Tag Archives: Star Wars

Dec 27 2014

Best Of 2014

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Best Sci-Fi TV Show

Doctor Who got off to a rocky start for the new Doctor played by Peter Capaldi. But the show and the actor quickly found their footing and presented an eclectic and sometimes frenetic mix of the bizarre, silly and loftier themes. What helped where the imaginative scripts and Capaldi’s cutting performance as a more sardonic and mature Doctor, which was a good change of pace for Doctor Who.

Best Horror TV Show:

The Walking Dead continues to be one of the best genre shows on TV. This year saw the aftermath of the fall of the prison that scattered our heroes and introduced memorable characters. At the same time, The Walking Dead kept amping up the stakes with the Terminus cannibals and Grady Hospital storylines. It all ended with a feeling that no one is safe and nothing is secure.

Best Fantasy Show

Game of Thrones is the best produced dragons 2show on TV right now with its topnotch production values, crisp dialogue and scripts, and superior acting. Many episodes stood out which dealt with the deaths of King Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) and Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance), the trial of Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) and the siege of the Wall. The only problem is that the show is now running out of original material since it has almost caught up to George R.R. Martin’s books.

Best Documentary/Reality Show

The Real History of Science Fiction, was a splendid look at film and TV science fiction fare with some nods towards literary works. Each episode of the mini-series was based on a certain theme like robots, time travel and of course space exploration.

"Almost Human" Season 1

Best Cancelled TV Show

Almost Human was a fresh and inventive sci-fi variation of the cop-buddy show thanks to terrific performances by Michael Ealy as an android cop and Karl Urban as his disgruntled human partner. The episodes were straightforward and entertaining as they explored the nature of having a soul and nifty future crimes.

Best Animated Show

Star Wars: The Clone Wars had a fitting final season that aired on Netflix instead of broadcast TV. While current fandom is content to put behind George Lucas’ prequel-based fare and all the attention is on Star Wars Rebels and next year’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the final episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars did an excellent job of expanding the Star Wars universe with its explorations of the Force and by providing a segue way to the films.

Best TV Character

tyrionTyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones finally had enough of all the taunts and putdowns and the unjust charges laid on him. His epic courtroom rant in “The Laws of Gods and Men” saw him unleash his fury at those that wronged him including his father and this anger saw its culmination in the final episode of the season where he physically took out his rage on those that hurt him.

Most Missed TV Character

Beth Greene (Emily Kinney) on The Walking Dead was an underused character on the show. For the most part she was just known as the youngest member of the Greene family. But in recent episodes, Beth had matured and become self reliant which culminated in her final episode (and The Walking Dead’s midseason finale) where she was abruptly killed off. The death seemed pointless and enraged fans who were saddened by her death.

carrying beth

Best TV Villain

Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett) at first was slade wilsona trusted partner of Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) while the future Green Arrow was stranded on an island as seen in flashback scenes on Arrow. But in the second season, this former merc proved to be Queen’s most diabolical enemy as he re-entered the superhero’s life and systematically began to take Queen down in a smoldering bid of vengeance. Raising the stakes for Queen was that Wilson was superior in strength and skills and pushed our hero to the edge. Bennett’s performance as Wilson was so memorable that the Batman villain Ra’s al Ghul (Matt Nable) couldn’t compare.

Most Improved TV show

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was a big disappointment when it first premiered in 2013 because of banal scripts and listless characters. However, thanks to Captain America: The Winter Soldier the show truly came into its own by wholeheartedly embracing the game-changing premise from that movie where Hydra had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. Characters were killed off or did a complete 180 and the agents became fugitives while they struggled to defeat Hydra that seemed to be everywhere. Plus, the second season saw the show debut what will turn out to be an important component of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) by introducing the Inhumans.

Best Series Finale

being human usBeing Human, it was sad to see this American version of the British cult hit come to an end, but it ended quite well. All the story threads were wrapped up surprisingly well and the finale was bittersweet. A couple of the show’s characters died but had meaningful deaths with rewarding afterlives. Meanwhile, the surviving characters were given a conclusion where they were able to live happily and move on.

