It is a shame to say that the film is just not good.. in any way. The acting is wooden, the story is weak, everything just feel stilted. Its a shame to say that even some of the famed special effects shots were not even that well done.

There must be balance

I did see another film this week, a film I have been waiting to see for a long time. That film was the amazing! “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World“. It is one of the best films I have seen in a long time, and I am going to see it again.

But if you see one good film you have to see a bad one. This is that bad one.

The basic premise

The basic story is that of book 1, Aang awakes and finds the fire nation has taken over the world. All of his fellow air benders have been rounded up and killed, and he is the last of his kind.. also he is the avatar, the one who can sort it all out. I can totally forgive the setup, there is a lot to cover and this just works.

But the entire affair just feels wrong, because they have to cram so much story into the one film there really is any time develop much. The real victim of this is the characters, I felt absolutely nothing for any of them. The consequence of course is I really don’t care what happens to them.

That is not to say there isn’t a great idea in here (that is why they made the cartoon), there could be a really interesting plot with why Aang has run away from the responsibility of being the avatar (which they pronounce with an odd twang in the whole film). This is touched on a number of times in the film, and it is about the only time there is something to enjoy.

3D doesn’t help

Going to see a bad film is not much fun. But having to spend £19 for you and your son to do it is even worse. I HAD to see this in 3D not because I wanted to, but because that was all they were showing it in. It seems to be a trick my cinema likes to pull, only have them in 3D and they can get extra money for nothing at all.

3D just doesn’t work, that is all I want to say on the matter. With a lot of fast motion as there is in this film it is even worse.

Didn’t want to hate it

I really didn’t want to hate this film, and I can’t say that I do. I really don’t feel anything for it. This is one of those films that has a lot of potential, but just never seems to do anything with all the ideas it presents. There is some great martial arts in here, and a fair bit of average work as well.

In short.. avoid this film! If you have nothing better to do and you really have to see it.. I would still consider finding something else to do.

Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Terry Crewes, Mickey Rourke, Stone Cold Steve Austin and cameo’s by Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger.  It’s cast are all legends and almost all of them are used to headlining  their own movies.

Question:How can you possibly live up to that?

Answer: With some  good fights, lethal knife usage for brutal kills, lots of guns and a ludicrous amount of explosions.  The only thing Expendable about this is the plot which is vintage 80s storytelling (i.e. the story is more of an excuse than an actual plot and you know that’s deliberate here).  Oh and Charisma Carpenter has a small role in it and is still hotter than all of the explosions in the film combined.

The Glory

So much glorious content for action heads, although Arnie is only in it for a couple of minutes, he is a one liner machine in that time.  Dolph vs Jet Li, Stallone vs Stone Cold, when you’ve got fights like those, there’s no need to worry about plot, just sit back and make sure you’ve got plenty of popcorn as this film is an unashamed action film.  A reminder that simple can be brilliant.  There are highlights aplenty including Dolph being just plain awesome as a drugged up mercenary who’s gone way too far over the line, Terry Crewes with the biggest, loudest and most destructive gun there is and him doing an insane shot putt that has to be seen to be believed.  Jet Li deserves praise for showing more character than in a lot of his own films, he cracked me up a few times and still managed to crack the limbs of his opponents in usual fashion.  Stone Cold makes a helluva good bad guy and for the love of God just stop reading and go book your tickets.  Sly is Sly and that alone is worth watching a movie for, never mind with this kind of backup.  Randy Couture doesn’t get much character sadly but he is a beast of a fighter in it.  I wish there was more of him and Terry Crewes in it but hey, maybe a sequel, Stallone isn’t adverse to making those

Anyway, I loved this film and I really hope this does well enough to warrant a sequel because it was FUN, moreso than the A-Team, which tried to take itself seriously. The Expendables rocks and you really need a cinema sized screen and surround sound to do it justice.

Here’s a trailer because I can, and it’s great and I enjoy watching it..

