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Month: January 2015

Pickpocket arrested in Factory 251 had eight mobile phones hidden in trousers

A man local to the Manchester area was arrested on Saturday the 24th of January at the student-popular nightclub Factory 251 after being caught pickpocketing in the crowd.

Carlo Lanzon, 31, was caught by plain clothed officers who were on duty in the nightclub on the evening of the incident.

When caught, Lanzon was discovered to have a total of 8 mobile phones concealed down his trousers that he had stolen from club-goers throughout the night.

Lanzon was arrested at the venue itself and on Monday the 26th of January was charged at Manchester Magistrates Court.

Factory 251, owned by former Joy Division band member Peter Hook, has been recovering its reputation since parts of the roof of the nightclub came loose and fell onto patrons, injuring seven people nearly a year ago to date.

The incident arises in the wake of a recent public service announcement from the Greater Manchester Police warning students about safety surrounding house parties and alcohol awareness.

With Refreshers events welcoming back the student population of Manchester after the exam period, personal awareness should not be disregarded on nights out, helping to prevent more crimes such as this occurring, as students are notoriously targeted by thieves.

Greater Manchester Police stated that one in three victims of theft and burglary in Greater Manchester is a student, further stressing a need for greater safety consideration.

Starchaser Industries – the sky is not the limit!

Fancy a trip to space?

Good news – you can hitch a ride to the International Space Station with the Russians. Bad news – it will cost you in the region of $20 million.

Space tourism is a rapidly growing industry that has been talked about for decades. Back in the 1960s, it was widely believed that space hotels would be in orbit by the turn of the millennium and that family holidays to the Moon would be commonplace.

We may not have fulfilled those expectations just yet, but the industry is alive and kicking. Within a few years, private companies expect to be shuttling paying customers to the edge of the Earth on a regular basis.

But it’s not just the big boys of space exploration, namely the US and Russia, that are getting involved.

Steve Bennett is the founder and CEO of Starchaser Industries, a British company specialising in the development and commercialisation of space related products. Since their foundation in 1992, Starchaser have launched multiple rockets, including the largest and most powerful one ever to lift off from British soil.

In a talk arranged by MANSEDS (Manchester Students for the Exploration and Development of Space), Bennett spoke about his company’s bid to lead the way in the space tourism industry.

Bennett began by introducing his company, explaining that they were now focusing primarily on suborbital spaceflight. They have been constructing rockets for more than two decades and have tested small capsules in which they eventually hope to seat a crew of tourists.

The initial aim is to transport people up to a height of 100km. At this altitude, describing the view as majestic is an understatement. The curvature of the Earth is clearly visible and the normal blue sky (or grey, if you live in Manchester) is replaced by a pitch black canvas dotted with countless stars. Passengers will experience roughly four minutes of weightlessness before travelling back down to Earth.

Richard Branson is almost certainly the best known British advocate of space tourism, with Virgin Galactic’s endeavours regularly featured in the media. But despite lacking the financial might of the likes of Branson and Elon Musk, Starchaser looks set to play an equally important role in the growth of the sector.

Bennett talked about his interest in rockets. As a child, he was mesmerised by the Moon Landings and Thunderbirds and was inspired to construct his own rockets. He essentially taught himself rocket science and through trial and error managed to launch multiple small rockets from his garden.

These days, the rockets he builds are quite a bit bigger.

In 2001, Morecambe Bay was the site for the launch of the biggest UK rocket ever to take to the skies – NOVA / Starchaser 4. Reaching a speed of 600mph in just six seconds, it flew to a height of over 5500 feet before parachuting back down to Earth.

Images and videos of the engines produced by the company were shown. Their first liquid propellant engine generated half a tonne of thrust – their most recent one, which they hope to test soon, will produce thirty times that amount.

A unique selling point of the company that Bennett is particularly proud of is the Launch Escape System. Shortly after lift-off, the main rocket engine will be jettisoned, but a smaller mono-propellant rocket engine is attached to the top of the passenger capsule. This essentially acts as an ejector seat for the entire capsule.

Starchaser appear to be well on schedule, which is astonishing given the financial climate that they’ve had to cope with over the past decade. Bennett claimed that if funding wasn’t an issue, his company would be transporting customers within three years.

Current projects include Starchaser 5, which will see the three-seater Thunderstar spacecraft attached to a rocket and flown up to the edge of space. The first prototype has already been constructed.

A major aim of Starchaser Industries is to inspire the next generation of space scientists and engineers. Throughout a year, employees make visits to 200 schools, engaging roughly 150,000 students. Rockets and capsules are often brought along too.

During a brief Q&A session, Bennett spoke of his excitement at what the space tourism industry could potentially achieve. He believes that it will have a monumental impact on the way we live our lives and that once it kicks off, the possibilities will be endless.

In fact, he’s so convinced by its potential that he thinks the industry will make a select group of people the world’s first trillionaires.

At the moment, space tourism is exclusively limited to the extremely wealthy. I asked him how long it will be until it becomes affordable for the wider public.

He replied by saying that the industry must follow the path that aviation took over a century ago. A barnstorming phase of rigorous planning and testing must come first, followed by an exclusive era in which only the very wealthy will be able to afford trips. Once the industry has taken off and spaceflights become more common, the price will plummet.

Bennett stated that within ten years of the industry getting going, ticket prices for suborbital flights could fall to £10,000 – by no means cheap, but certainly affordable for a much larger market.

The future of the industry is incredibly exciting, although at the moment it is simply being held back by a lack of funding. Once this problem is solved, space tourism promises to revolutionise the modern world.

Dinner conversation with 8 year old leads to cancer breakthrough

An eight-year-old girl may have inadvertently come up with a cure for cancer whilst talking to her parents over dinner.

Camilla Lisanti was asked by her father, Professor Michael Lisanti of the University of Manchester, how she would cure cancer. She responded by suggesting that her parents—both of whom work in cancer research—treat it with antibiotics, as is the norm for many other illnesses.

Despite initial scepticism on the basis that cancer is not a bacterial infection, her father decided to test this out in the lab and was astonished to see that the proposal worked.

Professor Lisanti, who is the Director of the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Unit, had previously suspected that antibiotics could have some sort of effect on mitochondria, but credited this conversation with providing the inspiration to test the theory.

He said, “I knew that antibiotics can affect mitochondria and I’ve been doing a lot of work recently on how important they are to the growth of tumours, but this conversation helped me to make a direct link.”

