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| Thursday, March 25, 2010 09:57 AM |
| Recyclotron |
 by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
- Above, please find the thrilling, beautiful, atmospheric trailer for a modern day Western out of Australia called Red Hill. I need to see this. (Via)
- Damn it, now I might have to watch Clone Wars again. There's an episode coming up that features a teenage Boba Fett. (Also, it's been 30 years since Empire Strikes Back?? That hurts me in my heart.) (Via)
- A twisted web comic: Alien vs. Pooh. I got to page 26 before the thing crapped out on me. I think the site might be overwhelmed by heavy traffic. (Via)
- A preview of the upcoming S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 seems to feature Imhotep vs. the Brood, Zhang Heng vs. a giant robot samurai, and Leonardo Da Vinci vs. Galactus. Holy crap!!! (Via)
- Pretty great new Arctic Monkeys track called "My Propeller." The band seems to be settling down and getting a bit more serious. (Via)
- Getting a character lost in time is the new thing to do in comic books these days. Here's a gallery of covers that show Iron Man travelling through time.
- Cargo sounds like a pretty amazing movie. Looking forward to it.
- Wish you could "improve" every video you own with Star Trek-style lens flares? Well, you're in luck! There's an app for that!
- Dude! The next album on Beck's Record Club list is one of my favorites of all time: Kick by INXS. Every track on this album is a hit. I'm really looking forward to hearing them all get covered. First up is "Guns in the Sky."
- Marvel will be celebrating Avengers Day at comic book shops across the nation on May 19th. Besides offering various Avengers-related memorabilia, Marvel will also be launching five new Avengers books that day: Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis and John Romita Jr.; New Avengers by Bendis and Stuart Immonen; Secret Avengers by Ed Brubaker and Mike Deodato; Avengers Academy by Christos Gage and Mike McKone; and Avengers Prime, a miniseries by Bendis and Alan Davis. Well, I can definitely avoid Academy because I'm not a fan of Gage's work, and I definitely want to try Secret Avengers, because Brubaker and Deodato are both fantastic talents. The rest I'll have to flip through and consider.
- Dinoogle is Google, but with dinosaurs. Boom! (Via)
- Some details on what Avatar's deleted scenes contain, and when and how we might see them.
- I'm not sure what kind of card game Space-O is, but I kind of want to play it.
- I love this Magritte-inspired Magic the Gathering card. The Buckminster Fuller one is pretty great, too.
- Cute, fun greeting card designs, and an excellent illustration of some urban legends (although they're really more mythical beasts than urban legends). (Via)
- Pixar veteran Brad Bird might direct Mission: Impossible IV.
- That Buck Rogers remake that was talked about a while back is being revived, now in 3D (natch) with Paul W.S. Anderson at the helm. Seeing as how Frank Miller was the one guy originally attached to the film, this might actually be a step up.
- A weird new meme: Release the Kraken! (Via)
- The story of the life of a plastic bag, as narrated by Werner Herzog. Good lord.
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| Tagged (?): Aliens (Not), Animals (Not), Art (Not), Cartoons (Not), Comedy (Not), Comic books (Not), Dinosaurs (Not), Gaming (Not), Google (Not), Internet (Not), Iron Man (Not), Links (Not), Monsters (Not), Movies (Not), Music (Not), News (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Star Trek (Not), Star Wars (Not), SW:TCW (Not), TV (Not), Video (Not), Web comics (Not) |
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| Monday, February 1, 2010 11:23 AM |
| Recyclotron |
| by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
- I'm thinking a lot more people would use the Microsoft error-reporting dialog if it worked like it does in this video. Although seeing as how I'm a developer myself, the idea of people being punished by remote users for every bug they write into a piece of code is as terrifying as it is amusing. (Via Howard)
- Apparently Frank Miller is on Twitter and tweeted enigmatically the other day that something called "DINOSAUR" is coming this week. I've mostly lost faith in Mr. Miller, but I have to admit this has me a bit intrigued.
