Film review – The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight is everywhere right now – If you haven’t seen it and don’t want any spoilers, then read no further…..

But, if like 400 billion other people (real life actual stats) you have already seen the ‘film of the summer’, we wonder if you had the same opinions on the suit and that Ledger bloke as this weeks featured creative.

Here at Green i Design we have a guest post from the sparky young writer Rupert de Paula. Having been printed in the Australian Times and a keen fiction writer, he wanted to show you all his skills and we thought, why not?

So a warm welcome to Rupert within the Green i community and we’d like your reviews of his work… ohh how the tables are turned.

What do you think? Will he be the next Alexander Walker?

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The Dark Knight – Rupert de Paula

When it comes to superheroes, Batman was always the way coolest of the lot.

Yeah, he doesn’t have any actual ‘super’ powers, but he has bitching gadgets, a not-actually-totally-gay costume and awesome villains, who everybody knows are far more interesting than the actually heroes themselves (Note to Superman: yes that means you and your slaphead nemesis).

So, after his fun, but rather back story heavy Batman Begins, with its less than iconic bad guy Ras Al’Ghul, it’s unsurprising that Brit director Christopher Nolan has returned for a second crack at the Batwhip. And this time he’s brought the godfather of comic book villains along for the ride. That’s right: The Joker’s back.

Everybody knows that Heath Ledger carked it after the movie wrapped, so no need to go back over the masses of fawning hyperbole circulating the media (how someone derided as ‘that gay cowboy guy’ transforms into ‘the best actor of his generation’ only after they die just goes to highlight Hollywood’s crass hypocrisy). Let’s just say that Ledger is f**king amazing, ramming all the dismayed fanboys original criticisms straight back down their acne-scared, blog-obsessed throats.

Yep, he owns this movie like fat kids love cake.

The film itself cracks along an attention demanding pace, with all the murky sub plots slightly convoluting the final act. But there is no denying that Nolan has crafted an unrepentantly adult superhero movie, with recurring themes of madness and the much lauded War on Terror analogy (which is pap by the way, this is a movie about a man dressed as a clown bringing the ruckus to man dressed as a bat). So don’t take they kiddies, it’ll scare the bajeezers out of them.

No doubt some people will hate on this movie, saying it is vastly over rated – the Godfather Part 2 of comic book adaptations it aint. But after a summer of uniform mediocrity at the box office The Dark Knight is a rollercoaster ride that refuses to dumb down or patronise its audience.

Oh, and Heath Ledger really is THAT good.

BEST BIT: The Joker – Steals every scene.
WORST BIT: Batman’s stupid sonar/mobile phone thing – WTF?

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Want to showcase your skills… whatever they are?

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‘Wanted’ = Super Lame.

Below is a testament on how to ‘literally waste’ 110 minutes of your life and never regret it more.

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Watched ‘Wanted’ last night.

‘Wanted’ is directed by Timur Bekmambet, the 47 yr old Russian-Kazakh film director of such classics like, Nightwatch and Daywatch. It was released in the UK on the 25th June. Hmmmm, sounds promising…

Nope.

Somehow as if by black freakin’ magic, Bekmambet managed to convince the usually flawless Morgan Freeman, a cardboard cut out of Angelina, the ‘up and coming/far too eager’ James McAvoy, Terence Stamp ‘of every boys film ever’ and, if your still with me, hip-hop rapper/Hollywood whore Common(??!?!), to star in this film.

It must be pixie dust ‘cos God only knows how he pitched this one to them, but I reckon it went exactly like this:

TB – “I’ve got a good film wanna be in it?“

MF/Cb c o o A/JM/TS/C – “What’s it about?“

TB – “Assassins, a magic ‘Loom of Fate’, a faculty and mud baths and I wish this was really the Da Vinci Code and adaptation from a comic and his dad lived next door all along and the tapestry and angelina can bend over on top of trains and action film and shoot round corners and Common’s role is utterly pointless and Castles and flying people and totally gash and blowing up assassins with rats and killing your dad and shooting through trains and Terence Stamp is a bullet guru (??) and wasting my life and donuts and angelina is a messed up kid who goes nuts – nothing new there and windows smashing all trendy like and waaaay too long and pillars and angelina gets naked (obviously) and 4 miles away and completely rubbish“

MF/Cb c o o A/JM/TS/C – “Yes, yes, yes. This sounds like the best career move since Lindsay Lohan decided that mutilated hooker film was a good’un. We’re in“.