Mitochondria are the powerhouses for all animal and plant cells and provide energy for stem cells to mutate and divide, resulting in cancerous tumours. The stem cells also maintain these tumours.

Normally, antibiotics are used specifically to kill or inhibit the growth of bacteria. However, since mitochondria are believed to be descended from early forms of bacteria, they are also affected by antibiotics, although not to the extent that the recipient’s life is endangered.

Professor Lisanti tested this by using five different antibiotics on the cell lines of eight types of tumour. The results were astounding: Four of the antibiotics destroyed the cancerous stem cells in all eight of the tumours.

Crucially, the tests had no effect on ordinary, healthy cells. The antibiotics have long been approved for use in humans, slashing the cost of trials of new treatments as well as saving time.

Professor Lisanti added: “This research makes a strong case for opening new trials in humans for using antibiotics to fight cancer. Many of the drugs we used were extremely effective, there was little or no damage to normal cells and these antibiotics have been in use for decades and are already approved by the FDA for use in humans.

“However, of course, further studies are needed to validate their efficacy, especially in combination with more conventional therapies.”

Dr Matthew Lam, Senior Research Officer at Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said: “The conclusions that the researchers have drawn, whilst just hypotheses at this stage, are certainly interesting. Antibiotics are cheap and readily available and if in time the link between their use and the eradication of cancer stem cells can be proved, this work may be the first step towards a new avenue for cancer treatment.

“This is a perfect example of why it is so important to continue to invest in scientific research. Sometimes there are answers to some of the biggest questions right in front of us but without ongoing commitment to the search for these answers, we’d never find them.”

Student activists learn from radical left Syriza Youth in Athens

University of Manchester Students’ Union Education Officer Harriet Pugh joined a group of activists in travelling to Greece during the fevered election season at the end of last month to meet with the youth organisation of Syriza, the radical left-wing party that has recently taken its place as the ruling coalition.

Pugh and around 20 other sabbaticals and activists from across the UK made the decision to travel to Athens to meet with Syriza Youth, “to see what [they] could learn about their political success,” she told The Mancunion.

“What really struck me about the atmosphere [of its publicity tent] was that it was largely made up of young people hanging out, having a chat, smoke, drink, and listening to music.

“I thought to myself that this—the normalisation and casualisation of politics—would never happen in the UK!”

The Coalition of the Radical Left, better known as Syriza, achieved 36.3 per cent of the vote in a snap election held on the 25th of January 2015, after the failure of the Greek Parliament to elect a new President by the 29th of December.

The anti-establishment party endorses anti-austerity, anti-fascism, feminism, and an ecological agenda, and has been credited with motivating the young voters of Greece. It aims to eradicate class struggle and strives for ‘Socialism of the 21st century’.

“On speaking to many of the young people there, it became clear that the reason for Syriza’s success was their unfaltering narrative of hope that developed in and against a backdrop of criticism from the other pro-austerity parties,” Pugh continued.

“[They] spoke about how they were tired of the attacks on Syriza’s alternative vision, while no party could present their own solution to the problem—an economy crippled by austerity.

“The other thing that struck me was how much the party’s campaign was focused around young people; Tsipras, the party leader, gave his election speech at a university in Athens. The stance of Syriza has a clear influence from its young members, with policy for gay marriage, against discrimination in all forms, an end to police brutality, [and] free education.

“The party is not without its faults. The lack of women in the youth committee, for example, remains an issue. But one criticism I cannot agree with is the idea that young people are not fit to provide the ideas for ruling a country.

“I wrote to a Syriza youth representative… and he explained that the youth committee was even busier than they had been pre-elections, as they were involved in organising the party in the first days of government.”

The German government continues to insist that Greece must stand by the commitments it has made to honour the EU’s savings programme under its new left-wing party.

A leak from the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schӓuble suggested a Syriza victory might lead to Greece exiting the Union.

“In the UK, it is almost inconceivable to imagine a government made up of ordinary young people who have not made it into Parliament by a long, dirty, and nepotistic career through a party machine,” said Pugh.

“Greece has all the hope of democratic leadership precisely because its primary organisers are able to relate to and understand the issues of the society they represent.

“With the likely attacks and stigmatisation [Syriza] will endure from capitalist European powers, no-one should be under the illusion that it will be easy, or possible, to carry out their promises.

“But the ideological revolution that has taken place should be exciting. If Syriza has achieved anything, it is a glimmer of hope and the possibility for a new kind of politics in Europe.”

SU presents: The Vagina Monologues

The Women’s Campaign and the Students’ Union will this month stage a production of the famed episodic play, The Vagina Monologues.

Based on author Eve Ensler’s Vagina Interviews, the original episodic play was performed in 1996, and is made up of various monologues read by a variety of women regarding their views on sex, relationships, and violence against women.

Each of the monologues deals with aspects of the female experience such as sex, love, rape, menstruation, FGM, masturbation, birth and the female orgasm.

Ensler originally wrote the piece to “celebrate the vagina”, however she stated that its purpose has since changed to being a movement to stop violence against women.

The production, which will be held in Academy 3 of the Students’ Union on the 10th and 11th of February, will see a witty, outrageous and moving collection of tales from real women from around the world to highlight issues affecting women daily.

Women’s Officer, Jess Lishak, said: “I’m working with a group of incredible women and non-gender binary students to put on a production of The Vagina Monologues!

“Tickets are available now and all of the proceeds will be going to Manchester Women’s Aid and Manchester Rape Crisis, who are both facing huge and continuous funding cuts.”

The production will also promote Reclaim the Night which will take place at 7pm on the 26th February. This is a march to protest violence against women and victim blaming culture. Over 85,000 women are raped or sexually assaulted every year in England and Wales.

Tickets are £4 and all proceeds will go to Manchester Women’s Aid and Manchester Rape Crisis, and are available at the SU reception and online.

Club: Fever 105 presents Greg Wilson

22nd January

Club Academy

6/10

Fever 105 provided the opportunity for Manchester students to celebrate the end of exams in style by booking Hacienda legend Greg Wilson for a 3 hour set.

Herbert Benson of duo Voyeur opened the night and attempted to kick off the party feeling with a varied set ranging from house to hip hop. His mixing capabilities shone through in selections such as Moodymann’s Chic sampling ‘I Can’t Kick This Feeling When It Hits’ and Missy Elliott’s ‘Work It’.

Unfortunately the size of the venue wasn’t conducive to a strong atmosphere, the turnout by no means filling the space making it feel particularly cavernous.

