Random Rants : Public Transport

Another one everyone was probably expecting. The British public transport network is a bit of a train crash really (yeah, that pun was absolutely intended) I think you’d struggle to find a fully functioning human being that would say they love the United Kingdoms aged and deteriorating public transport network from it’s over crowded and stuffy trains systems to the cold and rusted busses that you see pootling around every city centre in the country. But what is it that really makes my, and many other peoples, blood really boil. Is it that no matter where you’re going, at whatever time of day or night, you always end up at your destination at least a few minutes late? And that’s a best case scenario. I recently had a train journey that took me an hour longer than it should have done because 1. The first train got me to the connecting station after my connecting train and 2. After catching the next connecting train it ended up stuck at entrance to some centuries old tunnel under a hill because of ‘signals problems’ (now I’ve never known what a signal actually is but after some arduous research I can tell you that it’s practically a traffic light, almost every train journey I undertake is delayed because of fucking traffic lights breaking?!)

 

TV/Film – Review – The Amazing Spider-Man

I’m a sucker for superhero films, I mean I lap them up like a kitten on some catnip lined milk. So in all honesty it doesn’t take much for a a new one that’s just been released to give me a semi and make me giggle with excitement like a teenage Japanese girl. Therefore as the titles started up and I put my 3D glasses on I was expecting to be taken on a journey of childish escape and enjoyment, I wasn’t disappointed. The film has everything you want from a Spider-Man movie. Andrew Garfield is a cracking choice as the slightly more edgy and sarcastic Peter Parker and he pulls off the transformation into a more emotionally relatable Spider-Man well. Emma Stone also puts in a good performance as the man in spandex’s love interest Gwen Stacy, although I was disappointed that there was no Mary Jane?! The stand out performance for me though is Rhys Ifans as the troubled and brooding Dr Curt Connors who undergoes an unfortunate transformation in his search for a way for him to regenerate his lost limb.

Gaming: What I’m Looking Forward To – Metro Last Light

Metro Last Light is the second game in an extremely underrated and overlooked post apocalyptic franchise. You play as Artyom, a young Russian man who has spent his life scraping an existence in the near future Russian metro system along with many others after they were forced down there as nuclear war destroyed and irradiated the surface. The first game, Metro 2033, was a first person shooter/slash survival horror which seamlessly jumped between Artyoms battle through the metro tunnels and on the surface as he was caught between warring factions and hunted by mutated creatures and his psychological battle as he tried to save his people and expel the demons of their dark past. What appealed to me about the game was the use of shadows to allow you to perform stealth kills and go undetected and the risk of freezing to death on the surface or running out of air filters which added an extra sense of jeopardy to already tense scenes.

Top Blokes: Mr Leech

Now I’m not saying this is particularly heroic, you would like to think every father would do the same thing if he was presented with a similar situation. It’s still impressive to actually see it happen though, also brilliant to know that everyone involved was alright.