- Seven new clips from Wolfman. Some pretty big spoilers here - you see the creature and everything - so maybe don't watch these if you want to stay pure for the movie. For my own part, having watched these clips, I'm not as excited for the movie anymore. It doesn't really look that great. Corny dialog and not very impressive performances; apparently Anthony Hopkins just set himself to auto-creep mode.
- Let's Be Friends Again is not always funny, but this one is pretty good.
- Samuel L. Jackson is creating his own comic called Cold Space, a four-issue sci-fi/action miniseries for Boom! Studios. It's about "an opportunist who crash lands on a planet in the midst of a civil war, discovering a way to play both factions against each other for his own personal gain." Celebrity forays into comics are not often good, but this sounds like fun.
- It seems like you can never have enough USB ports! But maybe you can now with this 80-port USB panel.
- Here's a machine that turns extra office paper into toilet paper. Okay then.
- Yay, the Razzie nominees are out! I stand fully behind the nomination of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen for worst picture of 2009. (Via)
- Sci Fi Wire put together a list of 9 underrated, overlooked sci-fi and fantasy films of 2009. Some of these look pretty fascinating.
- New Diablo III screenshots!
- Some fun fake Garbage Pail Kid sketch cards. (Via)
- Fun with LEGO.
- Every time I give up on Clone Wars, I start hearing great things about it again. For instance, the show recently featured a cubist painting of the Queen of Mandalore, and the Star Wars version of Guernica, which depicts the Mandalorian War against the Old Republic Jedi.
- A site called Little White Lies is running an interesting art contest to promote the movie Kick-Ass: the entrant is asked to reduce his favorite film to six comic book panels. (Via)
- Plush Lion-O.
- Interesting new pics from Alice in Wonderland.
- Okay, the trailer for the Wall Street sequel is pretty good. (Via)
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| Tagged (?): Art (Not), Awards (Not), Cartoons (Not), Comedy (Not), Comic books (Not), Computers (Not), Craft (Not), Diablo 3 (Not), Gadgets (Not), LEGO (Not), Links (Not), Lists (Not), Microsoft (Not), Movies (Not), News (Not), Painting (Not), Products (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Star Wars (Not), SW:TCW (Not), Technology (Not), Toys (Not), Twitter (Not), Video (Not), Video games (Not), Wonderland (Not) |
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| Friday, January 15, 2010 09:00 PM |
| On the Viewer - Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Episode 31 - "Grievous Intrigue") |
| by Fëanor |
The last episode I watched of this was #22, so... it's been a while. I gave it up because I decided the bad things about it really outnumbered the good things, and it wasn't worth wasting my time on. But I keep reading good things about it, so I thought I'd give it another shot.
The narrator says Grievous always manages to stay one step ahead of the Republic. That's because he's always running away!
Sorry, but Eeth Koth is a pretty crappy Jedi if a random droid can disarm him.
Aren't Anakin and Obi-Wan two of their top Generals? Why would you send both of them on an ill-advised rescue attempt that is almost certainly a trap? Sigh.
Adi Gallia is kind of hot.
Yep, it's a trap, like I figured.
Admiral Narrator is here! They maybe should have thought about getting somebody other than the voiceover guy to play that part.
That was some sexy flying from Anakin. He really is a great pilot.
Grievous is a lot smarter than I remember him being. I like it! I always thought Grievous had the potential to be a really cool villain and a really interesting character, but they've mostly squandered all that potential, especially in the movies.
It's a little hard to be worried for Kenobi, seeing as how I know exactly how and when he dies, and it's not here and now.
I like Anakin's move here. The droid is torturing Koth using a button on his arm, so Anakin just pulls the droid toward him with the Force and chops its arm off. That's the kind of thing I always want them to do, but they rarely actually do it.
The droid crawling around after his own arm, and then not being able to activate it because he's missing an arm, is kind of sad and pathetic. And funny!
Despite the fact that I know pretty much how it has to turn out, I have to admit the fight between Grievous and Kenobi is pretty fun.
