Reports from Heat Vision are saying that Viggo Mortensen is being sought to be in Zack Snyder’s Superman film for the part of Zod. This means a couple things for us, first that the movie will have Zod, secondly that Kevin Costner is probably looking to be Jonathan Kent. Which I think is good news, Costner feels like Pa Kent to me out their in the corn fields of Smallville, maybe thinking about building a baseball field.

Also since this is just a report that Mortensen is being sought don’t take that to mean that he’s done any thing else, no readings or auditions or meetings. They want him in the movie, he may find out tomorrow or he could be thinking about it we don’t know. Don’t take it for anything more than that, same with Costner. The two are wanted for the parts but Mortenson is possibly going to be in Snow White and The Huntsman which could create issues that would need to be hammered out between Warner and Universal.

What do you think? Do you like Viggo for Zod? Who would you cast?

According to the Disney Parks Blog, Star Tours will be opening in May and June. On May 20th, Star Tours 2.0 will be opening at their Disney World resort, and then on June 3rd, the ride will open at the original, preferable Disneyland in Anaheim.

Start planning your trips now. The Disney World opening coincides with the Star Wars Weekends and the Disneyland opening also sees the opening of the new Little Mermaid ride at Disney’s California Adventure (which I hope will be replaced quickly enough by a Marvel Comics attraction.)

How many of you plan to make a pilgrimage to Disney this year, either Florida or Anaheim, to check out the new Star Tours?

And which park do you prefer? I had a horrible experience at Disney World and even though the Star Wars Weekends are there, I can’t see myself going, but I’ve been a lifelong Disneyland Anaheim enthusiast, so that’s where I want to check it out. What about you guys?

Kara “Starbuck” Thrace herself, Katee Sackoff, confirmed that she will be doing voice work on upcoming episodes of The Clone Wars via Twitter. She’s done a lot of work with Seth Green and Matt Senreich on Robot Chicken and they’re working on a Star Wars property on their own, so her new connection to The Clone Wars isn’t all that surprising.

But who could she be playing?

I haven’t the faintest idea. But it’s fun to speculate wildly, isn’t it?

There are a number of characters we can clearly cross of the list, characters that have appeared on the show before that she might have been fit to play. Characters like Aayla Secura or Mon Mothma. Or characters that would have been awesome but are dead, like Zam Wessel.

But something tells me she’s going to play a really kick-ass character. Would they waste her on someone who was just a minor character? I doubt it.

But they’ve been making a habit of bringing in characters from the classic trilogy and bringing them into the show. The problem is, the only major, kick-ass female character from the classic trilogy (Leia) hasn’t been born yet.

Could she be playing a Bounty Hunter? Or a pilot? Or a Jedi?

Could they be borrowing from the Expanded Universe and bring in someone like Admiral Daala? They’ve already brought Tarkin into the mix, why not his lover?

Who do you guys think she’s going to play? We’re probably all wrong, so don’t feel bad about throwing ANYTHING out there. If nothing else, who would you like to see her play?

In his State of the City address today Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell made a pretty great DC Comics analogy.

In his speech, he said:

If New York is Superman; and Chicago is Batman; and Los Angeles is the Flash; then Austin is the Green Lantern.

We are a city without fear. We are a city that can create anything we can visualize, through sheer force of will. We are a city with a special charge to shine a light into the darkness and lead the way to a new and better day.

I’m not sure if the mayor himself is a major geek, or one of his speech writers, but they both deserve to be commended. This is not only an incredibly appropriate and accurate use of superhero metaphor, but the crafting of the words is actually pretty spectacular. I’m a bit of a politics nerd (my dream last night was that I was in the State Legislature, seriously), and this is just good political writing.

Hell, just reading it gave me goosebumps.

This goes to show how far comics have come into the mainstream, and I am pretty happy to see it.

Our own Citizen-Bot was covering the event and sent it in, even though he didn’t have time to write it up on his own, he wanted it passed along.

Now if he would have only made everyone in attendance recite the Green Lantern’s oath…

Oblivion, and Fallout 3 are some of my favorite games of all time, and Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim looks like its going to be the best one Bethesda Softworks has created yet.

I mean… all I have to say is: “ZOHEMGEE– DRAGONS!!”  here… watch the newly released trailer… do it… watch it… NOW! (thanks to IGN and YouTube)

-M

The thing about this trailer that got me wasn’t Max Von Sydow’s voice-over… not the shiny overly realistic graphics… not the epic music… not that there were giants and stealthy deaths… and wicked creepy ridiculously large spiders…  it was the guy running from the dragon at 36 seconds… If that was gameplay- and I’m almost sure it was- it was the most realistic running animation I’ve seen in a video game!

