Disposable Media proudly presents one of the very first reviews of Marvel’s latest comic book adaptations, Iron Man. Released world-wide on May 2nd, DM was lucky enough to attend the first Premiere of the film in Sydney last night, in the presence of Robert Downey Jnr. and director John Favreau, who revealed that the film has only been finalised in the last 2 weeks. Downey meanwhile admitted he hadn’t seen the final version of the film until the premiere but was delighted by both the film and the audience’s reaction throughout the screening. But is it any good? Read on to find out the first definitive review.

Marvel films carry a lot of expectations and with every new adaptation a new set of problems, worries and concerns arise. Iron Man is no different: Can Jon ‘Elf’ Favreau really turn one of Hollywood’s most infamous wild-children, Robert Downey Jnr., into one of the most beloved Marvel characters?

The answer is a resounding yes, aided in no small part due to Downey being so perfectly cast as Tony Stark that at times the dividing line between character and actor are indistinguishable. There’s clearly a lot of Downey himself thrown into the character, but that’s not to say that Downey gives an obvious performance, far from it in fact. At face value Downey as Stark is akin to Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean films - full of flair and quirky personality, arrogance and cock-sure swagger. His attitude, actions and consequences are all exaggerated and highlight both the extremity of the character and the nature of a comic book hero – imaginative fantasies played out through creativity.

Stark is the perfect comic book character - the richest, most famous and talented man in America, complete with a playboy lifestyle and carefree attitude not too dissimilar to Downey’s life during his mid-90s excess. But as the film progresses and Stark confronts his demons and chosen isolation, Downey subtly weaves other elements into the character, a regretful man, one of innate anger and child-like insecurity at times. Seeing Stark use these aspects of himself to fuel the personality of Iron Man whilst Downey does the same to create Stark and then keep up the performance for the whole two hour duration is wonderfully hypnotic. The film allows Stark to take a personal journey in a way that many other super-hero films or summer blockbusters would be afraid of, Batman Begins being an obvious exception. As a character Stark is captivating, as a performance, Downey is enthralling. It’s not just Downey; all of the performances are well considered. Jeff Bridges and Gwyneth Paltrow in particular both offer similar exaggerations to create a fantasy world that so few comic book adaptations dare to try, never mind achieve. But the film doesn’t stray too far from reality, clearly taking into account modern day America with some carefully worked social commentary to help ground the film. By using such a contemporary setting it allows the super-hero film to flourish. Where Spider-Man and X-Men were intent on producing stories and worlds that could have been real, Favreau and the script writers have achieved a fantastical, pretension-free world that never gets too ridiculous and that good work makes the film all the more fun to watch.

The story is fairly compact, concentrating as much on action as it does exposition, never dwindling into overly-complex character backgrounds or unnecessary side plots. Therein lies one of the films great triumphs: the pace. Marvel are clearly hoping for a franchise with Iron Man with the ending and a scattering of quotes hinting (or even explicitly mentioning) future adventures for Iron Man, but it doesn’t get bogged down in becoming a base for any future sequels. As with any super-hero movie, the first half is largely focused on the creation of Iron Man as a character and Stark’s motivations, but Favreau very carefully ensures that this is never too ‘heavy’ and that you’re never too far from some action or an important revelation. It’s a balancing act that few blockbusters get right, but the success here is what makes the film so enjoyable and so much fun.

Because that is what this film is: Fun.

Jokes are frequent but never heavy-handed and the physical acting from Downey learning the suit never becomes slap-stick. There are considered one-liners delivered to perfection from the supremely confident and razor-sharp Stark and it is all held together with clever jump-cuts and quick-edits that makes the film one that you’ll smile at almost constantly until the action stops.

If there is a problem it is the action, or lack of it. The relatively tight 2 hour running time means that there isn’t that much room for lengthy fight scenes and occasional bursts of frantic action throughout the film take their place. The action scenes are certainly well created and any questions over Favreau’s ability to direct an action film are almost instantly dispelled. The effects too are superb, never knowingly flashy or particularly revolutionary, but consistently seamless. The use of camcorders in particular demonstrate how well integrated the effects are into the Mise-en-scène and are at their best when the mechanics of the suit are shown in detail and during the climatic fight.

