Groovin': Dmitri the stud remix

I knew there was something missing from the Dmitri phone message videos - smooth tunes. This was put together by someone calling themselves bnutz5000

Let the romance begin (unless you're on any kind of medication for anxiety or depression)

Comparing: Xbox 360 and Playstation 3

(Image from counteragent.com)

Once again I'm a little late to the nerd party but yesterday I got my hands on a Playstation 3, so I thought I'd do a little compare and contrast about the various merits and otherwise of it and the Xbox 360.

I should mention that I haven't played games on the PS3 yet or watched a Bluray movie, this is much more of a first impressions kind of deal.

For the record, I'm comparing the PS3 with the 40GB hard drive, which retails for around $700 (Australian) to the XBOX 360 Pro, which comes with a 20GB hard drive and retails for around $500 (Aus). The PS3 came as a bonus with the new tv and given the pricing, I probably wouldn't have bought one otherwise.

Setup: The PS3 was marginally simpler to physically connect - just the three cables - power, controller (not always required) and HDMI connection to the tv. (Not included but better than the perfectly adequate A/V cables. The PS3 manages to do without the brick sized power supply of the 360. The 360 has a similar set up configuration but the HDMI slot is in the same space as the A/V cables (including the optical audio slot) which is a little problematic if you don't have a digital tv.

Initial onscreen setup was similar for the two - though the PS3 seems to have more options.

PS3 narrow win for the lack of the brick power supply.

Look and feel: Sure, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and until I had actually seen the PS3, I was perfectly happy with the friendly yet robust appearance of the 360. I like its big easy buttons and the circle theme it has going on, with the 4 way divided circle around the power button telling you which controllers are being used. The PS3 however has a sexy black finish like a concert piano and smooth curves. The power and eject buttons - well controls really - are simply touch areas on the pretty pretty surface. Very slick.



PS3 wins.

Controllers: The PS3 controller is pretty much the same as the ones used in the last two playstations - except now it is wireless. It connects via a standard USB to miniUSB cable to the PS3 and uses this to recharge. (It doesn't have removable/replaceable batteries). I haven't put this through its paces yet with a lengthy gaming session but the supplied cable is just a tiny bit too short to play with comfortably. Overall it feels a little too light. It does however seem more responsive than the 360 controller in terms of the way it talks to the console.

The 360 controller has a nice solid heft to it and the triggers seem a more natural shape for the fingers to rest on. Again, I haven't played games on the PS3 so it's not a fair comparison necessarily but I've played enough on the PS2 to be able to make some assumptions. The battery chewing ways of the 360 controller can be kind of maddening however.

360 for the win on design and feel.

Media playback: Again, I haven't had a lot of time with the PS3 though I did watch a few episodes of Heroes on DVD and didn't notice any real difference between this and the 360. It also found my media server pretty quickly and painlessly. The interface on the 360 for media is a little simpler and more user friendly. I haven't tried bluray yet but I'm assuming it will be better.

The PS3 is also whisper quiet, compared to the whirry whirry 360.

PS3 by a nose.

Games: There aren't a lot of games that you can't play on either system (or at least ones that I'm interested in) so for me this is neither here nor there. Not having played any games on the PS3 yet, it's not something I can comment on either, though from reports the graphics are meant to be slightly better. Backwards compatability however is an issue that I've already bumped into - the PS3 that I have doesn't played PS2 games (of which I have maybe a dozen) whereas the 360 does play Xbox games. (Strangely enough, the PS3 will play PS1 games - go figure.)

Given that the more expensive 60GB PS3 can play PS2 games, this is kind of annoying.

XBOX 360 wins.

Online: Online gameplay costs you money on the 360 but is free on the PS3. I haven't spent much time in the PS3 online store but the 360 online store has a great range of demos, game addons and videos/movies in an easy to use space. The PS3 has an Internet browser though. (Seriously Microsoft - what's so hard about that?). In terms of connectivity - the PS3 allegedly has wireless (it could see the wireless router but wouldn't talk to it - a widely documented bug apparently) so technically it's better though not functionally.

PS3 wins.

Other stuff: The main other functionality that the PS3 offers is that it can connect to the PSP and you can do pretty well anything you like on the PSP that you can do on the PS3. (Except watch dvds). I was able to play one of my PS1 games and watch a video from the media server. Oh and watch YouTube videos - something that the PSP itself still doesn't support. Don't ask me why exactly you would bother doing this if you have the big screen right there in front of you but it is kind of nifty.

