This Week in Fringe - 4/15/11

Fringe is back from its hiatus, and the concern is that William Bell needs to find a new host to embody, as Olivia's mind can't take much more before she is lost forever. So, the premise is that the gang will take some drugs, and enter her mind to find her. I'm ok with the premise, but what happens when they're there is pretty f'ing weird. I'm sure Jared will have much more to say on this topic.

Episode 19 - "Lysergic Acid Diethylamide"

Zach says: Anyways, Olivia's subconscious has fled inside her mind to hide, and it is up to Peter, Walter, and Bell to find her. Luckily, Peter actually cares for her so he has a plan on where she would go to hide. But, the episode gets weird. For SOME crazy reason, the world turns cartoony, and the live action goes away. Now, I would suspect this is due to the fact that Leonard Nimoy, who plays William Bell, has like, retired, so they can't use him, but needed him, and this was the best they could come up with. Ummm, ok. Fine. But then, there are zombies, and when Peter finds Olivia and they don't need Bell, it switches back to live action, but then they go outside where Bell is and it's cartoon again. Shit be crazy. I think the WRITERS were the ones on LSD. Oh, and they totally ripped off Inception.

But, they find Olivia and she escapes, and mostly all is well. Olivia even got to confront her personal demons, and seems to be a stronger person because of it, being completely confident now. She isn't even bothered by the fact that she thinks she knows who will kill her. Not sure how she would know the future, but hey, could be interesting in future episodes to see if this guy makes an appearance.
Zach's Score: 7/10

JDW says: I'm crossed. I want to love this episode, but I really hate this episode. While the Inception like premise was a little... unoriginal? The idea behind it was cool. But.. well the best way I can talk about this would be Pros and Cons.

The Pros: Holy shit, Leonard Nimoy is back! If you're like me, you probably thought Olivia's awful Nimoy impression was a bit overdone and stupid for a show like Fringe, and I'm glad they finally dropped it in order to bring Nimoy out of his retirement just to add his voice. And despite totally ripping off Inception and kind of being out of place, the premise was cool. And lastly, Broyles on LSD was just fantastic! It was great seeing Lance Reddick step out of his usually stern and cold acting style.

The Cons: ... Where do I even start? As Zach said, presumably the reason why they went animated for Nimoy's on-screen appearance was because he retired, and while he may have been willing to phone in his voice, he probably was not willing to come in and do full on acting. But there in lies the problem: do it well or don't do it at all. I get that TV shows can't get a theatrical budget, but there's no excuse that a show from Fox and Warner Bros., companies that spend over $3 Million per episode of their fully animated programming, should look this awful. Seriously, I've seen better TV animation from Xavier: Renegade Angel, and at least that show's fun to watch. But the animation here was just awful, the designs were awful, the actual character animation was awful, and logistically/stylistically it was completely out of place from the rest of the series.

When Nimoy signed off in last season's finale, it was a wonderful episode and a really great representation of an actor's finale on-screen appearance before retirement. But all this episode did was undo all of that wonderful experience and leave was presumably is actually Nimoy's last appearance on Fringe as something utterly gross. I think I'd off at least accepted the animation premise if the entire inner-mind world was like that and was in an appealing style, but as the way it was last night was just embarrassing for everyone involved and watching. I wanted to love this episode, because of Nimoy's return and Broyle's LSD moments, but I just can't with the awful animated sequences.
JDW's Score: 6/10

Overall Score: 6.5/10

Missed the episode? Watch it on Hulu

First Look: Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man

It may not come out until 2012, but here's the first look at Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man from Marc Webb's unneeded reboot of the film franchise...

While it's thankfully a tangible suit and not CGI like Green Lantern's costume (that's a rant for another time), I can't say I've very pleased with this... for one it just doesn't look like any other Spider-Man costume before it. Where's the webbing that looks like webs? The stripe that connects from the shoulders to the hands? The waistline? And why does it still not look like something that Peter Parker could make himself?!