Greg Wilson’s arrival saw him spin numerous classics from the Hacienda days with a sprinkling of more modern tracks. Wilson showed he is fully deserving of his title of ‘King of the Edit’ when drawing for his excellent reinterpretation of Amerie’s ‘1 Thing’. Throughout the set his extensive knowledge of funk, soul and disco shone through as he induced euphoric jigging with the likes of The Bangles’s ‘Walk Like An Egyptian’, Sister Sledge’s ‘He’s The Greatest Dancer’ and Talking Heads’s ‘Once In A Lifetime’.

The Stone Roses’s ‘Fool’s Gold’ provided another highlight, as an icon of the Manchester scene it was only right that he would delve into the city’s rich musical heritage. However, the open space of the venue continued to impact the collective vibe of the night. It was enjoyable but didn’t excel into feeling anything more than that despite an expert set of fine selections throughout.

Preview: Stevie Wonderland to host the first ever roller disco in Academy one

Stevie Wonderland’s turning two and for their birthday celebrations they are throwing Academy 1’s first roller disco.

After their two sell-out roller discos in London they decided ‘what better way to celebrate two amazing years than to jack up the size and bring it to our home in Manchester!’

They will be taking over the whole of Manchester Academy 1 and turning it into ‘the biggest and most beautiful Roller Disco wonderland you have ever seen!’

Stevie Wonderland have previously welcome acts such as Andres, Greg Wilson, Craig Charles, Space Dimension Contoller and DMX Krew.

For their second birthday legendary boogie man, Breakbot is being flown in for his first DJ set in Manchester for over three years.

Breakbot’s hit ‘Baby I’m Yours’ has over 12 million hits on Youtube and is now considered a staple of modern disco.

Stevie Wonderland describe his sets as being ‘renowned for their unforgiving pace and inspired selection. He’s promised a special 3 hour roller boogie set – we’re excited and hope you are too!

Coming direct from Paris with his hip-shaking blend of electro disco for you to skate to; Ed Banger Records resident man, Breakbot has been at the very top of our list of artists to book since we started Stevie Wonderland, so what better time to have him than for our second Birthday!’

Joining Breakbot is his partner in crime Irfane, the unmistakable voice behind some of Breakbot’s biggest hits including ‘Baby I’m yours’.

The night will also include; free skate hire, a giant disco ball, dancers, ‘Stevie’s Birthday Photo Booth’, a separate dance floor for any non-skaters and lots more surprises.

Stevie Wonderland have promised they’re ‘ going all out on the production for this one and are turning Academy 1 into a disco wonderland.’

Tickets are available now via University of Manchester Student Union, Skiddle, Resident Advisor & Party for the People: 3rd Release £15 – http://bit.ly/Tickets-Skiddle. There will also be more on the door

The event will be in Manchester Academy 1, Friday 30th January, 10pm – 4am, last entry 11pm.

For more information see the Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1554395014802106/?pnref=story

For a taster of what you might be in for, here’s a video of Stevie Wonderland’s previous roller discos in London: http://vimeo.com/103330012.

Review: Unbroken

Obviously from the trailer with its uplifting music along with its release on Christmas day, Unbroken is meant as a feel good film. Whilst exploring the conditions of Prisoner of War camps, I expected it will do so as light heartedly as possible. It was difficult going to see a film that was most probably going to, once again, show American war efforts or American soldiers in a positive or congratulatory light: it’s certainly been done before but the real problem is the backdrop of America’s current track record with regard to worldwide attacks, torture and prisoners of war.

If we ignore the state-of-being America has with the rest of the world and attempt to watch and consider this film as if we’ve been living under a rock and know nothing of current world affairs: it’s simply okay. The only way is which this film stood out is in its better attempts at realism thanks to CGI and other modern cinema technologies including make-up to depict more gruesomely, for example, more than a month’s worth of sunburn. But it was realism up to a point. Chiselled good looks were essential throughout and everything still maintained an airbrushed quality to it.

There seems to be a growing appetite for the feel good nostalgic in cinema and TV and this is one, where once again military struggles are distorted to accommodate patriotic ad propaganda principles.

This isn’t the first film to be directed by Angelina Jolie ‘In the land of Blood and Honey’, also a film concerned with war, a story in which Angleina Jolie had attempted to present the Bosnia war through a love story was labelled a “propaganda film” by many critics in the way that it “presents Serbs as eternal bad guys” according to Željko Mitrović or that she was “producing a sanctimonious vanity commercial for her own good intentions” according to Karina Longworth.

It’s difficult to pinpoint the necessity for this film. The most popular British film of 1958, The Camp on Blood Island, flaunted itself as an exposition of Japanese war crimes by exposing the conditions POWs had to endure at a particular camp; whether the film was based on fact or fiction is still unclear.

In the weeks before going to watch this film, the Senate’s report on the CIA’s former worldwide interrogation programme was exposed. Would it not be more interesting to explore these facts that have been hidden for so long? The world is tired of American heroism and stories depicting purely honourable soldiers especially at this moment in time when there is so much evidence of the contrary. There are even articles in the Rolling Stones about it titled ‘The Kill Team: How U.S. Soldiers in Afghanistan Murdered Innocent Civilians’.

The cinematography is certainly nice. It takes some time to warm towards Jack O’Connell but eventually his acting is convincing enough. However the protagonist’s main enemy, the POW camp corporal who is especially tough and malicious with O’Connell’s character is exactly the male version of Gong Li’s older jealous Geisha in Memoirs of a Geisha mirroring those moments when Li would whisper maliciously into Zhang Ziyi’s face: In one of the instances of this in Unbroken, the corporal does this for the second half of a speech that is supposed to be addressed toward an entire POW camp.

Finally, let this film re-introduce you to Jack O’Connell’s flared nostrils which deserve their own credits because they played a very large role in the film.

1/5

Review: American Sniper

‘The most deadly sniper in U.S. military history’ is one title given to Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, though, American Sniper is more than a bloodbath action romp. The man behind the gun is where the main action lies.

The Academy Award nominations announcement contained a major shock with the name of Bradley Cooper under Best Leading Actor – his third consecutive nomination and one which I believe to be justified. Cooper has come a long way from his big breakthrough role as crew co-ordinator in ‘comedy’ flick The Hangover and can now be accepted as a certified Hollywood leading man. His transformation into hardened veteran of war involves a restrained performance of a man who doesn’t celebrate the nasty elements of the war, unlike those he’s around. His life is changed by these events and you can’t help but feel for Kyle as he has to walk a tightrope between helping save the lives of his colleagues and friends on his multiple tours of duty, whilst ensuring that he doesn’t lose touch of his fledgling family back home.

