All posts by Stephen Sanchez

TV

Darth Maul Officially Returns to Star Wars in The Clone Wars

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It looks like after much speculation and geek debate, Darth Maul will be returning to the Galaxy Far Far Away via the Clone Wars this season. After hinting towards his return at the end of the Savage Oppress story arc in Clone Wars Season 3, supervising director Dave Filoni confirmed recently over at Entertainment Weekly that Maul would be back in force with the full blessing of plaid clad billionaire George Lucas:

Filoni was as surprised as anyone during a Clone Wars story meeting when Star Wars creator George Lucas asked Filoni to figure out a way to bring Darth Maul back. He had introduced a similar warrior, the powerhouse Savage Oppress, in the third season of Clone Wars because of the lack of a Maul-type antagonist.

Oppress plays a major role in the return of his “long-lost brother,” Filoni says, and fans can expect Darth Maul to reignite his rivalry with Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Jedi Knight who cut him in half.

Filoni expects a strong reaction from fans, but he promises he didn’t bring back Darth Maul for a short-lived stunt.

“There’s a lot of ground that has not been covered as far as Darth Maul is concerned, so there’s a lot of room to grow with him,” Filoni says. “It’s all balanced with, ‘Boy, we’ve gotta make this really good because this is a really big deal.'”

And of course the official teaser for the return of the soft spoken horned Sith:

So what the hell, I guess if they can make this work then I’ll try my best to enjoy it. I was very skeptical and thought it verged on sacrilege when they announced Darth Maul’s brother would be showing up on the Clone Wars but I ended up enjoying the living crap out of that. The best episode of that season featured the best three way lightsaber fight I’ve seen. And with three dark side users no less….

Maul is just in time for the big 3D re-release of Episode 1: The Phantom Menace in 2012 and I’m sure that’s just around the time we’ll be getting the episodes he’ll be showing up in. The only questions I have are simple, the first one being the most irrelevant. Which planet is he supposedly exiled on? It’s somewhere in the Outer Rim according to Mother Talzin, and I’ll be a little let down if its effin’ Tatooine because there couldn’t be a more overused, boring planet. My second question is how in the bloody hell is this dude still breathing? I’m sure force-users (Dark Side especially) can withstand some brutal hits, but homeboy was sliced in two by my buddy Obi-Wan. So will he be rocking the robot leg look that he made look so fashionable in the non-continuity story from Star Wars: Visionaries? Maybe some sweet type of hover chair? That would be God awful but it wouldn’t be the first time us Star Wars fans were completely put out.

My last question is who will be voicing him? More specifically will it be Sam Witwer? For those of you non-hardcore Star Wars geeks, Sam Witwer is the guy who played Vader’s secret apprentice, Starkiller (Galen Marek) in the awesome Force Unleashed video game and it’s less than satisfying follow up the Force Unleashed 2.

He’s already had a stint in the Clone Wars in Season 3’s Mortis trilogy as the uber dark side using Anchorite The Son, which he completely owned. The guy also does an excellent Emperor Palpatine voice as evidenced in the Force Unleashed video games. It’s already been confirmed that Witwer will be returning to voice a character for this season 4 of the Clone Wars but it’s just a question of whom. Check out this little snippet from Witwer via Theforce.net that reveals absolutely nothing about whom he will play:

“Sam Witwer: I’ve already returned to The Clone Wars to do voiceover.

Riley: Oh really?

Sam Witwer: I am currently, as we speak, working on episodes, many episodes for a character that I have not played… well… it’s… what can I say without getting fired?

Riley: We don’t want you to get in trouble or anything.

Sam Witwer: I’m told the announcement is gonna happen in a couple months.

Riley: Nice tease!

Sam Witwer: It’s an amazing character. It is an amazing, amazing character. I’ll put it to you this way. I was driving over to a buddy’s house and Dave Filoni calls me up, gets me on the phone, and he says, “Listen, so we want you to come back to work and we need you to play…” and he tells me the character’s name. And I almost had a car accident. And he says, “Can you do it?” And I’m like yes. And then I worried about later whether I could do it or not. But I was like yes, yes, I will do that. So it is a tremendous opportunity and I can’t wait for you guys to find out about it.”

Now I wouldn’t call Darth Maul an amazing character or anything. Amazingly bad ass maybe, but character wise there wasn’t much to him. Even if you read any expanded universe material based on him it’s nothing to blow any skirts up. But Witwer did almost had a car accident, so that’s promising. He better not have risked his life on the account of finding out he was playing Wicket of the Ewoks or Uncle Owen…

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#23 – Countdown to Halloween: FRIGHT NIGHT (1985)

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I’m gonna go ahead and be biased for this one because it’s one of my favorite horror movies of all time. Does it stand the test of time? Hell no. At this point there is nothing appealing about watching Prince Humperdink dancing to an eighties song with Marcy D’Arcy, but it’s still a fun film, with great special effects and an awesome performance from Roddy McDowell as ‘Peter Vincent the Great Vampire Killer’.

