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Posted by Ben Huber on Oct 18, 2013 in Star Wars 
Here’s a trip down memory lane: the original trailer for Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. It’s in some pretty rough quality, but perhaps that just adds to the charm. This trailer was particularly notable because it had no live-action video in it, just Ralph McQuarrie’s concept art zooming by at high speeds. Plenty of this art is for stuff that happens late in the film too, but I guess it’d be hard to parse all that while watching this for the first time. The narrator explicitly teases a battle between Luke and Vader, too. But best of all is him calling Lando “Landau Calrissian.” Early in development, eh? Read more…
Tags: The Empire Strikes Back
Posted by Ben Huber on Oct 18, 2013 in Fandom 
The Bad Lip-Reading guys are at it again — and this time they’ve taken Game of Thrones, rearranged its scenes, and dubbed it over, turning it into a trailer for a fictional film in which Ned has to save a medieval fair. Yes, it’s as ridiculous as it sounds, and since they have to match the words to the character’s lips, sound really weird things are said (although they pan away enough to make things seem coherent). There’s also some pretty creative editing and added-in props in the world to make it seem like a renaissance fair. That extended fart joke at the end, though… that might’ve been unnecessary. Read more…
Tags: Game of Thrones
Posted by Bob Muir on Oct 17, 2013 in Anime 
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has been running in manga form since 1986, but until last year, only its third part (Stardust Crusaders) had ever been adapted into an accessible anime, and even that was split into two parts across seven years. A movie was released of the first part (Phantom Blood) in 2007, but a new anime adaptation began in late 2012 that fully adapted parts one and two (Battle Tendency). However, it stopped before beginning the third and most popular part, merely teasing a future animation with the above image. But now the latest issue of Weekly Shonen Jump, which serialized the earlier parts of the manga, has announced that production has been green-lit for a new adaptation of Stardust Crusaders. Read more…
Tags: Shonen Jump
Posted by Bob Muir on Oct 17, 2013 in Cinema 
Blade Runner isn’t just a fantastic sci-fi film (particularly if you watch Ridley Scott’s final cut), it’s a neo-noir detective story. YouTube user Chet Diamond decided to cut a new trailer to emphasize its noir style, putting it in black-and-white and focusing on certain dialogue. It’s actually cut more modern than an actual noir film’s trailer would be, but it’s still an interesting take on the film that makes me want to watch it all over again. Now if only someone would give The Big Lebowski a noir trailer, seeing as it’s basically a noir film in disguise. Read more…
Tags: Blade Runner, Ridley Scott
Posted by Bob Muir on Oct 16, 2013 in Videogames 
One of the reasons I’ve held off on buying a 3DS XL is that the colors so far have disappointed me. The recent limited Pokemon X & Y designs look better, but I was holding out for another Zelda-styled model to match my 3DS and Wii U systems. With The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds being released soon, Nintendo has realized that a tie-in would be a good idea and has announced the sexy Zelda 3DS XL you see above. Unfortunately, it has only been announced for Europe so far. Nintendo has seen fit to give Europe some exclusives in recent years, so it’s possible that this system may never come to America, but I remain hopeful that it may pop up as a Black Friday deal. Those living in Europe can buy this limited system on November 22, alongside the release of A Link Between Worlds. (A digital copy of that game is included if you pick this one up.) Read more…
Tags: 3DS, Legend of Zelda, Nintendo
Posted by Bob Muir on Oct 16, 2013 in Animation, Comic Books 
Zack Snyder (Man of Steel) and Bruce Timm (Superman: The Animated Series) teamed up to create this fantastic short highlighting how Superman has changed and also stayed the same throughout the past 75 years. Watch as Superman jumps off the pages of his debut comic and journeys through various eras: the Fleischer Studios cartoons, The Adventures of Superman (George Reeves), the Super Family, the Super Friends, his motion picture debut (Christopher Reeve), the Death of Superman, Superman: The Animated Series, Smallville, the New 52, and eventually Man of Steel, with even more events and references thrown in along the way. The best part is the way the art style shifts to reflect how Superman was portrayed at that time, not just in terms of costume or face design, but art styles too; the Fleischer cartoon style looks totally different from Bruce Timm’s animated series. Check it out, read this list of annotations, and then watch it again! Read more…
Tags: DC Comics, Superman, Warner Brothers, Zack Snyder
Posted by Bob Muir on Oct 15, 2013 in Comic Books, Videogames 
Despite being a prequel and switching developers away from Rocksteady, Batman: Arkham Origins is actually shaping up to be an awesome entry in the Arkham series of videogames. One major cause for concern was Mark Hamill retiring from the role of the Joker, but Troy Baker sounded pretty good in recent trailers. If you want to completely erase your concerns, watch this clip from New York Comic-Con of Baker reading aloud a monologue from Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke, one of the best Joker-focused comics. Baker sounds right on the money, sounding natural and evoking Hamill’s performance. I’d say we have a worthy successor of voice actors here. Read more…
