Get Ready for 3D 'Star Wars' in 2012

Earlier this week, Lucasfilm announced that all six films in the Star Wars saga are being converted to 3D and re-released in theaters, starting with The Phantom Menace in 2012.

Yes, that means Jar Jar Binks will soon have the opportunity to annoy us in three dimensions.

Decade-old fanboy gripes aside, it’ll be pretty cool to see the entire saga in theaters once again, although one hopes that Star Wars creator and notorious tinkerer George Lucas stays his hand when it comes to unnecessary alterations to the classic films. A nip and a tuck here and there, sure, but if Lucas further populates the original trilogy with irritating CGI aliens and slapsticky robots, there will be a lot of nerds cringing behind their 3D glasses. There’s enough of that stuff in the prequels.

Judging by the official statement posted on StarWars.com, it looks like Lucas and his team are determined to avoid the missteps that plagued previous post-production 3D conversions, namely Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, Louis Leterrier’s Clash of the Titans and M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender.

“It takes a critical and artistic eye along with an incredible attention to detail to be successful,” said John Knoll, visual effects supervisor for Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic. “It is not something that you can rush if you want to expect good results. For Star Wars we will take our time, applying everything we know both aesthetically and technically to bring audiences a fantastic new Star Wars experience.”

For more on the 3D Star Wars saga, click here.

'Iron Man 2' Hits DVD and Blu-ray

Iron Man 2—the most satisfying 2010 summer blockbuster this side of Inception—blasts its way onto DVD and Blu-ray tomorrow, Sept. 28. If you’re at all into comic books (Marvel in particular), you’ve probably seen it at least once already in theaters. Me? I saw it twice. So there.

Although I loved Iron Man 2 (hence the whole “saw it twice” thing), It pains me to say that it didn’t quite live up to the original. At times, it felt less like a true Iron Man sequel than an advertisement for future Marvel Studios films, namely Joss Whedon’s The Avengers and Joe Johnston’s Captain America. Still, in spite of its cluttered narrative, Robert Downey Jr. was perfect as Tony Stark, while the rest of the cast—including Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson and Mickey Rourke—did superb jobs as well. As for the action scenes, they were suitably slick, especially the bombastic finale.

To read more about Iron Man 2, check out my review at Broken Frontier by clicking here.

Geeking Out Over NYCC

Excelsior! I’ve received my weekend pass for New York Comic Con 2010, taking place at the Jacob J. Javits Center on Oct. 8-10, and I couldn’t be happier. Last year’s NYCC—my first large-scale comic book convention—was the most gloriously nerdy weekend of my life, and I fully expect this year’s event to be even better.

If you don’t have your tickets yet, first of all, what the hell’s the matter with you? Secondly, you can find out how to get your hands on some by clicking here.