Posted on by Alasander

My thoughts on X Men Apocalypse

Finally!! The X Men done properly.

The film is a joy to watch from the opening pre-credit sequence that shows ancient Egypt and the birth of the current incarnation of Apocalypse to the post credit scene that sets up… Well i will let you see that for yourselves.

The cast completely nail their characters from the returning main leads to the new members of the troup. Sophie Turner playing Jean Grey is the standout for me, she was note perfect and encapsulated the character in a way Famke could never do and if you are true fans of the comics there is a pivotal moment that involves her that will make you punch the air and squee.

Yet again Quicksilver steals the scenes he is in as does Nightcrawler but hats off to Oscar Issac’s Apocalypse he gives the character real menace and believeability without chewing the scenery.

It wouldnt be an X Men movie without a bit of Jackman and he does get to unsheathe the claws for a few minutes in a very familiar location that ties in nicely to his established history and he is called Weapon X too, another punch the air moment.

The story moves along briskly but not too intense and there are moments of humour too.

20th Century Fox have finally done justice to the material and with Bryan Singer back at the helm it works on every level.

In conclusion, this honestly walks over Civil War and is easily the best Marvel film to date.

11/10 : Perfect

Posted on by Alasander

My thoughts on…..

Spotlight.

Tonight, Sue and I went to the pictures to see Spotlight, the new film with Michael Keaton and Mark Ruffalo.

For those who don’t know the story, it is about the Spotlight investigative journalists of the Boston Globe newspaper and their uncovering of the Catholic Churches cover up of their priests molesting children.

The film pulls no punches and is genuinely uncomfortable viewing as the full scope of the size of the cover up is uncovered and how far the upper echelons of the Catholic Church went to keep it all quiet.

The acting is outstanding, with Mark Ruffalo in particular getting the lion’s share of the meat of the story and his performance is deffinately worthy of the Oscar he has been nominated for. Michael Keaton gets to really show his serious side in this film, playing Robbie, the editor of the Spotlight team and I just love the way he can switch from a lighter tone to exuding quiet menace in an instant.

Also of note is Stanley Tucci, who plays the lawyer representing the victims (called Survivors in the film and you can understand why when you see the mental anguish they went through) who is caught between a rock and a hard place when Mark Ruffalo’s character starts to bring to light what was happening and that the church is watching him.

The film is all the more shocking because it is a true story, Boston is one if not the most Roman Catholic city in America. The priests were the centers of their respective communities and pretty much had open access to the children because the parents couldn’t see they could do anything wrong and if anyone complained, they were paid a visit by the bishop and given a small payout and the priest was quietly moved to a new parish where he could do it all over again.

The final scene in the film is a caption screen, it shows the actual amount of priests involved and uncovered, this is then followed by a list of cities and locations where this had been brought to light because of the actions of the Spotlight team and the Boston Globe. It ran to 4 pages, 2 columns wide and it wasn’t just the USA but UK and Europe too.

My final thought is this.. This is a film that you must go and see, it will make you think certainly, it will make you uncomfortable definately but above all it will probably make you angry. Angry at how it went on for so long and was almost completely ignored by everyone.

 

Mark.

Posted on by Alasander

A Day Out

I think Bruce scared some people away before he got his “blending in” clothes ready.
The Rosetta Stone
Lord Tiddlesworth
Apparently Bruce claims to have written this. It’s a shopping list.
Bruce caught the neighbours dog crapping on the lawn. Flesh to stone spell works a treat.
Bruce says he needs to ask for his bird scarer back.
This annoyed Bruce!. He’s stormed off looking for the manager mumbling something about his back door.

Every once in a while, I manage to get a day off, that’s when I tend to grab a couple of friends and get Bruce to send us somewhere nice for a few hours (although depending on his mood, nice is a very subjective term for Bruce).

This time we got to go to The British Museum (apparently Bruce wanted to look up some “old friends” as he called it) so off we went.

Here are some “photo graphs I think they are called” if you look closely you can see Bruce in a couple of them trying not get noticed.

As you can see we had a nice day out, although it was marred slightly when Bruce got upset over his back door and Teleported the museum manager somewhere unpleasant (he’s alright now. Cortan took care of it).

‘Till next we meet.

Posted on by Alasander

Greetings!!

Hail and well met fair traveller.

This is my chronicle. I’m Alasander, Sell Sword, Champion and owner of this establishment.

Take a seat by the fireplace and I’ll tell you a tale whilst you drink your ale.