American Sniper excels in its gripping combat sequences, which are some of the best offered from Eastwood’s directing and almost equally matches pound for pound its principal Iraq War predecessor The Hurt Locker. The viewer is immersed into the war-zone, being cast through the lens of Kyle’s long ranged rifle. Tension escalates as Kyle evaluates the consequences of pulling the trigger. Be it on man, woman or child. The brutality of the conflict resulting from America’s invasion of Iraq is displayed here with a pulsating climactic scene in a sandstorm, where visibility is low but excitement is far from it.

The film has come in for criticism from some corners for being pro-war. Canadian funny-man Seth Rogen likened American Sniper to the fictitious Nazi propaganda movie Nation’s Pride featured in the final act of Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. He has a point in that both concern snipers. Though, that’s about it as it’s like saying that Jaws is a similar film to Sharknado as both feature the aquatic creatures putting human lives in danger. Rogen’s comments seem misguided mainly to me, as American Sniper doesn’t feel like its trying to put across a political statement, rather it is aims to be a biopic of one man’s feats that took place under the trying conditions of battle. Not only this but various military personnel voice their disdain with the pointless war that their country has embarked them on and both the physical and mental effects warfare has on those involved are highlighted throughout with the struggles of veterans being featured prominently. Furthermore, despite being talented with his weapon, Kyle acts with reluctance to his assigned hero status, rejecting the brash nicknames such as ‘legend’ thrusted upon him.

The only major area where the film falls down on is a relatively average script, unusually so for a project with Clint Eastwood attached, considering how high the standard the writing is in Gran Torino, Mystic River and other war adaptation Letters From Iwo Jima. It should be stated that whilst I was thrilled by the quality of the action scenes, they’re not for everyone and other than Bradley Coopers performance, those disinclined to on-screen violence may take little away from viewing.

Whilst there is no political statement or any innovation in the field of war movies, American Sniper executes its strength well. Intensely thrilling action is coupled with the honest performance of Bradley Cooper, making American Sniper one of the top bracket Gulf War based war films.

4/5

Review: Annie

Oh dear. My usual self likes to take on a slightly verbose persona when writing an introduction for a review, but I cannot sugarcoat it for you this time; Annie is an abhorrent film. I thought I had hit rock bottom for the week after watching Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, but, alas, my faith in the medium was to be sapped once more. I saw it in a theatre, empty, apart from myself. This gave me enormous pleasure in not having to keep my anger inaudible. I watch a fair share of films in the ‘family/child’ genre niche, always going in with an open mind, and often coming out pleasantly surprised. So, I need to stress that I am not over exaggerating just how terrible this 2014 interpretation of Annie actually is.

A film such as Annie, centering on one protagonist, is reliant on the performance of said character. You would hope that the story of an orphaned little girl would be endearing, but I found the Annie portrayed on screen, and I’ll stand by this, to be completely punchable. Quvenzhané Wallis is an unwanted presence on screen here, playing Annie in such a horrible and obnoxious way. All she does is sarcastically snap at anyone who doesn’t agree with her, in an overly sassy way. I do not want to be too harsh on an 11 year old girl, who is already heaps more successful than me, so perhaps it’s all in the bad script. Either way, I had no compassionate feelings for Annie during the film, from front to back. It infuriates me that this film is being represented at the Golden Globes, but more so that it is Quvenzhané Wallis up for best actress; it is possible that she could beat Julianne Moore to the title, which would be a real travesty.

Annie doesn’t just fall down on its lead role. Every scene with Cameron Diaz, playing the cruel foster parent, made me want to claw my eyes out. Rose Byrne continues to waste her genuine talent by taking part. I cannot talk about wasted talent without pointing out that motherfucking Jamie Foxx is in this picture. The guy can sing well, act well, and is a decent stand up comedian on the side, but you really wouldn’t think it from watching him in Annie. He plays a stupidly rich CEO called Will Stacks for fucks sake. Get it?

The thing that really tips me over into loathing Annie is the contrived manner in which it tries to justify its relevance. At every opportunity, the presence of social media is thrust down our throats, unfortunately ruining any shred of integrity remaining of the original Annie story. The only reason Jamie Foxx even adopts Annie is because of a video he is shown on YouTube. Annie has her own Twitter and Instagram accounts. There’s a completely farcical chase sequence at the end, in which Jamie Foxx and his crew use real-time pictures posted on Annie’s blog and Twitter stream to track down the car being chased. I left the theatre wanting to destroy my phone and any online presence I have, just out of spite.

Annie is one of the worst films I have ever watched, destroying anything that was once good about the story, replacing it with rehashed auto-tuned songs and rubbish about social media. Avoid at all costs.

0/5

Review: Exodus: Gods and Kings

Everyone knows, at least vaguely, the story of the biblical Exodus, so I won’t bore you with an extensive plot summary. Exodus: Gods and Kings follows the story of Moses and the Hebrews until their crossing of the Red Sea, the only significant change (excluding the skin tone of the major characters) being that the film focuses more on the relationship between Moses (Christian Bale) and Ramses (Joel Edgerton), as here they have been brought up more or less as equals.

Predictably for a 21st century biblical epic, Exodus is doubtful of the existence of God, and at the film’s outset Moses is an agnostic verging on atheist. After climbing a forbidden mountain, he’s hit on the head with a rock, and awakes to a vision, during which he is told of his calling to rescue the Hebrews from their enslavement. At this point, Moses’ scepticism is transferred to Ridley Scott. It is suggested by Moses’ wife that his vision was a hallucination caused by amnesia, and Scott takes every opportunity to show us Moses having shouty conversations with apparently inanimate objects. Even the ten plagues, the hardest part of the biblical content to convey without asserting the existence of God, are linked together by some attempt at scientific explanation. This, to Scott’s credit, works pretty well; the causal connection between the plagues gives them a cinematic cohesiveness, and they are by far the film’s most effective moment, both visually and emotionally.

However, for most of its 154 minutes, Exodus is just far too silly to be impressive. Any additions designed to make the characters more 3-dimensional are amusingly ridiculous – Moses wears his mother’s umbilical cord as an item of jewellery to remind himself of his roots, and Ramses’ favourite pastime is topless wrestling with huge yellow snakes. Speaking of homo-erotic imagery, Exodus employs that age-old indication of moral hierarchy: the camper a character is, the more evil they are. Seeing as Christian Bale is decked out in enough fake tan and eyebrow pencil to satisfy the cast of TOWIE, it takes some doing for Ramses to top this scale – his bedroom is just a diamante-encrusted piano away from the set of Behind the Candelabra.