PS3 by a knockout.

So by my count, it's the PS3 up by 5 to 2 at this point. (Acknowledging that this is a very preliminary overview)

Watching: Heroes

Sometimes I come a little late to the cool new tv shows - Heroes, a series about modern comic-book style superheroes, is about to enter its third season but I've just started watching the first series.

To be fair (uh - to myself) - there was a degree of method to the madness. There are very few programmes that I can be bothered watching live on commercial tv any more - Neighbours and the football for the most part. The ability to pick up the box set of dvds of a whole series and just dive in to to higher picture quality with no ads is just too good. (Neighbours works for me now as it's on digital tv and instead of ads, they just have the pretty HD demo pictures during the ad breaks - all so soothing).

Anyway, I digress.

The other reason I don't often jump on a new show bandwagon is that I'd rather know whether it sucks or not before committing to it.

Now that Heroes has hit the pricing sweet spot for me - $35 for series one, though I'll probably pay more for series 2 if I find it now that I'm hooked - I took the plunge on the weekend and dove in.

And it's great.

I'm not talking HBO great like Sopranos or Curb Your Enthusiasm but Heroes manages to bring all the elements of a great comic book story about relatively realistic (ok, tv realistic but still) people discovering they have various super powers.

I'll go into more detail soon - I'm 2 discs away from finishing season 1 and discovering whether they can stop New York City from being blown away in a nuclear explosion predicted by the future painting junkie and witnessed by the time-travelling Japanese uber-nerd. (Given the existence of seasons 2 and 3 I'll go out on a limb and predict that the heroes are able to save the day - it's the how of it all that is the interesting part anyway really).

10 things I hate about The Dark Knight (Spoilers galore)

Ok, so hate is definitely a little strong but I do think that while this is a pretty reasonable super-hero action film, it is highly overrated and has a number of gaping holes.

If you haven't seen the movie, I'd stop reading now because I'm going to talk about a bunch of stuff that happens that you may not want to know about yet.

1. Maggie Gyllenhaal/Rachel Dawes - Ok, marriage to whacky Tom notwithstanding, I've liked Katie Holmes since she first popped up in Go, back in the day, and I quite liked her turn as feisty lawyer and moral conscience Rachel Dawes in the original Batman Begins.

This time around it's Maggie Gyllenhaal's turn and all I could see in her this time was half a plot device. I get that she was supposed to be torn between her feelings for the brooding but unavailable hero and the two-dimensional also-hero Dent but the way she flitted between the two of them had me wondering if her heart was really in it either way. Her entire point here seemed to be to act as bait and to give Harvey Dent a reason to turn bad at the end of it all - and maybe also to add a hint of estrogen to what would otherwise have been a massive blokey sausage fest.

2. Christian Bale / Batman - I liked him in Batman Begins, seeing the evolution of a tortured hero but I thought he alternated between slightly bored and a little smarmy in this one. He was cool enough as Bruce Wayne and played the role of someone playing the role of idle playboy well enough but his grrrrrr I'm Batman voice didn't quite cut it - someone trying to be tough but lacking the necessary testosterone to pull it off. I actually found this voice kind of silly pretty quickly. (Kevin Conroy he ain't).

3. The fight scenes - Maybe I'm just old (36 for the record) but I like a well choreographed fight scene that shows how awesome the hero can be. Take pretty well any Jackie Chan movie for example and you will see a hero, in plain view, kicking the arses of a dozen or more opponents and strutting his stuff. It doesn't have to be done all in one take, editing lets you change perspective, introduce new information and create pace but when a fight scene is all edits all the time, I just don't buy that the hero has the skills to pay the bills.

The fight scenes in The Dark Knight are for the most part a blur of swooshing cameras and strobing cuts that leap from one place to another in the space of seconds - it might be stimulating but it's not so much about seeing the action as getting the vibe that Batman is a bad ass fighting machine. Yes it's called the Dark Knight and his thing is all about being dark and broody and mainly coming out at night (and he's got this whole stealthy ninja thing going on) but I wouldn't mind actually seeing him do something for more than a second.

