Clash of Steel (Part 1)

Towering over my house,

The first of four,

Shouting to my spouse,

To run for the door.

The Metal Monster,

Crashing through my home,

Not one to wander,

Prefers to be alone.

Running for cover,

Escaping from danger,

The remains of my lover,

With the beast above her.

The thunder of feet,

The rust of metal,

Sparks flashing to a beat,

Life falling faster than a petal.

My life all but deceased,

All love and possessions gone,

I hear a cry to the east,

And my horror to see the second one.

GENEPOOL

Top 5 Films Of 2012

Some of my more eagle-eyed readers may have noticed I have yet to write a Sam’s Rant Film Awards for 2012. While I do like to produce those, I have decided to retire them for the following reasons. Firstly it takes a lot of time for me to produce them; while over the years I have tried to make them as brief as possible it can still take a lot of time to bring the whole thing together. Secondly, while I do watch lots of films during the year, I sometimes have to wait to watch all the films I wanted to see before I produce the post, which can get irritating when I have lots of work to do and cannot get round to watching them. This past year there was a couple of films I wanted to watch but have not. While I decided to leave Battleship after taking a brief look at it, I still have and want to watch Iron Sky. Thirdly, every year, due to the amount of Awards at Film Award Ceremonies, I feel like almost doing as many and usually the Sam’s Rant Film Awards get bigger and bigger every year. The fourth and final reason I have decided to retire the Sam’s Rant film awards is that most of the time I just want to get straight onto the Top 5 films of the year. So while my film awards have been retired, they will be replaced by posts stating what the Top 5 Films of the past year were.

One issue I automatically have with this system is that some of my favourite films from the year were not necessarily released from that year. By this I don’t mean films (no matter how better they are) that I have seen before, I mean films that I have only just seen for the first time. For example this year I have seen Battle Royale for the first time and out of the films I have seen so far at time of writing (as Pacific Rim will only have just come out when this post is published) it’s the best one. In 2012 I saw the Fantastic 13 Assassins which is better than most films I have seen in 2012 despite the fact it came out in 2010. So, the upcoming top 5 list will feature only those that have come out in 2012, while I cannot name 13 Assassins, I suppose I could do another post of other films I have seen for the first time in 2012 despite the fact they did not come out in 2012. So, here we are Ladies and Gentlemen, feast your eyes upon the Top 5 best film released in 2012.

5. Prometheus – From legendary film director Ridley Scott came this work of art. While under development for a long time due to many people wanting a new Alien film, an entirely new film was created by the man who invented the genre of Space Horror. Prometheus was not about Alien, it was set in the same universe but the film is a standalone film that has its own mythology about a species of space being that appeared in the original Alien. I personally find it hard to watch an Alien film as it is too grotesque for me, but I decided to be brave and go and see Prometheus. I enjoyed it to the core. A Great cast featuring the Fantastic Idris Elba among others, Great Setting and amazing but not overboard Special Effects, much like Ridley Scott’s late Great Brother Tony.

4. The Avengers – From the mastermind behind Buffy The Vampire Slayer (Joss Whedon), The Avengers went on to become the highest grossing film of 2012. Set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the film brought together the main cast of the Marvel Cinematic Universe including The Hulk, Iron Man and Thor. While a big challenge to produce it was cleverly brought together despite the strong possibility that this film was going to be bad due to the amount of content that was going into it. The film was not just a big action film, it also had scenes that touched your emotional and personality side also with scenes between the main cast. The only real problem I could find with this film is that it has the potential to ruin The Marvel Cinematic universe completely due to films like Iron Man and Thor being expected to constantly reference The Avengers instead of being more independent in their own content.

3. The Dark Knight Rises – The Conclusion to Christopher Nolan’s epic Film Trilogy, one of the Top Best film series/trilogy’s to date. I was both excited and worried about this instalment as I wanted it to be good, but what was I thinking, of course it was going to be, it was directed by one of cinema’s Greatest Directors. Set several years after the events of The Dark Knight, the film takes a different tactic of going back to Batman Begins on all levels. The story directly features Batman Begins and Bruce Wayne in a sense has to learn to become Batman again. One of the best executed stories in Cinema of this current decade and an Amazing cast Including Tom Hardy’s excellent performance as Bane with an Amazing Soundtrack from Hans Zimmer. An absolutely Fantastic film and the Perfect conclusion to a Brilliant story.