Best Sci-Fi Film

Guardians of the Galaxy highlighted a memorable year for sci-fi films. 2014 had some instant classics like Interstellar, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and Snowpiercer, but Guardians of the Galaxy stood out over the rest. It was a fun throwback to pulpy space operas not seen since the original Star Wars trilogy. More importantly, the film had very endearing characters like Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) that made audiences care about them as they went about saving the galaxy.

prisoners

Best Horror Film

Oculus stood out among current horror films that rely all too much on cheap and easy jump scares. This film, which starred genre favorites Karen Gillan and Katee Sackhoff, instead used psychological horror and mind games that always kept the audience guessing while delivering authentic and natural frights.

Best Fantasy Film

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIESPeter Jackson concluded his three-part adaptation of the Tolkien classic with wall-to-wall action and his now trademark sweeping scenes of battlefields and armies. Although, The Hobbit trilogy may not have the same punch as The Lord of the Rings films, it was still a memorable viewing experience. And The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies was a fitting conclusion to Jackson’s final sojourn to Middle Earth.

Best Animated Film

THE LEGO MOVIEThe LEGO Movie, this year had some great animated films like How To Train Your Dragon 2 and Big Hero 6. But The LEGO Movie was the best surprise not because of its use of famous characters like Batman or it being a cross of Legos and stop motion animation, but due to its championing of imagination and creativity.

Best Superhero Film

Captain America: The Winter Soldier was a bold, exciting sequel that outshone the original and upturned the MCU with its revelation that S.H.I.E.L.D. the spy organization had been infiltrated by the evil Hydra organization. This, of course, forced our hero to go on the run as he tried to tear down the organization he once fought for while uncovering disturbing conspiracies. But the film also took time to humanize Captain America and reflect on his past. These simple touches are what made the film so memorable.

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Best Superhero on Film

Captain America (Chris Evans) in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, once again demonstrated why he is arguably the greatest hero in the MCU and a true patriot who questioned the Big Brother methods of S.H.I.E.L.D. This in turn led him to be a man truly out of place in society fighting a lonely and dangerous fight as many supposed allies turned against him. More importantly, his heroic actions would unravel the MCU forever.

Best Film Characters

Hands down, Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) and Rocket Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper) stole the film Guardians of the Galaxy and were a big cause of that film’s success. Who would’ve imagined a year ago that two unknown CG characters would have so much heart and be so endearing to audiences?

groot and com

Best Line in a Film

“I am Groot”

Best Performance Capture

caesarCaesar the ape in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was exceptionally brought to life by Andy Serkis in what is probably his best performance. Many times in the film, one easily forgot that Caesar was not an actual chimp but a performance capture/CG creation. Just give the guy an Oscar already!

Best Film Villain

Koba the ape (performance captured by Toby Kebbel) in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was a hideous, chilling and conniving villain who’s undying hatred for humans brings about a war between the two species. He was the most memorable villains seen in genre films for 2014.

Best Use of 3D & IMAX In a Film

Interstellar showed that director Christopher Nolan is undeniably the master when it comes to filming genre efforts on IMAX. Meanwhile, Guardians of the Galaxy had unexpectedly terrific 3D effects thanks to director James Gunn who utilized the format to its best.

interstellar 2

Best Trailer for an Upcoming Film

Avengers: Age of Ultron, is one of next year’s most anticipated films and the moody trailer for it ratcheted up interest. It gave us the cool effects shots, especially the Hulkbuster Iron Man suit in action, but it didn’t play it safe with its dark forebodings (broken Captain America shield anyone?) and that creepy rendition of “I Got No Strings” from Pinocchio. On a side note the other best teaser trailer has to be for Avengers: Infinity War, Part I & II, which aren’t due until 2018 and 2019!

Biggest Disappointment

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 suffered the same fate as the infamous Spider-Man 3. It had too many villains, characters, subplots and worst of all too much studio interference that mandated that this film be used to launch spinoffs in a clumsy attempt by Sony Pictures to create its own superhero cinematic universe. In the end, this mess has put the Spider-Man film series in doubt, let alone the announced spinoffs.

Best App

Star Wars Scene Maker was an scene makerapp that allowed users to recreate scenes from the iconic original Star Wars. around. Or better it allowed anyone’s creativity to get going by allowing users to mix and match characters, weapons and vehicles and the best fun was seeing these setups come to animated life.

