Author: Nigel G Mitchell

Who on Earth is exposed to the most ionizing radiation? That’s the question Veritasium asked when they traveled the world to find the most radioactive places on Earth. They also visited some of the places you would expect to be radioactive, but aren’t. It’s for an upcoming documentary about how Uranium and radioactivity have shaped the modern world to be broadcast in mid-2015, but you can see it now. [Via YouTube] What do you think? Were you surprised about the most radioactive places? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell your friends about this post!…

Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill); Star Wars/Lucasfilm It’s easy to say that Star Wars is a landmark movie, a classic of both science fiction and cinema, but what did the critics of the time think of it? That answer is: pretty much the same. We took a look back at ten of the original reviews for the movie and found pretty much uniform acclaim and predictions of success. Here’s an overview: 1. Adrian Berry of The Daily Telegraph wrote: “Until recently, space melodrama films have tended to be made with neither imagination nor money. With the brilliant exception of the Clarke-Kubrick 2001: A…

Greetings, programs! TRON is one of our favorite movies, and we loved the vehicles especially. TRON: Legacy wasn’t quite as revolutionary, but it had a lot of great vehicles and visuals as well. Carinsurance.org created this handy infographic as a guide to the TRON series, its vehicles, and other terminology. Which is your favorite TRON vehicle? Related Posts Would You Rather Live in the Matrix or the TRON Mainframe? 4 Scenes Everyone Thinks Are Computer Generated But Aren’t Apparently TRON Was All About Butts 15 Surprising Facts About the Original TRON If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below…

It’s probably the most talked-about and controversial five seconds of footage in the entire Star Wars movie series: the opening shot of John Boyega as the black stormtrooper in the teaser for Star Wars: Episode VII. It probably took a lot of planning and direction to get it right. Funny or Die’s Hush Money brings us a behind-the-scenes look at other ways the shot could have taken. And it could have been much more controversial. What do you think of the video? UPDATE: Changed from Trek to Wars If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell…

Source: Paramount/UPN It’s been known in the Trek community that Kate Mulgrew (Captain Janeway) didn’t take kindly to the addition of Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine) to the cast of Voyager in the fourth season. The reasons are varied, from Mulgrew feeling Seven undermined the feminist message of Voyager to jealousy that Seven’s popularity took away from Mulgrew’s role on the show. However, while much has been said by other cast members about the feud, Ryan herself always dodged the topic…until now. In 2013, Aisha Tyler’s podcast featured an interview with Ryan where she was willing to open up with…

Krysten Ritter; Source: AP/Marvel With the announcement of Krysten Ritter playing Jessica Jones in the Netflix series AKA Jessica Jones, many in the media asked, “Who’s Jessica Jones?” She’s one of four Marvel characters that Netflix bought the TV rights for, so with production starting soon, let’s deep dive into who she is and why you should be excited about the TV series. 1. Jessica Jones first appeared in the comic book series Alias in 2001 (no relation to the TV show), and ran for twenty-eight issues under Marvel’s mature MAX imprint. 2. At the time of comic’s publication (and…

It’s an elegant weapon, one of the most iconic weapons in science fiction: the lightsaber. But we know you have questions. How do lightsabers work in the Star Wars Universe? How do they work in real life? Could we ever have real lightsabers? All these questions and more are answered in this cool infographic by Tech News Daily. [Via Geeks Are Sexy via Geekxgirls.com/ via Tech News Daily] What did you think? Related: If R2-D2 Could Fly in the Original Star Wars Trilogy If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell your friends about this post! Follow us! Email | RSS | Twitter | Facebook

Krysten Ritter; Source: AP/Marvel Deadline announced (and Marvel confirmed) that Krysten Ritter has been cast as ex-superheroine Jessica Jones in the upcoming Netflix TV series. The series AKA Jessica Jones will be based on the comic series about a superheroine whose PTSD forces her to retire and become a private detective. Here’s your chance to catch up on Ritter and what she brings to the series. 1. Ritter was born on December 16, 1981 in Shickshinny, Pennsylvania. Yes, that’s an actual place. 2. She started out her career as a model at the age of fifteen. She worked steadily ever since high…

We’ll admit, we weren’t too excited at the prospect of another Terminator movie. With the mediocre sequels and Sarah Connor Chronicles TV series, it seemed like the franchise had become hopelessly muddled and overextended, and the idea of casting an aging Arnold Schwarzenegger as a Terminator seemed misguided. We also were confused by early reports that Genisys would function as both a sequel and a reboot to the franchise. But then we saw the trailer and it blew us away. Let’s break it down. First, let’s watch the trailer: Now for the breakdown: 1. Hollywood Gets It Again We have…

