Once Upon a Geek

Okay, I did the unthinkable.  I actually went and saw STAR WARS: CLONE WARS.  My eight and a half year old step-son wanted to see it, and I guess I wasn’t as vehemently opposed as many others were.  There has been a lot of negative press and discussion around this movie.  Last week it was even a topic of discussion over on THE UNIQUE GEEK.  Going into the movie I was curious as to whether it was really that awful, or had just gotten a bad rap thanks to all the Lucas hatred out there.

To be honest, after watching the movie I didn’t think it was really that bad.  I know several reviewers have given it a “D” or “F”, but I don’t think those grades are merited.  I believe those reviews were influenced by many peoples general dissatisfaction with Lucas’ more recent Star Wars efforts.  Was it a fantastic film?  No.  Was it 98 minutes of entertainment that I was willing to pay for?  Yes.  Would I go see it again?  Probably.

I find it interesting that the Cartoon Network “Clone Wars” from 2003 is beloved by many fans.  Yet this incarnation of “Clone Wars” has earned severe indignation from the masses.  I’m not really sure why.  This version of “Clone Wars” actually picks up the previous “Clone Wars” storyline and continues it.  I think that if someone enjoyed the 2003 “Clone Wars” then there is a reasonable chance they will enjoy this version too.  If the dissatisfaction for this movie stems from fans disgust of George Lucas, then that’s not really fair either.  George Lucas did not write or direct this movie.  He’s listed as “Executive Producer”, but that’s it.  IMDB does list him as a writer, but he does not appear in the actual credits of the film (and IMDB is notorious for errors).  I’ve been a big proponent for sometime that the Star Wars universe is now better shepherded in others hands, rather than George’s.  So I definitely think these creators deserve a chance to improve the Star Wars universe.

This movie is clearly targeted at a younger audience than the main Star Wars films (hence the young Padawan and the Hutt baby).  Additionally, it definitely had the feel of a pilot for the upcoming TV series.  However, there were some really great moments.  For example, Obi-Wan Kenobi is totally freakin’ bad ass in combat.  Additionally, Commander Rex (an ARC trooper) is my favorite new Star Wars character.  He’s in command of the 501st legion and he totally rocked!  Even Anakin’s new Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, was interesting.  I liked the way she and Anakin interacted.  I’ve already found myself wondering what happens to her down the line after the Jedi purge.

In regard to my step-son, here is an audio clip in which he provides his feedback on the movie and his thoughts on all the negative reviews it’s been getting…

If you can’t use the embedded player, than you can find the audio file by clicking here.

Finally, after watching the movie my step-son was so inspired that he got out many of his Star Wars toys  (along with other toys) and we had a Clone Wars skirmish of our own.  Here you can see the Republic army ready for battle (yes, that’s a Cobra Hiss tank substituting for a Republic tank), along with the Separatist army preparing an ambush.

So I would recommend you watch the movie and decide for yourself whether it’s good or not.  Just because Lucas himself has lost his creativity, that doesn’t mean others don’t have worthwhile things to add to the legacy.

I recently read the trade paperback of Sean Wang’s “Runners”. Wow, this was a great sci-fi comic! The story chronicles the misadventures of reluctant smuggler Roka Nostaco and his ragtag alien crew as they struggle to complete hazardous runs through outlaw space and against all odds. I agree completely with James Mishler’s review from Comic Buyer’s Guide, “This is what Star Wars comic books should be like: fresh stories, living characters, non-stop banter, action and adventure.”

I stumbled across “Runners” in a recent Diamond Previews issue. Previews featured an ad for the trade paperback along with a recommendation. The art looked great, so I gave it a shot. This was one gamble that paid off. The illustrations in this book are top-notch! Sean Wang got his big break years ago drawing some of the Tick comic books. Obviously that training paid off here. Wang really has a grasp of body language and expressions. He’s also bursting with creativity. In regard to alien design, it seemed that Wang’s pencil was channeling George Lucas’ creative energy (on one of George’s good days). On top of that, he has a good grasp of pacing, panel design, background detail, and incredibly clean lines. After I read each issue in the trade paperback, I would flip back just to look over the art and make sure I didn’t miss any brilliant details.

