The Download Munkey : Tracking the Treasure Down …

Waltz with Bashir is an Israeli documentary about the 1982 Lebanon War which won Best Picture Award and 5 other Ophir awards from the Israeli Film Academy as well as the Best Animated Feature Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards last month. The film also features the work of the Israeli twins and artists, Tomer and Asaf Hanuka, together with Michael Faust and Ya’ara Buchman. First discovered Tomer Hanuka’s fabulous artwork from Brazilian art blog IdeaFixa and found some awesome art of the Merkava tank by Asaf Hanuka for Waltz With Bashir at their shared blog Tropical Toxic.

A mighty IDF Merkava tank crushes all in its path while traversing a narrow Lebanese street.

Frankly speaking, I don’t really know much about this film, so here’s the sypnosis from the official site.

One night at a bar, an old friend tells director Ari Folman about a recurring nightmare in which he is chased by 26 vicious dogs. Every night, the same number of beasts. The two men conclude that there’s a connection to their Israeli Army mission in the first Lebanon War of the early eighties. Ari is surprised that he can’t remember a thing anymore about that period of his life.

“Don’t you ever have flashbacks from Lebanon?”

“No.”

Intrigued by this riddle, he decides to meet and interview old friends and comrades around the world. He needs to discover the truth about that time and about himself. As Ari delves deeper and deeper into the mystery, his memory begins to creep up in surreal images.

Some additional captures from the theatrical trailer.

I don’t think it has been shown in Singapore yet – I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it will be shown in Singapore at the local box office or at least during one of the upcoming film festivals soon.

Visit the official site at waltzwithbashir.com or the Wikipedia or IMDb page for this film.

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I’ve been a big fan of Traveller’s Tales’ series of Lego games with the sole exception of Lego Indiana Jones – I didn’t like the muddy palette (khaki, brown and more brown) and the jumping puzzles were too frustrating for reflexively-challenged me. Most of the time spent playing the demo was helping Indy fall into bottomless chasms or exploring spike-filled pits while been chased by a giant boulder

Now, the Lego Batman demo is a different beast entirely. It’s an enjoyable romp through a bright and shiny Lego (Legoized / Legofied ?) Gotham City with excellently animated Lego minifigs of familiar characters from DC Comics’s Batman universe (and less of those bloody jumping puzzles). It doesn’t seem to be tied to any of the Batman films unlike the other Lego games for the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises which probably imposes less creative restrictions on the developers.

Lego Batman now sports Hero and Villain modes so that fans of supervillains like dastardly The Joker get to start off as the bad guys immediately rather than having to unlock them first after playing the good guys as in the Star Wars series. Batman is far less “goody-goody” than most typical superheroes but it’s a welcome addition nonetheless. An uzi-toting Joker and acrobatic Harley Quinn are yours to control in the demo.

Robin in his Magnet Suit

New suits which dynamically change the special abilities of your characters allow you to approach some of the puzzles in your adventures through Gotham City in multiple ways. Most puzzles still require that certain suits be worn in order to advance to the next area.

There’s also a new Batarang mode for the good guys which allows you to precisely target and hit distant opponents or objects. It’s something that works better on paper since not everything can be hit with the Batarang and the aiming is rather finicky at times.

The poor man’s batmobile

Top-notch animation : Batman shimmies across a rope with ease while Robin follows along in his clumsy Magnet Suit

Batman prepares to pound a petty thug into tiny Lego bits

As with Traveller Tales’ series of Lego games, Lego Batman manages to appeal to gamers of all ages, non-gaming fans of the Batman universe and Lego enthusiasts. The gameplay won’t exactly challenge any serious gamer but it’s entertaining and endearing (the Lego characters are surprisingly expressive despite the fact that they don’t even speak a single word in the game.)

The series is also highly addictive : I still remember replaying the Star Wars game multiple times to collect enough coins to unlock additional characters and goodies to play with)

I wonder what’s next in store for Traveller’s Tales and the Lego videogames. Since Batman is a Warner Bros license, another WB franchise (Harry Potter or even better, Lord of the Rings) might be already in the works for Traveller Tales. Let’s keep our fingers crossed

Download and play the Lego Batman demo.

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IconFactory has always my first stop for icons because these guys not only create excellent original icon sets but also marvellous sets inspired by popular culture. These aren’t just collectable icons, they’re miniature works of art!

For instance, where else can you find an icon of those grappling hooks that the Fremen use to ride on the Shai-Hulud, massive sandworms of Arrakis made famous by the sci-fi classic Dune?

© The Iconfactory

Other than icons inspired by famous works of fiction, there’s also loads of icons movies from blockbusters and bestsellers to cult classics. Anyone fancy an icon of the Bride’s sword from Kill Bill?

© The Iconfactory

Speaking of swords, there’s even an icon set devoted to the swords of the Chinese comic Feng Yun (later adapted as the movie Storm Riders).

