METAL OLYMPICS

THE TOM WAITS / HEATH LEDGER JOKER THING

from Newsarama:

A video from a 1979 Australian talk show has been making the viral rounds of late. The YouTube clip features then 29 year-old musician/sometimes actor Tom Waits uncannily serving as inspiration to late Australian actor Heath Ledger’s portrayal of The Joker 30 years later in 2008’s The Dark Knight.

From his voice, to his inflections, to his mannerisms, it’s really like watching Ledger’s iconic performance in a time capsule. Ledger and Waits both acted in Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, released in 2009.

Go straight to the 1:30 minute mark to skip show host Don Lane introducing a short clip of Waits performing the Christmas carol “Silent Night” and preparing his audience in '70s talk show style for how unusual Waits was going to be...


Ledger really steals the show, doesn't he?

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION CHOPSTICKS

 Made by Kotobukiya! I need to get the EVA-01 chopsticks... and put them with my ALIEN chopsticks!

HOW 'PROMETHEUS' SHOULD HAVE ENDED... ARGUABLY

Cute. But if that was how it really ended, I would have willingly received a lobotomy to wipe all memory of the film. The linking to 'Alien' is bad enough as is.

CHEWBACCA SATCHEL

You know you want one.

$75 HERE

GODMACHINE ALIEN POSTER

 

Check out this poster by GODMACHINE. Man, I would totally do everything I could to get one IF he hadn't used the alien from 'AVP-R'. I just can't get past it... I look at it and I recognize it from that horrible, dreadful movie. If only he'd referenced the GIGER ALIEN from you know, 'ALIEN'. Oh well. Pretty sweet poster, nonetheless... its just not for me...maybe.... cause its still badass. Gah, inner turmoil!

head comparisons:

'MAN OF STEEL' TEASERS

Pa Kent voiceover (I prefer this over the Jor-El one):


Jor-El voiceover:


and one of the fanmade recuts floating around, that uses John Williams' score and Brando voiceover (goosebumps!!):

T-SHIRT OF THE DAY: CHESTBURSTER

buy here

ALIEN VS GARFIELD

via Aliens and Predators

SCORE: McQUARRIE CONCEPT STORMTROOPER BUST

I wasn't able to make it down to the San Diego Comic Con this year (thanks for moving the date 2 weeks earlier, jerks) but was able to score the Con Exclusive RALPH McQUARRIE CONCEPT STORMTROOPER BUST!!! 

After a couple failed attempts to get one through friend contacts, one super awesome friend stood tall. When I texted her asking if she'd be willing to grab one for me at some point during the Con, the reply text was, "I'm in line buying it for you now!" Bam, that's how it's done.

THANK YOU LIZ!!!!!!!

It's going to look awesome on the shelf next to my McQuarrie Vader and Stormtrooper busts. Now I need to track down that McQuarrie Boba Fett bust (even though the pose is dumb).

FACEHUGGER CORSET

Check out this Facehugger Corset by Rage Custom Creations. It's customizable (and $250), so let me know if you want to buy me one and I'll email you my measurements.

The Facehugger on the corset can be painted any color you want, at no additional cost to you. I can make it Chrome as you see in the picture, or any other metallic color, or pink if your heart desires it. Custom paint jobs that may be more intricate, such as wanting a Hello Kitty (it has been asked) on it will be extra. Also, I can age it if you desire, or just leave it NEW looking as I did with the one you have seen.
It is made of vinyl, and is susceptible to heat, so please bare that in mind when wearing it. If you do have a problem with it, I will be more than happy to give advice on repairs or anything of that nature. But please don't let what I wrote scare you off. It is rigid vinyl, so it will last you a lifetime, as long as you care for it.
The tail is filled with foam, and rigid wire, which will allow you to shape it to your individual waist. Careful bending of it to contour to your hip is simple, but be gentle with it. As cool as it may be, it is not a toy, nor indestructible.

TRAGEDY

My thoughts and heart are with the victims, families and friends of last night's horrific tragedy in Colorado.

COMIC PANEL OF THE DAY: BLACK PANTHER VS TONY STARK

STAR WARS NERD RAGE

While I was driving into work this morning, they were doing Trivia on the radio. Here's how one question went down:

QUESTION: "Which episode started the Star Wars Saga?"

Person 1: "Episode 6"

Person 2: "Return of the Jedi"

Person 3: "Attack of the Clones"

Person 1: "Empire Strikes Back"

Questioner: "I'm looking an episode number...."

Person 2: "Episode 6: Return of the Jedi"

Person 1: "sigh, I don't understand. Return of the Jedi was the first one to be released in the late 70s... so the answer should be Episode 6: Return of the Jedi."

My head exploded.

Thankfully the producer chimed in...