Tags: Batman, Batman: Arkham Origins, DC Comics, PS3, Warner Brothers, Xbox 360
Posted by Bob Muir on Oct 15, 2013 in Videogames 
After Square Enix announced and released Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX (which includes the first game KH: Final Mix, its interquel KH: Re:Chain of Memories, and HD cutscenes of the second interquel KH: 358/2 Days), fans asked one major question: why wasn’t the sequel KHII included? While fans are split on whether they prefer the first or second games, they’re the only two numbered entries, with KHIII still on the horizon for PS4 and Xbox One. Now that the first HD collection is out globally, Square Enix has announced the sequel they hinted at in that collection’s credits: Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX! Read more…
Tags: Disney, Kingdom Hearts, PS3, square enix
Posted by Ben Huber on Oct 14, 2013 in Videogames 
It looks like The Legend of Zelda is doing the “alternate world” thing again, but this time they’re really running with it. In this new trailer for the next 3DS game, A Link Between Worlds, they reveal that Hyrule’s opposite-universe version is called… wait for it… Lorule. Yup. I’m not making that up. Of course, Zelda’s counterpart is called Hilda. Like I said, they’re running with this. Another thing to note is that the game now allows you to use all the weapons right away — provided you have enough money to rent them from the store. I wonder how that mechanic will pay off? Seems like Nintendo is at least trying some things different with Zelda! Read more…
Tags: 3DS, Legend of Zelda
Posted by Ben Huber on Oct 14, 2013 in Star Wars, Television 
Star Wars Rebels, the new show to take over The Clone Wars’ slot, is set in the period between Episode III and Episode IV. Thus, that gives the creators a whole new time period to play with, and obviously, they need a main villain. The Imperial Inquisitor is that dude — tasked by Darth Vader to eliminate any remaining Jedi Knights. There weren’t too many other details, but the announcement video did feature some other peeks at various art and CG assets from the show. I love seeing seeing classic stormtroopers and TIE fighters again, so I’m actually looking forward to this show a bit! Watch the video embedded below. Read more…
Tags: Star Wars: Rebels
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 13, 2013 in Fandom 
New York Comic Con 2013 is in full swing and there is cosplay everywhere! If you look carefully in this photo essay you find a Miley Cyrus cosplayer in between the usual comic book and anime favorites. Photos by Christian Liendo: Read more…
Posted by Ben Huber on Oct 13, 2013 in Star Wars 
The rumor mill for the next Star Wars film keeps on churning! While we’ve heard rumors that casting announcements may happen soon, nothing solid has really appeared yet. However, Latino Review is reporting on two potential titles for Star Wars Episode VII… and you know what? I think they’re both fake AND real, for the exact same reason: they sound exactly like what you’d expect a Star Wars film title to be. Completely boring and unimaginative. Are you ready? Here they are: Return of the Sith and Rise of the Jedi. Yup. I told you they were lame. Maybe it’s cheap for me to make my stand right in the middle, but come on, these are totally fake. And they’re totally real. Read more…
Tags: Episode VII, Star Wars
Posted by Ben Huber on Oct 13, 2013 in Videogames 
Amnesia: The Dark Descent was one of the most loved horror games of the last few years, and Frictional Games has done a lot to help with the horror game boom. Now, they handed off the sequel to Amnesia (which came out last month) and have been working long and hard on their next game, SOMA. It looks to be a sci-fi horror game that’s heavily inspired by H.R. Giger’s works, so I’m definitely in. I mean, I’m not too hot on horror games, but I love those creepy and alien structures. Check out the trailer below! Read more…
Tags: SOMA
Posted by Ben Huber on Oct 12, 2013 in Animation, Television 
Maybe this is an untapped market, or perhaps it’s just a way to lure parents into getting their kids to watch Nick Jr. A Game of Thrones-inspired commercial was made for the Nick Jr. show Ben & Holly, which features the iconic opening of the dark fantasy series set against the colorful world of a kid’s show. I don’t think kids will be getting the reference here (oh god, I hope they don’t get the reference here), mainly because a show filled with violence, sex, incest, and war typically doesn’t cross over with Nick Jr.’s crowd. Still, it’s a nice little nod to parents and I bet the show’s creators had fun making the ad as well. Watch the video below! Read more…
Tags: Game of Thrones, nickelodeon
Posted by Ben Huber on Oct 12, 2013 in Cinema 
New York Comic-Con is going on right now — and I’m not there! It’s probably for the best. Thankfully, a lot of the content at NYCC shows up online as well, so if you’re like me and couldn’t make it, you can still check out things at home. One thing I saw that seemed particularly cool was the NYCC poster for Oldboy. I’m still not sure how the movie itself will turn out, but the marketing for it has been pretty interesting. It’s arriving November 27th so I guess it won’t be long until we find out how Spike Lee has interpreted Park Chan-wook’s classic! Check out the full poster below. Read more…
Tags: Oldboy, Spike Lee
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 11, 2013 in Anime, Comic Books, Fandom 
