Another Star Wars fan film

OK, despite the fact that Papa George is still trying his hardest to ruin Star Wars for my generation, my last two posts have been Star Wars-themed, fan-created video clips. That tells me two things: 1) the fans still get what makes this whole Star Wars thing great, and 2) maybe it’s time for Lucas to let somebody else make the decisions.

This short, fan-created film tells the story of the dumped cargo shipment that earned Han that famous price on his head from Jabba the Hutt. In under 6 minutes, this production crew manages to out-do anything in the prequels and give the Clone Wars cartoon a run for its money. Special bonus points for finding a voice actor who’s a dead ringer for Harrison Ford circa 1977. More, please.

Lando’s not a system, he’s a man.

Lando Calrissian FTW. I would so watch this movie.

Adidas’ World Cup commercial

Star Wars™ Cantina 2010 / adidas Originals from Dominic Prevost on Vimeo.

I love soccer. I love Star Wars (well, at least the original trilogy). And I’ve invested so much money into adidas products, I should have a spot on the board of directors by now. So, on paper, this should have been the perfect ad. There’s even a cameo by Noel Gallagher, for cryin’ out loud. It’s like they tapped directly into my brain. But for some reason, the whole thing just kind of falls flat.

Maybe Snoop Dogg ruined it for me. Maybe soccer players and musicians are 100% the wrong people to ask to act in front of a green screen (I mean, Daft Punk have no lines, and they still look uncomfortable). Or maybe a mashup of so many of my favorite things could never live up to my expectations. Nike’s Write the Future ad works because it sticks to soccer. This adidas ad just feels like the creative team tried to cram a whole mess of crap into the pot, and it became a big steaming plate of WTF?

I can just imagine the meeting. “We got access to the cantina scene! The fucking cantina scene! Lucas never lets anybody mess with his stuff (other than himself, of course). What else we got? How about cameos from a California rapper and two English rock stars whose biggest hits were in the early 90’s! And, let’s get Daft Punk! They sort of look like they’re Star Wars characters. And Beckham’s injured, he’s not going to the World Cup, maybe we can throw him in there! And then let’s sprinkle a few more random people in the background and badly edit the scene to make sure this thing isn’t 8 minutes long. Perfect!” Ultimately, what does any of this mish-mash have to do with the World Cup? In the end, it just turns out to be a whole lot of wasted potential. Sorry, adidas. FAIL.

The Ultimate Mashup

AT-AT vs. boombox. ‘Nuff said.

The Ultimate Geek Argument

Star Wars vs. Star Trek, settled once and for all.

And I'm All Like, "WTF, Becks?"

Sometimes, things can be awesome even when they make absolutely no sense.

A long time ago (well, 30 years, anyway) in a galaxy far, far away...

WARNING—This post has a higher-than-normal amount of nerd content. Not for the faint of heart.

As you may have heard, it’s the 30th Anniversary of the theatrical release of the original Star Wars—back when it was an unsullied masterpiece, not the bastardized version Lucas pushes on everybody these days. Apparently, there was a big celebration in L.A. this weekend. Lots of geeks in costumes and so forth (see above)—sounds like a lot of fun. Anyway, the anniversary has provided an opportunity for all kinds of random media outlets to jump on the bandwagon—I mean, a History Channel special? Seriously?

But there is one special treatment that has me excited. Robot Chicken is one of the shows in Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim lineup. It’s the brainchild of Seth Green (you may remember him as Scott Evil in the Austin Powers movies) and one of his buddies. Basically, the show skewers the nerdier aspects of pop-culture through short sketches using stop-motion action figures. Sounds weird, I know, but trust me—it’s ridiculously funny. I love the show, not least because they’re usually making fun of a lot of my favorite things and using toys I played with as a kid to do it. Clever. Anyway, Robot Chicken is doing a Star Wars special in honor of the anniversary, bringing their trademark humor to bear on George’s epic universe. It premieres on June 17th, and they’ve got a trailer posted on the website. Hi-freakin’-larious. I can’t wait.

Games People Play

Lego Star Wars: The Video Game. Two words: time suck. As ridiculous as the premise sounds (basically, you play through the storylines of the three prequels as Lego versions of the main characters), this game is equal parts action-packed, silly, and totally addictive, with enough puzzles and challenges throughout to keep kids (and kids-at-heart) amused for days on end. I recommend combining this game with Lego Star Wars: The Original Trilogy if you're looking for ways to kill a month or so of free time.

Light Of Day

About flippin' time, George. September 12 will be a banner day for nerds and purists everywhere. Official word from Lucasfilm here.

SOUNDS
The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions, Seu Jorge

Year-end, shmear-end...

So I thought about doing a 2005 wrap-up like I did last year, but to be honest, I'm kind of tired of year-end lists. Instead, here's a few things I covered at one point or another this year. Some of them were released in years prior to 2005, but they're all things that made my year enjoyable.

