Avengers Assemble (2012)

I really have to review this film because well, it’s totally fucking epic. Not since the Dark Knight has a superhero film of such quality and panache graced the silver screen and any comparisons between this film and that one are completely justified. I wouldn’t say it was as good per se but it’s definitely in the same league. Unlike the Dark Knight, this film doesn’t take itself nearly as seriously, the script isn’t nearly as good but this film overdoses spectacularly on special effects which when combined with the reasonably well written script and a plethora of strong leading characters who have an interesting dynamic between them all creates a film that is a hell of a lot of fun. It’s not difficult to see where the $220 million dollar budget has gone either, in terms of SFX this film reminds me in many ways of the ugly love child of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon.

By the time the film was finally released I had heard enough of the hype to expect a good film and it surely delivered. Marvel Studios has been building up to this film for some years, releasing first Iron Man, then continuing through The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor and finally Captain America. To this end, the backstory for most of the characters is already in place leaving just Hawkeye who needed to be introduced. Director Joss Whedon obviously has a passion for the source material this film is based upon and it really shows. The only other feature film I’ve seen of his direction is Serenity and that film was amazing, the TV series Firefly to which it is the conclusion also being a greatly enjoyable ride. So there was no doubt in my mind really that he could pull this one off.

It’s the subtleties that make this film all the better though. The movie sports a very strong cast including Robert Downey Jr (Tony Stark / Iron Man), Chris Evans (Steve Rogers / Captain America), Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner / The Hulk), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), Tom Hiddleston (Loki) along with Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury) and Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Potts). The interaction between this diverse cast feels very organic and at times is down right hilarious – there were more than a few moments in the film where I was in stitches. The humour felt well placed and helped to move along a film which at 2 1/2 hours long seems to fly by.

Ultimately for fans of the genre and fans of any of the character films I cannot recommend this film enough. I haven’t seen a film this year which tops it. IMDB Rating 8.9 / 10.

My new favourite song

'Social cleansing' housing benefit cap row

CLICK HERE - SOCIAL CLEANSING

We really need to start seeing through the bullshit. Many, many people in this country are idle wasters - that is a fact that is not up for dispute. At £400 A WEEK simply for housing benefit, they are really taking the piss, and that's before you even start on the rest of the benefits these dole scum receive. It is so far beyond ridiculous I don't quite know where to start. Where I come from, it is possible to get a three bed house rented for £80 a week, so why should we taxpayers pay this extortionate sum for these untermenschen who have no desire or inclination to ever work again. Why work when you get EVERYTHING you need, and most of what you want paid for by the government?

Society's underclass is only going to get worse with this namby-pamby treatment of the long-term unemployed. As a country we need to wake up, smell the coffee and get them into government sponsored work programmes where they work long, hard hours for their benefits. The only realistic way to get people off benefits is to make working pay better than benefits.

Let's just do some simple maths. Take one family receiving housing benefit of £400 a week in London. You put them in a £80 a week jobby in Nottingham. The saving there annually is £16,640. As the average wage is around £25,000 a year, in effect, you would need at least 5 average waged persons paying tax at the standard rate, just to pay for the difference for 1 single family. Of course this doesn't take into account all the other benefits that are being received.

Is that fair?

Red Dwarf X finally finished filming

The mask is off, the locks are cut, the fangs are out and the H is gone…

Filming for the eagerly anticipated 10th series of Red Dwarf has now finished. Richard Naylor, Associate Producer tweeted the news;

’Red Dwarf X officially wrapped! The dreads are off‘.

The new series  which is set to air on the freeview channel Dave in the Autumn will consist of six 30 minute episodes. It marks the return of Dave Lister, The Cat, Rimmer and Kryten. Expect to be treated to the usual quick witted one liners, put downs and Listers love for curry.

The last outing for the boys was back in 2009 after a 10 year hiatus. These were the Red Dwarf: Back to Earth Easter specials, a three part series which was received with mixed reactions. The specials gave multiple nods to past plots and was also heavily influenced by the cult film Blade Runner.

Although technically this should be Series 9, Doug Naylor stated that he didn’t want to make a ninth series but would like to do a series 10.  Wait! Surely missing out an entire series lacks plot consistency and would alter its story arc and character development? Welcome to Red Dwarf, Smoke me a kipper… I’ll be back for breakfast.

Kurt Vonnegut's 8 Tips on How to Write a Great Story

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.

2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.

3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.

