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When Disney released Lion King in 3D, people heralded it as one of the greatest acts of movie magic in a long while, but for George Lucas and company redoing Phantom Menace in 3D, not so much. The fan base has really been down on this from the start. Perhaps it is because the movie that tells the tale of the very young Anakin Skywalker is not that well liked amongst them. And thus, they have decided to revolt by making their voices heard on YouTube, such as the video below.

Now there are those that may say that some of the criticism comes across as a bit harsh. After all, James Cameron is re-releasing Titanic in 3D? What’s the difference? Well the difference is that Lucas has been milking the same six films over and over, tweaking them as he goes along with elements that people just don’t like. He doesn’t just add in or enhance the video from format to format, but puts in things like “Nooooooooooooooooo!” to try to make them different enough for people to...

A month out of the gate and Star Wars: The Old Republic has seen over 2 million copies sold and 1.7 million currently playing. That spells a pretty good start for investors to hang their hat on for now, but the biggest test is still yet to come. You see, people haven’t started paying the subscription cost yet as it came with a free trial.

During the grace period, Bioware hopes to show their stuff with already one update and another one coming in March. These updates will not only create new content, but will hopefully fix a lot of the glitches that still hound the game. If you check out the forums, there is a lot of early criticism, although no one I think really expected the game to go smoothly given the amount of content and the possibility of problems just about everywhere. What is good is that the developer is trying to stay on top of it and being as transparent as possible in doing so, which is not a bad thing. Although there have been anecdotal...

Don’t you just hate when you are sitting there minding your own business at a Toys’R’Us, when a guy toting a Rebel Alliance lightsaber comes over and hits you with it? Well that’s exactly what happened in Portland, Oregon when a man attacked three customers, making us wonder if he was really a Sith in disguise.

In this edition,.we’ll look at the high stakes for Star Wars: The Old Republic, stormtrooper motorcycle gear, and how you can help Princess Leah, a baby who’s won the hearts of Star Wars fans everywhere.

Of course, the internet is all abuzz about the imminent opening of Star Wars: The Old Republic, which begins early access on December 13th for the first round of players. And EA and Bioware are betting that their work will finally pay off. It’s a big gamble for all involved, including George Lucas, who for nothing else, has his reputation and the reputation of his franchise on the line. Six years of development went into the world that will tell the story of the Jedi and Sith of a thousand years before Anakin flew a racing pod. But perhaps the biggest concern is the $100 million dollar cost it took to make the game, one of the highest amounts ever.

The franchise of Star Wars is obviously very big business and it has provided not only entertainment for the masses, but actual firepower to use on the battlefield of gaming consoles. Could Star Wars: The Old Republic put a serious dent in World of Warcraft, continuing the fight between EA and Activision/Blizzard? The bitter feud is sometimes as interesting to watch as the Star Wars saga itself. But make no mistake. The only one laughing his way to the bank might be Lucas.

Lucas finally revealed after a lot of speculation last week about what Star Wars Identities was referring to. The company bought a ton of domain names on the title, even including typos, which sent the fandom into a spin with thoughts of everything from a new series, a new film, toys, etc. But none of us had pegged this one. Course in all fairness, we didn’t have much to go on.

In reality, Star Wars: Identities is the moniker chosen to represent a unique museum experience coming to the Montreal Science Center in Summer 2012. It will focus not so much on the film making techniques and science behind the tech, but a focus on the characters and how they developed throughout the movies. Through the use of props, photos, films, etc, from the Lucas archives, guests will learn how each hero and villain in the Star Wars universe came to be who they are. It will ask what shaped their personal identities and in studying these guys and gals, creators hope that...

In a strange turn of events, the city of Odessa in the Ukraine has been giving people who apply free land, up to 1,000 square meters, but they were shocked when an unlikely visitor came to make his claim.

In a bold move for any Star Wars fan, he entered the offices where they were accepting applications for the Black Sea plots, in full dark lord garb, but he wasn’t turned away by the guards. In fact, they kind of laughed as he introduced himself as “Darth Vader, right hand to Emperor Palpatine” and they let him proceed to fill out the application. He said that he needed the property to have a place to land his spaceship, no doubt an Imperial Shuttle. Those things do take up a ton of room. Anyway, he also stated that he felt he had a good chance of getting the land because the people were already on the Dark Side, taking cues from local critics who accused the city of corruption over the giveaway...

We found a few new stories today that we thought we’d share with you. Star Wars: The Old Republic’s producers announced their plan for early access to the game for pre-order enthusiasts, Star Wars snowboards, and a little factoid about Carrie Fisher from her new book.

It’s pretty common knowledge that pre-order customers of Star Wars: The Old Republic will get some degree of early access, but up until now they didn’t really have any idea of just how early that would be. Well sources at Bioware are now saying that it could be as early as five days before, but it could also be one day or less even. It all will depend on when you entered in your pre-order code into the website. They didn’t say how the timing would affect that though.

The University of South Florida Polytech has been under fire lately for spending too much and using their money for what two Sunshine State senators call unnecessary expenditures. So when they purchased a seven foot Darth Vader statue, an Imperial Stormtrooper that needs a new hand, Captain Kirk’s chair from Star Trek and an ET replica for $10,000, they were bound to catch even more blaster shots from the legislature.

But as a fan, one has to appreciate the college’s rebuttal to their critics. They say that the items in question are part of a bigger picture in which they are trying to spur inspiration and creativity among students in the same way that Google offices bring forth their imaginative ideas. The search engine giant is famous for having a work place that is filled with everything from toys to bean bag chairs to air hockey. And there is something to be said for that. The creative souls behind some of the biggest sites found out a long time ago...

This week, our news roundup includes a HD with Lego Star Wars: The Clone Wars for Xbox, Billy Dee Williams Returning to Network TV, a new Star Wars: The Old Republic trailer that takes on the age old question of Jedi versus Bounty Hunter, Australia and New Zealand get their chance to see the MMO in action, and cool case modding.

As you know, we’ve reported here many times that Star Wars: The Old Republic is currently conducting beta tests of their MMO in anticipation of their now assured holiday release date. And while they have been slowly inviting people, they have kept it to a minimum to insure a good ramp up. So when a strange email concerning the beta showed up in the inbox of their newsletter subscribers, confusion and anger raged supreme until Bioware realized the mistake they’d made.

It seems that an email that was meant for current beta testers, and not possible invites, was sent by EA and Bioware asking them how they were getting along in the testing and requesting any feedback that they would like to share. This created a lot of confusion as you can imagine for those receiving the letter. They thought they’d been invited, but never got the mail to tell them so. That they had been missing out all this time. Since the invitation process is ongoing, it seemed logical and...

The long awaited, but perhaps ravaged revamps of the Star Wars saga hit Blu-Ray players last Friday as Lucas once again released the entire set with an even different version than any of the previous versions, which has what has angered many fans.

Let’s start with the positives and that is the upconvert to Blu-Ray. It was masterfully done, it really was, especially the original trilogy. It’s not easy to take a 30 year old piece of film with all of its 1970’s look and convert it into the crisp and vibrant imagery we see here. And the cool part about it was they were able to do so, while keeping the trilogy’s charm of being an older set of movies, which helps with the nostalgia of it all. And the new films, of course, which were filmed in HD to begin with, stand out with some tweaking of the CG to create about the best that these could look. It was obvious that those in charge of the project were adamant about getting these to feel amazing and not just a...