Continue reading #23 – Countdown to Halloween: FRIGHT NIGHT (1985) →

TV

HBO Review – Boardwalk Empire: Season 2, Episode 2 “Ourselves Alone”

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It was a nice surprise to see the episode start off in New York with Arnold Rothstein and Charlie “Lucky” Luciano back into the mix. More interesting was their meeting with Jimmy who was offering A.R. his own liquor products. I think everyone will be caught off guard to see how quickly things are moving against Nucky. After last week’s incarceration of both himself and Chalky, the sharks are moving in to finish the job.

The Commodore and Eli have Nucky’s inner circle set against him and taking over the liquor business, with Jimmy in charge of the liquor transporting. The only one who seems set against it is Damien. (The guy who inherited Nucky’s dad’s house.)

Overall the episode was average at best. I give it 2 out of 5 because honestly, not alot happened. Margaret wasn’t given a whole lot to do but play housewife while Nucky was gone dealing with his legal troubles. Even the parts with Jimmy in New York and his dealings with Lansky and Luciano were not very substantial even though they were the best parts. I’m hoping that next week’s episode picks things up a bit, especially with Nucky confronting his enemies face to face instead of over the phone.

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TV Review: Terra Nova Episode 1 – “Genesis” Part 1 and Part 2

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One thing is for certain about 2149…. the future sure is going to suck. The whole place is overpopulated and filthy with pollution. The air is so bad you have to wear a re-breather mask and if you have more than two kids you’re in some big ol’ trouble. It just so happens that’s what happens with the Shannon family. After the police find out that the Shannon’s have one more kid that they are allowed they arrest fellow officer Jim Shannon who made the mistake of also decking three of the officers who tried to take his youngest daughter Zoey. After spending two years in the local prison known as Golad, the Shannons are selected to be a part of the Terra Nova project and after a little more lawbreaking they are together once more as a family albeit 35 million years ago.

The Terra Nova project is simple really. There was a rip in the fabric of time space that led back 35 million years and the people of 2149 took advantage of this to save our civilization. This may leave you to wonder as I did – Wouldn’t we just destroy our own timeline and cause those who settled the past to vanish from existence with our meddling? No, because luckily this is all quashed by one of the Shannon children explaining to the other that the only reason their actions don’t affect the future is because it’s not the same time stream they are in on the Terra Nova settlement.

The first part of Genesis was okay, mainly serving the purpose to introduce everyone and everything including the Shannon kids, one of which is a typical teenager with all of the angst to go with it. The best character to be introduced in my opinion is that of Nathaniel Taylor, leader of the Terra Nova settlement and played by none other than our resident party crasher Stephen Lang. From the previews you would be lead to believe that he is playing the same character of Colonel Quaritch from Avatar but Taylor is a bit different. Though he has the same toughness and rigidness of Quaritch, he lacks the ruthlessness and knows how to be a fair and just leader. I enjoyed seeing Stephen Lang in action in the second part of the season premiere, which was a helluva lot better than the first.

After seeing the teenagers playing around and being teenagers and the little girl feeding the plant eating brachiosaurs (Groan), we finally get some action. I suppose it goes to show us that even in a world where humans can start from scratch, they will still fight and kill one another. It’s in part two that we are introduced into the “sixers”, a group of settlers that broke off from the Terra Nova settlement to start their own.

They’re called sixers because each group that comes into Terra Nova is known as a pilgrimage and the sixth one happened to contain those who split from the settlement. This changes the whole dynamic of the show for me because I was terribly afraid that we were just going to see little problems between people in the settlement constantly and teenagers getting lost and running from Dinosaurs each week. But it appears that we’ll have a few little storylines to follow each week from here on out. The conflict with the sixers is first and foremost for me, but there is also the geometrical writings on the wall that Jim Shannon’s son Josh found with his new friends and Taylor’s son who went missing a long time ago. My guess is that it will eventually turn out that he is a sixer, possibly even the leader. Actually a couple of those were surprisingly revealed by the end of the episode but I won’t spoil it for you.

I give the premiere a 4 out of 5. It kept me pretty entertained for two hours and even though I know it won’ t be constant dinosaur attacks like we’ve had in this premiere I’m hopeful they can give us something equally as bad ass over the course of the season. The actors were excellent, even the semi-annoying teens. Even though Taylor is my favorite character he is by no means the main character. The main focus is the Shannon family and their patriarch Jim Shannon is definitely my second favorite character, played by Jason O’Mara. It was a good thing he was given the opportunity to be a cop again because if he was part of the agriculture team for more than a quarter of the episode I’d probably of puked. With a lack of masculinity on TV that our dear Dr. Kronner rants and raves about on Grizzly Bomb, it was nice to see a dad doing everything for his family to keep them together while not being a complete bumbling fool who is constantly in touch with his feelings and all that nonsense. I’ll be tuning in next week fo’ sho’.