The Expendables Trailer

The main story is that Shu is sent on a job to deliver cargo, which turns out to be a girl code named HW9 (Human Weapon 9) that is smuggled out of an underground lab.  She has a normal temperature of 40 degrees and has been modified to be super human in terms of speed, strength, recovery powers and senses.  Everything except stamina… Without medication every 5 hours she develops a huge fever and would have died but for the super awesome crazy doctor they call Doc, who develops a suppressant for her condition.  Even with this though, under too much strain, she starts turning to glass.  Indeed the 8 HW’s before her all turned to glass and shattered as do the ones after her.  An interesting side effect is that whenever a man touches her, they get a shock, only girls can safely touch her.  Anyway the bad guy wants his experiment back, the good guys want to protect her. City Hunter did the same story a number of times but this spreads out the body guard episode to 12  enjoyable episodes.

The Good

It should be noted that Doc and his assistant Monica are legendary.  They are an amazing combination of comic relief while still being incredibly important to the story.  Without Doc, the show would have struggled for sure. He is an unashamed perv in a slightly frightening way at the begining but any scene with him and Monica in is good, she is awesome herself as she loves to cosplay but seems remarkably adept at everything she cosplays as. In that she actually has real nursing and real commando skills and quite possibly others.  The Doc is nothing short of a genius and his past when revealed actually provides reason for his skills, impressive.

Porilyn is another homage to City Hunter which had parts of Shinjuku under the control of a cross dressing man.  Porilyn runs Ragstown and is good friends with Shu and is acting on behalf of a sponsor when he hires Shu to deliver HW9.  Much as in CH, he ends up being useful information source although he also has his uses as a sniper and comic relief due to his cross dressing ways.

Sara, aka HW shows she has some fight but is limited by her condition.  I like her and with more episodes she could really shine, also the any man that touches her gets a shock is played well throughout.

The Bad

There are two young girls in the series that it could totally have done without.  Manami is the loud obnoxious girl who talks big and fails utterly to back it up and if she wasn’t a girl would be in my top 3 anime characters I want to punch.  The other girl Ayaka is quiet and I guess could be useful if the series was longer as she seems ok with a computer and isn’t a female Scrappy Doo like Manami but in this, all she contributes is to get the cops suspicious of them.

The Final Verdict

After all is said and done, I loved watching this show. It is clearly inspired by my favourite series but is done well enough that I don’t mind. I just wish they had learned from CH that you don’t need kids or teenagers to make a series but at least they managed to make sure the lead and a lot of the supporting cast were adults which is under utilized.  While I wouldn’t call this a 5* series, it has good pacing, girls aside has an interesting cast (even the gruff old police chief and his rival in the SWAT team are handled really well and don’t seem like simple background characters.  Overall a very solid 4* show.  If they were to ditch the two girls and do another 100 episodes I’d be very happy indeed.  Should it ever get released in the UK I will pick it up right away.

In the meantime, you can check it out at Crunchyroll.

http://www.crunchyroll.com/glass-maiden

The Good

As I said earlier, there is a lot to like about the new A-Team film, just courtesy of being the A-Team, it instantly has a theme tune to make most film soundtracks weep with envy.  Seeing BA’s van race around on the big screen, even if only for a few minutes was not only awesome nostalgia, but there’s something about that GMC van that still looks impressive.

I thought Liam Neeson was excellent as Hannibal Smith, he had a similar sense of authority and while no-one could possibly be as smug as George Peppard’s Hannibal, he did a fine job.  I love that you get to see the flight that makes BA forever afraid of flying with Murdock.  The two of them make a great duo throughout the film.  Murdock pretending to be a doctor was gold. Kudos to Sharlto Copley for that, he’ll never replace Dwight Schultz in my heart as Murdock but he did well enough for me to enjoy the character and not complain.  Replacing Mr. T is frankly impossible, the man was and still is charisma incarnate but I thought that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson did well and as I said earlier, I enjoyed his banter with Murdock and his development of a fear of flying.

