WITH the Christmas turkey scarfed and the New Years fireworks on order, the clock is ticking on 2014 AD.
At the very least, 2015 AD cannot be as dark a year for newshounds. This was a year dominated by seemingly ever-lasting threads of negativity, and one that seemed to produce a new strand of doom every week. In many ways this was a busy year for the news media, with the dark places reached in 2013 somehow accentuated.
With high-profile plane crashes, deaths, sieges, invasions, wars and more going on, it was easy to pray for a lighter story to dissect the poison, or for a distraction of any sort.
January was perhaps the year's quietest month, even though it was hardly a great month for people who hate rain. After a very wet December, more rain led to widespread flooding in Southern England. January had a record month for rainfall in Southern England as Somerset became an extension of the Bristol Channel - a state it would reside within for a few weeks. The Thames region and other coastal areas also flooded, while other areas reported high precipitation.
Bigger problems befell Devon when a major coastal surge destroyed the main railway line from Plymouth and Cornwall to the rest of Britain, which was shut for 3 months while rebuilding happened.
Other stories also saw weather dominate, with the central areas of the USA hit by a polar vortex, -25 temperatures and snow. There was also bizarre piffle of the French President Francois Hollande having an affair, which led to awkward political discourse ahead of his trip to meet Obama.
Snow was initially the dominant story in February, as the Winter Olympics got underway in Sochi, Russia. This was a surprisingly more entertaining affair than expected, although given it was the most expensive Olympics of any kind, you would have expected as much.
Russia also became involved in one of the year's biggest event in this month, although Vladimir Putin has continued to play down the extent his nation is involved with Ukraine.
For several months, Ukraine had been gripped by protests after President Viktor Yanukovych turned his back on pro-Europe reform in favour of closer ties with Russia. Then in February, things exploded. Three days of riots in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and other major cities lead to depressing images of fire and sniping.
This led to the end of Yanukovych's government, and replacement by a new government. Concerns had arisen of potential Neo-Nazi involvement in the protests for change were prevalent, but hushed by the next development.
Concurrent to the more high profile anti-government protests were pro-Russian protests in Russian speaking territories in the South and East of Ukraine. This then led to major clashes in Crimea, which wanted to rejoin Russia 20-odd years after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
A bitter fight for the peninsula took place before a vote in March where Crimea declared independence from the rest of Ukraine. Russia is now in de facto but disputed control of the state, but as the year progressed it was not the only issue in the Russian speaking areas of Eastern Ukraine.
By now, however, another bleak story was filling March's airwaves. Early in the month, a routine Malaysian Airlines passenger flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing suddenly disappeared somewhere off the coast of Vietnam.
This spiralled into one of the year's biggest stories, with American news media in particular taking grim speculative interest in where the plane had ended up. A huge quantity of conspiracy theories were created in the wake of the disappearance, but so far, there has been no revelation, Aside from narrowing down the plane's location to the Indian Ocean a few thousand miles west of Australia's Western seaboard, no wreckage has yet been discovered.
By April, an already dark year was looking for some positivity. What duly turned up was two major disastrous events involving children in the same week. First, 276 schoolgirls and women were kidnapped from a remote Nigerian school by Islamic terrorist organisation Boko Haram, who would reappear throughout the year following a large number of terrorist killings.
The missing schoolgirls became the centre of the global #BringBackOurGirls campaign - one of many social media campaigns to take place in 2014. This campaign inspired many high profile figures to join, and many similarly high profile figures to voice snarky unhelpful disapproval. So far, 55 of the missing have returned, while Nigeria has had to retract an earlier statement they'd all been found.
Virtually the day after, South Korea had a tragedy of its own, when a passenger ferry capsized, taking 300 with it. There has been major calls for the death penalty to be used after a case that saw the deaths of mainly secondary school children.
After a uniformally bleak opening to the year, May turned out to be continuing the earlier threads mixed in with elections. India had the largest election in world history, as controversial Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi won the vote in a landslide.
The UK and other European nations were meanwhile voting in the European Parliament, where the biggest victor turned out to be apathy. Only 42.5% of Europe's population bothered to vote - a new record low.
Anti-EU parties were those who took most of votes, with UKIP and the French National Front taking the spoils, although so far their impact has been negligible.
2014 was a big year for UKIP, with the party winning its first two MPs later in the year after Conservative defectors, and Nigel Farage's status as a professional media-whore intensifying. But while 2014 saw it take a big leap that few other UK parties have managed, it still had a wide variety of public relations gaffes, and ended the year with mumblings of discontent towards Farage.
The other major British political parties all had terrible years. The Conservative Party had a dire year once more, capped off by George Osborne's Autumn Statement revealing that he had massively failed in his 2010 pledge to control Britain's borrowing, deficit and debt costs.
As a Prime Minister himself, David Cameron didn't have as bad a year as he had done in previous years, but his party were still lacking conviction. The defections to UKIP - a party primarily cultivated of hard-right ex-Tories - will have certainly hurt, The news that the UN has also announced the UK is to be the first country to be investigated for systemic violations of the rights of disabled people will certainly not help, while Iain Duncan-Smith has seemingly morphed into a public hate figure capable of only spouting gibberish rubbish.
Labour could well have established a commanding lead, and could've done were it not for the fact that Ed Miliband has some of the world's worst PR advisors. Throughout the year, the Leader of the Opposition was a walking PR disaster, which was perhaps capped off by his inexplicable failure to eat a bacon sandwich without looking strange.
As for the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg existed in a state perhaps worse than his hatred in 2011. He was ignored.
June saw the start of the 2014 World Cup, which was an unusual tournament. It had threatened at first to be overshadowed by protestations over the cost and workers deaths, and in the late finishing of stadium construction.
FIFA's ill-mannered affairs also offered an alternative distraction for those who don't like football. There has always been the whiff of corruption surrounding FIFA, and that has been more than a whiff since the bizarre decision in 2010 to hand Qatar a World Cup.
November's publishing of a corruption report that excused FIFA and the winning nations was a total mess, undermined on the day of publication when investigator Michael Garcia complained.
As for the football itself, host nation Brazil were ok but not good, and were perhaps lucky not to get injuries and/or play a big name team until the semi-finals. Then everything fell apart, with a near-paralysing injury to star forward Neymar and a ban for skipper Thiago Silva ruling them out of the semi-final with Germany.
The Germans tore Brazil apart in a display few football teams pull off in ordinarily games, nevermind a World Cup semi-final. At one point they were scoring every other minute, netting seven to break Brazil's dreams.
With previous champions Spain utterly insipid, and a number of other runners and riders underperforming, the Germans were deserved victors of their fifth World Cup.
The regular football season in England had been exciting, with an entertaining three way title duel between Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool providing one of the most exciting title fights in years. By contrast, Manchester United had a hideous 2013-14 campaign, as David Moyes transpired to be overawed.
In the end, the slip seen around the world from one S. Gerrard led to Man City taking the title, and Liverpool haven't recovered from the twin blow of that and selling Luis Suarez.
While the world was mainly intrigued by football, there was another long-reaching story breaking alongside in the regular news.
At the start of June, an Islamic militant group known as ISIL took Mosul, the second largest Iraqi city. Despite going under a number of brandings - ISIS, ISIL and Islamic State - they exploded in power across Iraq and Syria, with oil money and ransacked American military goods giving them previously unforeseen power.
Throughout the year, their power begun to develop, and with it pressure on the West to act. This pressure increased when ISIS begun to take and kill American, British and French hostages. As of December, Obama is yet to become the third in four consecutive American to deploy troops to Iraq, although support to the locals has been given.
As if that story wasn't enough to make the news more depressing than normal in July, more appalling news dominated. Another war between Israel and Gaza saw cities in Gaza virtually destroyed following a bitter conflict that left many appalled by the actions of both sides.
This seemingly interminable squabble never really looked like stopping, with several ceasefires folding almost immediately. All over the world, protests were held for Israel to stop its campaign, and with it a range of people calling them Anti-Semitic. By the time the campaign finished, the rebuilding bill for Gaza was estimated in the billions.
Meanwhile, after a few months in the background, Ukraine resurfaced in the headlines in horrific ways. The bombing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur in the skies over Donetsk in Eastern Ukraine was a major global incident.
Nauseating footage emerged of Ukrainian fields scattered with pieces of plane and the belongings of those onboard.
It was very quickly declared that a missile caused the explosion, and that it the plane was mistaken for a troop carrier. But while that was established, the Ukrainian and Russian forces spent most of the rest of the year blaming the other side, while rebels picked through belongings and are believed to have made off with a lot of it while stopping air crash investigators from being let in.
