“Crisis on Naboo” is the final part of this current arc of The Clone Wars, whereby Cad Bane and Count Dooku have meticulously plotted to kidnap Chancellor Palpatine on Naboo. The early episodes of the arc had Obi-wan infiltrating the organization in disguise as a bounty hunter.

This episode has Dooku springing his trap, Obi-wan trying to foil it, and Anakin getting left in the dark in the middle.

It had all the vibe of a classic heist film, reminding me of movies like Ronin or Ocean’s 11. At least as far as the Bounty Hunters are concerned. I loved the plan, I love the way it was executed. It made a couple of things in “The Box” make more sense (particularly the video game training aspects of it) and that was actually a good thing. The episode also kept up the recurring dilemma of Obi-wan selling out his ideals, watching Bane and others kill innocents and having to watch, not interceding for fear of blowing his cover.

Sure, this episode was action packed and had a great plot, but this episode wasn’t about any of those things. This episode was about Palpatine driving a wedge between Anakin and the Jedi, Obi-wan included. This episode was about Palpatine playing a game of chess from both sides and smiling devilishly when pieces began to fall. In the third act of the episode, when Anakin tells Obi-wan that if he’s in the dark, what else is it they don’t know? They could all be in the dark about everything.

He’s really hit on something and I’m not even sure he realizes how completely right he is.

Anakin is slowly drifting to the Chancellor as his emotional guide, even more than ever, making his final descent in Revenge of the Sith make more sense than ever.

My only complaint about “Crisis on Naboo”? It didn’t really look or feel like Naboo. Maybe I’m just being nitpicky because I walked out of a theatre screening of Phantom Menace in 3D and had the look of Naboo fresh in my brain. When the Jedi land on Naboo, it looks more like a town out of an old western than the lush old Italian Naboo. I guess it’s fine on one level, since that’s the vibe they seemed to be aiming for in the episode, but it just didn’t look like Naboo, not in the lighting or the color palate. Maybe there’s a reason for it and I just missed it.

I absolutely loved where this episode ended, though, with the climactic fight between Dooku and Anakin. It was very well done. I never tire of watching Dooku fight, his style is so elegant and fun to watch.

I wouldn’t hesitate to say this was the best episode of the four. I really liked it except for that one, minor, nit-picky complaint.

Other than that, I’m completely on board with this episode as being one of the best of the season.

Entertainment Weekly has an exclusive look at Darth Maul from The Clone Wars.

Of course the preview still doesn’t reveal his legs in any meaningful fashion, so that’s still a secret yet to be revealed. Reading about him in Darth Plagueis and watching him again in The Phantom Menace 3D has made me more excited for this Darth Maul arc of the show than I’ve ever been. March really can’t come soon enough.

As far as the clip itself, you’ll have to go over there to watch it.

And is it just me or does it sound like the audio is ripped right out of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, right down to Moleram’s laugh?

This four part arc begins in March.

This episode is the one I’ve been waiting for this entire arc–well, at least since they resolved the miscommunication with Anakin so quickly.

This seems like a bad guys version of the Dirty Dozen with a dash of the Departed and I’m completely okay with that. (Would that be like a reverse Manchurian Candidate?)

Seriously… It’s very much like those things. Trust me.

From the press release:

The conspiracy against the Chancellor is set. The playing pieces are on the board. Now, Count Dooku makes his move… In the next all-new episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, an extremely popular four-episode arc comes to its shocking finale. Obi-Wan is still deep undercover as the assassin Rako Hardeen, and he’s part of Cad Bane’s bounty hunter team tasked to kidnap the Supreme Chancellor. Guarding the Chancellor are the Jedi Knights, including Anakin Skywalker. Obi-Wan must stop Dooku’s plot, but is it already too late to stop the devious plans of the Sith? Find out in “Crisis on Naboo,” a new episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, airing at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT Friday, February 10th on Cartoon Network.

The organizers of SaltCON have graciously given us two tickets for their convention to give to our readers.

All you need to do is comment below that you want them and let us know what your favorite board game is. We’ll pick a winner on Tuesday, February 17th.

What is SaltCON you ask? SaltCON is Salt Lake City’s very own boardgaming convention. From their website:

We are pleased to announce that the annual SaltCON Board Game Convention will be held at the Royal Garden Inn (154 W 600 S) in downtown Salt Lake City over President’s Day weekend on February 17th and 18th, 2012. We are now taking registrations online at www.saltcon.com, including reduced rates and incentives for registering early.

