Its not much, but Entertainment Tonight has about 30 seconds of footage from their Green Lantern preview they are doing next Tuesday November 16th. And we are bringing it to you! Oh man this makes me so excited for the movie!

You can check StarWars.com for the availability of tickets left for their theatrical showing of the episode of Clone Wars that introduces us to Savage Oppress, Darth Maul’s brother.

As part of the announcement they gave us one of the best trailers yet for this show.

There’s not much for me to say, you really do just need to watch. It’s quite breathtaking. And my guess is the weak spots in season 3 are completely behind us and we’re heading into the most solid territory the show has ever been into.

Watch it. Seriously.

Once again we’ve been given a treat.  This is the third released clip from tomorrow’s episode of The Clone Wars, The Hunt for Ziro and each one has been progressively better.  The first had people curious and wary about the nature of Quinlan Vos, the second (which was exclusive to Big Shiny Robot! (here)) had staunch defenders of the most far flung regions of the Star Wars Expanded Universe furious for the use of Anakin’s former owner, Gardulla the Hutt.  Only time will tell what controversy will emerge from this clip.

Despite any controversy, I got the chills watching this clip and tomorrow night can’t happen soon enough.

From the official press release:

On both sides of the episode’s titular hunt is veteran voice actor Corey Burton, who provides both Bane’s laconic drawl and Ziro’s high-pitched theatrics.

“It’s actually easier to keep character voices distinctly separate, the greater the differences are in vocal placement, timbre and pitch,” says Burton, who also provides the rich baratone voice of Count Dooku in the series. “When you’ve got voices that can be segregated, differently textured and expressed in differing musical rhythms, it’s a snap to make a clean break from one character to another. Then, applying acting characterization – visualizing the unique ‘soul’ of the character within the parameters of voice – you really can speak as two entirely separate beings within the same imaginary space.”

With its bizarre juxtaposition of such disparate characters within the episode, “Hunt for Ziro” is a strange journey down the rabbit hole – a peculiar departure from the series’ military campaigns and political underpinnings.

“The Ziro episodes seem like a multi-room extension of the original Star Wars cantina scenes – an eccentrically comedic undercurrent to break from the steadier drumbeat of galactic conflict, but with enough sinister gravity to tug at the direction of the entire storyline,” says Burton. “It’s a sort of ‘Bizarro World’ funhouse mirror dimension, a wrong turn down a strange alley running along the mainstream militaristic highway. It’s a colorful flight of fancy and insanity, to lend a contrasting air of ‘normalcy’ to the central story construct. Ziro’s the ultimate spoiled brat, a bitterly resentful and unreasonably demanding megalomaniac – made even more threatening and duplicitous by his inability to inspire fearful obedience like his rival, Jabba.”

Contrasting Ziro’s villainous frustrations is Bane – cold, cruel and quintessentially capable. Even tasked with a bounty that might seem eccentrically whimsical, Bane never falters in the dogged and dangerous pursuit of his quarry.

“Bane is a cold-blooded ‘Spaghetti Western’ movie bounty hunter – an unflappable contract mercenary who goes about his assignments with ruthless steely-eyed disregard for the damages inflicted to life and property,” says Burton. “He has a stoic tolerance for pain and Jedi mind-control tricks, and tireless reptilian patience. But he is not a particularly sturdy or athletically powerful creature, relying on mechanical aids and sharply honed wits for endurance and safe survival outside of his native environment. Bane is definitely an all-time favorite for me – from his striking design to his iconic and potent personality. There’s such a playground of speech characteristics in his palette that make him a continuing series of spontaneous discoveries. It feels like a very personal original co-creation I can feel proud to be a part of.”

Big Shiny Robot! has a weekly column in the Salt Lake City alt-weekly IN Magazine and every week we bring it to you on the site.

If you live in the greater Salt Lake area, you can pick up a copy of IN Magazine up from one of their ubiquitous newsstands, and we would highly suggest that you do.

You can read the online version of the story here.

This week, we discuss our new Convention Sketches feature!

Click on the image below to read the article as it appears in print:

Does anyone else think that Christopher Robin’s psyche was a little too cut and dry? I mean- what 5 year old boy is THAT in tune with the individual parts of his brain?  …actually, come to think of it- probably every 5 year old boy is…

–GCkOM

I adore the fact that they haven’t done a CGI passover of the original classic animation and renderings I grew up with. I adore the fact that the trailer, without remorse, says “We are going straight from the book on this one”. I adore that the voices don’t sound any different than I recall.

I adore that this movie is coming out.  Come see it with me!