Best Video Game

Mario Kart 8 was a lot of fun to play and proved to be one of the best Mario Kart games ever made. Nintendo made this latest Mario game with incredible graphics, game play and delivering the simple joys that fans of the Mario Kart games have expected over the years.

mario kart

Best Hallmark Ornament: 2014 proved to be a landmark year for genre-related Hallmark ornaments. There were so many great ornaments like the xenomorph from Alien, the shark from Jaws or the flying DeLorean from the Back to the Future films. It was actually hard to pick out the best genre ornament, but in the end the best ornament was the Yoda Peekbuster. What made it stand out was its motion sensor that warned peekers away from gifts placed under the Christmas tree as Yoda admonished his distinct Yodaisms.

yODA

Biggest News Item

In light of the recent calamities like super diseases, incompetent politicians, demagogues, and riots, entertainment genre news couldn’t compare. Still, there were a couple of news item that have had immediate ramifications, especially with the future of the Spider-Man film franchise. Those would have to be the announcements from DC/Warner Bros. and Marvel/Disney of a busy schedule of interrelated superhero films. Both camps’ culminations will include two-part Justice League and Avengers films. These revelation were very exciting and left other studios’ attempts at building their own cinematic universes in the dust.

 

Dec 10 2014

2015 Hallmark Sci-Fi Ornaments

2015 ornaments all

Ornaments have been popular presents during the Holiday season and this year’s isn’t an exception. The genre-related offerings from Hallmark this year are quite impressive but next year’s Hallmark ornaments promises to be just as noteworthy. To date these are the 2015 Hallmark ornaments.

Star Trek

2015 looks to be a quiet year for kirk and spockStar Trek Hallmark ornaments. Doubtless, 2016 will be another story since it will be the 50th anniversary of the franchise. But next year’s ornaments look very beautifully sculpted. They include the Enterprise C famously featured in the classic episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise” on Star Trek: The Next Generation. The other two will be of Lt. Uhura and “The Needs of the Many” ornament, which features Kirk and Spock during Spock’s death scene in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. No doubt, the base will have sound, most likely being Spock’s unforgettable final words.

Enterprise C

Star Wars

c3poSorry, new fans of the upcoming trilogy, but at this time, no ornaments based upon Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be offered. Perhaps Hallmark wanted to hedge their bets on the popularity of ornaments based on new films. Look at what happened in 1999 when the company flooded the market with ornaments of the sure-fire hit Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Today many of those ornaments can be bought for a dollar on eBay. But who knows, in a few short months we’ll find out for certain if ornaments based on next year’s Star Wars film will be produced.

Either way, Hallmark is playing it safe for 2015 and its confirmed Star Wars ornaments will include a Y-Wing fighter, Luke Skywalker standing on his hands with Yoda perched on his feet as seen in the training segments of The Empire Strikes Back, Admiral Akbar and Zeb from Star Wars: Rebels. The most interesting looking ornament is a twofer; C-3P0 and R2-D2.

UPDATE: In the Hallmark Keepsake Dreambook, it’s stated that commemorative ornaments based on Star Wars: The Force Awakens are coming later this year, but no further information is currently available.

Superhero

At this point, only a few superhero W Womanornaments have been confirmed. They include the Marvel mainstay Spider-Man in Holiday-themed adornments, a grey and black-garbed Batman, Wonder Woman as portrayed by Lynda Carter, and Steve Austin – the Six Million Dollar Man. There will also be an ornament based on the garish batmobile seen in the Joel Schumacher Batman films. There must be fans of that car. Joker fans should note that an ornament based on the Joker played by Caesar Romero will be available.

So far, it looks like there won’t be any Guardians of the Galaxy ornaments. Too bad, a dancing baby Groot would’ve been a natural ornament. But there’s always a chance a limited edition ornament of these space heroes may be released. A gut feeling indicates that Hallmark will unveil some kind of Guardians of the Galaxy ornament and don’t be surprised if they produce a set of ornaments for Avengers: Age of Ultron in the same vein as they did in 2012 when they released a trio of interlocking ornaments of Thor, Iron Man and Captain America.

ornaments 2015

UPDATE: There will be dancing baby Groot as seen at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy and a Hulk vs. Ultron based on their battle in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Also, keep an eye out for a new Iron Man ornament. Sadly, we won’t be getting a Marvel superhero trio like we did in 2012. There’s always next year and on that note we’ll have to wait then to find out if Ant-Man will be getting an ornament (an ornament based on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a given).

