Comic-Con: Talking Starship Troopers and Bug Problems with Casper Van Dien

We can ill afford another Klendathu!

Casper Van Dien returns as Johnny Rico in Starship Troopers: Invasion, the latest chapter in the space-faring, bug-crushing saga, due on Blu-ray and DVD on August 28th from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The film represents Van Dien's first foray as Johnny into CGI-animated form, and he also executive-produced the project along with Ed Neumeier, screenwriter of the original movie. Shinji Aramaki, the director of Halo Legends, Appleseed and Appleseed Ex-Machina, brings his anime stylings to the film as director. And these gentlemen will all be hitting San Diego Comic-Con this week to show off the new movie.

In fact, if you're going to the con, IGN and Sony are giving away 25 free passes to the worldwide premiere screening on Saturday, July 14, at 7pm. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Van Dien, Neumeier and Aramaki (moderated by yours truly!). Click here for your chance at grabbing a pass. And Casper will also be participating in a fan signing at IGN's Oasis Lounge at the Hard Rock Hotel at 1pm that day, so if you're in town you know where you need to be.

But in the meantime, I jumped on the phone with the actor to talk about his newest Starship Troopers adventure. Check out our chat below -- and see you on Saturday…

Scott Collura: How does Starship Troopers: Invasion connect to the previous films in the series?

Casper Van Dien: In my opinion, I feel like it’s a continuation of the first and probably takes a little bit from the second and the third as well. But it brings back the characters from the first. It has Carl, Johnny and Carmen. We’ve also got some cool new characters. It ties in more to the book as well. I think it’s a combination of the Starship Troopers world created by Edward Neumeier, Paul Verhoeven and Phil Tippett. Then we’ve added in this new Japanese anime style by Shinji Aramaki and the executive over at Sony, Tony Ishizuka [Vice President of International Production, Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions]. They did a great job. I loved it.

SC: What was it like transitioning to animation for this project?

CVD: It was a lot of fun to do. With Shinji Aramaki, the anime director, he’s such a talented man. He created a lot of the mecha suits [in anime]. He also drew the Kamen Rider, which was the Masked Rider. When I grew up in Japan until I was almost five years old, that was my first hero, the Masked Rider. So it was interesting to see some of his work. I thought he did a great job. It was a blast to work on this with everybody.

SC: What similarities does Invasion have to the original Robert Heinlein book?

CVD: Well, you definitely have the suits, and they’re done really well. Even just the regular armor that they wear is so cool, and the weapons are just amazing. I just wish we could have actually had those [in the live-action movies]. That part of the world is amazing to see what they can create. That’s just a phenomenal job. And the bugs, what they’re able to do with that and take off from what they did in the third one. They’re able to create even more of the Starship Troopers world. Flint Dille did a great job with the screenplay. He’s really good with these animated projects as well. He’s been around for a long time. So there’s just a huge… they just have so many different things in so many different worlds, I think they’ve created a very unique spin with this on its own but it also completely correlates with all the other Starship Troopers worlds. And it leaves room for more to happen and more to come. There’s a nice twist in the end that I think opens up a whole other can of worms. It opens Pandora’s Box, in my opinion!

SC: The thing about the first film is you kind of feel like your character Johnny might not survive all the craziness, but now here we are and he's still fighting the bugs all these years later.

CVD: It’s a lot of fun to see that. You know, I heard that Sony is rebooting Starship Troopers, and people ask me all the time, they go, “What do you think? They shouldn’t do that.” And I think it’s really cool. I was also the twentieth Tarzan, and there have been so many different Bonds. I think it would be cool to see a lot of different Johnny Ricos. I think it’s a great character.

SC: The Starship Troopers universe would seem to be big enough to support a variety of approaches.

CVD: Completely. It’s a fun and exciting process, and I’d like to see -- of course, I’m always going to be attached to this. It’s just something where I walk down the street and people go, “Johnny Rico!” [Laughs] And that’s 15 years later and there are still people saying that to me. It’s kind of cool.

Casper Van Dien

SC: Did that ever bother you, being so closely associated with one role?