It’s time again for Tag Team Thursday, where Clobber-Tron and Shaz-Bot take one of this week’s comics and share their opinions! This week they have an unfortunate encounter with:

Halcyon #1 from Image Comics

The PREVIEWS solicitation read

The story of what happens when the superheroes win. No crime, no war.

We disagree with the word STORY in that sentence.

C-T: I cant read Urdu, Arabic, Farsi, or any of the other languages spoken in the middle east so whenever I see these letters in a comic book it’s a bit of a turn off.

S-B: You do realize that the foreign text is just a font made to look like Arabic? It’s actually in English, it’s a clever way to do a foreign language without putting it in brackets and adding a footnote saying what language is being spoken, but also it’s really hard to read in spots, and kind of comes off as being a bit too clever.

C-T: Yeah I totally got that, I was wondering if it would blow past you or anybody else reading the book, I’ve been reading Zatana speak long enough to know what those crazy letterers are up too!

S-B: . In my mind, first issues are supposed to hook me in a way that makes me want to read more, Image usually is good about that with books like Chew, Guarding the Globe and the like, but in this book, it’s just introducing characters and a vague semblance of setting.

C-T: After the ultra violent JARHEAD scene we skip to an alternate reality where the combination of strange characters and background remind me of the 80’s G.I. Joe cartoons.

S-B: I kind of got a bit of a G.I. Joe vibe too, but only from Jarhead and the design of the main villain

C-T: I enjoy the art by Ryan Bodenheim and I’m really impressed. I don’t want to over compliment the guy but his pencils remind me of a cross between Frank Quitely and Chris Burnham!

S-B: I did like the art. I got a big Frank Quietly vibe from it, but with it’s own flair.

C-T: Ok on to the ‘story’, when Three weeks ago, today and ‘that moment’ are the time frame given new readers to align a story in their head with characters they’ve never seen before explosions and snippets of conversation between superheroes? And cops? And villains? I cant tell what’s what and I want to punch this book. There is no way issue #2 can reverse the damage done by this terrible narrative. If this becomes a classic story reprinted in a deluxe format I’ll eat my hat.

S-B Wow. You really didn’t like this book. I can’t really argue with your points though. My main problem is they introduce all these characters, but they don’t give us anything to connect with them on any level. If I don’t care about the situations, there is nothing there to keep me reading. It’s Tom Brevoort’s #2 rule of writing, You can have the cleverest setup ever (this is more convoluted then clever), but if you can’t make the reader care about the characters, you’re doing it wrong.

C-T I hated this book so much I promised to eat my well loved haberdashery if it becomes a raging success! Who the hell wrote this book Grant Morrison’s dog? Is this Marc Guggenheim fellow new to the game?

S-B: Guggenheim was one of the Spidey Brain Trust writers in addition to writing a lot for TV. I personally don’t think he’s too suited for comics work, but your mileage may vary. Although we both agree avoid this book like the plague.

Aside form the wonderful Ryan Bodenheim art that wraps up the first all negative Tag Team Thursday. See you next week.

…in the end- that’s all he really has to his name…

Styrofoam sets, really clean CGI, terrible production sound, a female Jesus and dudes with the ‘Force Push’ ability… from the trailer, this is basically what Dark Metroplis (created by the guy who did The Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers) looks like it is about.

of course… according to the synopsis, that isn’t at all what it’s about. Who’da thunk?

Mankind has lost a 300-year war against a genetically enhanced race that man created, abused and finally tortured. Now the descendants of that race – known as “Ghen”; control planet Earth. An entire new universe has risen inside the remnants of our world. Humans work the surface as factory slaves in the New World Order, with pockets of resistance carrying on the freedom fight. As rising Ghen politician Crecilius Pryme takes power he urges his people to annihilate the remaining human population unleashing a shocking secret that will change the world forever… In the beginning – man created Ghen…, In the end – Ghen ruled man.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good post-apocalyptic, 500 year in the future venture into the “what if” as much as the next guy- I also love me some nostalgic romps into the MMPR franchises from time to time… you know… as a good laugh. But, come on… this looks like they just gave the Power Rangers a slightly larger budget and a lot less of a concept to work with. Who is their audience here?

I think it is a concept slightly too boring for kids; 8-14 and the execution is a bit too childish for any of those adults; 18-49 still stuck in the nerd world… as for those 15-17 year old’s… well they’re too busy being on the drugs to even care… (or maybe that’s what’ll make them watch it…) I really think the thing that bothers me most about this whole thing is that some of the sets are rather interesting and intriguing and then there is crap like the crap up above. (funny story: the Styrofoam brick door there was the highest quality photo they had available.)