Sure, the previous costume wasn't perfect, but with one look I could tell it was Spider-Man! It at least followed the design of the original look in the comics, aside from the silver webbing. But what the hell is going on here? What's with the spike design in what seem to be separate gloves? Why would you put a long narrow torso piece on a guy that's already tall and skinny? At least Toby Macguire was stout, the costume suited him, this just looks weird.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, Spider-Man 1 and 2 are probably my favorite, most memorable superhero films, sure the third film was pretty bad, but there was no need to reboot it already. I'm bitter about it now, and I'll probably be bitter about it until a trailer comes out. But seriously, let's try making films of other superheroes before we start rebooting ones that were already fantastic...

This Week in Futurama - 7/1/10

I'm still iffy on the feature, as it's not only the first This Week In feature that focuses on an animated show, but a comedy, and not a story based science fiction program like all of our other TWi features. But I'll stick with it for now.

Episode 3 - "Attack of the Killer App"

This week, unlike the last two episodes, is Futurama's first desperate attempt to seem hip. We're onto a good start right? Yeah, let's just get on with it. So, MomCorp is releasing the new eyePhone (Get it? It's like an iPhone, but FOR YOUR EYE! So hilarious...) and everyone just has to have it despite all of its flaws, see how relevant this is? Ok, but get this... Mom also has a new service called Twitcher that lets you record your life and send it to people (this is comedy gold now, cause Twitter jokes are the next big thing) and now Fry and Bender are going to have a competition to see who can reach 1,000,000 followers first, and then Mom will release a virus or something.

But, how does one get to 1,000,000 followers? By posting trashy/gross videos! And what level does Fry steep to? Recording footage of Leela's singing ass-boil, Susan; Susan Boil... GET IT?! This is just funny stuff now. And, yeah, I'm done.

As an animator myself, I understand that the writing and animating process takes a lot of time and you end writing things long before they air and you risk writing about what is relevant then not being relevant by the time the episode actually airs... and this is a moment like that. Apple and Twitter jokes have really just become so cliche they hurt now, and even when they were somewhat new (I'm looking at you Conan O'Brien's Twitter Tracker segment from The Tonight Show) they still weren't very funny. Throw in a Susan Boyle joke (and have it voiced by the screechy Craig Ferguson) and what you have is an annoying cliche mess, that just tries too hard with one lame joke after the other.

I actually enjoyed the films and previous two episodes more than I thought I would, but this attempt at trying to be relevant was too awful to bear. It's almost like... the writers tried to reach out to the Comedy Central crowd that "thinks" they know what geeky humor is by talking about popular web services and cell phones, and not the Star Trek loving, D&D playing, actual nerds that look to Futurama for a taste of humor that we get and wouldn't see elsewhere. Less of this please.

Overall Score: 6/10

Star Wars/Adidas 2010 World Cup Ad

To create something cool for the 2010 World Cup (and promote their new line of clothing to an extent I suppose), Lucasfilm and Adidas put together this neat little video mash-up of the famous Cantina scene from Star Wars (a.k.a. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope), but with famous (or should I say semi-famous) athletes, actors, and musicians.

Among the inclusions are Daft Punk, ex-Oasis member Noel Gallagher, Ian Brown (of the Stone Roses), Snoop Dogg, David Beckham, and the annoying voiced Jay Baruchel (She's Out of My League, How to Train Your Dragon). Apparently there's a couple others in there as well, but I don't recognize them.

The mash-up is done pretty well, but if I was to start a sci-fi flame war right now, I'd say the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode, "Trials and Tribble-ations" was a way cooler use of new footage in old footage, and did it fourteen years ago. And there's Forest Gump.

I mean, Daft Punk looks awesome and extremely fitting in the Cantina, but who really wants to see a classic scene covered in product-placement and including Jay Baruchel in there like he's actually in the same realm of accomplishment as the rest of the people here are in their respective fields. Just saying, to use a pun, Star Wars is out of his league.

C'mon, "Celebrate Originality"? Really?!

