Preview

The latest instalment in the Batman movie franchise is arriving on screens this month, and is shaping up to be one of the biggest movie titles this year, despite its release being both delayed by the WGA writer’s strike and overshadowed by the tragic passing of Heath Ledger, whose ragged and anarchic take on Bruce Wayne’s arch nemesis the Joker has already galvanised interest – his powdered face and lipstick-smeared mouth appeared over the internet like rash as part of a viral campaign last year.

The Dark Knight follows on from 2005′s Batman Begins, and is not, as was briefly suggested, a movie adaptation of Frank Miller’s successful The Dark Knight Returns graphic novel mini series.

(more…)

Last year saw the film adaptation of Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical graphic novel Persepolis scooping the Jury Prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. The film has recently completed a run of cinemas here in the UK and is destined for both DVD and Blu Ray releases later this summer.

The story follows the life of ‘Marji’, growing up in Tehran during the deposition of the Shah, the Islamic Revolution and the subsequent war with Iraq. She grows up being inspired of tales of her courageous and rebellious uncle Anouche, who was imprisoned by the Shah for being a prominent Communist – she finally gets to meet him again after the overthrow of the regime, but their time together is painfully short.

(more…)

Whilst its title appears to allude to an almighty bust-up between some tin-skinned aliens over instant mashed potato, Super Smash Bros. Brawl is, of course, the latest instalment in the massively popular Smash Bros. series that first appeared back on the N64 in 1999.

Smash Bros, essentially a light-hearted beat-em-up affair, is something of an exercise in nostalgia; characters from across the Nintendo canon, including A-listers such as Mario, Pikachu and Link, rub shoulders with less well-known heroes and heroines including Ness from Earthbound (a title which never saw the light of day in Europe) and Samus Aran from the Metroid series.
(more…)