Archive for August, 2008

The Clone Wars Movie: A Shattered Hope, or Star Wars Strikes Back?

August 16th, 2008 | Category: News,Star Wars

Star Wars: The Clone Wars is the latest of the Saga, fitting in between Episode II and Episode III. And truth be told, it had a huge name to live up to. Did it? Well, I can’t speak for everyone, but it didn’t quite live up to my expectations (although that didn’t stop me from seeing it four times on day one… and I’m not a virgin… I swear). I’ll sway from spoilers incase anyone hasn’t had the chance to see the movie and wants to figure out if it’s even worth watching…

The Darkside

  • Story plot… although it’s not really bad at all, it just doesn’t have the appeal that came from the six Episodes… It lacked the… epicness of the Death Stars, and somehow managed to lose the massiveness of the clone force that we saw in Episode II and III.
  • The musical score… Perhaps its just me, but the music played a huge role in the success of Star Wars. Without the Imperial March, the Empire loses our fascination. Without Duel of the Fates, the lightsaber duel of Anakin and Obi-Wan is just a clash of sabers… And in Clone Wars… I haven’t heard a single new piece that wow’ed me. The music fits, but that’s about it. Electric guitars and the like… just isn’t Star Wars
  • The comedy… seemed cheap. Overusage of the droid humor from Episode I was far too common. I don’t mind a cheap laugh once in a while, but if it’s all the humor that’s there, it just doesn’t appeal… and some of it is too predicable… where’s the ‘who’s scruffy looking?’ type humor? Droids can only fall from heights so many times before it becomes a groaner. And at one point, a droid can’t even get the numbers right that another droid tells him… And I thought they were connected to the same ‘core-system’ … I dunno why they even speak to eachother >.
  • Dialogue… I was expecting… more.. even if the movie was aimed at kids…
  • The opening crawl… (take a deep breath) … nonexistent… Instead we have a voice getting us up to speed with the events of the Galaxy… ruining a defining opening moment…

But not all is lost! Here’s the Lightside

  • It’s Star Wars…. Let’s face it, it brings out the kid in you. The saga continues, it hasn’t died out at all, and that brings joy to all of us here.
  • Action… You’ll find more than plenty of this, and the animated format gives you some things that you might not dream of seeing in a live-action movie of Star Wars.
  • Characters…
    • You’ll come to love Ahsoka, or your heart has turned hard. She might make you skeptical at first, but she’ll win you over just as she wins Anakin over. She’s still annoying to a point I’ll admit, but I think how she was introduced was below par, and the voice acting left much to be desired. Hopefully in the future they’ll work with her much better than they did here.
    • As for Ani, he seems much more mature than in any of the prequels,a breath of fresh air there. And although the character development doesn’t come up to par with the rest of the movies, I couldn’t really find fault with it at all…
  • Jaw droppers… There’s only one that truly stands out, and to be honest, nothing can compare to “Luke, I am your Father” so I’m going to be fair and not judge it on an impossible scale… so expect a surprise when you see an AT-TE transport after they get off the first planet and onto another… anything else would ruin the surprise… Of course it could have been done better, but that doesn’t make it less of a jaw-dropper.
  • No Jar-Jar or any Gungans for that matter… ’nuff said.
  • It’s Star Wars… It bears repeating.
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Biological Experiment goes wrong on Science R&D Platform, Vectra System

August 12th, 2008 | Category: Star Wars Role Playing

Earlier this morning, Naval High Command released a statement confirming the rumors that there was an incident aboard a Naval Research and Development Platform within the Vectra System. The incident resulted in the quarantine of the section of the system, along with the eventual destruction of the platform. While Naval High Command declined to give a statement for the Vast Empire Today, a surviving over-watch guard from the platform accepted our offer. He had this to say,

 

“It started out like any regular day, the higher-ups of the platform were conduction experiments on fighters, pilot gear, weaponry, and medical equipment. It was looking as though it would be normal throughout the day, no major tests or experiment going on. There was one experiment in the medical field, one that damned us all.” The guard said during the interview.

 

“They were trying to create a system that would put the pilot and the medical droid in a linked form, one that would allow the pilot to fly the craft, and an onboard medical droid to immediately assess, determine, and treat and ailment. They had a few volunteers to test it on, a few brave pilots, none of them are alive right now. The pilots went into a simulator, to fight against each other during the test, up to that point, nothing looked wrong … nothing at all.” The man said during the interview, as he said it though, he got tense.

 

“The pilots started the simulation, no problem … until the first shots were fired.  Then all hell began to rise. The Pilot’s adrenaline began to go up, and it kept going up. It got to the point where the medical droid began to think it was a ailment and began to pump stuff into him to make it go away. Each of the pilots had this happen to them. The stuff the droids pumped stopped the adrenaline … and each pilot’s heart. They all died, or so we though. After their hearts stopped, the droids went insane, trying everything to revive them. The droids began to mix combinations of chemicals together in a vain effort to revive them. It worked, but horribly failed. All six of the pilots rose back up, but the monitors showed no heart beats, and limited brain waves. They were dead… but alive.” He said and then stopped, and stood up. “That’s all I know. They put the section of the platform into lockdown after that; Moved up all away, and eventually to shuttles and escape pods.”

 

To continue this story, recently lowered from the highest classified levels is are the incident reports from the platform. It shows vague information as to the events that happened, but explains the story a bit as well. As per the documents, after they moved everyone away, two doctors approached the once dead pilots, they stood near them, trying to get a reaction from them. Then, almost instantly, they did. As if it was instinct, one of the pilots bit into the doctor’s arm, taking a small chunk with him. The remaining guards opened fire onto the pilot who attacked. It took over 30 rounds to put him down. The injured doctor was rushed out of the area, where later a plague spread like an infection across areas of the base, first the simulator room, then the medical room where the doctor was, then after that the surrounding halls. People apparently died and rose up as reanimated corpses. VEN-HC sent out rescue craft, and evacuated the non-infected survivors. Once the survivors were rescued, the platform was destroyed, and all chunks of it were decimated to destroy all signs of the infection. Within the next weeks, VEN-HC is expected to declassify the names of the personnel lost on the platform from this incident. To which the VET will make a report to, when it happens.

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