It’s easy enough to try to rank super-hero films, but Iron Man stands separated from previous films. Downey’s calculated performance is superb and his development as Stark from carefree-bachelor to world-weary war-monger and back again makes the film. Iron Man follows a similar template to last year’s Transformers, but with more of an edge. Favreau’s direction and vision for this film will appease fans of the comic and yet not alienate mainstream audiences. It’s superb from start to finish with a relentless pace and a wonderful first instalment in what will hopefully become a great franchise and is an example of how to make a blockbuster.

Review written by Ian Moreno-Melgar

The Peterborough music scene was left Red, White and Brainwashed when Anarcho-Punks, Anti Flag hit The Cresset venue.

Renowned for supporting anti-racism, anti-fascism, and anti-war movements, the band from Pittsburgh, United States dawned on the city to show fans how to really stick two fingers up to society.

Before they even had chance to flood the stage with their chaotic blend of hard guitar riffs and battering drum strokes, lucky fans across the area had their chance to get up close and personal with the band as they freely wandered back and forth through The Cresset.

Kicking off the show with a rather skatanic performance were local band, Brassphemy, who wowed the crowd with their uplifting style.

Saxophone, trumpet, synthesiser, guitar and drum sounds pulsated through the room and really got the crowd dancing. Their flair for music and passion for what they do shined throughout their performance. Without a doubt, the band is going to go on to achieve great things in the near future.

Brassphemy who are from Bourne, Lincolnshire will also be joining ska legends, Sonic Boom Six on tour in March.

Next up was All Idols Fall who, in comparison, to the opening act was rather different. Bringing a set of rock heavy sounds to the stage, their music sparked off a miniature mosh pit.

Although they had a lot of enthusiasm and were completely focused on getting the crowd moving, unfortunately their style deemed to be less popular with the audience.

Bringing life back to the stage, were the ever popular, The King Blues. Infusing ska, reggae and punk attitude to create a cocktail of beats, the London based 6-piece pray to “unsettle the rulers of this country” with their ‘rough and radical’ style.

Performing tracks from their album, Under the Fog, The King Blues delivered a fantastic presentation of heart-felt, show stopping tunes including crowd favourites, Mr Music Man and Come Fi De Youth.

The moment everybody was waiting for finally arrived, four of the finest examples of punk rock scattered on to the stage to deliver spirit thrusting movements before a wild and hefty crowd.

Spitting out heavy punk lyrics and politically angst messages, Justin Sane and the guys dragged the Peterborough audience through a whirlwind of chaos.

“Raise your fist in the air and tell George Bush, tell Tony Blair and tell everyone out there we say ‘no’ to war, ‘no’ to racism and ‘no’ to homophobia”

War Sucks, Lets Party! Fans dived to the stage to salute their Captain of Anarchy, front-man Mr Justin Sane who was unfortunately feeling too good during the night.

However, bassist Chris #2 kept the fire burning as they blasted out tracks such as Die for Your Government, 911 for Peace, 1 Trillion Dollars and new songs from their fully pledged album, The Bright Lights of America.

Reciting lyric for lyric and thumping fists in the air, the rioting crowd campaigned for peace and unity. Ending the night on a high note, the guys jumped off stage to ‘high five’ and shake the hands of their keen supporters.

A night of inner rage, passion and heart-felt messages – go and see Anti Flag action for yourselves.

By Nicola Fox

It’s with a huge mixture of excitement and sadness as I share the news that I’m no longer the Editor of Disposable Media.

Luckily, there’s a great replacement in the shape of former TV and Films Editor, and all-round talented guy Keith Andrew, who is now heading the DM team.

Meanwhile I’m continuing my involvement as Editor-in-Chief, focusing on the direction of DM, marketing, advertising, and planning.

There are several reasons for the change. I’ve had a great 18 months or so heading what is essentially a great group project, and trying to do it justice for the people working on DM, and the people reading it, but various other things, ranging from changes in my career, to impending fatherhood, have meant that I haven’t had the time to do it justice.

We’re also got shed loads of ideas and plans which I haven’t had time to work on, because we’re trying to put out the best free downloadable PDF magazine, and website, we can, and heading that up can take a pretty big commitment.

I’ve got to know Keith really well over the last 18 months, and I know he’s got a very clear idea of what works, and how we can improve over the next year. He’s also a great writer, and has got us some great interviews and features. Plus he’s slightly more photogenic!