As if that wasn't enough, July saw the Ebola crisis in Africa spiral into a major trans-national pandemic. An epidemic had been building throughout the year, as thousands of deaths from the disease were reported in three West African nations. In the summer, it spiralled out of control, with th nations running out of doctors. Unfairly, what tipped it into the Western news in September was the potential risk of European nations and America seeing similar pandemics as people from Doctors Without Borders returned home carrying the strain - a situation exacerbated by inept hospital staff in Texas letting a sufferer go free.
August is usually a quiet month where the world seems to take time off. But instead, this was an utterly hideous month that begun with the shooting of Michael Brown.
The shooting happened in Ferguson, Missouri, when unarmed 18-year-old black teenager Brown was shot seven times by local police officer Derren Wilson. This quickly led to things spiralling out of control, with the city hit by mass protests that turned violent and an utterly insane police response that an uninformed outsider could've mistaken for an invading army.
Throughout the year, the black community of the USA has protested perceived targeting by the American police, who have done little to help thaw relations by continuing to be seen to be doing so. November's failure to indict an officer who was caught on video putting Eric Garner into a chokehold before he died was particularly insulting. Violence and mass protests also accompanied a similar failure to indict over Brown, and a dark year in US history was seen as the race question appeared in an ugly manner. Unless you watch Fox News, where every attempt was made to put the protesters in the wrong.
For most of August, three stories dominated the news in the form of the Ferguson protests, ISIS and Ebola. They were then joined by an unwelcome fourth story in the form of the death of the much loved comedian and actor Robin Williams, who committed suicide in the middle of the month.
Williams was not the only much-admired celebrity to die in 2014, with fellow Oscar-winner Phillip Seymour Hoffman, comedian Joan Rivers, Jurassic Park star Richard Attenborough, actor Micky Rooney and actress Shirley Temple all taking their leave from the world. But Williams was one of the most poignant deaths of the year, with fans stunned by the suicide of one of Hollywood's most well loved actors.
The end of a dark August saw another major news story break in an unexpected way. For thousands of Twitter uses worldwide, one minute on August 31st saw Twitter timelines filled with the usual debates on the news and general inane stuff, and the next saw nude photographs of rich and famous actors spreading like wildfire. Or at least it was for me.
Known online as "The Fappening", this news item saw the private nude images of hundreds of famous women leaked onto the internet. It also led to vitriolic commentary, with a substantial amount of bile reserved for Reddit and 4Chan - the sites primarily responsible for the leaks.
Unfairly targeted was Actor-winning star Jennifer Lawrence, who seemed to be in every single one of the initially leaked photos, and who has since referred to the leaks as a sex crime.
This was in all a mostly terrible year for the internet, with the medium's creator Tim Berners-Lee later admitting he was unhappy at what his momentous creation had become. With the internet still problematic following the 2013 Snowden leaks, there were various scandals involving online posts before major concerns over privacy took to the fore when the celebrity nude leak occurred.
This would be exacerbated a few months later in a major debate for internet security and privacy at Sony. Until then, and previously on a more visible level, the tedious Gamergate scandal also broke in August. Initially breaking after the jilted boyfriend of video game developer Zoe Quinn claimed a previous relationship of hers with a male video game journalist had led to favourable reviews for one of her previous games, this very quickly spiralled into a debate on sexism in the video game fan community.
It was not a pretty sight. This was an ugly debate that raged for months in head-bangingly stupid fashion, and after a few years of renaissance, did as much to undermine video games as a succession of increasingly faulty new products (for instance, DriveClub, Assassin's Creed Unity and Halo all launched with major problems) and sub-par titles for high end new consoles did.
Most people supporting the use of the tag claim it begun as a debate of the ethics in games journalism, but the belligerent sexism and threats towards Quinn and other women in games destroyed any logic to this argument. It made for unedifying reading, and was just utterly detestable to trawl through.
Despite that, people wanted to use the internet for a positive at the end of August in the form of the Ice Bucket challenge, which arrived in the UK this time. This was a simple test of throwing a bucket of ice-filled water over your head and then donating to charity.
Even then, there was still a queuing up to knock the concept, be it debating the charity who was involved, how important the cause was, how many people actually donated out of how many participated, the mis-use of water - particularly debated in drought stricken areas - the idea of it being self-congratulatory, and the idea of it being a glorified wet T-shirt contest.
In saying that, if a portion of the £20-odd million raised helps cure motor neurone disease, it might not all be so bad.
September saw the very future of the United Kingdom then put under threat. For the year or so since it was announced, the Scottish Independence referendum was largely consigned to being a local issue. But with weeks to go before the big vote, the persistent message of the independence campaign and some very shoddy work by the pro-union campaign let the SNP-led independence campaign erode the advantage.
When some polls began to show advantage with the pro-independence camp, politicians of all hues flocked to Scotland to plead the case for pro-unionism. They were also joined by people from outside the UK seeking an example to support their own independence campaigns, with people from Flanders in Belgium, Catalonia in Spain and all sorts of other regions across Europe visiting to research things for their own campaigns.
Ultimately, a 10% victory was declared for the pro-union camp, who celebrated by having a riot in central Glasgow. Meanwhile, First Minister and SNP chair Alex Salmond resigned from his post in charge, and was jeered following the end of his independence dream, although he will be standing for election to Westminster in the next election. He may also have got his wish for more power for the SNP, with the pro-union vote coming with further devolution, and the SNP now trouncing Labour in Scottish polls.
While the newspapers were busy casting Alex Salmond as some kind of bogeyman, Apple users were venting their hatred at different Celtic bogeymen.
U2's 13th studio album Songs of Innocence is not going to be remembered as one of their best albums, but it will be remembered for one of the most interesting release strategies. Piggybacking on Apple's latest product launch/minimal ovepriced enhancement announcement, the Irish rockers released the album free on everyone's iTunes.
26 million worldwide downloads equals the total copies sold of U2's biggest selling album The Joshua Tree - which was released 27 years previously - but it didn't come without controversy. That impressive looking figure is still less than 5% of global iTunes customers, and as many as those who downloaded it complained about the album's forceful placement in their iTunes folders. It even got to the surreal and odd moment when Apple released a delete album button, although it doesn't seem to have worked.
The end of September saw protests become the order of the day, with wide scale protests against corruption in Mexico and Chinese enforced rule in Hong Kong.
The protests in Mexico were sparked off by the kidnapping of 43 students at a teacher's college, but with the nation still engrossed in a drug cartel war in the north of the country and political corruption, protests spread around Mexico. As yet, the victims have not been found, and at least one has been confirmed dead.
Known locally as the Umbrella Revolution, Hong Kong's protests enjoyed solidarity protests and support from outside the region. But China refused to back down, and a bitter peace has since broken out.
October was dominated by the jailing of Paralympic hero Oscar Pistorius.
The South African had been in and out of news cycles after the death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day 2013. Pistorius always admitted he shot and killed Steenkamp, but denied murder.
After a long winded trial, he was ultimately found not guilty of murder, but guilty of culpable homicide, leading to his jailing for five years. Many called the sentence too lenient, and this includes the prosecution, who in 2015, will begin a challenge to get his sentence lengthened.
Elsewhere, the UK saw the end of a costly era as they exited Afghanistan. The closure of Camp Bastion and the airlifting away of thousands of British troops, supplies and equipment bought to an end the 13 years that the UK has spent in Afghanistan. This has led to plenty of pondering if the campaign in this country was really worth it, and in truth, nobody seems to have an answer.
November finally saw something positive happen, when a European Space Agency probe called Philae that spent ten years in flight landed on a comet 310 million miles away.
Unfortunately, the positivity from that was quickly eroded when it turned out the probe landed in the wrong place, leaving it to fall over and run out of battery power.
Meanwhile, the UK was busy taking an almost eager celebration of World War One to a newly uncomfortable level. A commemoration saw a sea of red ceramic poppies erected in the moat surrounding the Tower of London - one for each British person killed in the conflict.
It was roundly considered a success in raising tourist numbers and positive press reviews, yet it all felt oddly uncomfortable that national celebrations had been created out of the death of millions of people in a war that could have been avoided. In saying that, it was in better taste than the Sainsbury's Christmas advert using the WW1 Christmas Day truce to sell chocolate.
Traditionally, November is a busy month for the film industry, with marketing campaigns beginning for the big Christmas releases and pictures considered for the Oscars. The third Hunger Games movie and Interstellar proved giant autumn success stories, although sadly the highest grossing film of the year worldwide was one of its worst, as Michael Bay's hideous Transformers movies saw off the more entertaining Marvel stories and The Lego Movie to top the global cash pile.
One of Sony's biggest Christmas planned releases was The Interview - an action-comedy starring Seth Rogen and James Franco as two bumbling celebrity journalists who land an interview with Kim Jong-Un, and then are asked to assassinate him. When the trailer came out in July, North Korea had predictably not taken it to very well, with the kind of ranting and wailing that comes with their territory.
