Thursday 3 November 2011

TV

Joanna Lumley's Greek Odyssey
Episode 3 (of 4)
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Pointless
3x30 (25/10/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
[2nd watch]

Like Wolverine, I haven't watched this since the cinema -- never mind 2½ years ago, that's 5½ years ago!

Consensus has it as ruining the franchise, but I don't think it's that bad. Flawed, certainly, and not as good as the first two, but all things considered it's not that bad. It's easy to lay the blame at the door of director Brett Ratner... and it's probably right, too. Shame Singer went off to make an unsuccessful Superman movie instead.

There's talk now of an X4. This one does a lot of wrapping up while still leaving the door open for more. With a strong story, script and director it would certainly be welcome, but equally a lot of time has passed: as I said, this is 5½ years old already -- how many of the cast would want to return now? And how do you cope with an X-Men film that's lost several of its most famous characters? Could be a chance for second-string heroes to shine...

...or they could just make First Class 2. Sounds like a good idea to me.

Comics

A week & a day late, but my comics from last week are finally here! Hurrah!

All Star Western #2 by Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti & Moritat

The first issue of All Star was one of the absolute highlights of The New 52's first month, so I suppose it's not too surprising that #2 doesn't quite reach the same heights. It's not as long as that bumper-length first part, for one thing, meaning there's less room for the story to continue. It's not bad by any means -- there's a great multi-page shoot-out for one thing -- but it's a bit short, and with too many splash pages.

There's also a six-page back-up strip, El Diablo, written by Gray & Palmiotti and drawn by Jordi Bernet. It's very pulpy and a bit trashy, particularly the dialogue, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume this is a style choice.


Batman: The Dark Knight #2 by David Finch & Paul Jenkins

You may remember I thought this was easily the weakest of the New 52 Batman books last issue... and, sadly, this issue does little to change that. It is better -- I don't almost hate it -- but it's kinda uninspiring. It feels like someone trying to build The Ultimate Batman story by roping everyone in (this issue we get cameos from almost all the other Bat-characters currently in the DCU, plus a pile of villains), but by including so much it's a bit unfocused and I just don't care about the central idea. Plus, it essentially recycles #1's cliffhanger -- boo. Finch's art is good, but that's about all I'm really enjoying.

Also, while there was a lot of talk about the effort that's gone into making the costumes match across books etc etc, the writers & artists don't seem to have put much effort into tying things other ways. I'm glad they don't have stories flowing across 4 or 5 or 6 or more different titles, but surely things like the Batmobile should look at least similar? And where do all the stories fit in -- is Batman conducting the four different investigations in his four different books simultaneously? And what about his appearance in dozens of other books?

I guess you're not meant to think about it too much...

Articles

James Bond 23 Is Skyfall by Phil de Semlyen
(from Empire)
In case you missed it, all the details from today's Bond 23 press conference -- well, most: few more bits & bobs here. It all sounds very exciting, though I'm disappointed they won't be continuing the storyline of the Quantum organisation from the previous two films.