Family Guy: Something, Something, Something, Darkside

Ahh, today it feels like Christmases of my youth. It’s freezing cold out site and threating to snow. The tree is up. And I’ve just finished watching Star Wars on TV. Or rather Family Guy‘s take on The Empire Strikes Back – “Family Guy: Something, Something, Something, Darkside” available exclusively on Blu-ray (BD) and DVD on 28 December from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

As with the Family Guy take on ‘A New Hope’ (Blue Harvest), we follow the adventures of Luke (Chris), Leia (Lois), Han Solo (Peter) and Chewbacca (Brian) as they are pursued across the galaxy by the evil Sith Lord, Darth Vader (Stewie). Like the original, the rebels are hiding out on the remote ice world of Hoth (cue AT-ATs with worms, Tauntauns with heads of old comedians, and the Wampa being replaced by Cookie Monster). Luke then takes the advice of Obi-Wan Kenobi (Herbert) and learn the ways of the ‘farce’ (by watching Val Wilder DVDs) under Jedi Master Yoda (Carl), and Han, Leia and Chewy head to Cloud City, only to be faced by Vader, and a giant chicken Boba Fett. Oh and Fox, you HAVE to produce some Peter/Han frozen in carbonite figures!

The thing I loved about Blue Harvest, which also comes across in Something, Something, Something, Darkside is that despite the fact they are obviously playing for laughs, theres still a lot of respect for the original source material, and they hit all the favourite lines and plot points of the film they’re spoofing. The use of the rotoscoped original film footage and sound effects and really makes this feel part of the Star Wars family. As with Blue Harvest I also loved they end on Peter (Seth Macfarlane) and Chris (Seth Green) arguing over whether the Robot Chicken Star Wars stuff was better (Robot Chicken being Seth’s own project, although Seth does voice the Emperor.)

“Family Guy” Something, Something, Something, Darkside” Blu-ray and DVD features bonus materials including digital copy, animatics and Family Guy trivia. There’s also a clip of the read through for the upcoming Return of the Jedi homage – “We Have a Bad Feeling About This”, which is sounding fantastic too, and I can’t wait!

9/10

Our live streaming of what went on at Leicester Square outside the World Premiere of Sherlock Holmes last night has now finished, however we do have this nice little highlight video.

There’s also a free-to-play online game based on the movie availible to play at http://www.221b.sh

Sherlock Holmes World Premiere!

The nice folk over at Sony have just forwarded me 4 clips from the extras of the superb District 9 DVD and Blu-ray.

District 9 is out in the UK on Blu-ray Disc™ and DVD on December 28, 2009.

District 9 extras: Alien Agenda

More videos after the jump…

Read the rest of this entry »

Avatar: The World Premiere

On a Thursday evening, thanks to the ever lovely people at Sky Movies HD, i had the great opportunity to attend the World Premiere of James Cameron’s Avatar! I arrived quite early, and watched the technical teams setting up the ‘red carpet’ (which in this case was blue, for reasons which are apparent if you’ve seen the trailer of the film!) The event took over half of Leicester Square using both the Odeon and Empire cinemas. After picking up my tickets (thanks again Emma! ), I started wandering though crowds and taking footage of the build up to the stars arrival. Unfortunately i didn’t get a chance to capture much before it was time to take my seat inside the Odeon (For more blue carpet stuff, hop over and see Dave from heyuguys.co.uk great footage of the stars outside.)

Once inside, we were treated to a personal introduction by the cast, led by director James Cameron (see youtube clip above), who did a few ‘thank you’s and talked a bit about the film, before inviting us to enjoy our journey to Avatar’s planet, Pandora. And with that, the movie started to roll…

Review of James Cameron’s Avatar

The Plot (Spoiler-free!)

Neytiri and Jake's Avatar

The main protagonist of the story is Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a wheelchair bound ex-marine, who is asked by a mining consortium to take over his dead twin brother’s role as an Avatar operator on the planet Pandora.

The Avatars are genetically engineered bodies created by mixing the DNA of humans and Pandora’s giant blue native population, the Na’vi. The Avatar is then controlled via ‘Psionic Link’ by it’s human operator, to enable the humans to wander around Pandora’s ‘toxic to humans’ atmosphere. Jake gets offered the job as his DNA is a close enough match for him to take over his brother’s avatar (rather than the corporation having to go to the massive expense of creating a new one from scratch.. it’s all about the bottom line with these people). However, unlike his  brother, a scientist trained in Avatar use and the Na’vi culture, Jake is a combat veteran with no real knowlege of Avatars or Na’vi.

