Ben Affleck IS Batman?

OK, after mulling over it for a while, I have to say I am pleased with the casting of Ben Affleck as Batman. 

He should have no issue with playing Bruce Wayne, he has the chiseled look required for the role, and he can easily be the playboy.  As for Batman himself...I liked Daredevil Director's Cut.  It adds more to the movie.  Affleck was alright in it, working well with a script that was essentially not the great. 

Affleck has been great in some movies, Town, Argo, Chasing Amy, but he has been in some stinkers too.  I think he sometimes has a tendency to try too hard, like he feels the need to earn respect and overacts the roles.  If he can settle into the role, then I think he will do well.  He is also a good choice for moving forward with Batman movies, able to star, write and direct if he so chooses.

My biggest concern is still the writing by David S Goyer and the direction of Zak Snyder.  Man of Steel proved that neither of these guys get Superman, at all!  But Goyer has good Batman experience, working on the Dark Knight Trilogy with Christopher Nolan.  Hopefully Nolan can reign him in a bit, and we can get some balance between action and interaction.  Only time will tell.

What I thought of Pacific Rim.

I had no real expectations for Pacific Rim, so I think that may have helped it.  I had seen, but not read a couple of both good and poor reviews. 

Basic premise is simple, the world is being attacked by aliens from below the Pacific Ocean, and humans team up to build giant robots.  How could you go wrong with this you may say. Well Michael Bay managed to screw up giant robots fighting, so I guess anything is possible.

First of all, I thought the fight scenes were pretty well edited together. Lots of destruction, but you are made aware that protocols are in place to evacuate people and save lives. A lot of the time these could be scenes from a Godzilla movie.  Big action spots that only occasionally confuse the eye.  

The acting is mostly solid all the way through.  Edris Elba is on top form, as are the hero pilots of the robots.  However for me the movie has a Jar Jar, or rather a pair.  The two scientists, played by Charlie Day and Burn Gorman, are seemingly there for comedy entertainment as is the black marketeer played by Ron Perlman.  Their whole story is just stupid, and played for laughs.  My other issue is with the female lead, played by Rinko Kikuchi, has a major traumatic stress issue, and then suddenly it gets better.  This maybe due to the vote of confidence, or just written off as a "well sometimes the first time sucks" moment, but either way it is given short shrift.

My real issue with the film is, that it gets about halfway through and stops being a Japanese monster movie, and turns into Independence Day crossed with Armageddon. Complete with cheesy speech, and hero sacrifice, etc.

I enjoyed it, it was worth the money I paid, but it could have been better.  A bit more work on the second half would have improved it no end.  For me it gets 7/10 

D.C., Warner, and the permanent problem.

So after Marvel showed everyone how to make a comic book universe. And Christopher Nolan reinvented the comic book movie with the Batman trilogy, well the first two anyway.  And Kick Ass showed us that we can have adult comic book movies too (take note Marvel.). There was so much reinvigorated talk of a Justice League movie, and how it was going to all launch from Man of Steel.

Except, well, I just don't think it can happen.

The main problem is that, sorry DC, but a lot of your characters aren't very good.  

Lets look at the evidence here.  The Justice League, comprised of various members of the DC universe, but these tend to be the big seven.  Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and more often than not Martian Manhunter.

Superman - Ok, the icon, the ultimate hero. Self sacrifice, honour, truth, justice, the American way. Oh crap you blew it already.  This guy is probably the hardest to write for I would think, backed up by the fact that five out of ten of his top stories are all origin re-tellings.  He is too powerful, there is nothing on Earth that can stop him, except, conveniently placed lumps of Kryptonite.  He just killed his only equal, so you have to rely on guys more intelligent, Lex Luthor, and Brainiac, or out and out Gods.

Batman - The best character by far in the DC universe. Got two recent solid movies and will always be the best character they have, mainly because he would fit perfectly into the Marvel Universe, with almost no issue at all.

Wonder Woman - Amazon Goddess, sent out into the world by her mother to fight evil with a lasso of truth.  I know almost nothing about Wonder Woman, because every time I read any, I get bored and lose interest.  I'm not against strong female characters either.  A properly done Birds of Prey TV series could be fantastic.

