Star Wars: The Clone Wars picks up seven daytime Emmy nominations, including outstanding program, directing, and three for voice actors, tying it for first among animated programs.
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Dave Filoni teases us with another clip of Clone Wars bonus content: Plo Koon and the Wolf Pack on the trail of Master Sifo-Dyas. (more…)

Well, what can be said about this latest installment of the Iron Man saga?

I feel like it was a vast improvement over the last film and, at this point, I’m pretty convinced that it might be my favorite of the three films. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy Favreau’s efforts, but this just brought things together in a way I wasn’t sure was possible.

Where to even start? This is a post-Avengers world, and thusly, this is our first glimpse into what the Marvel Universe looks like after the invasion of the Chitauri, and it’s our most human look at Tony Stark across the board. Shane Black said we couldn’t see him dealing with the demon in the bottle, but we were certainly able to see him battling the devil in himself. At this stage in his life, he’s prone to panic attacks at the mere mention of the words “New York.”

Yes, we saw Tony change in The Avengers, but that change wasn’t all for the better and Tony wasn’t exactly ready for the change.

And, like most things in Tony’s life, things from his past come back to haunt him.

I don’t want to get too much into spoiler territory with this review. I will say that I’m still not sure that I like some of the choices for characters made. I can safely say, though, that I do like the portrayal of The Mandarin. Ben Kingsley is fantastic and turns in one of the finest performances of any superhero villain. Though I will admit the direction they take him might upset some fans. It made perfect sense, though.

What I will say, is that Shane Black placed his own thumbprint on the film in a way I wasn’t sure was possible. It’s a Christmas movie that instantly conjured images of Lethal Weapon, with the Christmas music, tree lots, people tossing fake badges on tables, Riggs and Murtaugh like shootouts in construction sites…  This film truly is the descendant of Lethal Weapon. It also has much more of Shane Black’s later sensibilities, many will notice similarities in style with his last Robert Downey, Jr. film, Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang. It’s particularly striking in the way the film starts and ends.

As for the post-credits sequence, it’s worth staying for once, and it’s fun to see other characters from the Avengers universe, but it’s not much to write home about. It’s satisfying to a degree, but I feel like it should have left a stronger lead up to Thor: The Dark World.

This film had me in tears (the scene where Tony’s house is blown up!) and in stitches (Tony is as funny as ever.) It had me smiling (Downton Abbey!) throughout and cheering for the good guys and hissing at the bad guys. Guy Pearce is particularly delightful, if not slightly cardboard. The events put into motion provide the backdrop for the most stunning and Iron Man filled finale in any of the movies.

And I can’t overstate how much I liked his interplay with “The Kid.” Best sidekick ever.

My only complaint (aside from the questionable change of one character, which may or may not be fixed by the end) is that it felt as thought Rebecca Hall was underused. I think she’s a great actress and she was given a bit of short shrift here, underutilized in a way that was even worse than Sam Rockwell’s under-utilization.

Will you enjoy Iron Man 3? Absolutely.

Did I? You bet.

Was it the best of the three? As I’m at the end of this review, I still think so, yes.

Am I still more excited for Thor: The Dark World coming later this year? Verily.

Iron Man 3 hits cinemas in the United States on Friday.

This review will contain spoilers, this is your one and only warning, episode spoilers will not be prefaced.

Hi all, Arse-bot here filling in for Proletariatron on Game of Thrones duty for the week! And what a week it was! While not incredibly heavy on the “action” – aside from that awesome opening battle between Beric and The Hound – there was a lot happening and a lot of movement in everyone’s respective story lines. So let’s get to the run down!

The Good

• Jon Snow’s journey North of The Wall continued as he finally gave in to getting nude with Ygritte. While she seems sincere in her attraction to Jon, there’s most likely going to be consequences for breaking his Nights Watch vows.
• The Hound was judged by combat, and defeated Beric Dondarrion and his flaming sword – however, Beric was promptly brought back to life by the Lord of Light via Thoros
• Damn it all to hell Jaime Lannister. I thought for sure I had you pegged as a true villain in this show, but over the last few episodes you’ve started to make me question that. Are you acting for your own selfish reasons still, or was your bath tub conversation with Brienne of Tarth sincere? Time will only tell.
• Also, I’m chalking up Tywin forcing Cersei to marry Loras as a good thing, because it’s about time this smug Queen Regent got a little of what she deserved – and a loveless marriage is a good start, however…

