JJ Abrams is Star Wars’s New Hope
Posted: January 25, 2013 Filed under: News, Star Wars | Tags: a new hope, Abrams, arndt, Film, J. J. Abrams, JJ Abrams, Michael Arndt, star trek, star wars, thrawn, toy story, Walt Disney Company, zahn 3 CommentsOdds are you’ve heard that JJ Abrams of Star Trek fame has been selected to direct the new Star Wars movies under the Disney brand. What do I think?
It’s great news. Say what you will about Star Trek, but it was a great movie and a very accessible film. Sure, it messed with the canon, but it messed mostly with the canon from the original series — who cares? Star Trek was languishing with so many bad movies being made from it. Add in the failure of Enterprise to be watched and it was pretty clear someone needed to come in and make it good again. Abrams was the man for that job.
JJ was, allegedly, already approached for the Star Wars movies. He declined originally because, again, allegedly, he didn’t want to touch something so sacred. That’s right — JJ Abrams, a man painted as a money-hungry control freak with a penchant for lens flares was scared of messing up Star Wars. That’s a good sign. And they have a skilled writer in Michael Arndt, so unless Abrams insists on messing with the script too badly, we have nothing to worry about.
A final point, of course, is Disney’s past insistence on the new films not following the canon. Obviously we all want a Thrawn trilogy of films but it’s not going to happen — Zahn‘s magnum opus is going to be left sitting in a parallel universe. That’s something we kind of have to live with. What this means is that even if the new movie(s) are horrible, we can still take solace in the fact that the books haven’t been desecrated.
I would be shocked if Abrams and Arndt could screw this up. They are both big names, they’re both riding off big successes, they’re both nerds, and they both know what’s at stake. They could single-handedly revive a dying franchise that’s only hanging on by the occasional new novel and/or tabletop RPG. Besides — the New trilogy was god awful. How could they do worse?
New Gravity Rush DLC headed for LittleBigPlanet
Posted: November 19, 2012 Filed under: DLC, News, Video games | Tags: battle royale, dlc, gravity rush, karting, kat, littlebigplanet, playstation all stars, playstation all-stars battle royale, scea, sony, videogames 2 CommentsThere you go.
Wii U Midnight Launch at Nintendo Store
Posted: November 16, 2012 Filed under: News, Video games | Tags: first wii u, nintendo flagship store, reggie fils-aime, wii, wii u, wii u preorder Leave a commentI don’t know how U plan to spend your weekend, but if you’re anywhere near Nintendo’s flagship store in New York, you can spend it freezing your ass off to get one of the first Wii Us.
GTAV Trailer Dropped
Posted: November 14, 2012 Filed under: News | Tags: gta, GTA5, GTAV, rockstar games, trailer Leave a commentThere’s a new trailer out for GTA5, and my God does it look great. After spending hours analyzing every possible minute of the last one, it’s nice to have something slightly more substantive. Rockstar looks like they aren’t going to disappoint. Check it out below!
Ouya — the open source, Android powered console — is a go
Posted: August 9, 2012 Filed under: News, Opinion, Video games | Tags: 3ds, android, handheld gaming, katsuhiro harada, kickstarter, microsoft, nintendo, open source, ouya, playstation, playstation 3, sony, tekken, vita, wii, xbox 360 Leave a commentYesterday I talked about “The Future of Handheld Gaming” wherein I said quite definitively that phone-gaming is a bit of a fad and true handheld gaming can (and hopefully will, survive).
Somewhat related to that is the news that Ouya — the open source console powered by Android — pulled $8.6 million dollars via Kickstarter. They’ve lined up some companies, too, and well, are now accepting pre-orders. This is huge news, of course: while the Vita has been stumbling its way through cross-play gaming, with an Android console that becomes a huge reality — taking games with you on your cell phone seems to be a real possibility.
The only question is, will developers jump for it?
Katsuhiro Harada — Mr. Tekken — recently said that he believes that a one-console future is the way to go, and while that would make things a cinch for devs and likely help the big three settle their differences, it at one point seemed unlikely. I remember imagining as a kid that that would be the future… I kind of doubt it these days, but with projects like Ouya going big, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft are going to have to find a way to compete. Ouya will likely feature tons of free games — courtesy of Android’s already huge library — as well as premium content designed for the Ouya itself. Something open source like this will be ripe for piracy, too — SNES/NES/GB roms on your Android powered console? Probably.
God knows console sales have been interesting over the last little while, but with a retail price that pretty much trounces the competition, not to mention the 3DS and Vita, I’d be worried if I was one of the big three.
Oreo Pride “Controversy”
Posted: June 27, 2012 Filed under: News, Opinion | Tags: abc news, android, android pride, controversy, gay marriage, gay rights, google, homophobic, homosexual, kraft, kraft pride, new york, oreo, oreo pride, oreos, pride 1 CommentI don’t know if you’ve ever heard about this “The Facebook” thing that the kids are into, but did you know that those queer lovin’ chocolate thieves down at Oreo posted this unabashed declaration of war against God.
Mayor: Vancouver’s Riot Prevention Plan a Complete Success
Posted: June 13, 2012 Filed under: Canadiana, News, Satire | Tags: gary bettman, gregor robertson, jonathan quick, la kings, overlord, playoffs, project janus, roberto luongo, stanley cup, vancouver canucks, vancouver riots 2 CommentsVANCOUVER: When Mayor Gregor Robertson revealed Vancouver’s riot prevention plan in late March, it was ridiculed as being tantamount to doing nothing. Robertson took the criticism in stride as what city officials dubbed “Project Janus” took hold. After the LA Kings won the Stanley Cup on Monday, Mayor Robertson announced that Project Janus was in fact, successful.
Beth Ditto’s Fatness Gets in the Way of Her Stinging Critique on Marilyn Monroe Worship
Posted: May 21, 2012 Filed under: Essays, Movies, News, Opinion, Review, Satire | Tags: anna faris, anna nicole smith, appearance, beth ditto, britney spears, candle in the wind, cannes, discrimination, dumb blonde, elton john, fat shaming, fatties, kennedy, kim kardashian, lindsay lohan, marilyn monroe, megan fox, midnight in paris, misunderstood, norma jean, nothing bad ever happens to the kennedys, oblivious, paris hilton, princess diana, sexism Leave a commentIf you heard anything about the Gossip’s performance of Candle in the Wind at Cannes, it probably went to the tune of either, “Why did she ruin such an amazing song” or “She doesn’t understand the poignancy of Toppin’s lyrics or Monroe’s legacy,” or — most likely — “Hey, Beth Ditto’s fat.” Read the rest of this entry »