Person 4: "Episode 4: A New Hope. Although when it was first released, it was called simply 'Star Wars', with no episode number

AN ALIEN FAN'S THOUGHTS ON 'PROMETHEUS'

Well, it’s been a month since ‘PROMETHEUS’ came out…. I’ve been wanting to organize my thoughts and write a grand review… but as I thought more and more about the film, the less it seemed worthy of review. But here goes...

* WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD * 
 
The Prometheus ship and its interior looked cool and the script seemed like an intelligent one. However, as the film progressed, the screenplay's intelligence diminished. We had a cast of scientists who were nothing like scientists, but instead behaved like irrational dipshits hellbent on touching everything within their reach, all the while jumping to huge conclusions based on absolutley nothing. Visually, the creatures encountered were nothing more than b-movie space cobras, sharktopuses (No disrespect to the Sharktopus) and crab-man zombies. Don’t get me started on the Space Jockeys/Engineers. I felt the script was nothing more than a rehash of a Star Trek episode (Next Gen's “The Chase”), shrouded in plot holes and intelligence-insulting plot twists with high school philosophy sold as high concept. In short, it was pretty but dumb.

Now, if this was just a regular sci-fi romp I could overlook all the problems and enjoy the ride, which was a fun one. But this is no regular sci-fi flick… its an ‘ALIEN’ PREQUEL, and 'Alien' & 'Aliens' are my favorite films. So, I of course, have additional thoughts. Readers be warned.
 

So, the Space Jockeys...

One of my favorite moments in 'ALIEN' is when Dallas, Kane and Lambert venture into The Derelict Ship and discover the Space Jockey; the fossilized bones of an unknown alien species. I LOVE the Space Jockey, and it's never explained who it was, where it came from and why - and that was just fine. The MYSTERY of the Space Jockey added to the fun - there's a lot of The Unknown in Space, and that was one of the points of the film. 

The Space Jockey was created by H.R. Giger, who also created the Alien Creature. Both had visual aesthetics that he dubbed "BIOMECHANICAL", which is prevalent in his paintings and sculpture. The link of Giger established (in my mind at least) that wherever the Derelict Spacecraft came from, it was from a sector of the universe that was Biomechanical. Just imagine: An entire area of Space that was all Giger/Biomechanical! I still get giddy at the thought.

In ‘Prometheus’, the fossilized bones we saw in 'Alien' have been retconned into space suits. For years Ridley Scott referred to them as bones, but in the last decade he “pulled a Lucas” and said, “oh, you thought those were bones? No, it was a space suit”.  Boba Fett is a clone, Darth Vader built C-3PO and without microscopic organisms called ‘Midichlorians’ in your blood, you cannot speak to the Force. Instead of  tall biomechanical creatures, Space Jockeys are now just really tall, hairless, super-muscular humans. Yes, they can be called “humans" because their DNA is an exact match to ours. In 'Alien' the Space Jockey represented the eerie vastness of space and the fear of the unknown. By directly linking the Space Jockeys to Earth and Humans, they've greatly narrowed that concept.

'Prometheus' took what was once one of the coolest, imaginative creatures in Film and replaced it with a Star Trek alien race in a Giger costume. For this Alien Fan, 'Prometheus' absolutely ruins the Space Jockey. To activate Engineer Ship, play Flutophone.

"From henceforth, the Space Jockey in 'Alien' shall keep all rights and titles bestowed upon it and only be spoken in the native tongue of Alien fans as 'Space Jockey', and not 'Engineer'. And hither too, the disavowed Prometheus Engineers will give up all rights and titles to the claim of 'Space Jockey'."

In 'Alien', Ash refers to the Alien as "The Perfect Organism". I agree - it's how I feel about Giger's creation - its perfect. It's breathtaking beauty is matched only by its perfect, simplistic life cycle: Egg... to Facehugger... to Chestburster...to Adult Alien*.

* (Now depending on 'Aliens' or the Director's Cut of 'Alien', there is a different factor to loop the cycle. In 'Aliens', there is a Queen who lays the eggs. In the 'Alien' Director's Cut, captured Humans are slowly turned into Eggs. Regardless, with each there is a natural life cycle to the Alien. With some quick use of imagination, you can make both work together within the alien's life cycle).

With the finale of 'Prometheus', we bare witness to the birth of a Black Xeno-Creature, bursting out of an Enginner's body. The monster is officially dubbed the "PROTO ALIEN", which implies it being the first alien (or earliest form of).  The ProtoAlien comes into being like so: weaponized black goo mutates man... man impregnates woman... woman births squid baby... squid baby impregnates engineer... ProtoAlien bursts out of Engineer (with egg).

This is not the life cycle of a species, it's the mutation from organism to organism without need. Whereas the natural biology of Giger's Alien had a beauty to it and with a natural reason of survival and continuation of the species. Personally, I much prefer the Alien to be a part of Natural Biological Order, instead of Weaponized Mutagen Chaos. If the ProtoAlien is indeed the first alien, it greatly effects the Mythos by transforming the Alien into something more akin to John Carpenter's "The Thing".