Heh. Commander Cody just punched Grievous in the face!
I love Grievous stealing the escape pod from the battle droid. That's funny stuff.
Yep, this show is still just the way I remembered it - fun space battles and lightsaber duels, and the occasional clever idea, but generally weak plot and dialog. Ah, well. |
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| Saturday, April 25, 2009 12:29 PM |
| On the Viewer - Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Episode 22 - "Hostage Crisis") |
 by Fëanor |
I haven't watched this show in a while, so I figured I must have fallen way behind, but in fact I was only two episodes behind. Unfortunately, one of those episodes (#21, "Liberty on Ryloth") appears to no longer be available for viewing on the web, so I had to skip to this one.
A gang of bounty hunters attacks the Senate, led by a guy named Cad Bane, who speaks and dresses as if he's in the Old West, cowboy hat and all. But after an exciting scene of action and slaughter, we unfortunately cut to Anakin being all creepy and emotionally bullying to Padme. Argh! I hate these characters. This scene appears to only be here so they could make up some reason for Anakin to not have his lightsaber with him when the fighting starts. It's so contrived. Get back to the killing!
Oh, they did get back to the killing. Good. Wow, the bounty hunters are even taking out the droids. That's cold. Heh. I like the little fish guy, though. Apparently he's the hacker of the group.
Man, these bounty hunters are hardcore! They're snapping guys necks, blowing them up, shooting them when they ask for help. This is a seriously violent and cold-blooded episode.
Turns out the bounty hunters are taking some Senators hostage so they can negotiate the release of a Hutt who's been taken prisoner by the Republic.
You know, Padme has already had ample opportunities to throw Anakin his lightsaber, but has failed to take any of them. All she has to do is get it out where he can see it and he can grab it with the Force. I mean, c'mon. And he only just remembered he doesn't have it?! Good lord, he's stupid.
Hey, what's with the curvy feminine droid hanging out in one of the Senate chambers? Is she a sex bot or what?
So, why didn't Anakin steal the guns from the bounty hunters with the Force and kill them? Or convince one to kill the other? See, this is the problem when you create a character with super powers: it's hard to create a situation where he's actually believably in danger. If Anakin were using his abilities in a realistic manner, he'd already have taken care of all of this. Instead we have to essentially pretend he doesn't have the Force for this episode to even make sense.
Again, another pointless scene as Anakin gets in a protracted physical fight with a droid. Just crush his head with the Force! Steal his gun from him with the Force! This is nonsensical. I'd be a way better Jedi than Anakin.
Finally Anakin does steal one of their guns with the Force! Thank you! Of course, the bounty hunters are much smarter than him and planned for him to do that. Although throwing him in among the other prisoners and assuming he'll be harmless now is not such a good idea.
I thought they had no outside communication. How did the Chancellor call in all these clone troopers?
Could it be any more obvious that Padme and Anakin are in a relationship? They are so bad at hiding it!
As you can probably already tell, I didn't really enjoy this episode. The plotting was clumsy and contrived, and all they did was pretty much reinforce how incompetent Anakin and Padme are. |
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| Tuesday, March 24, 2009 04:04 PM |
| On the Viewer - Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Episode 20 - "Innocents of Ryloth") |
| by Fëanor |
Some of the clones are a little racist! Calling Twi'leks tailheads and all.
The droids have ground weapons that can take out capital ships. That's hardcore.
The Separatists have another of those smart, tactical droids in charge (or possibly the same one from before? I can't remember what happened to him). That always makes things a little more interesting.
I'll never get tired of watching a Jedi deflect blaster bolts with his lightsaber.
During a lull in the fighting, each side sends out spies to try to discover what the other side plans to do. Neat.
What's with the clone being all philosophical about cities?
One of the clones, who goes by Waxer, seems to be keeping a tally of some kind on his helmet. Number of droids destroyed? He's made a friend of a little Twi'lek girl who somehow avoided capture. His partner, Boil, is not too happy about it. This is actually pretty touching, this relationship they're building between the clone and the girl. This show is always so much better when it focuses on the clones. It's odd that the characters who are all pretty much the same are the best ones in the series, and somehow all manage to stick out as such interesting individuals.