4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.

5. Start as close to the end as possible.

6. Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.

7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.

8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

Imagine the future

I’ve only just heard about the latest techno-wizardry likely to hit shops in the next couple of years but what I do know is I fucking want one. It seems kind of an inevitable development thinking about it, the first step to turning us all into cyborgs but in 10 years I can seriously see everyone wearing a pair of these damn things. So Google are cooking something up at their super secret X labs where they dream up all manner of shit from space elevators to real life terminators and they’ve come up with something called Project Glass – essentially  a pair of glasses with a heads up display that can instantly access the Internet for information, make phone calls, send texts, plan routes, act as an organiser and all manner of miscellanea - view the vid for an idea.

Although it seems these aren’t quite ready for rolling out onto the market just yet, the concept is there and just seeing the concept in action is enough to already sell a product to me that hasn’t even been invented yet. But one thing is certain – this is the future!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/apr/09/google-project-glass-augmented-reality

The best documentary ever made

Anyone who seriously thinks that Creationism should be taught in schools or that evolution is in some way unscientific should watch this documentary. It weighs in at three hours long but it is so information dense it should be classed as a work of art.

Anonymous on the war path

Predictably Anonymous is dissatisfied with UK government plans to spy on every single one of its citizens, taking a step back from harassing the Chinese government to harass the UK government instead.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f3384904-8186-11e1-b39c-00144feab49a.html#axzz1rUAp0Klg

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology-science/technology/hackers-group-anonymous-crashes-home-784250

The Hunger Games (2012)

Just a quick review for this flick I caught at the cinema the other day. Based on the hugely popular trilogy of books by Suzanne Collins, the Hunger Games could be considered in many ways the spiritual successor to the Twilight saga. However whilst I felt very meh in my opinions of Twilight and haven’t felt compelled to watch any of the sequels, the Hunger Games is a different kettle of fish. I wasn’t overly enamoured by the premise of the film which made it sound very much like a loose remake of the Running Man and indeed in many respects this is true but this film has a dark, gritty and visceral quality that puts it light years ahead of that film.

So I think the reason I wanted to see this film was because of all the hype surrounding it and a vague notion I got somewhere along the way that there might be some truth to the hype meaning I had to watch it at some point to determine if there was anything of value. And indeed there was. The Hunger Games takes place in a post-apocalyptic America of some description though the exact circumstances of how America comes to end up like this are neither clear nor particularly relevant since the film is primarily about the barbarity of human nature and the whole idea of a fascist society that lets children kill each other for entertainment and that is really all that needs to be known. To this end, twelve districts, forced to operate under the thumb of an oppressive central government, are compelled to annually send one male and one female teenager as “tribute” to the Capitol. There, they will compete in a televised blood sport – the eponymous “Hunger Games.” When her little sister is selected by lottery for the games, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) steps in to take her place. Along with baker’s boy Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), Katniss departs for the capitol, where she discovers a world of exoticism and violence. Eventually, she and Peeta are thrust into the arena, where they must fight for their lives against dozens of other tributes.

This is a long film, it weighs in at 2 1/2 hours but aside from the first 15 minutes or so, the film is well paced and never feels too long or drags. The intensity of the arena is very well done and is on its own an achievement in cinematic storytelling. That this film manages to score a 12A rating at the hands of the BBFC is also particularly impressive since it’s quite violent, bloodthirsty and features numerous scenes of children slaughtering other children. I also mentioned that the plot of this film seemed like a loose remake of the Running Man. That is in some ways true but it’s more like 1984 meets the Truman Show meets The Running Man and in my opinion better than all three.

I did have some minor gripes with this film. I liked the minimalistic style of the districts which reflected some campy films of the 70s like Logan’s Run and THX1138 but I disliked the goofy and overdone makeup and costumes that many of the characters wore – this was something I also hated about the fifth element and I felt it detracted from the realism a little. I also didn’t think the casting for this movie was done fantastically well – I did like Jennifer Lawrence and Woody Harrelson (I nearly lolled when he first came on screen because my mind immediately leapt to Zombieland and his ‘devil may care’ attitude) but ultimately I didn’t think any of the other main characters in this film were well cast. Lawrence and Harrelson carried the film for me – especially Lawrence who does a superb job and I don’t think could have been cast any better.

The best film I’ve seen so far this year without a doubt as well as a masterpiece that exceeded my expectations,  the trailer really doesn’t it do it justice. Go see.