Denis Villeneuve's Dune is a Modern Masterpiece

    I just finished watching Dune on Plex for the first time. Yes, the first time.. as there will be several viewings of this film in the near future. I saw this video with Denis describing his thought process in to his favorite scene, and it got me so fucking hyped:

     Most people know if they have been on any of my blogs, I'm a huge Dune fan. From the original movie, the books, and so on. I spend night after night watching Dune lore videos on youtube. To see a director this much into the movie, and his vision.. really got me excited for this. I don't have the time right now for a proper review and links like normal, but you can bet your ass there will be one in the future. I give this movie 5 out of 5 Zardoz heads.

Anyways, go get your free month of HBO Max and check it out for yourself.

**Post-Script Life Update** - I've finished moving, and just completed unpacking 99% of  the boxes today. It's been a rough 5ish days to be honest, and I'm feeling my age. I'll be back to my regular posting schedule by the end of the week at this rate, and I start my new job on Monday. More on that later, and pictures of my gaming setup then. I'm just physically exhausted, and today was the first time I let myself enjoy something and take a break from packing, running, calling...in at least 2 weeks. Moving and starting a new job is always hard, but this time it seems have take a lot out of me. Knowing how difficult this could be, I used my last week of vacation from my previous job to take this week off and relax. I'm very excited for my personal future, and that of the rejuvenated blog.

The next generation of prosthetic enhancement is here.

 

Click the link, trust me. 

     We have been getting closer and closer to creating and manipulating synthetic muscles in prosthetics for years, and this video absolutely blew me away. I grew up reading I, Robot, Foundation, and Apprentice Adept. I'm no stranger to science fiction-fact, the progression of technology, and the concept of emulation singularity in mimicking human physiology. 

     In 1795, the London Times published an article outlining the definition of what an Android actually is:

    Phillip K. Dick explored in great detail the mental, physical, and phycological makeup of synthetic humanoids in very minute detail, down to the very things they dream about.

    Robot, Cyborg, Automaton, Android, AI.. call it what you want. This video brought to life all the things I look forward to in technology... and fear the most.

Wizardry (1991) Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord - Full Movie OVA + Bonus!

 

Based on the hit old school game series of the same name, Wizardry: Proving Ground of the Mad Overlord is a hack and slash anime delight. 

Of course you can play the DOS version of the game in browser.. thanks technology! Click here to play it now. 

The 9th Gate (1999) - Full Movie Link & Thoughts

 

Shhhhh. (all links tested)

Watch for free on Plex - Free with popups site - Another free with popups site

     It's no secret I'm a huge fan of The Club Dumas and The 9th Gate. See previous unconnected thoughts here, and a couple of other random posts. Some quick history with the book and the movie; I read the book first, it was a gift from a girlfriend and she thought I would like it. The movie came out in 1999, and because news and internet was slow and shitty and I was disconnected from the world, I had no clue the movie and the book were connected in any way. I didn't see a trailer on the E! Channel like I normally would after Talk Soup to clue me in, and that was almost exclusively the way I would have known or seen it.

One to two packs of Pall Malls a day.

   I identified with Lucas Corso ('Dean' in Movie); I smoked a pack a day, collected rare books of different types and had a similar cavalier attitude about life in general. Before the movie existed, I was obsessed with reading anything from Arturo Perez-Reverte's catalog, and though I thought they were all great books, I never liked them as much as Dumas. It was not the first book to really grab me, but it was of the few. I was at a time in my life when 18 year old me was exclusively reading Science Fiction, and this was a huge change for me which led me down the path of the likes of Dan Brown and Umberto Eco. It was a.. witty person's summer reading, and you didn't have to get all the literary references to enjoy it. 

There were... some changes.

    I finally watched the movie after I realized what it was, and rented it from Blockbuster. Initially I was thrilled, until I realized right away that there was some really extreme changes from the book, and why they could not call the movie The Club Dumas. The Dumas connection was removed from the movie, and the roles of several characters have been swapped and moved around to the point where I had to unlearn the book and just enjoy the movie for what it was. The opening of the movie, it shows a young-ish Depp buying some early Three Musketeers books, and scamming them, being quite the con-artist as in the book. Seeing a Dumas reference, I thought.. Oh shit! This is going to be super faithful. If I squinted hard enough, Depp looked the part of a 40's Lucas Corso.

This is not the worst of endings.

    All doubts cast aside, I found myself really enjoying the movie. I did miss the Dumas connection, but even in the book, it turned out that Dumas manuscript had nothing to do with the central plot, and was just a bundle of crazy coincidences and distractions. The book ends in a very serene yet grotesque way, with "Irene" or "The Girl" listening to Borja burning alive inside the building, leaving you to believe that summoning the devil didn't work after all. Corso thinks to himself, it didn't work because the Ceniza brothers most likely forged the book plates after all, and off he goes. No devil, no doors, no gates. I very much like the liberties taken in the movie to visualize the woodcuts from the book, that it's the girl in the final correct cut, and going a step further, finding the page at the Ceniza brothers business and entering the gate himself. Admittedly, I would have like it better if he left with the girl, but that was explained as she left the clue on his windshield. I digress. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is, watch the movie, read the book, post some comments. It would make me happy.