© The Iconfactory

Want more movie-related icons? My choice picks include the icon sets for Star Wars, War of the Worlds, V for Vendetta and even Austin Powers. Groovy, baby

© The Iconfactory

There’s also plenty of nostalgic stuff for kids who grew up on a diet of 80s cartoons and TV shows. Remember T-Bob from M.A.S.K? Or the butt ugly monsters of Ultraman? Classic Transformers? Relive those memories at IconFactory!

© The Iconfactory

Quite a few game-inspired icon sets from the classic Archon to relatively new games like Patapon.

© The Iconfactory

For the original designs, I especially like the horror/Halloween-themed ones. Bride of Macabre is one of my favourites, along with Vintage Halloween and Dia De Los Muertos (not technically Halloween, but …)

© The Iconfactory

Download these beautiful icon sets and more from The IconFactory.

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Dan LuVisi’s stunning portrait of an unmasked Predator first caught my eye in Issue 7 of Artzmania. This artwork is part of his BLACK series in his deviantART gallery in which he paints portraits of some of the most recognisable faces from movies.

© Dan LuVisi

The Predator is just one of the three works related to the Aliens vs Predator universe – the other two being a Alien Warrior and a grim Colonial Marine – I just love the glistening carapace and salivating jaws of the Alien Warrior

© Dan LuVisi

Since then, he has gone on to paint the three major characters of the recent Batman movie, The Dark Knight for his BLACK series, two of them being the Caped Crusader himself and his arch-nemesis The Joker (below)

© Dan LuVisi

There’s other movie characters in his gallery, of the charmingly eccentric Captain Sparrow and of King Kong locked in mortal combat with a ferocious V-Rex. There’s tutorials for this particular piece if you’re interested in the techniques used in creating this piece.

© Dan LuVisi

Gamers aren’t left out either – there’s Master Chief from Halo as well as Army of Two and Crysis art amongst others in his deviantART gallery.

© Dan LuVisi

Now if you’re thinking that Dan LuVisi only does portraits of characters from popular culture, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by his original pieces like this oddly attractive shark-headed humanoid – I’m still trying to figure out where the tentacles come from

© Dan LuVisi

Or this lopsided fight between a heroic knight and a massive dragon/T-Rex hybrid.

© Dan LuVisi

Check out Dan LuVisi’s deviantART gallery and view the above pieces in their full resolution. Don’t forget to visit his blog too – there’s a cool warrior panda concept exclusive to the blog

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Lego Batman Wallpapers

Alright, Nuffnang just offered me free tickets to the latest Batman movie – The Dark Knight – last week in exchange for an sponsored post about this movie. Since I was going to watch the movie with thoo2 anyway, so I thought to myself “Hey, why not?”

© Warner Bros

The official The Dark Knight website @ www.darkknight-asia.com is chockful of downloadable goodies from PDF posters to wallpapers to adorn your desktops. And yes, there’s a streaming video trailer if you wish to catch glimpses of Batman’s couple of hot rides Some stills from the trailer below.

Batman making a grand entrance with style in his Bat Tumbler – looks like what Automobili Lamborghini would build if they dabbled with tanks instead of supercars

The perpetually unsmiling Dark Knight and his gruffy-looking arch nemesis The Joker have been gracing covers on the likes of local entertainment mags 8 Days, LIME and of course the July edition of the movie mag, FiRST these days (IMHO the best cover of the three).

© SPH Magazines Pte Ltd

That’s just the tip of the iceberg of The Dark Knight madness since there’s been a slew of Batman and Joker’s related fan material all around the web for the past few months, my favourites being Dan LuVisi’s portraits of two of the main protagonists in the The Dark Knight which I think deserves special mention. And let’s not forget the upcoming Lego Batman game which also features most of the characters from The Dark Knight

© Lego

As for the movie itself, I’m glad that it turned out far better than I expected (otherwise I would be extremely guilty and embarrassed that you’re still reading up to here )

My last impression of Gotham City from 1992’s Batman Begins was a dark, decaying and extremely depressing city of frightened citizens and I was thankful that the same city portrayed in The Dark Knight looks far less gloomy and much more suitable for human inhabitation with the additional bonus of making appreciation of the film much easier on the eyes

The main draw of The Dark Knight however, is not the self-appointed guardian of Gotham himself, not his fancy rides but the wild and unkempt Joker himself. Or specifically the late Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain, The Brothers Grimm) himself, who put in an amazingly mesmerizing performance as the deranged criminal genius who revels in unleashing wanton destruction and mayhem in Gotham City on top of brutal cold-blooded murders of his foes, minions and innocent civilians alike.

Heath Ledger, with his convincing portrayal of The Joker as a man with an uncannily thorough understanding of the human psyche who always seems to succeed despite his half-baked and haphazard schemes, steals the show whenever he’s onscreen which makes the whole 153 mins of the show breeze by.

OK, at this point I’m supposed to ask you readers to check out the official www.darkknight-asia.com to watch the trailer but I won’t since I’m sure you’re already itching to stop reading and go catch The Joker (and Batman) in action at your nearest cinemas now