Iron Man 3 Review

WARNING - This review will contain spoilers - WARNING

Iron Man 3 is the first film in Marvel Studios ‘Phase Two’ following hot on the heels of last years massive hit Avengers.  Unfortunately Iron Man 3 feels like a misstep rather than the run away hit they needed at this stage.  The first film of ‘Phase Two’ will go a long way to shape the style of this second batch of movies, and unfortunately it feels like Thor 2 is going to have to pick up the pieces that Iron Man 3 let slip through its fingers.

The plot focuses on Tony Stark as he deals with the aftermath of the alien invasion in New York whilst combating the threat posed by the international terrorist known as The Mandarin.

Tony is initially on the periphery of the Mandarin and his campaign of terror, but when his friend Happy Hogan is injured in one of the terrorist attacks Tony issues a challenge to the Mandarin, one that is very quickly accepted with dire consequences.

On the run, with failing equipment and a shattered psyche Tony is forced to confront The Mandarin head on, and instead finds a much deeper web of intrigue.

 

Iron Man faces the Extremis enhances soldiers.

Iron Man 3 takes a lot of inspiration from the comic book story line Extremis and takes the ideas from the book in their own direction, pushing the character of Aldrich Killian to the fore as the films main antagonist. 

Taking a page from other Marvel stories the team behind Iron Man 3 also give don Cheadle’s Rhodey a make over, upgrading his armour from the classic War Machine to the much more colourful Iron Patriot.  Despite being a whole other character completely Rhodey’s transformation makes complete sense within the film and gives him a stunning look.

Despite the film feeling like something of a missed opportunity the change of directors from Jon Favreau to Shane Black gives the film a completely new feel and prevents the franchise from becoming stale, especially when Black is able to work some of his Lethal Weapon style magic by having Tony and Rhodey taking on the bad guys out of their armour.

 

War Machine upgrades to the Iron Patroit.

The main fault with the film, however, has to be the portrayal of The Mandarin.  Iron Mans most iconic villain, bringing him to life on screen was bound to be something of a challenge.  Instead of stepping up to the challenge the team behind the film don’t actually deliver The Mandarin, but instead give us a ‘fake’ villain who is simply a front man for the films real puppet master.  For the casual viewers this probably won’t be a problem, but for comic book fans it feels like we were promised one thing and given another.  No matter how good the rest of the film might be having spent several months waiting to see The Mandarin and being given nothing is a major, major let down and has me doubting the future Marvel movies.

An entertaining film with some great action sequences and character moments that the casual viewer will enjoy but the hardcore comic fans will be disappointed with.  6/10.

Amy.

xx

  
Amy Walker Facebook
Trans Girl Writer Facebook Fan Page
Amy Walker Twitter

The Daily Mail Does it Again

It completely astounds me that the Daily Mail have once again produced an article that targets transgender people.  With their previous articles receiving many negative responses, and having led to the death of one of the people they wrote about, you’d think that perhaps they would shy away from doing it once again.  Yet here we are, reading yet another article where it appears they have learnt nothing.

Writing about a young trans girl in America whom is undergoing hormone blocking treatment the article is filled with misgendering and sensationalism.  Personally I don’t see where the story is in this article, yes there is a trans girl who’s going through this situation but that’s not very different from hundreds, if not thousands, of trans girls across the planet. 

However, the ‘hook’ that the Daily Mail seems to have latched onto is the fact that Tammy has two mothers.  The article seems to view this not as a loving family, but as two women who are forcing their son to become a girl.  They even mention the fact that her parents are lesbians in the title, for no other apparent reason than pure sensationalism. 

Worse still is the fact that each and every time they talk about Tammy they refer to her as him.  They seem to refuse to acknowledge the fact that she is a girl and that she should be referred to with female pronouns. 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2043345/The-California-boy-11-undergoing-hormone-blocking-treatment.html 

I’m simply astonished that the Daily Mail has produced another article like this.  It just makes me believe that they have some kind of mission against transgender people, that despite whatever criticism they receive they will continue to write these kinds of negative articles. 

Something worth noting about the article is that the comments section has been disabled, most probably in order to ensure that they do not start another incident like the Burchill article at the Observer.  They know that they are playing with fire here, but rather than stand up and take criticism they simply shut down their comment section, refusing to face up to the fall out of what they have written.

I simply cannot understand the logic behind articles such as this and question exactly what their aims are.  I know that there is not much that can be done about articles such as this, we can complain and protest but the simple fact is that they will keep on writing such tripe.  The best thing we can do is to continue to make others aware of what they are doing and make sure that people know that they are targeting groups in negative ways simply to sell papers.

Amy.

xx

Amy Walker Facebook
Trans Girl Writer Facebook Fan Page
Amy Walker Twitter

Doctor Who 'The Rings of Akhaten' Review

On their first proper trip together in the Tardis the Doctor takes Clara to see the Rings of Akhaten, where several planetoids circle an asteroid with a great golden pyramid and a giant star.  The duo visit a large alien market on the planet closest to the pyramid where dozens of species have gathered for a ceremony that only occurs once every thousand years.

Whilst exploring Clara meets a young girl named Merry Gejelh, the Queen of Years who has an important part to play in the ceremony.  Initially afraid of taking part because she might go wrong Clara convinces her to go ahead.

The Doctor and Clara attend the ceremony, where The Doctor explains that since the Rings were settled there has been a constant song sung to keep an angry god asleep. The people fear that the god, which they call Grandfather, will awaken and consume the entire universe if the song is ever interrupted.  Merry begins her song, but during the ceremony the mummy within the pyramid awakens and Merry is pulled into it.