Science Fiction/Fantasy

zaiusHeadlining the ornaments based on sci-fi and fantasy properties are the Predator himself and should make a nice companion piece to this year’s Alien ornament. To accompany Cornelius from the original Planet Of The Apes, 2015 will see another ape ornament: the nefarious Dr. Zaius.

Fans of The Walking Dead rejoice! Hallmark is producing an ornament of everybody’s favorite walker killer, Daryl Dixon. Who knows? Are Rick Grimes, Michonne or the Governor next?

Expect a new Harry Potter ornament, one of Smaug the dragon from The Hobbit films, Megatron from the Transformers toys and Beetlejuice, as well. Don’t be surprised if Hallmark unveils more ornaments based on popular sci-fi, fantasy and horror properties. We’ll keep you posted.

smaug ornament

UPDATE: As one of our readers pointed out in the comments, the Harry Potter ornament will be of our favorite young wizard on Platform 9 3/4. There will also be an ornament of the Mockingjay symbol featured in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2.

gizmo (2)

On a lighter note, a new Gizmo ornament is coming. Recreating one of his cutest moments in Gremlins, this ornament features the diminutive Mogwai riding a toy car. For animation fans, ornaments based on the films WALL-E, Inside Out and Home, as well as the ever-present Disney characters and films (like Frozen) will be available. BTW, there will be an ornament of the super nerd Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory. Bazinga!

Waldermann Rivera

Nov 28 2014

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Teaser Trailer

For the 99.99% of us who couldn’t make it to the very select few theaters showing it, here’s the official (no fan-made stuff) teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

It looks pretty interesting, so far we only caught one Abrams lens flare and that was when the Millennium Falcon appears (the ship looks kind of fake though, hopefully the fx shot will be tweaked). Things that were cool seeing were the X-Wing fighters, the Millennium Falcon, of course, John Williams legendary score and a new lightsabre design!

It’s too bad the teaser for Star Wars: The Force Awakens didn’t feature any of the original cast but it’s a good intro to the next stage of the Star Wars saga.

Oct 4 2014

Star Wars Returns With New Rebels

Star Wars is back with the long awaited premiere of the pilot for the animated show Star Wars: Rebels on Disney Channel.

Right off the bat the action kicks off with the introduction of the main character, a Jedi in hiding called Kanan Jarrus (voiced by Freddie Prinze, Jr.), who leads a crew of rebels on a ship called the Ghost in stealing weapons on a remote outer rim world Lothal. On the planet the crew encounters a young thief named Ezra (voiced by Taylor Gray), who is also strong in the Force.  This sets off a chain of events that lead them on a rescue mission to free wookie slaves on the spice world of Kessel. The show displays classic Star Wars action with a speeder chase right out of Return Of The Jedi, gun battles with imperial stormtroopers, who still have lousy aim, and dog fights in outer space with the iconic TIE fighters echoing scenes from A New Hope.

speederAll of this sets up the series nicely as a return to the Original Trilogy era, as this show is set between events in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and the original film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.  The tyranny of the Empire is on display as well, the episode starts with an agent from the Imperial Security Bureau harassing citizens of the planet Lothal, and later wookies are being shipped to certain death as forced slave labor. As much as I liked the prequel era and Star Wars: The Clone Wars series, it is great to see a return to this time in the Star Wars universe.  But I hada few nitpicks with the pilot episode. Take the way Kanan reveals himself as a Jedi to the imperial forces in the end of the episode. It did seem somewhat sudden, as was the quickness that Ezra accepts Kanan’s offer to be trained as a Jedi. ezra lightsaberI thought that their identity as Force sensitive people would have been kept under wraps for a while and be gradually brought up as the series went on, but by the conclusion of the pilot, they basically lay their cards out on the table. This brings them to the attention of the next big Star Wars villain, the Inquisitor, who seems like a sinister character even though his screen time is only a few seconds. Having said that, it was nice to see some exciting lightsaber action, as was seeing our heroes help their fellow man. Whether it was feeding starving outcasts on Lothar or helping Wookie slaves escape from Imperial clutches.

ghost battleThis series is being executive produced by Dave Filoni, who oversaw the excellent Clone Wars  show and it will be interesting to see how Rebels develops in comparison. Star Wars: The Clone Wars had familiar characters and settings while Star Wars: Rebels is kind of in new territory with new characters (and a cameo by one of the beloved Star Wars characters) and a setting that has to bridge the gap between the trilogies.   Overall, this pilot gets the series off to a good start. The characters seem to have a good rapport with each other and have a history as a crew that will hopefully be explored in the coming episodes. It will be fun to see how they will fit into the overall story of the rebellion and hopefully we will see classic Star Wars characters interacting with the crew of the Ghost.