I suspect the girl, Boil, and Waxer will save the day because they're not acting according to any orders or logic; they're variables the droid commander has not taken into account.
Interesting how Obi-Wan is able to lure the attacking beasts away using the force. I'm not sure I remember seeing Jedi do something like that before. He then orders the clones to create a cave-in, trapping the beasts, and nimbly leaps away. Clever and cool.
I was right about Boil, Waxer, and the girl. She can lead them through underground tunnels to the prisoners.
Heh heh. A Battle Droid is cleaning out the beasts cages and says, "Yep, this is about the worst job in the droid army." Then Obi-Wan sneaks up on him and locks him in the cage. "Ohh," he sighs.
Aww, the girl got reunited with her Dad. That warms my cold, cynical heart. Also warming my heart: all the droid killing. Can't get enough droid killing.
Obi-Wan has hijacked a giant cannon and is taking out the other cannons with it. Awesome.
A droid just said, "Seti Alpha 5 or 6." Nice Star Trek II reference!
Wow! The Twi'lek's got pissed and pulled the droid commander apart with their bare hands. Impressive!
It's really pretty cool how they do these longer, multi-part stories that spread across a series of episodes and focus on one campaign or another.
Aww. The little girl was calling the clones "brother." That's so cute!
Man, every time I'm ready to give this show up, they do an episode like this that's really smart, though-provoking, action-packed, moving, and entertaining. Now I'm going to have to watch at least one more episode. Hopefully it won't involve Anakin or Ahsoka. |
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| Thursday, March 12, 2009 02:55 PM |
| On the Viewer - Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Episode 19 - "Storm Over Ryloth") |
| by Fëanor |
It's striking me as odd that the narrator just described a guy as an "evil Separatist leader." Who's evil and who's good is really kind of relative, seeing as how Anakin is going to become the evil Darth Vader soon enough.
Still love the effect they do when ships suddenly drop in out of hyperspace.
The scene where Ahsoka and her squadron are leaving the docking bay is reminding me of the scene at the end of A New Hope where the Rebels take off to attack the Death Star. It's warming my heart.
The visuals really are fantastic in this show, especially during the giant space fights. I'm also liking the little revolving blue and red doohickey this Separatist General has on the side of his head. Just a neat little detail.
Ahsoka has learned only too well from Anakin; she's even got his lack of respect for authority, and tendency to ignore orders and just do what she thinks is right.
They recreated the scene from the end of Return of the Jedi where a fighter crashes into the bridge of a capital ship! Except this time it happened to the "good guys," and the effect wasn't quite as apocalyptic.
That mission was EPIC FAIL.
How is Anakin's ship burning in space? Is that the kind of fire that doesn't need oxygen to burn? (Okay, okay, I guess it could be plasma.)
This may be the first time one of our main characters has shown real sadness at the deaths of Clone Troopers.
Ah ha ha ha! I like Anakin's insane new kamikaze plan. But I'm not sure yet if putting the fragile Ahsoka in charge of another important mission right after she failed the last one is a good idea or a bad idea. It'll probably either build her confidence back up, or completely destroy her.
It's interesting that the Separatist General in this episode is actually smart and competent. It seems like they rarely come across an enemy like that.
Ah, there's Ahsoka's confidence coming back. That's not surprising.
I thought when you took out the command ship, all the Battle Droids just deactivated? Like at the end of Phantom Menace? Maybe they fixed that flaw in the intervening time. Now they remain activated, but they're just stupid.
Huh. I thought for sure the Separatist General was going to swoop in out of nowhere and kidnap Anakin while he was sitting out there in the escape pod, but... I guess not!
