documentary

0353 – Beware the Slenderman (2016)

Beware the Slenderman (stylized as _beware the slenderman) is a 2016 American documentary film directed by Irene Taylor Brodsky about the Slender Man stabbing.

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Lurking in the shadows of the Internet, a faceless modern-day bogeyman has attracted the attention and fear of a young generation who whisper his name online. Slenderman lives on the dark pages of the web, where impressionable youth create and cultivate his mythos in message boards, YouTube clips and various other digital incantations. But the online fairy tale becomes a shocking real-life horror as two 12-year-old girls, guided by their devotion to Slenderman, lure their friend into the woods to attempt a seemingly inexplicable, brutal murder.

imdb

movies

345 – Pacific Rim (2013)

spacetime coordinates: 2020 – 2025 Alaska // Hong Kong // Manila // San Francisco // Pacific Ocean //  Tokyo

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Pacific Rim is a 2013 American science fiction monster film directed by Guillermo del Toro and starring Charlie HunnamIdris ElbaRinko KikuchiCharlie DayBurn GormanRobert KazinskyMax Martini, and Ron Perlman. The screenplay was written by Travis Beacham and del Toro from a story by Beacham.

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The film is set in the future, when Earth is at war with the Kaiju,  colossal sea monsters which have emerged from an interdimensional portal on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. To combat the monsters, humanity unites to create the Jaegers,  gigantic humanoid mechas each controlled by at least two pilots, whose minds are joined by a mental link. Focusing on the war’s later days, the story follows Raleigh Becket, a washed-up Jaeger pilot called out of retirement and teamed with rookie pilot Mako Mori as part of a last-ditch effort to defeat the Kaiju.

Knifehead, the first Kaiju to appear in the film, is a tribute to the plodding kaiju of 1960s Japanese films, and is intended to look almost like a man in a rubber suit; its head was inspired by that of a goblin shark. Leatherback, the bouncer-like Kaiju which spews electro-magnetic charges, is a favorite of del Toro, who conceived it as a “brawler with this sort of beer belly”; the lumbering movements of gorillas were used as a reference.  The Kaiju Otachi homages the dragons of Chinese mythology. The director called it a “Swiss army knife of a Kaiju”; with almost 20 minutes of screen time, it was given numerous features so the audience would not tire of it. The creature moves like a Komodo dragon in water, sports multiple jaws and an acid-filled neck sack, and unfurls wings when necessary. It is also more intelligent than the other Kaiju, employing eagle-inspired strategies against the Jaegers.  Onibaba, the Kaiju that orphans Mako Mori, resembles a fusion of a Japanese temple and a crustacean. Slattern, the largest Kaiju, is distinguished by its extremely long neck and “half-horn, half-crown” head, which del Toro considered both demonic and majestic. 

Gipsy Danger, the American Jaeger, was based on the shape of New York City’s Art Deco buildings, such as the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building, but infused with John Wayne‘s gunslinger gait and hip movements. Cherno Alpha, the Russian Jaeger, was based on the shape and paint patterns of a T-series Russian tank, combined with a giant containment silo to give the appearance of a walking nuclear power plant with a cooling tower on its head. Crimson Typhoon, the three-armed Chinese Jaeger, is piloted by triplets and resembles a “medieval little warrior”; its texture evokes Chinese lacquered wood with golden edges. Striker Eureka, the Australian Jaeger, is likened by del Toro to a Land Rover; the most elegant and masculine Jaeger, it has a jutting chest, a camouflage paint scheme recalling the Australian outback, and the bravado of its pilots.

Rather than popular culture, the director drew inspiration from works of art such as The Colossus and George Bellows‘s boxing paintings.

The classic Japanese woodblock print  The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai was a common motif in the ocean battles; Del Toro recalled, “I would say ‘Give me a Hokusai wave’… we use the waves and weather in the movie very operatically.”  The director asked that Knoll not necessarily match the lighting from shot to shot: “It’s pretty unorthodox to do that, but I think the results are really beautiful and very artistically free and powerful, not something you would associate with a big sci-fi action movie.” Del Toro considers the film’s digital water its most exciting visual effect: “The water dynamics in this movie are technically beautiful, but also artistically incredibly expressive. We agreed on making the water become almost another character. We would time the water very precisely. I’d say ‘Get out of the wave [on this frame].'”