Conan O'Brien Officially Leaves the Tonight Show

Thanks to money hungry fools Jay Leno, and NBC President Jeff Zucker, Conan O'Brien will officially be leaving The Tonight Show this Friday, just seven months after he started. O'Brien will be given $32 Million dollars to leave, while his executive producer will get $4 Million, and his writers will divide what is left of the $45 Million deal; and Conan won't be able to return to TV for eight months afterwards. Thus bringing an end to the feud that's been lasting for weeks now.

I have to say, I'm pretty upset by this. Conan has long been one of my favorite late night talk show hosts and it was great to finally see him take the helm of NBC's most prestigious program... just SEVEN MONTHS ago. The real culprit here is Jay Leno, who five years ago told the world that he was retiring, and that Conan would be given the reins because he didn't want to cause the controversy that he had when Johnny Carson gave him The Tonight Show, instead of then Late Night host, David Letterman, who has been at CBS ever since the incident.

Turns out 5 years later Jay wasn't ready to leave, and was given his own show, The Jay Leno Show, at 10 PM, which flopped. But because of a contract that stated he was guaranteed a time slot, where as Conan's contract said nothing about securing 11:35, Conan was asked to move his show to 12, to which he promptly denied stating that it not only would ruin what the Tonight Show means, but it would also cut into Jimmy Fallon's (current host of Late Night) and Carson Daily's (host of Last Call) air time. And so, NBC just straight up payed him to leave.

Honestly, I enjoyed watching Leno when I was a kid, but gradually he just became more and more stale, and it was time for him to leave. When he decided to come back for The Jay Leno Show, it already seemed like a stab in Conan's back by returning to late night in a time slot before The Tonight Show, and quite frankly he's just screwed everything up. And if this leaves Jay and Jimmy Fallon as NBC featured talk show hosts, NBC is on its way downward, because sorry, but Fallon just can't seem get people laugh, and he show is generally uninteresting. Jay Leno and Jeff Zucker have shot the network in both feet.

I'll miss you Conan. See you in eight months, probably on Fox, unless Letterman gives you The Late Show...

Spider-Man gets Rebooted

It's the comic movies of the night! Sony Pictures has announced that the 2011 slated Spider-Man 4 film is no more, and the studio with start from Peter Parker's high-school days with a new cast, film crew, and release date set for 2012.

That's right, after two fantastic films and one not so great, Sam Raimi, Toby Maguire and the rest of the cast and crew that made the Spider-Man film franchise so memorable will not be returning when the web-slinger comes back to theaters next time. There's no work on the new cast/crew for this Spider-Man reboot, but Sony and Marvel seem pretty set on that 2012 release.

Personally, I'm a bit upset. I liked the Spider-Man films... except for the third; but regardless I was really looking forward to what Sam Raimi had in mind for the next film, if anything I was just looking for proper closure because I didn't get it from the third film. Plus I liked Raimi's filming style, I thought Toby Macguire was a believable Peter Parker, and Bruce Campbell was just awesome as usual.

But what bothers me the most about the reboot is that it hasn't even been ten years since the first Spider-Man released, isn't a reboot a little soon? I mean, I can understand why Marvel chose to reboot film franchises like The Punisher and Hulk (and DC with Batman) so soon after their first releases because those films just weren't that great to carry on. But Spider-Man 1 and 2 were some of the greatest comic adaptations of all time. Maybe Marvel should try making some new film franchises that are good (Iron Man is close, X-Men... not so much), instead of just rebooting already done characters. It's quality, not quantity that counts, I don't care what that check from Disney tells you.

Check out the lengthy press release at Ain't It Cool News

FLCL comes to Funimation

It's rare, and I mean RARE, that I give a crap about anime these days. It's nothing against the medium, I really liked anime back in the day, along with other animation, what ruined anime for me (and if you're a fan of ours and a fan of anime, you might want to look away)... it's the people. The fans of anime are some of the most.. I don't even know how to explain my frustration with people that ONLY like anime. I've lost interest in anime because I was annoyed with being associate with such an awful group of people that liked what I liked.