Movie trailers are an art and a science, and they’ve been used to sell science fiction movies for decades. All the greatest movies of all time started out as trailers. You probably don’t need to be convinced to watch movies like E.T. and Star Wars, but they all had to sell themselves to audiences for the first time. Let’s travel back in time and watch the original trailers for ten classics of sci-fi. 1. 2001: A Space Odyssey 2. Alien 3. Blade Runner 4. Back to the Future 5. Close Encounters 6. E.T. 7. Forbidden Planet 8. The Terminator 9.…

Well, that’s a surprise. Variety just announced that not only is Warner Bros going ahead with a Suicide Squad movie, but they announced the cast. The two biggest surprises in the cast are that Jared Leto will be playing the Joker, and Will Smith will play Deadshot. What is Suicide Squad? Suicide Squad will be based on the DC comic series, where a group of imprisoned supervillains are given a chance by the government to carry out high-risk missions in exchange for getting their prison sentences reduced. The catch is that the missions often end up killing members of the…

The Guardians of the Galaxy has a heartbreaking but ultimately uplifting ending. And of course, there are other ways it could have gone. How It Should Have Ended has returned with their take on Guardians, as well as a few other bits of the film. With a special guest at the end who’s also obsessed with saying “I am…” What did you think? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell your friends about this post! Follow us! Email | RSS | Twitter | Facebook

Let It Storm (Disney’s Storm) via Boss Logic What Star Wars TV movie is thirty years old? What actor hated working in Thor 2? Are superheroes just for boys? Find out these and more in this week’s Geek Bits! 1. Starwars.com covers the 30th anniversary of the second most hated Star Wars TV special with 9 Things You Never Knew About The Ewok Adventure. Number one: “One of the early working titles for The Ewok Adventure was The Ewok Holiday Special.” 2. The Atlantic asks: Will Film’s Black Superheroes Ever Get to Save the World? Traditionally, movies have done a…

Batman vs. Darth Vader / Machinima Batman and Darth Vader are two of the baddest mothers in science fiction, and we finally get to watch them fight. It’s an eternal question that have occupied way too many man-hours in the geek community: if Batman fought Darth Vader, who would win? Darth Vader is one of the most powerful users of the Force in the Galaxy. Batman is a genius with near limitless weapons and intelligence. If the two faced each other, we could imagine a truly epic battle. Well, Super Power Beat Down out-did themselves when they took on the…

Yesterday, we joined the #savestorm movement to save the solo comic Storm from cancellation. But the question needs to be answered whether Storm is worth saving. This is often the argument when minority and female-led comics get cancelled, that the comic “just wasn’t good enough.” Of course, most of the people making these statements have never actually read the comics. They just assume that if the comic was good, it would sell. Since it didn’t sell, it couldn’t have been good. Never mind the fact that Marvel can release five Wolverine comics at a time without anyone once questioning the…

Photo: Victor Ibanez/Marvel Comics Without question, X-Men’s Storm is the most popular black female superhero, and she needs your help. Her recently launched solo comic series is in serious danger of being cancelled, so we all need to join the campaign to save it. First of all, if you were surprised to learn that Storm even has a solo comic series right now, you wouldn’t be alone. The publicity for her comic is not good, and the sales are even worse. It was Brett White at CBR who first sounded the alarm that Storm is in trouble by pointing out…

Earlier this year, pro skater Tony Hawk was in a video claiming to be a working “hoverboard,” like the famous skateboard from Back to the Future II. When the video was revealed to be a hoax, he was roundly criticized. Well, Hawk has redeemed himself (sort of) by test driving the first real hovering board, the Hendo Hover. The Hendo uses powerful magnetic fields to actually float an inch off of a special copper ramp. Here’s the video, courtesy of the Ride Channel. The only problem is that the Hendo board kind of sucks. I mean, it’s huge and bulky,…

Dave Bautista, Lee Pace, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana on set of Guardians of the Galaxy; Source: Marvel It’s on! Now if you’re like me, friends, one of your favorite moments in Guardians of the Galaxy was when Star-Lord challenged Ronan the Accuser to a dance off in the climax of the movie. I loved Ronan’s bewilderment, but I also kind of hoped to see Ronan break out some moves. Of course that would have been out of character, but fortunately the real dance off happened in the outtakes from the movie which will be on the Guardians of the Galaxy…

Do we know what black actors are auditioning to play Luke Cage in the upcoming Netflix TV series? The Internet’s been buzzing with rumors of which male African American actors are being auditioned for the lead role in Luke Cage, about the super strong Marvel superhero. While nothing has officially been confirmed, Deadline is making the report, and they’re pretty good when it comes to inside info. If we assume the article is correct, the role of Luke Cage is coming down to three actors. None of them were on our previous list of dream candidates, so it looks like…

