Oh No! Darth Vader Has Cancer

 

Aww, this really bums me out.

 

Actor David Prowse, known to us geeks around the world as the original Darth Vader, has revealed to the British Daily Mail newspaper that he has been fighting prostate cancer for the last few months.

 

The 73-year-old-actor, who appeared as Luke Skywalker's nemesis, has been undergoing radiotherapy for the last couple of months, the newspaper reported. Speaking on a British radio show, Prowse added that he was feeling fine.

 

Prowse is being treated at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London.

 

I sincerely want to wish Mr. Prowse a speedy recovery and I hope that he is able to get past this with flying colors.  Where would we be without our original Dark Lord of the Sith?  The world just wouldn't be right I tell ya.

 

This got me to thinking though.  Star Wars is now over 30 years old.  That means that pretty much everyone involved with the film's creation is starting to get a little up there in age.  We already lost Sir Alec Guinness back in 200, which is sad enough.  But can you imagine what will happen the day we lose someone like Mark Hamill or Carrie Fisher or even worse...George Lucas himself? 

 

I think the entire geek world will have to go into a long period of mouring.  It'll be a truly sad day for us all.  Let's just hope that those days are a long, long way off.

I May Have A Reason To Continue Watching Dollhouse Afterall

 

Ok, so I've been a big fan of Joss Whedon's for years now.  I'm a huge fan of both the Buffy and Angel TV shows, and I am an even bigger fan of the most awesomest of Sci-fi shows to ever be cancelled after only one season...Firefly.  Hell, I even loved Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog. 

 

I'm telling you this so that you will understand it when I say that it pains me that I don't like his new show Dollhouse.  I've tried getting into the show, I really have.  But five episodes of mediocre to just plain bad TV later and I've lost all of the hype that I had built up in my head about the amazing prospects that were another Joss Whedon TV show.  The first two episodes I was ok with for the most part.  They weren't great, but most new shows take a few episodes to really find their groove.  Episode three though was so god awful that I literally had to force myself to keep watching it when every impusle in my brain was screaming at me to turn it off.  When TV is that bad, there's no excuses that can make up for it.  And the fact that it was a Joss Whedon made episode of TV just made it all that much more painful to watch.

 

Episodes 4 and 5 were better (thankfully), but I'd still mark them up as bland or only vaguely entertaining at best.  The show has yet to really grab me in any way.  There's nothing about it that I can say I really enjoy, or that makes me want to watch it week after week.  I think the show has potential, what with the Alpha storyline and I'd personally really love to know who created the Dollhouse and why its set up the way it is, but that's just me and thus far I haven't seen any major hints that the storyline is going to investigate that latter thought any time soon.  So with only the Alpha storyline to go on, I've begun to lose interest in the show and have been considering whether to keep watching each week, or to just wait for the DVD set when it comes out and watch them all at once if I hear enough good reviews from friends whose tastes I trust.

 

Recently though, some news has broken that has me interested enough to keep watching the show...at least for a little while.  Pictured above is a leaked photo of the show's main villain Alpha, and he's being played by none other than Alan Tudyk.

 

Fans of Firefly will remember Tudyk as Serenity's hawaiian shirt loving pilot Wash, who happened to be my favorite character on the show.  Alan Tudyk has also appeared in a ton of movies including a role as the Dread Pirate Steve in the film Dodgeball and as the robot Sonny in the film adaptation of I, Robot.  He's an amazing actor and he'll be a great addition to the show. 

 

Plus, he's playing a knife wielding psychopath with a fragmented brain that is resulting in severe multiple personality disorder.  It'll be an interesting role to take on, and I'd love to see how he approaches the character. 

 

Ok, so I'll give Dollhouse a second chance...for now.  But only because I like Alan Tudyk so much as an actor.  If his episodes end up being bad too, then this show is done for me.  Let's hope that doesn't happen though.

All.....Hail.....The...Hypnotoad

 

I have posted this, the greatest youtube video of all time, at the command of my lord and master, the Hypnotoad.

 

ALL HAIL THE HYPNOTOAD!!!

 

Watch it, puny Earthlings, and behold the glory that is The Hypnotoad!

 

ALL HAIL THE HYPNOTOAD!!!

Pure Awesomeness

 

It's a really busy day at work today, so I don't have the proper time at the moment to devote to finding cool things to post, but I did come across this truly awesome picture while wandering online for a few seconds so I had to share.

 

Best Alien vs. Predator picture . . . . . ever!

