Chindie

Oh Christ the Beeb have got Warsi on for the bastard Vote results show. I thought I'd got lucky with her not being on Question Time but no... there she is, right on the next show, ready to make your blood boil and, we can hope, put her foot firmly in her gob again.

I'm not too bothered by the SGS3 in all honesty. I've got the SGS2 and, to be frank, it still feels like a new phone to me and nothing has felt slow or anything thus far.

Oh yeah the novel blows it away. I think some of it is down to the pacing, the novel spreads it out as it can whereas the film has to try and rocket through all this stuff and even then it's a long watch (and feels it). I wasn't that... upset at them changing the ending. I don't think the original plays to a movie audience and the alteration isn't a massive deal.

I really liked the Watchmen adaptation. It did the best it could I thought, which is surprising since Snyder is a laughable director. The Directors Cut is decent too, they seemed to have cut one of the best 'moments' in the film for the theatrical cut.

Well, maybe you could have one that way... Link It's only a rumour at the moment but I could see them doing it. Tha main issues are that it's a 4gb console, which ain't great, and a 2 year contract on a console nearing it's end... though that is unlikely to bother the kind of person this is likely to be aiming at. You do have to wonder what with Microsoft increasingly keen on making the Xbox more than just a games console, whether this is testing the waters for the next gen. This is unlikely to have the same impact in the UK however as Microsoft hasn't really bothered to chase media providers like it has in the US (and in some cases can't, TV being a bit different across the pond). But still... interesting.

The Hulk thing is what you expect of the Hulk he basically is indestructible. Thor's roughly similar, he's actually meant to be stronger than anything more or less. Glad you enjoyed it though. Although sadly Scarlett doesn't get them out (though Google can help there), did you at least enjoy the gratuitous shots of her catsuit clad arse?

It's perhaps wrong to say that the Ultimate universe is a reboot... the 616 universe thats been there since the beginning is still going and there are still storylines that reach back to storys from decades back (some of the big storylines in that time even have effects that have continued on). The Ultimate universe was created as a seperate entity that postulated 'What if all the heroes we have, started over and some things changed?'. It's more modern take on things, some characters have changed a little (the Spiderman villain Venom for example is not an alien symbiote in it's Ultimate incarnation, and Peter Parker has recently been killed in that universe with a new guy entirely taking up the mantle). And even that universe has been going for... 10 years now I think. DC tends to reboot far more often than Marvel does. It recently rebooted it's entire catalogue after a storyline got so enormous it was unwieldy to continue with IIRC. Marvel only really has the 616 and Ultimate universes, with some other ones that got made up for one off storylines and events that then got more or less left to the history books. As for graphic novels... I think thats the snob in you, in all honesty . They may be poncey comics but they're often some of the best things in the medium. And it's not just a thing for kids. It was really the dark interpretations of Batman that created the graphic novel so perhaps you'd not appreciate it

About the only Marvel comic that I really ever liked (and read more than one or two of) was Sgt Fury and his Howling Commandos. Hence my disappointment at the non-canonical black Nick Fury. He is canonical! Just not in the canon of the 616 Marvel universe (which is the main universe of comics for Marvel, the ones where all these characters started). The Nick Fury in the Avengers is based on the Ultimate universe of comics, where Nick Fury is indeed black and, in fact, was based on Samual L Jackson. The Ultimate universe was a reboot for every character that allowed people to get on board without having to know 40+ years of back story. The Ultimate universe has actually been quite interesting as far as characters development goes, there appears to be an unwritten rule that popular characters can and will die, and if they die, they're gone. Fury is more of a thing in the Ultimate universe, in the original 616 universe he's used a recurring character a lot... but I'm not even sure he has his own comic any longer. He tends to be a big deal when they do 'event' storylines though.

Yeah all superhero movies have seemed to suffer from it but MArvel more than most - each of their films has had a really lacklustre ending that didn't quite blow you away as they seem to rush to the end. As for the upcoming schedule... Iron Man 3 is next year and is allegedly going in a different direction, apparently taking more cues from spy thrillers. It's also apparently taking inspiration from the Extremis storyline... which'd be interesting. Thor 2 is also going in a different direction, allegedly it's going to be a far bigger film in scope and will deal with the consequences of Asgard being cut off from the rest of the realms with the Bifrost gone. Done properly that could be incredible, especially as Thor does have some epic foes and storylines to pinch from if they're prepared to go big. Cap 2 has been pushed back and nobody appears to have a clue what the **** is going on with it. Funnily enough I'm not sure that Cap has the legs as a series, he's iconic as a WW2 character, in a modern day sense he's left a bit wanting when compared to everyone else. He's quite dull, the honourable schtick wears thin fast. He'd work really well if they had the balls to do a Civil War inspired flick though. Hulk 2 was never happening and only seems to have come back on the table thanks to the Avengers success... and I think it won't work. I suspect the Hulk works far better in a ensemble, because ultimately he's just Jekyll and Hyde. And we've seen that story before. A SHIELD movie could be interesting but I don't think Nick Fury and co is a thing for audiences. At least with the other characters (less so Thor) people had a knowledge of them, you know what you're getting when you see Iron Man or the Hulk. Nick Fury? He's not even much of a thing in the comics world any longer. Edgar Wright wants to do an Antman film... And Marvel are massively keen to do Dr. Strange, which could be batshit bonkers but brilliant.