I’ve been watching the ScyFy channel since well before it ceased to be the SciFi channel and I’ve been watching it grow and mature- sure, they still show ultimately awful movies and shows all the time, (let’s be honest, that’s part of the channel’s appeal) but, this is a channel that got behind the new Battlestar Gallactica. This is the channel that has shows like Eureka and Warehouse 13 (which, if you haven’t been watching, you have been missing out).

Why, oh why would they get behind something like this other than it was created by Stewart St. John? (yes… that is his name: bad… ass…)

Who knows… maybe I’ll be ultimately surprised when all is said and done- but it is going to take a lot more than some really talented CGI Artists to make this show watchable.

My good friend and colleague Jeff Michael Vice (who is a sometime contributer to Big Shiny Robot! as Jerkbot) now writes for MSN’s Parallel Universe site.  His first article for MSN was “10 Stupid Ways to Kill Evil Aliens” and for the most part it’s a well-written, tongue-in-cheek look at the idiotic ways aliens have been killed in films.

Sadly, though, my friend misses the mark with his sixth entry on his list with the death of Boba Fett and then uses the occasion to insult the prequels:

The helmeted, armored Fett already barely got to see any action in “Empire” (all he does is collect the vacuum-packed Han Solo for Jabba the Hutt). Here, he’s accidentally bumped by the temporarily blinded Han (Harrison Ford). This bumbling somehow activates Fett’s jet pack, and he’s propelled into the Pit of Carkoon, and into the mouth-like aperture of some giant beastie called the Sarlacc. As he’s pulled into the Sarlacc’s maw, we’re told he’ll be slowly digested. A worse fate than having to watch the prequels again.

I have a few sizable complaints about this entry being on the list.

First, Boba Fett isn’t an alien.  At best, he’s a clone.  Sure, he’s Mandalorian, but he’s still essentially human.  He’s not exactly evil, either.  There’s a difference between being a mercenary working for the highest bidder and being evil.

Secondly, as any overzealous follower of the expanded entries in Star Wars knows, Boba Fett didn’t meet his demise in the belly of the Sarlacc.  Mr. Vice knows enough of his geek history to have gotten these right.

My last complaint is the subtle jab at the prequels.  Sure, anything is better than being slowly digested over a thousand years, but to insinuate that it’s only marginally better than the prequels?  For shame, Mr. Vice.  For shame.  Especially since during your tenure as a film critic, you gave each of the prequels positive reviews (3 out of 4 stars).

Having said that, this entry does highlight why Boba Fett isn’t as cool of a character as people make him out to be.  He does very little and is foiled by a blind guy with a stick.  Not a very badass villain in my opinion.  We have much cooler villains in the Star Wars universe who we can admire for their coolness, but Boba Fett isn’t one of them.  Cool armour does not a bad ass make.

Having said that, you should regularly read the work of Jeff Vice on MSNs Parallel Universe, and watch his movie reviews with The Big Movie Mouth-Off. He’s a great guy and deserves your support, despite his amateur understanding of Star Wars.

No words. Just watch.

This is one of those rare, rare, rare times where I let a teaser with little to NO story line slide… why?

Kung Fu staring contest! Go ahead, and see if you can last… I almost didn’t make it!

I loved the first one… it was one of the best movies that came out in ot eight… in fact, its one of the better movies to come out in the past 5 years… so, the concept of a sequel makes me wary/excited.

On one hand, they can ruin my love for the first one by taking the purity of it and using a toilet brush to violate it.

On the OTHER hand, it sounds like the whole team is back on board and the potential for it being better than the first is enough to make me go see it… Let’s wait until the full trailer comes out before I make an official call though.

This year is the 75th anniversary of DC comics. With it has come special books, variant covers, and toys. But what would an anniversary of this magnitude be without a documentary detailing the history of the longest running comics company around today. Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics is narrated by Ryan Reynolds and takes  a look at DC Comics from its creation in the late 1930’s up to today. Many creators are interviewed in this including Jim Lee, Neal Adams, Denny O’ Neil, Geoff Johns, Neil Gaiman, Gran Morrison, Walt and Louise Simonson, Dan Didio and many others.

The majority of the film and most in depth focus is around the creation of the Trinity (Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman) along with the start of the Silver Age. Past that it touches on other milestones like when Denny O’ Neil and Neal Adams did Green Arrow/Green Lantern and touched on real world problems, the Superman movie by Richard Donner, and the creation of Vertigo. Once you hit the late 80’s it really jumps forward and only touches on a couple of brief events like the Death of Superman and Kingdom Come. All in all I thought this was a really interesting DVD.

My only complaint is I wish it was a little longer so they could have touched on more of the stuff that happened in the 90’s and 00’s. But that is just a minor complaint. I would still recommend checking this out, especially if you are a big fan of DC comics like myself.

Here is a trailer for the movie: