As someone who has been to Rancho Obi-Wan, I can vouch for the fact that this is going to be awesome. Steve Sansweet, for 15+ years the public face of Lucasfilm for Star Wars fans, is bringing a piece of his massive Star Wars museum to Star Wars Celebration VI in Orlando, Florida next month.

You can read my initial feelings about the museum from my visit last year here.

I talked to sources at San Diego Comic-Con who said this was happening, but now we have an official announcement:

Many of you have heard about Steve Sansweet’s Rancho Obi-Wan (ROW), a non-profit museum that houses the world’s largest private collection of Star Wars memorabilia. Some of you have even taken a tour. Now, for the first time, see what all the excitement is about at the Rancho Obi-Wan Experience at Star Wars Celebration VI.

Filling a large 600-square-foot space on the exhibition floor, this will be a specially curated exhibit of some of the treasures from ROW, ranging from props and prototypes to original art and fan-made wonders. Stop by and chat with Steve about your collecting passions, get your books signed, pick up some special souvenirs, and get help planning a future trip to ROW.

If this 600 square foot taste of ROW doesn’t convince you to book a trip out to see it first hand in all of its glory, I don’t know what will.

Trust me.

You will want to check it out.

For more information, keep an eye on the Rancho Obi-Wan facebook. They’ll be giving away memberships to the museum.

Saturday morning cartoons were a staple of life in my childhood. I imagine they are a staple in the lives of all children growing up in the United States. It may be what trains us to look forward to weekends so much, only so many of us have forgotten.

I haven’t forgotten. I still enjoy what I would define as Saturday morning cartoons, though they might not appear on Saturday. It’s easy to be a geek and still enjoy these weekly doses of joy. They’re better know than they’ve ever been. Sure, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and He-Man: Masters of the Universe somehow made it into the zeitgeist of the 1980s, but the quality of cartoon was somewhat lacking. Today though, we have a rich cornucopia of shows, created by people who grew up on the shows of old and have shepherded in a new era of cartoons that have at least doubled in quality. From The Clone Wars and The Legend of Korra to Adventure Time and My Little Pony, as many adults watch these shows as kids.

Me included.

But there’s a group of artists here in Salt Lake City taking their love one step further.

When local artist (and former Robot, Budget-tron) Derek Hunter found that he was soon moving away from Salt Lake to move to Hollywood and live the high life as an illustrator for Adventure Time, he knew he wanted to do one last thing while he was here. Along with Magen Mitchell, co-owner and designer of Paper Wasp, the two of them decided they would curate a gallery showing of local artists paying homage to their favorite Saturday morning cartoons.

It was no trick to get other artists involved. It’s a veritable who’s who of local art. Aside from Derek and Magen, Leia Bell will be showing work, as well as Tim Odland, Lucas and Heather Ackley, J.J. Harrison, and a dozen others.

Knowing Derek’s work outside of Adventure Time (Pirate Club, Gamma Rae, Lobster Ladd) it’s impossible to ignore the obvious influence from the goofy cartoons of our youth. “I always dreamed about doing Saturday morning cartoons,” Derek told me. “Most of the times I played with my favorite toys, I did it as though I were writing a new episode of their shows. And once I started painting my action figures to look like my own characters, the dream got bigger and the stories more elaborate. I’m doing a Duck Tales piece for the show (pictured on the left) because, after Ninja Turtles, that show informed my creative process in my comic making more than any other. I’ve always been drawn to adventure stories and this cartoon was a perfect fit for a 10 year old.”

Everyone has a favorite cartoon from their youth. My personal hope for this gallery showing is that it reminds others how much they loved that time in their life and encourage them to get back into the swing of watching cartoons. Cartoons are often dismissed as something childish, but the animated shows on the air today are some of the best written and most well-made on television. I’d stack the writing and maturity of The Clone Wars up against your AMC shows any day of the week.

On July 20, from 6:00 to 9:00pm, Paper Wasp will be launching their gallery animated delights at Blonde Grizzly (213 E. 300 S.).

Hit up the gallery, then go home and hit some of your old favorite cartoons on Netflix. You’ll be glad you did. On both counts.

While you’re there, be sure to pick up an exclusive Big Shiny Robot! T-shirt. They look very cool.