TV

HBO Review – Boardwalk Empire: Season 2 Episode 1 “21”

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Boardwalk Empire Season 2 is back and everyone seems to be doing well. Jimmy and his half faced associate Richard Harrow are moving the liquor in and out of Atlantic City like clockwork. Eli is still healing from his wounds and the Commodore is…. looking fit and healthy with his trusty spear. Nucky is still living the life fantastic at night while still retaining Margaret Schroeder during the days. Agent Van Alden and his wife seem to be in good standing as she has now come to visit Atlantic City. The only one not doing so great is Chalky White, who as an African-American in the 1920’s can’t really get a fair shake in Atlantic City. And that’s an understatement.

After having his bootlegging warehouse turned into swiss cheese by some douche bag Klansmen, Chalky gets into some major hot water for shooting one of them. Doesn’t make too much sense but it’s a part of a scheme cooked up by Jimmy’s father, the Commodore. At the end of last season we got to see the triumvirate of Jimmy, his father and Eli Thompson plotting the downfall of Enoch Thompson whom each has experienced a betrayal (in their opinions) by the county treasurer. Nucky doesn’t seem to suspect much of anything other than Jimmy may be acting a little weird and holding something back. I’m excited to see how things shake out after Nucky does realize what’s really going on. My hope is that Jimmy will eventually see that he is in the wrong and maybe turn on Eli and his dear ol’ dad.

We were able to see the duplicitous Van Alden in action as he wines and dines his wife on one hand and then after she leaves Atlantic City he is looking after Lucy whom he has gotten preggers. I wonder if Agent Van Alden has considered what a whore Lucy is and that the kid may indeed not be his. Mr. Shannon has definitely created a rather brilliant character in Van Alden as he appears to have the most flat affect I’ve seen in a person. But once the law is in play and violence is necessary, Van Alden bursts to life in full fury. The scene in the restaurant in particular was awesome.

Another character we get to see a little more insight to is Richard Harrow. The disfigured veteran definitely tips the social awkwardness scale whenever he isn’t sniping people or planting a shotgun in their face. It was both intriguing and heart wrenching seeing how much he longs for a normal life with a wife and children. I think it’s safe to say he’s a tad bit envious of Jimmy and his life where he “has everything.” I can almost see Richard betraying Jimmy if it came to Nucky enticing him that life somehow.

Overall the episode seemed like it only lasted a half hour because I was so into it. Not a whole lot went down, but it was like the actors and actresses hadn’t even missed a beat between seasons and I love it. Things have picked up right where they left off and between the teasers and show creators promising many more new characters to come in the season. I’m giving this episode a solid four out of five grizzlies. Boardwalk is back and carrying on with the same prohibition-gangster drama that I fell in love with last year! Bring it on next week!

TV

Star Wars – The Clone Wars Season 4, Episode 1 : ‘Water War’ Review

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Let it begin! Two new episodes of Clone Wars premiere tonight! And on the same day as the movies on Blu-Ray, what more could a Star Wars geek ask? The first episode being reviewed is ‘Water War’! Sounds like a kid’s theme park or something but trust me it’s anything but. The episode deals with the planet of Mon Calamari and the always constant bickering between the Quarren race and the Mon Cala themselves. (I always called them Mon Cal, but who am I to argue with the fish heads?) Thanks to the meddling of a creepy looking sharky faced Separatist ambassador, the bickering comes to a battle between the two species, with the Quarren obviously siding with the Separatists and the Mon Cala with the Republic. This is the first under water battle we’ve seen on screen from Star Wars and it was quack-tastic….

The visuals and animation on this show gets better and better with each season and season 4 is no different. The underwater battles were breathtaking even though as a geek I still question how blasters are being fired underwater. The Hydroid Medusa weapons of the Separatists were another example of the great animation. Even the underwater sounds throughout the episode stood out to me, because at least if they were following certain aspects of physics throughout, they got the voices and sounds right.

Of course ‘Captain’ Ackbar being in the episode was awesome, but it was nice to have a couple new characters to build on. Prince Lee-Char of the Mon Cala was likeable enough as the wet behind the ears leader of his people…. I guess he’d be wet everywhere but you get the idea. The Shark man Separatist Tamson was certainly a vicious and unrelenting foe. The part where he was pursuing Ahsoka and Lee-Char and tearing into Mon Cala troops kind of creeped me out. But that’s a good thing! Hopefully in the following episode he survives to give a credible villain besides Ventress, Cad Bane and Grievous (the General being credible is debatable). I can’t count Savage Oppress because I’m thinking he’s going to be used sparingly this season.

I give the episode a 4 out of 5 bears. Between the visuals and new characters it was a satisfying premiere for me. It also was a pleasant surprise to have an episode end with the Republic in defeat for the moment. The show itself needs more Separatist victories to stay interesting. Can’t wait for the next episode, check out my review of it: ‘Gungan Attack‘.