Regardless, back when I was big into anime, there was one series that really got to me, Gainax's FLCL. Even though it was just six episodes, there was something just so fantastic/imaginative/bizarre about the show that I really connected with. Sure, I might not like anime as much anymore, and I can't say I seek out new anime series anymore; but if it means anything there's only two anime series I ever bought on DVD: FLCL (yes, even at $30 per 2-episodes) and Samurai Champloo (Bebop is great, but Champloo oozes style). Not that it's an achievement, but the fact that I only bought those two kind of says something.. maybe.

Back on topic, the reason I'm rambling here is because, for whatever reason, Funimation now owns the distribution rights to FLCL, which was previously released by Synch-Point. I can't say I'm blown away or anything, but because of Synch-Point's small size, the FLCL DVDs were always incredibly hard to find, and EXPENSIVE. Now that Funimation is in control, that means wide distribution and perhaps affordability. The best news however, is that not Funimation is in control, no. The best news is that the series will be re-released on DVD (yes, all six in just one set) ... and Blu-ray! I'm not one to re-buy something just because it's on a different medium, but, if the Blu-ray contains the commentary, extras, and even more than what Synch-Point's DVDs had, I may consider it.

Man... that is like the most informal writing I've done in a long time. See what anime does to you?

See Funimation's announcement for, not too much news. And you can also visit their teaser website, for a picture.

Doctor Who: The End of Time "Part Two" Review

It's finally come to this, the end of David Tennant's fantastic run as The Tenth Doctor. Sure, Christopher Eccleston is responsible for being The Doctor that the show returned with, and I generally really liked his one season, but when David Tennant stepped into the role it was as if all of the previous version of The Doctor disappeared. It'd be an understatement to say that I and many other Doctor Who fans are sad to see him stepping down.

Special: The End of Time "Part Two"

But lets not get sad yet, we still have 75 minutes to cover here! The End of Time "Part Two" brings us back to the mysteriously reemerged Time Lords of Gallifrey, who were supposedly all killed in the Time War that The Doctor has dared not speak of after all this time. But, that's quite a bit of hefty information. In fact, I honestly think that Russell T. Davies put way too much into this episode for its own good.

While the first nearly 50 minutes of the special deals with the return of the Time Lords, the back story of the Master's insanity, and tons of more information to break your head with. It's not until the final moments of the episode that The Doctor final takes his plunge. And personally, I figured out why the show works so well in its 45 minute standard episodes, because 75 minutes is just too long (not to mention the plus 60 minutes from "Part One"); everything seems to drag on for more than it should, and in the end a lot of what was shown seemed unnecessary.

And that's really the shame of this episode, since there are really a ton of great, sad moments between The Doctor and Wilfred, just as there was the one in "Part One" that brought both of them to tears. It's like, The Doctor and Wilfred were great, but everyone else... no thanks. The Master's craziest grew old quick, the Time Lords (while an old-school Who-gasm) were boring, and the cactus aliens had no need to be there. And the ending... just cameo after cameo of those character important to The Doctor throughout the last four series, while some of them made me chuckle, and were nice nods to fans, they were also unneeded. When The Doctor left these characters, he let them go, it seemed strange to suddenly just show up in these people's lives again only to leave again.

As for the awaited regeneration, well, spoilers aside, it's certainly got me thinking about the next series. Much like the transition from Eccleston to Tennant, this regeneration leaves the new Doctor in somewhat of a predicament that will certainly lead off into the new series. And yes, the ending finally brings some sense to all of those upcoming changes for the next series that you may have seen already. To say the least, after witnessing Matt Smith as The Doctor for a brief moment, I'm curious to see where the show will go, especially since the ending seems to point out the actor's age as a new flaw. Spring can't come soon enough!

Overall Score: 8/10

I know, at the end of "Part One" I said that I really wanted to give the special a VFH Seal of Approval. But after "Part Two," I can't say my feelings are the same. It would've been one thing had it been say, a two-part, 45 minutes each story; but the time wasted on a 60 minute and 75 minute story just dragged The End of Time out more than it should have, especially when any fan could've predicted where the show was going. I mean, you know he's going to regenerate at some point, just cut to the chase.

