It would seem George Lucas has set a precedent on doing things in the galaxy far far away backwards, because the latest Old Republic cinematic takes place before the previous two. Satele Shan is not a master yet nor is Darth Malgus. Also the Sith Empire has not returned yet…until the cinematic kicks off of course.
Darth Malgus and Satele Shan in their second duel on Alderaan
The trailers have showed us just about every character class that you can use in the MMORPG and this one introduces us to the smuggler class, portrayed by a smart mouth human Cad Bane wannabe, who also likes to check out Twi’lek behinds. Check out the trailer below to enjoy the goodness. And be good to yourself by watching it in 720p:
Let’s touch on some interesting points: Malgus and Satele certainly end up having quite a history, fighting for the first time here and Satele being the one to injure him so badly on Alderaan that he needs Darth Vader style life support. I can’t wait to see their next confrontation which will no doubt occur during the Old Republic game. (If it ever finally releases.)
Satele’s master
Malgus himself shows that he is quite the skilled fighter, as if that wasn’t apparent with his destruction of the Jedi Temple and concurrent conquering of Coruscant later. (That was a lot of c’s.) He also proves to be a true sith after striking down his wounded master after their fight against the Jedi. It was interesting to see a Sith Lord of the same species of Naga Sadow in action, something I can’t recall seeing before in any video. The red skinned Sith claim to be pure blooded Sith because they share the bloodline of the initially conquered Sith species.
Satele’s master also proved to be quite formidable, taking on both Malgus and his own master with plenty of finesse as he wielded his own lightsaber with Satele’s own double bladed weapon. It’s a shame that he bit the dust because he seemed interesting enough. Given Star Wars penchant for prequel material perhaps we will see him in something in future media.
I’ve told myself and told myself not to waste time playing the MMORPG when it finally does release but the more I see of it the more I know that just won’t happen. From all of the trailers, gameplay and books this portion of the Star Wars expanded universe has shown us so far, the Old Republic era still has plenty for us. Either way I need a new Star Wars game to play because I’m still reeling from the disappointment that was The Force Unleashed 2.
The Wolfman, starring Benicio del Toro and Sir Anthony Hopkins came out last year to poor reviews and a low box office. This was shattering to the studio that had planned for a money making trilogy to cash in on the recent drive for all things werewolves and vampires.
“I said he flip ya. Flip ya for real.” – The Usual Suspects? Nobody gets me…
So you’d think that with The Wolfman ‘failing’ at the theaters that would be it for the movie. But no, that just is never the case these days. So instead of just going ahead with their planned sequel, they have reportedly opted instead to simply remake the movie… again. After only one year.
Universal is saying that it’s a remake of the classic version and not the one from a year ago. But the one from a year ago was a remake of the classic version as well, so really who knows anymore. Also they may call it Werewolf, further throwing originality out the window.
Dorkly recently posted a list of 6 Ways that the Expanded Universe ruined Star Wars. The ‘Expanded Universe’ being anything other that the actual Star Wars movies, such as books, comics and video games. Granted, some of the things in this list were kinda stupid, even though I don’t think that they flat-out ruined Star Wars. It seems like Dorkly may have just not researched very well, but I, being a ridiculous Star Wars buff can help remedy that. I would definitely read their list here before you read the rest of my article. It will make more sense, trust me.
After watching a terrible showing of Final Destination 3, a friend of ours called up asking where a certain movie scream originated from. It was a bit distorted through the phone’s speaker, but I could clearly hear that it was a generic movie scream that I and my colleague Dr. Kronner had heard in countless movies over the years. More specifically for me in the first StarCraft game. If you’re thinking of the Wilhelm Scream, the “Youraagh” is very different and a bit more hilarious to me. The Wilhelm sounds like this:
While the Youraagh sounds like this:
Now I’ll let you be the judge of which scream is the funniest but I have to tell you to watch this awesome compilation that I found. I think it will ultimately sway your opinion towards the Youraagh:
As you can see this scream is in classy movies like Serial Mom, Last Action Hero and Broken Arrow. Hell, there was even a Chuck Norris movie that used it. You don’t get much more credible than that.