In a normal world, that would've been the end of it, and it would've no doubt attracted the audience that has made Rogen bafflingly successful. Then in November, Sony employees turned up in their office to find their computer network had completely died.
Things turned out to be more severe than a simple power outage. Soon, a group known as the Guardians of Peace that may or may not be affiliated to the North Koreans - nobody seems to know for sure - was releasing everything. Films, scripts, private details, thousands of largely catty e-mails, salary information and more was put all over the internet.
Drowned somewhat in the intense publication of e-mails was the more interesting debate about internet security and corporate cybercrime.
The world could have used a gentile December to end the year. What it got was yet more misery. It started off badly enough when the CIA in America released its much anticipated report into torture. This revealed the horrifying and nauseating extent to which torture was used at American bases across the world to find out information.
Repentance has not been the order of the day. Former Vice President Dick Cheney has been in unrelenting support of the behaviour, while a litany of ex-CIA and former Attorney Generals have also been on American news television to justify a program that saw, among other things, waterboarding, "anal feeding" and chaining people to cold floors par for the course.
The role of the UK is believed to have been redacted, but state secrets were still making attention in the UK. For most of the year, rumours had been surfacing over a sex ring involving prominent British politicians and celebrities in the 1970s-90s. This has been a long running case to find answers for after the Jimmy Saville revelations, and seemed to have reached a big moment when Rolf Harris was jailed in the summer. But soon police begun to start finding credible witnesses and more claims that a child sex ring of the powerful had killed children that threatened to blab.
This could be a major story in the next few years, and many of the claims make for extremely uncomfortable reading. Whether or not anything will be uncovered remains to be seen on just how credible law enforcement can be.
Globally, things were still as bleak as ever, and were about to continue as miserably as the year had been. The enormous and horrific massacre of innocent schoolchildren at a military school in Afghanistan stunned the world, while the world was also shocked later in the same week by news of an Islamic terrorist taking hostages in a chocolate cafe in Sydney. The taker was later killed, along with two hostages.
The bleakness was still not done, after the terrible news two days before Christmas Day of a man driving a bin lorry suffering a heart attack and running over six people in the centre of Glasgow.
It can be safely said that after a huge year filled to bursting with shocking stories, the world will be glad to see the back of 2014. So what will 2015 bring?
The one definite in the UK is that May 2015 will bring a general election that looks extremely close to call. For the most part, polls have shown Labour enjoying a marginal polling advantage over the Conservative Party, but both have had their voting shares eaten up by UKIP and the SNP in their respective heartlands.
All that is certain is that the three big parties are losing support, with the Liberal Democrats in particular expected to have a painful election.
Beyond that, another unpredictable and tumultuous year is likely to be seen on the global stage. All that can be done now is to wait and see just how unpredictable and tumultuous it can be.
Still, a little positivity in the increasingly bleak global landscape wouldn't go amiss.
Sunday, 28 December 2014
Friday, 5 December 2014
Kasabian at Brixton Academy - Gig Review
WHERE do you go to after reaching the career peak?
This year has already been an exceptional one for Kasabian. They topped the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury, headlined a hometown gig in Leicester to 50,000 people, and have had their fourth consecutive number one album. In all, its very good going.
Naturally, the way to go is to take your wares to the rest of the country, with the band embarking on an arena tour except for in London, where the band have chosen to do a five night residency at Brixton Academy. The band have played this venue at least once on every tour, so a biggest ever run here makes perfect sense.
Nevertheless, this could have had the air of an awkward occasion. On the tour's opening night in Glasgow, a "production error" meant that the backing screen showed the phrase "London is full of cunts" during a song. That presumably went down very nicely up in Scotland - and had it been kept, most likely everywhere else in the UK - but down in the capital, it could have reduced some of the buoyancy.
Could have, that is. London however is certainly in a forgiving mood from the word go. Night four of the five night stand begins - as the others did - with Tom Meighan and Sergio Pizzorno doing the first verse to new album opener bumblebee acoustic, before the rest of the band join in and get the crowd into a fabulously frenzied mayhem.
By now, you will almost certainly know the drill. Teased by the rhythm to Kanye West's Black Skinhead, there's a pulsing Shoot the Runner, and then the anthemic squawk of Underdog's guitar riff.
Disappointingly, Where Did All The Love Go is again preferred to the superior Fast Fuse, but there's little time to feel down. The rush of Days are Forgotten is a beefier version than the song that opened Kasabian's last appearance here in 2012, before recent single eez-eh blisters past in goofy singalongs, rave synths and Pizzorno running around the stage like a kid filled with sugar.
The counterpoint between Kasabian's co-frontmen is seen in all from dress - Meighan favours a black-and-white checkered blazer as part of a suit, while Pizzorno wears a t-shirt with "stickers" written on the front and a bushy felt fox tail - to singing style to even dancing on stage. But between them, they know how to give the audience a show, and encourage them to go nuts in response.
There's no sense of dulling down the expectations for the smaller room. If anything the concentrated energy feels like even more of a frenzy then in bigger spaces like the O2, and the singalongs as loud and punching through the night air.
Pizzorno's stint also includes time for a funky dance number, with a remix of Empire single Me Plus One providing a surprise highlight. This is then followed by the chill out songs of Thick as Thieves and a semi-acoustic Goodbye Kiss, which is perhaps the only time that the pace and power is relaxed.
The latter directly leads into 2004's Club Foot, which still packs a powerful bassy thump. A re-worked version of Re-Wired, which has a new string intro and has a segment of Camaro's Word Up sung by Pizzorno, is an excellent follow-on.
The live set remains studded with excellent anthems, with a one-two of Empire and Fire - the latter of which features an extended reprise - closing up the main set in style.
Not that proceedings are finished. Barely two minutes elapse before the string section returns to play an extended intro to recent single stevie - accompanied by lasers. The rest of the band join in and do a good show, but the following blast of Vlad The Impaler is much better, with dirty guitars and thumping bass sending the room into a state of delirium.
Supplemented by guitar work from two of the Maccabees, L.S.F. brings down the show in rabble-rousing fashion, with a reprise and all, and the crowd goes home happy. Indeed, they still chant the refrain from the song heading out of the venue and into the cold South London air long after the last member has departed from the stage.
While this may not have had the best setlist or performance Kasabian have ever done, this is still an admirable show, with plenty of punching anthems to get the crowd going. There's also a good deal of sonic variation, some excellent use of the standard arena-rock tricks (screen, lasers, big box of lights, etc), and a sense that band and audience are both enjoying their side of the bargain.
The question now is this - "can they do it bigger?"
Assuming they avoid the UK festivals next year, perhaps one of the bigger outdoor places will be a calling. Lord knows they've got the catalogue of anthems, tricks and fans to pull it off, as this year has very nicely demonstrated.
4/5
Opening for the Leicestershire rockers are The Maccabees, who have previously headlined their own show in this room and indeed in larger places. Having spent most of the last year struggling their way through the creation of a new album, the newly-enlarged band play four new tracks as part of their set.
Surprisingly, these four turn out to be the better songs of their set, with a nice mixture of dark textures yet dance-y sounds. But perhaps not surprisingly, the crowd are more in tune with the old ones, with mid-set track Precious Time getting highlights. The band take a few songs to warm-up, and at times were overshadowed by their elaborate but entertaining light show, but they rise to the challenge and finish strongly, with a monstrous Pelican closing the night with gusto. They will certainly be back next year playing bigger rooms than this one.
This year has already been an exceptional one for Kasabian. They topped the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury, headlined a hometown gig in Leicester to 50,000 people, and have had their fourth consecutive number one album. In all, its very good going.
Naturally, the way to go is to take your wares to the rest of the country, with the band embarking on an arena tour except for in London, where the band have chosen to do a five night residency at Brixton Academy. The band have played this venue at least once on every tour, so a biggest ever run here makes perfect sense.
Nevertheless, this could have had the air of an awkward occasion. On the tour's opening night in Glasgow, a "production error" meant that the backing screen showed the phrase "London is full of cunts" during a song. That presumably went down very nicely up in Scotland - and had it been kept, most likely everywhere else in the UK - but down in the capital, it could have reduced some of the buoyancy.
Could have, that is. London however is certainly in a forgiving mood from the word go. Night four of the five night stand begins - as the others did - with Tom Meighan and Sergio Pizzorno doing the first verse to new album opener bumblebee acoustic, before the rest of the band join in and get the crowd into a fabulously frenzied mayhem.
By now, you will almost certainly know the drill. Teased by the rhythm to Kanye West's Black Skinhead, there's a pulsing Shoot the Runner, and then the anthemic squawk of Underdog's guitar riff.