It's a shame, yes, because David Tennant is just so damn good in this, but all of the information and characters that Russell T. Davies stuffed into this second part just killed it. I think the 8/10 is actually quite generous to be honest; I really wanted to like this special, and for the most part I did. But I can't get over some of the stuff that filled the rest of the episode. I just hope that Matt Smith and new show-runner Steven Moffat can blow me away when the new series starts later this year, because right now I'm a little indifferent.

Lastly, regarding the continuation of This Week in Doctor Who, I can't say until I get news of when the new series actually airs in the UK, and how long the gap will be before it airs in America. If the gap is over a year (which is highly unlikely) I'd have to say this feature is over; if the gap is between a month and three months, I'll consider it; and if it's a week to one day gap like it was with these last two specials, then bet your ass I'll keep doing this!

I CRUSH YOU! With a Nintendo DSi LL

Yes, the rumors you may have heard elsewhere were true. Nintendo (of Japan at least) will be releasing yet another iteration of the Nintendo DS. This time however, things are a little different... instead of making a slimmer sleeker system, Nintendo decided to take the already slim and quite nice DSi model... and made it larger (yes, believe it or not) but adding 4 inch screens to the device, a pen-like stylus, and giving it a classy set of colors (Wine Red, Dark Brown, and Natural White).

As you can see from this helpful image I made for you (from material on the system's official website of course), the DSi LL really topples the DSi in sheer size, not to mention how much it outsizes the DS lite (whose screens are already smaller than the standard DSi).

I'm still not sure why this seems like a good idea though. Perhaps it's because I'm not an old person and I'm quite pleased with the size of my DSi, but I just don't see the practicality in 1) releasing another DS model so soon after the latest, and 2) releasing such a large system targeted a what I think is a niche market. Someone should tell Nintendo that people stopped liking massive portable systems when Game Gear failed. I seriously think this will go the way of the Game Boy Light and never hit US shores.

Visit Nintendo of Japan's Official Nintendo DSi LL website for more info

UPDATE! Looks like the system is, for whatever reason, actually coming to North America and Europe some time next year. However in both regions, the system will be called the Nintendo DSi XL; apparently LL is the Japanese equivalent of XL on say, t-shirt labels. This looks like one Nintendo handheld I'll actually refrain from buying.

Red Wii Packaging?

Spotted this on the Nintendo Press Room earlier... and it has me insanely confused and slightly bothered...

I have what's called "gamer OCD" sometimes even called "collector's OCD" in which I like having all my game and movie packaging to be uniform and sitting on my shelf in alphabetical order. It was bad enough when Player's Choice/Greatest Hits/Platinum Hits have their "sore thumb" packaging... but when new releases do it (like Sony has done with both PS3 and PSP packaging), it's unsettling because now I have no choice.

It's for that reason I haven't bought a LucasArts game on the Wii, because of their unnecessary yellow siding. Now Nintendo has an uncalled for red package? I sure hope there's at least a proper reason for the sudden color change...

LittleBigWatchmen

Here's a surprise, guess what's coming to LittleBigPlanet? WATCHMEN? Why now? Why an R-rated franchise in an E rated game? I DON'T KNOW!



Now, I understand that you can only have four characters on screen at once... but why the Dr. Manhattan and Comedian costume snubs? I mean, at least Manhattan is represented on the wall there, but if you look, The Comedian is completely missing. I know he's dead for most of the film/comic, but in the part they recreated for this trailer he exists.

And again, why now? The movie's been long out of theaters, and the DVD already released (though the Ultimate Edition has yet to release). If any other DC Comics license was more fitting for now it would have been Batman because of Arkham Asylum. Or even at that, why base it on the movie version? I'd of gladly preferred a comic book environment to design/play with various DC Comics characters designed to fit the LBP world.

I guess this just shows the type of DLC variety we can expect...

Death Cab For Cutie to release a new single, sadly...