What is a board game convention? It is a gathering of people, consisting of families and singles of all ages and genders coming together for two days to play all types of board games. We believe playing board games to be a great activity, teaching all players important lessons about life while having fun, too! We have old standby games, such as Scrabble, Monopoly, and the Game of Life, along with new classics like Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, and Dominion. The newest games are also available in our game library, which contains hundreds of games. We have concierges to teach games to those wanting to learn, and we even have a game design competition for budding game designers! And to top it all off, we have lots of giveaways and tournaments during the convention where you have the opportunity to win games. It is two days of pure fun! So come join us!

I’ll be there as much as I can (I have book signings on the 18th I’d love you to come to with LE Modessit, Dave Farland, and Paul Genesse. Here’s more details.)

So, to win, just leave a comment below and let us know what your favorite board game is.

The box is part three in Obi-wan’s undercover infiltration of Count Dooku’s plot to kidnap Chancellor Palpatine on Naboo. Count Dooku, wanting to test the mettle of the bounty hunters he’s handpicked, he contrives for them to be tested in a virtual environment that will kill those unfit for the mission and whittle his team down to the 5 best men for the job.

Meanwhile, Anakin is given orders to just sort of back off and leave Obi-wan to his devices, reminding us for the only time that Obi-wan is really the bounty hunter Rako Hardeen in disguise.

I’m going to be honest, this episode was fifty-fifty for me. The visuals were great, with the exception of a couple of weird quirks in Dooku’s animation. Seriously, there was about a shot and a half where he looked a little silly, but that’s forgivable and no big deal. Watching Obi-wan’s struggle to choke back his instincts as a Jedi to act like a bounty hunter is certainly a fascinating struggle to watch which more than makes up for any minor glitches in the animation.

What I really loved the lighting schemes that hearken directly to Revenge of the Sith in Yoda’s meditation room. Visual touchstones to the actual films are always very welcome and the theme is very much the same to match the lighting: Anakin is instructed to do nothing to save those he loves and it kills him, bringing him that much closer to the brink of the dark side.

I also loved all the flourishes from Close Encounters of the Third Kind leading up to the box and I loved the Enter the Dragon sort of showdown at the end of the trial, with a crazed Dooku watching from the safety of his control room. All it needed was mirrors. The choral music in that sequence stood out in the scene, as well as the moment with Cad Bane’s intervention, easily the best moment in the episode.

But what I don’t understand about this episode is the story. Why did Dooku need to test the bounty hunters this way? Why didn’t he hire the five best bounty hunters to begin with? Why did the 11 bounty hunters agree to the test in the first place, knowing how lethal it was? Wouldn’t it be easier to get a bounty hunter to accept a job where he’d be assigned to kill other bounty hunters? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to hire them all and have them fight to the death down to the last five men,? Is making these bounty hunters perform in a series of lethal video game puzzles really the best way to test their skills?

And wouldn’t the cost of operating a death trap as elaborate as The Box just be ridiculous and cost prohibitive? I mean, think about the cost of such an immense box, the size and scale of it, the amount of workers it would require to build, the cost of gas to burn for the fires… The supply of credits for the Separatists must be inexhaustible…

Something about the test and the box itself just didn’t add up for me. It seemed like a very silly video game and maybe that’s what they were going for. It didn’t work for me as well as it will probably work for others, but it certainly entertained Dooku.

I guess this seems very much like Dooku’s modus operandi. Remember how he found Asajj Ventress in the micro-series? Perhaps Dooku would have been right at home as a Roman noble, watching over the gladiatorial battles for their entertainment and brutality.

For visuals, lighting, and effects, I give this episode high marks. It looked beautiful and had some very cool flourishes. For the story, I just don’t understand why we couldn’t have cut to the chase and made this a three part arc, skipping this episode completely.

But my feelings on the story didn’t diminish my enjoyment at all, which is I guess why it was worth airing the episode rather than skipping it. For all its faults, I had a good time watching it, even if I did find myself scratching my head at some of the where’s and why’s.

Next week I’m hoping for a payoff to these last three episodes that will really knock my socks off, and something tells me I’m going to get it.

Well… We’re getting it.

