Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Okay, let’s tackle the bantha in the room. ‘Witches of the Mist’? Really? Were the gorillas busy? What kind of silly title is this? And more importantly, why focus on the witches? They were pretty prominent in the past two episodes, but here, the Sith take center stage. And to stretch this metaphor to its limit, those Sith sure know how to put on a show. Continue reading “The Clone Wars review: ‘Witches of the Mist’”
Anakin, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka head off to Middle-Earth Mortis in tonight’s ‘Overlords.’ The episode not only brings back Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon, but Pernilla August as Shmi Skywalker. Force visions for everyone?
MTV gets the exclusive scoop that the new Star Wars comic coming out from Dark Horse in May is called Star Wars: Jedi – The Dark Side and features Qui-Gon Jinn.
Written by Scott Allie with artwork by Mahmud Asrar, it features Qui-Gon going to prevent a civil war on the planet of one of his former padawans, Xanatos. Yep, they’re bringing in stuff from the Jedi Apprentice series. The article has a full interview with Allie on the series, which will start off with a five-issue arc, and may become ongoing.
Now that Star Wars: The Clone Wars has aired all three parts of the Nightsisters trilogy introducing Savage Opress, let’s see what the reviewers have been saying about this story arc. We’ve got our reviews of ‘Nightsisters’ and ‘Monster’ already, and Stooge’s word on ‘Witches of the Mist’ is coming soon. Will the critics be savage? Continue reading “The Clone Wars review roundup: Nightsisters trilogy”
Per usual there isn’t a whole lot in the Oscars for genre fans, though Inception did pretty well for itself with 8 nominations, including Best Picture. Christopher Nolan’s best director snub is making plenty of folks cranky, as is Daft Punk not getting a nod for their Tron: Legacy soundtrack. (Hell, Tron is only up for one award – Sound Editing. Ouch.)
And of course we have Star Wars alumni Natalie Portman up for Best Actress for Black Swan. Head over to StarWars.com for the full list of alumni, ILM, and Skywalker sound nods. Iron Man 2 is ILM’s sole nominee for the VFX – it’ll face Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, Hereafter and, naturally, Inception.
Also interesting is the supporting nomination for True Grit’s Hailee Steinfeld. It’s not a genre film, but Steinfeld is increasingly being talked up as a possibility to play Katniss in The Hunger Games adaption — even if she doesn’t get the Oscar this ups her profile considerably.
Today brings our first book release of the new year, John Jackson Miller’s Knight Errant.
You might have heard of it, since John Jackson Miller has been going above and beyond for this one. There’s a three-part Q & A on his blog (Plus a LEGO look at the Diligence,) an interviews with Lightsaber Rattling, About.com and, oh yeah, one with us. I’m not sure the guy sleeps.
And because it never rains when it can pour, there are two comics out Wednesday: Darth Vader and the Lost Command #1 (which I keep reading as The Last Command, which is so not right) and Legacy: War #2. Someone has set Nyna Calixte’s makeup gun to ‘whore’ and man is she pissed!
Meanwhile, if you’re wondering what to do with that spare $3000 you have laying around and want your coffee table and your coffee table books to be an all-in-one package, Frames is available for pre-order on Star Wars Shop. And to think people bitch about buying hardcovers…
True confession: The Razzies are my favorite movie awards, particularly in years that gave them plenty of crap to sift through. We’ve been so blessed this year: Genre nominations for worst picture include The Last Airbender and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, as well as the Matt Lanter-led spoof Vampires Suck.
Lanter was spared an lead acting nom, though nods went to Twilight’s Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart as well as Jonah Hex’s Megan Fox. In the supporting categories, Airbender’s Nicola Peltz, Dev Patel and Jackson Rathbone (also for Eclipse) all got nods. And not to leave anyone out, both Eclipse and Airbender are up for Worst Screen Ensemble.
Both films, plus Vampires Suck, also hold court in Worst Director, Worst Screenplay (if Shyamalan isn’t a lock for that, I’ll eat my ATLA DVDs) and Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel.
In the brand-new Worst Eye-Gouging Mis-Use of 3-D category, the nominations are Cats & Dogs 2: Revenge of Kitty Galore, Clash of the Titans, The Last Airbender, Nutcracker 3-D and Saw VII.
Basically, you know it’s a good/bad year when a dud like Clash of the Titans can’t muster up more than two nominations.
Next Friday, Dark Horse will announce (via MTV) a brand-new comic series featuring “one of the most beloved-characters in the universe.” More from in the original post:
The series will be written by a well-known creator who hasn’t worked within the universe for a few years, and will be drawn by an artist coming to Dark Horse for the first time.
On the Dark Horse boards, editor Randy Stradley narrows things down just a tad: The character is from the movies, and it’s not Yoda. What’s your guess? (via)
UPDATE: Stradley clarifies the ‘beloved’ wording:
I feel the need for a disclaimer coming on here. Please be advised, I was not consulted on the “beloved” wording. I’m not saying it’s wrong, but I’m betting “beloved” not the word that will come to mind for the majority of fans when they find out who it is. For some it will be, sure. But for most — though they may love the character — other words will seem more appropriate.
You’ll see.
Surprise! Despite earlier reports that the show has been shelved, Deadline reports today that David E. Kelly’s Wonder Woman pilot has been given the green light over at NBC. Now we can officially start to worry if ‘the Ally McBeal guy’ can pull it off.
Savage Opress made his broadcast debut in ‘Monster,’ last week’s episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. As the middle story in the Nightsisters arc, it’s a nearly Jedi-free episode as the key players are all on the dark side. While Savage impresses both Mother Talzin and Count Dooku, ‘Monster’ impressed me with action and story. Continue reading “The Clone Wars review: ‘Monster’”