The Bad

I rarely critise directing but this was so hit and miss it made me angry. The close ups of the words “Pity” and “Fool” on B.A.’s fists was good, and there were scenes which were VINTAGE A-Team but then you had the ridiculous. In Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, you have a legitimate tough guy, a baddass capable of beating up punks for sport.  You do not need fast edits during him beating someone up to make him look good, it actually looks crap and is hard to follow.  He was also called Bosco far more than BA which I suppose seing how the team’s history is rewritten in this kinda makes sense but it’s an unnessary change really.

There is a large emphasis on Face as the film goes on, I don’t mind that but Face is perhaps the hardest of all the roles in the A-Team.  You’ve got to be smooth talking, good looking, charming without being annoyingly arrogant.  For proof of how hard it is, watch the pilot of the A-Team, Tim Dunigan was playing the part of Face but is not Face, there’s something that Dirk Benedict has that others don’t.  Bradley Cooper is not bad, he’s a more rugged Face than Dirk and more believable in a fight but maybe that was the charm of Dirk’s Face.  The comedy of him calling out to BA in a fight, the way he didn’t look like a member of a crack team but was indespensible for his ability to get the team equipment, supplies and info, he didn’t need to be Hannibal-lite and come up with a plan.

Then there’s the things that were changed from TV show to movie.  The A-Team shoot at and actually hit people with bullets! unthinkable! The only thing The A-Team ever hit was the floor, doors or walls, there wasn’t enough bad guys getting thrown by explosions – a staple of the original.  At no time did Hannibal disguise himself and the tone of the movie was far more serious than the lighthearted TV show I love.  Fans of the the building montage will be disappointed that there is no tank built out of a bus or anything similar.  No doubt it was to keep the more serious tone but in the Orange adverts before the film, the same cast showed that they can deliver the cheesey comedy of the original.  That’s a shame and a waste to me.

To Finish

The new cast is an A-Team, they delivered an entertaining  film, packed full of gun fights, explosions and plans coming together.  They are a fine team, but not THE A-Team, that shall always be reserved for The A-Team starring George Peppard, Dirk Benedict, Dwight Schultz and of course, Mr. T which was the most entertaining show on TV when I was a kid and is STILL one of if not the most entertaining shows on TV.  Much like the first Dukes of Hazzard film, if you can seperate your feelings concerning the old team or if you haven’t seen the original, you will enjoy this film (which is incedentally MUCH better than that film for comparison).  Of course if the sight of the A-Team shooting at people and not at the ground in front of their feet appals you, best not look…  But if you want a good solid action film, look no further.  I went in with low expectations, wanting to hate it but found myself enjoying it.  As far as remakes go though, this is good.  Unnecessary yes, different yes, but not bad, not bad at all and well worth a watch.  And when you do watch, you MUST stay to the end for a slightly longer and speaking cameo from the original Face and Murdock.  In fact, I’d say it was the best bit of the film because in one line Dirk Benedict  sums up why as fun as the film was it should not have been made – you don’t mess with the Face.

Back on the crusade to bring more giant robots to the site and my choice this time is another blast from the past.  Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs was along with Macron-1 and Robotech, a staple of my early morning viewing when I was a child.

The show is your basic futuristic western. The Star Sheriffs protect the New Frontier from Outriders, vapour beings from another dimension.  Because they turn into a puddle of vapour when shot, there’s a lot of killing of bad guys which wasn’t something you’d see in many other shows of the time.  Their boss Nemesis even goes as far as getting his forces to kidnap all the Wilderbeasts (think buffalo) just because he thought it would amuse him.  How can you not love a bad guy with so much power he invades another dimension and kidnaps an entire species just for fun (oh and he’s voice by Peter G1 Optimus Prime Cullen).

