Club Jade

The blogside. With a title like ‘We Don’t Need George Lucas,’ the latest Action/Reaction over at EU Cantina was was bound to be controversial. Chris has some interesting points (yes, George Lucas worship does get out of hand from some aspects of fandom) but I don’t really agree with everything he says (I have no regrets on our coverage of Red Tails or Amanda Lucas) And course we’ve always had coverage of things outside the realm of Star Wars and the Expanded Universe. I’m not so fond of the ‘telling other people how to be a fan’ aspect, but it’s certainly an issue worth giving some thought.

Street date shuffle. In responses to a query about Paul S. Kemp’s duology, Frank Parisi says it’s “a very ambitious project” but the first book won’t be coming out this November as it was previously (tentatively) scheduled.

Excerpt. The latest mini-excerpt of Denning’s Apocalypse comes with bonus audio linkage.

Photoshoppery. What if Judy Blume wrote Star Wars books? (Bonus linkage.)

Review. James looks at Dark Times: Out of the Wilderness #4.

The Phantom Menace is loose! Run for your lives! Or, chill out as we round up some of the press floating around about the movie. (And don’t forget that the new Her Universe stuff is now on sale!) Onward!

Reviews are in! MTV rounds up a couple from the pros. Our pal Bryan Young liked it. On the 3D, he says, “There was never a moment where I thought it was too overwhelming or too underwhelming.” Brian at Roqoo Depot is also favorable, calling it, “the single greatest post-processed 3D film that has graced the silver screen.”

Over at Entertainment Weekly, George Lucas talks about the 3D conversions came out of his efforts to get movie theaters to switch to digital, and why the format is beneficial to movies.

They also have some neat remembrances on Star Wars from Jeff Jensen, Marc Snetiker, Anthony Breznican and Stephan Lee. (Apparently EW has no lady staffers with SW memories.)

There’s also a photo gallery on their best and worst moments of the saga.

In today’s article, Keith Staskiewicz takes a look at how Episode I influenced special effects. Would we have Gollum if not for Jar Jar?

If you’re intrigued by some of the details Lucas mentioned in the EW video, learn more about The Phantom Menace’s 3D conversion from movieScope.

I’ve been looking at a lot of Phantom Menace stuff this week, and my favorite thing so far? Next Movie’s Eight biopics recast with Jar Jar. Yes, it’s total clickbait, but you certainly know by now that I love me some funny.

If you’re looking for something (sort of) serious, they also have an item about why Millennials (you know, those kids people us GenXers and GenCatalanos yell at to ‘get off our lawns’) don’t hate the prequels. But it’s in the form of a one-act play, so it’s not that serious.

CNN has a more straight-faced look at Star Wars, fandom and the reaction to Episode I.  You know it’s serious because they enlisted Henry Jenkins.

The Dearborn Press and Guide highlights Steve Mitchell, a Michigan 501ster. The Great Lakes Garrison will appear at a Detroit Pistons game tonight and several Phantom Menace showings throughout the state tomorrow.

What’s TPM going up against at the box office? I don’t think it has much to worry about from The Vow, a romantic drama starring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum… But the kid-friendly Journey 2: The Mysterious Island may also be a draw for the action-adventure crowd, not to mention the 3D big bucks.

Coming Soon is projecting The Vow to take the top spot, but has Episode I beating Journey by several million. Entertainment Weekly projects the same, but with a few more million between TPM and Journey.

And finally, for the bitterest kittens, here’s a little piece from my hometown paper: 10 reasons why not to see The Phantom Menace. (I’m rather partial to escaping to a more civilized age.) Or, swing over to see MTV’s Josh Horowitz argue TPM with Simon Pegg. Prequel-lovers, for you I have 10 reasons to love Jar Jar and MTV’s list of six underrated TPM characters.

We’ll be adding links to this post throughout the day, so check back!

Honors. Natalie Portman took home a Best Actress Golden Globe last night for Black Swan. We’ll chock up her joyful but rambly acceptance speech to pregnancy hormones.

Goals. Carrie Fisher is Jenny Craig’s newest celebrity spokesperson. “I would like to have the option of getting back into the metal bikini. I won’t be doing that, but I’d like the option,” she told UsMagazine.com.

Sports. I don’t get this in the least and it’s no doubt irrevelant at this point, but the deep thinkers at the New York Post pulled out a Return of the Jedi spoof/thing last week. I hear the Jets won, if that means anything.

In the world… Hollywood cameras keep rolling in Tunisia (Tatooine) through political turmoil.

Worth 1000′s latest Mate a Movie challenge is way too heavy on the Avatar riffs, but there are still some real gems like the two above.

When the stormies come marching in. io9 goes for the cheap and easy with a roundup of Star Wars fan art inspired by religious art. Half of it is photoshoppery and such that we’ve seen before, but the icons by Patrick King are pretty cool.

Theories. Some day George will want to buy a tropical island and sit around drinking mai tais all day, and then I’ll consider Disney buying Lucasfilm an actual possibility. For one thing, I don’t think the FCC would be too thrilled about it…

Facebook. There’s an unofficial Celebration V fan page you can join, if so inclined. Meanwhile, the latest tidbit on the con? You can win a free trip to it. Does that mean we’ll get a date before Halloween? We can but dream…

McAdvertising. Vader is shilling for McDonalds in Europe.

Lists. The Falcon and a couple of other Star Wars ships on Den of Geek’s top 75 spaceships.

You didn’t have to look very hard to find the multitudes of Disney/Marvel mashups this week, but in case you haven’t bothered, Worth1000 provides more.

CC BY-NC 2.0

A tribute to Andy Warhol by Mike Stimpson (aka Balakov on Flickr.)

Worth1000 is at it again with their latest mashup of Star Wars and fine art through the centuries. (No, to pick on the most obvious, Impressionism was not a Renaissance art movement. Shocking, I know!) But we’re all in it for the funny anyway.

“A wonderful soft play area that will really make you feel like you’re riding in a tie fighter!” Sure it will… If you live in the land of inadequate Photoshoppery. (via)

Worth1000 has a new Star Wars celebrity photoshopping post. There’s some really top-notch ones this time, but I couldn’t resist the Count George.