Meanwhile I’m looking at new websites, blogs, ways to allow you to get more involved, and ways we can find investment/advertising to improve what we do, without it getting in the way of our main aim in all this:

To share the best content, images and designs from everywhere around us…

It also means there’s never been a better time to get involved in DM, especially now that the mean, tetchy old Editor has been replaced by a nicer, younger, and more fashionable version. We’re particularly looking for designer types to get involved, and it can be a real benefit to have DM in your portfolio, so why not drop us a line…disposablemedia@gmail.com

Fun fuelled chaos dawned on Peterborough’s The Cresset last weekend when Reel Big Fish came out to play. It was the band’s third return to the city and it was by far the best show I have been to in a long long time.

Blending together a cocktail of reggae beats, funky punk vocals, hip hop and ska, Sonic Boom Six were first up to bombard the stage and they surely set the night off with a bang.

Laila K and the band knocked out some rather infectious tracks from their new album, Arcade Perfect including the energetic ‘Sound of a revolution.’ Minutes after appearing on stage, fans went absolutely crazy for them and began barging their way through the crowds, sparking off a wild mosh pit.

Next up were ska-punk sensations Streetlight Manifesto. The band is already vastly popular in the States and bearing in mind it was the band’s first appearance at the Peterborough venue, the night established that they are going to become a huge success in the UK.

The hype just did not die down at all - the kids kept on moshing! It was fantastic to see such dedication from Streetlight front man Thomas Kalnoky who proved to be a true entertainer.

If things weren’t stirred up enough, Reel Big Fish piled on to the stage and the energy of the crowd rocketed to an all time high.

Luckily for me, I was stuck to the barrier for the remainder of the night, but behind me there was a whole different affair going on. As the electricity pulsated through the heart of the mosh pit fans went wild as the opening track, Sell Out began to emit from the stage.

“I tell you what is b****in, this whole show is b****in!” yelled Reel Big Fish front man, Aaron Barrett.

The Californian ska outfit surely know how to “party hard” and had the entire audience hooked, reeling out a mix of old and new tracks. From the legendary ‘Beer’, to the pristine ‘New Version of you’ the band was then joined on stage by SB6’s Laila K, for an exhilarating performance of ‘She has a girlfriend now.’

Aaron, Scotty and Little Johnny Christmas brought humour to the stage with their usual mischievous antics and tied up the night with crowd favourites ‘Everything Sucks’ and a cover of ‘Take On Me.’

Reciting lyric for lyric and dancing in true ska style, the Peterborough fans could simply have gone on partying forever. I had the time of my life and even though I came out a bit battered and bruised – I’d definitely recommend you head along to their next show!

By Nicola Fox

So yeah, we’re a bit - okay, very late with the praise and plugging…okay, being the Games Ed I guess I’m very late with the praise and plugging, but my delay isn’t without reason. For those of you who don’t know, Rllmukfm is a webby radio station thing with contributions from a number of members of rllmukforum - a community Disposable Media owe a lot to, as it helped get DM off the ground before it blossomed into the mag/site/blog hybrid you know and (hopefully) love. Since we owe a debt to the forum, we’re always looking for news about forum creativity outside of our own (such as the Umami post I made back in February), and I’ve personally been enjoying ModCast/Gamerdork for quite some time since it’s debut, so I feel I’ve always owed it a mention here.

The show started out as an unscripted roundtable talk with, well, anyone who cared to spare an hour or so chatting about the games they’ve been playing, or the news that’s been interesting them; the theory being that these random subjects would blossom into emergent discussion about other stuff and keep a nice discussion flowing for a sizeable length of time.

I’ve always said that the best and worst games are the easiest to critique, because you get so worked up about how amazing/shit the game in question is that you can rant or rave for ages, picking out everything that makes the game good or bad and filling up tons of space. The more something bugs you, pushes your buttons in a good or bad way, the more inclined you are to go on at length about how you feel about it, and this is what made the unplanned format of the older Modcasts so successful. You could write a transcript of a Modcast, take all the opiniony bits and write them on a blogspot and you’d have a fairly decent opinion site, but that’s not what it’s about. It humanises the experience, delivers personal anecdotes that spin-off into other sub-discussions, and is always involving.