Big Giant Robots

Ramrod aka Bismark is a spaceship that transforms into a giant cowboy robot, his head is shaped as if wearing a cowboy hat and he has his gun in a holster at his waist – nice.  He also has an abundance of cannons built into his chest which are used simultaneously to obliterate enemies once they are stunned long enough to not dodge.  The packaging on the Complete Collection DVD would have you think that Ramrod, also voiced by Peter Cullen is the star of the show. That’s cobblers. The interactions between the characters is so much better and for the record, Ramrod is piloted, has no personality and only speaks during the same transformation used in every episode  – it’s good yes, the reason to watch or buy, no. Peter Cullen does deserve praise if only for voicing the Heroic robot, the Commander of the Star Sheriffs and the Commander of the bad guys which must be some sort of record for key roles in a good dub (he always does a number of bit parts too). I say good because I’ve heard the dub of Transformers Headmasters and I think there’s about 3 people did the voices for the lot lol.

The Star Sheriffs

One of the great things about this show is that the team is made up of sheriffs from different countries and are proud of it, wearing their country’s flag on their helmet and armour (although the Union Jack and the US Flag are deliberately mis-coloured for ease of animating).  The voice casts for the sheriffs are all superb and sound like they are having a great time with the different accents they get to use and it really brings the characters to life.

Saber Rider is a wonderful blend of the best of England and Scotland.  He has a great English accent and a Scottish family and plays bagpipes – wears the Union Jack and is the veteran leader of the Star Sheriff (despite not being that old at all) and is known as Top Sword as he is the best swordsman in the galaxy. He rides a mechanical flying horse named Steed and uses a saber (duh) and a hunting rifle. Even as a kid I knew there was something up with the way Saber Rider delegated everything to Fireball and sure enough in the Japanese version Saber wasn’t the leader but he’s definitely the brains behind the team whichever version, he’s dull but there weren’t many British commanders of big giant robots back then, wait there still aren’t… He also gets big props for calling everyone chum ^_^

Fireball – the youngest world champion car racer ever and the real hero of the show – he pilots Ramrod and drives a 6 wheeled racer called Red Fury Racer/Turbo (he calls it both inside one sentence in one ep.)   Regardless of the name, it looks good when drawn properly (and any car with a chain gun that comes out of the roof and rocket launchers out the sides is cool in my books.

He has the Japanese flag on his uniform but displays no sign of any Japanese behaviour other than that of typical anime hero, well except using chopsticks in one episode.  He was the first anime character I ever cosplayed as, of course back then, I didn’t even know what cosplay was, I just wanted a red suit of armour like his.  I don’t know if any pictures exist, it was terrible, foam pads on a red tracksuit but it made me happy.  Why Fireball when as I know now and yet my brother knew back then, Colt is far more awesome, well Fireball gets to pilot Ramrod and I’d love to say it’s because he gets the girl in the end but the truth is he gets to press the red button tha transforms Ramrod and everyone knows my love of pushing buttons hehe.  Actually with hindsight I don’t think I even had that habit until I saw this show.

Colt – The man, phenomenal ability to go from clown to badass cowboy in 0.2 seconds.  His helmet has a cowboy hat rim to it and when he is not wearing that, he wears a real one and never leaves it behind.  He has the US flag on his armour and a superb cowboy accent.  He flies one-man fighter named the Bronco Buster and was a bounty hunter before he joined the Star Sheriffs.  His mentor in the art of gun slinging looks suspiciously like Clint Eastwood. He chases girls and gold with equally reckless abandon but when he draws his gun you know vapour beings are going home.  He also has the coolest theme tune and has great arguments with Fireball and April which are often highlights of the shows.

April Eagle – chief designer of Ramrod and daughter of Commander Eagle (head of the Star Sheriffs) has a French flag on her armour but like Fireball displays absolutely no trace of her native county’s behaviour or accent.  She has a pink robotic horse named Nova early on which isn’t used again and she usually stays behind in Ramrod to swoop in and save the boys bacon. Trained in karate, she’s not afraid to put anyone in their place but still has odd moments where she’s the helpless damsel in distress.