For the last two days I’ve struggled to find the right words to describe my experience with the final film in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises. It was equal parts brilliant and exasperating. It was equally inspiring and equally dull. It found a bizarre middle ground to inhabit. Sure, it’s better than most movies coming out, but I expected a whole lot more from the people who gave us The Prestige and Inception. 

Where to start?

The Dark Knight Rises picks up eight years from where The Dark Knight leaves off. In all that time, Bruce hasn’t put on the mantle of the bat since then. You see, in his quest for justice that he was driven to by the death of his parents, the death of Rachel was simply too much for him to bear. This was the first thing that jumped out at me watching the movie. Despite the fact that it was so preposterously out of character for Bruce Wayne (“But not Nolan’s Wayne!” some could argue, but that argument lacks sense), I felt I had to simply swallow that bad characterization and move on to enjoy the movie. We’re given dialogue heavy exposition scenes of characters whispering about Bruce Wayne and introduced to minor characters that may or may not have needed to be in the film.

These bits of over-wrought exposition are intercut with Alfred playing Downton Abbey with the waitstaff manning the party and comes to Anne Hathaway, sending her on a dire mission to the East Wing of the house to deliver food to the reclusive Mr. Wayne.

We’re also treated to a very well-shot action sequence to introduce Bane and the opening threads of the convoluted plan to destroy Gotham once and for all.

If I’m overly harsh in the opening salvos of the film, it’s because the first hour of the film is the least good of any of the Batman movies. It’s all set up and it’s all so dour. You’re left chasing one thing after another and it’s all just so overwrought. After having watched the other two installments of the trilogy it’s easy to see that Nolan has no sense of humour whatsoever. The one liners in Batman Begins are stilted and barely work, if at all. The only thing that keeps The Dark Knight on its feet is the fact that Heath Ledger’s Joker was infusing it with a grim comedy and the character never took himself as seriously as Nolan did. The Dark Knight Rises is absent of any human warmth.

When making this movie, someone really needed to ask Nolan, “Why so serious?”

My other big problem with the film were the punches that it pulled. The big twists for Miranda Tate and John Blake were both things that should have happened about a third of the way through the movie and taken to much further conclusions than we saw. And Miranda’s twist was so ham-fisted and laughably predictable (even in just the casting choice) that I thought something more shocking would be done with it. Instead, it was simply predictable.

The standout performances in the film, however, belong to Anne Hathaway and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I wanted so much more with the both of them. Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman is a perfect blend of smarts, sexiness, power, and perfection. Anne Hathaway really knocked this out of the park and I wish there had been more for her.

As far as things to love in this movie, there are so many references to all the great stories in Batman comics that it’s hard to not like it. It cannibalizes pieces of Knightfall, Knightquest, No Man’s Land, A Lonely Place of Dying, Son of the Demon, Dark Victory, and on and on and on. But in mashing them all together, it doesn’t really give us what we need for a perfect Batman film. During the No Man’s Land section of the film, the comic offered the perfect blueprint to fit thematically with the teachings of Ra’s al Ghul in Batman Begins. Creating a symbol would last longer than Wayne himself. He inspired those around him to act. Why weren’t they using that symbol? Blake, Levitt’s character, uses the symbol in bits of chalk here and there during the movie, but never brings it full force, or in any way that anyone but the audience can really see.

Which brings me to my next point:

I’m going to talk about the biggest spoiler in the film, so, if you want, leave now. See the movie and come back. It’s a spoiler, in a sense, but if you have half a brain you figured it out from the trailer like I did.

Ok…

Seriously. Go away if you don’t want to know.

Everybody gone?

It’s just us?

John Blake, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is Robin. A new one. Though Blake does rhyme with Drake. And Tim Drake was the third Robin and the star of the Lonely Place of Dying story. Drake (and now Blake) was a brilliant detective who divined the identity of Bruce Wayne and came to him, appealing to his better judgement. In the comics, it was to bring back a Robin to balance the darkness, in the movie it was to put the suit on again because he’d abandoned it…for some reason…

The trailer telegraphed that Blake was Robin. The movie telegraphed it. I spent the whole movie waiting for him to get into a suit and spray paint on a blue bat symbol across and become a cross between Robin and Nightwing, Dick Grayson’s current alter-ego, bringing the city the symbol of the bat while Bruce was convalescing. But no. None of it happened. He’s a costumeless Robin, a sidekick in every sense of the word but that one. Batman even tells him to get in a god-damned mask and we still don’t get to see it on screen.

