Star Wars vs. Star Trek.

It’s a battle that’s been waging amongst fanboys for decades — Which insanely popular scifi franchise is better: Star Wars or Star Trek?

There have been many battles fought in this war (see Kyle Newman’s Fanboys for one), but a clear winner has never been declared.

Check out the video here below for yet another Wars vs. Trek melee [...]

Hey, it’s The Movie God here.

As you all might be aware, we at Geeks of Doom like to do a little thing called Spoiler Talk from time to time. It is basically a forum where one of us presents a bunch of points about a movie — sometimes good, sometimes bad — and you the reader sound off with your thoughts in the comments section! This is where you can scream at the top of your lungs (as hard as your little fingers can scream) about what you liked, hated, or weren’t too sure of.

Today’s Spoiler Talk brings us Daybreakers, the new futuristic vampire tale that stars Ethan Hawke, Sam Neill, and Willem Dafoe. The movie takes place in the year 2019 and and in a time where most humans have now become vampires as natural evolution would indicate were vampires to actually exist. Because most are now vampires, a crisis is realized when it becomes apparent that there is only enough blood to sustain them for a short time longer. With rations cut thin, the vampires who eat the least begin to develop a much more aggressive nature before actually transforming into evil, wild creature-like beings. It is left up to Dr. Edward Dalton (Hawke), a hematologist, to find a way to create a synthetic blood substitute that can save his people before it’s too late.

Not that it needs to be said…but just in case, this is nothing but spoilers people, so if you don’t want it ruined, do NOT click over!

Without further delay, continue on to our Spoiler Talk, presented by Kevin of Nine, and share what you thought of Daybreakers! [...]

The Unwritten
Written by Mike Carey
Art by Peter Gross
Cover by Yuko Shimizu
DC/Vertigo Comics

In The Unwritten, Mike Carey weaves a fantastic narrative in which Tom Taylor finds his life unraveling one strand at a time when fans of his father’s book series believe him to be the novel’s protagonist come to life.

The premise is brilliant and to put it in our reality’s terms, “What if J.K Rowling had a son named Harold Potter and fans around the world thought the Harry Potter series was real and based on the actual adventures of the real life Harold Potter?” I guess you can say it’s like when kids go to Disneyland and get Donald Duck’s autograph thinking this guy in a duck costume is the same cartoon they marvel at in their home.

DC’s Vertigo website has the the first issue as a FREE download [downloadable PDF - 22MB] and you can also purchase the series’ first five issues collected in one volume — Unwritten Vol. 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity — for $9.99. Check it out for yourself and watch Tom Taylor become Unwritten [...]

Here are my picks for items in the January 2010 issue of Previews. Most of these items will be out in March 2010, unless otherwise noted, because some companies love advanced solicitation.

The big section in this month’s catalog is the listing of books that you will be able to pick up on Free Comic Book Day, which is May 1st this year. The big book this year will be DC’s War of the Supermen #0, which looks to kick off DC’s next big event. Marvel counters with an Iron Man/Thor book written by Matt Fraction with art by John Romita Jr. Fans of David Peterson’s Mouse Guard will want to pick up the Archia book, which will have an all new Mouse Guard story. Red 5 comics is back with another new Atomic Robo story, which will hopefully be as good as last years. Finally, Wizkids! will have a new War Machine figure for their Marvel Heroclix game. All in all, it looks like there will be a nice selection for this year’s FCBD.

The big book from Dark Horse this month is The Guild #1. Fans of the internet series staring Felicia Day will rejoice at this, since its being written by Day herself. The thing that has me interested is the art by Jim Rugg, whose art I’ve enjoyed since reading Street Angel. The only other thing I’ll pick up from Dark Horse will be volume 8 of Conan, collecting the next batch of issues [...]

I’ll be honest with you, The Book of Eli panel at last summer’s San Diego Comic-Con garnered little attention, despite having stars Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, and Mila Kunis in attendance, as well as a kick-ass trailer [Read SDCC 09: ‘Book of Eli’ Panel]

The Hughes Brothers‘ film, which opened in theaters this past Friday, was just too far off and too far buried under anticipated blockbusters like Avatar and Iron Man 2 (and of course Twilight: New Moon).

Plus, how many good movies ever came out in January? It’s usually not a good sign, but thanks to Cloverfield (a box office smash in January 2008), I’ve come to expect at least one decent January movie a year, and let me tell you, The Book of Eli is the one for 2010. I absolutely loved the movie, despite the questions it left me with. The entire movie could have been just Washington and Oldman and I would have been fine with it.