*(No disrespect to "The Thing" - It's awesome. I just don't want The Alien to be The Thing. I want The Alien to be The Alien).

So, is the Story of the ProtoAlien the Origin of the Alien Species seen in 'Alien' and 'Aliens'? Or is the ProtoAlien merely a different (yet similar) species in the Universe's "Wild Kingdom"? If's it's the latter, then so-be-it-jedi, and disregard the above ProtoAlien paragraphs.

I LOVE Giger's Alien (as well as Cameron/Winston's "Warrior" version). It's Imaginative. Beautiful. Perfect. It's the main reason why 'Alien' and 'Aliens' are my favorite films and why I'm so passionate about the Franchise. I wish ‘Prometheus’ wasn't  tied to the Alien Universe. As a stand-alone sci-fi film, it was fun, albeit extremely flawed. Unfortunately it IS tied to the Alien Franchise and its difficult to overlook that. I feel 'Prometheus' damages the ‘ALIEN’ movie, creature and mythos. 

I wish I could unsee it. 

Personally, I put 'Prometheus' on the shelf next to ‘ALIEN: Resurrection’ – it's very pretty, but also very stupid and infuriating. The Engineers and the ProtoAlien can go play along with the Newborn and Predalien in the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION: "THE CHASE"

I really dug Star Trek: The Next Generation. Granted, I haven't rewatched most of them since, which has been almost 20 yrs now since it ENDED (yeesh!), but look back on the tv show fondly. One of the later episodes that has stayed in my memory was the 1993 episode “The Chase”...

Picard’s former mentor (who he says was "like the father who understood me") visits and states that he has come across something in his travels which could be the most profound discovery of their time – he has found an embedded genetic pattern that is constant throughout many different species, and speculates that this was left by an early race that pre-dates all other known civilizations. This would ultimately explain why so many races are humanoid. He then dies, so Picard and  Crew travel to his planned next destination, a remote planet, in search of the answers.

There they find a hologram of a long-dead, bald alien humanoid who was part of  an ancient race called “PRESERVERS”. The only remaining evidence of  their culture were ancient artifacts and ruins that littered various humanoid worlds.  The Preserver hologram explains that its race is responsible for the presence of life in the Alpha Quadrant. When the alien race first explored the Alpha Quadrant there had been no humanoid-based life other than themselves, and so they seeded various planets with their DNA to create a legacy of their existence after they had gone. The Preservers' DNA was the building blocks of Humans, Vulcans, Romulans, Klingons and Cardassians.

Of course the Romulans, Cardassians and Klingons flip out in anger at the notion they would be related to each other and quickly leave. Picard and Crew then bask in the glowing glowness of personal discovery.

*(My favorite episode is probably the 2-Part Borg epic "The Best of Both Worlds", where Picard becomes "Locutus of Borg").

SUPER GOLDEN FRIENDS

SHATNER'S "GET A LIFE!" DOCUMENTARY TEASER

DEATH OF A NERD

It's how we all hope to go out....

*(from 'Six Feet Under')

ALIEN FAN ART

by Mark Englert

TOP SDCC 2012 EXCLUSIVES I WANT

While I'm not attending the San Diego Comic-Con this year, there are still some sweet exclusives I wouldn't mind having:

 

LIGHTSABER POSTER TUBE 

 Thundercats' THUNDERTANK

McQUARRIE STORMTROOPER BUST

MARVEL UNIVERSE FIGS: X-FACTOR

MARVEL UNIVERSE FIGS: UNCANNY X-FORCE

(I just want the Archangel)

GLOW-IN-THE-DARK MUMM-RA

HE-MAN POWER SWORD LETTER OPENER

SHOCKWAVE / COBRA H.I.S.S. TANK

STAR WARS 'LOST LINE' 7-PACK

...which includes the JAR JAR IN CARBONITE BONUS FIGURE:

TEXT MOVIE REVIEW: 'THE THING' PREQUEL

My buddy MAKER was watching the recent "THE THING" remake/prequel and was texting me throughout. Unfortunately, I went to bed early last night and didn't see his frustrated text-review until this morning. I thought I'd share:

HE-MAN CARD HOLDER & ENVELOPE OPENER

I believe they will be available at SDCC 2012.

WANTIE!!

'DARK KNIGHT RISES' POSTER

T-SHIRT OF THE DAY: ALIEYUMS!

(link)

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY, 

MY FELLOW AMERICANS!

Click HERE for that ole "PATRIOTIC CHARACTERS" post

ANDY GRIFFITH PASSED AWAY

It is with a heavy heart that I post about the passing of our beloved ANDY GRIFFITH.

Rest in Peace, Andy.

(There will be no more posts today)

WOLVERINE'S CLAWS SUCK

Hahaha, thanks Glazy!