Changes

Originally a 1984 anime Star Musketeer Bismarck,  the mind blowing list of changes is available on wikipedia, I suggest checking it out to get an idea of just how much was changed, from replacing episodes and renumbering almost the entire series to creating an extra 6 eps of the show to replace existing episodes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saber_Rider_and_the_Star_Sheriffs

Music

Also changed was the music, and the Japanese and US versions of this show couldn’t be more different and for once, the US comes off far better! It varies from the rocking futuristic western the show is to fun to epic. Colt’s theme is just awesome, when you hear it, you know good things are coming – it could be comedy or it could be action but Colt always delivers and his theme lets you know its coming. A huge thank you to Dale Schacker for creating a soundtrack I still listen to and love. It’s genius, especially the bull whip at the end of the intro, inspired.

Toys

Saber Rider didn’t make a dent in the UK so toys never came out, it was bigger in Europe though (especially Germany who got the DVDs long before we did grrr) and I did see some of the toys when on a holiday in France.  This would cause one of longest running and biggest rages of my life as we visited a town (don’t ask me which) and I saw a toy of Ramrod in a toy shop that was closed because it was a Sunday. My parents refused to go out of their way to visit the town again just to go to a toy shop to buy me a toy I couldn’t afford.  They had no idea just how rare this toy was, how important to me it was and just how much grief this would bring them.  I spent the rest of the holiday in a huff and would not see any Star Sheriff toys again for another 8/9 years until, thanks to the internet, I finally found a yahoo listing for a Bismark DX – for $300! Naturally I couldn’t afford it and that re-sparked the fire again. It would be another 8 years before I finally got my hands on the toy, thankfully for a mere $200 while on holiday in the US but still, when I think I could have had it when I was 9 for a fraction of that I still weep.

For a few pictures of it see here  http://www.flickr.com/photos/85964213@N00/sets/72157624024108482/

What do you think Top Sword?

The animation in Saber Rider is usually good for its time, peaking at very good for scenes they want to make the Sheriff’s look extra awesome. The exception seems to be some scenes with the Red Fury racer which make it look like it was drawn by me but on the whole good. More consistent than a lot of the shows its age.  As mentioned, the music is great, sound effects are ripped from the usual sources used for Transformers (you will hear Prime’s gun), GI Joe etc.

The only negatives are some throwaway episodes and flashback eps.  Sadly the story doesn’t always make sense due to some episode re-ordering which is inevitable but after initial wtf, it makes immediate sense.  Does it matter? to some maybe.  Me, I’m always happy to overlook this shows flaws because the upside is that its always fun.  The nameless Outrider troops are always comical (I love their dodgy accents) but at least unlike the droids in the Clone Wars, they are always shown to be a lethal threat to innocents and non-sheriffs, which makes the Star Sheriff rescues all the more enjoyable.  The big robot fights are your typical 80s/90s affair but Ramrod is one of the cooler looking robots out there IMO and having Prime’s voice during transformation always helps.

By now you’ve read how much of an impact this had on my childhood so I’m about as biased  as they come and obviously going to immediately recommend it to EVERYONE.  Naturally it isn’t for anyone that wants long drawn out story arcs or massive character development but it is a whole lot more fun.  It isn’t available in the UK but you can import it as it is region ALL and plays perfectly on the PS3 – Thank you World Event Productions!

Overall, a perfect 5 for anime robot lovers, probably rates about a 2 to normal viewers who probably stopped reading a long time ago as this was never going to be a show for them and is as much an ode to my childhood as it is a blog about the show. That is how intertwined this show and me are.

Now I was not totally new to Manga, I had seen some before but never really knew it was a specific genre all its own. Things like “Battle of the Planet” and others had been on TV and I had always loved that Japanese style. But don’t forget this was before the Internet, there was no way of finding out any of this stuff. Looking back at it now I wonder how I ever managed… but you had what you had, and I was luckier than most.

