The last few years has spawned more Aussie indie rock groups than ever before, and in a genre with such little variety, it's quite hard to pick a great indie band when they all sound the same. Brissie group Last Dinosaurs had a go earlier this year with In a Million Years, their debut LP. The album opens with one of the main singles, 'Zoom', which is an alright song, but after that, most of the songs just merge into one giant indie rock monster. All songs have that distinctive mellow guitar, tricky hi-hat rhythms and uninspired bass, along with vocals that offer a little variation from the everyday indie rock tracks. Some other stand outs include 'Andy' and, my favourite, 'I Can't Decide', which is a welcome change that goes into the heavier rock areas of music. When most songs sound not only like other songs on the album, but every other indie rock song in existence, it's just not quite there.
6/10
The Awesominator
Monday, 20 August 2012
Friday, 10 August 2012
Super Review: Batman Trilogy
In 2005, Christopher Nolan made the brave decision to reboot the Batman series. Many were sceptical, their concerns being that this would not live up to the bar set by Tim Burton's Batman. Here's what we think.
Batman BeginsThe Wayne family, Bruce and his parents, were a rich, well-respected family who worked for charity and pretty much owned Gotham City, until a desparate mugger ended the lives of Bruce's parents in the backstreets of the dark city. Bruce relocates to Asia, where he is trained by the mysterious Henri Ducard and Ra's Al Ghul on how to fight the forces of evil. Upon finishing his studies, he decides what these people stand for is wrong, preveting their plans and heading back to Gotham. He still has the desire to fight crime in Gotham, and creates the masked icon known as Batman, striking fear in anyone defying the law. But not Jonathon Crane, The Scarecrow.
This reboot is very nicely made, changing just the right amount of content that needed to be changed from the original. All actors are great, Christian Bale as the millionaire superhero, Micheal Caine as his butler and Cillian Murphy as the insane Dr. Crane with some great support from Gary Oldman and Katie Holmes. Batman Begins is one of the best Batman movies to date and a great starting point for the rest of the series.
8/10
**SPOILERS**
The Dark Knight
Crime is worse than ever in Gotham City. The Mob and many other crime organisations are making a mockery of the justice system and Batman doesn't like it. With the help of Lieautenant Jim Gordon ad new District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman, slowly but surely, put many of these crims behind bars, tearing these organisations to pieces, but there is one man in the way. The Joker, played chillingly well by Heath Ledger. He is the most insane person in Gotham City and won't stop at killing anyone in the city.
The Dark Knight, in my opinion, is one of the greatest movies of the 00s. It just all works so well. Gotham City is a more realistic city than in Batman Begins, filmed in Chicago. Christain Bale plays Bruce Wayne/Batman really well, probably my favourite Batman, Gary Oldman and Michael Caine reprising their roles nicely and Heath Ledger in his last film was perfect. The Dark Knight, other than the disappoiontingly anticlimactic arrest of The Scarecrow, is a perfect movie.
10/10
**SPOILERS**
The Dark Knight Rises
Eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises introduces a new terrorist leader, Bane. Bane and his associates come to Gotham City, forcing Bruce Wayne out of retirement, bringing back Batman and trying to take down Bane, with the help of Catwoman, but only to be brutally beaten in the fight. With the absence of Batman, Bane takes over Gotham, turning it into a warzone with an unfairly biased justice system to prosecute those who do not follow Bane's new way of life. Will Bruce Wayne rise from the depths of hell on Earth and take Gotham back?
Bane's voice is the most annoying thing about this movie. The trailers depict his voice as deep, dark and difficult to understand, but this is not the case. It's still dark and distorted, but his tone will vary far too much for my liking. Sore he looks scary enough but once (I assume) he opens his mouth, It just loses me. Tom Hardy's performance is still relatively good along with Christian Bale, Micheal Caine and Gary Oldman all returning to their roles and playing them well. Anne Hathaway is a welcome introduction as Selina Kyle or Catwoman. There are no stand out performances, some pretty bland writing and, plus some other little problems, ends in a pretty messy film. The villain is just not scary enough, plus there's no mention of The Joker and where he ended up. Last I remember he was left hanging down the side of that building, but what can you do? It's alright, pretty deep but just doesn't compare to The Dark Knight and even Batman Begins.
7.5/10
So there it is. All-in-all a great reboot series that just doesn't end the way it should have.
The Awesominator
Batman BeginsThe Wayne family, Bruce and his parents, were a rich, well-respected family who worked for charity and pretty much owned Gotham City, until a desparate mugger ended the lives of Bruce's parents in the backstreets of the dark city. Bruce relocates to Asia, where he is trained by the mysterious Henri Ducard and Ra's Al Ghul on how to fight the forces of evil. Upon finishing his studies, he decides what these people stand for is wrong, preveting their plans and heading back to Gotham. He still has the desire to fight crime in Gotham, and creates the masked icon known as Batman, striking fear in anyone defying the law. But not Jonathon Crane, The Scarecrow.
This reboot is very nicely made, changing just the right amount of content that needed to be changed from the original. All actors are great, Christian Bale as the millionaire superhero, Micheal Caine as his butler and Cillian Murphy as the insane Dr. Crane with some great support from Gary Oldman and Katie Holmes. Batman Begins is one of the best Batman movies to date and a great starting point for the rest of the series.
8/10
**SPOILERS**
The Dark Knight
Crime is worse than ever in Gotham City. The Mob and many other crime organisations are making a mockery of the justice system and Batman doesn't like it. With the help of Lieautenant Jim Gordon ad new District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman, slowly but surely, put many of these crims behind bars, tearing these organisations to pieces, but there is one man in the way. The Joker, played chillingly well by Heath Ledger. He is the most insane person in Gotham City and won't stop at killing anyone in the city.
The Dark Knight, in my opinion, is one of the greatest movies of the 00s. It just all works so well. Gotham City is a more realistic city than in Batman Begins, filmed in Chicago. Christain Bale plays Bruce Wayne/Batman really well, probably my favourite Batman, Gary Oldman and Michael Caine reprising their roles nicely and Heath Ledger in his last film was perfect. The Dark Knight, other than the disappoiontingly anticlimactic arrest of The Scarecrow, is a perfect movie.
10/10
**SPOILERS**
The Dark Knight Rises
Eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises introduces a new terrorist leader, Bane. Bane and his associates come to Gotham City, forcing Bruce Wayne out of retirement, bringing back Batman and trying to take down Bane, with the help of Catwoman, but only to be brutally beaten in the fight. With the absence of Batman, Bane takes over Gotham, turning it into a warzone with an unfairly biased justice system to prosecute those who do not follow Bane's new way of life. Will Bruce Wayne rise from the depths of hell on Earth and take Gotham back?
Bane's voice is the most annoying thing about this movie. The trailers depict his voice as deep, dark and difficult to understand, but this is not the case. It's still dark and distorted, but his tone will vary far too much for my liking. Sore he looks scary enough but once (I assume) he opens his mouth, It just loses me. Tom Hardy's performance is still relatively good along with Christian Bale, Micheal Caine and Gary Oldman all returning to their roles and playing them well. Anne Hathaway is a welcome introduction as Selina Kyle or Catwoman. There are no stand out performances, some pretty bland writing and, plus some other little problems, ends in a pretty messy film. The villain is just not scary enough, plus there's no mention of The Joker and where he ended up. Last I remember he was left hanging down the side of that building, but what can you do? It's alright, pretty deep but just doesn't compare to The Dark Knight and even Batman Begins.
7.5/10
So there it is. All-in-all a great reboot series that just doesn't end the way it should have.
The Awesominator
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