I won’t linger too long on the unintentionally funny script, but it contains some painfully bad lines, including the least sexy way to start an erotic encounter (‘You may proceed’). The acting, too, leaves something to be desired; Bale (who seems to think if he shouts a line loud enough no-one will notice how bad it is) brings nothing to what is, to be fair, a very limited role, while Aaron Paul is hilariously bad as Joshua (who shouldn’t be alive yet, if we’re being picky), and looks far more like a meth addict than he ever did in Breaking Bad. The most unusual piece of casting, however, is that of 11 year old schoolboy Isaac Andrews. Casting a child as God could theoretically have worked quite well, if he did in fact ‘exude innocence and purity’ in the way that Scott claims, and was generally a bit less unnecessarily aggressive – sure, Old Testament God was a bit of a bastard, but he was never quite this irritating.

Overall, although it has successful moments, Exodus just doesn’t work. The Bible doesn’t make the best source material, simply because it doesn’t contain the sort of enclosed narratives required for cinematic storytelling, contributing to the fact that the film takes far too long to get going and far too long to end, and feels completely unsatisfying. Unfortunately, in the hierarchy of Ridley Scott epics, Exodus lies far closer to Kingdom of Heaven than to Gladiator.

2/5

#NotInMyName

In May 2013 Lee Rigby, a British soldier, was killed in London as an act of revenge for the British Army killing Muslims in Iraq. In April 2014, Boko Haram, an Islamic Jihadist organisation that claims it is resisting westernisation in Nigeria, kidnapped 276 Nigerian girls. In August 2014 the American journalist James Foley was beheaded by IS in Syria, followed by Steven Sotloff in September, then British hostage Alan Henning in October of the same year. Also in October of 2014, in Ottawa, Canada, a shooting by a Muslim at a war memorial resulted in the death of one Canadian soldier. In December 2014, an attack in Sydney, Australia by Man Monis, an Iranian Muslim, took the lives of two people in a hostage situation in a café. Finally, in January 2015, came the attack in Paris on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which published cartoons dishonouring the prophet Muhammad. The attack was carried out by three Muslims and resulted in the death of 12 people.

All these attacks were done by Muslims, “in the name of God” and, “in defence of Islam.” As Muslims, every time we wake up to such horrific incidents, we pray: “Please God, not another Muslim attacker!”

Many people view these attacks as war against liberty, freedom, and humanity. This may be true, but it’s also a war against Islam. Some may think this is complete nonsense: How can it be against Islam, if it’s targeting western nations whilst proclaiming “Allahu Akbar” and claiming to seek revenge for affronts to Islam?

Let’s look at the situation, so I can explain:

First, these terrorist organisations have killed far more Muslims than any other group. Following is a collection of statistics of Muslim victims of terrorist attacks committed by so-called “Islamic” terrorists in November and December of 2014:

In Iraq alone, the numbers of dead from suicide bombings included 143 civilians—all followed Islam.

In Afghanistan, 81 civilians were killed, and in Pakistan 69 civilians also perished. Let us not forget the horrific attack on a school in Pakistan that resulted in the death of 145 innocent people­—mostly children.

In Yemen, more than 25 were killed, and five more were murdered in a shooting in Al-Ahsa in Saudi Arabia.

In Egypt, two were killed in a bombing attack.

In addition to this are the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Syrians in the ongoing conflict over the past four years, and the existence of IS that is brutalising and horrifying the Middle East.

These few examples of suffering in the Muslim world are evident enough. For many Muslims around the world going to school, going shopping, becoming a police officer or a soldier means that you don’t know if you will ever see your family again.

The second reason for my argument is that which follows each attack. The lives of the majority moderate Muslims in the Weat are negatively affected after each attack. I do not blame communities in the West for being angry: We are all angry! Western societies fought for their freedom, liberation, and peace. No one wants to feel threatened, or to live under the fear of being on a hijacked aeroplane, taken as a hostafe in a café, being kidnapped, or being shot cold bloodedly at school or at work. No human being deserves this. Muslims know what it feels like when Western countries are being attacked for their freedom, liberty, security, and relatively stable economies.

Following the news of the Charlie Hebdo attack, I came across many comments on the Yahoo! news page that got my attention.

‘Dave’ and many others expressed their anger at the Paris shooting. He wrote: “Want to change Islam. The first thing is to not let anyone from these countries into the west [sic]. No exceptions. Next round up all of the radical ones and either lock them up or send them back to their country. Next isolate these countries completely economically. Accept high gas prices, but buy no oil from them. Make it so hard on these countries that they rid the world of the radicals themselves.”

Of course, ‘Dave’ speaks as someone fed up with what Muslims has brought to his country. He thinks that getting rid of them, and being isolated from Muslims will solve the problem. Of course this doesn’t represent every westerner’s views. Many still believe that those responsible for these attacks are criminals, and showed empathy for other Muslims in their community.

But for how long and how far will people remain empathetic? People want to live in peace in their homeland. They don’t want to live in fear: looking over their shoulders for some crazy fanatic who believes that killing strangers will take him to heaven. Moreover, what got my attention was that most comments on social media targeted their hatred and anger towards Islam and Muslims in general and not terrorists and criminals. Muslims are facing many difficulties with the rise of Islamophobia and xenophobia in the West. In June 2014, a Muslim woman was stabbed to death in Essex as a result of hate crime against Muslims. Attacks on mosques, and hateful statements on social media are prevalent.

Terrorists are stealing our most sacred Islamic symbols. In my opinion, they are affecting Islam in a way that is more dangerous than any other war, even worse than colonisation: They are stealing the Islamic identity.

Throughout history there have been symbols that signify certain ideals, organisations, political movement, and countries. These symbols hold deep meanings and emotions. For example, the symbol of the Nazi party: it automatically conjures horrible images of Hitler, World War II, the Holocaust, genocide, and destruction. I thank God I was not born during that time. On other hand, the swastika used in the flag is originally a Sanskrit symbol that means ‘good fortune’ and is considered to be a sacred symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism, and other faiths. Hitler’s actions managed to change what this sign signifies to millions of people around the world by placing it on the Nazi flag.