As it turns out I had seen the Studio Ghibli classic “Castle in the Sky” year before and loved it. But with no way of ever really finding out anything about it, other than its name and the fact I loved that style. If I had seen “Totoro” or “Spirited Away” at that age I would have been forced to find out more about these amazing films.

But I digress, just looking at the cover I knew I had to watch it!

The first viewing

Nikobe was insistent we had to watch it straight away, no time for the normal “Street Fighter II” on the SNES. This was the most important thing that day, and I have to say he was right.

We watched it in silence, right from the beginning it was no ordinary film. Even now it has a style all its own. The visuals were astounding, the sound work amazing, everything about this film was polished and first rate. Unlike anything I had seen before this was animation as I had always wanted it, and it had a strong message that.. in places on that first viewing.. I didn’t understand.

When it finished we watched all the way to the end of the credits. Partly out of respect, I have always tried to stay right to the end. If someone can spend so much of their life making something, the very least I can do is stay to see their name appear on the screen for 20 seconds. But also because we were both dumb struck. What was that we had just watched? Did all that really happen just then? What happened at the end again? Did they solve it? Was that Akira? So Tetsuo can do that thing with his mind, and so can the other kids? Sol is fantastic, can you really make space lasers like that? And he could fly.. is that the mind thing again? Where did those creepy kids go? Are they kids at all? That bit with the flying thing in the lift was cool, what about the bikes at the start.. yep!… how about that bit…… and so on. I think it is probably fair to say we descended into just listing out the cool bits of the film at this point. In my (and Nikobe’s) defence. We were 13 at the time.

The upshot was.. we watched it again. I don’t think we even discussed it. While we were saying how cool it was we just rewound it (yeah.. remember doing that?) and watching it from start to end again.

Eyes open

Akira is a very abstract film in many ways. It has a lot of idea you need to get into your head and no explanations at all. You either love it or hate it, and if you can’t keep up then you have a problem.

After about the fourth of firth viewing (I had my own copy by then) it all starts to come together. Now you are over the shock of just how amazing this film is you are down to its story and production, and this is one of those very rare films that does not disappoint. The sound track is excellent, and every frame is filled with stunning art work.

I can only hope that everyone sees this film as their introduction to Manga and Anime. This film is a true masterpiece, just don’t expect every anime to be this good.

Where to now

So once you have seen this where do you go next? Fortunately this was the time Manga really took off in the UK. I started collecting “Manga Mania” from about issue 4 and saw a whole new world. I just fell in love with Anime and Manga and wanted everything I could get.

At the time “Manga Mania” had just started the complete strip of “Dominion: Tank Police”. That was my first introduction to Masamune Shirow and started a love of his work that would eventually lead me to “Ghost in the Shell” another of my favourite film, and I believe sets the standard by which all Sci-Fi should be judged. But his earlier work was showcased and I really enjoyed it. “Dominion” of course, but “Appleseed” was just as good.

Many others came and went, and I can’t say that many others really grabbed me until I saw Adam Warren’s “Dirty Pair” or Kenichi Sonoda’s “Bubblegum Crisis”. Among all the manga that I thought was OK, there were some that really stood out, these alone were worth getting the magazine for. But all of them were interesting and new.

A fortune on video

So when ever I had the money (not often) I would have to make the trek to one of the larger towns and check out the videos. There was an influx of anime to match the growing demand.

For me this was a blessing and a curse, because along with all the good films there were utterly crap ones. Not just bad, I mean really terrible. Manga Entertainment who were one of the main importers had the most wild quality control. By now I had managed to convince Sideswipe he would like this stuff, little did I know he would go on to become the ultimate collector and otaku (Thanks!). So we would go and look at the videos and buy a few, most of the time we were disappointed but sometimes hit gold. It is thanks to him I found out about Lupin III, and I was able to find Tenchi Muyo and Gunsmith Cats. These were the things we lived for.

