Iron Man – Film Review

Iron Man is another in the trail of the Marvel Comic to film conversions, and could just be the best yet. Generally speaking, the comic books turned films have been very good – Spiderman, Batman, X-Men, all to me were very enjoyable. I have to admit, Iron Man to me is one that I can’t remember at all from childhood, and even the trailers couldn’t fully entice me but I went along to see it anyway.

Iron Man follows the script that you would expect, with lots of CGI, one central ‘hero’ character, and an outlandish plot to wrap it all together. Even though they all have similar themes, what makes each one unique and different is the hero. Apart from X-Men, all the others focus on one character, the hero, and it’s this that makes each film enjoyable in its own way.

This also means that the actor playing the hero role has to be perfect. If the casting of the main character is off, the film is absolutely doomed. Fortunately, Iron Man is played by Robert Downey Jr who completely makes the film what it is. His character Tony Stark starts as an extravagant billionaire, living the playboy lifestyle in casino’s and living day-to-day. Stark then goes through a major emotional journey, going through various attitudes towards his work and colleagues, before ultimately deciding what to do with his money and his engineering talents. It’s done in a likeable way though – one thing (maybe the only thing) about one of the Spiderman films that annoyed me was that Toby McGuire turned into a goody two shoes overnight, and dumped (before getting back with) Kirsten Dunst in order to save as many people as possible. I know its noble and a hero is supposed to be like that, but its still annoying. Iron Man is a good guy, but he does the right thing for his own good and for his own revenge against the people who originally kidnapped him – not because the villain is a threat to society or anything sad like that. So even though he should be a bit of an asshole, he’s actually very cool and likeable, and crucially, not annoying or frustrating to watch. Just the opposite in fact.

CGI effects are very good throughout the film, and are done in a similar way to the Transformer film. It looks realistic and tangible even though it is obviously done on computers. The Iron Man Suit effects are shiny and eye-catching, even more so than Spidey’s undies, and the mechanical components that pop in and out shooting missiles and what not, are sublime.

The storyline is a bit silly, even for me, but I’ll forget about that. You know its not going to be based on real life events or anything serious so who cares. The ending is a bit OTT but satisfying nonetheless (and wide open for a sequel).

Pepper Potts, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, has the somewhat typically role of the obedient, under-appreciated, plain yet secretly glamorous assistant to Tony Stark. Although everyone else thinks she was great, I think the role could have been better cast. This is being a bit picky because she does do the role OK, but for such a good film you would expect slightly more from her.

Iron Man is a great film to watch – thrilling, fast paced, frequently comical and absolutely owned by Robert Downey Jr who makes the film what it is almost single handedly, without him, the film would have been only a 5/10 and you can’t imagine the role going to anyone else after seeing him in it.

Overall – 8.5/10

Paramore HQ Kerrang! Magazine Wallpaper Scans

This was scanned from Kerrang! Magazine this week, 21 May 2008. It was a two-page spread, so I had to stitch the two scans together. Think I did a decent enough job, it’s hardly noticeable unless you really squint at it.

I’ve done them all in widescreen and flatscreen resolutions, high to low. I enhanced the colour shades to make it a bit brighter and more colourful, and didn’t add anything like titles or banners because I didn’t want to clutter it up. If anyone wants to edit or use these wallpapers themselves then feel free, just give me a mention or leave a link, thanks. OK, here we go;

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Anger at Daily Mail’s Latest Attack on Emo’s and My Chemical Romance

That’s it! No more! I have had enough of the Daily Mail spreading nothing but assumptions, hypocrisy, exaggerations, and above all – lies. They’ve done it in the past in 2006 with this equally disgraceful article on Emo and Goth culture. This article labels Green Day as Emo (yes, again) and uses a picture of Helen Flanagan to show what a Goth should look like. But apparently these dimwit reporters haven’t learned a thing, despite a massive outrage at the time. Well, what are they doing (again) exactly? Read on.

Last year, Hannah Bond committed suicide, and the press – predominantly the Daily Mail, has now pointed the blame finger squarely at My Chemical Romance. According to the Daily Mail it is somehow their fault that the music they created had such an effect on the 13 year old, it influenced her death. What utter bollocks.