C.S. Link

 

Sep 16 2014

The Case For An Obi-Wan Kenobi Star Wars Spinoff Film

kenobi

With all the recent talk about the new batch of Star Wars films, there’s a lot of interest about the spinoff films announced by Disney. Already Gareth Edwards and Josh Trank are slated to direct two of them, which are rumored to be about young Han Solo or Boba Fett. But if there is one character that should headline a Star Wars spinoff it’s the unsung hero of the films, Obi-Wan Kenobi.

For non-fans, Obi-Wan “Ben” Kenobi was a luke and benJedi Knight who was played by both Ewan McGregor and Sir Alec Guinness in both Star Wars trilogies. He mentored both Anakin Skywalker and later on his son Luke Skywalker for a brief period before allowing himself to be killed by Darth Vader in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Out of all the heroic characters featured in the Star Wars films, his was arguably the most heroic and selfless with noble traits only rivaled by the diminutive Jedi Master Yoda.

What made him so heroic? Look at what he did, how he led his life. Obi-Wan Kenobi clearly put his duty over his personal wants and needs. This was seen in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith and the aforementioned Episode IV.

kenobi yoda, organa

 

At the end of Episode I, Obi-Wan honors his dying master’s wish and chooses to train Anakin to become a Jedi. He did this even though he didn’t hold Anakin in high regard like his master Qui-Gon Jinn did. In Episode III, after the Jedi have been vanquished by Emperor Palpatine and the new Galactic Empire, Obi-Wan could have just hung up his Jedi robe and gone into hiding. Well, he did do that to an extent, although he wanted to continue to fight the good fight against evil. Instead he chose to follow Yoda’s bidding by protecting Anakin’s infant son Luke. He went into hiding on Anakin’s home planet Tatooine where he would live out the remainder of his life looking after Luke from afar. In the dialogue in Episode IV, Luke, now a young man, knew Kenobi so it can be inferred that Obi-Wan kept an eye on Luke as he grew up and only stayed away because of Luke’s uncle’s wishes. Still, he came to Luke’s aid early on in the film when the young man was in danger.

In Episode IV, despite his old age, he was willing to leave the planet and aid Princess Leia after she sent him a holographic plea for help in her fight against the Empire. Towards the end of the film, Obi-Wan made the ultimate sacrifice while confronting Darth Vader.

last kenobi battleDuring that battle Luke came upon them and was about to come to his aid. Obi-Wan knew that it was imperative that Luke be kept from Vader and escape so simply stopped fighting and allowed Vader to kill him. Luke soon learned that death wasn’t the end for Obi-Wan, who would continue advising Luke as a spiritual presence.

This spiritual aspect enhanced Kenobi’s compassionate, amiable manner that he displayed in the films and which made him likable. In Episode IV, he had a gentle, patient way about him and only fought at the last resort, which is why Luke was so  drawn to the old Jedi. In Episode II, during an investigation, Obi-Wan visited his old friend Dexter Jettster for some help. In a rare moment, when the two met at Jettster’s greasy spoon diner, Obi-Wan dropped his stoic Jedi demeanor and came off as an average Joe type who was very relatable.

But Kenobi was also a formidable warrior. In the prequel films, Obi-Wan proved that he was an adept warrior who was more than capable of taking out superior opponents. He first showed this knack in Episode I when he killed Darth Maul. Later in Episode III, he was dispatched to defeat the cyborg Jedi killer General Greivous, which he did in a convincing manner. But later in the film, he was able to defeat Anakin Skywalker who had turned evil. Even though Anakin was more powerful in using the force, Kenobi had better experience and skills, and used that advantage to cripple his one-time friend and student.

kenobi badass

As great as these films were, they focused so much on the Skywalkers and Han Solo that Obi-Wan Kenobi didn’t get much screen time. A spinoff film about Obi-Wan Kenobi could explore what he did in between the trilogies and even go into his life before Episode I. Lots of questions about him and his life could be answered. Not only will these details flesh out his character, but a Star Wars spinoff film will finally let Obi-Wan Kenobi have the spotlight that he deserves.

Lewis T. Grove