Voices From The Pulpit (Ramblings of an Inadequate Messiah)

Last nights journey in the Iron Kingdoms was good fun and continued to be a laugh.

We must be getting reaonably hard now though because we actually took on a band of 8 Skorne and won. When we saw the band following our tracks I think I can say we all pretty much shat ourselves considering we'd hard trouble dealing with two of the buggers when we met them last year. Combination of improved ability, a plan that actually worked (which is so, so rare) and, obviously, my own personal skill of swordsmanship :p

It was a great team effort but I'm still surprised we managed to take them down - especially as Too's and my own characters where below half hit points before we even started the battle!

My character is getting a rather unjust reputation though...

I first spotted this story surfing the news on my phone whilst waiting for breakfast but have since read a couple of other newspaper and online reports.

It seems that a 'figure' has been captured by NASA's Spirit explorer during its exploration of Mars.

Could it be life? Could it be a rock formation? Could Bigfoot really be a Martian?

Dave and myself broke our 2008 cinema cherry this afternoon.

I had the afternoon off and we thought sod it and headed over to the local multiplex to watch Alien Vs Predator: Requiem, the second in the merged franchise.

Now I actually quite liked the first one. It wasn't great by any means but it was fun and I saw it not only on the big screen but a couple of times since on DVD with various friends. From the trailers it seemed to me that AVPR was going to be better in many ways though.

I'll have to say that the jury is out in that regards. I'm really going to have to sleep on it.

Parts of the film were very good - but the majority of the acting and the script was, shall we say, lacking in areas. Big areas.

I think I probably did enjoy it more than the first team-up in regards to the film being set in an urban envioronment. I much preferred seeing the alien infestation take root amongst the houses, shops and offices than in a long forgotten alien pyramid hidden under one of the Poles. Needless to say the bodycount is possibly the highest than any Alien or Predator film to date.

I won't go too much into the plot and the outcome but, as Dave noted, there is a very big nod at the end to the whole franchise which was pretty cool.

I really don't know what I would rate this film and certainly don't know if I'd reccommend it. I know it won't be appearing in my top ten of the year but then wasn't expecting it to. I'm sure it won't be appearing in my bottom 3 either though as I'm sure I'll send up seeing films that I know I haven't enjoyed as I leave the cinema as opposed to a film I had fun with in places but has left me overly uncertain.

Anyway, Sweeny Todd comes out this weekend (I was going to miss it but might be persuaded to see it with Jasmina next week depending on if either of us have the time or money) and then it's my biggy of the next month - Cloverfield on 1st February. Depending on times I might put out an all-call for a Saturday AM viewing on Feb 2 for anyone else who fancies it (although with Inferno the night before I might be a bit bleary eyed).