Beginning of term, so I guess it’s not too much of a surprise that I haven’t blogged for ages. Life does get slightly swamped by work at this time of year; yesterday, I was so tired after working at full-tilt for two weeks that I even took most of the day off.

Anyway, I realised that I’ve been missing out on films that I have watched, so I thought to do a quick, condensed review here. All of them films that I’ve been looking forward to, but only 1 managed to fulfil its promise.

So, Spiderman III. I do enjoy superhero films; plenty of action, add a bit of pathos and some humour; then, you have a food film, especially good for a plane or otherwise. Spiderman I and II were, I thought, great examples. No III was one too far; basically, the plot was too winding, too random; it just felt like a day-in-the-life, a diary of a superhero. Pity. Don’t know why. Perhaps, they just ran out of ideas.

X-Men III is a different kettle of fish; a new director for the final part, and one who did not show the deftness for ensembles that Bryan Singer did. Despite throwing in more characters, despite a “bigger” story and despite behaving with more dramatic events (including killing of half the cast), it just failed. Also confused and random, I wasn’t always sure what was going on, and it didn’t feel like a logical development of the former. Same problem as spiderman essentially.

Son of Rambow. Probably cost 1/10 of the others (or less). Magnificent. Funny, engaging and heart-warming without a hint of tweeness. The characters were lovely, the acting adept and the script very, very funny. If you haven’t watched it, well, just do. And don’t stop for Spiderman or X-Men along the way.