The “Bad”

• Tyrion is being forced to marry Sansa to “secure the North”. It’s going to be interesting to see how that plays out.
• Jon Snow is in a tough spot right now, and now he’s forsaken his vows – perhaps this “cover” of his would best be served to become a reality for him?
• Arya has lost the last of her companions with Gendry deciding to stay on with The Brotherhood.
• We finally met Stannis’ wife and daughter, which proved to be depressing as hell. His wife is a loon who keeps dead babies in jars, and his poor daughter has what appear to be grey scales covering half of her face.
• Robb Stark is quickly losing his grasp on this war as half his men deserted after the execution of Karstark. His only option now? Return to the man who’s daughter he was supposed to marry and presumably beg for reinforcements.
• Barristan is vying for Jorah’s place at Dany’s side – does he know about Jorah’s spying he was doing to King’s landing back in season 1?…

This was a great episode that moved all of the plot lines along nicely – for better or worse. Tyrion has had the shit piles on since episode one of this season, and continues to get screwed around every turn despite having nearly single-handedly devised the strategy to defend King’s Landing. Jaime is growing as a character, but it’s hard to not think he has a plan up his sleeve, and Robb is quickly losing ground in a war that started off so well for him. Dany is amassing her army to take back the throne, but she still has quite the journey ahead of her; and one of my favorite characters, Arya, is now on her own, supposedly set to be delivered back to her brother and mother – which may not be as touching a reunion as some are hoping for. We are only half way through the season, so a lot more is set to happen!

So I decided to check out the subscription box craze and lootcrate.com being geek oriented fit the bill pretty well. Below you’ll find my video review. First impression it wasn’t amazing but we will see what the next 2 crates bring before I really decide if it is worth it or not.  If you decide you want to give it a try click here

“>httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNfjzPMHsPg

Daredevil fans, here is your great news for the day!

Kevin Feige, President of Production for Marvel Studios, has confirmed that the rights to Daredevil have indeed reverted back to Marvel/Disney. From Newsarama:

Speaking with Newsarama Monday at the Iron Man 3 press junket, the Marvel Studios president of production told us at the end of our conversation that, as previously speculated, the Daredevil rights are now under the Disney/Marvel umbrella. We directly asked Feige if the reports that Marvel Studios now had the rights to Daredevil were accurate, to which he replied, “To Daredevil? Yes.”

As was reported previously,  FOX had to have production rolling on a new DD film by October of last year to retain the rights to the character. Obviously, that never happened, and now we have confirmation that the rights have indeed reverted back.

As a Daredevil fan, I couldn’t be happier. I quite enjoyed the Ben Affleck-starring film released several years ago – mostly the director’s cut that was later released, but a follow up either in sequel form or reboot has just never been able to get off the ground. With the character back in the hands of Marvel it opens up all sorts of new doors for the character. Unfortunately, the Marvel movie slate is pretty packed through 2015, so the odds of seeing the Man Without Fear in his own film anytime soon may be slim. Perhaps we could get a cameo in another film though? Who knows what Marvel has in mind for Daredevil, but I certainly hope he doesn’t just sit on the shelf for too long.

In any case, Daredevil is now in much more capable hands, and even if it’s later than sooner, I can’t wait to see a Marvel-produced DD film!

What would you like to see in a Marvel-produced Daredevil film? Which characters are you looking forward to seeing him interact with in the movie universe? Sound off in the comments below!

The robots from BSR were out in force this past Saturday, April 20 at SLC Nerd hitting the floor, chatting up fellow geeks and nerds, meeting lots of great people, and just overall soaking up the awesome experience. Ben Fuller, Gangrene Productions and all of the sponsors put on a great convention – this is a wrap-up report with some highlights from the day.

The Big Shiny Robot Booth!

Of course, many of us local bots from BSR! were manning our first convention booth. Lucas (Kill-tacular-tron), Bryan (Swank-mo-tron), Tom (Zombietron), Rich (Triscuit of Doom), Kiley (Vagatron), Nick (Proletariatron), Adam (Sithbot), Jimmy (Mexicus-Prime), Tyler (Baldassbot), and Tyson (Arse-bot) with the help of Ryan the Intern (Tetriminobot) were all manning the booth. We had free pins and stickers for those who stopped by, along with some t-shirts and shot glasses for sale. We had a lot of great and interesting people stop by to chat us up, and of course, hit up some free-play of Injustice: Gods Among Us, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and Super Street Fighter 4.