This lead to one of the other tricks that really annoyed us all. They would release the first video, not telling you it was the first in a series of 100 episodes (I’m looking at you Slayers). This is what finally put me off, I still love it and look for the best bits but I hated being drawn into these cons. Sideswipe however has never really got out of that trap, and I am hoping at some point he will put up some pictures of his front room.

My pride and joy

From my love of Anime and Manga sprung my love of Japanese culture. That has lead me on to watch Japanese films, something that I don’t think I ever would have done without my start in seeing Akira. I might never have seen classics like “Seven Samurai” or “Battle Royal” without it.

Thank you Nikobe for getting me started, and thank you Sideswipe for taking it to 11!

But there is one other thing Akira has given me. Two amazing posters that have sat in my closet untouched for about 15 years. Sideswipe and I went to a little exhibition, we were a little disappointed but I came away with three things. A cell from Akira itself (which got damaged when it was taken off my wall.. different story) and a pair of limited edition numbered prints. There were only 1000 made in the first run and were supposed to retail for £100 each.. I managed to get them for £15 because the person selling them had no idea what they were.

At some point this year I will finally get them on my wall. I promise!

I don’t know what it is that has never really worked for Downey, but is has certainly re-established himself since Iron Man came out. He can carry off the narcissistic Tony Stark like no one else, and is definitely fun to watch.

The concept of Iron Man itself is one of those comics that passed me by. Of course I know of Iron Man, and a basic understanding of the story but beyond that I really don’t know how Iron Man fits into the Marvel universe. Some of that history is coming out in this film, along with references to other films in production. I counted three, but I might have missed something.

So how does this one stand-up? In short it has its moments, but overall it does not have the same feel or impact of the first.

What’s happened?

This is still a great film! There is plenty of action and the effects are even better than the first film. But it just does not have that feel that makes the first film so much fun. In the first you have a very gritty opening and the growth of stark from a self-obsessed arsehole to self-obsessed super hero.

Here I didn’t feel there was much in the way of story. There were plenty of characters, and quiet a few of them were very interesting. From Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, or Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow but none of them had much time to do anything.

There was some action with them, and Black Widow had a chance to show her fighting credentials, but that was about the sum of it. Which is a shame because I was expecting something more between her and Iron Man.

While Nick Fury was there to push The Avengers idea into the film, again his character was never really explored in any way. Not really a surprise in this film I suppose, but a shame.

For me the star of the show has to be Sam Rockwell. He is always fantastic in everything he does, and again here he is stealing the show. But the film doesn’t give him the chance to do much more than just be a pissed off CEO who likes to shout and resent Tony Stark. But his scene where he is showing off his weapons is great fun.

The biggest let down for me was Whiplash. The scenes where he is not fighting are OK, passable. But when it comes to action there is just not enough. Even though the film is long enough, and plenty of time is given to show the characters. Nothing much seems to happen. I didn’t feel like I saw much growth apart from a tiny moment with Tony Stark and his dad that I thought was very nicely done.

Conclusion

There is no denying this is a good film. It is great fun to watch and the effects will make you smile. But there was a lot that I think could have been trimmed or at least taken in a different direction.

Get your popcorn and settle in!

Don’t forget you need to stay right to the end of the film. Get right through the credits and there is a treat waiting for you!

"How may I be of service"

I have have had my reservations about the new doctor, taking over the role from David Tennant was always going to be a very hard job. But I have to admit I am liking the new doctor. He has the quirkiness and charm that is needed to pull it of, his companion is actually very good, and the first two stories have been good. I think the revised look works well, and while he is still finding his feet he carries it of so well I think I could happily watch a few series and be more than content.

That was until this weeks episode. Written by Mark “League of Gentlemen / Psychoville” Gatiss it was a look into an alternative World War II where our secret weapon was the Daleks. You can not tell me that is not a great idea for a plot. The opening was beautifully done and the reveal of a Dalek in WWII inspired uniform was excellent (I especially liked the little union jack on and the cammo packs), even the name “Ironside” was a great touch. The inclusion of Nazi Daleks would make for a fascinating story in its own right (or how about Nazi Cyber Men?).

