Dark Knight Rises: Film Review (No Spoilers)

Was it any good, should I watch it? Yes!

Will I need to have watched the previous two films to understand? Not entirely. But I would recommend that you do else you will be at a loss half of the film’s conversation.

For me it’s felt like a long wait for this installment in the Batman collection, and oh boy oh boy have things changed in Gotham, but it was a goodun’ let me tell you. Not perfect, no. Not my favourite (at least not currently) but it was a very good fix undoubtably for any masked man fan.

Knight Rises is a clever mix of the previous two films without feeling like a complete carry on. It had a new villain with a very well planned out meticulous plan that had ties with the previous films, it was these ties that allowed the plots twists, thus making it a great grand finale – should it remain so. The second half of the movie has better fluid action, the pace at the beginning I found to be a little catchy although this was understandably (most likely) intended. I was eagerly awaiting the plane scene as previewed in the trailer but I found it to be lacking something on the big screen, whether that was suffocating sound that I felt was absent or perhaps it was that the scene has, essentially, been spoiled by the trailer.

The characters I felt were all played extremely well although there was a particular moment, that I won’t mention so as to avoid plot spoilers, when I wanted a little more from Mr. Wayne but perhaps I’m greedy as that clearly wasn’t the way they felt his character would be portrayed after all this time.

The addition of a certain masked man in the high chair for the court scene, now that was clever, a great tie-in. Personally, the ending was a sweet little touch.

By Scarlet Prentice

The Olympic Torch Relay: Egham

On the 10th July, one of 8,000 Olympic torches was carried through Egham, a historical and olympic village in Surrey. The streets were flooded with both rain and people, more than I've ever seen in my small town.

The streets were lined throughout Egham hours before with people waiting to watch the torch procession consisting of Olympic sponsor lorries, police and a couple of joggers (and the torch of course). They waited in the rain, polite on the pavements waving flags and cheering at the sight of the relay, the vehicles came first followed after a long wait by the torch carried in turn by six individuals and former England and Chelsea footballer Ray Wilkins . Whilst all other six carriers have admittedly got an inspirational story to tell, where were the young carriers? The stars of tomorrow?
The local teams? 'Inspire a generation.' That's the slogan, I dare say they could be doing a better job.

Now Egham is, an Olympic village and a historical one to. But, it's also home to Procter and Gamble's Innovation Centre, a major sponsor of the Olympic Games, with a large workforce employed there. Three of the runners work at the site and it was these three that paraded the torch in a closed event around the office. Figure that.
The Olympics are finally just around the corner, Inspiring a generation to get out and get sporty. Inspiring them from their sofa, as it's been a killer to get tickets. Unlike the Beijing games in which many seats remained empty, the London Olympics are very much sold out. Now I'm aware it's to little to late but I believe it would have been a good idea to allocate tickets for events to relevant clubs and associations, enabling people and children with a solid interest in the sport to get up close to their champions and idols, what better way to inspire?

By Scarlet Prentice