And that’s pretty much it.

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Don’t waste your time watching this, unless you’re under 20, male and a bit retarded. Excessive, ridiculous, tedious, predictable, badly written and acted worse, the only good thing about this film is James McAvoy’s American accent and the fact Morgan Freeman says “Mother F**ker” – Has he ever sworn before? I bet he hasn’t…

Gutted if you paid to see this…

Beatboxing Kid – YouTube you loose.

Following on with the beatbox theme, I found this effort on YouTube, from a young man named Arnopoit.

Arnopoit has had a rough time. YouTube users have noobed out and do not appreciate the eyeball exploding talent they see before them. The comments are less then complimentary, in fact you would have thought that this kid had single handedly rigged the Zimbabwe elections. Fair? We think not.

Mr Arnopoit may be a little naive backslash brave, for putting himself out there and in true Youtube style, accept such witty and cutting remarks such as ” it sucked it couldnt be more horrible u dick sucker” and “u shouldnt even be rated for this peace of crap” (nice one ‘tard!) from fellow ‘toobers’. But no, Arnopoit will not be silenced. Check this out….

Ok, fine, he may not be quite up to Killa Kela, Boris FX and Rhazel’s standard just yet, but they all had to start somewhere. Seriously this kid has vision, cutting skills, some incredible facial movements and high notes that would put Whacko to shame. A funny, kinda cute, encouraging video – plus if this doesn’t do it for you, theres more, including a short film named The Devils Rival, written by, directed by and starring the man himself.

Still think he’s sh*t? Well, just imagine what your 14 year old brother is up to right now. Making movies? I didn’t think so and yeah that probably IS crack hes smoking.

Green i Design thinks Arnopoit rules: fact.

Photography – ‘Take Flight’

‘Take Flight’

Matt Swann of Scattershot Genius, California, Pismo Beach

Stats:

105mm macro lens, 1/1250, f/5 and ISO 400.

The original shot was then converted into black & white in Aperture, where Matt knocked down the blue channel and kept the red + the green, resulting in the final image.

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This shot of the seagull, is so crisp it looks like that little bugger is going straight for your eyes, or at least for your sandwich!

Matt said “I used my D70’s continuous auto focus mode to keep focus on the seagull’s eye as he flew – I can’t remember whether he was landing or taking off.”

Whether it was going up or down, Matt managed to get a beautiful image of the creature in flight, the light perfectly capturing each feather, an incredibly hard shot which would have taken a very steady hand, not to mention a bit of nerve. Well done Matt, Green i Design thinks you rule.

Beatboxing – Euro top trio – BorisFX, SKiller and Lytos

Beatboxing is bad ass, we all know this, but very few are blessed with the vocal skills of these three drumming dialect demons. Yes we are a blog about design, but who said you can’t design with your face? These guys certainly didn’t.

Check out this incredible freestyle round filmed at BoxCon 08, featuring BorisFX, aka Ollie Trew the multilingual blond dynamo from the UK, SKiller from Sophia, the Bulgarian beatbox champ and Lytos the Spanish spiller of words. These guys are freakin awesome…

Good huh? Bet you can’t do that? No, go on try again, we promise that didn’t sound like your nan after a sunday lunch…. sorry, too much? We know…

It’s not just us at Green i who love these guys, the big boys in branding noticed the potential in this explosive and expressive genre of music too. Check out BorixFX in the Suzuki Swift T.V commercial that began airing worldwide in sept 07.

Skills….