4. Harvey Dent / Aaron Eckhart - Conceptually, not a bad character as a way of talking about virtuous people and doing the right thing but I kind of just didn't care that much. He never did anything the seemed to be beyond what anyone else in his job should be doing - perhaps doing this in the corrupt cess-pool of Gotham has a bit of a halo effect and so when he eventually loses the plot and turns evil, (all too easily and quickly) it didn't seem like as big a jump as everyone onscreen was making out. Having another character mention how heroic and virtuous Harvey is every five minutes don't necessarily make it so.

He was likable enough but didn't really seem to have much to work with - the big richlist fundraiser scene - where Rachel had to emphasise twice (in case you didn't get it the first time) that he was more afraid of the snobs than the mobs - was sadly cliched.

If you want to dig down into the Batman canon - and I respect Christopher Nolan's right as a film maker to tinker with this - Two Face is an ongoing character whose good side is constantly at war with his bad, letting the flip of the coin make his decisions - this Two Face had none of that ambiguity and just played the bad guy, using the coin toss like a tacked on gimmick with none of the evilness that Javier Bardem brought to it in No Country for Old Men.

5. The Ending - Did I mention the spoilers?
Ok so there's the big showdown with The Joker where he uses the whole never-seen-that-before-in-half-a-dozen-other-recent-action-films gimmick of dressing the hostages as bad guys and vice versa. This does end with a nice game-theory based exercise demonstrating that the people of Gotham can act morally (even though the civilians vote overwhelmingly to blow up the prisoner ferry) but when Batman shoots the Joker in the face with his little gauntlet arm razor things, not one of them actually leaves a mark. (Nitpicking perhaps but it would have looked much cooler)

Skip to the also not-at-all-cliched showdown with hostage holding Harvey Dent and the aftermath of his death. Ok, fine, they need to preserve his sainted image for the sake of the city - I'm ok with that - and so the story has to be that it wasn't Harvey that killed 5 cops in his rampage (which evidently no-one saw in the whole city, including me - 5 cops? really?).

If memory serves, our Harvey did kill a few cops with a gun - which Batman has never ever used before - and so now the decision is made to pin the murders on Batman. Um - why is that again?. Why not pin them on the proven cop-killing psycho The Joker? Why does Batman suddenly need to become public enemy number 1? Why? Granted it gives the film an Empire Strikes Back down-note ending which is good for cult cred and creates the cool image of smashing the bat-signal. I really don't follow.

6. Recycling plot points - Remember in Batman Begins Gotham Knight where Batman gets the ubercool bullet deflecting force field but has to reject it in the end because there are some ethical issues - proving that Batman is ultimately a good guy. Let's try that one again but with a surveillance system using mobile phones.

7. The Wayne Corp guy who discovers Batman's secret identity. - Ok, so you discover who Batman is and you don't tell a soul - not friends, family, girlfriend/wife - no-one at all the coolest bit of gossip you have ever held. Sure. Not even to reassure yourself that you're not batshit crazy.

8. Batman falls off his motorcycle - Yes this whole sequence is pretty awesome - from the Joker truck and the rocket launchers and the explosions and the whole shebang - but it all just ends so limply with Batman getting knocked out falling off his bike on a snaggy 180 degree turn.

9. Alfred / Michael Caine - I like Michael Caine but I just can't buy the billionaire Waynes with a cut-price cockney butler. All English accents are not the same.

10. The Police Commisioners funeral - Ok, so a proven dangerous psychopath super villain has openly announced that he is targetting the mayor for assassination - maybe you want to make a point about not bowing to terrorists but seriously - walking in the open down endless city blocks might be good for dramatic tension but I just didn't buy it as a realistic response to a credible threat.

Things I really liked about The Dark Knight:

Yes, Heath Ledger does put in a best villain yet performance as the Joker (though I wouldn't have complained if he had been a little more demented and a bit less passive-aggressive manipulative)

Spectacular action.

Cool gadgets

The opening bank robbery scene is awesome and Ledger owns pretty well every scene he appears in after this.


All in all, The Dark Knight is worth seeing but don't buy the best movie ever hype that seems to be all over the shop, it's not true. A solid 75%. Check out Batman Gotham Knight - the Animatrix style animation compilation set between the two films for a better take on the tale.

Playing: with Google Sketchup

Sketchup is an easy to use 3D modelling tool now owned by Google. I first tried it out a couple of years back and then, not having any reason to use it, put it away in a dark virtual cupboard.