The universe they’re building looks vast and almost endless… and when the character gives the final blow to the dragon at the end and it’s blood splatters all over him, and he’s breathing heavily (gameplay mind you)… geezy eezus! I about wet myself!  The graphics are beyond good in this… makes me want to go out and buy an amazing computer just to play it at it’s fullest capacity… (luckily I already have an amazing computer so I don’t have to actually do that)

I will say though, that I doubt any piece can suck me in and keep me there like the Fallout 3 franchise did… but this one looks like it might just walk all over it, I mean… there are GIANTS! There are EFFIN’ DRAGONS!!… and if you know anything about the ES series… that’s a big deal. It makes me curious if they’ve added a spell to let you tame the dragons, make them travel companions… This is  free-roaming fantasy that doesn’t look ridiculously boring and repetitive like some MMORPG’s out there… wow… just… …. … WoW… does it look like its not a terrible game… like some other fantasy… based… games…

Weigh in-

I am not a hardcore gamer. I am not a casual gamer. I am a retro gamer. I’d much rather eat mushrooms and stomp on enemy craniums than fill them full of lead. Because of that, the download services offered on current console really appeal to me. Not only are there re-releases and remakes of classic titles from my youth, there are a good number of new titles that try to evoke that same sense of style and gameplay, which brings us to Explodemon, exclusive to the PlayStation Network.

At first glance, the titular Explodemon does indeed look like he jumped out of the Super Nintendo era, and that does seem like that’s the intention of developer Curve.  While he kind of looks, and to a small extent plays like a palette-swapped Mega Man X, Explodemon’s main gameplay feature is that he main weapon is exploding. While it may seem derivative, seeing as a couple of other notable games recently have used the main character’s explosions as a core element of the game, Explodemon stands apart in its execution. While you can just blaze through the 12 levels, the game is much more rewarding when you sit back and try to find all of the hidden little trinkets in the stages.

While the game is undoubtedly fun, it can be very frustrating at times, with puzzle elements seriously teasing your brain at times. Thankfully, any puzzles that impede your progress through the game are overcome much more easily that the ones keeping you from the aforementioned hidden stuff. If you blaze your way through the game, you can expect maybe 3 hours of gameplay, but if you stop and smell the roses, you can probably up that to 12-20 depending on your puzzle-solving expertise.

As for the game’s story, it’s not as important as some, but it isn’t without its charm. This is mainly due to the character of Explodemon himself, what with his broken English providing some genuine laughs throughout the game. As it is, Explodemon is considered a menace to society, what with him you know, exploding all the time. He is locked away, never to be released, but when the forces of the Vortex hit his home planet, they inadvertently destroy the facility Explodemon was holed up in, setting the game in motion.  Explodemon must fight his way through 3 planets, thwarting the plans of his evil brother Absorbmon.

An example of the dialog that made me smile.

My bottom line is, if you like old-school action/platformer games, you can’t go wrong with Explodemon. It has a few faults, but they are not detrimental to your enjoyment of the game. If you’re curious, give it a shot!

Explodemon is available on the PlayStation Network for $9.99 A copy of the game was provided by the developer for review purposes. The game was played to completion and replayed a bit to increased rankings.

On the heels of the release of All Star Superman this week, we’ve got the trailer for the next direct to video animated movie from DC.  Green Lantern: Emerald Knights will be similar to one of the previous animated movies, Batman: Gotham Knight,  in that it will be an anthology. It will have different stories featuring Lantern Corps members Sinestro, Abin Sur, Kilowog, Mogo, and Rori Dag. The Batman film was supposed to be set in the same continuity as Christopher Nolan’s “Bat” films, but I’m not sure if this one will follow that and be set in the same universe as the upcoming Green Lantern movie. The trailer does say that it is brought to us from the producers of the movie so take that as you will. The voice cast includes Henry Rollins as Kilowog, “Madmen’s” Elizabeth Moss as Arisa, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper as Bolphulga, and fan favorite Nathan Fillion as Hal Jordan. Set to release on June 7th of this year, Green Lantern: Emerald Knights will be available 10 days before the live action film hits theaters on the 17th of June.

There is a lot to be said about long-running series needing a jumping on point. One thing I have always appreciated about Savage Dragon is that even if you jump into the middle of a storyline, you can get acclimated very quickly. This issue is actually a mixture of both. This, as the cover says is the aftermath of the “Emperor Dragon” storyline, wherein the title character regains his original personality. A hint: he’s not a nice guy. Last issue, that character is pretty certainly dead. Left to pick up the pieces is Dragon/Kurr’s son, Malcom Dragon, giving us an almost entirely new status quo.