The Doctor and Clara race after her to save her from the mummy and prevent the angry god from awakening. 

The Doctor and Clara see Akhaten for the first time.

‘The Rings of Akhaten’ is an interesting episode filled with marvels and massive scope, unfortunately it suffers from the modern series format.  Crammed into a scant 45 minutes the episode feels incredibly rushed and half told.  The plot would have felt more at home as a classic series serial, with several episodes in which to fully explore the plot and characters. 

As it is the Vigil and the Mummy appear briefly and play very little actual threat and the resolution comes so soon that it feels almost easy.  Yes, there are some great character moments and the episode is filled with visual spectacle but these cannot help to save the episode from its glaring faults. 

The Doctor confronts the 'Angry God'.

A very rushed episode that doesn’t have enough time to fully explore the story or characters.  Could very well have been a great episode, but as it is may be remembered as something of a misstep.  4/10.

Amy.

xx

Amy Walker Facebook
Trans Girl Writer Facebook Fan Page
Amy Walker Twitter

A Letter of Concern to MP Results

Some of my regular readers might remember that a number of weeks ago I wrote to my local MP following the tragic events of Lucy Meadows death after the invasion of her privacy of the Daily Mail and Richard Littlejohn.  Unfortunately this was not a single isolated incident but just another of a long list of examples of the press feeling like they’re free to discriminate against transgender people with little to no consequences.

I thought that it was time that the trans community took matters into their own hands and take our concerns to the government as things clearly aren’t going to get better with the current systems in place.  I urged my readers to write to their MP’s and express their anger and sadness at theses events.  I’m not sure how many of you did this, but I did.  And I seem to have had something of a result.

After emailing my local MP I received a response from him, expressing his support for my concerns and reassured me that he would take the matter further.  At the time I thought ‘that’s nice, but it’s probably just a standard response to letters like this’.  Yesterday, however, it became clear that it wasn’t but that Mr Hollobone, my local MP, had in fact meant what he said.

I received a copy of the letter that Mr Hollobone had sent to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State.  He includes my original letter within and asks that she carry my concerns further and hopefully reaches some kind of result.

I’m unsure as to how far this will go, and doubt that things will change just because I have sent my letter.  However, it has found itself into the hands of someone with some degree of power that can bring these concerns to others that may be able to make positive changes.

I think it is important that the trans community realise that we can make a difference, that our voices can be heard if we speak out.  If you haven’t done so already I urge you to follow my example.  One letter of concern can make someone take notice, hundreds possibly thousands can make a very real difference.  Don’t stay silent, things won’t get better for trans people unless we’re willing to stand up and do something about it.

Amy.

xx

Amy Walker Facebook
Trans Girl Writer Facebook Fan Page
Amy Walker Twitter

Doctor Who 'The Bells of Saint John' Review

 

‘The Bells of Saint John’ is the first episode of the second half of series seven of Doctor Who.  Following on from the 2012 Christmas special ‘The Snowmen’ we continue with the mystery of Clara Oswald, who is she and why does she keep appearing throughout time?  

The episode begins with a man on a computer screen warning people about some strange threat inside the Wi-Fi, that will drain the minds from those who become exposed to it.

We then find ourselves in 1207, where the Doctor has retreated to a monastery to contemplate the mystery of Clara.  The Doctor is disturbed from his contemplation when one of the monks informs him that ‘the bells of saint john are ringing’.  Travelling to a cavern where he has hidden the Tardis we discover that the ‘bells of saint john’ refers to the telephone within the Tardis, which bears the Saint Johns Ambulance logo.

The Doctor answers the phone and enters into a conversation with Clara, whom he does not initially recognise, who is having problems with her internet connection.  The Doctor is about to hang up the phone when Clara says the phrase ‘run you clever boy and remember’ as a mnemonic for her password.  Realising who he is talking to the Doctor sets out to find her.

Beware the Wi-Fi.

The Doctor arrives at Clara’s home in time to find her being attacked ‘uploaded’ to the mysterious Wi-Fi signal by a robotic mobile server.  Preventing the upload the Doctor manages to save Clara this time, the pervious two versions of her he had previously came across having died. 

Clara learns the truth about the Doctor being a time travelling alien and agrees to help him to stop the threat from the Wi-Fi, though little do them know that there are much greater forces at work in the shadows.

Clara and the Doctor race to save the day.

‘The Bells of Saint John’ is by no means the most exciting episode on which to start the second half of series seven, but it’s still a competently engaging episode with a number of over the top set pieces and gorgeous visuals.

The reintroduction of Clara into the Doctors life feels a little more chance than anything else, though her comment about being given his number by ‘the woman in the shop’ who tells her it’s the ‘best helpline in the universe’ has me believing that their was a definite hand played in getting these two together again.  River song jump to mind for anyone else?

Clara and the Doctor play off each other wonderfully, the quickness of banter between the two of them feels fresh and exciting, and lets face it introducing new companions is all about making the show special again. 

Miss Kizlet and the Doctor come face to face.

The threat of the Wi-Fi and the ‘Spoonheads’ could have been something silly and dull, but the fact that the people behind it are able to use something that is almost everywhere in modern life to track the Doctor and toy with him gives the bad guys some added power.

A good episode that sets up a great new dynamic between the Doctor and Clara and even hints at some long term set up for baddie The Great Intelligence ‘The Bells of Saint John’ is a neat little reintroduction to the show and will hopefully draw in a number of new fans.  7/10

Amy.
xx

Amy Walker Facebook
Trans Girl Writer Facebook Fan Page
Amy Walker Twitter