Well, another episode of Clone Wars done, and we all learned an important lesson. About confidence. And learning to be okay with ordering clones to their deaths. Or something. Some clever ideas, some exciting action, some impressive visuals, and even the occasional effective emotional moment, but in general not one of my favorite episodes. It just wasn't particularly imaginative. And the dialogue is really not very good. One of these days I really will stop watching this show. I swear. |
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| Saturday, February 21, 2009 01:56 PM |
| On the Viewer - Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Episode 18 - "The Thousand Moons") |
| by Fëanor |
Pretty dull episode so far. Ahsoka and some clones get infected by the virus. Anakin storms off, running headlong into danger to save them, as usual. Now he's heading into a spaceship graveyard. Those are always fun!
So, a bunch of battle droids who have clearly been reprogrammed walk up to Anakin saying, "Welcome!" and he runs in and slashes them to pieces with his lightsaber. Yeah, there was no warning he was going to turn to the dark side!
Some smart-ass kid reprogrammed all the droids to serve him. Pretty clever. And funny!
Thanks to Jar-Jar, Padme is now infected, as well. Sigh.
Woah. The laser field generator looks a lot like the Death Star.
They made a really ridiculous leap to figure out where the laser emitter is. "Hey, we used to live on this moon." "That must be where it is!" Uh... why?
Of everybody in the base, only Jar-Jar is not infected. That goddamn lucky little bastard.
What was the point of using the vulture droids again? They don't seem to have helped at all. Ultimately Anakin and Obi-Wan just shot the laser generator. Man, this episode was poorly plotted.
Padme and Anakin's love affair is the worst kept secret of all time. Is there anybody who didn't know? I mean, come on.
The clone trooper refuses to help train Jar-Jar to use a blaster. Smart move, dude! I love those clones.
I wonder how much Ahsoka/Padme fan fiction there is out there? I guess I'd rather not know.
Another mediocre episode! Maybe the next one will be better. |
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| Friday, February 20, 2009 04:17 PM |
| On the Viewer - Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Episode 17 - "Blue Shadow Virus") |
| by Fëanor |
Oh, great. It's another Jar-Jar/Padme episode. Sigh.
Good lord, what is Padme wearing?! Did I turn on a Star Wars/High School Musical mash-up video by mistake?
Also, is that dude's name seriously Captain Typo? Because that's hilarious.
As usual, Jar-Jar succeeds through failure. Man, I thought his voice was bad before when it was Ahmed Best doing it, but this new Jar-Jar impersonator is even more terrible.
Okay, Padme's taking Jar-Jar with her on a dangerous mission to find a secret Separatist virus-making lab? I'll admit, he does have ridiculously good luck, but... is it worth the risk?
That guy's name isn't Captain Typo - it's Captain Typho. That might actually be even better, especially considering the context.
Dr. Nuvo Vindi (evil mad scientist), to Padme: "What's a life form like you doing in a swamp like this?" Might want to work on your pickup lines there, buddy.
Padme: "The blue shadow virus? I thought that deadly disease was extinct." Dialogue: fail.
Dr. Vindi has a German accent. He is clearly meant to be a Nazi. That's just a little disturbing.
Ahsoka tells some poor Gungan civilian to make sure no one escapes. How is she supposed to do that, exactly?
This show gets exponentially better once the action starts. Thermal detonators! Crazy lightsaber fights vs. evil droids! Jedi dropping from the sky without parachutes!
The clones are being bad-asses again, taking out droids with their bare hands. And Anakin is being a dumb-ass again. Although he is still pretty damn good at taking out droids. But did he seriously just save Padme and Jar-Jar, after they'd been captured sneaking around the secret virus-making lab, and then leave them to wander the secret virus-making lab on their own, with no protection, searching for the remaining virus bomb?? Yep, he did. Jesus.
Despite the much higher likelihood of their dying horribly, Padme, Jar-Jar, and the Gungan civilian all survived and even acquitted themselves admirably in the fight. But why did Obi-Wan and Anakin constantly run and leap to catch the virus vials with their hands, instead of using the Force to pluck them out of the air? They do remember that they have the Force, right? Telekinesis? Sigh.