Disappointingly, Where Did All The Love Go is again preferred to the superior Fast Fuse, but there's little time to feel down. The rush of Days are Forgotten is a beefier version than the song that opened Kasabian's last appearance here in 2012, before recent single eez-eh blisters past in goofy singalongs, rave synths and Pizzorno running around the stage like a kid filled with sugar.
The counterpoint between Kasabian's co-frontmen is seen in all from dress - Meighan favours a black-and-white checkered blazer as part of a suit, while Pizzorno wears a t-shirt with "stickers" written on the front and a bushy felt fox tail - to singing style to even dancing on stage. But between them, they know how to give the audience a show, and encourage them to go nuts in response.
There's no sense of dulling down the expectations for the smaller room. If anything the concentrated energy feels like even more of a frenzy then in bigger spaces like the O2, and the singalongs as loud and punching through the night air.
Pizzorno's stint also includes time for a funky dance number, with a remix of Empire single Me Plus One providing a surprise highlight. This is then followed by the chill out songs of Thick as Thieves and a semi-acoustic Goodbye Kiss, which is perhaps the only time that the pace and power is relaxed.
The latter directly leads into 2004's Club Foot, which still packs a powerful bassy thump. A re-worked version of Re-Wired, which has a new string intro and has a segment of Camaro's Word Up sung by Pizzorno, is an excellent follow-on.
The live set remains studded with excellent anthems, with a one-two of Empire and Fire - the latter of which features an extended reprise - closing up the main set in style.
Not that proceedings are finished. Barely two minutes elapse before the string section returns to play an extended intro to recent single stevie - accompanied by lasers. The rest of the band join in and do a good show, but the following blast of Vlad The Impaler is much better, with dirty guitars and thumping bass sending the room into a state of delirium.
Supplemented by guitar work from two of the Maccabees, L.S.F. brings down the show in rabble-rousing fashion, with a reprise and all, and the crowd goes home happy. Indeed, they still chant the refrain from the song heading out of the venue and into the cold South London air long after the last member has departed from the stage.
While this may not have had the best setlist or performance Kasabian have ever done, this is still an admirable show, with plenty of punching anthems to get the crowd going. There's also a good deal of sonic variation, some excellent use of the standard arena-rock tricks (screen, lasers, big box of lights, etc), and a sense that band and audience are both enjoying their side of the bargain.
The question now is this - "can they do it bigger?"
Assuming they avoid the UK festivals next year, perhaps one of the bigger outdoor places will be a calling. Lord knows they've got the catalogue of anthems, tricks and fans to pull it off, as this year has very nicely demonstrated.
4/5
Opening for the Leicestershire rockers are The Maccabees, who have previously headlined their own show in this room and indeed in larger places. Having spent most of the last year struggling their way through the creation of a new album, the newly-enlarged band play four new tracks as part of their set.
Surprisingly, these four turn out to be the better songs of their set, with a nice mixture of dark textures yet dance-y sounds. But perhaps not surprisingly, the crowd are more in tune with the old ones, with mid-set track Precious Time getting highlights. The band take a few songs to warm-up, and at times were overshadowed by their elaborate but entertaining light show, but they rise to the challenge and finish strongly, with a monstrous Pelican closing the night with gusto. They will certainly be back next year playing bigger rooms than this one.
Thursday, 27 November 2014
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 - Film Review
WHEN is a film a film and when is a film a cash cow?
The recent trend for splitting the final book in fantasy sagas into two (see Harry Potter and Twilight) has become a real exercise of prolonging a franchise, and with it, the money for studios. Not that it needs too entirely. Young adult franchise controllers Lionsgate are raking in billions in profits as it is, and some source novels seem better placed for a 3 hour film rather than two different 2 hour plus affairs.
The final Hunger Games book nevertheless is going to be a double adaptation, with a second half coming out next year. This is of a slightly debatable point. While criticism that the book is the substantially poorer relation of the first two Hunger Games novels is unfair, it is a book that is very back-ended, and where almost all of the exciting stuff happens towards the end.
So what of Part 1, exactly?
It would be easy to say this is going to be a film on autopilot, but for a film franchise that is already one of the bleakest in modern cinema, this film ratchets up the bleakness to another level entirely.
In the first twenty minutes alone, we have episodes of a PTSD-riddled Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) trying to hide from the guards of her new home, covert emotional manipulation of said Everdeen by her new home's government, and a journey through the bombed out District 12 and all the burned out corpses in the middle of the main city.
When we last saw this franchise, the Hunger Games 75th anniversary had ended with Katniss blowing up the arena and getting lifted out to the previously-thought-to-be-destroyed District 13. The nation of Panem is now in open revolt against the totalitarian leader President Snow (the underused Donald Sutherland), and uncertain times are being faced.
To try and continue the revolt in a positive direction, Katniss is instructed to star in propaganda shorts to inspire the revolution. These are overseen by the comically morose Plutarch Heavensbee (the late, great Phillip Seymour Hoffman).
This is one of two ways that demonstrate this film's difference to the previous two. The first two movies in the Hunger Games franchise came of the "distraction by deadly sport" camp, as in Battle Royale (first film) and Rollerball (second one).
Mockingjay by contrast is two movies under one banner. One of these is a war film, as evidenced by the shots of cities and towns engaged in violent battle and in war against the controlling Capitol. The other is a film about media manipulation. Certainly, there are a few moments early on that do amuse when they seem to resemble a film casting session.
Overseeing the operation is slightly menacing new arrival President Coin of District 13 (Julianne Moore), who operates with an icy sheen that is directly implied to be a few degrees from the head of the bad guys.
It is easy to criticise this for being a $125million placeholder lacking action. But its also fair, as the action is fairly simple and distant. Barring the shot in the trailer where she blows up a plane with an explosive arrow, Katniss' ability to do action is very limited by the script, and the plot-driving action sequences are left to nameless rebels in the outer districts.
It doesn't do a lot to satisfy the pre-existing quibble that its trying to make a full length movie about the least interesting part of the book, albeit not quite to the extent that saw the relatively slim Hobbit book made into three bladder-tauntingly-long films.
There also is involvement for the Hunger Games' weakest arc, which is the Twilight rip-off love triangle involving Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) and Gale (Liam Hemsworth). As ever, these scenes just don't feel like they belong in the same movie, although the scenes with Peeta are given an intriguing tragic complex through his trial-by-television and Ceasar Flickermann (Stanley Tucci) that is used to surprising effect in the final 15 minutes.
This film doesn't do enough to reach the highlights of the engrossing first movie, but after the oddly flat second one, this is a surprisingly decent film. It has a very nimble and extremely high calibre cast, including people that pop in and out more than they had in previous films (Woody Harrelson and Elizabeth Banks' characters in particular).
As ever, the central strand rests on Lawrence to work wonders with Katniss. As ever, its slightly robbed of her inside emotions given this isn't first person, but she does do a lot with her role and remains good value as a central cornerstone of the movie.
There is also an intriguing set-piece where District 13 rebels try and rescue captured men of their side from a power-outaged Capitol, which is played extremely nicely.
This film may have, on another day, been condensed into an hour before the proper two hour grit of the finale. But on its own level, and if you choose to engage with it, then it works very nicely. There's certainly enough to admire, and its a good set-up for what will hopefully be a proper all-guns blazing climax next autumn.
3.5/5
The recent trend for splitting the final book in fantasy sagas into two (see Harry Potter and Twilight) has become a real exercise of prolonging a franchise, and with it, the money for studios. Not that it needs too entirely. Young adult franchise controllers Lionsgate are raking in billions in profits as it is, and some source novels seem better placed for a 3 hour film rather than two different 2 hour plus affairs.
The final Hunger Games book nevertheless is going to be a double adaptation, with a second half coming out next year. This is of a slightly debatable point. While criticism that the book is the substantially poorer relation of the first two Hunger Games novels is unfair, it is a book that is very back-ended, and where almost all of the exciting stuff happens towards the end.
So what of Part 1, exactly?
It would be easy to say this is going to be a film on autopilot, but for a film franchise that is already one of the bleakest in modern cinema, this film ratchets up the bleakness to another level entirely.
In the first twenty minutes alone, we have episodes of a PTSD-riddled Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) trying to hide from the guards of her new home, covert emotional manipulation of said Everdeen by her new home's government, and a journey through the bombed out District 12 and all the burned out corpses in the middle of the main city.
When we last saw this franchise, the Hunger Games 75th anniversary had ended with Katniss blowing up the arena and getting lifted out to the previously-thought-to-be-destroyed District 13. The nation of Panem is now in open revolt against the totalitarian leader President Snow (the underused Donald Sutherland), and uncertain times are being faced.
To try and continue the revolt in a positive direction, Katniss is instructed to star in propaganda shorts to inspire the revolution. These are overseen by the comically morose Plutarch Heavensbee (the late, great Phillip Seymour Hoffman).
