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Conditions: Nice

Playing It Up

By announcing in his latest speech that he was against gay marriage, Mitt romney has declared the foundation for the upcoming presidential election: Gay rights.

In a speech at conservative Christian Liberty University - where it is taught that Mormonism is a cult - Romney stressed their common goal of service to God and declared his opposition to gay marriage, a position essential for winning the majority of evangelicals in November.
"People of different faiths like yours and mine, sometimes wonder where we can meet in common purpose, when there are so many differences in creed and theology," the presumptive Republican nominee said in a commencement speech, addressing his Mormon faith.

"Surely the answer is that we can meet in service, in shared moral convictions about our nation stemming from a common worldview," said Romney to warm applause. Mormons, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, view themselves as Christians.
Romney went right at the latest hot-button issue, bringing much of the audience to its feet in cheers by declaring: "Marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman."

- whtc.com/news/

A lot of pundits think that by endorsing gay rights to marriage, Obama may have offended a large amount of voters. And that is true, but the technicality is that those voters who are offended weren't actually going to vote for Obama anyway. So with most of America warming up to the idea of gay people being married, like non-gay people, the danger for Romney is that in pleasing his base, he may well be isolating himself from the larger voting block.


Film Review: The Avengers

The idea makes some sense, you take a bunch of comic book heroes and team them up together to take on some kind of mighty foe.  I don't know if it makes financial sense, since surely six movies about a superhero would make more money than one film about six superheros, but bear in mind Marvel have already done the groundwork by having a series of movies over the last couple of years for pretty much each of the superheros.  So here we are, with the Avengers.  Having that many guys in the room requires a fair amount of time for introductions and preparation, not to mention butting heads and working out priorities, and then basically a big action sequence, set in New York of course, to finish off.

The plot of this movie is, I guess unsurprisingly, ridiculous and paper-thin.  What little of it there is is concerned with Loki, Thor's brother, being given an army and coming to Earth to try and take us over.  Shield, the agency put together to oppose threats like this, then call up the various superheroes to get them to work together against Loki.  The strength of this movie lies not in the plot hoever, but in the great casting, snappy dialogue, and fantastic action sequences that have been put together.  Robert Downey Jr, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansen, Chris Evans, well the cast goes on and on, each is ideally cast are as their respective superheroes.  Team that with a script literally packed with witty dialogue and in-jokes, that still gives each of the characters moments of seriousness, and you end up with a very entertaining film.

Written and directed by Joss Whedon, this film really is a triumph of popcorn entertainment.  Light, fun and straightforward, it seamlessly juggles a bunch of heavy weights and a series of huge setpeice battles with the time and grace to include a bunch of memorable quips and moments for all.  Given the nature of what Marvel is doing, what we're seeing is a new scale for movies: cross over films where characters pop up in each others movies, punctuated every now and then with a big film where they all come together.  It's a brave plan, and I think Marvel have set the stage and started themselves off very well.  However, my only note of concern is, with so many characters to deal with, does plot and character development get essentially shoved aside in the face of keeping everyone entertained with so many characters?  So far I feel the answer is yes, which while understandable from a technical point of view, is something that I hope they can address for the next one.  Four smashes out of five.


- Peace out