DBSW dug this up: A filk by Jeff & Maya Bohnhoff. Hey!
No shit Sunday: Anakin Skywalker is not entirely stable
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.
Video: The Bechdel Test for women in movies
The Bechdel Test or Mo Movie Measure (misnamed as it may be) is a simple formula that tests three simple things in a movie: a) if there are (named) female characters and b) that they talk to each other about c) something other than a man.
Most movies fail this by a mile, including the lions share of the Star Wars saga.
I believe The Phantom Menace (Shmi and Padme) and Attack of the Clones (Padme and Queen Jamillia, Padme and Beru) may be the only Star Wars movies that pass the Bechdel test… Though perhaps barely, Anakin being a topic (but not a romantic one) in all three conversations I’m thinking of. Thoughts?
The fandom minute: ESB in Entertainment Weekly, TPM/AOTC reviewer speaks
On the newstand. The 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back (and the upcoming Making of The Empire Strikes Back) lands the cover of this week’s Entertainment Weekly. The issue will be on stands (and hopefully in subscriber mailboxes) on Friday.
Prequel madness. With the release of his Attack of the Clones review, MTV has a an two-part interview with Mr. Plinkett/Mike Stoklasa of Red Letter Media for a sitdown on the reviews, copyright, mocking, and backlash. Meanwhile, Bryan Young continues his defense of The Phantom Menance.
Chartage. It’s equal mockery under the law for Star Wars, Star Trek, Firefly, Avatar and Lost fans in the sci-fi superfan reference manual.
Younglings. Head over to Offbeat Mama for Darth Aesop’s Death Star party. The balloon sabers are particularly brilliant.
Cake! Neatorama spotlights Star Wars cakes.
Video: Phantom Menace reviewer takes on Clones
The RedLetterMedia folks return with another multi-part takedown. And just to make things clear, in their own words this is: “Part review satire, part parody, part commentary, all prequel hating vitriolic comedy.” (I guess my percentages were off last time.) You’ve been warned.
I’m only embedding part 1, but here are the links to the rest: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
Everything old is new again in concept art
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.
The fourth is with Spike TV this week
“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.
The Star Wars prequels vs. The Matrix sequels
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?
Video: Artoo is a bastard
And that’s why we love him. Umm, some (subtitled) language. (via) Attack of the Clones beneath the cut. Continue reading “Video: Artoo is a bastard”
Interview roundup: Bocquet, Miller, and Seeley
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.