This is one of two ways that demonstrate this film's difference to the previous two. The first two movies in the Hunger Games franchise came of the "distraction by deadly sport" camp, as in Battle Royale (first film) and Rollerball (second one).
Mockingjay by contrast is two movies under one banner. One of these is a war film, as evidenced by the shots of cities and towns engaged in violent battle and in war against the controlling Capitol. The other is a film about media manipulation. Certainly, there are a few moments early on that do amuse when they seem to resemble a film casting session.
Overseeing the operation is slightly menacing new arrival President Coin of District 13 (Julianne Moore), who operates with an icy sheen that is directly implied to be a few degrees from the head of the bad guys.
It is easy to criticise this for being a $125million placeholder lacking action. But its also fair, as the action is fairly simple and distant. Barring the shot in the trailer where she blows up a plane with an explosive arrow, Katniss' ability to do action is very limited by the script, and the plot-driving action sequences are left to nameless rebels in the outer districts.
It doesn't do a lot to satisfy the pre-existing quibble that its trying to make a full length movie about the least interesting part of the book, albeit not quite to the extent that saw the relatively slim Hobbit book made into three bladder-tauntingly-long films.
There also is involvement for the Hunger Games' weakest arc, which is the Twilight rip-off love triangle involving Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) and Gale (Liam Hemsworth). As ever, these scenes just don't feel like they belong in the same movie, although the scenes with Peeta are given an intriguing tragic complex through his trial-by-television and Ceasar Flickermann (Stanley Tucci) that is used to surprising effect in the final 15 minutes.
This film doesn't do enough to reach the highlights of the engrossing first movie, but after the oddly flat second one, this is a surprisingly decent film. It has a very nimble and extremely high calibre cast, including people that pop in and out more than they had in previous films (Woody Harrelson and Elizabeth Banks' characters in particular).
As ever, the central strand rests on Lawrence to work wonders with Katniss. As ever, its slightly robbed of her inside emotions given this isn't first person, but she does do a lot with her role and remains good value as a central cornerstone of the movie.
There is also an intriguing set-piece where District 13 rebels try and rescue captured men of their side from a power-outaged Capitol, which is played extremely nicely.
This film may have, on another day, been condensed into an hour before the proper two hour grit of the finale. But on its own level, and if you choose to engage with it, then it works very nicely. There's certainly enough to admire, and its a good set-up for what will hopefully be a proper all-guns blazing climax next autumn.
3.5/5
Thursday, 13 November 2014
Interstellar - Film Review
In the middle of the gallery Interstellar find, there is a planet targeted for exploration that orbits a supermassive black hole.
The sight is an ethereal and superbly calibrated construct of imagery, broadcasting this lone and fragile rock orbiting an enormous spectrum of light being sucked out of existence. But the name of the black hole is (almost) a byword for the film - Gargantua.
Gargantuan doesn't begin to describe Interstellar - although the film's name is similarly grandiose. At 2 hours and 45 minutes, this is a film to test even the most steely of bladders. It equally possesses an A-list cast, a director widely seen as revolutionary, some of the finest CGI effects money can buy, touts some impressive landscapes, and possesses masses of input from scientific luminaries.
Clearly, there is some high-level work put into this, which has led to a $165million budget - although it was initially budgeted for $10million more than that - and there is much for Paramount to bank on this being major success. In terms of being Oscar-nominated, it certainly will get at least nomination for its SFX work.
There is much to compare Interstellar to previous sci-fi epics like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Metropolis, Star Wars, et all, but it begins with influences from documentaries of American history of the 1930's. Clips from 2012 documentary The Dust Bowl permeate the opening of the film, which is superimposed to a screen world a few decades in the future and existing within major problems.
The world has regressed to an agricultural society, with the human race put towards farming, even in spite of large numbers of crops being claimed by blight or dust storms, and some going extinct completely. Indeed, its just corn left to grow, and even that is dying.
Stuck in the dust and dirt is former NASA pilot and now farmer Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), who lives on a corn farm with his family and trying to combat the problem of humanity running out of its food supply.
Following the death of his wife, he lives with his wife's father, as well as two kids - one of whom, his daughter Murph, is complaining of a ghost living in her room. Through a few tricks, the ghost leads Cooper and Murph to the remnants of NASA.
With humanity now denying even the Apollo missions, the mission has been created in secret. Led by Professor Brand (Michael Caine) and his excellent facial hair, this secret mission is all about finding humanity a new home. Cooper is sent to go out and help him solve an equation that can get humanity on a space station and off the dying Earth.
Before then, Cooper and Professor Brand's daughter Amelia (Anne Hathaway) lead a four-man and one sarcastic robot team to find a destination. To help with that, a mysterious wormhole has opened up just beyond the orbit of the planet Saturn, which will help the team go to some other far-away corner of the universe in an instant.
At this point, the film is overtaken by pain-staking explanations of science, including one explanation of how a wormhole works. Rather pointlessly, this is taken just as they are about to enter said wormhole, although you would have thought someone would have explained to Coop what a wormhole might be like before the final hour on the Earth side of the damn thing.
Many in the know have questioned the scientific credentials of this film, and how much the film tries to balance accuracy with entertainment. It is fair however to say this is not a perfect note-for-note cinematic interpretation of science, and it is perhaps unfair to ask it to be anything else to using real science ideas and creations as a launchpad for something more cinema-ready.
But for people with less knowledge, it can feel like being hit over the head with a big book of science-y sounding stuff at times, and throughout the piece, there are long sequences of explanation. Some is necessary. The idea of time dilation is a major factor, and it is played extremely proficiently, and indeed, serves as a key and engaging plot point for the middle and final parts of the movie.
But some of the science does toe the line for entertainment and wonder. Not that this is a bad thing. The proficiency of the visuals is excellent. Much of the space-bound sections of this movie take place in sumptuously detailed vistas, ranging from the surface of icy and rocky planets to black holes to collapsed vistas.
To his credit, director Christopher Nolan prefers real to CGI shots, which gives the planets a realness beyond the simple use of over drawn CGI that punctuates most sci-fi. This is particularly felt on the second planet, which was shot on location in Iceland and shows a myriad of beautiful, slippery glaciers. Plus even when it does GCI, there is no spectacle denial when confronted with a planet filled with nothing but water, and where hyper-gravity leads to 100ft-high tidal waves.
Yet for all its undeniable beauty, it feels laboured at times. At 2 hours 45 minutes, this is a herculean movie, and requires major force of will not to fall asleep during at times. This is not to fault the plot, which doesn't move at that slow a pace and kinda works when analysed in a straight line, but even then, a number of sequences could shortened, and one or two could even be removed.
This is not to fault the actors, who do their best even when the dialogue lurches into the unintentionally hilarious. McConaughey has enjoyed a revival in his fortunes in the last six years that led to an Best Actor Oscar earlier this year, and despite the odd tendency to murmur his vocals from time to time, he is an engaging presence. He and his sandy Carhartt jacket get a ton of screen time across this production, yet he doesn't feel like he's hogging the airtime.
Anne Hathaway and Michael Caine are also excellent on-screen presences, and provide a captivating fluid performance despite being lumpen with most of the faux-science jargon. There are other roles from A-listers that crop up later down the line - Jessica Chastain receives a credit on the film poster, but one other notable one does not. But they do excel when they appear, and give the film a lot of propulsion.
There is also a lovely background role for John Lithgow as the father-in-law to McConaughey's character, and during the opening 45-odd minutes where he appears with him on Earth, the duo bring a great sheen to roles of people who yearn for a time that promised more than the bleak Earth they reside upon.
But while there isn't flaw with actors, there is problems with the final 20 minutes. While experts like Neil deGrasse Tyson have provided something approaching a decent explanation for it, narratively speaking, it feels like a cop-out. Scientifically speaking, it also provides something unsatisfying, even if at least did possess some decent imagination in using it. Like the rest of the film, it looks good, and it also sees composer Hans Zimmer really turn things up to 11 on the church organ.
However, it feels like something approaching a cop out, and it feels like it wants to tie the film up in too neat a bow. It also takes a fair bit of the plausibility out of proceedings, and while it was perhaps fair for it to not be continually obedience to semi-realistic science, it ends on a bum note that dilutes the piece's rating.
In all, Interstellar is a puzzling film. There is a lot of information dotted throughout the plot, almost as a constant underneath to the action itself. To deny it is filled with spectacle is a fallacy, and certainly, in IMAX, it will be looking sumptuous.
There is also nothing wrong with the actors in the piece, but to say this isn't a film without flaws is to overlook the final act's narrative failure, and the clunkiness of the pace.
