Not the summer's best film, due to a pretty torrid last quarter, WotW still manages to entertain. The film is look and effects over anything else really, as the relationship between Cruise, Fanning and the brother isn't as convincing as Mel Gibson's family in Signs.

Talking of Signs, I bet M. Night Shymalan will be pleased with how differant this is to his Sci-Fi epic..

I'll talk about what I really liked, unlike Independance Day, it's not all large-scale destruction, but put's you into one man's perspective. That man is convincingly portrayed by Tom Cruise, who must be in every scene. The visual imagery is stunning, one scene in particular is a clutch of dead bodies floating down a stream, really hits home. Gotta love the effects, the tripods look amazing and are involved in some tasty battles. So yeah, all in all a good film, the ending is typical, cheesy family crap though, dissapointing, in that this is one of the darkest blockbusters aimed at a younger audience ever..

:fresh: ***/*****

Jesus, what a comeback for the dark knight. It's so satisfying on every level, from plot to characterisation, from the tone of the film to the fast and furious action. I thank Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale for bringing the truest to material Batman on to the big screen. Hopefully other studio's may take note of what WB's have done too, by completely re-inventing the Batman franchise. It wouldn't be a bad idea for the Jaw's and Alien franchise's to re-imagine themselves.

I must especially mention the cast of Batman Begins, which ranges from the likes of Bale to Cillian Murphy. Not one big player is on bad form, and yes, i think Katie Holmes as Rachel did a fine job as there was a convincing chemistry between herself and Bale's Bruce Wayne. Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, Micheal Caine.. They all deliver great performances and only enhance the believability of the picture.

One of the best summer blockbuster's ever, and it certainly won't be bettered for 2005.

:fresh: *****/*****

Hot off the heels of Jaws 3D, I watched the sequel The Revenge. It took a bigger critical battering, it took less money at the BO (Signaling the death of the Jaws franchise) and has a much worse plot.

Despite the hideous plot, I actually found myself being mildly entertained, something 3D didn't do. For every semi-decent moment in this movie though, it's brought crashing back down by the plot, In which a great white shark seeks revenge on Ellen Brody and her family for what her husband did to it in the first two movies.

The acting is pretty bog-standard throughout, especially by Lorraine Gary, who nears the point of irritating every time she's on screen. Equally as bad as the acting though, are the shark effects which are half the film in this type of movie. Still, even though scenes in which you can see the rig supporting the plastic shark, there better than Jaws 3D's effects.

Jaws 3D ruthlessly killed the Jaws franchise in one go, so Jaws: The Revenge didn't have much to do. IMO, it's not the worse movie ever made and is passable. Some aspects of it are appauling, but hey, if you don't raise a smile to a shark rising 20-ft out of the water, there is something wrong with you...

:rotten: **/*****

Jesus, what a terrible, terrible movie. The original Jaws by Spielberg is a masterpeice and the follow-up ain't bad neither. Then there's Jaws-3D which manages to tarnish what's gone before by being wretched in every department (Effects - Which are equally important as plot in a film like this; Characters, Excitement etc.).

I've watched it before as a kid, but decided to check it out again as it was on the other night. And it took a re-watching of Jaws to wash it out of my system. Still, if there is anything worse, then it's the sequel, Revenge...

:rotten: */*****

Despite picking at it's many flaws for two hours straight with my mates after we had seen it, the latest and last Star Wars film is great entertainment. The story and tone was much better this time around, and managed to retain 'most' of that Star Wars magic lost with Episode I and II.

Perhaps more thrilling than the relentless lightsabre duels and space battles, is Anikan's betrayel as a Jedi as he turns to the dark side. I really liked Hayden Christensen this time around, more so than the lacklustre Ewan McGregor who seems a bit 'wooden'. Then again, he isn't helped by some stinky dialouge.

There are also some really cheesy moments (Darth Vader takes the crown for one of them), and the big finale between Anikan and Obi-Wan is underwhelming yet saved when Christensen, is struck down and exclaims his 'hate' for his master.

:fresh: ***/*****

Empire strikes back ****
A new hope ***
ROTS ***
TPM ***
Return of the Jedi ***
AOTC ***