After searching endlessly for the origins of this classic movie scream, (I really only did a Google and Yahoo search for ten minutes) I couldn’t find anything on it but more and more questions. One can only hope that one day the Youraagh scream will gain as much prominence as the Wilhelm. In closing, I leave you with Youraagh modified TIE Fighter engines in Star Wars: A New Hope.
The Clone Wars finale is finally here with the episodes “Padawan Lost” and “Wookie Hunt”. And be forewarned, Chewbacca doesn’t show up until the second episode, so keep your lightsaber holstered for a minute. I’m about to cover both episodes in a single review – prepare to have your mind blown!
*Warning: Spoilers Ahead. Turn back while you can!*
The best way to describe this episode is: Star Wars meets a blend of Surviving the Game, Running Manand Hard Target. We start off the planet Felucia again, and this is the third time unless I’m mistaken. I really wish they would change-up planets instead of revisiting all of the same ones. That aside, Felucia looked awesome down to the last detail of tiny bugs crawling over the plant life.
Felucia…again.Owned!
As Anakin, Plo Koon and Ahsoka are leading an attack on the Separatist base, Ahsoka gets stunned and taken captive by a Trandoshan who leaves the planet for parts unknown. If you’re wondering what a Trandoshan is, it’s the same species as Bossk from The Empire Strikes Back and season 2 of Clone Wars. They are also the mortal enemies of the Wookies, their popular pass-times being: Hunting the walking carpets and using them for slave labor.
Ahoska awakes aboard a transport, another prisoner aboard telling her that these Trandoshans capture people, and then release them in order to hunt them for sport. After being dropped off weaponless on a moon called Wasskah in the Trandosh System, Ahsoka is scattered from the other prisoners by blaster fire from the Trandoshans. It’s not long before Ahsoka is found by three others who have been there for a long time. They reveal themselves to be Jedi younglings, stating that the Trandoshans hunt them because they are far less dangerous than a Jedi Knight. Kalifa, seems to be the group leader, with the grumpy Twi-LekJinx and the more calm CereanO-Mer as her companions. They explain to Ahsoka the situation they are in and try explaining that it is best to run and hide to survive instead of fighting the Trandoshans. As one might predict, Ahsoka isn’t too keen on that advice.
The Padawans from left to right: O-Mer, Jinx, Kalifa and Ahsoka
After finding one of the Trandoshans and giving him a good old-fashioned group beat down, the padawans flee into the jungle once more. That night, inspired by Ahsoka’s defiance, they decide to search for the Trandoshan base and make a stand. This doesn’t go very well as the padawans become seperated, resulting in the death of the Trandoshan leader Garnac’s son at the hand of Ahsoka. Kalifa is in turn killed by the papa lizard in a very emotional scene. This is where Ahsoka promises to look after O-mer and Jinx as her newly found friend slowly passes on.
“Excuse me, you have a laser bolt coming out of your chest.”
If there was ever a time that this was not considered a kid friendly show, these two episodes would be it. Especially in the first episode. To start off, the bloodthirsty Trandoshans are hunting freakin’ kids for sport with all intentions of displaying their bodies in a trophy room. They shoot and kill three of the hunted on-screen, and one of the hunter’s falls onto a spike and gets impaled before our very eyes. It’s all well and good for me as an adult, but for kids watching the show they may have some nightmares. Personally I wish all of the episodes were adult themed as this one was. Now, let’s get to Chewbacca.
These guys need to be returned to the Jerk Store
In ‘Wookie Hunt’, Ahsoka narrowly escapes from the Trandoshans, but finally meets up with O-Mer and Jinx who are about to give up upon hearing of Kalifa’s death. Ahsoka has other ideas and inspires the remaining two Padawans to join her in attacking the next transport that will drop prisoners. The scene with the Padawans attacking the transport was very cool, one of the Trandoshans was even using a shotgun that Trandoshan slavers used in the Republic Commando video game. After the ship crashes spectacularly, the younglings stumble upon Chewbacca who was the only prisoner aboard. Ahsoka can conveniently understand the Wookie and he shows some of his technological prowess by putting together a communication device to contact his fellow fuzzballs. I won’t spoil anymore of the episode by telling you who lives and dies by the end of the episode, but I can say to expect some Wookie rage, a couple familiar characters, and some Trando-bashing by the end of it all.