A Watchmen Prequel. The names involved are generally rather impressive, though I do see Scott Snyder as a glaring omission. I am going to come out and say I’m a little uncomfortable with this without Alan Moore’s direct involvement. I know DC is a corporation and is designed to do what it HAS to to make money instead of doing what is right, which would be to give Alan Moore his characters back.

Can you imagine the stories we could see if they gave the Watchmen back to Alan Moore?

Instead, we’ll have these. And these could be great. I don’t want to pass judgment on them prematurely because of the bad taste in my mouth about them. I will read them and see.

I’m sure we all will.

Here’s the press release:

DC ENTERTAINMENT OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCES “BEFORE WATCHMEN”

This summer, DC Entertainment will publish all-new stories expanding on the acclaimed WATCHMEN universe. As highly anticipated as they are controversial, the seven inter-connected prequel mini-series will build on the foundation of the original WATCHMEN, the bestselling graphic novel of all time. BEFORE WATCHMEN will be the collective banner for all seven titles, from DC Comics.

“It’s our responsibility as publishers to find new ways to keep all of our characters relevant,” said DC Entertainment Co-Publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee. “After twenty five years, the Watchmen are classic characters whose time has come for new stories to be told. We sought out the best writers and artists in the industry to build on the complex mythology of the original.”

Stepping up to the challenge is a group of the comic book industry’s most iconoclastic writers and artists – including Brian Azzarello (100 BULLETS), Lee Bermejo (JOKER), Amanda Conner (POWER GIRL), Darwyn Cooke (JUSTICE LEAGUE: NEW FRONTIER), John Higgins (WATCHMEN), Adam Hughes (CATWOMAN), J.G. Jones (FINAL CRISIS), Andy Kubert (FLASHPOINT), Joe Kubert (SGT. ROCK), Jae Lee (BATMAN: JEKYLL AND HYDE), J. Michael Straczynski (SUPERMAN: EARTH ONE) and Len Wein (SWAMP THING).

BEFORE WATCHMEN includes:

– RORSCHACH (4 issues) – Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: Lee Bermejo
– MINUTEMEN (6 issues) – Writer/Artist: Darwyn Cooke
– COMEDIAN (6 issues) – Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: J.G. Jones
– DR. MANHATTAN (4 issues) – Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artist: Adam Hughes
– NITE OWL (4 issues) – Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artists: Andy and Joe Kubert
– OZYMANDIAS (6 issues) – Writer: Len Wein. Artist: Jae Lee
– SILK SPECTRE (4 issues) – Writer: Darwyn Cooke. Artist: Amanda Conner

Each week, a new issue will be released, and will feature a two-page back-up story called CURSE OF THE CRIMSON CORSAIR, written by original series editor Len Wein and with art by original series colorist John Higgins. There will also be a single issue, BEFORE WATCHMEN: EPILOGUE, featuring the work of various writers and artists, and a CRIMSON CORSAIR story by Wein and Higgins.

“The original series of WATCHMEN is the complete story that Alan Moore and I wanted to tell. However, I appreciate DC’s reasons for this initiative and the wish of the artists and writers involved to pay tribute to our work. May these new additions have the success they desire,” said Dave Gibbons, WATCHMEN co-creator and original series artist.

“Comic books are perhaps the largest and longest running form of collaborative fiction,” said DiDio and Lee. “Collaborative storytelling is what keeps these fictional universes current and relevant.”

As a palate cleanser, here’s the Saturday Morning Cartoon version of The Watchmen:

Here’s a clip from JUSTICE LEAGUE: DOOM, the highly anticipated next entry in the ongoing series of DC Universe Animated Original Movies. Warner Home Video will distribute the film on Blu-Ray, DVD and for Download on February 28, 2012.

I have to admit, I love hearing Nathan Fillion as The Green Lantern.

And The Royal Flush Gang has always been one of my favorites. I can’t wait to see this cartoon.

You can preorder it on Amazon here.

This episode looks like quite the free-for-all. It reminds me very much of movies like “No Escape” or “The Most Dangerous Game”.

It should prove to be an interesting episode, especially with Obi-wan in the mix.

In the second clip, I’m very excited to see sets and lighting arrangements from Revenge of the Sith and I love the fact that Anakin is angry that they’re keeping things from him. No wonder he’s pissed in Revenge of the Sith.

