Month: May 2009

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The Star Wars prequels vs. The Matrix sequels

The Oregonian’s Shawn Levy ponders which highly anticipated set of -quels let viewers down the most. His conclusion is… Not really all that surprising, actually.

Well, with both trilogies complete and behind us, I’m not sure that those people would have been correct in the least. Lucas improved on quite a bit of “SWEP1” in the subsequent prequels, while the Wachowskis absolutely crash-landed “The Matrix” in their sequels to it. (Let’s leave off “Speed Racer,” shall we, so as not to be overly cruel….) Especially given a decade of reassessment, I’d call Lucas’ three-film enterprise by far the more successful.

(Via io9, where they are polling, and Star Wars is ‘winning.’ Frustrated childhood dreams rear their ugly heads again!)

And can I just say randomly that The Fifth Element beats them all in capturing the madcap cheesy fun aspect of Star Wars? Or will you stone me?

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Checking on on the live-action show

Tagne of StarWars-Universe.com found that the Star Wars live-action show is listed as being in pre-production by the Screen Australia (Warning: PDF link) website. He contacted Lucasfilm, who said:

The live-action series is still too far off for any immediately impending announcements, but feel free to keep checking in!

Screen Australia is probably jumping the gun – we have nothing solid (only hearsay) about casting yet, and if Wikipedia is to be trusted (I know, I know,) that at least would come before pre-production began officially. But the fact is, Lucasfilm is playing things close to their chest at this point, so we just don’t know.

It’s not much, but hey: Any little bit, right?

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Details on the second Clone Wars DVD

tcw-clone-commandosThe Clone Wars’ second DVD will be titled “Clone Commandos” and include the episodes “Rookies,” “Storm Over Ryloth,” “Innocents of Ryloth,” and “Liberty of Ryloth,” according to DVDActive. (They also give a release date of September 15.)

The Ryloth trilogy seems an odd choice considering they were among S1’s last aired episodes, but TFN’s reasoning seems sound enough.

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EUbits: Sansweet’s 1000, Random Clones, Bohnhoff’s plotting and something gamey

Nonfiction. Here we have the cover for Star Wars: 1,000 Collectibles. Steve Sansweet and Anne Neumann take us into the depths of Rancho Obi-Wan… Okay, maybe not the depths. Look for it October 1st.

Random. TheForce.Net has some random updates on upcoming books, mostly The Clone Wars kids stuff, which honestly I’m not even trying to keep track of. There is an episode guide that might be of interest to some.

A Padawan’s Journal. Bohnhoff on Plotting the Wily Star Wars Novel and First Impressions.

Games. Another Battlefront on the way. On that note, here’s the Threat of Peace web comic is now on #7.

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Also for free: Lost Tribe of the Sith eBook

lost-tribe-1UPDATE: And it’s up on StarWars.com.

I really really hate linking directly to PDFs, but since Borders themselves are loath to give it an actual product page, instead just tossing it the sidebar on their Sci-Fi page , here it is: Lost Tribe of the Sith #1: Precipice, for free on Borders.com. (via) And yes, Sue Rostoni did confirm that it is for real yesterday, in case the PDF isn’t proof enough.

If nothing else, there’s a Sith-centric Fate of the Jedi: Omen preview in there, starting on page 31.

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The fandom minute: Bathrooms, mummies, roller derby, games, and cake (always cake)

I have a feeling no one actually uses this. Tour the Star Wars bathroom. And if they do, I feel very sorry for whoever has to clean it.

Fanmade. Mummy Boy-customs by Leecifer.

Event. The Indiana 501st and Rebel Legion are heading out to cheer on battling roller derby teams at Cyclone Wars this weekend. (via)

Lists. Jennifer Volpe’s Top Ten Best ‘Star Wars’ Games. I’m taking a strange ornery pride in the fact that I haven’t played a single one. (Please don’t tell me to start. Some people don’t read: I don’t game.)

And finally, cake. You know it’s love when she makes you a Star Destroyer.