It’s terribly tragic that Hannah decided to do this to herself, but why the need to assign blame (8 months later) on ONE band is unfathomable. Below is a breakdown of the Mail’s report, and for those who may not be aware of My Chemical Romance or other such ‘Emo’ bands, I’ve tried to explain the below quotes rationally, and why this article has infuriated so many people up and down the country. I myself am not an Emo, but I do appreciate some of the music, including MCR, as with many other genres, so I do know my stuff.

“One of the foremost of these “suicide cult” bands is My Chemical Romance, from New Jersey.”
Suicide cult bands? Can the Mail please offer any evidence or proof that MCR are in any way encouraging or condoning suicide? Their music is open to interpretation of course, but to me it is generally quite positive and does not in any way say that death is a good thing, or that it should be glamorised. But because lyrics are about dying the Mail as usual wrongly assumes that it must be depressing, when in fact the songs are saying messages like don’t give up, carry on, and stand up and be strong in hard times.

“Music plays a critical role…American bands such as My Chemical Romance, Good Charlotte and Blink 182 are particular favourites.”
True, music is a big part of being Emo along with the dressing and styling. Naming the above bands as Emo however is completely unfair and ridiculous. It’s obvious to anyone that has heard these bands that they are not even remotely Emo. MCR may dress in some way Emo, but lyrics are the opposite – more on that later. Good Charlotte are Pop/Punk at best, not taking themselves seriously and generally being positive about their previously downtrodden lives. One video has them at an Old People’s Home messing around. Blink 182 were even more upbeat, silly and less serious than Good Charlotte. See below.

This is Blink-182. Do they look miserable or suicidal? No, so if you are going to pinpoint or highlight particular bands as Emo, at least do some research and not look at the first names that are listed on Wikipedia.

“My Chemical Romance made it to No.1 in the UK chart with Welcome To The Black Parade in October 2006 – the ‘black parade’ is a place where all Emo’s believe they will go when they die”
I actually had myself laughing in stitches over this one. Have you ever heard such a ridiculous statement in your life? They talk about being Emo like it is a religion or something. The Black Parade is a song about a person accepting death, remembering the happiest time of his life (a parade when he was young) which is comforting to him. The song is quite upbeat and is fundamentally about not letting death get you down, and simply because the lyrics are about dying, the article immediately assumes it must be depressing and somehow encouraging suicide.

Words are thrown around like cult, and underground society, as if Emo is some sort of dark religion when it’s just a genre of music. It’s fans have their own styles and tastes, just as varied as any other branch of music.

Finally, an excellent quote from someone who wrote into the Daily Mail;

“Yes, it’s tragic that this young girl has lost her life, but attaching blame to a phenomenon that reflects the depression – not causes it, is senseless.”

Kerrang! magazine this week had a full page spread of letters sent in by people who are angry at the unjustified attacks on MCR and Emo’s by the media. Funnily enough, they make much more sense than the Mail does. Some are highlighted below;

“…pointed out that people had been killing themselves long before My Chemical Romance were even born”

“MCR and other such ‘emo’ bands do not condone self harm, their music is used to bring people together and help them through tough times, to make them feel happy when they are down and show them they are not alone. Suicide is not the answer and the bands have said this themselves. Music is an escape, not the reason to hang yourself.”

“it is appalling that they have decided to target ONE band over this issue. To say that MCR have in any way encouraged it is absolutely ridiculous. Have they ever actually listened to the lyrics?”

Exactly. In another song of the album, lyrics such as “I am not afraid to keep on living, I am not afraid to walk this world alone” are very powerful and surely promote life and for the Mail to highlight one song, of one album, by one band, is not only unprofessional but misinformed and inaccurate as well. The country-wide anger that the articles on the Daily Mail website have generated must show just how wrong and stupid these narrow minded reporters are. They always need a scapegoat and this time it is Emo. How long is it before they blame rap or R&B music for gun crime, teenage pregnancy and violence. What, they already did…?

If you feel the same, or can explain the Mail’s reasoning, please leave a comment so I can understand. The way I see it, the Mail has done this all before and I am getting very fucking sick of it. Good god, Daily Mail reporters please do some research in the future, you feckless, overpaid, halfwits.

Avril Lavigne – The Best Damn Thing – Album Review

I’ve been purposely avoiding doing a review of ‘The Best Damn Thing’ because I knew it wouldn’t be very favourable. But now that the album-titled track has been released, bringing the total singles from the album to four, I’ve run out of excuses and I have finally done it. The album refused to fade away into history, like I was hoping it might.

