Lets just be clear, before I get into this: I COMPLETELY agree, that there needs to be reform, there needs to be changes, and there needs to be a cap on benefits. I will also be clear: I have recently become unemployed and have found myself (I hope short term) on jobseekers allowance and housing benefit.
I became unemployed at the end of February. And for the past 6 weeks, have been on benefits.
How. The fuck. Do people play the system to earn upwards of £40,000 per year? Because frankly, I can’t even get enough to cover my rent.
I have been allocated £51 per week jobseekers, and £260 per month to cover my rent and (AND) council tax. Now, my issue with this, (and I’m sorry to say, I DO have an issue with this), is that my rent, plus my council tax amounts to £348 per month. So, if I tote this up correctly:
£260 + (£51×4) = £464 per month.
£464 – £348 (my rent and council tax) = £116
Lets just have a look at that again. £116.
Now, that is for my 4 weeks of food, remaining electric and water bills, my travel expenses to any potential interviews I may get and… oh well, if it goes that far I’ll be monumentally impressed.
Now, please don’t get me wrong. I am MONUMENTALLY grateful that I live in a country that essentially hands those in difficulty money to survive. However, having enquired about the reasoning behind my shortfall in rent, bills and essentially, my survival costs.
Do you know what I was told? At the age of 23, I am not classed a true independent.
What?
I am not living at home, I live independently of my parents. I do not rely on my brother, my sister, my grandparents or any other relative to survive. Prior to losing my job, I depended on one person. Myself. My job wasn’t glamorous; in fact, it was awful. However, it was MY job. I earned my own money. I grafted, awoke at ungodly hours, did overtime, worked outside my job description to get it.
I detest the situation I am currently in. However, it is NOT my fault I am in it. At all. I am independent of anyone else, I eat just as much as someone 2 years older than me? So why am I told that I am worth £80 less?
The government has claimed that this is to push people back to work. Great. I don’t need pushing. And in doing that “pushing” they have actually hindered my job search:
I was told today, that I can claim travel to my interviews. Marvellous! That makes things a billion times easier.
Addition: I can claim that travel back… IF the interview is over 90 minutes away from Manchester. Over 90 minutes away from Manchester? So… Cardiff, or London?! Cheers. Thanks for that. It has hit a point for myself where, not only am I having to limit where my job search takes place, but for interviews I do get, pick and chose which ones I can simply afford to attend?! I have had 12 interview offers since starting benefits. 12. Of those 12, I have been able to attend 3. Three. 3/12. Not because I don’t want the other positions. But simply because I cannot afford to get there.
So I shall continue to search for work. Continue to see how far I can stretch 1 evenings lasagne into the week. And continue to wonder how exactly to get the unaccountable amounts of wealth that apparently 99% (lol!) of those claiming benefits are on.
The minority that have caused this uprising and resentment, are those that will be unaffected by these changes. They will do as they always have and play the system to their benefit with very little change in their quality of life.
The ones that WILL suffer are those that want out of the dependency, out of the stigma they suffer for living on benefits. The ones that will now have to get by on less, yet still be expected to stop leaching from the system.
Because of course, my £464 a month (or, after rent has been removed, my £29 a week) is literally sucking this country dry. Not the £40million tax break just handed to the fatcats. Not the £10million for Margaret Thatcher’s funeral (that, just to be clear… isn’t something the woman herself wanted?! SHE thought it would have been a massive waste of money?! So… by spending this £10,illion… Cameron… you’ve disrespected her final wishes *2 thumbs up for you*). Not the foreign Aid to countries with their own space programmes (Indian Aid DOESN’T officially end until 2015), not the 28 ‘Public Enquiries’ (costing an average of £20million per enquiry, o in the case of Iraq, £160million and rising) we have had since the Coalition came to power, of which, out of a grand total of 120,000 law and regulation changes recommended, a grander total of 116 have actually come into effect.
No, it that £29 a week that is leaching this country into oblivion. And god forbid I request to be treated as an adult and ask for the extra £80 a month (£20 a week) anyone over the age of 25 is entitled to.
Fucking hell… I’m a real shit of a person aren’t i?
Sorry Cammers, sorry Cleggers. I’ll try and sort my life out and stop wasting government money on food and bills.
A Lara who bled… who needs BANDAGES?! (Yet still without a hair out of place!)
