When Tony Stark’s world is torn apart by a formidable terrorist called the Mandarin, he starts an odyssey of rebuilding and retribution.

Ok, Avengers Phase 2 begins here and get’s off to a strong start
Many people were put off by the low showing by Iron Man 2 and I can totally understand that, it wasn’t the top notch film it could have been, but as part of a whole, it added to Avengers

*Spoilers ahead*

So now we are in Phase 2 and after the events of the Alien invasion of New York by Loki and his alien army, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is suffering from Post Traumatic stress Disorder and having nightmares about the invasion that he nearly gave his life to stop.
This is also causing issues with his relationship with Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow), who is now completely running Stark Industries (didn;t she quit the job at the end of Iron Man 2?!?) and Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) is now her bodyguard and the head of Stark Industries security aswell

The film starts strongly before kicking back to a flashback of Tony at New Years 1999/2000 and we meet Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall), a molecular botonist not only having a fling with Tony, but looking for his help to make her research, named “Extremis”, work, without blowing up.  At this point we also meet Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), who tries, and fails spectacularly, to try and get Tony to join AIM (Advanced Ideas Mechanics), but Tony leaves him waiting on the roof of the hotel without meeting him as the Year 2000 celebrations kick off

We then jump back to the present day and again Aldrich Killian is a very changed man, but still trying to team up with Tony and bring him into AIM, at this point, Happy becomes suspicious and starts to follow up on Aldrich and his bodyguard.  This leads Happy into an explosive situation that lands him in the hospital and rattles Tony’s cage.   This is where we properly meet the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), an enigmatic terrorist, more than happy to kill and threaten to get what he wants. 

Tony, now rattled, threatens the Mandarin via the press outside the hospital and brings us back to the opening, explosive action scene.

Now, the first thing to notice about Iron Man 3 is how it’s shot.   There is a huge difference between this and all the Phase 1 Avengers films.   It’s much slicker, the special effects are a massive step up, but there is a LOT of comedy. 
Shane Black, does a great job with the film, even the slow parts of the film are filled with content to keep you interested.  But when you realise that this is the same director who wrote most of the Lethal Weapon films, you start to see just how well he has done the film for the star and in Robert Downey Jr. he has a star that can pull off comedic moments, even if the heaviest of action (although it’s a shame Iron Man 3 could be the retirement film for RDJ as shellhead).  The story and direction of the film follows Stark fantastically, there’s no getting to know this character, there’s no character development for the main cast as we’ve had two films for that already.
BUT, thats where the film falls over for other characters like Maya Hansen, Killian and ESPECIALLY the Mandarin.  The film leaves a lot of WTF moments, ESPECIALLY for comic book fans who know all these story moments and wonder, not only why they are there, but why they are merging characters…   Ok, Iron Patriot can’t be Norman Osbourne, not yet anyway, or at least until Sony and Disney do a deal to bring Spiderman back into the fold, but Iron Patriot in the comics was Norman Osbourne when he made the government turn on the Avengers and he took over and made the Dark Avengers and he stole all Tony’s armour secrets.

These issues aren’t just limited to Iron Patriot, but also the main plotline of the film, “Extremis”!  In the comics, it was Tony that was infected with the virus, but it allowed him to merge with the armour and changed the way he used it, not so here and I think that was a major mistake for the fans, we want the Extremis armour, we want to see the armour not just flying to Tony, but coming out of his body and being part of him!

Did these things hurt the film?  No, the character development hurt it a little, but the huge story changes from the comics, not so much.
Now, Phase 2 of avengers has a strong start, as I mentioned above, but we have a few films that could go either way and hurt the franchise…

We’re into mainly sequels now and here’s hoping the good pace that Shane Black started with Iron Man 3 is kept up with the rest.  
Thor 2 is potentially the one that could sink Phase 2, Thor was generally left on the back burner of Phase 1, people are happy to leave it and Thor 2 could go the same way, but we’ll have to wait until October to find out, but it’ll be worth the wait

If you’ve seen all of Phase 1, watch Iron Man 3.  If you haven’t, watch them first or you will be missing key info needed to enjoy this film

Solid 8/10 though

~Lone

Ex-criminal Jacob Sternwood is forced to return to London when his son is involved in a heist gone wrong. This gives his nemesis, detective Max Lewinsky, one last chance to catch the man he’s always been after.

March was an interesting month for movie fans, ESPECIALLY James McAvoy fans, as not only was he in Welcome to the Punch, but also the CRAZY Trance aswell (which I’ll be writing the review of later this week (yes I’m catching up on reviews)

So yes, Welcome to the Punch, is a proper old school British gangster film, with a star cast of the finest calibre British actors aswell.

Now I must say from the off, I am a huge fan of British films, especially the gangster films like Lock, Stock and L4yer cake.  But Welcome to the Punch added an even grittier, almost American story to the British gangster styling that works really well.

James McAvoy plays Max Lewinsky, a London detective that’s injured while trying to arrest Mark Strong‘s character, Jacob Sternwood.

A gruff and injured detective, still injured and trying to move on with his injury and his job and life and smarting from missing out on capturing Jacob.  His captain, played by the awesome David Morrissey, and his partner/girlfriend, played by the very attractive Andrea Riseborough, try to keep him on track, but he is slowly spiralling into anger and depression.

