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April 3, 2009August 25, 2009

The Clone Wars as a season, why little boys like Star Wars and more…

Several reviewers have summed up their opinions after seeing a whole season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. IGN gives it a 7.7 out of 10, saying “it has a ton of great action and adventure, is increasingly great to look at, and has had some surprisingly effective character moments.”, calling out ‘Rookies’, ‘Cloak of Darkness’ and ‘Trespass’ among their favorite episodes. Ki-Aaaron-Mundi blogs about the impressive first season on his sw.com blog, pointing out the good, the bad, and the ugly. Lazypadawan highlights the sophistication of the writing, and the great new characters.

Reviews are also coming in for the Star Wars: The Clone Wars DVD – A Galaxy Divided (containing 4 episodes containing 4 episodes: the Yoda-centric ‘Ambush’ and the Malevolence three-parter). IGN also panned it for weak episodes and no extras – good for kids, but adults should wait for the full season 1 release. SWCloneWarsReviews sums it up: the reviewer bought the DVD so you don’t have to.

Meanwhile, SW.com takes a look at the latest issue of the UK’s The Clone Wars comic/magazine. EUCantina reported on briefly seeing “The Force Unleashed – Special Edition” on Gamefly, releasing at the end of September.

And the Washington Post’s Parenting blog looks at Star Wars and other kid obsessions, keying off of a Slate article by Emily Bazelon on why Star Wars resonates with little boys.

March 30, 2009March 30, 2009

Passing away: Angel‘s Andy Hallett, film composer Maurice Jarre

We are saddened to report the passing of Maurice Jarre and Andy Hallett.

Maurice Jarre was a French film composer who won 3 Oscars for Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago, and A Passage to India, and wrote the music for over 150 films, and was considered one of the pioneers of film scoring. He passed away on Sunday of cancer at the age of 84.

Andy Hallett was best known for his role of Lorne/The Host, a horned green demon owner of the karaoke bar on the TV show Angel, and also sang on the Angel soundtrack. He passed on Monday of heart failure at the age of 33.

March 30, 2009March 30, 2009

Sci-fi world this-and-that…

All the news that’s flashed before my eyes:
Supergirl and Wash are being cast on the miniseries remake of V, reports io9. I think they mean Laura Vandervoort, of Smallville, and Alan Tudyk of Firefly. They’ll be joining Firefly‘s Inara Baccarin, and Lost‘s Elizabeth Mitchell. They’ll have the whole set if they can also nab any of the Star Trek alumni who also were on Heroes and any Farscape/Stargate cast member.

Speaking of Star Trek, the new movie’s executive producer, Damon Lindelof, told MTV that despite some TNG characters appearing in the movie’s official lead-in comic, there aren’t any cameos of the TNG main cast in the film, which will be 2 hours long.

With the Red Dwarf special only a few weeks away, Chris Barrie talks about Carbug in this exclusive video.

And Seven magazine takes a fresh look at the debate: Star Wars vs Star Trek: Revenge of the Sith and the Trek reboot.

March 26, 2009December 29, 2011

New clips from Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings for Wii

The long awaited Indiana Jones video game, Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings has a little more unearthed this week, with this video featurette on starwars.com with the developers showing how using your Wiimote will do all the things Indy does – punching, flying, shooting, swatting creepy crawlies and cracking that whip. So how will that translate for the non-Wii versions (PS2, PSP, DS)?

March 26, 2009July 21, 2009

Cad Bane takes The Clone Wars viewers and reviewers hostage

Last week’s The Clone Wars season finale ‘Hostage Crisis’ brought in the viewers – Cartoon Network posted a viewership of 3.3 million (more than the 2.4 million brought in by the Battlestar Galactica finale), its best performance since the premiere, according to USA Today’s Nielsen’s roundup. Here’s what the reviewers are saying:

io9 was pleased with “a surprising new-found maturity in the writing.”
SW Clone Wars Reviews liked showing the Anakin / Padme dynamic as an important part of the saga but knocked the episode for bringing back Ziro the Hutt.
Big Shiny Robot says that ‘Hostage Crisis’ stole the crown for favorite episode over ‘Duel of the Droids’, calling it downright spectacular.”
IGN gave plus points for Cad Bane and Aurra Sing, minus points for Ziro the Hutt, and thought “The idea of Anakin doing his best John McClane impression, as he attempted to free Padme, Bail Organa and other captured prisoners … was fun.”
Dauntless Media gives it a B for some plausibility concerns over the ability to storm the Senate, but likes seeing Anakin and Padme interact.
LazyPadawan points out that with Anakin and Padme, a lightsaber is sometimes more than a lightsaber and says “What’s there not to love in this episode?”