Now look at the notorious IS flag. Most terrorist groups like Boko Haram and Al-Qaeda unfortunately use the same text. It shows the prophet Muhammad’s signature that he used to stamp his letters, alongside the core statement of the Islamic belief: ‘There is No God but Allah’. A clear declaration of our belief, that there is only one God. Nowadays, if you show this symbol to both Muslims and non-Muslims, what they will think and feel? For both it will bring the images of fear, and opression. It will bring an image of something I never want to be—something evil, against freedom and liberty.

These terrorist groups are hijacking our core values, symbols, our prophet’s name and signature on their own flags. These groups and their actions do not represent Islam, the prophet Muhammad, our Quran, my family, my friends, my neighbours or any Muslims I’ve met in the 35 years of my life. This holds true whether religious or liberal, Arab or non-Arab. None of them remotely approve of what these people are doing.

The prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) said: “There will come a time when holding onto your faith will be like holding in your hands a hot burning coal.” At school, they interpreted the prophet’s saying as: it will be hard to hold on to your faith because life will be full of temptations. It will be hard to be faithful, honest, modest, not corrupted in a time full of material pleasure. But now, as terrorists are putting the whole world in danger in the name of Islam, Muslims globally will reach a point where they will be afraid to acknowledge or show their faith. When Islam is portrayed as violent and oppressive, then holding on to the Islamic faith will be like holding onto a hot burning coal.

What I am trying to say here to all non-Muslims is, in hard times like this, try and remember your Muslim friends, neighbours and colleagues whom you know aren’t terrorists. They are feeling just as confused and lost as you are. It is a time when you need each other the most.

We all need to think critically about terrorism, see beyond the attacks to what are causing these attacks. We need to ask why this phenomenon is growing around the world, what political decisions and agendas are reinforcing it? We need to all stand in solidarity, united and brave against our division. We need to recognise that the media follow their own agenda and everything that we are reading does not necessarily represent Islam. The identity of the terrorists, who are criminals, is not defined only by a word such as ‘Muslim’ or ‘Islamic’, and their motives, which are often politically motivated, do not represent the teachings or ideology of the Islamic faith. We must understand and explain to others the difference between being a criminal and being a Muslim and implore that the media choose different adjectives when describing the events that are deeply upsetting for all of us.

The terrorists are taking the most valuable thing we have in life, they are stealing our faith and our symbols. Worst of all they are brainwashing our youth, especially those who suffer from poverty, oppression, and neglect.

These terrorists are stealing our identity—it’s #NotInMyName.

 

Comments on the Yahoo! article can be found here.

Interview: Daliso Chaponda

Facing a packed out Squirrels bar, Daliso Chaponda pauses with a slight smirk, ready for a perfect delivery. “We’ve come a long way. If we had been here three hundred years ago, this would have been an auction.” The son of a Malawian politician, Chaponda read English at McGill University in Montreal where he decided to pursue a career as a comedian. After graduating, he lived in South Africa before moving to Manchester several years ago. I met Chaponda in Big Hands last semester.

On his Malawian background and going to university in Montreal

“I’m from Malawi, the blood is from Malawi, but I was actually born in Zambia. My dad was an economic refuge, because at the time we had a crazy dictator. A lot of people left the country and he was one of them. Then he joined the UN and became a diplomat.”

After going to schools all over Africa, Chaponda moved to Montreal to attend McGill University. He originally studied computer programming, after being pressured by his family, but switched to English once he realised his potential to pursue a career in comedy.

“I knew I wanted to be an artist beforehand, but I was pressured by my family [into doing computer science], ‘do the straight and narrow, do the straight and narrow!’, because my math grades were good. I think it was only once I was [at McGill] that I got the strength to say ‘screw you!’ I’d rather try and do it and fail, than do the sensible path, because I think the mistake that a lot of people make is that they think they can have it as your side job. So my parents were like, ‘you can do your comedy on the side, and the rest of your time programming,’ but programming is a full time thing anyway. My brother is a programmer, he doesn’t just work nine to five. Doing both became impossible.”

On British audiences

“In terms of the subject matter, they are more OK with people crossing the line. I mean comedians here like doing paedophile jokes and jokes about death and darkness. There’s more acceptability towards a dark sense of humour. But Canadian audiences are more liberal, if you’re using the left-wing definition of liberal. If you do a joke here that is slightly sexist or slightly racist, you won’t be booed off stage. I’ve seen people do it, they do it every week. But you could not do that in a place like Canada which is more liberal in the left-wing sense. Here, you’re politically correct and not politically correct, it depends which subject.

“I’ve got into trouble in Africa for telling jokes and I’ve got in trouble here for telling jokes. [In the UK], you get into trouble if it’s a special interest group you’re targeting. In Africa you get into trouble if it’s a person you’re targeting—that politician, or that public official.”

On getting into trouble in his home country

“I essentially did some jokes about the government. The flag had changed. We changed the flag from a rising sun to a full sun because we felt that the country had emerged. My joke was that the country is falling apart, actually I think we should change it to an eclipse. It was silly joke, and it just sort of spiraled out of control. Nothing actually happened, there were a lot of threats, and I had to talk to the censorship board. Realistically, the worst that could have happened was that I could have paid a big fine, and been arrested for a day or two. But it was more potential fires which I had to put out.”

On telling jokes about colonialism and slavery. 

“I like jokes about stuff that matters. There are some comedians whose entire life is about meaningless details. There are some people who only want to joke about how you spin your spoon or something like that. And it’s funny and it works, but it’s not what my strength is. For me to write about something, I have to start with something that pisses me off, and use comedy to turn it into a positive emotion.

“We can’t pretend we live in this glossed-over utopia, where no horrible things happen. You can talk about those things without being accusative people. We’ve got to accept that they happened, the effects are still here, and that we can now poke fun at it.

“I actually wrote that joke [about the slave auction] in response to people who don’t believe that there is such a thing as white privilege. Or people who wonder ‘why do black people write about it now?’ But I’m like, ‘no, there are still going to be echoes.’ Almost everything in Malawi is still owned by British people. It’s history, but there are so many things that are still going on, and when I do shows in Africa I talk about it a lot more.”

On experiencing racism in the UK

“It’s not something that really bothers me, I know how to deal with it. I’ve lived in places where there is real racism, like South Africa. A slightly drunk guy in Kendal who sings is small-time. For the kind of comedian I am, it’s a very welcoming atmosphere here. For racist stuff, nobody is going to let people get away with it.”

