I read The Hunger Games for a couple of reasons: pop culture relevance and simple curiosity. I wanted to get it read prior to the release of the film, too. The book is simple and incredibly melodramatic, but it’s also surprisingly engrossing and the characters are quite well rendered. It feels like a hundred other genre all-ages books I’ve read and it also lacks a central voice, other than the fact that “bad people suck,” to quote a friend. The classic genre films and books of this type had something to say deeper, and at least to the author, more important than just the adventures of so and so.

What this book and film has is a well-developed and interesting female hero in Katniss Everdeen. She’s strong and imperfect, but a good role model for young girls, unlike a certain vampire lover we all know too well. Now a good role model for young girls isn’t a requirement for me to like a book or movie, but if kids are going to grab onto this story, at least the hero is worth their time.

Being internet-less for a few days can feel like an eternity when you know how many bits of news and entertainment and information you’re missing out on. For me, that was this week.

Of of the gems missed out on earlier this week was this fan-made short prequel to the brilliant video game BioShock, titled New Year’s End: A BioShock Short Film, which anyone who’s played and loved the games should enjoy watching immensely.

The over six-minute live-action short is written and directed (and everything else) by Jared Potter, and tells a quick story about New Year’s Eve 1958—right around the time Andrew Ryan’s underwater city of Rapture went straight to Hell.

You can see the short below.

Have you ever thought to yourself “Gee whiz, could I sure use a terrifying life-size Sith lord standing guard over my home!”? Well, if you happen to have $6,000 hiding somewhere deep within the cushions of your couch, you can now have it.

Sideshow Collectibles has unveiled a life-size Darth Malgus figure from Star Wars: The Old Republic, which is now available for pre-order.

You can see a full-size image of the figure below.

In the past three months we’ve seen the theatrical trailer for this summer’s eagerly-awaited Bat-sequel The Dark Knight Rises redone in the style of Batman: The Animated Series and mashed up with The Lion King. Now the inventive minds at Paranick Filmz have painstakingly created their own version of the trailer using LEGO toys and stop-motion animation.

You can watch the video here below.

With The Avengers set for release a little over a month from now Marvel Studios has good reason to celebrate. A decade ago the idea of getting Earth’s mightiest heroes together in one movie was laughable given that the film rights to the various characters were owned by different Hollywood studios who weren’t exactly receptive to the idea of a collaboration that would force them to share the potential wealth with their Tinseltown rivals. It wasn’t until Marvel formed their own movie division and started financing blockbusters like Iron Man and Thor that the company could finally take control of their celluloid destiny.