From the press release;

Which bounty hunters will be the last ones standing? It’s a tournament of champions, Star Wars-style, in the next all-new episode of The Clone Wars. Obi-Wan Kenobi is still deep undercover as the criminal marksman Rako Hardeen, and he’s done such an impressive job that he’s qualified for Count Dooku’s ultimate test: surviving the Box.

The Box is a technological marvel, a reconfiguring obstacle course where sloppy players are eliminated, because Dooku needs the best if he’s going to carry out his wicked plot to kidnap the Chancellor. A dozen of the galaxy’s most skilled and notorious bounty hunters are selected to compete for the mission – including the unforgettable Embo, who makes a return appearance. Cad Bane also enters the fray, and he’s been keeping a close eye on “Rako.” Can Obi-Wan prove his skills to survive to the finish, without revealing he’s a Jedi Knight?

Check out the non-stop action and danger found in “The Box,” the next chapter of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, airing at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT Friday, February 3rd on Cartoon Network.

Press Release 1/26/2012:

VIZ MEDIA BRINGS THE WONDROUS MINIATURE ADVENTURES OF STUDIO GHIBLI’S

THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY TO READERS IN A NEW SERIES OF BOOKS

Releases Based On The New Film By Hayao Miyazaki’s Famed Animation Studio Include Film Comics, Art And Picture Books

San Francisco, CA, January 26, 2012 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), the largest distributor and licensor of anime and manga in North America, brings the miniaturized adventure of famed Studio Ghibli’s newest animated creation – THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY – to readers everywhere with a collection of ARRIETTY film comics, art and picture books set to debut on February 7^th, 2012. THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY is scheduled for North American theatrical release on February 17^th, 2012.

THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY is based on the celebrated novel, The Borrowers, by Mary Norton and was produced by Studio Ghibli, the famed animation company founded by Hayao Miyazaki, which also created Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Howl’s Moving Castle and Ponyo. The new film, with planning/screenplay by Hayao Miyazaki and directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, will feature the voice talents of Bridget Mendler, Amy Poehler, Carol Burnett and Will Arnett for its English language release.

Arrietty isn’t your ordinary fourteen-year-old girl – she is small enough to make her home under the floorboards of a typical house, “borrowing” what she and her family need from the giants in whose shadows they live. A young boy named Shawn befriends Arrietty, but when adults discover the Borrowers, Arrietty and Shawn must work together to save her family.

THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY PICTURE BOOK · Rated “A” for All Ages · MSRP: $19.99 U.S. / $22.99 CAN · Available February 7^th, 2012

The colorful and easy-to-read THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY Picture Book is a full-color hardcover edition that will appeal to younger readers especially. The book uses the vividly colored animation cel art from the feature film combined with simplified text to retell the story of Arrietty and her adventures.

THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY FILM COMICS · Rated “A” for All Ages · MSRP: $16.99 U.S. each / $19.99 CAN each · Available February 7^th, 2012

The official 2-volume film comic of THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY re-tells the film’s story with vivid full-color frames.

THE ART OF THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY · Rated “A” for All Ages · MSRP: $34.99 U.S. / $39.99 CAN · Available February 7^th, 2012

Co-founded by the legendary filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli films enthrall and enchant audiences across the world. The Art of series gives fans the opportunity to follow their favorite film from initial concept to the silver screen, thanks to hundreds of sketches, concept drawings, and animation cels, plus in-depth interviews with the creators.

“Fans and readers of all ages won’t want to miss these new additions to VIZ Media’s Studio Ghibli Library of titles,” says Masumi Washington, Senior Director, Editorial. “Studio Ghibli has mastered the ability to tell poignant and engaging stories that captivate both children and adults, and their latest film, THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY, continues this tradition. Our forthcoming picture book and film comics are fun ways for young readers to visit the world of ARRIETTY while the gorgeous art book will be a must-have for the ardent Studio Ghibli fan or those who want to know more about the evolution of the film. Discover the adventures in-store for this band of ‘borrowers’ in these new releases scheduled for February!”

More information on VIZ Media’s Studio Ghibli titles is available at www.VIZ.com.

Haven’t seen the U.S. trailer yet? Check it out here:

If you’ve ever wondered what Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head might look like in real life, well, you can stop wondering and start having nightmares.

Makeup effects artist Kevin Kirkpatrick (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Killer, The Avengers) created these sculptures of these icons and there’s little denying that, while these are certainly creepy, he nailed it.

You can check out close up views below!

[The Daily What.]