io9: revenge of the sith

40 Unseen Moments From Your Favorite Movies

Graeme McMillan — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 12:00:59 PST

Just as you finish up your t(of)urkey leftovers, we thought we should share some movie leftovers with you. Say, 40 deleted scenes from movies like Star Wars, The Dark Knight and Star Trek? Click through for excised joy.

Star Wars
Whether it's Han Solo's unseen girlfriend, Anakin preparing for a podrace or a very human Jabba, these ten clips show that George Lucas' space opera was more fun before it was edited.

Star Trek
Klingon torture! William Shatner's original death! Skydiving Captains! Ten clips to give you a good feeling about what you've missed so far.

Robot Movies
Never mind the Transformers, it's the Terminator material amongst these five clips that are must-sees. Especially the Arnold bit from T3.

Super-Heroes Can Save Us
Fifteen clips from Iron Man, Hulk, the X-Men movies as well as Batman and Superman's long careers on celluloid to remind you that sometimes, deleted scenes can add little to a movie - and sometimes, they can add an entire character. Go check out the Superman clone you've never met before.

Star Wars

Graeme McMillan — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 12:00:01 PST

Luke's Original Intro from A New Hope:

Biggs Tells Luke About The Rebellion from A New Hope:

Meet Han Solo's Girlfriend And Some Cockney Aliens In The Original Cantina Scene from A New Hope:

The Original Jabba The Hutt from A New Hope:

Han Charms Leia in The Empire Strikes Back:

Luke Builds His Lightsaber from Return Of The Jedi:

The Morning Before The Podrace from The Phantom Menace:

Waterfall Sequence from The Phantom Menace:

Deleted Scenes from Attack Of The Clones:

Deleted Scenes from Revenge Of The Sith:

Countdown Science Fiction's 10 Most Murderous Robots

Graeme McMillan — Tue, 19 May 2009 13:00:00 PDT

It's one thing to talk about Killer Robots, but which ones have actually managed to really rack up the senseless slaughter? Here are our choices for the ten deadliest robots for you to avoid.

Now, we know that this list is going to upset more than a few of you (Especially if you disliked the three Star Wars prequels), but we're not ranking these killer robots in order of awesome - Because then you would have seen IG-88 and KARR, amongst others - nor even in order of evil, but literally in terms of estimated kill-rate. Which robot has killed the most living things? That's all we're interested in.

So, get started with the countdown, and feel free to dispute our choices in the comments. Just don't send a robot after us, to change our minds.

Could'a Been Contenders...

Graeme McMillan — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:30:35 PDT

Wondering where Daleks, Cybermen and the Borg are? They're over in the "Do cyborgs really count as robots?" corner, although it's arguably worth pointing out that Daleks aren't really robots at all, just aliens inside weirdly-shaped suits of armor... that may as well be robots for all we actually care. I'm sure there will be arguments about this, nonetheless. Also missing from the list: The Decepticons, who must've killed many people during their various toy, cartoon, comic and movie reigns of terror, but none that I can remember in "real" continuity (Which is to say, All Hail Megatron doesn't count, because it's intentionally an "alternate reality" story). Also also missing is Brainiac, who has just been retconned again into being as organic as robotic, sadly.

Who else have we missed? Tell all here.

#1: The Manhunters

Graeme McMillan — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:30:30 PDT

How deadly are they? They destroyed all life within Space Sector 666 because of a "programming glitch." How big is a Space Sector? Unknown, although the entire universe is split into at least 3601 of them, and Final Crisis claims that there are "thousands of worlds" within Earth's sector. So let's just say that's a lot of life extinguished.
Who's responsible? The Guardians of the Universe, the immortal blue dwarves who'd learn from the mistake of creating unstoppable killing machines and try and fix it by creating weapons of almost limitless potential and giving them to living beings... before embarrassing them by calling them Green Lanterns. As you can tell, that one worked out much better, at least commercially.
Last seen... hooking up with the fear-filled Sinestro Corps in 2006's The Sinestro Corps War, although you can probably expect to see them in this summer's Blackest Night crossover series from DC Comics at some point.

Next: See who didn't make the list.

#2: Unicron

Graeme McMillan — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:30:27 PDT

How deadly is he? He eats planets for breakfast. And lunch. And dinner. And if they're populated, all the better; it adds texture, apparently.
Who's responsible? It very much depends who you ask; Unicron has been given multiple histories throughout the years, including being a fallen god who somehow became a robot, a murderous robot exiled from his home planet or the much more common "his origins are lost to the mists of time." Given that all of the Transformers' origins are a little nebulous (Someone had to have built the first Transformer, right? But who?), it's possibly best not to dwell on this point for too long.
Last seen... Being destroyed by Galvatron (of all robots) and his body folding itself into a black hole called The Unicron Singularity in Transformers: Cybertron.