Pandora is rich in unobtainium, a very profitable mineral which is being mined to use as a solution to Earth energy crisis. Unfortunately, the largest deposit of unobtainium is right underneath the Na’vi’s main settlement, and corporation head Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) wants it, either by diplomacy or – Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) preferred option – by force…

After a crash course from lead scientist Grace (Sigourney Weaver), Jake and a team are sent to attempt to find a diplomatic solution, but Jake gets separated from the group only to be rescued by Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), princess of a local Na’vi tribe, and from there, things change for Jake forever…

The Review

Colonel Quaritch and Jake Sully

Avatar is a movie that has taken some bashing pre-release in the press, and at 15yrs in the making, and a budget of $300 million, you’d expect something spectacular. Back in August I’d seen about 15 mins of footage of the movie in 3D at a cinema, and even though it was visually impressive, you got no real sense of the story from it, so I was still unsure as to what to expect. As you may have read in some other reviews on the web, the plot structure isn’t massively original. It’s got all the predicable beats you’d expect to see in a big action film that you’ve seen before. However, that doesn’t really matter. Even though from very early on you can see where the story is leading, i found myself wanting to see how Cameron was going to get us there. With Avatar, he’s creates a environment so rich and stunning, it’s hard not to get sucked into the culture of the Na’vi, and feel immersed in the world of Pandora.

Avatar is by far one of the most visually impressive movies ever made. Cameron is the first director to actually understand how to use 3D technology. A lot of directors seem to slap the 3D over the top as an afterthought. Cameron uses it in the same way he uses lighting, colour, or any other tools in the film makers toolbox. After the first few mins, the 3D just becomes comfortable, and helps provide a depth to the imagery, without trying to smack you round the face with a ‘THIS MOVIE IS IN 3D!’ placard.

Company boss Selfridge and lead scientist Grace

A massive ‘hats off’ to the guys over a Weta Digital for the truly incredible work they’ve done on the modelling and environments. Not only making the Na’vi as believable as their human counterparts, but the breath and detail they’ve managed to create in the of the world of Pandora. There is so much life and depth to the environments, from the creatures to the plant life, it felt like it could be a real alien planet. I’m very tempted to go back and see Avatar on an IMAX, just so I can have closer look at the environment for things I missed the first time around.

The cast also did a great job in bringing the Na’vi to life. Although you technically don’t see Zoe Saldana on screen her performance comes through to the point you’d swear Neytiri was Zoe under heavy prosthetics. Sam Worthington and Sigoutney Weaver also did superb jobs in both the performances of their human characters and their Avatar counterparts. Giovanni Ribisi comes across well, despite the somewhat one dimensional evilness of company boss Selfridge (seriously… if he’d had a large mustache he could twirl, while going ‘bwahahahaha’ it wouldn’t have seemed out of character). But in truly my favourite role, Stephen Lang does a rather marvelous scenery chewing job as Colonel Quaritch, baddest of bass-ass military.

Conclusion

If your reading this review to decide whether you should go see Avatar, my answer would be a resounding yes! So, the story isn’t quite as strong as it maybe could have been, but it’s perfectly serviceable. Once you land on the world of Pandora with Jake, and get caught up in the culture of the Na’vi, you forget that you know where the story is going, and just really want to see how you get there. Avatar is not a movie to wait for on DVD, i’d really urge you to go see it in 3D, in a cinema or even better, an IMAX.

AVATAR is released in cinemas UK wide on the 18th December 2009.

8/10

Get Avatar the Game on PS3 – £17.99 from Play!

I’ve recently been replaying some old PC games and watching some old TV shows, and there have been a number of times when I’ve just started thinking, ‘I really wish that guy would quit whinging and get a grip’…

So here’s Geektown’s top 5 list of the most whiny, whinging Characters in Sci-Fi/Fantasy.

5. John Connor – Terminator 2

Edward Furlong

This was D’s pick, and I whole heartedly agree. John Connor is pretty whiny in most iterations. In The Sarah Connor Chronicles, in Terminator 3, even Christian Bale‘s Connor in Terminator 4 was up for a good whinge, but it’s Edward Furlong‘s T2 version that really comes out on top as the whiniest. You had your own kick ass Terminator that would follow your every command. Most 10 year old only get Lego to play with, quit complaining!

4. Carth Onasi – Knights of the Old Republic

Carth Onasi

Carth is the first person you meet in RPG Knights of the Old Republic. He’s a Republic solider and pilot who pretty much seems to have had a sense of humour bypass, and does nothing but whinge and complain about the fact that he feels useless and unappreciated since you got your new Jedi buddies around with you. You know what Carth, your not a bad fighter, but given the choice of taking one of 3 pretty powerful Jedi, a Wookiee, a hard-as-nails Mandalorian, a wise-cracking Twi Lek, or a homicidal robot who refers to humans as ‘meatbags’, your whiny ass is at the bottom of the list, so just suck it up and fly the damn ship.