Yeah, definitely not my favorite episode. I'm contemplating giving up on this show once again. |
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| Tuesday, February 17, 2009 12:20 PM |
| On the Viewer - Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Episode 16 - "The Hidden Enemy") |
| by Fëanor |
Clones rule! Seriously, I love the clones. They're so bad-ass. Also bad-ass? The way Anakin just broke that window open. Slash, slash, boom! Damn, dude.
And speaking of the clones being bad-ass, one of them just walked right up to a droid and ripped its head off with his bare hands. That is awesome.
Heh. Finding a mole is hard when everybody looks and talks exactly alike. I'm a little surprised this traitor subplot is moving along so quickly. I mean, they already narrowed it down to a small group of guys, and then told those guys they know one of them is the mole!
Eew. Creepy byplay between Obi-Wan and Ventress.
Hey, I don't see why Chopper shouldn't be able to make a necklace of Battle Droid fingers if he wants to!
And the traitor is discovered! That didn't take long. Seriously, I really feel like they could have done a lot more with that story idea.
Wow, he wasn't any two-bit traitor, either; once he got cornered he set up some pretty serious sabotage.
"My sweet?" I reiterate that the byplay between Obi-Wan and Ventress is really creepy.
Okay, now I find the traitor storyline more interesting, because of the guy's motivation: he was tired of being enslaved by the Jedi and was fighting for freedom. That brings up some fascinating moral and ethical issues about the Jedi and their clone army. (Although admittedly those issues will all be moot when Order 66 comes around.) And now next episode they have to fight about 1,000 Battle Droids with almost no weapons! Nice.
Pretty decent episode. Maybe a little more simplistic than it could have been, but still, exciting with some good action and interesting concepts. |
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| Tuesday, February 10, 2009 05:01 PM |
| On the Viewer - Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Episode 15 - "Trespass") |
| by Fëanor |
Obi-Wan and Anakin head down to a Hoth-like planet (wearing gear very similar to that worn by the Rebels on Hoth in Empire Strikes Back) to investigate the disappearance of a clone security force stationed there. C-3PO and R2-D2 also come along, as do a local Chairman who claims the planet belongs to his people, and a Senator. The base where the clones were stationed is deserted except for dead bodies and clonetrooper helmets on sharpened sticks. Creepy! (As an aside, the Republic has some nice snowspeeders.) The interesting thing is, it wasn't the Separatists who took out the base; in fact, a Separatist base nearby has been cleared out in the same fashion. Who did this? Turns out it was a tribe of furry guys who look like that one creature in the Mos Eisley Cantina. Luckily, Obi-Wan and Anakin seem to succeed in befriending them and opening a peaceful dialogue. But the stuck-up, possessive Chairman who claims to own this planet disagrees with such a plan; he wants to attack, and show these "animals" who's boss. So he turns what could have been a peaceful situation into war. The Jedi and the Senator try to think of some way they can defeat the Chairman politically so war can be avoided, but I can't help thinking they should have just bonked the guy on the head and tied him up. I guess that probably would have ruined Republic relations with his people, though.
Once again the clonetroopers reveal themselves to be seriously hardcore bad-asses, even if in this case they are fighting to protect a stupid, arrogant, belligerent bastard. The Senator does finally get the political go-ahead to negotiate a peace, but by then the conflict has already gotten pretty bloody. She's very meek and mild, and keeps trying to avoid confrontation, even going so far as to ask Obi-Wan to negotiate for her, but Obi-Wan declines and forces her to take the lead. And she does a damn fine job, too! It's creepy, though, when Anakin compliments her by saying, "Most impressive," just the way he'll say it to Luke later when he's Darth Vader. Eee.
Obi-Wan's speech to the Senator at the end is a bit corny, but the show's heart is in the right place. This was a decent episode. Obi-Wan and Anakin managed to make it through the entire thing without doing anything pathetic or shameful! Thumbs up! |
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Jim Genzano's books on Goodreads