CVD: You know, sometimes when people go, “O.K., we know who it is. This is the guy from Starship Troopers.” Of course, I wasn’t the guy from Starship Troopers before I did it. But for the most part, it’s really thrilling to have people quote lines you said in a movie 15 years later, for them to keep coming at you with it. I can be at Disneyland or walking down the street or picking my kids up from school -- I picked up my eight- and ten-year-old the other day, and these six boys go, “Johnny Rico! Wait a minute, your dad’s Johnny Rico!?” And I’m like, “What are you guys doing watching Starship Troopers?” They’re like, “Our dads made us watch it with them.” [Laughs] It’s kind of funny. It’s just something that keeps going on. The longevity of it is fantastic. It’s an honor to be in something that people quote all the time. I’m still doing interviews about that movie, and it’s 15 freaking years later. It’s still something that they’re talking about. A lot of directors talk to me about it, and they like it. I’m like, “Well, put me in your movie!” [Laughs] But I had a lot of fun with it. I’m loving being in this business, and it’s a lot of fun to do. That movie, I am so grateful for every chance I get to be a part of that world.

SC: Did you guys know you were making something special when you were working on the first film?

CVD: It felt like something special every day. First of all, you’re talking about a book I read when I was a little boy. So to be able to play a character that you liked and you were 13 years old when you read it, and then to be around a director like Paul Verhoeven who directed movies you had seen as a kid, too -- RoboCop -- then later when I became an actor and started studying and seeing his older films and just going, “God, this guy’s amazing,” and actually getting an opportunity to work with him? It kind of felt surreal, the amount of extras they had on it and the team -- working with Academy Award-winners like Phil Tippett and the writer of RoboCop, you’re blown away. It was a really cool cast. I enjoyed everybody, and I had so much fun with all those people. I still, when we bump into each other to this day… we’re starting to become closer I think. It’s pretty interesting.

Source : ign[dot]com

Avengers vs. X-Men #7 Review

After five issues of dull fighting and jumpy narratives, Avengers vs. X-Men #6 was the first chapter to realize the potential of this event. But the constantly rotating cast of writers means readers can never be sure that the quality will remain consistent, a fact that has been both a blessing and a curse for this book. AvX backslides a bit in issue #7. Luckily, Act 2 still remains markedly improved over Act 1.

Cyclops closed out issue #6 by promising "No more Avengers." We've seen that decree play out a bit in certain tie-in books, but here we see the full might of the Phoenix Five unleashed against Captain America's ragtag team. The tables certainly have changed since the Avengers stormed Utopia at the end of issue #1. While Cap keeps fighting a losing battle against the X-Men, Matt Fraction also follows Tony Stark and Black Panther's desperate battle to find a scientific solution and explores the twin mysteries of how Scarlet Witch and the Iron Fist factor into the conflict.

Characterization is one area this series has often faltered. The problems now are ones of consistency and focus. Both within this series and among the various tie-ins, there's very little consistency in how the Phoenix Five are portrayed. Are they retaining their normal personalities for now, or is the Phoenix Force speaking through them? It's really difficult to tell at times, but on the whole Fraction's dialogue for these five X-Men is much more casual than we saw from Jonathan Hickman in issue #6. In some ways this works better, as we see a bit of bickering and dissension among the group, but again, greater consistency would be nice.

This issue is also too narrow in its focus at times. For one thing, the various X-Men not currently empowered by the Phoenix are nothing more than window dressing -- extra bodies to toss into battle scenes. Unlike issue #6 and its Magneto/Xavier exchange, there's absolutely no sense of how the X-Men are reacting to their sudden rise in fortunes. How do characters like Psylocke and Storm feel about hunting down the Avengers in brutal, militaristic fashion? Uncanny X-Men #15 does a great job of mining that material, but that brings us back to one of the recurring complaints about this event -- too much vital story material is being left to the tie-ins. AvX is also beginning to feel a bit like Fear Itself in the sense that there's no wider context for the conflict. This issue is so concerned with specific Avengers and X-Men characters that it ignores how the rest of the world is responding to the conflict between heroes and the actions of the Phoenix Five. It's as if the Marvel Universe is an empty place beyond those few dozen creatures wearing spandex.

