"Battle: Los Angeles" and comic book DVD watching

We went to the cinema to see "Battle: Los Angeles" on Friday afternoon, while we were on a few days annual leave from work (back to work tomorrow!) The story is about a vast alien force invading the major cities of the world, so they can ultimately gain control of the Earth's water supply. This film concentrates on the fight between the aliens and US marines in downtown Santa Monica and L.A, and stars Aaeron Eckhart. I really liked the frenetic action scenes (the film is basically 1 1/2 hours of urban based battle carnage) which were thrilling, and the design of the aliens and their ships was interesting, as was the way they fought their side of the conflict. The visual effects were very well done and integrated nicely into the live action - great use of CGI. The shaky/naturalistic photography does take some getting used to though; definitely no steadicam on this set. After the first five minutes or so I warmed to this, and thought it actually suited the overall 'front line news report' style of the film. The cast of soldiers are quite stereotypical and the script won't win an Oscar in a million years, and there was one 'noble speech' scene that would have benefited from some editing, but generally I found the film exciting to watch on the big screen. I'll definitely pick this up to go on the shelf next to "District 9", 2009's breakthrough 'alien' film.

Funnily enough, I think this was the first time for a long while I've seen a newly released film on its first day *and* its first screening that day!

<--Here is a picture of the entrance to our local Odeon cinema, taken when we went to see "Battle: LA". As you can see, Odeon have become big fans of George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic visual effects company (ILM)!

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In preparation for some big 'comic book' film releases this summer in the form of "Captain America" and "Thor", we've been watching some related films on DVD recently - "Hulk" last week, and "X-Men" and "X-2" over the weekend just gone. We have "The Incredible Hulk" on the way, and I want to pick up "X-Men: The Last Stand", "Spider-Man 3", "Iron Man" and "Iron Man 2" to plug those gaps in the collection. Most go shopping for some more bargains soon....

The Incredible Hulk, Omen, and some travelling around.

Three Sundays ago we went with our pal Hannah to see "The Incredible Hulk", which I'm happy to report was very good actually! Like "Iron Man", Marvel have made an entertaining summer blockbuster that features a great leading actor, this time Edward Norton as the scientist/rampaging green monster thing Bruce Banner. It was interesting to see the "Iron Man" link, with the cameo from Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jnr.) at the end. Some great visuals and a very watchable cast.

DVD wise, we are nearly through the "Omen" box set, which has been *fab*, with the exception of "Omen IV" which we turned off in about ten minutes -- it's a really dull TV movie with no budget and no class. Oh well. We'll watch the 2006 remake sometime this week. We also saw "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" which is a brainless comedy about Nascar racing, but we love Will Ferrell so it was pretty fun to watch! Sacha Baron Cohen is very bizarre as the French Grand Prix driver; his performance heavily influenced by Adam Sandler I feel.

A couple of weekends ago I drove down to my pal Gary's place in Essex. Quite an achievement as this was my first "big" drive! 2 1/2 hours each way on the motorways, thankfully they were pretty clear traffic wise. We saw "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" at the lovely old South Woodford Odeon and did a few other schlubby things at the house: eat, watch tv etc. It was nice to see him and Martin again. Martin is doing a great job with the garden.

Last weekend, Carla and I did another big drive, this time over to the Norfolk coast to see my parents. After all of these years on the train, I drove it and it was fine. Apart from doing some fun things near to my parent's place, such as a walk on Gorleston sea front and taking my father down to Yarmouth sea front (to see the construction of the new outer harbour) we visited Southwold (pic is of me on the pier) a pretty little town on the Suffolk coast, and then on the way back to here on Monday we stopped off in a couple of towns on the route: Beccles and Bury St. Edmunds. The Abbey gardens/ruins and the cathedral in Bury St. Edmunds were awe inspiring. Lovely part of the town that was! Thankfully, we had clear sunny weather all weekend. We will definitely go back there!