post by _D_ »

This however looks dopey:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... f-revealed

So, it's an international agency run inside Japan again? So, does that mean the villains just have to move outside of Japan to be effective? I should email the producers but we'll have to check out the first episodes...
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Re: Summer Movies 2013

Post by _D_ »

Went to Iron Man 3 yesterday. An interesting cap for the trilogy. Stayed through the credits to catch the obligatory end scene. Funny! Next up...Star Trek Into Darkness.
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llj
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Re: Summer Movies 2013

Post by llj »

The Song of Ice and Fire novels are definitely for the very hardcore only. I started reading them way back when they first started coming out. I dropped the series after a while, though, because I realized that I really only was interested in 1 or 2 characters, and when Martin released a volume that didn't have one of them (it was Tyrion, btw--he didn't die, but the story had gotten so complicated that some characters had to be set aside for a while, much to my dismay as a Tyrion fan), I sort of checked out. I also burned out on long fantasy series after seeing what happened with the Wheel of Time series (which finally finished this year). To my mind, the perfect length for a novel series is still three books.
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Re: Summer Movies 2013

Post by Heero »

llj wrote:I also burned out on long fantasy series after seeing what happened with the Wheel of Time series (which finally finished this year). To my mind, the perfect length for a novel series is still three books.
As a long time "Wheel of Time" reader (who is glad the series got "en ending") I dropped Game of Thrones after 2 books simply because it was obviously going in the same direction and I told myself I didn't need ANOTHER one of those. If I hear that it ends well, I may go back and read it all, but for now I'm fine without it.
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llj
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Re: Summer Movies 2013

Post by llj »

It's mindboggling to think that I started reading the Wheel of Time series when I was 12 or 13, and it took until I reached my mid 30s for it to finish.
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Re: Summer Movies 2013

Post by greg »

In college, I had a couple of friends who were Wheel of Time readers. I used to tease them for it. I can't imagine reading a series of insanely huge books like that. At the pace I read books, it would take me over a year just to read one of those books. They're like 1,500 pages or so each, right?
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