Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Seth Green has dropped a few hints to IGN UK about the comedy show he’s working on with Lucasfilm, including that there won’t be many similarities to The Clone Wars.
He also confirmed that the series will take place during the original trilogy and will focus “on things that are funny about the universe as opposed to the wars themselves.”
M. Night Shyamalan’s movie adaptation of Nickelodeon’s much-loved Avatar: The Last Airbender cartoon has been controversial from the casting on down, spawning an entire movement of fans disappointed to see nearly all the leads in the Asian-inspired series cast as Caucasians. That’s been hard to miss, at least if you’re in fandom. But the film is opening this week and the reviews are brutal – even without the casting issue.
The grand poobah of movie reviewers, Roger Ebert, calls it “an agonizing experience.” While I’m not sure where he’s getting some of his facts,* little is spared from his critique, including ILM’s effects. (Ouch.)
*The story takes place in the future? Not in the cartoon. Misunderstanding or Shyamalanism?
Other reviewers aren’t much kinder: It’s currently running at 9% on Rotten Tomatoes. And even one of the few positive reviews calls Shyamalan’s script “wooden.”
While it’s hard to predict the reaction of consumers who propelled the brain–sucking Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen to #2 at the box office last year, between Shyamalan’s reeling reputation, the already overwhelmingly negative reviews, and the alienation of a core base of fans, things aren’t looking so good.
The most we can hope for is that the cartoon comes out unscathed: For fans, I can recommend Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Art of the Animated Series, which I finished this afternoon. It’s art and sketches from the original show, a nice look into the world the cartoon, and if you like Art of books, it’s hard to go wrong.
Ewan spotted these summaries in the Random House Spring 2011 catalog. First up, Joe Schreiber’s Death Troopers followup, Red Harvest:
Strange things are happening in a Sith Academy, where the Dark Lord in charge has barricaded himself away, unexplained violence is on the rise, and the apprentices are growing more and more frightened. When a mercenary arrives with a delivery for the Sith Lord and a hostage Jedi
in tow, the situation reaches a boiling point. Only a Jedi Master, looking for the missing Jedi, can hope to get her and himself out alive.
The other, for Aaron Allston’s Conviction, contains some hefty spoilers for the next book, Troy Denning’s Vortex, which will be out in December. Highlight to read:
In this installment of the bestselling Fate of the Jedi series, the evil entity called Abeloth is on the run–but still not giving up it’s plans to destroy the galaxy. Despite the almost-friendship between Ben Skywalker and the Sith apprentice Vestara, the Jedi and Sith have dropped all pretenses of cooperation, and each side is making plans to rout the other.
And on Coruscant, ex-Jedi Tahiri Veila awaits sentencing for the crime of treason, and although they’ve effectively removed Chief of State Natasi Daala from power, the Jedi Council is in no position to help…
Conviction will be out April 19; Red Harvest on January 25.
Boy, was I shocked when I looked at the shipping list: Three comics and a trade! It’s like Christmas! Assuming you read the comics, anyway. Headlining on Wednesday will be Legacy #49, the penultimate issue. Bringing up the rear are Invasion: Rescues #2 and Dark Times #17 and the ninth Legacy collection, ‘Monster’.
None of this is all that exciting, but I’m going to try and keep up with the CV bits and pieces every five days or so, and better 45 than 44!
Because we’re just not starved enough for a half-decent movie this year…
Artist Martin Firrell has begun developing a series of art videos about heroism and has changed his focus from real-life soldiers to sci-fi heroes. It’s a mix of artistic video and interview.
Some very interesting comments from Joe Flanigan, Kate Mulgrew and Nathan Fillion.
I’m not sure what the female fan’s reaction will be to Joe Flanigan’s opinion on what attracts women to the hero (second video in). He raises an interesting point, though. And Kate Mulgrew has some interesting comments about the difference between the male and female Starship captains. Worth checking out.
With Jabba the poo! (By Patrick Boivin, who did the Fett Flashdance video from a few years back.)
It’s that time of year again… Here’s the new batch of Dance Off with the Star Wars Stars from Star Wars Weekends.
I don’t hate the word – certainly there are worse things to be called – but I don’t like the term ‘fangirl.’
Mainly because of the associations it brings up for me: Screeching, squeeing, inappropriate, out of control and usually prepubescent. The prototypical example:
I know, that’s well before even I was born, and it might as well be the dark ages for most of you. Nowadays, we call them Twilight fans.
(I kid. Sort of.)
So, please: Don’t call me a fangirl. I am female. I am a fan. But I don’t screech, I don’t approach actors with fandom crap that they’d probably prefer not to know about, and it takes something near to an act of god to make me squee.
And I’d rather not be called a Sister of the Force, either. This is not a silly homebrew internet roleplay. We are not all 12, and we certainly don’t need any more reason to be treated like mythological beasts. And hell, Star Wars fandom on the whole has done pretty well without a label. I say we keep that tradition.