Next: Science Fiction's Most Killhappy Robots!

#3: The Cylons

Graeme McMillan — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:30:25 PDT

How deadly are they? They destroyed the twelve colonies of humanity, committing genocide on a scale unimaginable to everyone except Glen A. Larson and Ron Moore.
Who's responsible? It depends on which version you're asking about. The original series had the robots built by a dying alien race also called cylons, whereas the recent reboot gave them a backstory not unlike The Matrix's robot overlords (Built by humans as worker drones before rebelling and starting war).
Last seen... restarting the human race by populating Earth, millions of years ago, in this year's Battlestar Galactica season finale.

Next: Planet-Eating Robots!

#4: Separatist Battle Droids

Graeme McMillan — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:30:23 PDT

How deadly are they? Apparently, an unstoppable killing machine that continually causes trouble for the Republic and their Jedi forces during the many years of Star Wars' Clone Wars. Despite their apparent ineffectualness, the war continued for many years, therefore the estimated high kill-rate and higher ranking on this list. Sorry, prequel haters.
Who's responsible? The dully-named Trade Federation Army and Confederacy of Independent Systems, who seceded from the Galactic Republic and then tried to convince others to do so with the help of trigger-happy idiot drones who like to kill things. But let's face it, it's all really Senator Palpatine's doing, considering he was the one pulling all the strings behind the scenes in the first place.
Last seen... standing down after Darth Vader killed the Federation's leaders in 2005's Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith.

Next: Genocidal Robots With A Plan!

#5: Skynet/The Terminators

Graeme McMillan — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:30:21 PDT

How deadly are they? They took over the Earth and are pretty much trying to destroy all human life, starting with a successful nuclear annihilation of three million people. You've seen The Terminator movies, right?
Who's responsible? The military. Sure, you could blame original creators Cyberdyne Systems, but I'm blaming the bulk of the problems on the US military, who took over the Skynet project when Cyberdyne was destroyed. They wanted to create the ultimate defense system, after all; why didn't they foresee that it would decide that they were the threats that it needed defending from?
Last seen... making life difficult for John Connor and friends in Terminator: Salvation.

Next: Ineffectual-But-Deadly Droids!

#6: Sentinels (The Matrix)

Graeme McMillan — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:30:19 PDT

How deadly are they? They took over the Earth and keep humans around only as batteries. Which, you know, is potentially an environmentally solution to the whole need for energy (Although they did start out with solar power.
Who's responsible? Humanity en masse. The robots that ended up taking over the world started out as domestic help and cheap labor to handle the jobs that we didn't; it was only after it was decided that robots had no legal rights that they decided to get nasty.
Last seen... coming to peaceful terms with what was left of humanity on a pretty-much destroyed Earth in The Matrix Revolutions.

Next: Time-Traveling Murder Machines!

#7: Sentinels (Marvel Comics)

Graeme McMillan — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:30:17 PDT

How deadly are they? They almost eradicated the mutant race, killing millions in one afternoon's work by destroying the island of Genosha. There's also a much-visited future where the Sentinels have taken over the world and killed the X-Men and many other superheroes.
Who's responsible? Humanity's intolerance and fear. Oh, and Dr. Bolivar Trask, a man who saw mutants as a threat to humanity and decided to build a collection of giant robots dedicated to genocide just in case. Subsequent models have come from the US government, the Norse God Loki and the Sentinels themselves, amongst many others who wanted to get involved in the killing game.
Last seen... as nano-Sentinels escaping after a killing spree during 2007's "Messiah Complex" storyline in the X-Men comics.

Next: Eco-Friendly Killbots!

#8: Ultron

Graeme McMillan — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:30:15 PDT

How deadly is he? He singlehandedly slaughtered the inhabitants of the fictional European nation of Slorernia, before enslaving the alien robot race the Phalanx and taking over countless planets as a result, for his own nefarious ends.
Who's responsible? Hank Pym (the superhero known as Ant Man, Giant Man, Goliath, Yellowjacket and, currently, the Wasp) built the original Ultron as a lab experiment in AI, but it was a little too successful; rebelling against Pym, Ultron has been responsible for all of his subsequent rebuilds and remodels.
Last seen... apparently being destroyed by Quasar and Adam Warlock at the end of 2008's Annihilation: Conquest crossover. But that never lasts.

Next: Mutant-Hunting Robots!