Tom and Rich did an awesome job at hosting our Super Street Fighter 4 tournament in which participants competed to win some awesome prizes, including a pair of Astro a50’s to the overall winner. The competition was stiff, and drew a good crowd who came to watch the matches. Thank you to all of our competitors! And special thanks to our sponsor for the Street Fighter Tournament, Secret Compass, who were kind enough to provide some kick-ass Street Fighter busts for second and third place! Taking home the top prizes were as follows:

1st Place – Gustavo – Pair of Astro a50’s and an original Ryu sketch courtesy Steven Crowe

2nd Place – Renzo – SF4 Bust, courtesy Secrect Compass, and a print of Ryu courtesy Steven Crowe


3rd Place – Scott – SF4 Bust, courtesy Secret Compass

Also at the BSR! booth, Tyson was manning the recording of segments for the Big Shiny Podcast with a various collection of other robots, including interviews and updates from throughout the day – all of which will be available later this week. Available right now, however, is Kiley’s interview with the very cool Ted Raimi! Mr. Raimi took some time out of his packed SLC Nerd schedule to sit down and chat, and you can check out that interview here.

This was our first time hosting a booth at a local convention, so thank you to all of you who stopped by to chat with us, play some video games, and participate in an interview!

The Booths!

There was an awesome collection of booths at SLC Nerd this year – everything from authors to artist, and vendors to story-tellers. There was something for everyone, and the best part was it was all family friendly! We tried to stop by as many booths as we possibly could, but here are some of the highlights – but we assure you, this is only a taste of the awesomeness that was contained within the walls of this convention!

• Bryan Young – Author – Our own Swank-mo-tron was splitting time between his own booth and the BSR! booth and running some journalistic round-tables, and giving a VOXnerd speech! With as busy as he was, you could still find him at his booth most of the time, talking about his various novels and short stories to everyone that stopped by. He was also offering a free sample of some of his work. If you picked up the two-chapter sample of “Operation Montauk”, you’re probably going to want to pick up the full-length novel!
• Heather Ackley Art – Heather, a former Big Shiny Robot herself in day gone by, had worked tirelessly leading up to SLC Nerd on some great Star Wars: The Clone Wars pieces. Not only did she has original works for sale at her booth, but plenty of prints available as well. When last we checked, her Adventure Time print was the top seller, but Rex from The Clone Wars was getting some love too! You can check her stuff out at http://www.heatherackleyart.com/
• Night Flight Comics – Mimi Cruz and company were in attendance supporting the local comic book shop and holding a blind auction for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund!
• Epic Games – While making the rounds between booths during some spare time, I stumbled across Epic Games and had to stop and look around if only for the fact they actually had the A-Wing expansion to the X-Wing Miniatures game.  I spent a good amount of time talking with the owner who was very excited to tell me about their new location. Fans of the store surely know they will grand re-open this Thursday, April 25, at their new location at 3958 W. and 3500 S. but for those unaware, there are a TON of good reasons to stop by, and not just because these guys are passionate about gaming and interacting with the community.  Not only does their new location have enough room to support 200+ people for gaming sessions, but they are going all out for their first week with gaming tournaments, Magic: The Gathering drafts and a host of other cool reasons to swing in and see all their new stuff!  Check out www.epicpug.com for all the details, and keep an eye out for me and some of your other robot writers who will be hosting game tutorials in the near future! -Sith-bot
• Steven Crowe – Artist – Steven Crowe is an incredibly talented artist who was at SLC Nerd showing off his stuff and promoting his and Mark Raines’ upcoming comic book. He was even nice enough to provide some great awesome Ryu prints as prizes for our Street Fighter tourney! Be sure to watch out for Big Shiny Podcast interview with him later this week! In the meantime, check out some of his work at http://stevencrowe.deviantart.com/
• Paper Wasp – Megan Mitchell – Megan was out at SLC Nerd representing her art at Paper Wasp. Our own Mexicus Prime picked up a great print called The Fisherman’s Daughter from her great offering of items for sale. We had a chance to speak to Megan as well for the Big Shiny Podcast, so watch for her interview later this week! In the mean time, check out her stuff! http://paperwasp.bigcartel.com/
• Scatterbrain Tees – The folks from Scatterbrain Tees were there selling selections from their geeky inventory of shirts!