I needed to create a model today though so I reached deep into the back of the cupboard and was able to whip this up in a couple of hours (in between meetings and reacquainting myself with elements of how it works).

There is also a nifty third party plugin with the imaginative name of Sketchup Web Exporter that enables you to display your models in a web browser - you can actually click and drag on this object to rotate it.

Watching: The Hollowmen (Episode 3)

Happy to say that The Hollowmen has continued to improve since the first episode - last nights one about the minutiae of dealing with Indonesia and the language of diplomacy was great.

If you haven't seen this show yet and have any interest in the way this country is run (and you should) it's a must. It still cuts close enough to the bone to make the viewing experience somewhat of a laugh then cringe then sigh that it's probably true situation. The humour is fast paced and very dry and highly highly pointed.

If this show had gone to air during the Howard government, Liberal ministers left, right and centre would have been going ballistic about ABC anti-government bias, so it's nice to see the Rudd response of - no response at all. (Because they know it's just a tv show).

Preferring: this Batman/Baman

Nice work by Alexander Butera

Thinking: about warmer climes

Scraping the ice from the car windscreen this frosty Canberra morning had me rather nostalgic for the beautiful weather on the Europe trip just past (and considering other options)

LOLing: Inappropriate Sesame St censorship

Apparently I've been going a little OTT with the YouTube posts but I have to give a special mention to this one - it has changed the way I will see childhood favourite Sesame St forever. (And it's only 1.31)

Finishing: GTA IV

I haven't been rushing through GTA IV, preferring to enjoy the whole experience and spend just as much time completing missions as driving around the big beautiful city, trying out side missions, attempting big insane stunt jumps, watching a little cabaret or standup comedy (Ricky Gervais and Katt Williams) and developing friendships.

The need to get on with other things in my life though (and an interest in the twists and turns of the developing game story) finally led me to the last story mission last night. (Ok, several nights ago but it's a tricky bastard - particularly when you have no money left to buy weapons and ammo).

After a hectic car chase, epic abandonned casino battle, motor bike chase, spectacular jump to helicopter and helicopter/boat chase, I ended up beneath the Statue of Happiness for a final showdown. Got to love the escalated difficulty of those final GTA missions - though I'm not sure whether it's just me and my extensive GTA training but most of the leadup missions seemed easier than I would have hoped.

The story itself unfolds in its own time, the 30 - 50 hours of gameplay required allow a much more realistic approach to story telling than a 2 hour movie, where everything needs to be dealt with there and then. We touched on issues of love and loss, revenge, moving on and working out exactly where your principles sit. I had to make some interesting moral life and death decisions about people I had come to know, which I think shaped the rest of the events to a degree - these decisions have given the game some good replayability as I'm curious to see what else might have happened.

The overall feeling at the end was much more downbeat than triumphant - I'm not sure if there was any kind of character arc as such, Niko Bellic seemed the same guy at the end as at the beginning. Of course, this is a more complex thing to assess given that Niko is effectively me in many ways.Perhaps the question is - have I changed at all? Probably not hugely but I think the game has actually made me want to be more social, so perhaps it has. I have no more desire to run around shooting people or driving like a maniac than I did before although there are times when I see pigeons that I have a strange compulsion to see them explode in a big puff of feathers.

I still haven't played the multiplayer games yet - something in me wants to wrap up the single player elements first. Still need to finish the assorted races, car stealing missions, pigeon shooting and I'm not sure what else. I think this is partially about a concern that the other gamers out there have something of a head start on me in the multiplayer arena, with knowledge of the maps and strategies and whatnot.

Already my thoughts have been idly wandering to where and when the next GTA might be set. Poor developers, probably could do with a break I'm sure.

Watching: Life according to Google

This short film by the Benetton named Nuru Rimington Mkali takes a simple idea and executes it very nicely, with some very effective editing. It is a look at the images that come up when you Google "life"

LOLing: TV dinner

The latest Simon Tofied cat cartoon is up online now and it's a beauty

Ooohing: the new Radiohead video clip

Shot entirely with lasers - video cameras are so 5 minutes ago.

Wondering: about the person who writes the Fantales wrappers

Click on image for larger version

For those who came in late - Fantales are a reasonably popular chocolate covered caramel in Australia which have wrappers providing various movie trivia.