Still, this issue does a lot right, as well. Fraction does a fine job of capturing the growing tension on the Avengers side. The interaction between Black Panther and Tony Stark stands out particularly. These two have never had the warmest of relationships to start with, but here Tony's latent death wish becomes a major source of friction for them both. With Wolverine continuing to fade into the background in Act 2, it's really Panther of all characters that is stepping us as the neutral party and moderate voice of reason. Marvel has also been promising a major game-changer with this issue. While I'm not sure I would describe the final pages as "game-changing," Fraction does deliver an impressive escalation in the conflict that promises a very memorable issue #8.

Issue #6 also does a better job than most of providing fully realized, engaging battle scenes rather than the choppy, truncated ones of earlier issues. Fraction's script makes excellent use of Olivier Coipel's talent for epic scale and bold, dramatic figures. Coipel nails the tense emotions as the Avengers struggle to remain free, as well as the surreal action as characters like Magik and Scarlet Witch unleash their full power. There's an impressive amount of detail and energy at work in these pages, and it's a shame that Coipel only has one issue remaining before the next visual shake-up.

As with nearly every chapter of this event, Avengers vs. X-Men #7 is guilty of glossing over certain vital parts of the story in its charge forward. Even so, the series remains in better shape than it was during Act 1. I would be surprised if issue #8 were to kill that momentum given the groundwork Fraction has laid here.

Jesse is a writer for IGN Comics and various other IGN channels. Follow Jesse on Twitter, or find him on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

E3 2012: Runes of Magic: Fires of Shadowforge

Runes of Magic is back with Chapter V of their fantasy saga.  What once started with just humans, added a bit of elven flavor, and now is adding the fan desired dwarves to the mix.  Chapter V is the Fires of Shadowforge and you’ll be able to play it as soon as next week; June 12th to be exact.  These dwarves delved in some demonic magic centuries ago and have now paid for it.  Modern archaeologists have reawakened this ancient race thus introducing them as a playable race in Runes of Magic.  How will the world of RoN react to the remerging beings from deep within the planet?  

With the fantasy genre’s stout bearded friends, come two exclusive classes for dwarves only.  The ‘Champion’ is a melee class which can specialize as a tank or DPS role.  Their melee attacks use magic to bolster their prowess and to defeat their opponents.  The Champion also has the unique ability to turn into a robot for when they need to take on that absolutely tanky role.  The ‘warlock’ is a range class which specializes in both DPS and support roles.  The attacks of this class are based off soul magic attacks.  Dwarves are also able to play other classes that are not race specific.

The new content in Fires of Shadowforge includes the dwarf race (males only), two new player classes, a brand new starting zone, and a dwarf exclusive instance at the end of their starting zone: Taffrock Southern District.  Once this zone is completed you can join your other friends online in the above world of RoM.  While underground though, you can explore the mystical forest like cavers, cliff sides, and the dwarven homelands.

I got the opportunity to try out a dwarven warlock to get a feel of what to expect in Fires of Shadowforge.  I was only able to play through a few quests in my limited time, but both the game and warlock had a smooth feel to them.  Starting out, the warlock had a single target attack spell to start with and single target weakening curse to cast on foes.  The environment truly gave a feel of being hundreds of feet underground and the architecture gave the stone surroundings a truly fantasy dwarven look.

The great aspect of Runes of Magic is that it is a completely free to play MMORPG.  Through downloading the client from the RoN website the game can be yours in just a short while and you will never be asked to pay a monthly fee.  What, that’s not easy enough for you?  Fine.  Runes of Magic and all the chapters, including Fires of Shadowforge, can be played on any PC web browser.  So if you play at home, your laptop, work computer, friend’s house, etc, all of your characters can be found where ever you log in at.  It doesn’t get any easier than that.  Check out today if you haven’t already and prepare for the introduction of the dwarves.

Source : gamezone[dot]com