 

Also, I totally am willing to bet $5 on the Predator to win.  $10 bucks says he can do it in less than five moves.

 

(Via IO9)

 

UPDATE:  I also just found this amazing picture over at the SciFi Wire. 

 



 

Is it just me, or does it totally look like the Predator is trying to seduce the Alien in this shot?  His (or possibly her, I can't tell) stance as he takes his shot seems awfully suggestive if you ask me.  And the Alien is totally checking out his ass.

New Geek DVD Day - 03/17/09

 

The Meh:  Twilight

 

Why It's Meh:  I'll just come right out and say this.  I hate Twilight.  The very idea of a world in which vampires "sparkle" when they're exposed to sunlight as opposed to bursting into flames and dying a horribly searingly painful death as they should makes my skin crawl and my blood boil.  But I am aware that there may be people out there who actually like this stuff (dear god why?) and in an attempt to be open minded, I've decided to list this with the other geek films for the week.

 

Honestly though, if anything else even remotely geeky had come out that could have replaced this on the list, Twilight would have been bumbed off faster than you can say Team Edward.  As it was, I very seriously considered replacing Twilight with Married With Children or even Pokemon for god's sake.  In retrospect, I really should have.  At least those shows had redeeming qualities.  Oh well, whatever.  The damage has been done.  So rejoice Twilight fans, while you can.  This will hopefully be the very last time I ever mention this franchise ever again.

 



 

The Badass:  The Spectacular Spider-man - Volume 2 and Volume 3

 

Why It's Badass:  I haven't actually seen this Spidey cartoon series.  But on the average Spidey cartoons are generally fun things to watch, so I'm going to err on the side of history here and say there's probably something enjoyable to watch in this series too.  The product description for volume 2 is pretty fun too.  Although I doubt it will be as cool as having NPH be the voice of Peter Parker/Spider-man.

 

This second story in a series of action-packed adventures finds our web-slinging friend battling a batch of Super-Villains created to destroy SPIDER-MAN. Not only does Peter Parker have to survive the onslaught of The Sandman, Shocker and the unstoppable Rhino, he can't seem to find a date for the fall formal! When Spidey finally comes face to face with the villain responsible for the mayhem, he makes him an offer he doesn't think our hero can afford to refuse. Will SPIDER-MAN do the right thing?

 

That poor Peter Parker.  Perpetually surrounded by gorgeous blondes and supermodel redheads who love him, yet he can never manage to get a date.  Sounds sort of like my life.

 



 

The Awesome:  Punisher: Warzone

 

Why It's Awesome:  I honestly have to say that Punisher: Warzone was one of the best damn movies to come out last year.  It's hands down the best Punisher film ever, and I'd even go so far as to say that I enjoyed it every bit as much as I did Iron Man or Dark Knight.  This movie is almost too awesome for words, but almost none of you out there saw it in the theaters.  Shame on each and every one of you.  It's because of you that we're never going to get to see a sequel to this amazing cinematic masterpiece.

 

This was everything I could ever want in a Punisher film.  The plot was simple, they didn't waste time retelling the origin story, the violence was almost constant and was ultra graphic, there was no romance sub plot, and Ray Stevenson was god damned amazing as Frank Castle.

 

The only reason I'm not buying this DVD and going home and watching it tonight is because today happens to be St. Patrick's Day and I'm off to the bar for green beer and whiskey tonight.  But you can be damned sure that I'll be picking this up first thing tomorrow after work and will be watching it and loving every second of it as I nurse what is sure to be a large hangover.

Transformers 3 Is Given A Release Date And Thor Moves Around Again (Updated)

 



 

This week Paramount films has announced the release date for the third film in the Transformers franchise.  As of now it is only being called Transformers 3 and it will be released on July 1st, 2011.

 

It's the first official word of the project. Paramount insiders told the trade paper that the studio wanted to claim the date before another studio did, and that this isn't an official announcement that Transformers 3 is a go. No writer has been hired.

 

Dreamworks and Paramount executives weren't immediately available to confirm whether director Michael Bay and stars Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox are set to return for the third installment in the franchise.

 

So there's no official deal on the film yet?  No script has been written.  No writer has even been hired yet to write it.  There's no director, and stars Shia La Beef and Megan Fox haven't even signed on to be in it yet.  But they've set a release date?  Isn't this a little early?