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Rim_(film)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1663662/

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movies

0340 – Split Second (1992)

spacetime coordinates:  year 2008 flooded dystopian future London

split second posterSplit Second is a 1992 American-British science fiction horror film  directed by Tony Maylam and Ian SharpRutger Hauer stars as a burnt-out police detective obsessively hunting down the mysterious serial killer that killed his partner several years prior.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105459/

games

0309 – The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing (2013 video game)

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing is an action role-playing video game developed by the Hungarian independent development studio NeocoreGames. Based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, the game focuses on the trials of young Van Helsing, son of the legendary vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing from the book. The game is set in a gothic-noir 19th-century Eastern Europe and contains “intentionally anachronistic humor and gadgetry”.

2486193-the-incredible-adventures-of-van-helsing_pc_coversystem requirements (minimum): OS:Windows XP SP3, Windows 7, Windows 8. / Processor:Dual Core CPU 2.0 GHz. / Memory:2 GB RAM. / Graphics:GeForce 8800, Radeon HD4000, Intel HD4000 (min. 512 MB VRAM) / DirectX®:9.0c. / Hard Drive:20 GB HD space. / Sound:DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card.

REVIEW   /   steam

games

0305 – Ori and the Blind Forest (2015 video game)

Ori and the Blind Forest is a platform-adventure Metroidvania video game developed by Moon Studios and published by Microsoft Studios. The game was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One on March 2015. In the game, players assume control of Ori, a white guardian spirit, and Sein, the “light and eyes” of the Forest’s Spirit Tree. To progress in the game, players are tasked to move between platforms and solve puzzles. The game features a system called “soul links”, which allows players to save at will, and an upgrade system that gives players the ability to strengthen Ori’s skills.

A sequel, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, was announced during Electronic Entertainment Expo 2017. A Definitive Edition was released in 2016.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (MINIMUM)OS: Windows 7 / Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 @ 2.2GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ @ 2.8 GHz / Memory: 4 GB RAM / Graphics: GeForce 240 GT or Radeon HD 6570 – 1024 MB (1 gig) / DirectX: Version 9.0c / Storage: 8 GB available space

steam

movies

0298 – Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)

spacetime coordinates:  28th century.  former International Space Station now “Alpha”, a space-traveling city where millions of creatures from different planets live peacefully and exchange their knowledge and cultures.

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Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (French: Valérian et la Cité des mille planètes) is a 2017 English-language French 3D science fiction adventure film written and directed by Luc Besson, and co-produced by Besson and his wife, Virginie Besson-Silla. The film is based on the French science fiction comics series Valérian and Laureline, written by Pierre Christin and illustrated by Jean-Claude Mézières. It stars Dane DeHaan as Valerian and Cara Delevingne as Laureline, with Clive OwenRihannaEthan HawkeHerbie HancockKris Wu and Rutger Hauer in supporting roles. Besson independently crowd-sourced and personally funded Valerian and, with a production budget of around $180 million, it is both the most expensive European and independent film ever made.

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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2239822/

games

296 – Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power (2015)

Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power is a 2015 action role-playing platform and puzzle video game developed by Frozenbyte, released on August 20, 2015 for Microsoft Windows.  It is the sequel to Trine 2 and features a return of the series’ three protagonists and medieval fantasy location.

trine 3 1trine 3 2Trine_3_DeerTrine_3_The_Artifacts_of_Power_Background_The_Astral_Academytrine-3-the-artifacts-of-power-game-hd-wallpaper-1920x1080-44974-1680x1050trine-3-the-artifacts-of-power-screenshot-08 system requirements (minimum) – CPU: Intel Core i3/i5/i7 2.0 GHz CPU dual-core or 3.0 GHz AMD CPU. // OS: Windows 8 / 7 / Vista.  // VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce 260 / Radeon HD 4000 Series.

Trine 3: The Artifact of Power Exclusive Gameplay Video