To say this is among Nolan's best work is to forget The Dark Knight and Inception, and its also not really among the best sci-fi films in the last 5 years, even in spite of the fact it enjoys some of the best visual treatments in that time. But nevertheless, its a thrill ride worth seeing, and there is enough in the movie to at least feel like you haven't wasted your ticket price getting through the screen doors.
Plus if it inspires a wave of trans-galactic explorers, it could be one of the most important films of all...
3/5
The sight is an ethereal and superbly calibrated construct of imagery, broadcasting this lone and fragile rock orbiting an enormous spectrum of light being sucked out of existence. But the name of the black hole is (almost) a byword for the film - Gargantua.
Gargantuan doesn't begin to describe Interstellar - although the film's name is similarly grandiose. At 2 hours and 45 minutes, this is a film to test even the most steely of bladders. It equally possesses an A-list cast, a director widely seen as revolutionary, some of the finest CGI effects money can buy, touts some impressive landscapes, and possesses masses of input from scientific luminaries.
Clearly, there is some high-level work put into this, which has led to a $165million budget - although it was initially budgeted for $10million more than that - and there is much for Paramount to bank on this being major success. In terms of being Oscar-nominated, it certainly will get at least nomination for its SFX work.
There is much to compare Interstellar to previous sci-fi epics like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Metropolis, Star Wars, et all, but it begins with influences from documentaries of American history of the 1930's. Clips from 2012 documentary The Dust Bowl permeate the opening of the film, which is superimposed to a screen world a few decades in the future and existing within major problems.
The world has regressed to an agricultural society, with the human race put towards farming, even in spite of large numbers of crops being claimed by blight or dust storms, and some going extinct completely. Indeed, its just corn left to grow, and even that is dying.
Stuck in the dust and dirt is former NASA pilot and now farmer Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), who lives on a corn farm with his family and trying to combat the problem of humanity running out of its food supply.
Following the death of his wife, he lives with his wife's father, as well as two kids - one of whom, his daughter Murph, is complaining of a ghost living in her room. Through a few tricks, the ghost leads Cooper and Murph to the remnants of NASA.
With humanity now denying even the Apollo missions, the mission has been created in secret. Led by Professor Brand (Michael Caine) and his excellent facial hair, this secret mission is all about finding humanity a new home. Cooper is sent to go out and help him solve an equation that can get humanity on a space station and off the dying Earth.
Before then, Cooper and Professor Brand's daughter Amelia (Anne Hathaway) lead a four-man and one sarcastic robot team to find a destination. To help with that, a mysterious wormhole has opened up just beyond the orbit of the planet Saturn, which will help the team go to some other far-away corner of the universe in an instant.
At this point, the film is overtaken by pain-staking explanations of science, including one explanation of how a wormhole works. Rather pointlessly, this is taken just as they are about to enter said wormhole, although you would have thought someone would have explained to Coop what a wormhole might be like before the final hour on the Earth side of the damn thing.
Many in the know have questioned the scientific credentials of this film, and how much the film tries to balance accuracy with entertainment. It is fair however to say this is not a perfect note-for-note cinematic interpretation of science, and it is perhaps unfair to ask it to be anything else to using real science ideas and creations as a launchpad for something more cinema-ready.
But for people with less knowledge, it can feel like being hit over the head with a big book of science-y sounding stuff at times, and throughout the piece, there are long sequences of explanation. Some is necessary. The idea of time dilation is a major factor, and it is played extremely proficiently, and indeed, serves as a key and engaging plot point for the middle and final parts of the movie.
But some of the science does toe the line for entertainment and wonder. Not that this is a bad thing. The proficiency of the visuals is excellent. Much of the space-bound sections of this movie take place in sumptuously detailed vistas, ranging from the surface of icy and rocky planets to black holes to collapsed vistas.
To his credit, director Christopher Nolan prefers real to CGI shots, which gives the planets a realness beyond the simple use of over drawn CGI that punctuates most sci-fi. This is particularly felt on the second planet, which was shot on location in Iceland and shows a myriad of beautiful, slippery glaciers. Plus even when it does GCI, there is no spectacle denial when confronted with a planet filled with nothing but water, and where hyper-gravity leads to 100ft-high tidal waves.
Yet for all its undeniable beauty, it feels laboured at times. At 2 hours 45 minutes, this is a herculean movie, and requires major force of will not to fall asleep during at times. This is not to fault the plot, which doesn't move at that slow a pace and kinda works when analysed in a straight line, but even then, a number of sequences could shortened, and one or two could even be removed.
This is not to fault the actors, who do their best even when the dialogue lurches into the unintentionally hilarious. McConaughey has enjoyed a revival in his fortunes in the last six years that led to an Best Actor Oscar earlier this year, and despite the odd tendency to murmur his vocals from time to time, he is an engaging presence. He and his sandy Carhartt jacket get a ton of screen time across this production, yet he doesn't feel like he's hogging the airtime.
Anne Hathaway and Michael Caine are also excellent on-screen presences, and provide a captivating fluid performance despite being lumpen with most of the faux-science jargon. There are other roles from A-listers that crop up later down the line - Jessica Chastain receives a credit on the film poster, but one other notable one does not. But they do excel when they appear, and give the film a lot of propulsion.
There is also a lovely background role for John Lithgow as the father-in-law to McConaughey's character, and during the opening 45-odd minutes where he appears with him on Earth, the duo bring a great sheen to roles of people who yearn for a time that promised more than the bleak Earth they reside upon.
But while there isn't flaw with actors, there is problems with the final 20 minutes. While experts like Neil deGrasse Tyson have provided something approaching a decent explanation for it, narratively speaking, it feels like a cop-out. Scientifically speaking, it also provides something unsatisfying, even if at least did possess some decent imagination in using it. Like the rest of the film, it looks good, and it also sees composer Hans Zimmer really turn things up to 11 on the church organ.
However, it feels like something approaching a cop out, and it feels like it wants to tie the film up in too neat a bow. It also takes a fair bit of the plausibility out of proceedings, and while it was perhaps fair for it to not be continually obedience to semi-realistic science, it ends on a bum note that dilutes the piece's rating.
In all, Interstellar is a puzzling film. There is a lot of information dotted throughout the plot, almost as a constant underneath to the action itself. To deny it is filled with spectacle is a fallacy, and certainly, in IMAX, it will be looking sumptuous.
There is also nothing wrong with the actors in the piece, but to say this isn't a film without flaws is to overlook the final act's narrative failure, and the clunkiness of the pace.
To say this is among Nolan's best work is to forget The Dark Knight and Inception, and its also not really among the best sci-fi films in the last 5 years, even in spite of the fact it enjoys some of the best visual treatments in that time. But nevertheless, its a thrill ride worth seeing, and there is enough in the movie to at least feel like you haven't wasted your ticket price getting through the screen doors.
Plus if it inspires a wave of trans-galactic explorers, it could be one of the most important films of all...
3/5
Friday, 7 November 2014
Band of Skulls at Oxford O2 Academy - Gig Review
Things have been on a peculiar trajectory for Band of Skulls.
While third album Himalayan charted lower than its predecessor and hasn't produced something with the hit power as the previous two records, the band's live profile is still expanding. They were a big draw at festivals across Europe in the summer, and have also had experience down the years of supporting bands such as Muse, Queens of the Stone Age, The Black Keys, The Dead Weather and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.
The band's parade of hefty thumping rock has been enough to escalate their live profile, with the band now on a UK run-through of their biggest ever headline dates. With a sold out hometown gig at the Southampton Guildhall immediately after this one, and a largest ever headline show at the Hammersmith Apollo set to come, things are certainly looking big for the trio.
It would be easy to take it easy ahead of these big nights to take it easy, but ahead of a lively crowd, there is full-throttle rock from the off. Light of the Morning and Himalayan represent a punchy, hefty opening to the gig. But its 3rd song You're Not Pretty But You've Got It Going On that really gets the crowd moving and dancing, with the tantalising earworm of its spindly guitar enveloping the track.
Most of the sound is based on Emma Richardson's bass guitar, although one wonders about the mixing - while there's nothing wrong with the proficiency of her bass playing, it overpowers the guitar to a degree.
This is nevertheless a minor quibble. Russell Marsden and his army of guitars provides a nice array of riffing power that possesses the power to hypnotise and then bounce the crowd with an impressive proficiency.
Its easy from afar to deride a samey element to some of the songs, but the power and the force when faced with it in the live arena is still extremely pleasing. The title track from 2nd album Sweet Sour is a particularly beastly tune, as is Asleep At The Wheel.
The moment that really gets the crowd pumped and bouncing is a marvellous three-prong attack at the close of the main set, with Death by Diamonds and Pearls flowing excellently into The Devil Takes Care of His Own, and even nicer into breakthrough single I Know What I Am. This hit parade to close off the main set is especially delightful, and shows off the best part of the band's playing and writing styles.