• sudoku
• going to England for the first time
• Bloc Party's Silent Alarm/Silent Alarm Remixed
• Sufjan Stevens's Illinois
• Danger Doom's The Mouse and the Mask (and all of MF Doom's music that I heard this year)
• Eric Johnson's Live from Austin, TX
• Matisyahu's Live at Stubb's
• Gorillaz's "Feel Good Inc"
• Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek"
• Weezer's "Perfect Situation"
• Doves at the Vic Theater, Chicago
• the 2nd night of U2 at the Wachovia Center, Philadelphia
• Gift of Gab & Lateef/Mike Relm/Twilight Sentinels at the Patio, Indianapolis
• Kings of Leon at the Music Mill, Indianapolis
• discovering Last.fm
• Reese Witherspoon in Walk the Line
• the last two minutes of Layer Cake
• the fact that Batman Begins was nothing like Joel Schumacher's Batman movies
• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
• Chuck Dugan is AWOL by Eric Chase Anderson
• Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold
• My Name is Earl
• Arrested Development, on TV and DVD
• the Freaks and Geeks DVDs
• the Spacecataz bonus feature on the Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Volume Four DVDs
• Cartoon Network's Star Wars: Clone Wars series

Gone to the Movies

I'm thankful for five straight days off of work, providing some much-needed rest, a good visit from the fam, and a chance to get caught up on a bunch of stuff. While my parents and brothers were here, we went to see the Lord of the Rings Movie exhibit, which turned out to be really enjoyable. Basically, it was like watching the bonus features on the DVDs with props. Lots of costumes, weapons, and scale miniatures that were actually used in the movie, and videos in each section that explained filmmaking techniques like how they created the armor or how they composited an effects-heavy shot out of four different sets. The videos were a lot of the same info that you get on the special edition DVDs, but there was some new stuff in the exhibit I hadn't seen before. Plus, it's a completely different experience when they describe how two guys hand-glued 200,000 rings together to make the chain metal armor, and then there's samples of the chain-metal you can touch. But the coolest thing to me was the production art: throughout the exhibit, there were framed and matted sketches and watercolor studies which eventually led to what you saw onscreen. In some cases, the earliest pencil sketch was almost exactly what ended up in the movie. By the time we left, we had been there for more than two hours, and I hardly even noticed.

In between eating, shopping and watching football throughout the rest of the weekend, I watched a variety of movies. The first was Walk the Line, which I liked a lot. I didn't know much about Johnny Cash's life going in, so I didn't get hung up about what the film skipped or glossed over. Joaquin Phoenix did a pretty good job. I enjoyed the way that his voice changed during the course of the movie, so that by the end I was hearing the voice I associate with Cash. But my brother and I both came away most impressed with Reese Witherspoon. She was the driving force in the this movie, and turned in a stellar performance. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see her nominated come Oscar time.

Next was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I've read a lot of negative reviews. mostly focusing on what was left out. Well, I hate to break it to the Potter nuts out there, but there's no easy way to trim a 730-page book down to 2-1/2 hours and keep everybody's favorite parts. I felt like most of what got cut was justfied—do we really need to see Hermione's quest to liberate the house elves? My biggest objection to this movie was that it felt rushed. Despite so much being cut, the filmmakers were still trying to cram a lot into the time they had, and so they lost the ability to explain what was happening. Even having read the book, there were still a few times where I was left scratching my head wondering what just happened. Plus, I was a little disappointed in Voldemort. Note to Ralph Fiennes: in the future, a little less chewing of scenery and a little more menace exuded, please. Think Darth Vader in the original Star Wars.

Speaking of which, next I watched Episode III on DVD. It's getting less offensive each time I watch it, but I still feel like in an ideal world, the prequels would have combined Episodes I & II into one movie and fleshed the events of Episode III out into 2 films. This is another one that feels way too rushed. And I'm sorry, but Darth Vader is not Frankenstein's monster. No matter how many times I watch that movie, I'll never get past that scene. It is just completely wrong for the character.

Finally, I had Shrek 2 from Netflix. Cute, I guess. I didn't like it as much as the first one.

I may try to watch some of the Lord of the Rings movies today. After going to the exhibit, I'm excited to watch them again. Although right now, I'm more interested in watching the bonus features than the movies themselves.

It's Tuesday

And that means all kinds of new music and DVDs flooding the market. I made my weekly visit to the iTunes music store, and got really excited for a minute. At the bottom of the front page, you can choose to browse different iTunes stores from a variety of different countries. I switched over to the UK store, where they had tons of stuff unavailable in the US, including a Doves EP, the new Stereophonics album and Beck's new album (both of which have release dates scheduled for the US), a new Gorillaz single, and a bunch of different Elvis rereleases. Unfortunately, when I tried to buy something, it told me my account was only valid for purchases at the US store and sent me back there. Bee-yotch.

To console myself, I bought the remastered version of Ben Folds Five's Whatever and Ever Amen. It's one of my favorite albums in and of itself, but this version gets the value add of seven bonus tracks, including several covers and a version of "Song For The Dumped" that Ben sings in Japanese. Surreal.

While that was downloading, I stopped to watch the second installment of Clone Wars, and it was 12 minutes of kick-ass. It's gonna be hard for the movie to top this. OK, so the cartoon doesn't have Natalie Portman, but it also doesn't have her spouting painfully cardboard dialogue, either. And no trade delegations or Senate debates or stupid scientific explanations for The Force. It's pretty much just lightsaber fights and space battles, which is the way Star Wars should be.