This is all simply a missed opportunity.

It was so incredibly frustrating.

When they said the word “Robin” I was as giddy as a school boy. I love the Robin character. He was always my favorite as a kid. But after they said it, and didn’t really pay it off, I just got sad and angry. I know I said that if he turned out to be Robin I’d declare this the best film of the year, but I was wrong. He did turn out to be Robin and this isn’t anywhere close to the best film of the year.

I wanted this film to start in the middle of where it did, and then carry on beyond the ending, giving me something more.

I know I’m focusing a lot on the negative, and there really is a lot to like about this movie. But after the last two, I was expecting the best of the three, not the worst.

Is it better than most movies coming out? Yes. Will it make more money than the Avengers? Not on your life.

Will I go see it again? Yes. But will I rewatch it as much as I rewatch Tim Burton’s Batman film? No. Never. You know why? That film has an incredibly smart sense of humour. I said it jokingly before on twitter, that Nolan’s universe needed Robert Wuhl’s Knox character to add a charm to the movie. He’s one of the best parts of Burton’s film. He added a sense of humour. And that’s really the missing ingredient in Nolan’s world.

But somehow, my guess is there’s a huge segment of fanboys that will eat this up. Why? Because I think if there’s any group that might take itself as seriously as this movie, it’s anonymous internet fanboys, the same mouth-breathing masses who forced Rotten Tomatoes to shut down their comments for an honest assessment of a movie that isn’t as good as it should have been.

But what do I know? I’m just a guy with an opinion.

This was an ambitious film that fell short of its goal. There was a lot to love (more than anything, Zimmer’s score, which finally made me feel that Batman had a theme as iconic as Superman’s) and a lot to be disappointed by. For that, I’m giving it a 7.5 of 10.

Rush Limbaugh took to the airwaves suggesting that The Dark Knight Rises is at the heart of a potential liberal conspiracy to upset Mittens Romney’s chances of winning the election. You see, one of the biggest things Romney is being attacked for is his ties to a company called Bain Capital. They would buy up companies (including an abortion waste disposal company) run them for a while, make a profit, take out tons of loans in the name of the companies, then downsize them all to hell into bankruptcy. It’s how Romney made a good chunk of his hidden fortune.

Well, Rush Limbaugh seems to think that Christopher Nolan’s new film is a plot to remind everyone of it constantly and tie Romney with the villain in the new Batman movie. Because the villain is Bane.

Nevermind the fact that Bane as a villain has been around for twenty-plus years, never mind the fact that this film has been in production long before Mitt Romney was a candidate, let alone the Bain Capital issue being in the public spotlight, Limbaugh thinks this is Hollywood Liberalism at its worst.

This movie, the audience is gonna be huge. A lot of people are gonna see the movie, and it’s a lot of brain-dead people, entertainment, the pop culture crowd, and they’re gonna hear Bane in the movie and they’re gonna associate Bain. The thought is that when they start paying attention to the campaign later in the year, and Obama and the Democrats keep talking about Bain, Romney and Bain, that these people will think back to the Batman movie, “Oh, yeah, I know who that is.” (laughing) There are some people who think it’ll work. Others think you’re really underestimating the American people to think that will work.

I’ve seen the movie. I think it has a more conservative message than a liberal one, to be honest. You’ve all seen the trailers, Bane comes to Gotham and gives it back to the down-trodden and poor, attacking the rich. Then a rich guy in a bat suit saves the day and redelivers the city to the status quo of the rich getting richer. (You can read my full review of it tomorrow.) But my point is this: This is most superficial and preposterous reasoning to be pissed off about this film.

Rush Limbaugh has officially deemed himself irrelevant.

I wonder if we can sic the Rotten Tomatoes commenters on him…

But Batman, at his heart, really is a liberal superhero. A populist, a man searching for justice for everyone. You can read more about my take on What Batman Can Teach Conservatives over at The Huffington Post.

I’m truly sorry I wasn’t able to make the Clone Wars panel at Comic-Con this year. It’s the first time I’ve missed it since the show has been on the air. Sadly, the panel conflicted with my daughter’s birthday and I had to make a choice. I made the right one, but that doesn’t mean I liked missing The Clone Wars panel.

Plenty of footage was shown and we have it here for you now and it’s a doozy.

