Tag: Sony Entertainment

5 Most Anticipated Films of 2018

Not every upcoming movie for 2018 will get fully embraced. To make a top five list is more challenging because the interest for these films is just not quite solid.

Films of 2018: Han Solo, Watch it or Miss It?

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Not every upcoming movie for 2018 will get fully embraced. To make a top five list is more challenging because the interest for these films is just not quite solid.

Whether the film involved is plagued with production problems or franchise fatigue is setting in, the reasons can vary. The worry with this first film is not because the principal directors were let go, but can reshoots fix a film? In this case, it’s the actor who defined the role than casting someone younger to take the mantle. I feel shades of Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull will be on the thoughts of many considering going to see this movie.

Han Solo (May 25, 2018)
Nobody can replace Harrison Ford as Han Solo. Nobody. Not even the actors who played younger versions of the characters he made famous get remembered for these roles. Okay, Sean Patrick Flanery is wonderful in the Young Indy series when he was a teen and he put a lot of effort in the role to not only sell the show but also become quite the sex symbol himself. The age difference from a young teen on television to an adult in cinema helped make this transition work.

Alden Ehrenreich is an okay substitute to show when this scoundrel was at his best. Whether the masses will accept him is the big question. The secondary issue is when this story will take place. Since the idea is to spotlight a younger version of the character, the hive mind is most likely not going to have this film lead out to Solo travelling to Tatooine  anytime soon. Rumours suggest this movie will be a Western, and this idea can work to see this scoundrel turn saviour for the day. However, to follow up on the heels of The Last Jedi is going to be tough. Expectations will be very high, and if this film does not deliver, perhaps Disney / Lucasfilm will have to reconsider if these side-stories are needed at all.

Continue reading “5 Most Anticipated Films of 2018”

Wild ARMS at 20 Years and One Wild Hope (A Personal Retrospective)

Although the Wild ARMS video game franchise was never hugely popular in North America as it were in Japan, the dedicated fan-base will be celebrating on Dec 20, 2016.

Wild Arms for PlayStationAlthough the Wild ARMS video game franchise was never hugely popular in North America as it was in Japan, the dedicated fan-base will celebrate on Dec 20, 2016. The game’s release in Japan was twenty years ago. Recent news reports reveal Sony (the intellectual property owner) and former staff from Media.Vision (original developer) are involved in bringing the property back to life. It will be based on the original game and Sony’s mobile publishing division ForwardWorks is helming this latest entry.

Past cell-phone games used the name to dress up what was basically Tetris and a simple shooter. The hope here is that the new product will be a full-on J-RPG, and most reports hint at this direction.If this speculation is correct, Japan will be the initial audience. In the time being, I will hook up my PlayStation2 to the big screen to enjoy all the games all over again. My love for this game, inspired by the American Old West and Steampunk, will reignite. I will attempt to finish all these original games by the time Wild Arms North American Platinum Anniversary takes place in March 2017.

Creator Akifumi Kaneko left Media.Vision back in 2009 and some fans feared no more Wild Arms will be coming. Fortunately, Pixel Dynamo’s report on Kaneko’s Twitter post in early 2016 allayed those fears. He met with executives to plan the 20th anniversary. Since then, not many continuing reports emerged in the months afterwards about what is happening. In the coming days, I like to see the complete library of the past games be offered on via Sony’s PlayStation Network.

Continue reading “Wild ARMS at 20 Years and One Wild Hope (A Personal Retrospective)”

You Too Can Be The Dark Knight with Sony’s 3D Tech in Batman: Arkham VR

playstation-vr-new

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Sony’s PlayStation VR bundle is now available and if some people are still in the fence about it, they can try it out at special events like Fan Expo Vancouver. This 2016 show had Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment exhibiting LEGO Dimensions and demonstrating Batman: Arkham VR (now available on AmazonArkham VR) on the PS4 ProArkham VR and the experience has me believing the hardware is very capable. I was told this updated system is not absolutely necessary in order to become the crime-fighting detective, but it does help with the frame rates and rendering for those players wanting to go by the numbers.