Call this upsetting news, in my opinion at least, Death Cab For Cutie have a new single releasing next month, but that's actually the good part. The bad part? It's releasing as a single from the New Moon soundtrack. Yes, New Moon as in the next Twilight film... As MTV (of course) reports.

The song, "Meet Me on the Equinox," will premiere on MTV.com on September 13th, the same day as this year's MTV Video Music Awards. When I first heard the news that Death Cab had new material, I was happy... the whole vampire-kids and MTV association really put me off though. I don't know if I'll be able to listen to the track...

Fantastic Mr. Fox trailer and website

Finally! After USA Today's recent gallery of images of the film, the long awaited trailer for Wes Anderson's first animated film and film adaptation is now online!

Fantastic Mr. Fox - Official Website

First thing, I guess I was misinformed, but I swore this film was going to be released under the Fox Searchlight banner, and not 20th Century Fox... so much for that Fox Searchlight press account I just got.

As for the film itself, it's peculiar to say the least. I never read Roald Dahl's original Fantastic Mr. Fox storybook, but much like the rest of his literary work I assume it's very British. So maybe it's just Fox misrepresenting the film, as the try to make Wes Anderson's usually artsy style look like its a comedy in the vein of Ice Age, and chances are it wil be nothing like that; point being, other than the visual style of the models and puppets, I'm not getting a British vibe from the trailer and that's a little unsettling.

I think the real verdict will be seeing some actual film clips and not a gagged up trailer; just something a bit more propper at least before the film releases this November.

SDCC 09: Jonah Hex poster

The Dark Knight may have been DC Comics' big film focus of 2008, and the success of that film arguably is what brought a lot of hype to Watchmen this year. So what's next for DC Comics' theatrical films? Other than the currently in pre-production Green Lantern, there's been one movie filming that you may not have heard about: Jonah Hex.

Let's ignore Megan Fox's rediculously tight corset for a moment and take a look the starring character, Jonah Hex, played by Josh Brolin. Being familiar with the character, I think it's nice to see his trademark facial scars are still in-tact, including that gross piece of flesh that comes in front of his mouth... Otherwise, this poster doesn't really tell me much, as it clearly looks like Warner Bros. placed Megan Fox there to catch people's attention.

Sadly, at least from the poster, I'm getting the same bad vibe I did from Marvel's Ghost Rider film. In that they're taking a reasonably obscure character from the comic universe, but instead of developing the lead character, they put the focus on an attractive woman that otherwise is unneeded in the film; and thus the film is a poor adaptation because you lose what make's the comic so unique. But it's just a poster, and I'm sure there will be more to judge sooner or later. Let's hope this isn't another Catwoman... I know Marvel has a lot of films on the way DC, but seriously, quantity isn't quality.

61st Primetime Emmy Awards nominees

The nominations for the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards were released today, and the first thing that came to mind while looking over the list was, "Wow, there really is a lot of crap on television these days." Seriously, it's no wonder we can't come up with a decent show/block to cover on This Week In...

The 61st Primetime Emmy Awards Nominations List
I'm really disgusted; normally for nominees lists I'd pick out some of my select choices or have some predictions... but, I just can't this time around. There's just too much awful and/or repeated nominations on this list and it really makes me fear for the future of the television film industry. Anyone else feel the same way? I don't think I'm overreacting that much...

Here's your Club Nintendo rewards for 2009

Earned over 300 or 600 coins on Club Nintendo this year? Or if you're like me, and decided to earn over 1300 instead? Expecting something really cool as your reward? Well, today the rewards were announced..

Yes, Platinum members can CHOOSE between either a downoadable Doc Louis's Punch-Out!! game, or a Mario hat (which was actually offered in Japan back in the day as a standard Club Nintendo item). Gold members have no choice, instead they get a calendar, just like Club Nintendo members in Japan do.

To say the least, I'm more than underwhelmed, but I don't think I have any use for a big plush Mario hat, so I think I'm just going to go for the Punch-Out!! download (which by the way, doesn't require you to have the new Punch-Out!! game). Though, it really just sounds like an exclusively designed demo... Let's hope next year is better, and I don't waste all my coins again. That or let's hope there's better everyday items available soon.