I picked up a bag a few weeks back and noticed a couple of things - they don't seem to have been updated since around 2002 and the writer of the trivia appears to have an interesting take on language. Even if it is about Adam Sandler, tossing words like "loony" and "retard" seems a little wrong.

If you find the picture a little hard to read, this is the part I found a little surprising:

He played a clown in Shakes the Clown (91), a dimwit in Billy Madison (95), a loony in Happy Gilmore (96), a dork in The Wedding Singer (97) and a retard in The Waterboy (98)... all big hits.

I can appreciate that you only have a small amount of space to cover the many accomplishments of the various shiny stars and so brevity is important but even back in 2002, what were they thinking?

Couchmedia - covering the big stories.

(I thought about contacting the manufacturers for a comment but was worried that they might just call me a poo-head and hang up).

Preparing: my radio show

It's been a little while since I've put together a new show for my Monday afternoon slot on 2XX - I've been dipping into repeats (actually, lets call that best-ofs) for a while now but this is a sampling of some of the tunes and artists that have impressed me over the last few months.

Something's Changed Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings 100 Days, 100 Nights 2:57
Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! 4:12
Night Of The Lotus Eaters Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! 4:53
O Freedom Billy Bragg Mr. Love & Justice 4:05
More Than On Point (House of Pain vs. Boston) DJ Topcat Best of Bootie 2007 4:09
Sing Sing Ultra Orange & Emmanuelle So Frenchy So Chic: 2008 3:26
Dans le tempo Constance Amiot So Frenchy So Chic: 2008 2:47
east of the river nile (remix) DJ Spooky Creation Rebel 5:06
The Pulse Holy Fuck LP 5:57
Backward Mum Smokes Melbourne Water 2 3:17
Foux Du Fafa Flight Of The Conchords Flight Of The Conchords 2:46
Robots Flight Of The Conchords Flight Of The Conchords 3:43
Carey Joni Mitchell Hits 3:03
From St Kilda To Kings Cross Paul Kelly A to Z - F 3:29
Consoler Of The Lonely The Raconteurs Consolers Of The Lonely 3:26
Words And Dreams Fred Smith Bagarap Empires 2:57
The Walrus The Fuelers Hot Dang 3:54
So Entertaining Gus & Frank Confession of a Roooftop Killer 3:46
So Nice So Smart Kimya Dawson Juno 2:48
Modern Guilt Beck Modern Guilt 3:15
15 Stepz (ft. Codany Holiday) AmpLive Rainydayz Remixes 3:04
Got No Money theredsunband Peapod 2:44

Oooohing: Mirror's Edge - the first person jumper

Mirror's Edge looks like an interesting game - dealing very effectively with what until now has been the blight of the first person perspective game genre - moving effectively around the space.



This is the official blurb from EA.

In a city where information is heavily monitored, agile couriers called Runners transport sensitive data away from prying eyes. In this seemingly utopian paradise, a crime has been committed and now you are being hunted. You are a Runner called Faith - and this innovative first-person action-adventure is your story.

Mirror's Edge™ delivers you straight into the shoes of this unique heroine as she traverses the vertigo-inducing cityscape, engaging in intense combat and fast paced chases. With a never before seen sense of movement and perspective, you will be drawn into Faith's world. A world that is visceral, immediate, and very dangerous. Live or die? Soar or plummet? One thing is certain, in this city, you will learn how to run.

Watching: The Hollowmen

I caught The Hollowmen last night - the new show from the people at Working Dog who have previously brought us The Late Show, The Panel, Frontline, The Castle and Thank God You're Here.

I'm a believer that you need to give any new show a few episodes to find its feed - the first episode has a lot of work to do in introducing characters and scenarios and setting "the vibe" and the following shows then build on this to develop something which is either great, average or mundane. It takes time to flesh out characters and they are a core part of what makes a show work.

Working on this principle, I'm happy to give the show a bit longer to get going - I liked what I saw last night but I don't remember actually laughing at anything. It seemed partially as though in their focus on covering important social/political issues (the government response to childhood obesity), they didn't quite have time to bring the funny.

I could see where it was meant to be funny - Santo Cilauro's role as the team pollster allowed him to rephrase focus group comments into bureaucratese but even this seemed a little forced and repeating the gag a few times didn't make it work any better. There also seemed to be a heavy focus on finding laughs in the nuances of language used in the halls of power but I got the feeling that this would be a lot funnier to insiders than most people (myself included.)