2. Snow White and the Huntsman – In 2012 two films were released to celebrate the 200^th anniversary of the original story of Snow White. One of them was the rather dull and predictable comedy film (personally not seen it but I can work it out) Mirror Mirror, and then there was Snow White and the Huntsman. Starring Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron and Chris Hemsworth, Snow White and the Huntsman took a very different look to the well-known fairy-tale while also keeping important elements in. The film was more like a fantasy epic than a fairy-tale. With a villain that you, as an audience member had no sympathy for, and an all-star cast including screen Legends Ian McShane, Bob Hoskins and Ray Winstone; this teamed with the Amazing scale of the locations and terrific action of the battle sequences, not to mention the awesome soundtrack made this one of the years stand out films.  

1. The Hunger Games – Starring the Amazing Jennifer Lawrence along with Josh Hutcherson and acting Legend Donald Sutherland and directed by Gary Ross, The Hunger Games is a one of a kind film based on the book of the same name by Suzanne Collins. I had not heard of The Hunger Games before seeing the film but the film impressed me so much, I could not think of anything else for about 4 weeks. The film came at an interesting time for me as I had just finished reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy and this helped put me in the position of Katniss in the film, and it struck a chord with me. The Soundtrack was Brilliant and the effects were Amazing. The film also had another effect on me; it got me back into reading. My reading had been stagnant for a while, but the day after I saw this film I bought the book and before the end of the week, had already bought the other two in the series. Not only one of the Best films in a long time, but also the Best film of 2012.

GENEPOOL (You see ACTIVISION; the best way to complete a trilogy is to not fire the directors).

Sam’s Rant – Jewellery Application

A couple of weeks ago, while looking for summer/student jobs I found an offer online for a job at a local branch of a well-known jewellers. It was a temporary sales associate position and seeing an opportunity I decided to apply for it. With a whole load of experience in the retail sector from the course I took at LMC in 2005, I thought I was in with a good chance of getting it. So I apply for the position online on the website I found the vacancy on and send them a copy of my CV. The following day I receive an e-mail from the company that owns the chain stating that to complete my application I need to fill in an application online on their website for the position. So I go to the website and find out that I have to create an account with the website to apply. I am just applying for a job but, surely if I need an electronic account with them, wouldn’t be best to wait until I get the job? With my account now made, I go through the step by step process. Firstly I needed to tell them about my previous work. They asked what my previous job was and why I left, but I had not left as I am currently and still am a student. So I still filled it in with mostly N/A in the boxes. Once this had been done I had to go onto step 2 which involved asking lots of multiple choice questions; well I say multiple, I only had two choices for each question and in many cases that was not enough and so I had to choose which one was the closest but in many cases it was not the right answer.

From pretty much the moment I started doing all these things it was like I was not applying for a summer job; it was more like I was applying for a career. I am only applying for a small “Temporary” vacancy, not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, even if I could and wanted to do it for the rest of my life, would I really want to stay temporary? Ok, it was optimistic of them for all of this, but come on. But I got it all done and was ready for the next part, this was a mine field. I had to complete a quick exercise that could take up to 30 minutes, that’s all that was really said and what the exercise was, was not really shown other than that it was an exercise. But before I could start it, the webpage would not load, so I contacted the website about it and they said they were experiencing technical issues. So I waited until the next day before I did it. The next day arrived and I got to work with the exercise, it was here that I officially entered the minefield. The exercise involved answering questions by rating different outcomes of events that may arise in a fictional jewellers shop. There were four answers for each question and I had to rate each answer by 4 different choices:

• Counterproductive
• Ineffective
• Somewhat Effective
• Effective

So I got stuck in with the exercise. The questions ranged from things like; a customer walks into the store and asks for a specific watch and it is currently unavailable, do you? One of the staff members is showing a watch to a customer but does not know as much about it as you do (which was both a question and the example), and each of these questions would give four answers which would say something like (if we take the last question as the example),

• Interrupt the conversation
• Leave them alone, the team member needs the experience
• Talk to the manager
• Find the ideal opportunity to join the conversation

And this was how it all panned out, and pretty much all the questions were exactly the same in one way or another.

