Happy Birthday: One Year On...

One year ago from today I put my first blog post online. I started doing it as a bit of fun, not expecting for my blog to grow as much as it has! 63 posts later and I have an audience that I never thought was possible. The amount of different people in different countries that have read my posts is incredible! I have even had the organisers of the Sundance Film Festival read some of my posts! I would not have a got here without the help of my readers! Thank you guys so much! I also want to thank The Large Association Of Movie Blogs (The LAMB) for letting me into their community and bringing a larger audience of fellow movie bloggers to my site.

I was a bit unsure as to what to write about today for the 1st birthday of my blog, but I have decided to look back at my 10 most popular posts of the last year. So please enjoy!

10. The Avengers Review
I remember this day very well! I was so excited for this film and I am so glad that it met all my expectations. My review is a very happy one indeed and although I am biased as a massive fan boy! There is no doubt in my mind that this will most likely be my favourite film of the year.

9. Chronicle
Many of my popular posts I did not expect to do as well as they did and this post is one of them. I saw it on DVD, really liked it and wrote a review. It sure is a film to check out if your fan of superheroes and found footage films.

8. Ted
Ted is one of those films that I had mixed feelings on. I would definitely watch it again with a group of friends but it definitely wasn't the funniest things I have ever seen. Check out this review to see if you agree with me.

7. God Bless America & 21 Jump Street
Even though I was on holiday when this was posted this still got a great amount of hits. This is mainly due to the fact that this was the first post people saw when I had been allowed as member of The LAMB. Both films I believe are great and I recommend them both as good comedies.

6. Reinventing Romance
This is one of my more recent posts and it actually contains my case study for the end of Media Studies course. I really enjoyed writing about the subject and I am glad you guys took a liking to it too!

5. Shame
Shame is one of those film that I loved but don't really want to watch again. It contains one of my favourite actors, the Fassbender, in one of his best roles. But the subject matter of sex addiction is an uncomfortable one and is most likely why it was denied an Oscar nomination.

4. Would You Like The Good News or The Bad News First?
Another post I am surprised has done well.One of my first posts and it just contains a summary of movie news that had happened that week.

3. Alex's Essential Spider-Man
I am so glad this post did well as I worked very hard on it. I loved the fact that I was able to get fan made pictures from my readers to work on this post and celebrate our love of Spider-Man. Even if the most recent film was a bit of a disappointment.

2. Sundance London 2012
One of the best weekends ever in blog form! With help from organisers of the festival I was able to move this post up to second on the list. Whether I'll be there next year, I do not know. Being a student can be difficult in this day and age! If I can, I will!

1. What Would Travis Bickle Do?
The biggest surprise of them all! My quick angry rant turned into my biggest hit. I don't really know what else to say as i wasn't expecting this to that well. I think when I first put it on it did terribly but as the months have passed, more people have read and enjoyed it. Thank you so much!

Although things have slowed down here recently on the blog I would like to thank everybody who keeps reading it. Here's to another year!

Thank you for reading!

Chronicle

If you have read my blog before, then you know I like superheroes. So last year when I heard that a new found footage/hand held camera film was being made about a group of friends who get powers, it had to make my most anticipated movies of 2012 list! I was looking forward to finally seeing this film but I never would have expected the scale of awesomeness that this $12 million budget movie created!

The plot goes like this; Three high school friends gain superpowers after making an incredible discovery. Soon, though, they find their lives spinning out of control and their bond tested as they embrace their darker sides. It could be said that throughout this film the plot is kind of predictable, but I could never have predicted how crazy the last act of the film was going to be. Without spoiling anything, the last act looked as if it could have come from a big blockbuster movie! The effects were great as well, at the start of the film I was worried about effects after a few floating lego blocks came across as a bit naff, but the exploding helicopters look just fine!

The characters are great and very well written, which they needed to be as we don't have any demons as an excuse to turn on the hand held camera. Unlike Paranormal Activity this film doesn't only use the main protagonist's camera but anyone else who has access to their own camera, we're talking mobile phones to police CCTV footage. And because our trio of characters get telekinesis powers then they can make the camera float around them without having to hold it with their shaky hands.

The trailer for this film does not show all the best bits, in fact it shows hardly any of them. If you have not been a fan of these kind of films so far then this could be the one to turn you. And if you're already a fan then you will love this! And for those who are bored of superheroes this summer then don't worry there is no spandex in this film! It aslo makes you think what you would do if you had these powers, maybe I read to many comics but I would definitely be making my own crime fighting costume!

The director Josh Trank has created a very smart and thrilling film which out does every found footage film made before it! The effects were great and the acting brilliant, an underrated gem in a great year for film, now that it is out on DVD and Blu-Ray hopefully it will be seen by more people! I highly recommend this film! 4/5

Come back next week for my review of Prometheus!

Thanks for reading!