In addition to great art, it’s a solid space romp about smugglers doing their best to complete a job. The main characters run into roadblocks along the way that make for an interesting story. The banter is great; each character has a distinct personality; and you really get caught up in the cinematographic feeling of each action scene.

This first trade paperback is called, “Runners: Bad Goods” and is available from Sean Wang’s website, or your local comic book shop can probably order it for you. The next mini-series still awaiting publication is called, “Runners: The Big Snow Job“. It’s scheduled to be published by Archaia Studios Press, but they’ve suffered some delays recently. If you want to see some preview pages of the fantastic artwork, there are several on Sean Wang’s website.

I can’t recommend this series enough. Give it a try! If you don’t want to commit the money, contact me. Maybe I’ll loan you my copy!

A few weeks back I wrote a blog post on a book I was reading, ”Indiana Jones and the Seven Veils”.  It was an older book that was published back in 1991, but I read it to tide me over until I got around to seeing “Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull”.  Well, I finished this book and enjoyed it (definitely more traditional Indiana Jones than the new movie).  This adventure took place between the “Young Indiana Jones Chronicles” TV series and “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, and definitely captured the spirit of Indy.  I would recommend it to anyone who liked ”Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”.  It felt more in-tune with that film than the others.  As I mentioned before, it covered all the good bits of Indiana Jones like lost ruins, booby traps, things going wrong for Indy, a beautiful girl, and almost losing his hat.  The only negative comment I have is that the story ended somewhat abruptly, however, I understand why they had to do that.  You’d have to read the story to understand what I mean. 

Now I’m reading another older book (1993), Doctor Who The New Adventures “Deceit” by Peter Darvill-Evans.  These original novels by Virgin publishing started shortly after the first Doctor Who TV series was cancelled.  These books tackled stories too broad and deep for the small screen, and took Doctor Who into previously unexplored realms of time and space.  They explored much more mature themes and really helped push the storytelling for Doctor Who forward.  The stories were very enjoyable, featured plots that would run across multiple novels, and really kept the Doctor Who torch burning during the lean years (between the end of the first TV series and the 1996 TV movies).  I’d be willing to say that the current TV series would not have been so successful without these novels.  In fact, several of the authors for the new TV series wrote New Adventures novels first, such as: Russell T Davies, Paul Cornell, Mark Gatiss, Gareth Roberts, and Steven Moffat (he wrote a short story).  Also worth noting, the season three two-parter, “Human Nature” and “Family of Blood” was an adaptation of the New Adventures novel “Human Nature” by Paul Cornell. 

The New Adventures novels followed the adventures of the Sylvester McCoy Doctor, along with Ace, and several new companions.  The most popular of these newly-created companions is Professor Bernice Summerfield.  She totally kicks ass and eventually got her own line of books and audio dramas.  The reason I chose to read “Deceit” (book 13 out of the 61 books published) was because Abslom Daak has an appearance in this one.  I’m about 100 pages in and the book is very enjoyable.  I had forgotten that the New Adventures books take a while to get used to.  They say most books are written at a 6th grade level.  I would say these books are written at a slightly higher level, which requires some additional focus from the reader.  One of the interesting things about the New Adventures novels is that the Doctor typically doesn’t show up for the first 50 pages.  It can be a bit frustrating at first, but it gives the novelist some time to really develop the supporting characters.

After “Deceit”, I’ll be reading Star Wars Legacy of the Force “Fury” by Aaron Allston. “Legacy of the Force” has been a surprisingly good run of Star Wars novels.  “Fury” is the seventh book in a nine book cycle.  I’ll have to write a post about this series sooner or later.  I’m loving it!

After that, I’ll probably read ”Indiana Jones and the Genesis Deluge” by Rob Macgregor.  I’ve purchased the book and read the first few pages.  Even though I was only a few pages in, I found it really compelling.  I can’t wait to get around to this one.

There you go… my summer reading list. 

The name “B-Wing” has always bothered me.  I believe I can safely say that some of you are thinking, “hell ya, that’s always bugged the crap out of me too!”  While another percentage of you are thinking, “what the frig is a B-Wing, and why do I care?”