The show is played very cynically, very subtly and very drily and I suspect it was far more accurate than we'd like it to be. At the same time, this could be one of the reasons that I found it almost a little disheartening - which may be why it wasn't as funny as I'd have liked. Shows like The Games and Yes Prime Minister have both managed to skewer similar territory very effectively, with equal levels of cynicism and yet drag a lot more humour out of the experience.

As I've mentioned, the characters are a key element in any show and need to be given time to develop - as yet, they all seem a little grey and samey. Rob Sitch and Santo Cilauro seem to have dragged large chunks of their Frontline characters into the show - Santo still has that timid, dorky but likable thing going on and Rob is still a bit hopeless - though much less self important now. (Not that this is a huge problem, I liked both of these characters but am already a little tired of Sitch's new shtick of never having a pen).



Lachy Hulme as the head of the Central Policy Unit seems the most likable, everyman kind of character - trying to actually come up with good policy in the face of organisational disfunction and Merrick Watts (of Merrick and Rosso fame) puts in a good show as a wily advisor in the department. As yet, the rest of the characters are really yet to emerge - but as I say, all in time.

I was a little surprised that it's such a hugely male dominated environment - figuring the upper levels of the Public Circus would be a little more PC and have a few more senior women but then again, these guys would have done their research and maybe it's how it is.

I liked the way the show just dived right into the action, assuming that viewers would be cluey enough to work things out as it went along and was able to really dig into a social issue - again, I have to draw conclusions to Frontline in the way that this was done. (Which is great, as I loved Frontline).

I just hope it can be as funny as Frontline, because after a point, cutting as it might be, it could well turn out more depressing than entertaining.

If you like politics and social issues, smart tv, Frontline, The Games, Yes Minister or even The West Wing, give it a go.

You can watch full episodes online at The Hollowmen website at http://www.abc.net.au/tv/hollowmen/#/watch (But the video player only seems to work in Internet Explorer - hmmm).

Awwwing: the techno kittens

Looking forward to: The Hollowmen

The Hollowmen is the latest show by the Working Dog folks, the people behind The Late Show, Frontline, The Panel and Thank God You're Here. On this form alone it would seem like a must watch for at least the first two shows (which in my mind is how long it takes to get a sense of show's potential).

The fact that it's based around politics in Canberra and takes what looks like a Frontline type approach to the whole exercise - broad general humour mashed up with smart social comment - for me makes it an absolute must.

It's set in the Central Policy Unit of the federal government -

a special think tank personally set up by the Prime Minister to help him in the most important job of all - getting reelected.

It's all about the world of public servants and political advisors - the unelected "power behind the power".

They've been very careful to keep the details scant - the most you can get is from the website at http://www.abc.net.au/tv/hollowmen/#/home, which does offer some promise.

It's a little interesting that is taken so long to come to screen - given that the idea first came up when Santo Cilauro was making a documentary in 1996 about Paul Keating's last election campaign. Harder to get it made while little Johnny was running the show?



(Not entirely sure if there is some subtle point being made by using music from a New Zealand band on the promo - perhaps the sound designer is a kiwi)

Watching: Vexille

It's been a while since I've seen a new anime (and particular in a cinema)but now that I've seen Vexille, I'll be making more of an effort.



While it's still full of robots, nanotechnology and well more robots, Vexille tells a fairly straightforward story for anime which would be at home in a Hollywood sci-fi action blockbuster. Actually, scratch that, this leaves the aforementioned blockbusters in its dust, even though it's easy to see the influence that these films have had on Vexille.

The CGI has enough artistic style added to it to avoid any kinds of uncanny valley issues and in the process creates a sometimes impossibly beautiful world that truly demonstrates the eye-candy power that this form of animation has to offer.

To talk about the story in anything but the scantest detail would be to give away what is a pretty cool plot which in the tradition of great sci-fi has plenty to say about where we might be going and what happens in the wrong people (i.e big business) are making the decisions. Vexille works well because it is able to bring these elements to the screen but at the same time offer enough character insight to make them sympathetic.

Suffice to say, if you're not averse to robots, action and awesome special effects, Vexille is well worth a look. I may even go back for another go. Within the first two or three minutes of the film I had this big nerdy "that's-so-awesome" grin creep across my face which didn't leave for hours afterwards.