Giving In to the Summer Blockbusters Again

I always do

I went to Chichester with my bro this afternoon to watch The Dark Knight this afternoon. I have to say IT WAS A BIT LOUD IN PARTS and I COULDN'T UNDERSTAND WHAT THE BALLYHO some of the characters were saying because of the INTRUSIVE ableit propulsive SCORE. IT WAS REALLY ANNOYING. Almost as annoying as leaving the CAPS lock on. If you're going to have important dialogue, please let it be heard. Jeez.

Otherwise, it was a rock solid film, in fact it felt like one-and-a-half films crammed into one. Which it was. Because it was two-and-a-half hours long. I didn't actually mind the length too much, though it felt stretched beyond breaking point and a bit flaccid after the 120 minute mark. Other things that pop into my head? Christian Bale has really got a throaty growl on. Send him some Fishermen's Friends for the next sequel. It's not good for the vocal chords, my dear alleged mum-beater.

But is it the greatest film of all time? According to IMDB it already is. So it must be. And I say, if you mistake callow comic book bleakness and extended periods of night-shooting for profundity, et voila, you have legions of fanboys stricken with an amour fou astounding. Decent cinema-going folk - actually, I was forced to go to the real flicks rather than the computer pirated likes of which I have been partaking for an age, for once - will go 'I do like these arthouse touches that Mr Nolan has invested; the weirdly grim radio-tone that kicks in for example, but it's all a bit bloated'. They won't say: it's dark, it's The Dark Knight. It sure isn't a metaphorical darkness, but then The Gloomy Knight makes it sound like a tale of chivalric depression. The fact is you often can't see a bloody thing and go yawn, has The Joker killed someone in an entertaining way again? And off-screen with nary a trace of spilt blood? Yes, he has.

I did like it, however. Don't mistake the nitpicking for my view of the film; it's merely a reaction to the extremely positive and likewise negative reviews and hosanna-ing I'm a tad sick of. And Heath was a giggle. Hardly scary though. Deliciously sick, but not a BOO! Terror! for modern times (I especially liked The Joker's remark about "Daddy said if you're good at your work, don't do it for free", which makes me ponder the whole writing questions for free dilemma. Then I tell myself, I do it for the good of my GK. Then I thought, god, this is some self-centred thinking). Harvey Dent's scarface was much nastier - working face parts and everything.

Forgive me for the short caps burst there. I was worried you wouldn't hear me. Blame the sound mix. I SAID SOUND MIX!

FE: XIV
1 Pascal Lamy is the Director-General of which global organisation with 153 member states?
2 If the Asian part of Turkey is called Anatolia, what is the European part called or the Turkish name, used from the 15th century onwards and meaning 'Land of the Romans', for the southern Balkan regions of the Ottoman Empire?
3 Which 20th century forensic scientist - the director of the very first crime laboratory in existence, located in Lyon, France - gives his name to the 'exchange principle' that states "with contact between two items, there will be an exchange"?
4 Later replaced by the electrolytic process, the Wöhler process was used in the production of which metal?
5 Finished by 1867, The Poor Man and the Lady was the first novel from which English writer?

S
T
O
P

P
L
A
Y
I
N
G

W
I
T
H

M
Y

H
A
I
R

Answers to FE:XIV
1 World Trade Organisation 2 Rumelia 3 Edmond Locard as in Locard's exchange principle 4 Aluminium 5 Thomas Hardy