The film takes place 30 years in the future in a post-apocalyptic setting where one man, Eli (Washington), is traveling the country with an important book, one that the villainous Carnegie (Oldman) would do anything to possess. The inhabitants are reminiscent of Road Warrior, with Kill Bill-like action. You’re on the edge of your seat as Eli makes his arduous journey, even after we learn what he’s capable of. And what is this all-important book he carries and why does Carnegie want it so badly? And how to does Mila Kunis’s character fit in?

Time for some SPOILER TALK! Below are SPOILERS for The Book of Eli. Free free to add your thoughts in the Comments section [...]

If you’re wondering why the studio decided to scrap the fourth installment of Spider-Man in an effort to reboot the franchise, look no further than Batman Forever as justification. Seriously, go back and look at the progression of these films and tell me they were consistently getting better and not worse. Let me list off some of the sins committed in no particular order: Green Goblin Suit of Armor, Emo Spider-Man, Hal Sparks cameo (why?), Macy Gray singing, Topher Grace as Venom, Venom being crammed into a movie about Sandman…

I’ll stop.

Honestly, you can’t blame the studio for wanting to reboot the whole franchise when the most frequent thing out of people’s mouths were how much they hated the last film. So if they plan on doing a reboot, here are some basic guidelines they need to follow if they want to be successful [...]

Recently we shared a couple of new images from ABC’s Lost that showed the cast replicating Leonardo da Vinci’s famed “The Last Supper” painting. This along with shows like Battlestar Galactica (seen above) and House have made it quite apparent that this was a popular thing to do whilst promoting your show. As it turns out, this happens all the time, and Jeremy from Culture Popped was able to point us to a ton of them to check out.

Among the many variations you will find many popular TV shows and movies and brand name characters. Titles like The Simpsons, Star Wars, M.A.S.H., South Park, and The Sopranos appear along with Walt Disney characters and brand characters from McDonalds and everything in between, all showing off their very own “Last Supper” renditions. Some are very well-done and worth seeing while others are basic and passable.

Click on over to the other side to check out a few of our favorite “Last Supper” parodies, and be sure to head over to Culture Popped where you can see an insane amount of these images all in one convenient location. [...]

Another year is coming to an end, and what better time than this to look back on the year that was in the world of comics. Of course, the biggest news this year was Disney’s purchase of Marvel Comics and its vast library of characters, with the reorganization of DC comics being just as big a story. In terms of actual product, this was a big year for DC. With Grant Morrison owning the first half of the year with the end of Final Crisis, leading into Batman R.I.P. and the start of Batman and Robin, and Geoff Johns taking over for the last half of the year, with the re-launch of Adventure Comics, reintroducing Barry Allen to the DCU in Flash: Rebirth, and the event he has been building to since bringing Hal Jordan back, Blackest Night.

Across the street at Marvel, things were mostly tied up in the Dark Reign storyline, which has largely been a disappointment for me (how many times can I read the same story? We get it, Norman Osborne is a jerk; it’s time to move on.) There were some bright spots though, with Mark Millar and Steve McNiven mixing Wolverine with Mad Max and The Unforgiven to create Old Man Logan. We also got the return of Steve Rogers (kind of) in Captain America: Reborn and another (mostly) decent year of Amazing Spider-Man, but for me, it was kind of a down year in terms of my excitement for Marvel books.

The land of independent comics was ruled by Chew from Image Comics. This little book that could went through multiple printings of its first and second issues, with early printings going for large amounts before the supply caught up with the demand. Sadly, there weren’t a lot of other Big with a capital B indie books drop this year, although as always, there were pockets of greatness.

So here are the things I have decided were best this year in comics. All these were nominated by me, voted for by myself, and are now presented by I. I have used no scientific measures for these, they are neither fair nor balanced, and were decided largely by my buying habits, which means if I didn’t buy it, it’s probably won’t be nominated. Hey, I mean, I can’t buy everything and even if I could, there’s not enough hours in my day to read everything. Without further ado…

Recently, The Wrap did a story on the new 3D technology and the vice-grip hold it has on the world of Hollywood. As we are all very much aware, it feels like every single movie that’s made these days is released in 3D, and in a lot of cases, we find ourselves asking the question “Why?” over and over again. In this new article, it is revealed that apparently Ridley Scott himself is “breathing down the necks” of executives at Universal to spend an extra $7-8 Million to make a 3D version of his upcoming period action/drama, Robin Hood. This is obviously one of the more confusing titles that we’ve heard associated with the 3D phenomena, and it lead us to begin wondering when this whole technology has just gone too far?