The B-Wing is a spaceship from the movie “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi” (don’t you dare refer to it as “Episode 6″ around me).  However, unlike all the other letter-named ships in the series (i.e. X-Wing, Y-Wing, and A-Wing), the ship design doesn’t resemble the letter of the alphabet. 

Here are some images to demonstrate my point.  First row (l-to-r): X-Wing and Y-Wing.  Second row (l-to-r): A-Wing and B-Wing.

Clearly the B-Wing name doesn’t match its body design.  It doesn’t look anything like a “B”!  In fact, the B-Wing sure looks a lot like the lower case letter “t”.  You’d think it would be called the “T-Wing”.  I suspect someone at ILM had their radio up too loud listening to “Maneater” by Daryl Hall and John Oates.  Because of the noise, they simply misheard “bee” in place of ”tee” and it stuck.  Once Kenner started making the toys, they realized they couldn’t go back and change it to “T-Wing” (especially after the whole 4-LOM/Zuckuss debacle from “Empire Strikes Back”).

Now before you go believing that crap about “B-Wing” being named for the Nebulon-B frigate, you gotta realize that’s a “expanded universe” retcon.  So I don’t believe for a second that was the plan back in 1983. 

I blame Hall & Oates. 

I am still in awe of the Steampunk Star Wars action figures created by Sillof’s Workshop.  He posted them a while ago, but I was looking at them again recently.  If you haven’t seen them, you must check them out.  The amount of creativity and craftsmanship that went into these is amazing.  I don’t want to steal his site’s thunder, so I’m only posting one of the pics below.  This is the Steampunk C-3PO.  Isn’t that awesome?!?!

Additionally, he has done Victorian Avengers, Gaslight Justice League, Star Wars Re-Visioned, Star Wars: 1942, Dune: House Atreides, Daredevil, and many more.  You’ve got to check out his work.  Wow… just wow.  A link to his site is below…

It’s a big year for the continuing saga of Star Wars.  This year will see the new “The Clone Wars” cartoon and the new multimedia event “The Force Unleashed”.  Even though I know better, I’m finding myself interested in these items.

Click here to view for the new “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” trailer.  I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this new animation style, but I’m more impressed than I expected to be.  I really expected to hate this look after falling in love with the original Cartoon Network version of Clone Wars.  Lucas says the new style was inspired by the look of the old Thunderbirds TV series.  That interview can be found here.

This new Clone Wars premiers first as a theatrical movie on August 15, 2008.  Then it will be followed up with a television series starting in the fall on Cartoon Network.  This series takes place between Episodes II and III.  Looks like Anakin has a padawan of his own this time, Ahsoka Tano.  On the down side, that’s not Frank Oz doing the voice of Yoda. 

Interestingly enough, Star Wars has another major project this year also.  It’s called “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed“.  It was original supposed to launch in Spring 2008, but now it’s been postponed until September.  I gotta think the postponement has something to do with the new Clone Wars cartoon.

This multimedia event will have numerous products that tie-in.  The centerpiece is a new video game, but there will also be a tie-in novel, a graphic novel, action figures, a reference book, and a role-playing supplement.  This event is being marketed somewhat like “Shadows of the Empire” was back in the 1990’s.  I personally find myself more excited about “The Force Unleashed” than the new “Clone Wars”.

This story takes place during the large gap between Episodes III and IV.  It follows Darth Vader’s Secret Apprentice as he hunts down the few remaining Jedi.  Apparently the story will also explain key plot points that directly lead into the events of Star Wars Episode IV.

You can watch the amazing trailer for the video game below.  It takes a little while to load, so I would load the whole file first, just so it plays smoothly.  It’s worth the wait.

Even though I’ve been let down by Star Wars over the past several years, I’m looking forward to seeing some new adventures.  I’ve got my fingers crossed that they will be enjoyable.

Fanboys the movie looks as if it could be the quintessential geek movie of all time.  Production has been delayed a whole bunch, but the trailer makes it look to be worth the wait. 

It’s got a great bunch of supporting actors, including Kristen Bell, Ray Park, William Shatner, Billy Dee Williams, and Jaime King.

I can’t wait!

If you can’t view this, watch it by clicking here!