Here’s the first clip:

Really. How bad have things gotten with the Darth Maul situation that Darth Sidious, the Phantom Menace himself, is showing up in person?

That’s just insane.

Here’s the next clip of Maul and Savage getting even more out of hand, but to what end?

Season 5 will premiere at Star Wars Celebration VI next month. No word when it’s going to be shown on Cartoon Network, but I can’t imagine it’ll be much longer after that. Until then, we’ll simply be left being teased.

We have a look at The Clone Wars Season 4 on DVD. It comes out October 23, 2012 and you can preorder it on Amazon now.

First is the DVD/Blu-ray trailer:

Next is a behind the scenes look at what what went into a scene from the Pong Krell arc:

And finally, we have a Darth Maul walk around, to really give you an idea of what his model looks like.

Like I said, it comes out October 23, 2012 and you can preorder it on Amazon now. In the months leading to its release, we’ll be revisiting my favorite episodes on the site, so be sure to keep checking back.

Sure, it’s a fan film. But I still think Thomas Jane was the best pick for Frank Castle, even if the movie he was in wasn’t that good.

Marvel would be smart to bring him back and make a REAL Punisher movie with him….

And even Ron Perlman is in it.

It’s brutal and is what a Punisher film should be like…

Back in February it was announced that along with the new cartoon hitting Nickelodeon this Fall, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would be getting a new wave of figures from Playmates. Well, last week I received a text message from Kill-tacular-tron saying “OMG! NEW TMNT FIGS OUT! GOT 2 GET THEM LOL!” In all fairness, Kill-tacular-tron doesn’t text like a dumbass, but you get the idea. I was at work at the time, but it just so happened that my lunch hour had just started and I work near a Toys ‘R’ Us, so away I went.

It’s been a while since I’ve gone “hunting” for figures, but much like Doom Bot, the thrill of the hunt is half the fun to me. Sure, I could have checked online if this particular location had any of the TMNT figures in stock, but the thrill of just going, walking up and down the aisles trying to find something specific is something I find to be a lot of fun, especially when you find exactly what you are looking for as I was lucky enough to.

This first wave of new TMNT figures consists of the four turtles, Splinter, April O’Neil, Shredder, Kraang and a Foot Soldier. I opted to pass on the others for now and just purchase the four turtles, and that is what we will be taking a look at here. Be sure to check out the gallery at the bottom of this post for pictures of everything highlighted about these figures!

Starting off with the positive (and there is a lot of positive). First off, the molds for each turtle is different – no same bodies with different heads here. Each turtle has their own mold that varies in height, color and detail. Donatello is the tallest of the bunch, sporting a stern look on his face. Leonardo is the next tallest figure, followed by Raphael both with some pretty aggressive-looking expressions. Standing the shortest is Michelangelo with a sort of “aggressive smirk”. Figure height is not achieved just by leg or torso length, but the differences even appear in forearm length.

These turtles are sporting a new look, while still maintaining classic elements. All four turtles have essentially their classic belts, minus the letters that appeared on the classic figures, and Leonardo’s sheaths on his shell are parallel as opposed to crossed. There is also some decorative “metal” on Leo and Don’s belts that go across their chests. Knee and elbow pads are well-sculpted, showing some wear and tear. These new figures feature some support taping around the ankles and hands. Personally, I really like this touch and the color of the tape varies slightly on each figure ranging from a pure white to a kind of cream color. The turtles’ masks vary, with the knots on the back each differing, for instance Don’s appears to be hanging while Raph’s appears to be blowing in the wind. Speaking of Raphael, a really nice touch is a crack on the front of his shell. Any fan knows Raph has a tendency for being aggressive, and this chunk missing from his chest is a very nice touch to illustrate this.

These figures have a nice amount of articulation, making them easy to pose, but it can be a little clunky at times. Some nice poses can be achieved for posing on a shelf, but don’t expect to get too dynamic with them. Of course, the turtles each come with their classic weapons; Raph has his sharp sais, Don has his bo staff, Mike has his nun-chucks and Leo has his katanas, one of which is interestingly a bit shorter than they other and this is reflected in the sheaths on his back. The weapons are well molded, but the paint leaves something to be desired, more on that later. One of my favorite kind of nod to the classic figures is the inclusion of a “ninja arsenal” with each figure; remember the weapons that came with the classic figures that you had to pop out of the plastic molding? Yeah, this is included on top of the turtles’ standard weapons. The ninja arsenals vary for each turtle, but each includes a variation of throwing stars, a different version of their classic weapons, and various other knives etc. It’s a great touch and adds some nice variety.

