Review: The Amazing Spiderman

Right, lets get the facetious bit out of the way first. The title's wrong. Yes I know it's taken from the comic book and it's a big fan favourite but it's just misselling the film. It really should be the quite good spiderman, the enjoyable spiderman, the better than average... you get the point. There's lots of good things about this. Emma Stone is as watchable as ever. (Even though she is obviously too old for high school.) She has an ability to let personality come through what is essentially a cartoon character. Sally Field and the non more Uncle/fatherly Martin Sheen are strong back up. Sheen's new teeth are a little disconcerting though. Andrew Garfield is likeable and between him and stone there's hardly a conversation that gets finished intelligibly (in a good way). Garfield also looks the part in the suit and more importantly for the modern hero, he has great hair (the way it stands up is the one truly amazing part of the film.) Rhys Ifans is solid but isn't given the time and space to become a truly threatening villain and this is part of the film's problem. It doesn't have a climax, well it does but it comes half way through and then runs at a level from there. It's an enjoyable enough film don't get me wrong but it misses out on the rousing finale that you'd expect from a superhero flick. There are another two on the way though so hopefully the next will tighten things up a bit. Stick around through the credits for a shadowy hint to the big bad behind the next film.

Early morning mental meandering.

Sometimes your mind just wanders, do you find that? Mine does, all over the place. for instance this morning I ended up wondering if Alanis Morissette is cleverer than she's given credit for. Bear with me on this. When she wrote and sang 'Ironic' she was rightly derided because most of the examples she warbled about weren't true Irony, more just bad luck. However, to write a song about irony and then give these wrong examples is surely about as ironic as it gets, so my theory is that maybe she did it on purpose. What do we think?

Review: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

So, apparently, Abraham Lincoln; in addition to being one of America's best loved presidents, slave abolitionist and liberal, spent his nights hunting vampires (at least in the early part of his life). He gives it up to concentrate on getting elected but, like Arnie, can't stay away from his true vocation for too long. It's giving nothing away to tell you that as a yong man he witnesses his mother being murdered by a local vamp and goes out for revenge, not really knowing what he's going up against. Fortunately a friendly vampire hunter happens along to rescue him and take him under his wing. Cue 80's style training montage and then we're thrown into the thick of the story/action.  After my initial concerns Benjamin Walker settles into the big hat and actually improves as he has to play older and older, he makes a convincing later life Lincoln. If anyone was ever born to play a young Liam Neeson it's this fella I've never really got along with Dominic Cooper on screen but he's ok in this and for the most part the rest of the cast hold their own. The star of the show is the visual style, particularly when vampires abound. Director Timur Bekmambetov is the man that brought us the atoundingly good Nightwatch and the reasonably good Daywatch both films showcased his visual flair to an extent that he hasn't really been able to match since. This foray back into the world of the undead has brought him as close to that initial promise as we've seen. It also features one of the best set-pieces (on the train) I've seen in  along time. So the action is thrilling and stylishly done, the acting is exactly what you'd expect from this kind of thing. The pacing however is a problem. The opening third is good, the final reel steams through like the train most of it is based on, the middle is a little flabby. Unfortunately, as with real life, politics raises it's ugly head to ruin everything and all you can do is wait for the big man to pick up his axe again. The political angle is intrinsic to the storyline but what could have been another interesting montage to mirror the vamp hunting one form earlier is simply whitewashed over. This doesn't detract from the fact that I came out of the cinema with a big grin. It's not going to win many favours amongst the critics but, really, what do you expect from a film called Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter?

Me and the Queen.

I've just finished Ema works for the OU. (Last week). And now another deadline looms. This time for Cafe Three Zero. We'e starting work for our third collection of stories called Random. We've each been given a stimulus for the story by a randomly selected other writer. At the minute therefore, I am trying to put myself into the midset of a single, female teacher. This could be interesting. Am currently trying to assimilate all the things I've learned fromt the course I've been doing the last nine months. Quadruple check punctuation is one. Secondly I've decided I need to let the characters lead the story and not the other way round. Once I've got used to that then I can start putting some twisty plots together and filling them with believable characters. Tha main thing, though, is just to keep writing and writing, so here I am doing just that.
P.s. The Jubilee weekend has just passed. I'm no royalist per se but this weekend Her Maj showed why many many people are. When I'm sure she'd rather have been at her husband's side and celebrating was probably the last thing on her mind, her duty told her she had to go sit in a coach . A big gaping hole at her side where the loony old bugger should have been and has been all these years. And still she waved and smiled for the thousands upon thousands that lined the streets when she must have been soooo tempted just to say bugger this I'm the Queen dontcha know, I'm going to stay here with Phil and look after the racist old sod, you lot can just bugger off. She earned my respect for that. ( Might have got more if she'd actaully cancelled, who knows?)

Exciting times.

Hello everybody. Just a quick note to let you know that the second book from Cafe Three Zero http://cafethreezero.wordpress.com/ is available now featuring a dark little story by me. P.s. That ink will also take you to a voucher to get the book half price. Hurry 'cos it won't last forever.