Chindie

Seeing Iron Man 3 again tonight. Be interesting to see what my mates make of it.

Nothing. People aren't voting for them because they desperately want UKIP councils. They're doing what people tend top do in council elections midterm for a government - giving the governing party a kicking. It's been particularly effective this time because the government is flagging, and UKIP peddle the line that always happens when things go bad, as well as tapping into the tabloid media 'bloody EU'/poor EU image and news recently. Its just the ultimate **** protest vote, which will alter the rhetoric for a while from government and make the Tories sweat, just a little.

Or you spoil your ballot. Which is what I do.

I guess this proves that the British people just **** love their traditional weights and measures.

Game of thrones may be the most consistently good series I've ever watched. Another cracking episode this week. Add for reading the books, I have up and bought them before Christmas, started reading and just found the will to carry on peetered out. I dunt think they're particularly well written and come across as a bit of slog, even if the story is engaging. I've ground to a halt about 250 pages in.

I've rather enjoyed Pardew returning to his usual success rate. Said all along last season was a complete fluke and you could see even he knew it and was pinching himself how lucky he was to have a team that could run around blindfolded and win last season. But it still didn't stop him looking smug.

Hey stranger! Yeah they were like Hoddles comments years ago but somehow more... sinister. Hoddle was just an idiot, Roache was defending the indefensible.

Welcome to the Correct Club. The remake is better than the Swedish original by an obscene distance. The only people who disagree are pretentious arises.

His other comments (abuse victims are paying for their failures in previous lives) also appear, should he be found guilty, to be rubbing the victims nose in it.

It's dull and frustrating. It has 2 tricks - one is the rotating thing which immediately makes every puzzle a matter of pressing the triggers until the puzzle is obvious. As a platformer its nothing special at all, and seeking out the collectibles is made hideously annoying thanks to an absolutely incomprehensible map. Its second trick's horse has bolted, and was very much a pretentious zeitgeist thing. Its a critic darling, nothing more. Had it been made by an established developer, everyone would have nodded politely, pointed out the flaws and never cared again.

I wouldn't be, it's not very good.

Expecting absolutely nothing from this game so I think I can put the radio on in the background without fear. (Fully expect to be furious in about 2 hours mind)

Technically off topic as I drank this the other night, but anywho... I heard that Sam Adams was meant to be a half decent American brew, so spotted it on tap in a bar on Friday and had a pint. One of the worst beers I've ever had, and I've drank Carling on a Saturday night in the old Carling Academy that somehow always tasted of cigarette butts. Vile.

Ordering food at a pub, being told there's a gonna be wait, giving the pub an hour and a half benefit of the doubt, before finding out they've cocked up and your food hasn't even been considered/known about, and getting offered a free garlic bread (cost £1.50) to make amends. Then turned down the £25 meal voucher for the principal of the thing as it amounts to a bribe to get me to spend cash there again, and got a refund. And then feeling bad about it because who I was with would have preferred I not asked for a refund and just let them do the order

I may need to remind my mate of the bet we have regarding Khan being voted as P4P best in the world. I think I could make a strong case for having already won in fairness...

Is anyone in the world genuinely excited about the announcement of the same game Activision have put out since 2007 anymore?

What's your narrative Peter?

I enjoyed it and think it's a good film but could have been better, and speaking as someone who is a bit of a comic fan, probably should have been better. I wasn't particularly taken with a few directions they went with it. But it's still a good watch and a great many people won't have a clue what I didn't enjoy about it. And even saying that, as said, I still like it. There are loads of films I think are amazing, but none are absolutely flawless, so when talking about them theres always a but. I absolutely adore Aliens but it's editted fairly poorly and suffers for it, with pacing going out of it and the film dragging along in spots (a flaw with all of Cameron's films, in truth). I love the Dark Knight but some of the plot is needlessly complex/daft and some of the shots in some scenes (notably the Tumbler/truck chase) have very confused cinematography. Heat is a movie that I love but also has some pacing issues and suffers from Michael Mann having a tin ear for sound mixing (like Cameron, all of his movies have this problem, worst of all Public Enemies which I don't think anyone on earth has managed to make sound 'right' thanks to the way it's been produced. Always sounds tinny). No film is perfect. If I'm going to talk about a movie in depth I'm not going to ignore the fact I had some problems with it. Even if in the case of Iron Man 3 those few problems are more down to my knowledge of what inspired the film, though not entirely. I expect a number of viewers to dislike at least 1 element of the plot, for varying reasons, if not two, and it won't be because they're comic fans like myself.