Tomb Raider: Exclusive gameplay footage was about to be shown of the latest instalment in the franchise. After well over four years of development, and the much publicised stills, concept art that showed a younger Lara, a vulnerable Lara. Lara who bled and required medical assistance. A Lara who wasn’t the indestructible Bond of the archaeological world. This game required you to train Lara into the well known gun toting, siren… and well spoken, British Aristocrat.
And so the gameplay footage began: and in doing so, began one of the most well received and critically successful (unreleased) games ever. Footage showed a young girl, well able perhaps, but young and inexperienced none the less. This was an origins story unlike anything ever seen before. And a lesson in how to do them.
Alright. So that was that. Tomb Raider. A game with universal success and undisputed rave reviews. But why is it so important? What makes it more so than say… Halo, Farcry, Uncharted 3? Why is Tomb Raider so special?
To begin with, Tomb Raider was a reboot. An origins story. They seem to be pretty Vogue now-a-days eh? Star Trek, Spiderman, Superman, Batman, Halo (slightly re-booted!), Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Dredd, X-Men, Total Recall, Snow White… in all its Kirsten Stewart bland glory (not fan of the woman, I’ll get that out there right now. How she has managed to break into acting is beyond me. Should have stuck to modelling, it’s one-look and requires zero verbal interaction, that’s where her future should have pointed.) to name but a few. They’ve all been made darker, grounded… Nolan-ised! Nolan-ised franchises are the new fad. Ever since Batman Begins and Dark Knight showed it was possible to ground a franchise such as Batman in a ‘possible’ universe, the world a has gone mental for the believable.
But, bar Batman, they’ve all fallen short of audience expectations. So how does Tomb Raider differ? How has it become the yard mark for all future reboots?
The first clue is in the title: Tomb Raider. This was a game that took an unprecedented risk in the game world. A franchise nearing its 20th Anniversary, whose biggest boot to date was a HD re-release of its original title, (ironically titled Anniversary). No, this reboot took the original puzzle adventure game and brought it from a series re-treading old ground; solving puzzles, sorting a few miscreants en route and (weirdly for a woman who loves all creatures great and small) putting a few species further up the Red List, to a game that pushed the now aging next gen consoles to the absolute limit of their capabilities whilst offering fans something completely new. Almost to a point (bar the lead herself) of being unrecognisable from what had come before it.
She’s improved her look… but no major leap forward other than graphically… till now
The game promised a true survivor and adult storyline. A storyline that took Lara from young archaeologist to an SAS level soldier. A woman who had been backed into a corner, and like the animal simile: had been moulded into a true danger to those around her. Forced to kill to survive. The first shots showing a filthy, bloodied, bandaged and darker Lara (who looked closer to the images of her doppelganger in Underworld than the character we were used to; perfect hair, make up and er… well proportioned and positioned bosom in one of the most indestructible wonderbras ever made [see above image!]) made a bold statement: Survivor, killer and pushed beyond her limits. Ie: not for children.
A grounded character. Training to be a survivor. But she still has some kick ass weapons… and a FANTASTIC British accent
And boy were they right: the age rating was released: PEGI 18. And perhaps could have been knocked down with a slightly smaller digital blood bank and less adult language coding. But, Square Enix was out to make a statement. The target audience: original Tomb Raider game players, had grown up. Newer target audiences had grown tired of clean gaming with disappearing bodies, unrealistic recovery and the game leading the player instead of vice versa. It was time bring Lara to an older game playing generation, a tested generation out for a new challenge, a generation wanting grounded gameplay offering a true challenge. But how do you do that for a franchise with a heroine that has seen everything and is capable of everything? Easy. You Make the woman a girl, take away her experience and knowledge.
So Square Enix had taken their character back to the beginning. But how do you revitalise such a successful form of gameplay? You don’t. You offer something new: Farcry and Uncharted 3 had shown developers what gameplayers want: Open world, grounded gameplay and a vunerable character. Villains who are equally grounded and sensible: intelligent AI and most importantly as developed in Halo 3, characters both major and minor that players care about.
Square Enix delivered just that. Uncharted style gameplay with minor elements of what makes Tomb Raider a classic. Instead of mind stumping puzzles as part of the main game, the reboot offered mind stumping tombs/side missions en route that allowed gamers the classic tomb raider experience, without impacting on the flow of the main story. The characters also, not simplistic goons following a pre determined path; but hardened island survivors who adapted to your fighting style. Still limited yes, but much better than those of previous incarnations of the franchise. Again, pushing what capabilities the current generation of consoles have.