This is just a small taste of what was at SLC Nerd this year! Fear Factory was there zombifying patrons, the Hello Sweetie and Dungeon Crawlers podcasts recording live,  and many more artists, creators and vendors!

The Cosplay!

With SLC Nerd being a smaller, local convention, we didn’t expect to see as much cosplay as we did – let alone the quality of the cosplay! All throughout the day cosplayers were walking around the convention floor in some amazing costumes, always willing to take a picture. It wouldn’t have truly felt like a geek convention without these people and the hard work they put into their cosplay craft! From Snorlax to River Song, these cosplayers represented several different tastes of geekdom!

The Panels!

The day was packed with several panels, including “The Horrors of Utah”, “The Utah Comic Book Connection”, and “The Role of Celebrity in Geek Culture”. Also on the schedule for the day was 16 different “VoxNerd” presentations. These presentations were 10-15 minutes long and included topics such as role playing, cosplay on a budget, becoming a dragonslayer, imperial espionage, and even a talk on why we love zombies by Ted Raimi!

Frankly, to try to sum up how great SLC Nerd 2013 was in a single wrap-up post is nearly impossible. There were so many great people there manning different booths, so much entertainment, just so much to take in. Ben Fuller and Gangrene Productions put so much work into this, and we can’t thank them enough for allowing us to be involved and sponsor their event and for all their hard work in bringing all of this geekery together under one roof.

We hope to see you all at SLC Nerd 2014!

Always wondered what hobbies a man as interesting as Ted Raimi would have? Curious to see how he looks in a tie? Well, look no further folks! We here at Big Shiny Robot – thanks to Vagatron and Proletariatron – can tell you just that!

Bad news, everyone! Unfortunately, Matt Groening’s best series (you heard me) is going into that dark knight… again. Entertainment Weekly reports that Comedy Central has decided not to renew the show after the final set of 13 episodes starts airing in June. I won’t go into how the show has already been resurrected twice, once as direct to DVD movie, and then as the current run on Comedy Central. Any fan worth their salt already knows this. What is interesting however are the reactions from executive producer David X. Cohen and Groening himself had to say about the situation…

Cohen told EW the following:

“I felt like we were already in the bonus round on these last couple of seasons, so I can’t say I was devastated by the news. It was what I had expected two years earlier. At this point I keep a suitcase by my office door so I can be cancelled at a moment’s notice. As I said three times before, this is definitely the absolute end of the show. I don’t know why nobody believes me when I say that.”

Whereas Matt Groening had this to say:

We’ve been in this situation before and it’s tempting when you’re doing episodes that are as good or better than anything you’ve ever done to continue doing it. We’re catching our breath and seeing what the fans have to say. The experience of this show has been so much fun from the very beginning to now — everybody is so happy to work on this show — that it’d be a shame if we all went our separate ways… We would love to continue. We have many more stories to tell. But if we don’t, this is a really great way to go out… I think these episodes are the best ones we’ve ever done.”

At least they have a sense of humor about it. Not to mention the glimmer of hope Groening gives us. That is, it’s up to us to determine if Futurama should continue.  The EW article does delve into spoiler territory when it comes to the upcoming episodes mentioning such guest stars as Burt Ward, Larry Bird, and George Takei. Cohen and Groening even teased the finale a bit, which has a bit of a spoiler as well, but I had to mention this one.

Cohen:

“And the series finale, which features a wedding between Fry and Leela, is “a tasteful, emotional gorefest,” he raves. “There’s a lot of death but there’s also a lot of time travel, so that makes for an interesting combination.”

Groening:

“It’s a really satisfying ending. It’s an epic ending. If indeed it’s the ending.”

Way to tease guys, I guess the future(rama) really is what you make of it. I’m still as sad as the first time I watched ‘Jurassic Bark’, though.

This week sees the theatrical release of two of Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s best episodes, stitched together into one movie, “The Best of Both Worlds.” Next week sees the Blu-ray release of the newly remastered third season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

To mark the occasion, I spoke with Jonathan Frakes, Will Riker himself. 

My review of “The Best of Both Worlds” appeared on Huffington Post with an abridged version of this interview.

The parts of the interview you might want to pay closest attention to are about his time playing Captain America for Marvel, and his interest in doing Star Wars.