I didn't it was difficult, I said it's a tedious chore. The map is diabolical, you have to stare it to work out whether you even need to go to a place because the icons dictating what is present on that level are tiny, and because of the moronic way it's laid out it's actually sometimes difficult to tell whether the room you want is connected to the level you're on or another one. And once you've figured out which room you want, what you end up doing is traipsing over a level time and again trying to find the door that takes you to the place you want to go, the hub levels often have lots of doors and given that the doors are spread over 4 sides of the level because of the games gimmick you end up spending forever with bland platforming and basic perspective puzzles to get about levels again and again and again, all just to hover in front of the door to see if the preview picture of room it leads to is the one you want. And even then it's not clear sometimes quite how you get between hubs... sure the warp gates can help but even they can throw you out of kilter. It's a game that has smart ideas (I know all about the meta-puzzles and whatnot) but good God it's tedious.

What Shay Given Thinks What if I'm really retarded... and everyone is just being nice to me?

I think this is as good a time as any for my annual 'I really, really don't get MMORPGs' comment .

It'll have the power of the sun... in the palm of your hand.

I still think for pure entertainment it's hard to beat - it smartly made easy to follow has some nice laughs and everyone appears to be having a ball making it and everyone nails their characters. I do think you'd get more out of it if you are invested in the films thus far and if you are a comic fan, but it's still a really good watch regardless. You just sit back, take it in, and enjoy it. It's not smart, it's not flawless (far from it), but it's really bloody good imo. As for some of your points Rodders - yes the post credit scene is the 'You'll either go mad or you'll go 'Um...?'' scene. And they seemed to decide that they would set up the SHIELD agents Black Widow and Hawkeye in other films - Black Widow is a supporting character in Iron Man 2, and Hawkeye has a cameo in Thor in which he does the sum total of not a lot. They have had murmurs of wanting to do a SHIELD film but I doubt it'll happen. I think going back to the solo films might be hard after the Avengers, it blows all of them out of the water. Though they are good films in their own right. Unfortunately they all suffer from weak endings to greater or lesser extents which the Avengers doesn't. Interestingly they have done an extra scene for after the credits apparently, that's being shown with the US release. Thankfully it's largely a joke scene so doesn't matter much.

Oof.

If you buy into that particular thought, bloody hell thats a damning indictment of us this season.

but he's one of them foreigners. saint martin doesn't do foreigners **** ain't seen that one for a while.

His punditry career has already given us great moments like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6RG6yxgeFE. Any excuse to post it again.

I doubt it. The multi is set in the near future setting a lot of the single player is in - expect overlap on the drone stuff.

Theres some almost RTS stuff in it. Well, at least they're changing stuff.

I think the biggest thing Roy needs to do is create a clean break with the England squad. He needs to ditch the old guard wholesale. They're going to be of little use to him for the next World Cup, and they have an influence that could be the end of him. In some cases there will be an obvious overlap, Rooney and the like, but he needs rid of Gerrard, Lampard, Terry and co. They have too much sway and if they don't like him, they will make life hard for him. Capello found that out - excellent in qualifying but the moment he insists on things they dislike at the tournament, they can't be arsed. So he shouldn't give them the opportunity.

To be fair theres only so much you can do with a big black rectangle.

Saw the Avengers again last night. In glorious 3D because my mate can't read a cinema timetable. First 3D film I've actively been interested to see. It was alright. Adds next to nothing to the film, breaks a bit (it, strangely, seems unable to handle to things poking out through the 'layers' of dept they've created - at one point Black Widow points a gun out towards the camera and down to the corner of the screen, and the depth didn't work, it fudged up became blurry andlacking detail), and also makes a couple of shots worse - a shot at the end that has the group standing facing the camera, in 2D you have time to take them all in in clarity (and it ends up being a really cool shot). In 3D the perspective is focused on a single point and if you do the same drifitng across the faces the guys at the back are blurry dark and undetailed. Theres a couple of nice moments - some shoots of characters behind windows work nicely, and shots when the portal opens have a noticable depth into the portal. And the opening has nice depth on rolling shots of the Tesseract. But the problem with all of those is, as per usual with 3D, when you notice 'Wow thats actually a decent bit of 3D', you're made aware that you're looking at a film as opposed to being engrossed watching a film. But anyway, stands up to repeat viewings really well, the jokes went down well with a bigger audience (although some were missed, not sure if the sound at my local cinema is bollocksed but some of the dialogue in action scenes is drowned out - a lot of people missed Iron Man's crack at Hawkeye in the climax for instance), nobody had a dicky bird about the extra scene, and everyone came out smiling. GO SEE IT

This kind of thing is a mark against an all digital future.

It's a decent trailer. Doesn't assuage my fears that it's going to be a weaker entry than TDK, but I think it's safe to say that Nolan is going to ramp up the spectacle. I'm never going to be a fan of Bane, in all honesty, and I'm still not sure about his looks in this interpretation... but I'm not too bothered by voice. I didn't have too much trouble hearing him on a terrible copy of the prologue release from last year, and with this redubbing I can understand every word. And I kinda like the accent he has, theres something calculatingly sinster about his voice. I do think they might have overblown the dub though now, he's too clear - it's like he's got a small megaphone when he's talking, he's over the top of all the sounds too much. It's looking good, anyway. It'll be good to see an enemy that can take Batman on toe to toe - no-one in Nolan's universe thus far has really chose to brawl it out with him. Sure the Joker took him on but that was like a beating on a disorientated man than a proper fight. And given whats been said about the portrayal of Bane as a truly brutal adversary, I'm excited. Not sure about having as large a Catwoman focus as this seems to suggest it will have though. As much as I'm happy to see Hathaway in tight catsuits, I'm not a great fan of the character.