Five For Friday 2010 Finale

It's that time of year where everyone starts making lists about what their favourite moments of 2010 were and what were there worst, personally I don't really believe in focusing on the worst moments so here is what I consider my top five of four different area's.

Top Five Movies
5. The Losers
4. Scott Pilgrim vs The World
3. Iron Man 2
2. Kick Ass
1. Inception

Top Five Comics/Graphic Novels
5. Invincible Volume 5 (Hardcover)
4. Blackest Night (Hardcover)
3. Batman and Robin: Batman Reborn (Hardcover)
2. Superman: Earth One (Hardcover)
1. Avengers The Children's Crusade (Mini Series)

Top Five Gigs
5. Sunset Drive at the Zanzibar Liverpool
4. Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly at the O2 Academy Liverpool
3. Lillies and Remains at Leaf Tea Cafe Liverpool
2. 'Weird Al' Yankovic at Manchester Academy
1. Gackt at The O2 Academy Islington

Top Five Songs
5. HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR: Re:Ache

4. MC Sniper- Hakuna Matata

3. Gackt- Ever

2. Kara- Lupin

1. Outsider ft LMNOP- Hero

Perception of Inception

Dom (DiCaprio) with totem

 Dreams are the focal point of this original and thought provoking tale in which Extractors take an idea, considered most valuable and resilient thing in the world from the one place where humans are most vulnerable, their dreams. The most skilled Extractor Dom Cobb (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) is coerced by a businessman, Saito played by Ken Watanabe in planting an idea into the mind of a rival businessman’s heir (Cillian Murphy). Should Cobb succeed in this impossible task of inception then his own dream can come true, something which he can’t achieve in reality and so along with his fellow Extractor Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) assembles a team comprising of an Architect (Ellen Page), a forger (Tom Hardy) and a chemist (Dileep Rao).

Writer, Director and Producer Christopher Nolan has created an intriguing and entertaining story filled with questions of what is real and what is a dream and that’s reinforced through clever narrative. It’s this various narrative structures that leaves audiences to question what narrative they’re seeing at several points in the film (whether it is dream or reality). It comes into question more as Cobb explains the nature of dreams to his new dream architect Ariadne. While there are one or two instances (which I still haven’t really figured out even after seeing the film twice) where dream and reality seems blurred, Nolan gives the audience plenty of cues to help them along but still leaving plenty of ambiguity in order to allow the audience to draw their own conclusions.

Like Nolan’s last film The Dark Knight, Inception’s action scenes are surprisingly light on CG elements instead relying on physical effects to achieve a similar effect. One the most visually stunning effects is the hotel sequence which see’s Arthur literally undertaking a gravity defying mission to help the team to wake up.

Inception is a really engaging film, it challenges audiences who at this time of year tend to check their brains in at the door to watch films to pick them up again and pay attention.

Review of Iron Man 2

Iron Man: Ready For Round 2

 Sequels are funny things, they can either be complete and utter flops or they can take what was established in the first film and add something enjoyable to the mythos. Iron Man 2 falls into the latter category.

Set six months after the events of the first Iron Man film, Tony Stark played by Robert Downey Jr is enjoying being an icon as Iron Man as well as having 'successfully privatised world peace' by being a deterrent. Causing frustration to business rival Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), Senator Stern, who wants the Iron Man suit in the hands of the US Government and disgraced Russian physicist Ivan Vanco (played by Mickey Rourke) who is after revenge for the sins of Tony's father Howard Stark. Vanco constructs his own Arc Generator and becomes the villain Whiplash, going after Tony Stark, trying to prove that the Invincible Iron Man isn't as invincible as he thought he was.

Don Cheadle is War Machine

You'd think that would be enough plot to satisfy director John Favreau (who also plays Stark's chauffeur Happy Hogan) but no, he also plays on what initially looks like a plot thread from the Iron Man classic 'Demon In The Bottle' but is in fact a plot line from the 90's Iron Man comic series written by Kurt Busiek, which shows that Favreau and his writing team have really done their homework.

Scarlett as the deadly Nlack Widow.

Like the first film, Iron Man 2 has some fantastic funny moments such as a drunk Iron Man dancing along to Tupac's California Love or Happy Hogan sparring with new addition to the cast Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff. Speaking of new cast members, Terence Howard's replacement Don Cheadle delivers a much stronger performance as Lieutenant Colonel James 'Rhodey' Rhodes, playing the straight man to the laid back Stark, even getting his own armour dubbed War Machine. Rourke as Vanco/Whiplash is intense and Rourke really humanises him to the point where you almost feel sorry for Vanco with everyone pushing him around. Scarlett Johansson's role as Natasha Romanoff comes off a bit cold at times though that could be due to how little we see of her so there's not much chance to warm to her character however her action scenes as The Black Widow are really fantastic.

Samuel L. Jackson makes a return as S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury serving as a reminder that Iron Man is just one part of the Avenger's franchise, there are a few Easter eggs (including an after credits scene) which throws some nice teases pertaining to the next few films (Thor and Captain America) in the franchise. There are also a few little Easter eggs that relate to Iron Man himself such as the briefcase containing the Mark V armour.

Rourke as Whiplash

The action in Iron Man 2 has vastly improved from the first film in so much that there's more of it. There are periods where it feels like you are watching someone play Rock em Sock em robots and while a guy with whips as his main weapon doesn't look as intimidating as a large robot, the Monaco sequence is visually impressive and a highlight. The CGI elements are quite smooth though there are one or two moments in the film where the CGI looks a bit clunky,

While there are times where it feels as though Favreau has packed too much in, he balances the screen time between Downey Jr and Rourke well, though the rest of quite big cast get juggled around. Iron Man 2 blends its action and comedy well making it an enjoyable film we learn how Tony Stark relieves himself when he has the armour on, which while a bit childish is a definite laugh out loud moment. Let's just hope that the eventual Iron Man 3 doesn't go in the way of other Superhero trilogies.

The seven films I really can't wait to see this year that haven't been released yet

Dragonball Evolution: Based on Akira Toriyama's 42 volumed manga series Dragonball, which was the first manga series I read, the characters don't look quite right but from the stuff I've seen from trailers it looks quite good and has the feel of the manga to it.
Iron Maiden: Flight 666:A documentary on Maiden's latest World Tour, hopefully there'll be a few full live tracks within the documentary, though its only on for one night only it may be easier to catch it on DVD but how could you pass on the opportunity to see one of the biggest metal bands on the big screen.
Star Trek: I'm not that much of a trekkie anymore and I wasn't that big of a fan of the original series but I'm interested in seeing what J.J. Abrams has done with the film.
Terminator: Salvation: I'm liking this take of the Terminator franchise, it's nice to see that despite that all was done, the future that everyone tried to prevent, happened.
Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen: There looks like theres alot going on in this film with bigger villains and more explosions than all of Michael Bay's films put together, it'll definetly be the film of the summer.
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra: Don't really remembering seeing this as a kid but it looks good, since I don't remember seeing it I have a feeling I won't have a high expectation of this.
Astro Boy: Another manga adaptation this time done in CGI Animation, while the animation does look rather Americanised, Astro Boy himself looks closely to the way he was drawn by Osamu Tezuka, while it is animation it'll be aimed at kids but I'll be going because I really like the story Tezuka crafted