Many big names in the business have laid solid claim to 3D being the future of cinema, but judging by the collective feelings of movie fans, it is unclear whether this is what people want. There’s no doubt at all that when it comes to films like Avatar, which is built specifically for that technology, and fun movies like Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, 3D can be a really great time. [...]

Every year, I finish the bulk of my Christmas shopping around Thanksgiving weekend, and then the week of Christmas, I realize there’s a bunch of gifts I still didn’t get. Also, I start to see all the last-minute deals and can’t help but get in on them.

If you like to shop online (like me), you should show that today is the last day to place a standard delivery order for Christmas Eve arrival for many major online retailer stores (Walmart til 11:30pm PST), through some have extended their Christmas ordering cutoff dates til tomorrow, Monday, December 21 (Best Buy til 11am EST tomorrow; Amazon will let you shop the full day.) This is to pay the standard shipping fee; you’ll still be able to order 2-day and overnight later in the week.

See below for more information on cutoff dates and last-minute gift deals, as well as links to our five-part 2009 Holiday Geek Gift Guide.

Last-Minute Deals*

Best Buy [$3 shipping for Christmas Eve delivery OR in-store pick-up]

– Metroid Prime Trilogy – Wii – $19.99
– Fairytale Fights – PS3 – $19.99
– Fairytale Fights – Xbox 360 – $19.99
– Animal Crossing: City Folk – Wii – $19.99

Amazon

– The Twilight Saga: New Moon — The Movie Board Game – $3.99
– Scene It? Deluxe Star Trek Edition – $7.99
– Lost: Buy Lost: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray and get up to $20 off any of the previous seasons.
– Kindle – Ships for free with Two-Day Shipping to arrive before Christmas.

*We’ll update this post as more deals are offered.

Fear not, geekdom, we are not done offering suggestions for Christmas gifts yet!

The big day is little more than only a WEEK away now, and if you haven’t yet, you need to get going on the Christmas shopping! As always, we campaign for the banishment of congested mall parking lots and consumer fist fights in front of an Orange Julius, and propose you do it like we do it: online!

This particular guide is all about the reading materials and musical selections. From graphic novels to actual novels; anime to books showcasing the making of and art work of your favorite films of this past year! And let us not forget about the music. Never ever forget about the music. The Beatles, Spinal Tap, and the Star Trek soundtrack are just a few of the featured tunes you’ll discover below.

Oh, and don’t forget: if you’re not looking for music or books, you can also wander the words of our Holiday Geek Gift Guide ’09: Wii Sports Accessories, our Holiday Geek Gift Guide ’09: Specialty Christmas Gift Suggestions, the Holiday Geek Gift Guide ’09: Video Game Edition, and of course, our Holiday Geek Gift Guide ’09: DVD & Blu-ray Edition.

By all means, don’t let us keep you any longer; head on over to the other side to check out our Holiday Geek Gift Guide ’09: Books & Music Edition! [...]

Ladies. Gentlemen. Geeks of all ages; lend us your eyes. As promised, it is finally here: our epic Holiday Geek Gift Guide ‘09!

So far we’ve offered up multiple guides with many gift suggestions from Wii sports accessories (Read: Holiday Gift Guide: Wii Sports Accessories) to some of the coolest specialty geek toys and gadgets (Read: Geek Guide: Specialty Christmas Gift Suggestions) to the best video game gift ideas (Read: Holiday Gift Guide: Video Game Edition ’09).

Now comes the mother of all guides: the guide that will share with you all of the vest best of the best in DVD and Blu-ray movies and TV series out there. This is the place that you want to go to locate, learn about, and discover the DVDs and Blu-rays that you want to buy your friends, loved ones, yourself (we all deserve a little treat in these hectic times), and maybe even your favorite pizza guy. We’ve also included the online order deadlines for Christmas delivery.

Without further delay, we invite you to keep on reading and discover the cherished DVD and Blu-ray treasures of the year 2009 in our Holiday Geek Gift Guide ‘09! [...]

One of the most exciting things to receive as a gift on Christmas is video games. For me personally, nothing beats the morning I was given the Sega Genesis system I never thought I would possibly get, and playing Sonic’s elusive blue hide right into the ground. And even though that childlike joy will never be experienced again for me, and video game systems are a whole lot different and more expensive these days, it’s still exciting to open up a new video game you haven’t played yet.

