Having some catch up to do, I'll write a quick blurb on Innocence, which I saw last week.

First of all, my only aesthetic criticism is the almost total replacement of background art by CG. I like CG, but it's different than ink and paint, and while the future setting of Innocence might fit it well, it's still CG with cel-animated characters, and that leads to some questions regarding where Japanese Animation is going today.
That said, it's really phenomenal CG.

In regards to the actual film, well, there will only be dissent. It shares many of the philosophical meanderings of the first film, but the first film was also much more accessible I think because of the strong focus on action. Innocence by far, while having plenty of action dispersed throughout, spends its time deliberating over what it is 'human', in a slow moody pace that I'm sure will perturb many viewers expecting something different.

It does however create a fascinating narrative and atmosphere, that when concentrated on will provide an enormously entertaining experience.

It's not for everyone, but certainly lived up to the first film, and in my opinion, surpassed it in some ways.

--Leif

In some very sad news, actor Christopher Reeve died in a coma yesterday due to cardiac arrest on Saturday.

It seems like more news in the last year has had some of out most beloved actors dying.

--Leif

I also thought I'd note that the next 'wave' of Ghibli films have apparently been rescheduled for February.

Hopefully the delay was so they could polish these releases, as two of them are Ghibli's biggest. We don't any more off-timed sub-titles, or out of sync audio.

--Leif

Well, neat for me at least, and of great surprise. Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence is coming to a theatre near me! Yeah, big deal, right? Well, judging from the initial city listings, I wasn't hopeful. And unlike certain releases in the past (Ahem, Disney), Innocence is fully sub-titled in every location. No mixed prints for this one.

--Leif

Yes, the site has suffered from not only a lack of updates on this semi-blog-type-news-function, but also in the articles section, which has not one entry, and the Art section, which I didn't even post additions I made last month.

I need something to reinvigorate the site... Something like... A webcomic! Not really...

--Leif

It's out, Get Firefox now!

Prime Time is getting close, but it's still a couple months away. In the mean time get the Preview Release of 1.0, which is better than 0.9.3 was, with a better installer, and some enhancements.

I'll need to get used to the new find bar, instead of the-more convenient I think-Search Bar item for finding text within a page. Regardless of that, the browser is really shaping up for a mass-market release, getting better and smoother with every release. So if you're still using Internet Explorer 6, move up in the world and get Mozilla Firefox!

--Leif

Last night I caught the PBS special "The Video Game Revolution". While it was certainly entertaining, and didn't spend too much time letting MAVIA spew their wholesale and exclusive denigration of the activity, it did leave out some of the more recent history.

For instance, anything Sega in the last decade. Now I realize it has a limited amount of time to basically give the entire history of video games, but even a passing mention of the ill-fated Saturn or Dreamcast would of been heart-warming. Even if in a segment of failed but sometimes influential systems.

Their choice of games featured were sometimes odd as well, but I can only attribute that to developer willingness to let a PBS team into their offices. They got an interview with Miyamoto, yes, but he was the only Japanese game developer mentioned (Though at least the most important). No sign of Yu Suzuki, Yuji Naka, Hideo Kojima.
American gaming legends were talked to though, such as Sid Meier and Nolan Bushnell.

However SquareSoft was not even mentioned, arguably one of the most important and influential video game studios on the planet, and played no small part in the coup that Sony pulled off one decade ago.

That they talked about. Unfortunately some designers still seem to think the 'war' is over, and Sony won. This is almost as stupid as the statement made in 1994 that no generation of video game consoles would reach such a saturation into homes as the SNES and Genesis.

I can imagine that ten years from now there'll be another program like this, and things will be vastly different.

--Leif

Thanks for the demagoguery PockyBot, but I think we get enough BS from, well, everywhere.

As a replacement, how about the unfamiliar relative newcomer Chuk and Elmo!

--Leif

And... I guess that's all.

On second thought! No. Nevermind.

--Leif

Well, I went to see Hero today (Friday, which is opening day). I'm still surprised that nearly all of the local mainstream theaters are showing it, I was under the impression that it was a limited release film, but apparently isn't, which is rare.
But Napoleon Dynamite has gone wide now too, so I guess people finally tire of the boring summer fare (Ala Anacondas and Superbabies).

It was hardly as crowded as a December Lord of the Rings opening, but it was a sizable crowd. However my complaint with any showing where there is someone under the age of 30 in screaming distance is the amazing amount of unintelligence exhibited by any member of said group in a combination of two or more. Or at least the inconsideration in expressing it.

The movie was great though! And yes, sub-titled, thank God. Bad dubbing will ruin any good dramatic foreign language film. They were quite legible (Unlike certain scenes from Sony's release of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).

--Leif