The headwear certainly can use some fine-tuning for people like myself wearing eyeglasses. It is certainly comfortable with or without (I tried both methods on two different demos of the game) and I experienced minor fogging on the lens. If the addition of micro-fans or vents can be put in version two of the hardware, this problem can easily be solved.

playstation_vr_reuters

The feeling of being immersed in the digital environment is almost there; the fact the view does not fully fill the peripheral (i.e. I can see the edges of where the screen ends) shows virtual environments are not that all-encompassing. Part of the fact has to deal with the psychological aspects of distinguishing between real space and imagined space. If the eye detects an object at the edge of perception, the body will be inclined to react.

Continue reading “You Too Can Be The Dark Knight with Sony’s 3D Tech in Batman: Arkham VR”

My Expectations on Feig’s Neo Ghostbusters

Ghostbusters 2016 PosterBy Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

As the July 15 date nears, I will be going into this Sony cum Paul Feig helmed reboot of Ghostbusters with very low expectations. Whatever he has envisioned, my hope is that the supernatural characters are interesting enough and the spiritual encounters are played up for terror (however cheesy their threats are) instead of laughs. I played Ghostbusters the Video Game and loved the sense of unease created in the soundscape when my avatar was in the children’s playroom located downstairs in the New York Public Library. The backstory for the Library Ghost was wonderfully expanded upon, and I want to see that in this new film.

Part of this franchise’s charm is because it is inspired by Aykroyd’s genuine interest in the paranormal. The story Ivan Reitman, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis created for the films plays with that concept. Ray Stantz and Egon Spengler treat the study of ghosts seriously, and while their actions come off as funny with what they discover, that gravitas makes up what I love from the original. To see two “scholars” attempting to validate the existence of a spirit world is very interesting to me because I am a paranormal investigator who is looking at reasons why hauntings take place. I like to be entertained by Hollywood’s interpretation of this study too. Whether it’s comedic or dramatic, I will watch them all.

Continue reading “My Expectations on Feig’s Neo Ghostbusters”

Ghostbusters Gets Animated for the 21st and ½ Century!

The Real Ghostbusters

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Yes, the Duck Dodgers joke is intentional (and off by 300 years), but let’s hope the task of creating a futuristic team of Ghostbusters will be good. Just when fans of this franchise thought they could not hate Sony Pictures, not Paul Feig, even more, perhaps there might be a silver lining coming with an all-new animated series simply titled Ghostbusters: Ecto Force. It’s unlikely to tread on what makes The Real Ghostbusters special.

No extra information is offered in today’s announcement as to what the treatment will be like. Ivan Reitman, the director of the original 1984 blockbuster, is helping to develop the series, and it will be set in the not too distant future of 2050. Ghost Corps, the production company established by him in March 2015 with Dan Aykroyd, Tom Pollock, Ali Bell, Alex Plapinger (and Sony) will be overseeing this project.

Continue reading “Ghostbusters Gets Animated for the 21st and ½ Century!”

Flying Dog Confirms First Haruka Chisuga Live Concert!

HarukaChisugaBy James Robert Shaw (The Wind up Geek)

Flying Dog, the record label owned by Japan’s Victor Entertainment, have confirmed Haruka Chisuga’s debut live concert “First Try!” The concert will take place at the Shibuya Duo Music Exchange in Tokyo July 9th and will be in support of Chisuga’s 1st full album “Try!”

Chisuga is both a singer and a voice actress who found fame in 2012 by winning the Miss Macross 30 contest. Chisuga earned the role of Mina Forte in the Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) game Macross 30: Voices Across the Galaxy. The game would commemorate 30 years of Shoji Kawamori’s Macross franchise. The game featured every animated series of the franchise up to that point. Chisuga continued her success by performing in the animated series of Aquarion Logos (Kokone Kikogami), Owari no Seraph (Mikaela Hyakuya), and Gakusen Toshi Asterisk (Sylvia Lyyneheym).

Haruka Chisuga’s debut full album, “Try!”, will be released June 22, 2016. “First Try!” will be performed Saturday, July 9th. Doors open at 4pm. Curtain is at 5pm.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM5ToDRa_1E&w=560&h=315%5D
 

Source(s): Gwyn Campbell and the Macross Fans- US Facebook group.

Video Source(s): Flying Dog.