While I am very pleased with these figures, I do have a few complaints. Many of the prototype shots released showed corresponding colored tape on each of the turtles’ weapons, but this is missing from the actual production figures. This is by no means a deal-breaker, but would have been a really nice touch. Also, Michelangelo’s nun-chucks once again have plastic chains, but were shown to have small metal links in the prototype shots. Even as a kid, the plastic “chains” bugged me, and now as an adult it’s still a bit irritating. I would even prefer a small line of string linking them, but I’m sure production costs play a big part in this so I understand. Other than these minor gripes about the weapons, I really can’t find anything else wrong with these figures worth putting into words.

I have been looking forward to these figures for several months now, and now that I have them I am very pleased – and at $8.99 they are a great value. Very nice molds and paint, the plastic is durable but gives the appearance of a softer material, articulation is very good, and the fact that there are distinct differences between each turtle to set them apart is just fantastic.

If you are a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, then I would highly recommend picking these figures up. I found mine at Toys ‘R’ Us, or if you aren’t a fan of hunting figures down like I am, you can order them online from the Big Bad Toy Store!

Be sure to check out the gallery below!

It’s the 10th Anniversary of the coolest sci fi tale this side of the ‘Verse, and our favorite Browncoats came together at this year’s Comic-Con to celebrate the occasion. I’m sending a big, geeky “THANK YOU!” from all the Browncoats here at BSR to the Science Channel for making this awesome event possible.

Not much needs to be said here (because the video is damned awesome), so I’ll get right to the video. If you’re a die hard Firefly fan – this is everything you’ve been missing and a bit more (just short of if the series came back, of course).

Enjoy!

(Video source: tfaw.com)

The Marvel Studios panel opened with a video showing their presence at San Diego from 2007 until now. It ended saying that phase one is over and phase two begins NOW!

Kevin Feige came out and announced the following movies and release dates:

Captain America: The Winter Soldier 4/4/14 Guardians of the Galaxy 8/1/14

The Guardians of the Galaxy team will consist of Star Lord, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, Rocket Racoon and Groot

We were then introduced to Edgar Wright who says he “Always thought that a great film was to be made of Ant-Man.” He then showed us the very bad ass rumored test footage that he filmed.The scene starts with a tiny Ant-Man in an air duct looking at two guards guarding an elevator. He starts running down the hallway and grows to normal size until the guards pull their guns. He then shrinks back down and we see him on the barrel of one of the guards pistols running down it. Punches the guard in the face with a nice ripple effect and proceeds to jump over the other guard grabbing his tie. He flips the guard backwards through a glass window and proceeds to get on the elevator while “It’s a Small World” plays as the elevator music. This test footage was pretty amazing! Wright told us that “Ant-Man will kick your ass, one inch at a time!” and proceeded to leave.

The Iron Man 3 portion of the panel then started. Kevin Feige was inturrupted by music as Robert Downey Jr ran from the back of the hall down to the stage decked out in a Tony Stark suit and Iron Man Glove.

He then asked three questions. “How much do I love you? How much do you love me? Then why aren’t we watching any footage yet?” After which we were treated to the first footage of Iron Man 3.

The trailer starts with Tony Stark talking to his hall of armor about introducing their new baby brother. He holds out his hand and the armor which is in pieces starts flying to him attaching itself. I believe this is our version of Extremis.The pieces of armor start knocking him around all over the place. After the armor completes itself we cut to a scene with a returning Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan. He goes on about about how he quit because people knew him as being the bodyguard for Iron Man and goes on about his new “super friends.” We see Don Cheadle and Gwyneth Paltrow returning. The Stark estate then gets bombed and falls into the ocean. The trailer ends as we see the 10 Rings of power and our first shot of Ben Kingsly as the Manderin saying “As you cry out for mercy, you will be silenced.”

RDJ then introduced Shane Black, Don Cheadle and Jon Favreau to the panel. “This guy IS the Manderin,” Shane Black said of Ben Kingsly.

Marvel surely brought their A game this year as far as bombshells dropped! I can’t wait for phase two of the Marvel Studios projects to commence!