So, a complete reboot: redefines the very nature of what makes a Tomb Raider game whilst also giving gamers EXACTLY what they want. Not only from a modern day adventure game, but from a classic Tomb Raider title also.
It is, without doubt, one of the greatest modern games, and certainly one of, if not the greatest Tomb Raider title. It is the definition of how to correctly reboot a franchise.
Bloodied, bruised, filthy, emotionally and physically drained. But still one of the greatest characters, best franchise and frankly… sexiest pieces of coding ever conceived in gaming.
I just want to say to begin with, that this piece isn’t a review or a critique of either The Dark Knight or The Dark Knight Rises and that yes, it does contain spoilers. This piece is an exploration of the themes and devices used throughout the Dark Knight Trilogy (Yes, it is a trilogy oh learn-ed folk, don’t forget that little film that began it all). It attempts to give my opinion on why the Trilogy is fantastic (beyond the obvious) and why, in this author’s humble opinion, the final film is indeed, the greatest of the three.
I want to start this article with a quote from The Dark Knight:
Mike Engel: [kidnapped by the Joker, Engel is reading a prepared statement] “I’m Mike Engel for Gotham Tonight. What does it take to make you people join in? You failed to kill the lawyer. I’ve got to get you off the bench…” The Joker: Bench… Mike Engel: “And into the game.” The Joker: …game. Mike Engel: “Come nightfall, this city is mine…” The Joker: Mine… Mike Engel: “… and anyone left here plays by my rules.” The Joker: …rules. Mike Engel: “If you don’t want to be in the game… get out now. The Joker: …get out now Mike Engel: But the bridge and tunnel crowd are sure in for a surprise. Ha ha ha ha.”
[Joker laughs]
Anthony Michael Hall/Heath Ledger, Mike Engel & The Joker respectively, The Dark Knight
And here, we… Go.
This whole piece illustrates what Rises does so well throughout its epic running time: it borrows, echoes and pays homage to the two films that came before it. It also illustrates why The Joker won: His mission to bring chaos to Gotham, was based on getting every citizen involved and ‘into the game’. Bane, with a plan; actually no. That’s wrong; Bane is “a schemer. A schemer trying to control his little world”. Another message brought through from The Dark Knight. Bane’s whole plan could almost be a continuation of The Joker’s work. And what’s terrifying is that it comes off. Bane’s ‘little world’; aka, Gotham does become just that, Banes’ World, under his control.
The Joker won, every citizen in Gotham becomes involved in the ensuing chaos. It is even started at a game of American Football…
with the line “Let the Games begin”. Alright, Bane does not give Gotham any warning, as joker did. But he got them quite literally off the bench, and into the game. Fair play to the bloke!
Applause, Applause, Applause… End scene. That’s right folks. Applaud Bane… Quickly, becuase he deserves it.
And this idea, this constant effort to rip you back four and six years is what Rises does so well. Every set piece, every epic scene is a metaphor for what has come before it. It closes everything off, both with loose ends and with the metaphorical and spiritual aspect of Nolan’s world. What he creates, is a final act of love, devotion and care. You can almost hear Ra’s Al Ghul’s words whispering through the crowds:
“If you make yourself more than just a man, you become something else entirely… Legend, Mr. Nolan”.
So, we have begun with the glaringly obvious point that Bane is essentially Joker with an ounce of control and forward planning to his name. However, let’s stay with Bane shall we, and just what a daring villain choice it was for Nolan. I mean, the last time we saw Bane on screen, he looked something like this:
And I think we’d all like to forget about that monstrosity of modern cinema. Now, upon hearing this, automatically, expectations grew. You could see the tomatoes festering in the sun, critics wanting this to be a failure. Bane was too larger than life, too much for Nolan’s physically grounded version of DC’s world. All that was needed was Uma Thurman back as an aged, saggy Poison Ivy and you had it; Nolan admitting defeat, going for a mediocre film that ‘would be better than previous entries in the series, but nothing compared to the Dark Knight’. And that ladies and germs, is why Rises, quite literally, Nuclear Bombs all over the previous 2 entries: First, we saw that image; Bane. In shadowy glory. Bane. Whose mask wasn’t full of ‘venom’. No, he was addicted to painkillers. Bane, whose mask, with its
That image…
oversized teeth looks astonishingly similar to another set of teeth that set this series off don’t you think? Bugger… perhaps Nolan hadn’t thrown in the towel just yet then!