And if you missed the Club Jade review of ‘Hostage Crisis’, you can read and comment on it here.

March 24, 2009

Clips of Caprica: BSG meets the Matrix?

Amazon.com has this exclusive clip from Caprica, the Battlestar Galactica prequel series that will have its premiere episode on DVD/digital download on April 21, 2009, but won’t actually air as a series until 2010. Want more clips? Movieweb has seven clips available, and io9 briefly talks about them.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post looks to Battlestar Galactica for 10 business lessons. Lesson #8: Don’t store all your backups in one place.

March 24, 2009July 21, 2009

The Clone Wars review: ‘Hostage Crisis’

In the past few episodes, The Clone Wars has been kicking it up a notch, and the season finale, ‘Hostage Crisis’, is a definitely an extra serving of BAM! Imagine the Clone Wars if all the villains were competent, and this is what you get. Cad Bane and his crew of criminals live up to the hype – they’re lethal, they get the job done, and they are intimidating. The only hitch in their plan to raid the Senate building and take some senators hostage as a way to free Ziro the Hutt: Padmé’s celebrating Sneak-Your-Husband-Into-Work Day. Continue reading “The Clone Wars review: ‘Hostage Crisis’”

March 23, 2009March 23, 2009

Vulcan to get Trek pre-release screening, Red Dwarf, Terminator Salvation and more…

As the geek world turns:

The town of Vulcan, Alberta, will have a special pre-release screening of Star Trek, after Leonard Nimoy went to bat for them to the Paramount bigwigs who chose Sydney, Australia for the world premiere. But wait, Vulcan doesn’t even have a movie theater!
Leonard Nimoy talks about being Spock one more time, and gives a spoiler as to his scene.
Some new Red Dwarf: Back to Earth photos have popped up, as well as a postcard from Lister.
NPR ponders: Does the end of BSG mean dividends for Dollhouse?
Moviehole reports that the ending of Terminator Salvation has been changed since the original ending was leaked online last month. Maybe they’ll put in that line about the Salvation Army? Will this affect the prequel novel “Terminator Salvation: From the Ashes” written by Timothy Zahn that came out last week?
And with the latest promo material showcasing the cast of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, cinematical wonders where are Ryan Reynolds and Dominic Monaghan?

March 18, 2009March 18, 2009

Celebrate Windu Wednesday with some The Clone Wars reviews

What’s the word on last week’s episode of The Clone Wars? We’ve heard from Stooge in his guest review here on Club Jade that “‘Liberty on Ryloth’ is as good as it gets”, and here’s what the other voices in the online world have to say:

Big Shiny Robot is entertained but feels something isn’t quite right — and makes a Golden Axe reference.
IGN is glad to see Mace Windu in action.
io9 feels that with the conclusion of this three part arc, the show has found its equilibrium – but doesn’t talk much about the episode itself.
Dauntless Media feels that ‘Liberty’ doesn’t live up to the standard of the series.
LazyPadawan reviews the Twi’lek Trilogy of episodes all at once, saying that this storyline “demonstrates how far they’ve come in the animation within a single year.”

And preparing us for this week’s finale episode “Hostage Crisis”, Dave Filoni talks up the new villain, the Duros gunslinger, Cad Bane.

March 16, 2009March 16, 2009

The Clone Wars: Mace Windu, Catcher in the Ryloth!

StarWars.com has a couple updates related to last Friday’s episode of The Clone Wars: “Liberty on Ryloth”, wrapping up the three-part Ryloth arc. Mace Windu teamed up with a Twi’lek resistance leader, Cham Syndulla, to help overtake the Separatists controlling the capital. Here’s a few tidbits to hold you over until the Club Jade review gets posted:

Episode Guide for “Liberty on Ryloth”
Dave Filoni’s video commentary on the origins of Cham Syndulla as a resistance fighter, and why Twi’leks have French accents.
An interview with the voice of Mace Windu, Terrence ‘TC’ Carson.
Pete Vilmur looks at Mace Windu collectibles: toys, posters, EU.

And gearing up for the big season finale, we get a video preview and preview episode guide of “Hostage Crisis” with bounty hunters taking over the Senate. Ziro the Hutt’s back!