All The [NERD] Rage: Week of August 27 – Sept 2, 2011

Welcome to All The [NERD] Rage, a lightning-round style review of the top nerd stories of the week. These are stories the Muggles may or might not be aware of. It’s time to catch up, so we’d better just get right into it.

• George Lucas Causes The Facepalm Heard Round The World
  The Star Wars Blue-Ray Collection will be released on September 16. But there will be a few changes in store yet again. What? You didn’t think George Lucas could resist tinkering with his beloved movies one last time, did you? Well, he did. And in a bad way. Perhaps the most derided scene from the new trilogy is being revisited for the finale of The Return Of The Jedi. That whole ridiculously cliched shot of Darth Vader looking up with clenched fists shouting, “Nooooooooooooooooo!” Yes, that one. Lucas will insert new dialogue in ROTJ, so Vader can exclaim his infamous line again when Emperor Palpatine tasers Luke Skywalker within an inch of his life. Then it’s the audience that will be shouting, “Noooooooooooo!” (Note: There are a few more changes in store, but I’m already sad enough right now.)
  [Source: The Huffington Post]

• New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles to Host Midnight Residency of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
  Let’s just take a moment to recognize how awesome /Film is: “Someone must have put in a cheat code because Scott Pilgrim vs. The World just got unlimited lives.” Brilliant. Per /Film, the movie based on the popular graphic novel series will now be be shown every month in the city of angels, in perpetuity. It all begins with the first midnight showing on September 23. And by the way, costumes are encouraged. How cool is that?
  [Source: /Film]

• Nerd TV & Movie News
  The Hunger Games trailer was unveiled Sunday night during MTV’s Video Music Awards show. More of a teaser, it didn’t show very much. But it was better than anything we’ve been given thus far, which was just still photos. Now we get to see Katniss running around and dodging fireballs. This is more of a “preaching to the choir” kind of teaser, since I would imagine those who haven’t read the books could know what was going on from this alone. I don’t know how the whole trilogy will play out, but regardless, this first movie could be epic. The trailer is currently available on iTunes and YouTube.

  ---

  Supernatural may be getting a “spike” in the ratings. The CW genre show will be getting some interesting guest stars this season. It was announced that Buffy alums James Marsters and Charisma Carpenter will be appearing as a married couple in an episode entitled, “Shut Up, Dr. Phil.” You can get your Spike and Cordelia fix sometime around Halloween. And speaking of the Whedonverse, we had a sort-of Dr. Horrible reunion this week on Felicia Day’s web show The Guild. Nathan Fillion did a guest spot as himself, as the guild crew continued their adventures at a gaming convention. The show is currently available for free on Xbox LIVE. Just remember, “These … are not the hammer.”

  ---

  Superman made the nerd news this week, as more shots were revealed from the upcoming Zack Snyder film Man of Steel. Remember all of the hoopla when the Sam Raimi Spiderman movie came out, and nerds were up in arms over the fact that Peter Parker had organic web shooters instead of his manufactured ones? Well, if you were a nerd you would. Now we have a similar situation, except it’s about Superman’s crotch. Yes, I said it. Apparently the newly redesigned suit has a newly redesigned crotch. Early set photos reveal that Supes will not be wearing the iconic red underwear that has been a part of his super suit from the beginning. Purists will no doubt be upset by the changes. Who’s to say they’re wrong?
  [Source: Blastr]

• DC Comics Rebooting “All the Things!”
  Starting Wednesday, comic book giant DC made history by doing the unthinkable. They didn’t just reboot one hero or story. They rebooted the entire DC Universe. All 52 franchises are being renumbered back to #1. Ever wish you could go back in time and get Superman or Batman #1? Well, it’s like future you came back in time to do just that. Did I just blow your mind? And it’s not just a cosmetic or numbering thing. They are changing up characters, storylines, costumes and more. Time will tell how fans will take these changes. One thing is for sure, this is definitely a bold move by DC. They’re not playing around.
  [Source: The Escapist]

• Gizmodo Intern Causes Real-Life Nerd Rage
  Nerds took to the Internet this week in droves to defend one of their own. Gizmodo intern Alyssa Bereznak wrote a blog post called “My Brief OkCupid Affair With a World Champion Magic: The Gathering Player.” She went on to describe the couple of dates she went on with Jon Finkel, a world champion and highly renowned player of the successful fantasy card game. Let’s just say she wasn’t that into him. Controversy ensued as nerds took to Reddit, Nerd Puddle, and many other sites to discuss their rage at this self-described shallow blogger. No longer with Gizmodo, she stated on Twitter that her internship simply ended this week. Riiiiight. Of course it did. Wait a minute, I see what happened here. Maybe her internship really was set to end this week all along. So right before her tenure expired, she purposefully published a blog article trolling a highly successful nerd in an attempt to bait as many hits as possible from his fans. That’s one way to pump up the ole resume.
  Not cool.
  [Source: Gizmodo]

• Spotify Will Rock Your World
  Music fans in Europe have had this for some time now, but it’s new to us here in America. The streaming music service launched stateside in July, and users are now trickling in. I checked it out for myself, and I have to say this service is amazing. Unlike Pandora, you can control what song or album you want to play at any time. However, there are commercials for the free account, and in the future there will be a time limit set to the amount of music you can listen to per month. If desired, you can fix all that with one of the paid options. Still, this is a real game changer. I’m calling it now: Spotify will do to Pandora what Facebook did to MySpace. Ouch.
  [Source: spotify.com]