But back to those teeth. What i hear you asking do they look so similar too. Why… All those years ago, in 2006, when Master Bruce fell quite literally into his own tiny version of hell. Into that gaping mouth of darkness… Looking at the screeching became louder, the rustling stronger… Watching as the symbol of what he would become flew out of that cave mouth towards him.
That cave, as another metaphorical circle come complete; when last we saw that cave, Bruce was boarding over it with wood; symbolically, he hadn’t confronted his fear, his guilt over his parents’ death. No, he had put a sticking plaster over something that needed a skin graft. He didn’t fear death because he wanted to die. To let the suffering in his heart and mind end. A feeling that was doubled when Rachel died at the hands of the joker. Bruce needed to confront those teeth and that cave. And when he defeats Bane, he finally grafts the new skin over his pain. He is able to move on. (And move on he bloody well does!)
It’s too its credit that Rises refers back to Begins more the TDK. TDK set the expectation level ridiculously high for Rises. And whilst it is a direct continuation of the story, Begins is where the big loose end lay; what happened to the League of Shadows after Ra’s death? And more importantly, what IS Wayne Manor anew really like? Sure TDK had some, perhaps deeper questions; what would Gotham, post Dent really be like? But, for some reason, the vision of Batman riding off into the night and into retirement felt complete in an odd way. Almost like, he wasn’t needed and therefore could hang up his cowl for good and attempt to lead a normal life. For me, Begins was always an unfinished beginning, the foundations for a bigger tale.
And the parallels continue: The ice that Bruce trained on in the first third of Begins has spread to Gotham as the League of Shadows takes hold. The privileged must now do as Batman did, and walk out onto the ice and trust in their natural earth, not the lower classes backs as they have done their entire lives, to get them across. The fact that, upon meeting his ally and protégé for the first time, Bruce is sporting a beard that looks uncannily like Mr. Neeson’s whence we first make his acquaintance in the opening scenes for Batmans’ beginning. And when we first meet Miranda Tate, her unveiling as a character (a character we later learn is false) is at a high society dinner; Hmm, looks a shade too close to Ducard’s revelation that he is in fact Mr Al Ghul to be mere coincidence. Neeson himself, also makes an appearance; in a vision and again, we harken back to lines that were so throw away in the first film; ‘Once I had a wife, she was taken from me.’ And guess what… we learn who she was, HOW and WHY she was taken. And this is what I love. It feels like every tiny aspect of Rises was devised to fit into some aspect of the other two films. The care and attention to detail is pitched perfectly. Even the ‘floatation of stocks’ at Wayne Enterprises, (a side story that felt almost like comic relief of a ‘ooh, he’ll get his just desserts’ by the end of Begins), was something that felt closed; no. All of a sudden that tiny little piece of side story now has a HUGE part to play in Rises.
But those storylines are easily forgotten. Easily ignored. The same as the metaphorical aspects that are brought through from the previous two films. One of the most glaringly obvious metaphors is that of ‘the pit’. One of the biggest aspects of all the films is ‘hope’. In Batman Begins, we see Master Bruce, fall down a pit, a pit with teeth (see above). In that pit, we see the sky, we see the vain of hope stretch away into the distance. The hope is kindled though when we see Thomas Wayne rappel down on a rope, uttering those immortal lines:
“Bruce, why do we fall?”
“So we can learn to pick ourselves up”
Linus Roache, Thomas Wayne, Batman Begins
When Bruce is in ‘The Pit’ in Rises, looking up at the sky, waiting for Bane’s prediction to come true; being driven mad by hope. We can hear Wayne Seniors words being whispered round the crowds, as they will for him, pray for him to make a surprise appearance, rappel down and whisk his son off to safety. But no, they can see it, this is ajourney our aged Master Bruce must make, alone. Bruce has fallen, defeated by Bane; he has to learn to pick himself up. Learn to fear death again. As the doctor of the Pit says; fear drives men to fight with their last breath. Living without fear means you have no reason to fight. So Bruce’s metaphorical understanding of that reason we fall, that reason it is sane to live with fear in your life – is the reason that quite literally. The Dark. Knight. Rises.