#9: ABC Warriors

Graeme McMillan — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:30:12 PDT

How deadly are they? As deadly as you want them to be; in the future's Volgan war (When the west goes to war with the fictional Russian-analog "Volgan Republic"), human soldiers are slowly replaced by robots created to fight wars. Slowly enough, in fact, that the ABC Warriors get more than a few kills in before the war ends, at which point they get to kill some more people while - at various times - rebelling against their makers, terraforming Mars, assassinating people for chaos magic rituals and getting involved in other unlikely scrapes.
Who's responsible? The military brains of the western alliance and the Volgans. Both sides came up with their own robot soldiers, giving them artificial intelligence, advanced weaponry and no immediately-obvious off switch.
Last seen... in a robotic mental asylum on Mars, reminiscing about their wartime struggles in 2000AD's current "The Volgan War" storyline.

Next: The Self-repairing Murderbot!

#10: Mechagodzilla

Graeme McMillan — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:30:10 PDT

How deadly is he? He rampages continually against Japan and fights Godzilla on a regular basis, with his laser eyes and flamethrower breath. I'm guessing there's got to be some level of collateral damage going on there. Also, he kills giant monsters, which can come in handy.
Who's responsible? Originally alien monkeys the Simians (who built him as a tool to help them achieve world domination), but humanity keeps finding itself rebuilding Mecha over and over again, apparently forgetful of the fact that he keeps on destroying parts of cities.
Last seen... disappearing to the bottom of the ocean to ensure Godzilla's death in 2003's Tokyo SOS.

Next: Robot Warriors!

5 Things We Want To See In The Clone Wars TV Show

Graeme McMillan — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 13:00:41 PDT

By now you'll have seen the movie - or, perhaps, decided that you don't want to see the movie because even just the idea of Ahsoka has scared you off - and know what kind of thing to expect from the upcoming Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV show: Anakin Skywalker frowning a lot and hanging out with stormtroopers and stereotypically camp Hutt monsters. But that's not enough for us, so here are five additional ways that the Clone Wars could win our hearts.

Newness: One of my biggest problems with the movie was that we all knew that the majority of the characters were going to finish the movie pretty much as they started it, because we've all seen their futures in Revenge Of The Sith already. By introducing new characters whose fates we don't know, you bring in tension and hopefully the ability for stories that don't have to tread water when it comes to character development. The same goes for new aliens, new worlds - One of the great things about Star Wars when you were a kid was that it was full of cool new things, whether it was the Death Star, Jabba The Hutt, freezing Harrison Ford in carbonite or the creepy concept of incest. It'd be nice to get back to that with this new series. Except without the incest part.
Death: Alternatively, you could just introduce new characters to kill them off, as well. War is meant to Be Hell, people, so let's see the Clone Wars living up to that - There should be real cost to both sides for this to be worth the fact that characters were still talking about it during the original Star Wars trilogy.

Comedy: It's not that the Clone Wars movie doesn't try to be funny, just that it tries in the same way that the second trilogy tried... In other words, badly. One of the strengths of the original Star Wars movies were that they didn't take themselves too seriously (helped by having actors who didn't take it that seriously at all), and that kind of irreverence to the mythology is exactly what this new series needs.
Make The Jedis Cool Again: Yes, we all know that no-one really cares about that Midichloran thing from The Phantom Menace, but explaining away the Force was just one in a long line of steps that have taken away the mystery and magic of everyone's favorite lightsaber-wielding good guys since the original trilogy. Let's see some of that return in the new TV show... and if that fails, just put in lots of awesome lightsaber duels.

More Ziro The Hutt: Oh, you know you want that as well. He should do the opening of each episode, Rod Sterling-style: "Ah do declayah, those Jedahs are still fightin' those robots!" If ever a character has personified so many faults of a franchise (Unfunny, ill-cast and potentially offensive stereotype of a... gay slug... okay, maybe not that last one) and yet still somehow been as hilariously ridiculous as Ziro, I haven't seen them - but there's very little downside to seeing a lot more of this colorful citizen of Corsucant.

The "Star Wars Kid" Was As Popular as "Revenge of the Sith"

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 22 May 2008 11:14:46 PDT

Remember the Star Wars Kid, that high schooler in Quebec who viddied himself doing Jedi moves with a pole? And then the jerks at his school stuck the video on Kazaa, and somebody else added special effects to make his pole look like a real light saber, and then suddenly the video was all over the web and you couldn't go three clicks without seeing this kid doing the nerd dance? Turns out more people may have tuned into him than the most recent Star Wars movie.

Andy Baio, who hosted one of the most-accessed Star Wars Kid videos (and who in fact named it "Star Wars Kid") has a crunchy data analysis of what happened during that fateful month of May 2003 when a Canadian Star Wars nerd became, briefly, the Most Famous Meme in the World. One thing is for sure: With over half a million people watching that video on Baio's site alone in one day, audience numbers were probably comparable to the number of people who saw Revenge of the Sith during its opening day, when it showed on 3,663 screens. [Star Wars Kid: The Data Dump via Waxy]