Jonathan Frakes: I think the show holds up quite well, the storytelling is great. The writers were at the top of their game at the time. I think the special effects have been redone in a very painstaking, impressive and elegant way. I was told that one of the downsides is that you can see a lot of glue on the wings on the aliens and stuff like that, but I didn’t see that and I didn’t find myself distracted by that at all.

Bryan Young: This story played out over two seasons. Did you know how things were going to resolve between season three and season four?

Frakes: No, we were left hanging out to dry. We were wondering if Patrick Stewart was in the middle of negations and they were using that as a tactic to renegotiate his contract by stressing that me might not come back. And I think it was that seriousness of the story that made for such a brilliant cliffhangers. I think it is one of the greatest cliffhangers in television history.

Young:  After Star Trek and even during some, you made a transition from actor to director, even directing some Star Trek, what caused you to want to take on that transition?

Frakes:  I was looking for another outlet. And Leonard Nimoy told me that if I didn’t find one, I would be typecast, and that I had to find one. I’m glad I’m not trying to make my living as an actor now, and I’m very thankful to have learned another  craft. When I went to Rick Berman, who is the keeper of all things Star Trek, and voiced an interest in directing, he was reluctant because I didn’t have any experience. But I went to a school Paramount had set up. Some very generous editors volunteered some of their time and expertise to explain and show, by example, what I needed to give them as a director so they could edit together an episode of television, so I learned a great deal. And then I went and learned post production where we put together sound design, looping and the scoring with a full orchestra, and then finally editing and doing the final mix.  I learned what it takes to put an episode together literally from beginning to end, because Rick was so reluctant, I persevered for a year and a half until he turned an episode over to me, and it ended up being a wonderful episode, “The Offspring”, and we were both very blessed that it was a great episode, and one of everyone’s favorites. 

Young:  I read that for a time you played Captain America.

Frakes:  Very true.  I worked for Marvel Comics in New York in 1975 or 1976.  A friend of mine was working as Spider-man, and Stan Lee asked if he had a buddy who could come out and be Captain America with you.  And he recommended me. So I got the gig and then we’d have to go to the Marvel offices and sign out a skin-tight, spandex costume, and they would give us a plane ticket to someplace like Omaha, Nebraska, and we go to open a comic book store in full costume.  It was a whirlwind, we’d go to a couple of comic book stores and six or eight 7-11’s and then fly back to New York. It was a great gig for a working actor at the time.

Young:  So, when you took on Star Trek, you weren’t necessarily a stranger to the scene that would be consuming this sort of material, and you had experiences with conventions. What’s it like having that fan interaction continually over all these years?

Frakes:  I’m continually amazed and thankful for the phenomenon that Star Trek has become over the last 20-30 years.  We were celebrating the 25th anniversary at some conventions as a whole cast.  So it has been the reunion for the fans which has also been a reunion for us.  We see each other individually every so often, but the idea of being together again has been so much fun.

Young: I’m curious how you’ve felt about the Abrams Star Trek reboot and how you would feel if they decided to reboot Next Generation in the same way.

Frakes: I think JJ has been brilliant with the reboot. His work is astounding. I love the first movie, and I’m really excited about the second one, and I can tell from the trailer it’s going to be spectacular. I’m a big JJ fan, and I think the franchise is in good hands, and I think Star Wars is lucky to have him as well. The idea of Next Gen working its way into his franchise is hard to imagine, but not impossible, so I’m certainly hopeful that at least one of us will show up in his movies.

Young: So if JJ called you up and asked you to switch teams and be in Star Wars, would you follow that direction?

Frakes: In a heartbeat… In a heartbeat.

Young:  You shot a lot of episodes.  Is there one that stands out the most of all of them, and if you wish you had a different movie to be your last one.

Frakes:  I have a soft spot for “The Offspring” since that was the first one I was able to direct.  And then I always follow it up with “The Best of Both Worlds.”  With its cliffhanger it’s classic Star Trek and is as good as it gets.  We were just coming into our own, it was the third season of the show.  Michael Pillar who was one of our finest writers wrote the characters with real clarity and irony.  Our guest stars were fantastic.  We were running on all cylinders, and I’m really happy that’s the show they have chosen for theatrical release.  As far as the movie, I think Nemesis, as our last film, is clearly a result of economics.  There were 10 Star Trek movies; the first 9 made money, the tenth didn’t, so the franchise stopped making the movies.

The Best of Both Worlds comes out theatrically April 25. Those episodes as well as Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season Three comes out on Blu-ray April 30.