Club Nintendo members must redeem their rewards by August 11th, 2009!!

Rewards will be sent out by November 1, 2009; yes, even the download codes.

Cartoon Network: 1992 - 2009

I'm pretty sure that my stance on Cartoon Network airing live-action programming has been made clear here on numerous occasions. Animation blog Cartoon Brew shares a similar distaste for the network's current direction, and posted a video that really makes me lose all respect for my once favorite television channel.


Seriously, now they're just digging their own grave with this crap. Was it really necessary to produce a music video that basically say cartoons are garbage? And coming from CARTOON Network of all places this just makes me really upset. You're dead to me now Cartoon Network, thank goodness you haven't destroyed Boomerang yet, because it seems that's all I have left of the network I grew up with.

Final G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra poster...

Just got this 'final one-sheet' poster for G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra from Paramount, figured it was worth analyzing:

(click for larger version)

From my knowledge, that seems to be our first look at Destro with his metal face, because prior to this we've only seen him as a human (played by Chistopher "The Doctor" Eccleston) in the trailer. Also, on the top right there, looks to be the first real image of Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Cobra Commander; which you may notice looks very different from the source material, as the producer's felt the original Cobra Commander's hood to be too reminiscent of 'the Klan'.

Personally, I'm not overly excited to see the movie (and according to our recent poll, neither were you). From the footage I've watched there seems to be way to many CG humans (i.e. I don't mind CG robots in Transformers, you can't actually build those for a movie, but when your film is about human soldiers, at least have actors, not computers, for most of your scenes), and that's many due to these unnecessary "accelerator suits" made for the film... oh and there's also the really corny acting.

I grew up loving G.I. Joe, but this franchise just doesn't appeal to me like Transformers still does. Maybe it's because the latter has been constantly re-imagined for television in the last decade or so, where as G.I. Joe has had less adaptations... I'm just guessing here, what do you think?

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra releases in theaters everywhere on August 7th, 2009.

UPDATE: Apparently I'm wrong, seems metal face there is a generic Cobra grunt, and the mysterious one in the upper left is a new character called "The Doctor" (and no, not THAT Doctor)... but I also hear The Doctor is Cobra Commander.. so I don't know.

Futurama returns in 2010!

Sure, the four direct-to-DVD movies were nice, but there was a rumor going around that Comedy Central ordered new episodes of the once canceled show from Matt Groening and David X. Cohen. Because they were rumors, I refrained from reporting anything until I had some official word...

Well, according to Entertainment Weekly, it is official now, as according to a representative from 20th Century Fox, Comedy Central has ordered 26 new episodes of Futurama for a 2010 air date. With 13 episodes being a standard season, I assume this will make up a sixth and seventh season for the show, as the four DVD films are considered the fifth season .

Interestingly enough, EW makes mention of previously canceled Fox show, Family Guy, getting a revival. I'd like to remind you that it was Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block that brought both of these shows back to television, and why they're so popular now; and I think it's a damn shame that they're always excluded from the renewal reports. Seriously, in a few years, watch Fox renew Adult Swim's most recent acquisition, King of the Hill, and I'll be here with a post saying I told you so.

None the less, new Futurama is still a great thing to hear, and should stand as a sign of hope to other series canceled before their time... but Sit Down, Shut Up, that can stay off the air forever, thank you.

Guitar Hero 5 brings new logo design

Call me not a fan of constantly released game titles, but sometimes even the subtle changes make me intrigued for better or worse. I mean, something must be going down at Activision when they not only decided to give the game a visual make-over from its previous incarnations, but to give the franchise logo a new look as well.

Subtle? Maybe. But I still noticed it right away when I was checking out RedOctane's press site. I'm just more curious as to why, whoever the powers may be, have decided to make such a change now? Especially with the franchise's key look is already defined for this generation, a mid-moment re-branding seems unnecessary. Perhaps we'll be able to tell once artwork and more show up for the announced Band Hero and DJ Hero titles (by the way, did we need those?).