The Flash - This guy has some really crappy villains, but he does have an arch nemesis with the same super speed powers, but his name is Professor Zoom.  Yes really.  Although I have enjoyed, quite a few Flash stories, I am just not sure if he could hold his own movie.  That being said, the TV series wasn't bad, but people expect so much more nowadays than the simple cop show premise of a TV series.

Green Lantern - Ok they screwed up the movie for this.  Mindless cheesy rubbish, probably the worst superhero movie since Batman And Robin.  And yet, it did show small glimmers of hope.  With some decent writing maybe, just maybe, they could make this work.  Great background, great stories.  Yes and GL movie is gonna be loaded with CGI, because his imagination is his power. But you could also have some fun with it too.  For me this works slightly better than Man of Steel, because it is pure fantasy, and doesn't pretend otherwise.  The cheesy writing in places is awful though and destroys any real get up and go.

Aquaman - This guy can't even keep his own comic book series going.  Fine if they are at sea, but otherwise just a fish out of water (sorry.)

Martian Manhunter - Along with Aquaman, cannot keep a series going, often replaced in the Justice League by Hawkman (don't ask, just think of Prince Vultan from Flash Gordon, but less shouty.)

Less than half of these can hold a solo movie together.  Unless you dispense with origins and go straight for the Justice League movie (you can't put five origins in a movie, it would just be dull) then you would have to launch them over a few years, and they just aren't strong enough characters for people to give a monkeys. 

Now, let's be honest here.  Not all of these guys need to hold a solo movie.  Black Widow and Hawkeye are both B list, but fitted into the movie nicely.  You don't need an Aquaman or Martian Manhunter movie to introduce these guys.  You could get away with a quick profile by Batman or Superman while deciding to add them to the team.

But you still have the problem that these are all massive fantasy characters, from a huge fantasy universe, and Warner Bros are just too scared to go all out with this.  All the Marvel characters so far fit into an almost real universe.  This is intelligent selection on Marvel's part.  I don't believe they would of had the same success had Phase One started with Rocket Raccoon and a Howard the Duck reboot.  But now they have the success, they can take a risk with "the Avengers in space", so to speak, with Guardians of the Galaxy.

Maybe I am wrong on all this, and maybe Warner just need to get comic book guys, writing comic book movies.  Maybe there is a great DC Phase One, with great Man of Steel 2, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and The Flash movies.  Maybe in 4 years, a Justice League movie will hit our screens and impact like The Avengers did.  But if I am honest I can't even see it getting that far.

This game requires an update...

Arrrrggggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

Probably some of the most irritating words to be seen by a modern game player.  Especially on the day of release!  How hard would it be to actually finish a game and test it before releasing it.

Were the days of the Megadrive and SNES up to the PS2 and X-Box the high points of buying a game?  

I mean before that you had the loading from the tape...screeeeeeeeech, stop, screeeeeeeeeeeeeeech, go off and do something else while it loaded, and then come back to find it had crashed anyway! 

That was followed by the slightly quicker disc drives. On the BBCs, Spectrum +3 and the the ST and Amiga (how I loved my Amiga.)

Here begins the golden age of gaming, where most games worked with a quick blow in the slot, and a quick blow in the cartridge, followed by instant loading. An era which brought us Mario and Sonic, as rivals, not at the bloody Olympic Games. Arcade games (arcades used to be a place where people went and used change such as 10p and 20p to play computer games not available at home) became available in almost direct ports, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, not rubbishy looking versions. 

Then came the Playstation.  And blew most of the old guard out of the water, with discs.  More data, better graphics, bigger games. Tomb Raider, Metal Gear Solid to name but two.

But this is where we turn to the downfall.  The X-Box 360, and the PS3. Fantastic pieces of tech, with very little to choose between them. But both connected you to the Internet, online gaming as only PC owners had experienced. No more connecting two or more consoles and TVs round someone's house. Oh no, now you just plugged it into your broadband and away you went.  

Except you didn't, because as you put your new disc in, you found out that the manufacturer couldn't be arsed to finish the game before releasing it, so you had to download Update 1.01. That, of course, was if the console manufacturer didn't require you to perform a firmware update first to adjust the shade of the blue background, or add another half dozen buttons you will probably never use!  I just want to play the bloody game!