Eventually I finished it all and submitted my answers only for the site to tell me that I did not meet the criteria for the position. So I set up a career account with the company’s website only for them to tell me that I shouldn’t have bothered. I still have the account with them now (at time of writing), I don’t know why? They really need to fix their careers applications online system. But do you want to know what the most interesting thing about this whole experience is? It’s that the questions in the 30 minute exercise (even though I did it in 10) only talked about customer service. I was pretty sure that a question that was in my head at the time did not appear anywhere. What would you do in this situation? Please rate your answer to the system above (counterproductive, ineffective, somewhat effective, effective).

The Shop is being robbed by armed gun men, do you?

• Talk to them calmly and do as they say
• Pick up the phone and call for the police (even if criminals can see you doing it)
• Jump over the counter and attack them
• Run for it

It is a good question. Not unless they either don’t get robbed at all (despite the place being a jewellery shop) or maybe the staff just do as they’re told and tie themselves up in the back room as soon as they see a gun (What happens to the customers we don’t know). Another good question to ask would have been:

The Shop is on fire, do you?

• Find the nearest fire extinguisher to fight the fire with
• Have a health and safety meeting
• Run for it
• Use the nearest source of non-flammable liquid to put out the fire

Why these sorts of questions were not asked is anyone’s guess?

GENEPOOL (Maybe I should do more of these interesting unasked questions as a future blog post).

Movie Study – Battle Royale – Update

You may remember, back in April I launched my first Movie Study. The film I chose was (as you can see by the title) was Battle Royale. Well, three months have now passed and here is an update. Here are all 12 questions about the film for you to answer. As I stated back in April there are three ways to answer these questions. Don’t feel like you have to answer them all, but give it a go, there’s no harm. The first way you can answer is by leaving a simple answer per question in the comments below. Second way is that if you have a Blog, answer the questions in a post (please send me a link so I can have a read), if you are struggling for a topic anytime soon, here is one for you. The third way is to produce a video for YouTube or any other video service (once again, please provide me with a link). So there you have it really, it’s relatively easy to get involved, and I look forward to seeing your responses.

Here are all 12 questions for you to get involved. remember to watch the film before hand as it will be easier for you.

1. Referring only to the flashbacks, can you see any reason for the nation; as depicted in the film to fear the youth?
2. Why do you think that Kitano is interested in Noriko?
3. At first many of the film’s characters don’t want to kill each other (obviously), except for Mitsuko. Why do you think that is?
4. What Similarities can you see when you compare Battle Royale to other forms of fiction.
5. (For people who have read the novel). How closely related to the book is the film? Does the film leave anything out, add anything extra?
6. Do the weapons provided to the students/competitors reveal anything about who they are as a person?
7. Throughout the film there are 2 major riddles/questions being asked and don’t get answered until the end. Are these particular questions necessary? If yes, why yes and if not, why not?
8. The film’s soundtrack uses a lot of already well known classical pieces of music, why do you think that these are used as well as the main soundtrack?
9. What assets does the Battle Royale Program use to make the students kill each other and what is the purpose for the two characters (Kiriyama and Kawada) who are not students within the class?
10. Why do you think that the Battle Royal Program was set up in the way it is depicted (Format) and why do you think that the program randomly chooses classes of children instead of specific children?
11. What is your overall opinion of the film? If you have seen the film before, do you feel any different about it?
12. Additional Question: If you were made to compete in Battle Royale, how would you react and what would your tactic to survive be?

Check back in a few weeks time as I will post up the next Movie Study, I hope to see you there.

GENEPOOL (you can check out my review of BATTLE ROYALE here)