During this time, Sternwood’s son has gotten himself into a heist gone bad and before he can escape the country to join his dad in Iceland, his injuries get the better of him and he ends up in hospital, bringing Jacob back to London to find out what happened and in the process, brings him back into the sights of Max.

Of course nothing is as simple and the two very soon realise more is going on than they realise and the grittier side of the story starts to unfold

Now, compared to other gritty British gangster films, especially those that Danny Boyle have done (because lets face it, he’s one of our best Directors), Welcome to the Punch is up there!  I’ll definitely be adding it to my DvD/BluRay collection next to Lock, Stock and L4yer cake for sure.  The story is solid, the characters are believable, but not over the top and the actors playing them are all top notch aswell.  It’s also beautifully shot aswell, all the sets are rather lavish and believable aswell.

If you haven’t already seen it (yes this review is a little late, ok its a month late I know, I forgot to post it earlier), then make sure you grab it on Netflix or DvD/BluRay when you can, it deserves space on your shelf/hard drive for sure!

8/10

~Lone

Web designers you are needed! Sanitarium.FM want web designers who have experience in coding Php, HTML5, Flash and Java. Sounds like you?

This position can be for multiple people if you are just looking for some experience and CV building opportunities or for one person who feels they are able to design Sanitarium.FM’s website. This opportunity can and will turn into a full time team at a later date once the community of the website has grown.

Feel like you can only create one website? Thats great! Send us your application and join the team today!

Skills needed for role:

• A basic knowledge of website design

• Access to the internet

• Experience in coding Php, HTML5, Flash and Java (or a few of these would be good)

• A keen interest in making websites.

Skills which will help with the role:

• Competent at web design using a multitude of programs

• Being extremely creative thinking outside the box

• Able to explain your workings to other colleagues

The successful applicants will be expected to not only discuss their visions for design, but also be able to produce visual examples of their plans either through labelled diagrams or actual HTML-rendered mock-ups. To do this, you’ll be engaging with Lonesamurai and members of our Creative and Technical Staff via online meetings. Everyone has a say during these meetings, so being the kind of person who can put new things on the table at the same time as listening to other plans would be very beneficial!

This is a volunteer based role to start, with opportunities for paid employment later on.

Click “Apply for this job” underneath this posting on our main Jobs page to apply for this role.

You can also email admin@sanitarium.fm for get more information about this role.

Are you interested in talking about something you love? Then do it!

WPS Interactive are looking for individuals who want to express their interests in music, movie and videogame industries. This will be done in the format of Blogging on Sanitarium.FM website!

Interested? We want our bloggers to not only write articles on their subject matter but also join us on air to discuss their opinions and predictions on upcoming events, from music festivals to new game releases.

We are looking for keen individuals to join us for this role and with the music and game industry being so vast, there are multiple positions.

Skills needed for the role:

• A keen interest in the subject field you want to blog about.

• Access to the internet.

Skills which will help with role:

• Being able to discuss different opinions on subject field.

• Have good punctuality.

• Be able to convey your opinions in a professional manner.

• Understand how and what internet radio is.

This is a volunteer based role to start, with opportunities for paid employment later on.

Click “Apply for this job” underneath this posting on our main Jobs page to apply for this role.

You can also email admin@sanitarium.fm for get more information about this role.

In 2009, an antitrust agreement in Europe ruled that Microsoft weren’t playing fair with internet browsers. By including Internet Explorer into Windows by default; making their own software prefer to use it over alternative browsers; and not providing an easy mechanism to get alternative browsers, the European Union (EU) decided that Microsoft was abusing its widespread use on European computers to favour its own internet browser. As a result, Microsoft were fined $1.44 billion US Dollars; but that’s not all. They also agreed that for five years, Microsoft would have to offer a Browser Choice screen to European users of Windows, providing a choice of the five major browsers and a reasonable amount of other alternatives, so that EU customers could choose how THEY wanted to access the internet; and if they wanted to choose other than Internet Explorer, could find out more about or quickly download any of the alternatives.

An example of the “Browser Ballot” screen Microsoft implemented to provide European customers the required choice of browser.

For a long time, Microsoft honoured this promise. But when Windows 7 SP1 was released over a year ago, a series of complaints – now known to have included reports from Google and Opera – were submitted to the EU claiming the ballot was no longer being shown. After discovering it had been gone for 16 months, Microsoft claimed the problem to be a “technical error” and restored it – but according to the EU, this resulted in 15 million Windows users not seeing the ballot box and instead defaulting to Internet Explorer, which broke the agreement.

Today, the EU fined Microsoft for breaching the agreement, ordering them to pay 561 million Euros (approximately $732 million US Dollars, or £487.7 million British pounds) for the “mistake” – which may not sound like a lot for a multi-billion-dollar company, but actually accounts for 3% of Microsoft’s profits for the entire 2012. Microsoft, for its part, has claimed it will not appeal the fine and takes all responsibility, offering this quote:

“We take full responsibility for the technical error that caused this problem and have apologized for it. We provided the Commission with a complete and candid assessment of the situation, and we have taken steps to strengthen our software development and other processes to help avoid this mistake – or anything similar – in the future.”

This has got to be one of the more expensive “technical errors” in recent tech world history.

[via Technically Motivated]