On being politically correct

“It’s all about self-knowledge. You’ve got to know who you are and you’ve got to know how people see you. Take Louis CK. He does nigger jokes, and he’s white. But it’s fine, because he knows how to do it. The truth is, you’ve got to know who you are. For example, it’s no coincidence that Louis CK used to write for the Chris Rock Show. You can be part of a community without looking like that community.

“It’s all about saying something which is true, and then people don’t care who you are. Honestly, any white comic could talk about black people, no problem right, if what they are saying rings true to black people, but if it’s a stereotype that’s when they get very angry. And the backlash to all the generation-back comics in the UK, like Jim Davidson, is not because they were talking about race, but because they were talking about some weird stereotype.

“I think there is always going to be an evolution of comedy. Comedy moves forward, as society moves forward.”

Who would you say are your all-time favourite comedians?

“Probably Bill Cosby, Woody Allen. There are also new people that I love. Joan Rivers who died recently.”

What advice would you give to students today who are looking to break into comedy?

“Write a lot of jokes, get on stage whenever you can. But the other big thing is you have to write about stuff which matters to you, because a lot of people think: ‘Oh, Jack Whitehall makes that really funny’, or, ‘politics seems like a good way in.’ But if you’re not really into it, why would you talk about it?”

And relax…

With the end of Christmas, come the January blues and as students, we know what that means; exams! As they loom over us, here’s a few beauty de-stressers that will bring a little comfort and relaxation into your lives:

Masks
Want a face mask which smells just as amazing as it feels? You need my favourite honey & greek yoghurt mask. If you’re someone who suffers from acne-prone skin, then raw honey should be your new best friend. With its antibacterial, antiseptic and anti-fungal properties, it can beat any stress-induced spot that rears its ugly head around exam time.  It’s also amazing for hydration, so wave goodbye to dry skin. With spot fighting powers and moisturising qualities, honey is your new skin superhero! Add two parts yoghurt to one part honey to make your mask. Not only is this great for your skin, but it’s also unbelievably easy and cheap to make!

Does studying make your skin look drained? Are you lacking your usual glow due to late nights and not enough pampering? Well, fear not, I have just the thing to bring it back. All you need is papaya (the flesh, unseeded), one teaspoon of plain yoghurt and a teaspoon of honey (told you it would become your new best friend!). Blend it in a food processor and then smother it all over your face! I would keep it on there for a good twenty minutes to restore a healthy complexion! If you really want, you can even have a sneaky taste; it’s so good!

Next is a hair mask. Are the ones at Lush slightly over your student budget? If so, D.I.Y. is the way to go. Some of the most nourishing face masks are ones I’ve made myself, and this one is particularly easy. On dry hair, use a mixture of blended banana (great for adding vitamin A, B and potassium into your hair), coconut oil, a tablespoon of olive oil and, once again, some honey! Apply it all over your hair, making sure you don’t miss any strands! Finally, put your hair into a bun keeping the mask on for about an hour or so. Wash off for silky, smooth and great smelling hair!

Body
The skin on your body needs as much attention as the skin on your face! So don’t stress your body out by not giving it enough TLC. My favourite D.I.Y. scrub is Spiced Apple. All you need is 4 tablespoons of brown sugar, 1 tablespoon of apple sauce and a dash of cinnamon. The sugar acts as an exfoliator, getting rid of any dead skin, leaving it smooth and soft.
If you really want to relax and forget about mathematical equations or Shakespeare, I suggest taking a bubble bath. My favourite bath product has to be Origins Lavender and Vanilla oil bubble bath. The strong aroma of lavender immediately washes any tension away, leaving you feeling relaxed, soothed and heavenly. Another one of my all time favourites is Burt’s Bees Therapeutic Bath Crystals. Without breaking the bank, this will leave you relaxed beyond belief and is even known for helping sore muscles. It really is unBEElievable.

Make up
Something that always lifts my mood is a bold lip. When I’m feeling sad about the amount of revision I have to do, or an impending exam, I rock either a bright red or a dark purple lip. For some reason, this really gets me out of my funk and allows me to unwind and let my hair down. After all, even with exams, we’re all allowed to have a bit of fun! ‘Work hard, play harder’ isn’t a saying for nothing! Kate Moss’ lipstick collection is my go-to, it’s affordable as well as glamourous!

So, instead of stressing over exams, take a break and indulge. Put on your favourite music, read a book you’ve been putting away for a rainy day and, most importantly, relax.

We are Charlie Hebdo

We at The Mancunion are absolutely horrified by the events in Paris and refuse to be intimidated. The murders constitute a direct assault on the values of free speech and secularism, which were created by French philosophers during the Enlightenment in a struggle against tyrannical power.

No idea, belief, or policy should be exempt from criticism or mockery. The prophet Muhammad is no exception. Once people, particularly us as journalists, start believing that they cannot speak or write about a particular organisation or belief, tyranny and stupidity are allowed to flourish.

At the same time, we firmly believe that the actions of a small radical minority must not be portrayed to represent an entire faith, or used to justify more draconian laws, and we offer our most sincere condolences to the families of the murdered journalists and police officers.

Album: Smashing Pumpkins – Monuments to an Elegy

Released 5th December

Martha’s Music/BMG Records

7/10

Ever since their 2006 ‘reunion’—to use the word in the most liberal sense possible—the Smashing Pumpkins have, for the most part, kept true to their reputation for grandiosity and artistic ambition, whilst acting more and more as simply a mouthpiece for Billy Corgan, alternative rock’s premier absent-minded professor. His latest and greatest whim is the eyewateringly (some might say needlessly) complex Teargarden by Kaleidyscope project, which started back in 2009 and spans several albums-within-albums and overarching lyrical concepts, all of which make sense to someone somewhere, presumably. Monuments to an Elegy is the latest instalment, and despite its typically bombastic name, sticks out like a sore thumb not just against the backdrop of Teargarden but in their catalogue as a whole; it’s their shortest, leanest and perhaps most accessible album to date, featuring just nine tracks and clocking in at just over half an hour.

Featuring the trio of Corgan, post-reunion mainstay Jeff Schroeder and Mötley Crüe’s Tommy Lee on drums, the album most recalls 2007’s Zeitgeist in its ‘no-frills’ modern rock sound. But where Zeitgeist was a punishing listen full of claustrophobic production and pummelling riffs, Monuments is an altogether lighter, airier affair, melding their trademark fuzzy guitars and Corgan’s nasal snarl with electronica-tinged production that’s heavy on the synthesizers and allows the songs room to breathe. The album’s compact running time also means that the filler that plagued even their most revered efforts (looking at you, Mellon Collie) is largely absent, and the weaker moments come and go so fast you barely notice the lag in quality. ‘Dorian’, a dreamy Future Islands-sounding number, is the only track that truly lets the side down, with its dodgy lyrics (“Dorian/what have you done/as you run/a setting sun”) that seem a little too much like an afterthought.

