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Game of Thrones Season 3 Roundtable, Part 2

Having discussed the Time of Puppies and Rainbows in the first part of our roundtable, Coming Attractions’s crackerjack crew of Game of Thrones experts now turns its attention to the nitty-gritty of television contracts, the difficulty of Daenerys Targaryen’s upcoming storyline (or lack thereof), and the huge news that A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin will be developing further series for HBO in the not-too-distant future… which may or may not include Game of Thrones spinoffs.

Game of Thrones Season 3 Roundtable, Part 1

After compacting, contorting, and shuffling around the second novel to make it fit within HBO’s mandated 10-episode block, showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss have been proactive to avoid the same type of scrimping this time ‘round:  season three will only be based on the first half (or so) of book three, and each episode will have roughly five additional minutes of drytime tacked on, essentially adding an 11th episode to the roster.

This may go a long way to tamping down on the vociferous responses that the second season provoked last year, but, then again, given all the hints and clues we’ve gotten thus far about what season three will have in store, it may very well not make a whit of difference.

Editorial: Why selling Star Wars to Disney was a good thing

It’s hard to believe that less than a week has gone by since we learned George Lucas was selling Star Wars to Disney, and that more Star Wars movies will be made. Until that announcement I had figured that, one day a decade or two from now, we would see Star Wars Episode VII get made. If you had asked me one week ago if we would be planning on watching Episode VII in theaters by 2015, I would have called you crazy.

Editorial: George Lucas, Inc.

When George Lucas handed an early draft of Episode II: Attack of the Clones to his marketing team to vet – itself an interesting note – the response he got back on one specific point is rather telling.  His merchandising masterminds took issue with the character of Dooku, a former Jedi Master who had turned count, being portrayed as the latest member of the so-called Lost 20, the only 20 Jedi to have ever left the Order (typically to pursue such flights of fancy as marriage or childrearing).

The shooting tragedy and The Dark Knight Rises

I find myself conflicted over the way I should report the news about last night's senseless act of violence at the Aurora theater in Denver, Colorado. There is the fact that the shooting at a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises is newsworthy, if that word can be used to cover the murder of 12 innocent people and the injuries to nearly three dozen more.

Deconstructing the Weakest Bat-film: Batman Begins

Batman Begins has garnered a significant amount of praise over the past seven years, and a good deal of it has been deserved:  it established a very strong – and quite dark – realistic context, features more development for the character of Bruce Wayne than all four previous films combined, and even, in the first act’s constant intercutting of flashbacks, brandishes some of Hollywood’s finest pacing.  Such credentials are not insubstantial.

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy movie: A Down-and-dirty Roundtable

The 2012 San Diego Comic-Con has now concluded, but when the geeks were assembled in Hall H last Saturday evening, that's when things really got interesting. Marvel Studios took to the stage and laid bare its plans for the next two years of superhero cinematic adventures.

A Clash of Perspectives: Roundtabling Season Two of Game of Thrones (Part 2)

Mo Ryan and Amin Javadi are nice enough to join us for the back half of the conversation, as we evaluate the overall filmmaking quality of the season (specifically in regards to its predecessor), the importance of the Battle of the Blackwater, and, most importantly, continue to go back-and-forth over the deconstruction of Arya Stark.

Did you miss the first part?  Shame on you.  Read it here.

Forget who’s involved?  Double shame.  Here you go:
 

A Clash of Perspectives: Roundtabling Season Two of Game of Thrones (Part 1)

Winterfell has been burnt to the ground, the Imp has been stripped of power, and Stannis has been defeated – but there’s so much more that didn’t make the final cut, and more still to discuss and debate, regardless of its inclusion or omission.

There’s so much to wrap one’s head around, in fact, that a tidy little roundtable I had planned tripled in size and had to be split in two halves.  For this first part, a crack panel of George R.R. Martin stalkers and TV critics tackled the inherent quality of the source material, A Clash of Kings; the filmmaking chops of Game of Thrones showrunners Dan Weiss and David Benioff; and the dopiness – or lack thereof – of the average HBO viewer.

Review: Game of Thrones, Season 2 Episode 10

Based off of George R.R. Martin’s 1,000-page opus A Clash of Kings, the second season of HBO’s Game of Thrones takes the first year’s intricate plot lines, character shadings, and thematic undercurrents and simultaneously expands and deepens them to a ridiculously exponential degree.  Or, at least, it’s supposed to – the actual doing just may prove to be a ways off from the source material’s being.

Review: Game of Thrones, Season 2 Episode 9

Based off of George R.R. Martin’s 1,000-page opus A Clash of Kings, the second season of HBO’s Game of Thrones takes the first year’s intricate plot lines, character shadings, and thematic undercurrents and simultaneously expands and deepens them to a ridiculously exponential degree.  Or, at least, it’s supposed to – the actual doing just may prove to be a ways off from the source material’s being.

Chernobyl post-scripts

Please note:  there are some mild spoilers for Chernobyl Diaries in this article.

Review: Game of Thrones, Season 2 Episode 8

Based off of George R.R. Martin’s 1,000-page opus A Clash of Kings, the second season of HBO’s Game of Thrones takes the first year’s intricate plot lines, character shadings, and thematic undercurrents and simultaneously expands and deepens them to a ridiculously exponential degree.  Or, at least, it’s supposed to – the actual doing just may prove to be a ways off from the source material’s being.

Review: Game of Thrones, Season 2 Episode 7

Based off of George R.R. Martin’s 1,000-page opus A Clash of Kings, the second season of HBO’s Game of Thrones takes the first year’s intricate plot lines, character shadings, and thematic undercurrents and simultaneously expands and deepens them to a ridiculously exponential degree.  Or, at least, it’s supposed to – the actual doing just may prove to be a ways off from the source material’s being.

Review: Game of Thrones, Season 2 Episode 6

Based off of George R.R. Martin’s 1,000-page opus A Clash of Kings, the second season of HBO’s Game of Thrones takes the first year’s intricate plot lines, character shadings, and thematic undercurrents and simultaneously expands and deepens them to a ridiculously exponential degree.  Or, at least, it’s supposed to – the actual doing just may prove to be a ways off from the source material’s being.