Released in 2007, a lot of big names worked on the album on various parts – and I mean big names. Travis Barker (Blink-182, +44), Josh Frese (NIN), Deryck Whibley (Sum 41, and husband to Avril – lucky guy), Dr Luke (Carlos Santana, Kelly Clarkson), but sadly maybe it was too many cooks that spoiled the proverbial broth. More on that later. A lawsuit was filed against Avril Lavigne and Dr Luke after allegations of plagiarism – on ‘Girlfriend’ the most popular single. It is indeed remarkably similar to The Rubinoo’s song ‘Boyfriend’ and even has the same basic rhythm and lyrics such as “hey hey, you you, I want to be your girl/boyfriend”. Judge for yourself Here

Despite everything before and after the release, the album has been a success. But this album is what you would expect coming from a 12 year old. It’s bratty, whiny, and very very annoying. Her cute Canadian accent has been replaced by a whiny slutty bore and while most of the choruses are all right, the versus make you cringe. Her rap efforts are horrific and her vocals are not good enough, no where near good enough. what’s worse is that almost every song has this sort of gangster rap wannabe theme to it (I think everyone has heard the senseless “I’m the mother facking princess” line in Girlfriend, similar lines appear in other tracks) were she is rapping about how nobody is good enough for her and she is the best damn thing, so to speak. Only on Innocence and When You’re Gone is some actual singing ability shown. It’s like she didn’t even try or think about how the album might sound. She was drunk during some recordings though, which might explain a bit.

The videos have been equally awful and cringe worthy. Gone are the ties, skateboards, and punk bracelets. Instead we now have dance routines, cheerleaders, backing singers, bleached blonde hair, ultra cheesy dressing up scenes, and very little instruments are actually shown to be played. While Avril looks as dazzlingly sexy as always in all the videos, it’s not the same as before. She’s changed into exactly what she used to say disgusted her. about the music industry. There is less maturity now than before which doesn’t make sense, and not even hearing Girlfriend a million times has made me like it. EDIT – actually hearing the Chinese version of the song always makes me laugh, even on the worst of days. Look Here

Releasing a clean version of the album and one with swearing included is even more confusing – if you want to appeal to kids then don’t swear, and if you want to swear then don’t compromise you’re work just to sell more. Don’t have it both ways. Swearing in songs doesn’t bother me if its needed, or if it fits in – but it feels and sounds like Avril was doing it just to seem more ‘bad-ass’, when in fact, she was much more rebellious in Let Go. I still say that Avril Lavigne has produced two excellent albums, but ‘The Best Damn Thing’ is a real shame, and bitterly disappointing. Glimpses of hope are evident in When You’re Gone and Innocence, and choruses, but I hope the next offering is much, much better. There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to make a fun, up-beat, energetic album but there still has to be more creativity and better songs than this. Finally, WTF was that Girlfriend remix all about? Why would you want to make a rubbish song even worse? Look at you’re peril – it might possibly be the worst thing in the entire history of music….seriously. It pains me to give such a low score, but I think it’s fair.

Overall – 4/10

Paramore Live at Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Maidstone, Kent

For those who (like me) have only just found out that the amazing Paramore were playing at the festival, you can see their performance here, and I have kindly provided a Download Link for an mp3 of their whole set. Why didn’t Radio 1 announce Paramore earlier? They are a million trillion times better than the several-decades-over-the-hill Madonna, and frankly should have headlined one of the days.

I’m not too bitter though, because this performance is exactly why they are such an amazing band. From Zac’s drum soloing intro to Josh’s brilliant guitar skills, and Hayley’s voice was on top form as always. Maybe some of the crowd didn’t know too much about Paramore before seeing them live, but I think there are a few more new fans now.

21 – Film Review

21 is loosely based on a true story about a group of students at MIT (A private American university, with an emphasis on Science and technology) who decide to cheat casino’s all over the world by winning at Blackjack by card counting. The controversy around the film was a surprise to me when I only stumbled onto it after trying to find out more about Jim Sturgess. The original students were all Asian-American, and in the film only two members are of Asian ethnicity – one is shown to be a petty thief and a slot gambler. This would probably bother me if the script wasn’t also changed dramatically from actual events. Remember how I said ‘loosely based on a true story’? The original MIT team did it for the money and just to see if they could do it as much as anything else, which is drastically different to the film. Because it is ‘based on’ actual events and not a documentary there can be certain allowances, obviously made to appeal predominantly (rightly or wrongly) to an American audience. This is an American film, so the fact that most of the cast are white American isn’t that big a deal. Enough, onto the film.