But once it was updated that was fine, you can play away to your hearts content, oh except if you want the completed game, in which case you have to purchase the downloadable content. Extra bits of the game which they feel could extend the life of your game (cause there isn't enough to play out there.). To be fair, some of it is really good, but like all things some of it is pointless nonsense. Extra missions, more characters, even more maps for the online multiplayer (which I just seems to be an excuse to annoy Americans.)  But really, backgrounds and avatars, what a load of crap.

But the worst thing is it looks like it is going even further on the next generation of consoles (not Nintendo, the lost the plot a bit after the N64.) with the X-Box One needing a 24 hour check-in to play your games. 

I just want to turn it on, put my new disc in, and play the game. Is that really too much to ask?

Spider-Man 3...at last

Ok, here we go.

I was bored for most of it. The cgi swinging through the city right at the start looked terrible, I really feared for the effects guys at that point.

Peter and MJ are like Ross and Rachel in these movies. Will they, won't they, ah who cares now.

I really liked some of the Sandman stuff. It looked pretty good, except that ridiculously large thing at the end. Venom looked quite cool, totally nailed the screaming Venom face, but was totally underused and felt a bit wedged in.

What in the blue hell was going on with Harry? I hate you Peter, you killed my dad. Boink, oh Peter my friend. Dead dad calls. I hate you Peter, the butler has a quiet word, I love you Peter. Good grief!

Some of the action looked pretty good, some of it was crap.

Finally Peter Parker as an emo, looked stupid enough, did we really need the jazz club scene to make him look more of a moron.

Overall it was a pretty horrible mess of a film, all over the place with plotting and pacing. Some nice action pieces but not enough 2/5

Amazing Fantasy #15 - There are spoilers!

I read Amazing Fantasy #15 last night for the first time in a long while.

Instead of just ploughing through, I thought I would take my time and properly enjoy the art of Steve Ditko.

Jack Kirby's cover is one of the most repeated covers in comics history, and yet it still stands out as one of the very best Spider-Man images.

Everyone knows the story -

Peter Parker, high school bookworm, gets bitten by a spider and gets powers, but after trying to find fame he lets a thief escape and the thief kills Uncle Ben, and Peter vows to use his powers for good! (I did give you a spoiler alert, and if you don't know this why are you reading my blog anyway, you have catching up to do.)

There were a few things I had forgotten though. It was at a science fair, not a school trip, this has been changed in most of the newer retellings. The transformation is almost immediate. The incident with Uncle Ben occurs after several days of national wrestling fame, he only entered a beat Crusher Hogan competition for 100 dollars!

There is a lot of story in just one issue, but it doesn't feel rushed. It hits marks in the life of Peter, without ignoring important details.

The artwork is just outstanding. Such detail is part and parcel now, but back then everything was simpler design. Yet all the webs are drawn into each frame with Spider-Man's suit in, including web gliding wings under the arms.

Spider-Man has never been a character which I loved. Yeah I enjoy a lot of the stories, but there is never any rush to read them, other things were at the top of the pile when the regular comics came through. Re-reading this has made me think about going and reading a lot more Spidey, especially the earlier Lee/Ditko stuff. The introduction of so many hall of fame villains to look forward to. I think this should be fun.

Game Of Thrones epic fail!

When it first started on Sky, I took the opportunity to watch a series called Game Of Thrones. About 20 minutes in, and I was bored. I had no interest. I stopped it, deleted it off the planner and didn't think about it again.

I heard good reviews. It rapidly grew in popularity, it became a "water cooler" series. It didn't bother me, I had plenty to watch.

Then a few weeks ago, Sky started advertising the brand new season three episodes of Game Of Thrones, with seasons one and two available on Anytime. The adverts looked pretty good, and a bunch of people I knew were going on about the forthcoming new episodes. I thought it might be time to give it another go.

I downloaded the first five episodes, and settled down to watch a series that I really wasn't sure I would like.

I should have waited, I should have persisted. Then I wouldn't need to catch up with two seasons. I was so wrong.

Well written, well acted, intricate plots, entwined lives, decapitation, pouring molten gold over someones head for a crown, incest, murder and intrigue.  What more could you actually want in a series?

How did I get it so wrong?  I plan on starting season two shortly, probably Friday, and be through that in a couple of nights.  My only remaining decision is do I wait until season three finishes, then watch it over a couple of nights, or do I crack on and have a catch up to watch it weekly, I have 10 episodes to decide.