One of my favourite pieces of trickery, and it’s one I’m not even sure is meant, is one of colour. There are 2 aspects that make me smile every time I see Rises: Number one, the colour pallet changes over the course of the film. It starts with a majority of blue, grey and yellow but as the film progresses, right up until the final 10 minutes (which I won’t go into); it slowly shifts over to darker hues of blue and black. This is a stunning piece of theatre: Batman Begins was a black film, black and dark brown. TDK was a majority blue and grey wash film (watch them, you’ll see it), Rises moves from TDK’s blue and grey hue over to a darker, deeper blue and black over the course of the film, marking the trilogies full circle in the most beautifully thought out piece of lighting that I have ever seen. And that’s not all. No, no, Batman fans, not by a long chock. I have another quote for you to mull over quickly before you continue this piece:
“If you are bored of brawling with thieves and want to achieve something…
…there is a rare blue flower that grows on the eastern slopes.
Pick one of these flowers…
…you may find what you were looking for in the first place.”
Liam Neeson, Ducard/Ra’s Al Ghul, Batman Begins
A Rare blue flower: one that we shall see throughout the Trilogy
Now, in exactly the same way as The Tramp’s appreciation of ‘The Nice Coat’ in Batman Begins marked the end of Batman’s training and conception and the beginning of the Bruce Wayne/Batman story, the Rare blue flower was an idea and device that was used throughout the trilogy. But used with particular effect in both the beginning and final scenes. The idea of the flower, the idea that it was a piece of beauty that harboured a sinister secret in the hands of humanity; that idea was everything in the Trilogy; the clean energy fusion reactor that became a nuclear bomb, the Joker himself, even Harvey Dent’s descent into madness… look at the films and you can see the device echoed throughout them. But in particular with Catwoman. Anne Hathaway is undeniably stunning. Catwoman is deadly, bred by a less than desirable branch of humanity in the streets of Gotham.
But what marks her apart from all the other blue flower devices is the final scene. Just as Bruce Wayne picked the blue flower, and sought what he had sought when he started his journey to understand the criminal mind:
“I seek the means to fight injustice, to turn fear against those who prey on the fearful.”
Christian Bale, Bruce Wayne, Batman Begins
In Rises our final glimpse of both Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle (aka, Catwoman) is in an Italian café through the eyes of Alfred, after
Catwoman: the physical embodiment of The Blue Flower
they are presumed dead. Presumed dead, but free from burden, of guilt, of shame and of expectation. Free at last to enjoy their lives and be happy. Something Bruce Wayne had sought all through TDK and Rises; a life free of Batman. And what is Selina wearing? A subtle, but very noticeable dress in a particular shade of blue…
Rises isn’t a film that is for newcomers, although they will enjoy the ride, make no mistake about that. No, Rises is a film for Batman fans, and in particular, Dark Knight Trilogy fans. To get every level, to appreciate the detail and thought that has gone into every frame, you need to have seen and remembered every aspect of the prior films. It is a master class of trilogy film making, one that I think will be studied for years to come.
And so ends my short exploration of why Rises trumps TDK and in doing so every Batman film before it. And why, because going into this cinematic event, expectations had been higher than for any film prior. The level Christopher Nolan set when he crafted The Dark Knight was something extraordinary. Rises had a monumental task just to match that. And no one thought it could, although many hoped. But what Rises has done is not only raise the game in terms of scope, size, themes, acting class and story, Rises has also crafted every aspect of its metaphorical underlay, every aspect of loose end story left in the previous two films and every aspect that both films did so well in their own right (Begins with its dark, film noir style, setting and themes, Dark Knight, with its grand vision, use of IMAX camera, emotional rollercoaster storytelling and character development) and has brought every aspect of those themes, metaphors and stories and brought them together to pay homage to both. And has done so in a fucking fantastic way. What Nolan attempted to do when he decided to tell this particular story, in this particular style to close off this particular trilogy, could easily have been a mess, a disaster, a ‘yet another perfect trilogy ruined at the final jump’. But it wasn’t. It was a beautiful, Oscar worthy piece of cinema.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, with all the expectation and all the hope riding on its shoulders, is why the Dark Knight Rises is the best film of the Dark Knight Trilogy.
We can now, truely say, not only the dark knight, but the standard expected of theatre, has Risen.
You have made yourself more than just a man. You have made yourself something more Mr. Nolan… …Legend
thethoughtsofjamie 