Apart from that, though, the album delivers: the lovely ‘Being Beige’ is a throwback to earlier ballads like ‘Disarm’ and ‘Tonight Tonight’, and ‘Anaise!’ borrows from Muse’s ‘Panic Station’ with its low-slung bassline and stomping beat. ‘Run2Me’, meanwhile, is exactly the type of lightweight electropop its Prince-aping title would suggest, recalling the indie pop sound of Pumpkins imitators The Pains of Being Pure at Heart with its lovelorn lyrics and throbbing keyboards, whilst ‘Monuments’ is perhaps the album’s high point and a place where the production really shines, melding a fuzzy grunge groove with layers of synths.

Taken in isolation, it’s a solid album from a band now in their fourth decade of activity, but when compared to the rest of their output—especially their breakthrough Siamese Dream, the sprawling Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and the criminally underrated Adore—it’s hard to shift the feeling that Monuments is Corgan’s first record that doesn’t at least aspire to be a masterpiece. With its sister album, Teargarden’s concluding entry Day for Night slated for release later this year, we’ll just have to wait and see how the album’s modesty and scaled back ambitions fare in the context of the saga as a whole.

Live: Cast

21st December

Academy 2

8/10

The word ‘underrated’ gets bandied about a lot in the music world—I shit you not, I read someone call Gary Barlow ‘underrated’ the other day—but Liverpool’s Cast are one band that genuinely seem to have slipped under the radar in recent years. Though they received critical acclaim and had a string of hit albums and singles during their heyday, time doesn’t seem to have bestowed Cast with the same mythical status as some of their Britpop peers, and since their reformation in 2010 the band have seemed to straddle the line between rock elder statesmen and cult favourites. Their December UK tour, which is to be followed by an as-yet-untitled new album, came to a close in Manchester on the 21st, and confirmed frontman John Power’s claims that the now-veteran band are sounding better than ever.

Opening in raucous fashion with ‘Time Bomb’ and ‘Promised Land’, they played a tight career-spanning set to their (admittedly, largely middle-aged) audience, all of whom had braved a particularly miserable December night to get involved. Keen to prove they’re not another cash-in reunion act, their recent free download single ‘Baby Blue Eyes’ got an airing early on in the set, sounding much more muscular and anthemic than its folky studio counterpart, to an encouragingly warm reception. The rest of the show, though, relied on tried-and-tested classics such as the upbeat Stones-y swagger of ‘Beat Mama’, the giddy pop of ‘Guiding Star’, and their signature ballad ‘Walkaway’, which gave the show its mandatory lighters-in-the-air moment.

Whilst the songs speak for themselves, it was the band’s longstanding chemistry that truly makes them so appealing to witness live; Power’s trebly, scouse-tinted wail has held up gracefully over time, and Liam ‘Skin’ Tyson’s guitar playing is some of the most innovative to come out of his era, shining particularly on ‘History’, where his effects-laden, otherworldly riff is pushed to the forefront—it’s not surprising that he moonlights as Robert Plant’s right hand man when not playing with Cast. The show ended on the rousing fan favourite ‘Alright’ from their landmark debut All Change, which is in many ways the quintessential Cast track—loud, proud and relentlessly optimistic, with its soaring “there ain’t nothing you can’t do” coda serving as a perfect four-minute antidote to the troubled times of the present day.

Review: The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies

After what seems like a lifetime, the time has finally come for Sir Peter Jackson to close the book on his trilogy of adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic fantasy book, The Hobbit. Following the Lord of the Rings, I had been slightly disappointed with The Hobbit trilogy up to this point, but it did mark the end of ‘Middle-Earth in cinema’. So naturally, I hauled myself to the Printworks at midnight on the 11th/12th December to catch the first public viewing.

To put it simply, this movie is exactly what it says on the tin. Forget about the two-film buildup to Smaug, forget the ‘journey’ and forget the quest, this movie is all about a battle (between five armies, no less). To be frank, it’s a bit of a risky move from Peter Jackson, since he really moved away from the source material and took almost complete control of the plot.

My biggest criticism of this series is that there is too much CGI compared to the incredible practical effects used in the Lord of the Rings. This instalment is no different. CGI is once again heavily abused, and the result isn’t anywhere near as pretty as the sequel trilogy. To be fair, the cinematography is absolutely astounding, but there are certain parts (like the ghosts in Dol Guldur) where the CGI is horribly overdone and atrocious. It’s laughably bad and looks like a Disneyland ride. Regardless of the CGI pitfalls however, the film in itself is far superior to the other two in the series.

We see characters developed hugely since the last two films. This is a real boost compared to the other two, which were extremely similar with both following the same formula, with Bilbo (Martin Freeman) just being awkward and out of place, and Thorin (Richard Armitage) being a brooding Byronic hero. Bilbo has moved away from being a wimp (thank God!) and has turned into kind of a badass and Thorin goes through various transitions throughout the film, from hero to tyrant and back. He even briefly becomes an antagonist.

A slight criticism I have of this film is that, although the character proved extremely popular in the previous film, there is just too much emphasis on Legolas (Orlando Bloom) is. Although the parts featuring the elf tend to be enjoyable, well orchestrated and cleverly put together, the bottom line is that Legolas did not feature in the source material. So giving such an important role to a character non-existent in Tolkien’s original novel just seems like a bit of a bastardisation of the original genius.

The plot however, was the saving grace of this film. There was a lot of action and battle scenes, which the series was sorely, sorely missing and because of this it tied the whole trilogy together. I feel that had Jackson released yet another bland, boring CGI-fest like the previous two, the series as a whole would not feel complete. It was dark and harrowing, once again a complete contrast to the rest of the series. This is why I think it’s superior to its counterparts; it was (although far from a perfect film) as perfect a conclusion as possible to the trilogy.

Throughout the production of the trilogy, people have been questioning whether Sir Peter Jackson could pull three movies from such a short book. After the first two were released, I can’t deny he had me doubting his sanity, but yet again his genius has shone through and he has ended the trilogy as well as it could possibly be done.

Rating 3/5