To try and help some of you create this joy for your video game playing loved ones, we wanted to create a list of 2009’s best and most-desired game titles. These are the games that most people are going to want if they don’t have them yet, and these are the games that have made the most impact. Obviously you’ll want to make sure they don’t have specific titles in mind, but for the most part, this is where to start reading up on and shopping for video game gift ideas.

Click on over to the other side to check out our very own Holiday Gift Guide: Video Game Edition ’09 for selections to play on Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 game consoles, as well as on your PC [...]

Every year, we scatter looking for the best gifts and the best prices to complete our holiday shopping needs as soon as humanly possible. For some strange reason, many people still actually head out into the chaos that is the holiday shopping season, though it’s obvious that just hanging out at home is so insanely better, even if you have to pay a little more. Many sites online like to do their own holiday gift guides each year to help you find what you may be looking for, and we at Geeks of Doom are no different. Our own Tom Cheredar recently put together a fantastic guide for those of you looking for the best Wii sports accessories, and if you stay tuned, we will have a large gift guide with all of 2009’s best movies, games, and other goodies that translate into the best gifts!

Until that guide is complete, here is yet another to tide you over. This is a guide that really digs to the core for some of the best gifts out there for the true geek in all of us. The gifts in this guide come from perhaps the best website on the planet for strange and wonderful goodies, ThinkGeek. [...]

Nintendo’s Wii is a triumph of creative engineering in the realm of video games that had previously only been experienced inside a shrinking number of arcade venues. Not since the first Nintendo in the mid `80s has a console been able to innovate to a level that bridges generational gaps and ushers in a brand new era of gaming.

So, it’s incredibly sad to see the amount of dust collecting on Wii consoles owned by friends or family members.

The most frequent explanation I hear for this kind of mass console neglect is due to the lack of available opponents, which changes drastically when large groups of people consume a moderate amount of alcohol at a party. The same is true during the holiday season because there is always an abundance of bored loved-ones eager to avoid playing board games.

Obviously there is nothing wrong with the Wii, which is just as fun today as it was the day it was purchased. In fact, I’d argue that anything with the power to make both your old college roommates and your grandmother swat fists into the air and holler at the television screen is FAR MORE entertaining than any other device.

This level of entertainment can only increase with the addition of Wii accessories that help to mimic real-life sports [...]

Oh how I love the Fall — the changing of the leaves, jacket weather, Halloween, my birthday (!). And on my birthday wish list is typically a slew of books by my favorite authors and publishers released from early September through November. Anne Rice’s The Vampire Armand, Clive Barker’s Abarat, Max Brooks’s World War Z all came out during this season, and nearly every Fall Neil Gaiman (Coraline, The Graveyard Book) offers up something new.

For 2009, here are some of this Fall’s coolest literary offerings of vampires, zombies, monsters, mysteries, and more. Note, I’ve kept the list to just novels (meaning, no graphic novels), and remember, these are just items that I’m interested in. If you have more suggestions, we’d love to know ‘em!

Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter
By A E Moorat
Hodder | Eos
October 15, 2009 (UK) | January 5, 2010 (U.S.)

A few weeks ago, I received a publicist’s email asking me if I’d like a copy of Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter for review. I didn’t read any further before I hit Reply with an “Absolutely” as my response. Serious, Queen Victoria as a demon hunter, that’s really all I needed to know. When the book arrived, I figured I’d leaf through it and take a few seconds to familiarize myself with it; next thing I knew I was a third of the way through the book. Yes, it was that good.

I’m a big fan of historical fiction, so even if various types of demon folk weren’t involved, I think I’d have enjoyed the story of a young Victoria coming of age as the Queen of England and falling in love with Prince Albert nevertheless. But add in the Queen’s inherit ability to battle demons, along with demons, zombies, reanimators, and two-headed creatures, and damn if that’s not good stuff. It’s an historical fiction/horror mash-up sprinkled with humor in all the right places. One of my favorite characters is a manservant who becomes zombie lunch only to return to life … to continue being a manservant! Seriously, I love this guy, and you will too [...]

We at Geeks of Doom love Halloween. The smell in the air, the leaves changing color to mark the occasion, and all of the old edited horror movies playing over and over on your TV make it one of the most entertaining and exciting times of year.

Back in 2006, we compiled a list of some of the best geek costumes on the market for those of you who do not yet have an idea as to what you want to be. It’s already been three years now, so we thought it was about time to compile another epic list of costume options for the undecided (which includes myself).