Apologies, I popped out with this evening, works leaving do for someone I barely know but I was dragged along, hence my comments are slightly through a fudge of alcohol... Can you open with a bottom line? I guess the thing to say about Iron Man 3 is that it I don't think you can with a straight face say it's bad, but I think you could call it disappointing. Whether that is out and out disappointing, or disappointing in some small ways, or simply a thrill ride you enjoyed and disappointment never entered your head, is up to you. Your Mileage May Vary. Anyway... The film opens with some scene setting flashback, including probably the best use of an unfortunately iconic song you'll ever hear. Tony talks about sowing his own demons and that underpins the film, gives it reason to exist. Alongside this, this is very much a post Avengers Tony Stark - he passed through that wormhole at the end of the Avengers a different man, suffering panic attacks and sleepless nights as he struggles to comprehend the world he opened his eyes to, that includes aliens and 'gods'. His sleepless nights have seem him take up a hobby - he's tried to improve his armour, and the film has a nice little set piece of him testing out the prototype Mk. 42, a 'prehensile' suit, modular that he is able to telepathically call to form around him piece by piece. The film plays this for plenty of laughs. Meanwhile theres a new threat on the block, the Mandarin... a cipher of various ethnic and cultural backgrounds behind inexplicable bombings and with a hard on taking down the President. I don't think the plot should really be divulged further than that, the film has a few secrets and thankfully the marketing has been careful - the trailers gave away just enough, which is refreshing. Downey Jr basically is Tony Stark these days, he's completely made that character his and with talk being that he's starting to consider how many more times he wants to be Iron Man I think Marvel must be sweating on possibly having to replace him - he's absolutely owned the character and I don't think the mantle can be passed, especially as Marvel has put a lot of effort into creating the illusion of a consistent universe with their movies (there are easy enough joins to see if you look with the internal universe doesn't quite fit together but nothing quite so major as a front line character being someone else). Tony in this film is more of a presence than previously - more of a genuine character than caricature he sometimes has been. It's helped by the panic attack/troubled subplot and also by the fact... well, Tony is out of the suit a lot more in this film, and he's not always the snarky figure he usually is. We also have Gwyneth Paltrow again as Pepper and despite actually attempting to be a bit more than window dressing she's only occasionally elevated to plot related prop. Bit of a shame but not nearly as bad a deal as Rebecca Hall gets. the best I can say for her character is she looks a whole lot better in this than she did in the Prestige. Other new comers are Guy Pearce and Ben Kingsley, as Aldrich Killian and the Mandarin respectively. Guy Pearce has a ball (and you can tell) as the slick and notably, in one early scene, quite sleazy high flying scientist, and Ben Kingsley is great fun as the Mandarin, an enigma with a sinister liking for the media, effectively channeling bin Laden via Gadaffi. Both characters are notable for comic fans and the film is very aware of that, and both are enjoyable presences. It's also allowed the franchise the first chance to have a genuine adversary on screen for Iron Man - Obidiah Stane was by necessity not revealed as a proper villain in the first film till the last 20 minutes, and Ivan Vanko suffered from a ropey script in the second that left him little time to really do anything toe to toe with our hero. The film has some cracking set pieces and nice references to whats gone before, even entirely throwaway lines like Happy Hogan's chastising Tony for running off with his 'superfriends' are appreciated nods to the fact that this is a post Avengers world. We get some great action and as said earlier, the game hasn't been entirely given away, case in point the assault on Stark's home is a far longer and more elaborate sequence than the trailers may have made you suspect. It never quite, for me, musters anything that matches the Avengers for scale or awe but makes a decent crack at it in a big showdown at the end, as you'd expect. It's also genuinely funny - Tony has a run in with a kid that nicely subverts the sickly 'child sidekick/buddy' archetype from the get go, with Tony coming out with a corking retort to the childs opening sobstory. And that extends to witty dialogue to even the most minor characters, some of the best lines come from the nameless henchmen that pop up in a few scenes. And as a comic fan the film plays with your expectations. I went in to the film knowing that it was inspired by a particular storyline that is credited with kick starting Iron Man in the modern era. It's a storyline in that I like and dislike in equal measure, but knew what to expect all the same - the film plays with that, attempting to send my expectations down blind alleys, in some cases successfully. The same is true of other elements... ...that is one of the things that may lead to disappointment for some. I won't spoil anything, but it does at times feel like they could have done more with what they had... or sometimes less. I'm actually torn on how I feel about it and that inspired the 'hmm' I felt at the end. But I have to also add that, for a normal person, they won't give a damn. They'll enjoy the film what it is not being down on elements that have been played with from the established canon on paper. Although saying that I can see some fans of the films not liking one element of Tony's adversaries (something that derives from the inspirational comic storyline in fairness, but played larger here and not necessarily for the better) and also one plot point may turn some people away from the film and lead them to want to pick holes in what had passed before. I cam away thinking the film is enjoyable. It's in no way bad - it's funny, it has some top performances, some really good action, looks brilliant, it's fun... but I walked away thinking it could have been more than it was. It's a good film, certainly better than 2 (though it could be argued 2 is a better straight 'Iron Man' story, just very poorly done), not the joy that 1 was but betters that film in some respects... For an Iron Man fan, who has loved Marvels universe so far, it's an easy 4/5. For a fan who knows a bit more about the inspiration... it's not quite there. But definitely go see it. Don't read anything about the plot, don't even read what has inspired it or anything about that. Just go see it and have a fun couple of hours. The post credits sequence is a fun nod but don't feel obliged to sit through 10 minutes of credits if you've better things to do - it's not like the earlier films with their hints and winks to whats coming next, more of a straight forward gag, btw.

It basically is Mortal Kombat. Same team behind it - all they've done is spent 2 years tinkering the mechanics and adding in a few new mechanics that are fairly superfluous. Still, plays well enough.

They'd not even started the ads then Just finished. Reactions later but general thoughts... Hmm.

Just waiting for Iron Man to start. I can throughly recommend going to a cinema for the first showing of the day - got the screen to myself. Only downside is looking like a crazy person waiting for the cinema to open. As for the film, I've heard a lot about it having a divisive second half, so I'm cautiously optimistic, especially as the stuff regarding the suits left me a bit worried.

Schoolboy error Blandy, Nick Clegg said it, therefore it's a lie. The Snoopers act will be enacted inside a week

Thought this was going to be about JW abuse scandal initially

Iron Man 3 reviews dropping all day, lots of positive reactions and talk of it being the best of the series. And more Marvel news - Guardians of the Galaxy cast has grown again with Ophelia Lovibond joining the cast as someone associated with the unnamed villain, and then a lot of talk of Lee Pace, last seen for about 30 seconds as Thranduil in the Hobbit, is in talks to play the villain. Which if he is, is not gonna be Thanos, without Lee Pace becoming a different shape or doing an Andy Serkis. Current front runner for his part is the Collector, a character I really don't know.