The script was changed from real events so that the main character Ben Campbell (based on Jeff Ma, who actually appears as a table dealer in one of the casino’s, a neat touch) decides go to go along with the scam to pay for himself to go to Harvard Medical School. Typically, he ditches his old friends and starts living the high life in Las Vegas buying expensive clothes, partying and going to strip clubs etc. The changes in Ben’s behaviour are predictable and not very subtle, even annoyingly blatant and over exaggerated. As the team wins more and more money, Ben becomes addicted to the winning and doesn’t stop even when he has enough to pay the Harvard fee’s.

The casting is very strong, and Jim Sturgess does a solid job as the lead geek-turned-cool role. In fact, he’s had a busy year having featured in four films in 2008 already. I haven’t seen him in a film before and I thought he was all right, but the main downfall was the script and the somewhat predictable turns in his character, as he becomes addicted to the thrill of counting cards his morales go out the window but then the next day he’s back to his old self feeling bad for deserting his friends.

Kevin Spacey plays Mickey, and is on typically superb form. He excels as the leader of the gang and is entertaining whenever he is on screen. His corrupt status of an MIT teacher is believable enough and even when not actually on screen, his presence and influence on the other characters stands out. One excellent scene shows the students arguing over whether to carry on by themselves, and it shows how afraid they are of him and the tension around the group is crystal clear.

Kate Bosworth on the other hand, while usually a positive point in any film, was pretty dire. I’m not sure whether it was the script, the character or just her acting but it was fairly woeful (I used to absolutely adore her in the Blue Crush days, but recently her appearances in films have been intermittent and generally disappointing). Her character Jill’s relationship with Ben has more ups and downs than a roller-coaster, and moments of closeness don’t make any sense and are purely random. She seems to flirt with him all the time but at other times she pushes him away as far as possible. I don’t think she even has the same sex appeal that she had a few years ago in Blue Crush (which is a great film for a chick-flick by the way). It was also way to obvious what was going to happen between them (as in most films) but in 21 they didn’t even try to create any suspense or drama – they just kind of switched the on/off switch to on when it seemed right, and back to off at serious moments.

Laurence Fishbourne should be insulted by his lack of action in the film. He plays a very bit-part character and even though he plays the part superbly well, there isn’t nearly enough of him in the film. There was so much potential for his character to be developed, and his relationship with Mickey to be explained further than the five minutes that it actually had. While part of the plot near the end was yet again far to obvious, his character Cole Williams still has a crucial role. If only the directors and producers could have put more effort into it, it would have easily made the film much, much better. Laurence Fishbourne is a great actor, and deserved much more screen time than he got.

It would also have been good to know a bit more about the other students. They are skimmed over so quickly its hard to remember anything about them. They are just introduced and then forgotten about in the next scene. They are in most scenes in one way, but always in the background saying and doing very little.

There is a positive feel good factor to the film of seeing the casino’s being screwed over by the little guy, and you come away thinking how cool it would be to actually go and do it. The special effects are minimal, and are mostly just fancy camera angles and switching effects. That said, it is directed and shot very well, making the most of the Las Vegas dazzling landscape of hotels, fountains and skyscrapers – the party atmosphere of Vegas is captured perfectly. A lot of scenes from Las Vegas will be ones you have seen a hundred times, but there are enough effects to make it stand out at least a little bit. The film does a good job of being intelligent where it needs to be (remember these guys are supposed geniuses), and is clever in the way it explains the rules and strategies of Blackjack in a simple format so those who have never played before can quickly get the jist of it – which is essential in this sort of film. I think whether people will find the film cool or not, really depends on the individual. Some will like it but others will find it boring.

Generally speaking, the acting is great (minus Kate Bosworth) has some cool settings and effects and the individual characters are very solid, but 21 is let down by lots of little things. I get the feeling it could have been fantastic, but that special something was missing. For one thing, there was not nearly enough explanations of characters’ background – especially Mickey and Cole. Without giving anything away, there are plenty of continuity and plot errors that anybody with common sense could have avoided. 21 is a good film, but could have been so much more. Think back to what Ocean’s 11 was like and why that was so good, and you realise that with a bit more fine tuning in places, 21 could (and perhaps should) have been so much more. 21 is a decent offering, nothing more.

Overall – 7/10