Club Jade

Shamelessly indulging in melodramatic space trash since 1995

No shit Sunday: Anakin Skywalker is not entirely stable

June 6th, 2010 by Dunc · 3 Comments

French psychiatrists and psychologists have determined that Anakin’s actions in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith are likely the result of borderline personality disorder and the character is in need of psychiatric help. To which every Star Wars fan on the planet says: Duh.

→ 3 CommentsFiled: geek life · star wars
Tagged: · ·

StarWars.com’s Hyperspace to end in 2011

May 5th, 2010 by Dunc · 8 Comments

Hyperspace is going away next year.

Started right before Revenge of the Sith began principal photography as subscription section on StarWars.com, Hyperspace went through several incarnations. During the ROTS filming it offered fans extraordinary access to film’s set in Sydney with a live webcam, chats, and a set diary by Pablo Hidalgo. (It also had the nice side effect of effectively ending the cut-throat fansite spoiler-wars that marked the runup to The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones.)

However, once Revenge of the Sith was released, Hyperspace had much less to offer subscribers (even the ‘ad-free’ promise eventually expired.) Features were added, like the blogs, but the content over the past few years has been irregular and often only of interest only to those who enjoy fairly obscure parts of the GFFA.

It even merged with the fan club and became part of a package deal with Star Wars Insider for a time. The Insider is no longer included, but the Official Fan Club still uses the ‘Hyperspace’ name. (If Hyperspace is truly being discontinued, will the fan club be getting another makeover in the coming year…?)

I can’t say I’m surprised at this – the ‘exclusive’ content has been sparse for years and StarWarsShop probably brings in far more revenue – but Hyperspace has been around for quite a while in internet times, and it’s entwined with some particularly interesting times in the fandom for me. But it’s clearly been on the backburner for quite a while, so might as well give up the ghost and move on. And hey, what the hell – I renewed my subscription one last time this evening for old time’s sake.

→ 8 CommentsFiled: fandom · lucasfilm · star wars
Tagged: · · ·

Highlights from Rifftrax’s mocking of Revenge of the Sith, The Empire Strikes Back, and Star Wars

November 26th, 2009 by Dunc · 2 Comments

In the spirit of Turkey Day

(Man, do I miss Turkey Day.)

Laugh more with highlights from The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and, of course, Twilight. (There are even more on Youtube if you need to waste more time.)

→ 2 CommentsFiled: film · humor · star wars
Tagged: · · · ·

The fandom minute: New Moon takes Sith to its knees

November 18th, 2009 by Dunc · 2 Comments

Oh, it’s on now, sparkles. Fandango’s advance ticket sales for New Moon, the second Twilight movie, have surpassed Revenge of the Sith’s record. I am resisting so many choking vs. c-section jokes right now, but mostly just thankful it wasn’t Transformers.

Oh honey, no. Someone decided that yesterday was World Wide Wookiee Life Day. Here concludes my obligatory mention of the Holiday Special for the season. Call me when Santa Maul wakes up, okay? (via)

Phone stuffs. A Trench Run game is now available in the iTunes store priced at $4.99 for those with compatible devices. (The lightsaber app is still free.) Meanwhile, those who possess a lesser device an LG Arena KM900 can get some custom Star Wars stuff, including a ringtone.

List. Star Wars is the indisputable champion of Geekdad’s top ten bad messages from good movies, at least if you don’t count Disney as a single entity.

At random. Yoda in the form of the new Twitter default icon.

→ 2 CommentsFiled: fandom · film · gaming · technology
Tagged: · · · · ·

Everything old is new again in concept art

October 7th, 2009 by Dunc · 1 Comment

Revenge Of The Sith concept art by Ryan Church

Any excuse for a gallery, and this time io9′s is concept art that reimagines the greatest space epics. The Star Wars offerings are the best of the bunch, naturally.

→ 1 CommentFiled: art · star wars · stargate · tv
Tagged: · · · · · · · ·

Video flashback: Revenge of the Sith l33t trailer

September 3rd, 2009 by Dunc · 1 Comment

I was asked to create a CJ Youtube account at JadeCon, and I finally got around to it. No uploads yet, but lots of favorites from old posts and such. In the process, I came across this oldie but goodie, the ROTS trailer captioned in hacker-speak.

More video flashbacks are coming… You’ve been warned.

→ 1 CommentFiled: humor · star wars · video
Tagged: · ·

The fourth is with Spike TV this week

June 29th, 2009 by Dunc · No Comments

“Contrary to what you’ve just seen, war is neither glamorous nor fun. There are no winners; only losers. There are no good wars, with the following exceptions: the American Revolution, World War II, and the Star Wars Trilogy. If you’d like to learn more about war, there’s lots of books in your local library, many of them with cool gory pictures.”

I doubt this Bart Simpson quote is what they had in mind, but Spike TV is celebrating the ultimate result of the first with an airing of the third next weekend. Which is to say, look for a Star Wars movie to air each night leading up to July 4 – beginning tonight at 6pm with The Phantom Menace.

→ No CommentsFiled: star wars · swtv
Tagged: · · · · · · · ·

The Star Wars prequels vs. The Matrix sequels

May 30th, 2009 by Dunc · 4 Comments

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?

→ 4 CommentsFiled: film · star wars
Tagged: · · · · ·

MTV takes the saga out for Memorial weekend

May 22nd, 2009 by Dunc · 4 Comments

IMAGE: Episode IV

In their ongoing quest to air anything but actual music, MTV will be showing all six Star Wars movies throughout the holiday weekend. (Hey, at least it’s not The Hills!) According to StarWars.com, it will go thusly:

  • Saturday, May 23: The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones.

  • Sunday, May 24: Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.
  • Memorial Day, Monday, May 25: The Empires Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

Check MTV’s schedule (in EST) or your local listings for times.

→ 4 CommentsFiled: star wars · swtv
Tagged: · · · · ·

Interview roundup: Bocquet, Miller, and Seeley

February 17th, 2009 by Dunc · 1 Comment

Lightsabre talks to production designer Gavin Bocquet, who worked on Return of the Jedi, Young Indy, the prequel trilogy and Stardust. Meanwhile, over at EUC, they have author Karen Miller and are taking questions for cover artist Dave Seeley.

→ 1 CommentFiled: expanded universe · star wars
Tagged: · · · · · · ·