“I SAID GOOD DAY SIR!”
This finale was about as good as I expected from the previews and even went in a different direction than I thought with the whole hunting aspect. Chewbacca could easily have been any random Wookie, but I liked that they gave the fans a familiar face for the end of the season. It definitely beats out the Boba Fett finale from last year, which I was a bit let down by.
The Trandoshans were a very nice addition to the Clone Wars series. The sounds they made kind of reminded me of the raptors from Jurassic Park 3(but in a good way) by the way they called for help with high-pitched screeching, and the way they growled in attack mode. They sure were a sadistic lot of scumbags. Garnac, their leader, had quite an extensive trophy room consisting of many notable species from the Star Wars universe, and a couple of cool ones for the fans including a Mandalorian Neo-Crusader helmet from the Old Republic and what appeared to be a crystal skull from Indiana Jones.
The voice acting was a bit hit and miss with the Trando voices themselves being a bit over the top. But the padawans Kalifa, Jinx and O-Mer were very nicely done. And I give Clone Wars veteran voice actress Gwendoline Yeo extra props, because in real life she is smoking hot!
Gwendoline Yeo – voice of Kalifa in The Clone Wars
We were also treated to a quick preview of season 4 of the Clone Wars coming out this Fall. Shots included underwater battles involving the Mon Calamari species (Ackbar!), another Anakin/Dooku fight, and what looks to be a bad-ass Gungan fighting General Grievous, if you can believe that. There was also plenty of shootings and a couple explosions so you can’t go wrong there!
Ahhhh, there’s nothing like a fresh dose of controversy to start your Monday off right. It’s even better when you can’t figure out why so many people or news outlets care enough to make it a controversy, and I can’t decide whether I’m helping or hindering it right now.
So here it is: Natalie Portman is being accused by her body double Sarah Lane, of not doing hardly any of the actual dancing in the ballet scenes of the movie Black Swan. According to an article on OTRC, Lane claims that Portman only did five percent of her dancing parts in the movie, while Portman’s fiancée Benjamin Milliepied said it was her 85 percent of the time. Darren Aronofsky and Mila Kunis both also back up Portman.
The biggest question that I pose however is; Who gives a crap?
As everyone probably knows by now, Natalie Portman won the ‘Best Actress Oscar’ this year for her performance in Black Swan. I thought the movie was okay, but critics everywhere have praised it as a masterpiece of cinema. And now it all comes down to this? She didn’t do her fair share of ballet dancing? I would hope Darren Aronofsky focused more on the story itself, and bringing out the best acting in his cast than on ballet dancing. Is everyone supposed to be surprised she had a body double for the dancing part? I was more interested in other parts of the film, you know, the parts where Natalie Portman is losing her mind and morphing into a f–king Swan. After watching the “scene” with Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis my first reaction is: what ballet?
Until they add in a best ballet dancer category at the Academy Awards maybe Sarah Lane should switch her face to the off position.
“I’m sorry? Did you say a Ballet? I wasn’t paying attention.”
I may be a bit biased because I’m a dude and think Natalie Portman is one of the best things to happen to geeks since the Star Wars prequels were announced. (Which sounded good at the time but turned out not so good.) After the Serena Williams controversy a couple of days ago (click her name for link.) it seems like highly successful women are coming under fire from some of the most ridiculous nonsense.
I for one could care less about Natalie’s dancing prowess at this point because I’m eagerly awaiting the upcoming comedy starring herself, James Franco and Danny McBride titled Your Highness, which comes out next Friday – April 8th. Swords, Sorcery and Natalie Portman in a thong anyone?
Grizzly Bomb 