Tommy Dalek/Nazi Cyber men

Unfortunately for me this episode took a tumble as soon as they stepped away from this simple premise and back into what I can only call a deus ex machina! For some reason Dr Who doesn’t think it can go on without the Dalek. But the problem is of course the Doctor is very good at totally wiping the Daleks from existence. So you get this trope of the few Daleks trying to resurrect the race from some random point in time.

As an enemy the Daleks are great and Dr Who definitely needs to keep them, but they don’t need to be in every series. We could happily go a couple of series and try out all new things and bring them back. That would be great! But not only did they need to bring them back again, they needed to update the look. For me the Daleks have had roughly the same look for a long time, and with the few exceptions (Davros, The tank Dalek from the McCoy days) it stays the same. It works well, its menacing, its everything you want. But it seems someone has decided they can do better.. and what they same up with as far as I am concerned is a joke.

All new look with a fatter ass. Available in a range of colours!

Its unfortunate because I like the new eye stalk, but everything else is all wrong. The shape now looks weird, its grown a huge ass, its got a massive head, and its too tall. But the voice work for excellent. The ark work here actually looks quiet nice, but somehow that has been lost in translation and on screen it does not work. On top of that the episode just didn’t make much sense as soon as the doctor set foot on their ship. But I did love the Tardis self destruct being a Jammy Dodger.. genus!.

SFX go strange

Then you get the bomb you can bomb you can talk out of blowing up, and spitfires in space (again sounds great.. didn’t work). What has happened to the FX? The ship and the spitfires had a much more “done with models” feel to them this time around. Being a huge fan of Thunderbirds, UFO, and even Blake’s 7 I can appreciate a nice retro SFX joke, but these didn’t work, it was either too cheap, or botched and just felt weak.

Unfortunate conclusion

I don’t know where this episode has gone wrong. I can only assume its when the marketing department came in and said they needed to launch a new line of toys. I was hoping for better from Moffat and Gatiss together! I am still enjoying the series, and a looking forward to the return of Moffat’s own angles next week (from one of my all time favorite episodes ‘Blink’).

Take a gander over to IO9 to see some more really great looking art for for the new series.

Realtime Worlds the creators of that have been very quiet since its release working on their next game. Having handed over the follow up to “Crackdown” to Ruffian. Due to be released later this year “Crackdown 2″ will be pretty much more of the same. I am sure they will have added some new twists, and improved the engine. But to be honest I have done that now, and I don’t really play “Crackdown” other than to have 10 minute blasts of crazy jumping around the city, and driving the great cars.

What looks much more interesting is APB. A game Realtime have had in development for a long time now.

Initially it looks very much like a standard open FPS (think Grand Theft Auto) but as the video shows it is something a lot more interesting than that. The on-line aspects of the game make for a much more immersive and fun looking game. We have all played where the computer AI is just no good at all, APB looks like it can solve that problem.

Being able to call for backup is a clever idea and one that I have wished for in a lot of games. How well it plays out depends a lot on the muppets who are in the world with you, but it has the potential to be a lot of fun.

Customisation

The level of customisation you can put into this game is also another fantasic addition. Making it a lot more interesting than just a plain shooter.

The BGR team has already decided on at least two customisations we need to put into this game.

The A-Team
This is a must. We will need a custom GMC van with correct livery (Black and Grey with red stripe and spoiler in case you did not know) plus White and Red Corvette. Then of course there is the team to go with that, something of a running joke here at BGR but we enjoy it. But we are in need of a forth to take the role of BA.

Gunsmith Cats
Another must, just because it would be fun to see a classic Shelby Cobra GT 500 turn up with Rally and Mini inside.

After a long time in the making it is looking likely this is coming in the next few months. The potential is fantastic, and I for one am looking forward to it.

Update:
IGN have put up a great post looking at ABP. Looks like they are looking forward to its release, though it looks like the release date has slipped back to summer.