Cyberclogs

I went and saw the highly anticipated and much hyped sequel to Batman Begins on Tuesday night there, The Dark Knight, and I'm pleased to say it did live up to my expectations. The plot this time round is quite involved (and covers alot of ground) but to sum up Batman faces a new set of villains, both mob bosses and a more fearsome enemy who calls himself "The Joker" (superbly played by the late Heath Ledger) who wants to make his mark as the new crime boss of Gotham. The Joker threatens to kill one person every day until Batman turns himself in, which he duly does but of course Batman doesn't give in too easily. However on a personal level Bruce Wayne also comes up against a new hero in Gotham, Harvey Dent (Aaron Erckhart), the new DA who doesn't mess around with criminals in court, and he also just happens to be dating Rachel Dawes, Bruce's ex-sweetheart (played more solidly by Maggie Gyllenhall). As events progress all their fates intertwine as Gotham once again spirals out of control.

Christopher Nolan, is a film maker of a rare quality in that he hasn't made a single bad Hollywood movie ever since he's arrived in America. This film is no exception and carries the same thrilling momentum as Batman Begins did, again taking a very dark, at times bleak tone, but thankfully Nolan never spoils Batman or forgets to make it fun. The action and setting maybe more realistic but there is still plenty of dark witty humour in the script. I also like how Nolan puts his characters in real danger and when you think all is lost it gets turned round. Nolan should also be applauded for reinforcing Batman's humanity as his Batman is a moral avenger who didn't believe in killing, unlike Tim Burton's Batman, who was more than willing to take lives.

Performance wise of course this film is all about Heath Ledger, his Joker, is both chilling and amusing all at once, his creepy facial makeup really makes your skin crawl when you see him, despite plenty of unsettling chilled moments, Ledger's joker is also funny, just not overtly so, and he does provide one of the film's biggest laughs (involving a pencil!). He could well be up for a posthumous oscar nomination next year, its just a real shame that he won't be there to receive it. Christian Bale again puts in a decent turn as Batman but I must admit Bale as an actor is caught between two extremes, as Bruce Wayne he mutters quietly under his breath, as Batman he talks very huskily under his breath (just a bit too husky methinks!). Nonetheless he is still the best Batman since Michael Keaton. Aaron Eckart is (as always) worthy of note as he puts in a really good performane as Harvey Dent (later becoming Two Face) and he neatly balances the self righteous goodie with his tormented and twisted transformation into the half-scolded Two Face. My only let down here was we didn't get to see enough from Two Face (or perhaps we did!) as he didn't appear enough to justify his character.

Anyways regardless of any minor niggles, The Dark Knight is an excellent sequel and a great continuance of the rebirth of the Batman franchise and here's hoping that Chris Nolan helms the next one.

I was over in Ireland last week with the family (i.e. the folks) to Buncrana in Co Donegal, and it was actually quite a pleasant little holiday, we took the bus, so it took about 9 straight hours to get there, so it was a rather long haul. The only snag for me on the holiday was much to my embarrassment most of the passengers were OAPs so I did feel just a little bit out of place on the bus. Nevertheless the experience of Ireland itself pretty enjoyable, it was nice to be in another country for a change.

Over the five days we were there (OK four and a bit) we went to different places such as Letterkenny (which was rather nice), Dunlewy (which was OK), Doagh which was rather stunning (home of the Doagh Famine Village which we were given a tour of, and turned out to be fascinating). We also travelled to Derry (or Londonderry) which any of you who has been to Derry will see the sign posts that say "Londonderry" with London sprayed out. This has caused alot of controversy within the city of Derry itself as catholic and protestant factions in the city remain divided on whether the city should be associated with London given its history. We were also given a tour of the city by a rather passionate speaker, who spoke frankly of the city's historical troubles with the British army and the IRA and it was rather scary to hear that the army presence hadn't fully left Derry until last year! To look at it now Derry seems such a thriving place to be in and its seems difficult to believe it has had such past troubles, but you could still get a feel for its past time trauma especially with the murals of Bloody Sunday shown in one of the urban streets. The final trip we did though was Donegal town, which was very nice indeed.

So overall it was nice stay if you can forgive the Irish's over indulgence when it comes to food (this time though I could handle it! Unlike the last time in Dublin) and its insistence on using the Euro and Pounds (just to confuse you!) in the South and North, I'd recommend a jaunt over there.

The finale of the fourth season of Doctor Who, Journey's End, was a pretty solid and entertaining episode although I would hardly say it was magnificent but it was nice to see all the companions finally meet up with one another. But I did have a few problems with this episode, mainly the exposition again from David Tennan was rattled off very quickly, so you'd need to rewind to try and catch it, I also had a hard time trying to follow all the gobbledegook from Davros aswell and what the "reality bomb" actually did to the humans. I don't know if Russell T Davies just delights in confusing his audience but he certainly does do a good job of it. As usual I have to rely on Wikipedia to decipher half the stuff that's in the plot! The Donna Doctor thing from the Ood episode did finally also pay off but I felt it was just a bit naff how big a deal they make of it at the end, that this one woman who was a big loudmouth who by her own admission couldn't wire a plug, could be so important, with the Doctor saying "in planets all around the universe they are singing songs about her". Come on.

However there were plenty of good things about this episode aswell, I enjoyed watching the "human" grown version of the Doctor make his entrance, which was very funny with a startled Donna watching the naked new human Doctor, she says "You're naked!" and the Doctor replies "Oh yes!". Julian Bleach did a fine job as Davros despite not reaching the perfectly modulated heights of hysteria and madness that Michael Wisher brough to the role in Genesis of the Daleks. Also I found the end of the episode very compelling and at the same quite poignant as all the companions say their farewells, and Donna with her (PLOT SPOILER) newly binded Time Lord DNA in her head killing her as its simply too much for one human to deal with. So the Doctor takes her back home and wipes her mind of any memory of the Doctor and her travels with him as reawakening those memories would spark off her Time Lord DNA again and kill her. It was the first companion since Zoe and Jamie (back in the Patrick Troughton days) who's had to have their memories erased, so even though Donna was back to her original self absorbed shrill self, she would never remembered all the good she had done as the new and improved Donna throughout the season. So it was kind of sad to see, although it does get a bit schmaltzy at the end between Bernard Cribbins (as Donna's father) and the Doctor at the end.

Ah well that's another season over, overall this was a rather good one, again though there were some episodes better than others, but it was mainly very entertaining. The casting of Catherine Tate actually turned out to be the season's biggest success as she really surprised me with her dramatic acting abilities, which actually outweigh her talents as a comedian. So it would be great to see her do some drama in the future rather than just duff comedy (OK to be fair I liked her in Big Train). So that's it until Christmas, where we'll get another special, this time with the Cybermen! I just hope its better than that turd fest we got last year with Kylie Minogue (she definitely wouldn't get an OBE for that!!).