Marsden says its a conclusion to the gig, but the band do return for a brief three song burst, which includes the evening's most chill song in the form subtler, more introspective Cold Fame. The blistering Hoochie Coochie and spindly Hollywood Bowl then bring curtain down in style.
In all, its a very pleasant endeavour in all. The power of Band of Skulls is mostly prevalent on the live circuit, which is part of the reason why they make for compelling opener for many of the biggest names in rock. On show here, it makes for a compelling presence, and in smaller rooms like the Oxford O2, it works excellently well.
4/5
Opening were Japanese acid-punk proposition Bo Ningen, whose attempts to make a first impression weren't helped by the first song sounding messy thanks to the poor mix. After taking a few songs to adjust to things, the impressively calibrated and perhaps slightly demented squawk begins to take shape. The final song takes things to bombastic levels, with the lead singer playing her bass virtually on the front row, while the guitarists pull shapes and the drummer layer on solo after solo. It ends superbly well, and certainly, the band eventually does enough to leave a positive mark on proceedings.
While third album Himalayan charted lower than its predecessor and hasn't produced something with the hit power as the previous two records, the band's live profile is still expanding. They were a big draw at festivals across Europe in the summer, and have also had experience down the years of supporting bands such as Muse, Queens of the Stone Age, The Black Keys, The Dead Weather and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.
The band's parade of hefty thumping rock has been enough to escalate their live profile, with the band now on a UK run-through of their biggest ever headline dates. With a sold out hometown gig at the Southampton Guildhall immediately after this one, and a largest ever headline show at the Hammersmith Apollo set to come, things are certainly looking big for the trio.
It would be easy to take it easy ahead of these big nights to take it easy, but ahead of a lively crowd, there is full-throttle rock from the off. Light of the Morning and Himalayan represent a punchy, hefty opening to the gig. But its 3rd song You're Not Pretty But You've Got It Going On that really gets the crowd moving and dancing, with the tantalising earworm of its spindly guitar enveloping the track.
Most of the sound is based on Emma Richardson's bass guitar, although one wonders about the mixing - while there's nothing wrong with the proficiency of her bass playing, it overpowers the guitar to a degree.
This is nevertheless a minor quibble. Russell Marsden and his army of guitars provides a nice array of riffing power that possesses the power to hypnotise and then bounce the crowd with an impressive proficiency.
Its easy from afar to deride a samey element to some of the songs, but the power and the force when faced with it in the live arena is still extremely pleasing. The title track from 2nd album Sweet Sour is a particularly beastly tune, as is Asleep At The Wheel.
The moment that really gets the crowd pumped and bouncing is a marvellous three-prong attack at the close of the main set, with Death by Diamonds and Pearls flowing excellently into The Devil Takes Care of His Own, and even nicer into breakthrough single I Know What I Am. This hit parade to close off the main set is especially delightful, and shows off the best part of the band's playing and writing styles.
Marsden says its a conclusion to the gig, but the band do return for a brief three song burst, which includes the evening's most chill song in the form subtler, more introspective Cold Fame. The blistering Hoochie Coochie and spindly Hollywood Bowl then bring curtain down in style.
In all, its a very pleasant endeavour in all. The power of Band of Skulls is mostly prevalent on the live circuit, which is part of the reason why they make for compelling opener for many of the biggest names in rock. On show here, it makes for a compelling presence, and in smaller rooms like the Oxford O2, it works excellently well.
4/5
Opening were Japanese acid-punk proposition Bo Ningen, whose attempts to make a first impression weren't helped by the first song sounding messy thanks to the poor mix. After taking a few songs to adjust to things, the impressively calibrated and perhaps slightly demented squawk begins to take shape. The final song takes things to bombastic levels, with the lead singer playing her bass virtually on the front row, while the guitarists pull shapes and the drummer layer on solo after solo. It ends superbly well, and certainly, the band eventually does enough to leave a positive mark on proceedings.
Wednesday, 29 October 2014
The Maze Runner - Film Review
IN the wake of the success of the Hunger Games franchise, the youth dystopia is now suddenly cool again.
TV's The 100 has been a worldwide success story, the Divergent movies looked to start a new franchise based on a completely insane pretence, The Giver gave Taylor Swift her acting break, and there is even the likelihood of the youth market finding Interstellar something worth viewing. This is all accompanied as well by the latest installment in the Hunger Games franchise, with the first part of final novel Mockingjay set to be released in November.
Arguably the biggest hype comes for the best-selling Maze Runner, which is based on a best selling series of novels by author James Dashner. With three books, two prequels - although one is currently being written for a 2016 release - and a large fanbase, many anticipate success.
Box office success is already assured - the film has already made enough to have more than its budget back - and its predominantly young cast is mostly signed up for the sequel next year, and most likely its own sequel in 2016.
The film starts with a sharp shock of a lift rising to the top containing a young man who has been in water. He rises into a green grassy square filled with similarly aged boys and surrounded by giant walls, beyond which lurks - as will be painstakingly explained later on - a maze filled with robotic spider-like creatures.
The central idea may work eventually, but it does sacrifice a lot of its early momentum in the opening moments to endless painstaking exposition. The first third is almost constant explanation of every single detail, and the momentum first generated in the panicky rise to this strange new world is lost.
The boy (Dylan O'Brien) wakes with total amnesia, although eventually remembers his name to be Thomas. He tries to integrate himself into this new societal order, but finds things a struggle, and also seems adept at trying to break through the societal structure.
Things quickly begin going awry, as the previously held societal order begins to break down. But even then, it all feels a bit slow despite the gentle raising of the stakes. As a result, despite the actors doing reasonably well with their dramatic rations, there is very little sense of jeopardy or momentum towards any end goal or game.
There are equally some predictable story tropes being trotted out. To bring out just one example, one of the things spouted is that "Nobody who has spent a night in the maze came out alive". You can already guess from there what will happen next.
Gradually, things reach some sort of climax, as the maze is further explored, explained and everything else. But then, when the finale is reached, things actually get interesting.
There is more explanation, as there seems to have been throughout, but at the business end, it provides a new and interesting sheen to proceedings, and is perhaps the thing that makes the most sense of this previously unfulfilling storyline. Christ knows it needed it, and almost in a surreal way, it seems to justify the need for a continuation, even after all the pedestrian sub-Hunger Games twaddle before it.
The final bit is certainly the most interesting portion of this enterprise, and seems to weight out some of what came before. There's nothing terribly bad about it, and there's certainly no fault of the actors involved, who do their best to breath life into the script. But it needed to possess a lot more about it in the initial period to make it stand out in the dystopian crowd.
Maybe the other works coming out in the next few weeks will have more about them to bring something fresh amidst the crowded dystopia field.
2/5
TV's The 100 has been a worldwide success story, the Divergent movies looked to start a new franchise based on a completely insane pretence, The Giver gave Taylor Swift her acting break, and there is even the likelihood of the youth market finding Interstellar something worth viewing. This is all accompanied as well by the latest installment in the Hunger Games franchise, with the first part of final novel Mockingjay set to be released in November.
Arguably the biggest hype comes for the best-selling Maze Runner, which is based on a best selling series of novels by author James Dashner. With three books, two prequels - although one is currently being written for a 2016 release - and a large fanbase, many anticipate success.
Box office success is already assured - the film has already made enough to have more than its budget back - and its predominantly young cast is mostly signed up for the sequel next year, and most likely its own sequel in 2016.
The film starts with a sharp shock of a lift rising to the top containing a young man who has been in water. He rises into a green grassy square filled with similarly aged boys and surrounded by giant walls, beyond which lurks - as will be painstakingly explained later on - a maze filled with robotic spider-like creatures.
The central idea may work eventually, but it does sacrifice a lot of its early momentum in the opening moments to endless painstaking exposition. The first third is almost constant explanation of every single detail, and the momentum first generated in the panicky rise to this strange new world is lost.
The boy (Dylan O'Brien) wakes with total amnesia, although eventually remembers his name to be Thomas. He tries to integrate himself into this new societal order, but finds things a struggle, and also seems adept at trying to break through the societal structure.
Things quickly begin going awry, as the previously held societal order begins to break down. But even then, it all feels a bit slow despite the gentle raising of the stakes. As a result, despite the actors doing reasonably well with their dramatic rations, there is very little sense of jeopardy or momentum towards any end goal or game.
There are equally some predictable story tropes being trotted out. To bring out just one example, one of the things spouted is that "Nobody who has spent a night in the maze came out alive". You can already guess from there what will happen next.
Gradually, things reach some sort of climax, as the maze is further explored, explained and everything else. But then, when the finale is reached, things actually get interesting.