3. Louis de Pointe du Lac – Interview with the Vampire

Louis du Whinger

Brad Pitt came under some criticism for the fact that Louis (the Interviewee in Interview with the Vampire) was so whiny and annoying, but it was actually a pretty accurate portrayal of the character in Ann Rice‘s original novel. Even in print Louis made me want to reach into the text and give him a slap round the face. It’s no great surprise that Rice chose to write the next book about Lestat, Louis’s far more enimatic sire… I’m sure Louis would have whinged about that too…

2. Connor – Angel

Connor - worlds whiniest superhuman.

Words can not totally express how annoying i find this kid… He takes the idea of moody teenager to a whole new level. He’s the child of 2 vampires (Angel and Darla), giving him all the vampiric superhuman powers, without the annoying little drawback of sunlight flaying him alive. Yet, he still whinges. Angel tries to show him he loves his son. Connor seals him in a metal box and drops him to the bottom of the ocean… and carries on whinging. He get’s to sleep with Cordelia… and then whinges about it for the next 5 episodes. Honestly, i think if you told him he’d won the lottery, and Hugh Hefner said he could  sleep with any playboy bunny he liked, he’d complain his wallet wasn’t big enough for his 100 dollar bills, and the wool in the bunny tails make him come out in a rash…

1. Anakin Skywalker – Star Wars Episode II & III

Anakin Skywalker

Ah, lil Anni… Sure Jar Jar was annoying, and Luke was pretty whiny. But for the gold medal, standing ovation of whininess, you really can beat Anakin Skywalker. He starts out a little blond haired, fresh faced, Tatooine boy. Annoying? Certainly. But it’s not until he becomes a Jedi that he really start’s to become the ultimate whinger in the universe. At least Luke had something to complain about. He’d been dumped on a planet of sand and forced to be a moisture farmer. Anakin get taken from the galaxy’s dust bowl, trained to become an uber-powerful Jedi Knight, bags the hottest senator in all the republic, and STILL manages to find everything to complain about. Really it’s a wonder Obi-wan didn’t hack off Anakin’s legs earlier. At least that seemed to stop him whinging. Although, i suppose when you realise you can force choke anyone that disagrees with you, life possibly seems a little easier.

So that’s our list. Have we missed someone you think should be there? If you have any more you’d like to suggest, leave us a comment!

Dominic ‘DM’ Monroe (Adrian Bower) and Frank (Tom Mison)

I’ve seen links to this promo for Slingers pop up around the twitterverse over the last few days, partly due to writer Warren Ellis tweeting it as his ‘favourite new tv show’, despite the fact it’s still only in production at the moment, and doesn’t yet even have a pilot.

Slingers is set in 2263 A.D, following mankind’s first interplanetary war. Although Humanity won the war with an aggressive alien enemy, there was a cost… The way back to Earth is now cut off by an impassable barrier – a side effect of the blast that finally pushed the enemy back, leaving humanity clustered into a finite (but still vast) section of the universe known as Enclosed Space.

Not everyone is happy with their new home in the galaxy though, and rather than just ‘stay where they are and make the best of it’ as the military command would like, a small group led by Dominic ‘DM’ Monroe (Adrian Bower), a special ops war veteran decide to ‘borrow’ Colonel Hall’s (Sean Pertwee) experimental spacecraft that is capable of ‘Slinging’ itself to any point in space and therefore, theoretically, being the only known craft that could reach Earth.

Haruka Abe

Although it has the backdrop of a sci-fi show, it actually has more in common with a heist movie. They describe it as the action of Bullitt, the sophistication of Ocean’s 11 and the humour of M*A*S*H all wrapped in a futuristic package. From what i’ve seen of the promo, i’d say think Hustle crossed with Firefly, which in my book is no bad thing!

The show is written by Mike Atherton and stars Sean Pertwee, Tom Mison, Adrian Bower, Margo Stilley and Haruka Abe.  With the obvious exception of Doctor Who, it’s rare for the UK to come out with something quite so sci-fi, and it’s the first UK produced sci-fi show that’s really got me excited to see it in a long long time. Slingers is currently in production, and they’re hoping to shoot a full pilot in 2010. Really really hope the guys over at Sleepy Dog get this show off the ground, as I think it has the potential to be some of the best sci-fi to come out of the UK in years.