While checking these costumes out, keep some things in mind — most importantly: pretty much every costume that you see will have multiple styles of varying price and quality. The majority of the ones we have here are in the $30-$50 range, but you can find really high-quality “Deluxe” versions of the costume that will run you in the $100-$200 dollar range. These are for the folks who have money to spare and love authenticity. If you’re out of your freakin’ mind, there’s even Batman and Darth Vader costumes that will run you $700+ dollars. If you don’t like the one we’ve linked to, just search the character and check out all of the others that exist. Most costumes have children’s versions available, too. We’ve included some great kids’ costumes, but if you find an adult one you’d like for the little ones, just search it out! [...]

The sonic fury of a film’s soundtrack is integral to its lasting presence. The soundtrack to Drew Barrymore’s Whip It is a furiously beautiful compliment to this potent and rousing coming of age film. Barrymore understands the importance of a film’s soundtrack. She understands how vital the musical component is to the film. All one has to do is read her note that she wrote for the soundtrack album:

“Music is the soundtrack to our lives, and when you put music and film together, it is a powerful combination.”

“This soundtrack is my mix tape for you.”

Drew Barrymore gets it. She understands the relationship between music and film. While watching the film, I would crack a smile as songs by The Breeders, Tilly And The Wall, The Ramones, The Chordettes, Dolly Parton, Peaches, and many others would blare out during the film’s many magical and cathartic moments. A good soundtrack is essentially an awesome mix tape. Drew Barrymore understands this all too well for her directorial debut.

The Whip It soundtrack is not the only great mix tape this year; the soundtracks for (500) Days Of Summer and Inglourious Basterds are incredible mix tapes as well. As far as Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds goes, his choices of music from Ennio Morricone scores and other film scores is never to be messed with under any conditions. I doubt I will ever be able to listen Nick Perito’s “The Green Leaves Of Summer” without thinking of the opening credits of the Tarantino film. The other tracks on the album are just as powerful. It’s Tarantino’s magical energy to take another film’s music and make it his own. His soundtracks for all of his films are the perfect mix tapes for cinephiles — not only do we want to discover where the music comes from, we want to discover the actual films. Marc Webb’s (500) Days Of Summer may be the finest mix tape since Zach Braff’s Garden State and every Cameron Crowe film, especially the soundtracks to Almost Famous and Singles [...]

Fucking ecstatic does not begin to adequately describe how happy I am that the dark period of music socialization is over. And in case you aren’t sure the time frame I’m speaking of, it’s the period in which people had to really work in order to discover and share new music by listening to FM radio, buying overpriced albums at a retail store or my *least* favorite, speaking to a group of self important douchebag music snobs. None of those options were ideal for the sake of discovery, but they were even worse for the sake of sharing.

Technology has ushered in so many new (legal) ways to socialize about music, none of which involve an abundance of black t-shirts or $5 covers at the door.

Blip.fm

If you’ve ever had the urge to communicate solely through notes and lyrics, then blip.fm will become an addiction. It’s by far my favorite new way to socialize about music. Blip.fm is a service that allows you to listen to virtually any song by “blipping” it to your own personal stream — similar to Twitter. Also like Twitter, each song you blip is accompanied by an optional 150-character message. Users “listen” or “follow” other people’s blips, which are aggregated in real time to a custom feed that acts as a playlist. However, if you get tired of this playlist you can always navigate to someone else’s [...]

Until the emergence of Adult Swim’s Squidbillies, never had there been an animated program that so eloquently embodied the life of an alcoholic talking squid and his illegitimate son in the rural foothills of Georgia.

Such is true of the voice acting for Squidbillies’s hillbilly squid Early Cuyler, who routinely provides a plethora of thought provoking philosophical quotes such as his dinner table prayer:

“Dear lord… please allow this dangerous combination of hair spray, bat slobber, and D.O.T. four automatic transmission fluid to excite my mind, occupy my spirits, and enrage my body, provoking me to kick any man or woman in the back of the head regardless of what he or she has or has not done unto me.”

Lines of dialog like that can only be delivered effectively by one man, Stuart Daniel Baker a.k.a. the legendary Unknown Hinson. And long before becoming the voice of Early Cuyler, Hinson made a name for himself as a Rockabilly musician who is still touring. His songs are exactly how you’d imagine them to be (ridiculous and offensive). Actually, the amount of ridiculous shit that comes out of this man’s mouth is pretty much exactly like his Squidbillies character.

For proof I’ve provided videos of Unknown Hinson’s performance at the Dragon*Con 2009 Squidbillies panel…