And that last bit is perhaps what makes it so brilliant - you can listen to Dorkcast and laugh with the hosts; you feel like they see their fanbase as their listeners, rather than as a few more hits that they can brag about. Don’t get me wrong; all mediums have their pros and cons, and I’m not saying that PDF editors should stop doing what they’re doing and instead set up a podcast (not least because, regardless of medium, a badly-expressed opinion will lose you fans), but the text you get in a PDF or a blog has as much emotion and humanity as an Oxford dictionary. It all leads back to the “chatter” format mentioned a few paragraphs up - personally speaking, I thought that the resultant discussion from our endeavours was excellent, but it was an absolute nightmare not just in terms of editing, but also in terms of organising the people to meet up on MSN at the same time. Another obvious point to make is that these formats are involving; I can recall a time when I was tasked with writing about the launch of the Halo 3 Beta (issue #8), and initially I was desperate to include boxout-based opinion from other writers - when drafting out the flatplan I thought “everyone’s going to want a piece of the Halo 3 article; why not let them all have a few words?” However, a decision was eventually made for me to write the whole shebang (making me the target for any flames I’d receive from anal-retentive Halo fans who’d be desperate to pick out something I overlooked. Thanks chaps. :P)

I don’t have any regrets about the final article - the singular opinion gave it some focus and made editing a bit easier - but listening to the latest DorkCast as I write this, I find the show funny, spontaneous, snappy, varied (with many opinions flying about), but above all this it has a more approachable, social side that’s missing from a lot of websites that have several contributors pulling in different directions. After all, when a “group” project has members independently parading their own views, the only thing the consumer will get out of it is mixed messages.

To keep up-to-date with Gamerdork’s news and shows, bookmark Rllmukfm.net or subscribe to the feed, or something. Happy listening.

Smoke on the Water, apparently. That was easy, wasn’t it?

OK, more details. The folks over at Guitar-X (www.guitar-x.co.uk) held a survey of their Guitar learning students to find out what was the best. Whilst Smoke on the Water might have been a bit obvious, it’s hard to disagree with the top 25, really:

1. Smoke On The Water – Deep Purple (1973)

2. Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana (1991)

3. Walk This Way – Aerosmith (1975)

4. Purple Haze – Jimi Hendrix (1967)

5. Sweet Child O Mine – Guns N Roses (1987)

6. Paradise City – Guns N Roses (1987)

7. Ace Of Spades – Motorhead (1980)

8. Enter Sandman – Metallica (1991)

9. Under The Bridge – Red Hot Chilli Peppers (1992)

10. Welcome To The Jungle – Guns N Roses (1987)

11. Run To The Hills – Iron Maiden (1982)

12. Walk – Pantera (1992)

13. Johnny Be Goode – Chuck Berry (1958)

14. Back In Black – AC/DC (1980)

15. Immigrant Song – Led Zeppelin (1970)

16. Wake Up – Rage Against The Machine (1992)

17. Highway to Hell – AC/DC (1979)

18. My Generation – The Who (1965)

19. 7 Nation Army – The White Stripes (2003)

20. Born To Be Wild – Steppenwolf (1968)

21. Give It Away – Red Hot Chilli Peppers (1991)

22. Paranoid – Black Sabbath (1970)

23. Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) – Jimi Hendrix (1967)

24. Eye Of The Tiger – Survivor (1982)

25. Money For Nothing – Dire Straits (1984)

One thing that is a bit obvious the second you look through - even the newest song is 5 years old and the oldest is ten times older than that. John Wheatcroft, the Head of Instrument at Guitar-X attributed it to having “to wait until the ‘dust settles’ before we can truly consider a riff’s eligibility for ‘Classic’ status” but it’s got to be said there haven’t been that many riff-driven tracks that have entered the public psyche in the last few years. Woman by Wolfmother perhaps? No-One Knows by Queens of the Stone Age for certain…but there aren’t that many. Suggestions on a postcard (or even better, in the comments) welcome - I suddenly feel compelled to play Guitar Hero whilst muttering about the lack of a Rock Band release in the UK so far…

Mind you, if I was going to include one in the Top 25 that isn’t already there, it’d probably be Day Tripper…

Dum, der dum dum dum dum der dum der dum dum.

Etc.