In September 2004, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was released in theaters. An homage to the look and imagination of old movie serials from the 1940’s, it used modern technology to create an epic in an old-fashioned style. Here are some nuggets of trivia you may not have known about this amazing film. 1. In 1994, freelance illustrator Kerry Conran spent four years working with blue screen and an aging Macintosh IIci to create a teaser trailer for The World of Tomorrow. His brother Kevin did production design for it. This is the trailer he created. 2. The…

Is Internet access a right or a privilege? That’s the debate raging around the country right now with the Net Neutrality debate. New York could be one of the first major US cities to land on the side of privilege with a proposed project to convert thousands of unused pay phones into free Wi-Fi hotspots. You know, payphones? For the young people, before cell phones, there used to be telephones placed at random locations around the city for you to use. These days, they’re rapidly being dismantled or abandoned. A new plan called LinkNYC would convert them into “Link stations.”…

This infographic of the history of Star Wars isn’t just chock full of facts and trivia. It doesn’t just include all six movies, and the hit new series, Star Wars: Rebels. No, what makes it great is that it was made by Hasbro, so it’s illustrated with classic Star Wars action figures. Not only can you read a nice overview of the series, but you can have a major flashback to the toys you probably played with as a kid. Or play with right now. Hey, no judgement. Click to enlarge: [Via MTV] Which toys did you own? If you enjoyed…

A while back, a controversial video was released by iHollaback depicting an attractive woman walking down the street in New York for ten hours, and the responses she got from men. It was intended to showcase the harassment that women endure on a daily basis. Now the Internet proves that everything is better with Star Wars, as the comedy group Are We There Yet shows what happens when Princess Leia walks through New York. [Via http://cheezburger.com] What did you think of the video? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell your friends about this post! Follow…

So I think it’s safe to say that Gotham is a hit. It’s also got a serious case of prequelitis. But what if you wanted even more? What if you wanted to know what Jim Gordon was doing before Gotham? Or what Bruce Wayne’s parents were doing before Gotham? Or what Gotham City was doing before Gotham? Get ready for a case of whiplash from all the nods to the future of Batman in The Warp Zone’s parody, Gotham Begins. [Via io9.com] What did you think of Gotham Begins? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell…

Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) Bleeding Cool claims to have some inside information that, if true, would make the Wonder Woman trilogy of movies quite different than we expected. Instead of being set in modern day, the first two would be historical pieces set in the past. Bleeding Cool’s Rich Johnston claims: I have been informed by those who have seen the greenlit treatment that the film will spend the first half on Paradise Island with warring Amazon factions vying for control. An arrival of a man on the island changes that status quo, as he asks the Amazons for help.…

Cinema Blend is branching out with their “How It Should Have Ended” series. Now they’re not just tackling movies, but also trailers of movies. The results are surprisingly hilarious, as evidenced by one of their latest, a take on the new Avengers: Age of Ultron teaser. In the original teaser, Ultron showed how scary he can make a line from Pinocchio. HISHE imagines what would happen if Ultron took on other classic Disney lines. [Via Crave Online] What other Disney lines could Ultron say in his terrifying voice? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell…

A while back, we featured a Star Wars trailer edited in the style of Guardians of the Galaxy, created by The Unusual Suspect. Well, he’s back with a new take on a children’s classic. What if Monsters Inc. was a moody horror science fiction film? Let’s find out with this trailer in the style of the original Prometheus trailer. What did you think of the trailer? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell your friends about this post! Follow us! Email | RSS | Twitter | Facebook

Obi-Wan vs. Vader (Star Wars: A New Hope, Lucasfilm) Should Star Wars movies get more changes? In 2004, George Lucas started a firestorm among fans when he released new editions of his original trilogy. Most of the changes were made to take advantage of new technology, but many people objected to some of the changes as not being in the spirit of the original movie. We previously discussed how we liked some of the changes in the series, but there are still a few things that need to be fixed. Here are eight of our suggestions. 1. Obi-Wan vs. Vader…

We previously ran articles on the disturbing truth behind costumes from The Next Generation and Troi’s cleavage. Well, let’s keep the series going with one of the most famous Star Trek uniforms of all time: Seven of Nine’s costume from Voyager. We decided the catsuit deserved its own entry, and here it is. Find out how actress Jeri Ryan suffered to look so beautiful. 1. It Made Her Pass Out In her first appearance, Seven of Nine appeared as a full Borg drone. When Ryan first put on her Borg uniform, the costume designers apparently didn’t take the prosthetics into…

Cole (Aaron Stanford); Source: SyFy 12 Monkeys is one of our favorite time travel movies, so when we heard they were making a TV show based on it, we were skeptical. Could they possibly capture everything that was great about the movie in a weekly series? Well, we’re not sure exactly how it will turn out, but the new trailer from SyFy made us a believer. Here’s the official description: 12 Monkeys is a drama based on the 1995 Universal Pictures film directed by Terry Gilliam. The show follows the journey of a time traveler, Cole, from the post-apocalyptic future.…