It’s time of year in New York City and as usual the Javits Center is packed with fans at this year’s New York Comic Con. This collection of cosplay photos is by Christian Liendo: Read more…
Posted by Ben Huber on Oct 11, 2013 in Cinema, Hobbies and Collections 
With the Amazing Spider-Man 2 on the way along with Transformers: Age of Extinction, Hasbro is gearing up their toy lines to coincide with the movies. Often times, the result is that the public’s first looks at characters is in toy form. So with Hasbro’s party recently, a lot of pics came out showing figures of the Green Goblin, Carnage, and Black Cat. We know Carnage isn’t in the next film, and we’ve only heard rumors of the Green Goblin, but these could be what these villains will look like eventually. So tread lightly, because spoilers abound! Also, there’s a powered-up Optimus Prime figure. No word on if he’ll actually have a crazy sword-thing in the movie. Read more…
Tags: Action Figures, The Amazing Spider-Man, Transformers: Age of Extinction
Posted by Ben Huber on Oct 11, 2013 in Comic Books 
It might not be the revival you wanted, but you can get some of your Firefly fix again! This time though, it’s via a comic book series, titled Serenity: Leaves on the Wind. It’ll be a six-issue series written by Joss Whedon’s brother, Zack Whedon. It’ll be out January 29th, so you still have a bit of a wait until it comes out. Story details are vague but you can catch a bit more info on Nerdist, where they have a full article about the new series, including some discussion with Whedon. Read more here or check out some pics below the jump. Read more…
Tags: Firefly, Serenity
Posted by Bob Muir on Oct 10, 2013 in Comic Books, Tech 
I think we can all agree that the Iron Man suit is pretty cool. But we’re still somewhat far away from being able to make them ourselves, right? Apparently not, because the US Army has commissioned a Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit (which I’m going to abbreviate to “TALOS” because it sounds cool). It’s basically a flightless version of Tony Stark’s suit, possessing features like super strength and night vision. An onboard computer instantly responds to problems, enhances awareness, monitors vitals, and provides life support. And of course, it will protect you from bullets, with full-body ballistic protection that lets the user “walk through a stream of bullets.” Yes please! Read more…
Tags: Iron Man
Posted by Bob Muir on Oct 10, 2013 in Cinema 
Against better judgment, Ridley Scott wants to make a sequel to Blade Runner. The man has made some fantastic films, but his work of late hasn’t been quite as good (see: Prometheus). What’s even worse? Harrison Ford has considered returning to the role of Rick Deckard. During promotion for Ender’s Game, IGN asked Harrison Ford about the potential sequel. Ford revealed that not only was he interested in playing the human/replicant/whatever-you-think, but he has talked with Ridley Scott about it. Read more…
Tags: Blade Runner, Harrison Ford, Ridley Scott, Science Fiction
Posted by Bob Muir on Oct 9, 2013 in Science 
Congratulations, science! Nuclear fusion has always had an issue managing to create more energy than was put into it. You need to compress two lighter nuclei into one heavy nucleus, a change in mass that creates a lot of energy, but requires a lot of energy to make happen. But the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in the US has managed to compress hydrogen to the point of nuclear fusion at 3.3 million Kelvin (5.9 million degrees Fahrenheit). And for the first time, the energy released in the reaction exceeded the amount of fuel that went into powering the world’s most powerful laser rig and its 192 beams. Read more…
Tags: nuclear fusion
Posted by Bob Muir on Oct 9, 2013 in Cinema 
I’m still hopeful for Pacific Rim 2 to be officially green-lit, considering how much fun the original film was. But in the meantime, Pacific Rim is coming out on DVD and Blu-ray on October 15. Among the bonus features is this gag reel, showing actors flubbing lines, cracking jokes, and just generally clowning around. It looks like it was a lot of fun to be on Guillermo del Toro’s set, and it’s also interesting to see which parts of scenes were green-screened in. Plus, Ron Perlman is awesome as usual. Watch for yourself below if you can’t wait until next week! Read more…
Tags: guillermo del toro, Pacific Rim, Robots
Posted by Bob Muir on Oct 8, 2013 in Videogames 
Yacht Club Games’ first release, Shovel Knight, is due out later this year. The game is coming out on PC, 3DS, and Wii U (all digital releases), and Nintendo is showing up at Indiecade, so there’s a new trailer to build up more hype for the game in a crowded holiday season. If you haven’t gotten a good look at the game before, watch the trailer and marvel at the NES+ style pixel art and fun, old-school gameplay. If you’re a fan of retro indie games, this one should be on your list! Read more…
Tags: 3DS, Indie Games, Wii U
Posted by Bob Muir on Oct 8, 2013 in Television 
If there was to be a Breaking Bad game, you’d probably imagine some Grand Theft Auto-style criminal venture. But people love putting the just-finished television series into other types of games. Vulture imagined the show as a text adventure in the style of Zork, published by Infocom in 1980. (The header picture is unrelated to the game, but funny.) While Walt is not likely to be eaten by a grue, it’s a funny take on some memorable scenes, though it would have been even cooler if you could play the game. Check out the examples below!
Source: Vulture
Tags: Zork
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