There is more explanation, as there seems to have been throughout, but at the business end, it provides a new and interesting sheen to proceedings, and is perhaps the thing that makes the most sense of this previously unfulfilling storyline. Christ knows it needed it, and almost in a surreal way, it seems to justify the need for a continuation, even after all the pedestrian sub-Hunger Games twaddle before it.
The final bit is certainly the most interesting portion of this enterprise, and seems to weight out some of what came before. There's nothing terribly bad about it, and there's certainly no fault of the actors involved, who do their best to breath life into the script. But it needed to possess a lot more about it in the initial period to make it stand out in the dystopian crowd.
Maybe the other works coming out in the next few weeks will have more about them to bring something fresh amidst the crowded dystopia field.
2/5
Friday, 10 October 2014
Gone Girl - Film Review
When director David Fincher told the Guardian bad things happen in Gone Girl, he was hardly kidding.
The advance buzz trailed there was going to psychopathic touches to this movie. But then anyone who read the book would have know unpleasant things lurked on the pages, and were undoubtedly going to an interesting thing when made flesh.
Even so, its impressive with how much relish Fincher and his assembled cast are willing to go in creating a psychotic pantomime depicting a love undergoing studious dismantling.
The story created in the diary parallel to the main story is almost perfect. Boy meets girl at writer's party in February 2005, where they share a tender first kiss amidst a cloud of sugar in a bakery. Boy and girl get married two years later, and things are still going well in 2009 - two years into the marriage.
All of which runs concurrent to the start, where girl - Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) - has gone on the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary. Her husband and fellow now-failed writer Nick (Ben Affleck) is stunned and brings in the police to find her missing wife. And then the game of cat and mouse begins.
The concurrent narrative tells the movement of Dunnes from not knowing one another to being stuck in a collapsing marriage in an unwanted Missouri McMansion alongside the first week after she disappears.
Shot in 6K, it has a very hyper-real look, and even brings an impressive sheen and look to the desolate dying towns across America most people wouldn't look twice at. It also fully feels like you're watching a perfectly, studiously put together crime scene, almost like the scene at the start. An untouched, pristine nature right down to the newly broken shards littering the piece.
Nick starts off feeling surprisingly unruffled but panicky, and from there, things unravel quickly. The media latch onto his unruffled public persona as signs of sociopathy, the police begin to pick apart details at the crime scene, the police show confusion at how little he knows about her, and before long, he looks for all the world like he's staring into the abyss.
As the central character and co-narrator, in effect, Nick is the driving force in the first act as we move from the disappearance on. His character play isn't too far removed from the smug coaster Affleck was once characterised as in his early days, and he certainly provides us with a protagonist that is easy to be painted a a problem.
The merciless police with unconvincing Midwestern accents - led by Detective Boney (Kim Dickens and her near ubiquitous coffee cup) and Officer Gilpin (Patrick Fugit) - certainly have a perfectly poised interpretation at their fingers.
The supporting cast is therefore left with a narrative to flit in and out of. Amy's needy ex Desi Collings (Neil Patrick Harris) is not as likeable as he was in prose, but is still a nice performance of a man desperate to be the good guy. Meanwhile, attorney Tanner Bolt (Tyler Perry, in a long way from his Razzie nominated works) is a very capable supporting cast member.
Framing the proceedings frequently is cable TV host Ellen Abbott (Missi Pyle), who adds a wonderfully messed up framing air, urging the public towards the self-discovered "right answer".
Yet then the film changes tack, Amy storms into prominence. In the first act, she's simply the strung along inspiration for the Amazing Amy books her parents wrote almost as correcting facilities for their failing daughter. Then suddenly, she takes the film into a new direction with a twist that maybe easy to detect from afar - and if, like me, you'd read the book beforehand, you'll almost be counting down to its arrival - but nevertheless takes Pike towards an impressive calibrated change in both motivation and performance.
This brings up multiple layers of deceit and psychosis to a movie hardly short of it. This in many ways is a very psychotic pantomime, replete with some unwittingly laughable dialogue and even the overt prominence of Punch and Judy dolls, framed by television personalities and acting.
Certainly, there is a decent dissection of the idea of couples acting, and how much people are willing to go either to repair the initial behaviour or to re-add the layers.
This is not to say its a perfect movie. Some of the dialogue is fairly clunky when its not unintentionally hilarious. There's also a lack of subtlety in places. It is a more subtle read, not only fleshing out Amy's diary vignettes and her relationship with her correctional author parents, but also fully exploring every detail of every character. Some, by contrast, aren't given them here.
Perhaps one of the more crucial characters in the plot, for example, is given all of three scenes, and very little beyond a stereotype to work with.
In all, however, the narrative, plot points (despite editing by the screenwriting) and somewhat-believable characters are enough to keep the film together without feeling it might fall apart. It also has a brilliant cosmetic feeling captured by 6K cameras, and studiously nice performances fully played off in a world without a hero.
4/5
The advance buzz trailed there was going to psychopathic touches to this movie. But then anyone who read the book would have know unpleasant things lurked on the pages, and were undoubtedly going to an interesting thing when made flesh.
Even so, its impressive with how much relish Fincher and his assembled cast are willing to go in creating a psychotic pantomime depicting a love undergoing studious dismantling.
The story created in the diary parallel to the main story is almost perfect. Boy meets girl at writer's party in February 2005, where they share a tender first kiss amidst a cloud of sugar in a bakery. Boy and girl get married two years later, and things are still going well in 2009 - two years into the marriage.
All of which runs concurrent to the start, where girl - Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) - has gone on the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary. Her husband and fellow now-failed writer Nick (Ben Affleck) is stunned and brings in the police to find her missing wife. And then the game of cat and mouse begins.
The concurrent narrative tells the movement of Dunnes from not knowing one another to being stuck in a collapsing marriage in an unwanted Missouri McMansion alongside the first week after she disappears.
Shot in 6K, it has a very hyper-real look, and even brings an impressive sheen and look to the desolate dying towns across America most people wouldn't look twice at. It also fully feels like you're watching a perfectly, studiously put together crime scene, almost like the scene at the start. An untouched, pristine nature right down to the newly broken shards littering the piece.
Nick starts off feeling surprisingly unruffled but panicky, and from there, things unravel quickly. The media latch onto his unruffled public persona as signs of sociopathy, the police begin to pick apart details at the crime scene, the police show confusion at how little he knows about her, and before long, he looks for all the world like he's staring into the abyss.
As the central character and co-narrator, in effect, Nick is the driving force in the first act as we move from the disappearance on. His character play isn't too far removed from the smug coaster Affleck was once characterised as in his early days, and he certainly provides us with a protagonist that is easy to be painted a a problem.
The merciless police with unconvincing Midwestern accents - led by Detective Boney (Kim Dickens and her near ubiquitous coffee cup) and Officer Gilpin (Patrick Fugit) - certainly have a perfectly poised interpretation at their fingers.
The supporting cast is therefore left with a narrative to flit in and out of. Amy's needy ex Desi Collings (Neil Patrick Harris) is not as likeable as he was in prose, but is still a nice performance of a man desperate to be the good guy. Meanwhile, attorney Tanner Bolt (Tyler Perry, in a long way from his Razzie nominated works) is a very capable supporting cast member.
Framing the proceedings frequently is cable TV host Ellen Abbott (Missi Pyle), who adds a wonderfully messed up framing air, urging the public towards the self-discovered "right answer".
Yet then the film changes tack, Amy storms into prominence. In the first act, she's simply the strung along inspiration for the Amazing Amy books her parents wrote almost as correcting facilities for their failing daughter. Then suddenly, she takes the film into a new direction with a twist that maybe easy to detect from afar - and if, like me, you'd read the book beforehand, you'll almost be counting down to its arrival - but nevertheless takes Pike towards an impressive calibrated change in both motivation and performance.
This brings up multiple layers of deceit and psychosis to a movie hardly short of it. This in many ways is a very psychotic pantomime, replete with some unwittingly laughable dialogue and even the overt prominence of Punch and Judy dolls, framed by television personalities and acting.
Certainly, there is a decent dissection of the idea of couples acting, and how much people are willing to go either to repair the initial behaviour or to re-add the layers.
This is not to say its a perfect movie. Some of the dialogue is fairly clunky when its not unintentionally hilarious. There's also a lack of subtlety in places. It is a more subtle read, not only fleshing out Amy's diary vignettes and her relationship with her correctional author parents, but also fully exploring every detail of every character. Some, by contrast, aren't given them here.
Perhaps one of the more crucial characters in the plot, for example, is given all of three scenes, and very little beyond a stereotype to work with.
In all, however, the narrative, plot points (despite editing by the screenwriting) and somewhat-believable characters are enough to keep the film together without feeling it might fall apart. It also has a brilliant cosmetic feeling captured by 6K cameras, and studiously nice performances fully played off in a world without a hero.
4/5
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