 

Basically, Paramount just wanted to call dibs on the release date so that no other production companies will announce a release on that same date.  Wow.  When did the summer months become so cluttered with blockbuster films that you have to reserve your release dates two years in advance, before you even officially have a deal to make the film you've reserved a day for?  Isn't this starting to get just a little insane?

 

In related summer blockbuster news, Marvel studios has also announced this week that for the second time in less than a week they're moving around Thor's release date.  It is now coming out on May 20th, 2011 instead of the previously reported June 17th, 2011.

 

For those of you that are keeping track at home, this means that the summer of 2011 movie schedule currently looks like this:

 

• Iron Man 2 comes out on May 6th


• Thor comes out on May 20th


• Transformers 3 comes out on July 1st


• Captain America comes out on July 22nd

 

You'd better start saving up your pennies now folks.  It looks like that year is going to be a doozy.  And since movie tickets will probably cost $25 and the soul of your first born child by then, we're going to need as much time as possible to save up.

 

UPDATE:  Sorry folks, looks like this news was a bit premature.  I blame Variety, they're the first ones who reported this.  Michael Bay has officially responded to this announcement with the following post on his official blog:

 

"I said I was taking off a year from Transformers," Bay wrote on his official forum. "Paramount made a mistake in dating Transformers 3. They asked me on the phone. I said yes to July 4—but for 2012—whoops! Not 2011!!! That would mean I would have to start prep in September. No way. My brain needs a break from fighting robots."

 

So there you have it.  Michael Bay has officially announced he'll be directing Transformers 3, but it's not coming out until July 4th, 2012 by which time the world will have ended anyways if you believe the Aztecs and none of this news will matter anymore.

Sci-Fi Channel To Become The SyFy Channel? What The Frak?

 

This is just frakking stupid!

 

The Sci-Fi Channel, so named for their focus on Science Fiction programming, have announced today that as of July 7th, 2009 they will be changing the name of their station to the SyFy Channel.

 

Here's an excerpt from the Sci-Fi announcement that they posted on their news blog, the Sci-Fi Wire:

 

By changing the name to Syfy, which remains phonetically identical, the new brand broadens perceptions and embraces a wider range of current and future imagination-based entertainment beyond just the traditional sci-fi genre, including fantasy, supernatural, paranormal, reality, mystery, action and adventure. It also positions the brand for future growth by creating an ownable trademark that can travel easily with consumers across new media and nonlinear digital platforms, new international channels and extend into new business ventures.

 

So basically, the Sci-Fi channel wanted a name they could copyright, since the term Sci-Fi is a generic term that can't be copyrighted? And SyFy was the best they could come up with? You know that the marketing execs at the network must have spent months with teams of people coming up with ideas for a new name, and SyFy was what they chose? How bad must the other names have been to make them settle for SyFy?

 

Honestly, what was wrong with the name Sc-Fi?  It perfectly fit the station's focus, and it certainly wasn't a name people confused with other stations.  As far as brand names were concerned, this brand was pretty solid and individual.  So it couldn't be trademarked?  So what?  Are the stations' owners really worried that copycat stations are going to start up and call themselves the Sci-Fi channel too?

 

Also, if you noticed in the above pic, the Saturn logo is now gone from the channel's name and they've added a new tagline which says "Image Greater". 

 

 

"Imagine Greater" will become the new brand message and tagline, inviting both consumers and advertisers into a new era of unlimited imagination, exceptional experiences and greater entertainment.

 

Syfy more clearly captures the mainstream appeal of the world's biggest entertainment category, and reflects the network's ongoing strategy to create programming that's more accessible and relatable to new audiences. Syfy will continue to celebrate the traditional roots of the genre, while opening the brand to accommodate a broader range of imagination-based entertainment.

 

Imagine lameness is more like it in my opinion.  The catchphrase feels like marketing gibberish to me.  The real sentence that worries me here though is "[SyFy] reflects the network's ongoing strategy to create programming that's more accessible and relatable to new audiences".

 

Basically, you can read that to mean that the SyFy channel is going to be adding a ton of programming that isn't in any way Sci-Fi based or in any way related to the types of programming they've previously aired on the station.  This is basically an excuse for an all out programming shift at the station.  Don't be suprised then if in the next year or two we start seeing shows on the SyFy channel that we would never have seen on the Sci-Fi channel.  It's all apart of their management team "Imagining Greater" profits.

 

So long Sci-Fi Channel.  I loved you so, and I shall mourn your passing.  Damnit, I need a drink now.  Where's my whiskey?