Malcom has pretty much been a main protagonist in the book for a few issues now anyway, what with daddy turning into a mass-murdering psychopath. This issue mainly deals with Malcolm, and to a less extent his sister Angel, dealing with the fallout of such a public figure A. going nuts, and B. subsequently dying. That means the issue is a lot of talking and character development. This is not a bad thing, as Erik Larsen’s characters are rich, with full histories. They are interesting to watch, even so, the book’s bread and butter are the over-the-top action scenes. This issue has a bit of that too, so don’t feel too bad.

As the tail-end of the tale, Malcolm gets to confront the leader of his alien heritage, and the results of this encounter are quite interesting. Also intriguing is the last page setup for the role Malcolm and Angel will be playing in the book. I won’t give it away, but it opens up a multitude of story opportunities for Larsen, and I am eager to see where he goes with it. And, for those of you wondering is Dragon will ever be back, well, in the world of Savage Dragon, dead means dead, but that doesn’t mean there are clever ways around it. You’ll have to pick up the book to get my meaning, though.

Also included in the book is the always experimental Savage Dragon Funnies, this is not usually my cup of tea, and this month is no exception, but that doesn’t mean it is bad by any means. The story is without dialog, but is conveyed very well by writer/artist Pedro Carmago. It’s also a great showcase for creators who would probably not get their work seen by that large of an audience otherwise.

My bottom line is: if you’re a Savage Dragon fan, you’ve already picked this up. If you are not, then this is the perfect time to get on the bandwagon and see what this crazy (in a good way) book is all about.

In case you missed the announcement yesterday, Amazon unleashed upon the world their own Instant Streaming service to compete with Netflix. The cost? Become an Amazon Prime member for $79/year and their entire instant-watch library is included with it!

I get my television and movie entertainment almost exclusively from streaming video through my wonderful little Roku, so I was very excited to see another option for instant streaming become available. Yesterday I rushed home from work, signed up for my free trial of Amazon Prime, fired up the Roku, and started checking things out on the Amazon Instant Video channel. This post contains just my first impressions that I wanted to share right off the bat. I plan to right up a full length “review” of this service at the end of my one-month Amazon Prime trial membership.

The first thing I was curious about was the selection of movie and television shows available and how they compared to Netflix’s library. It was about what I expected, there are a lot of similarities, but I was pretty much expecting that. Unfortunately, it’s the movie studios that control what’s available to stream instantly online through these services.

After perusing the library of available titles, I decided to watch Louis C.K.’s stand up special, Chewed. The video loaded and began to play just as quickly as Netflix, and the picture was just as good as well. I experienced zero problems while playing the program (note that your internet connection/speed plays a factor into this), and I was satisfied with the experience. It’s important to note that I do next to zero streaming on my PC laptop, and this experience was all through my Roku. A few friends gave the web version a go, and while they said the streaming experience was just fine, the library navigation was a bit “clunky”.

So, which is better, Netflix or Amazon? Frankly, it’s too early to tell at this moment. Amazon does cost less for a year’s worth of service by about $20, and that’s something to definitely consider. Also, we’re already starting to see something that some BSR bots here – and some of you readers – pointed out that was likely to happen: Exclusivity rights. Just yesterday, Netflix announced an exclusive deal with CBS to begin offering a bunch of their shows including, Star Trek, Frasier, and Cheers, so you won’t be finding any of these classic titles on Amazon Instant Video any time soon. With an exclusivity deal being announced right out of the gates in this newly-born competition don’t be surprised if this becomes a back-and-forth battle of which service can get an exclusive deal with certain studios. I was really hoping that this competition would benefit the customer by making these two services compete with prices, but it’s looking like it’s going to go the other way, and it may end up being that to get a truly full library of movies and shows to watch from an assortment of studios, the customer may be “forced” to have both. I’m not opposed to having both if there are small and beneficial differences in their offerings and the price is right, but to create a need for customers to have both will end up being very frustrating.

Those are my initial thoughts on Amazon Instant Video one day in. I’ll be back in a month with a full review!

Share your thoughts on Amazon Instant Video in the comments below!

The boys of Laser Brain are back with a brand new episode for all of you out there! They actually made this one just for you – yes, you. They told me . . . Don’t be weirded out about it, just go with it, it’s a gift. As always, this episode is most certainly NSFW. You may want to consider just always listening to this podcast in your headphones, this way you’ll avoid people finding out how awful of a person you are for laughing at these guys.

Laser Brain Episode 12

In this episode your three favorite roommates get naked, scary, and punny!

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