hawkinsk11

Thoughts on
the new season: Last year Red bull took awhile to get going, they wont this
year so that’s not good for the 'Drama'.

McLaren had the fastest car at a lot of the races last year so should be there or thereabouts this year. The problem is McLaren have lost Hamilton which means they'll have no idea how fast their car really is. If you looked at Lewis in the last few races you'd think McLaren are right there, if you look at Button you'd say the car is struggling, I base this manly on qualifying and ignoring Buttons gift of a Brazilian win, I cant help thinking when the best McLaren can manage is P6 and they are spending millions on 'new bits' that there will be people in then team wondering if its just the drivers fault and not the car. I also think McLaren hired Perez because of his ability to save tyres, they now have two drivers who can manage tyres consistently and they can now develop in that direction. The problem with this is I reckon they won’t qualify high, but will hope to move through the field, that’s a risky strategy.
 

Ferrari: just give Alonso a fast car FFS!! Not even the fastest, just faster than last year. Oh and Massayou're bald mate, get over it.
 

Merc: cant wait to see what Lewis does, guaranteed to bring 6 tenths but they already had a high tyre wear problem and he aint going to help that, also they have so many technical people that used to be tech directors I cant see how there is a clear vision for the car.

Lotus: new car looks like the old one which I think is a good thing also it is meant tohave that clever air system that they couldn't get to work last season, I think they will pretty much do what they did last year but if kimi can improve qualifying you never know...

The others: who doesn’t want Williams back near the top?? Hopefully they make another step forward and I think Bottas will shine.  The rest mean nothing to anyone.. But if the no hopers at the back start beating the odd team in front that could be interesting

Congrats on google, great isn't it...

Yeah i know what your saying just. I'm stressing the point that i don't think these others actually did what you think they did. and i wouldn't class it a serious gap in his CV, he probably will though!

Brazil Team in the final.. some good players there. Every team has a star man and some are more of a star than others but 1 man does not win the a tournament, this ain't tennis

[1]

MARCOS (GK)

[2]

CAFU ©

[3]

LUCIO

[4]

ROQUE JUNIOR

[5]

EDMILSON

[6]

ROBERTO CARLOS

[8]

GILBERTO SILVA

[9]

RONALDO (-90')

[10]

RIVALDO

[11]

RONALDINHO (-85')

[15]

KLEBERSON

Depends on how you look at it. What about Platini for France in 1984? Ronaldo for Brazil in 2002?

Are you saying Ronaldo dragged Brazil to the 2002 world cup? (1984 is before my time)

No one man has ever dragged a team to anything! i find it amazing that anyone whos played the game at any level can say that. The whole Maradona '86 world cup is completely over blown. All round that was a very good side or they wouldn't have got anywhere, as good as Maradona was he was shit in goal and even worse at left back.

A great player gives you that extra 10% but if you are start at 30% then i don't care who its that team wont win.

It be great if Messi wins a world cup but he legend wont rest on it

I really think its getting to the stage were its not even an argument any more..

was at the champs league game last season when he scored 5 unbelievable will be one to tell the grand kids about

Naturally Lambert needs to take some blame for his selection. I don't know why Delph was dropped, Delfouneso didn't really work either. I also don't think Baker should be allowed anywhere near left back, Lichaj should be there.

I think it's clear that it'll take some time for Lambert to work out his best team and how to implement the things he did at Norwich (squad rotation, tactical changes etc).

Bottom line though, we really do need a couple of players to come into our immediate first team. I'm sure the club have been and continue to work on that.

Viewing players in pre season and training is very different to viewing them in competition. This is especially so for Lambert as the whole team is new to him.

Just a theory, but I wouldn't be surprised if Lambert has used the firt two matches almost as sacrificial lambs in the hope of testing the merits of certain players whilst the window is still open.

No other reason I can think of for not choosing a similar team to West Ham other than to observe players like Delf, Bannan, Herd over Weimann, Ireland and Delph.

Off the back of this, expect PL to be very clear about what he needs to add to the squad.

(answer: a lot)

To be honest if its not this then the team selection yesterday was absolute maddness and very worrying

2? he's not good enough. And its not like he's young anymore

i Just remember thinking if Milner carries on like that in mid field he'll be the new Gerrard. but he left and ended up playing on the wing, if playing at all, and will never achieve what he could have. He was becoming our main man and we never really recovered from him leaving more than MON

The boat scene is actually a pretty major part of the jokers story arch and is explained by him and batman while they fight. Joker believes that the world is fundamentally a bad place and everyone in it if given the right push will do horrible things. Batman believes the opposite. Joker does things throughout the whole movie to prove he's point, kill the other goon to join his gang, kill Reese or hell blow the hospital, make your hero batman give up or more people die and finally blow up the other boat to survive. Batman believes there is good and he dresses as batman to inspire the people to respond and safe their city. The boat scene is the final 'well which one of us are right?' moment and is a major moment of the story.

As for TDKR I liked it more the second time but I feel the gap between when the football pitch and the beginning of the final act is too long and repeats old themes from BB. The first movie is an origins and can only be classed as a pretty good foundation. TDK is a crime movie batman is called the worlds greatest detective and should have always been based in a crime type envoirment, it suits he's character and the movie is the better for it. TDKR is a war movie. What would batman do in a war zone, for me this takes away from what batman is and forces him out of the dark and it means he's exposed and doesnt get to do much batman stuff. I wasn't convinced. Having said all that I did like it because, well, they took batman out of the dark and out him in a warzone and that's kinda cool. It just wasn't pulled off as well as TDK

I'm just back from seeing it.

Before I put some proper reaction out there, I'll say this - don't make the poor choices I did with this film. I completely forgot that a considerable amount of the regions schools broke up today and thus found my showing was the showing picked by half of the area to watch after school broke up for the summer. To say this was annoying was an understatement. Group of 14 year old lads who couldn't shut the **** up (one of which decided to shout a spoiler out right as the film began - had I not had a damn good idea what was going to go on in the film, I'd have had to prevent myself informing the child just what I thought of his funny talk), a pair of smug girls who couldn't stop talking, giggling, using their **** phones or generally pissing about, and 2 geek lads behind me who couldn't stop relaying elements of the plot to each other. Oh and a dad bringing in a 4 year old girl to sit in front of me. The film requires some attention in parts and the not exactly rapt audience marred the showing for me...

Anyway, that aside...

It's a very good film, but it's not a great one. There are sloppy moments, there are moments my suspension of disbelief couldn't quite withstand. But first, the good! The cast is great across the board - this is the best we've seen Bale as both Batman and Bruce Wayne. Anne Hathaway's Catwoman stays just the right side of cariacture. Hardy's Bane is mysterious and a genuine presence on the screen. And the supporting cast all return to good form. There is a lot of action, the spectacle of the thing has been ramped up - TDK is a positively small scale film on the scale Rises presents. There some superb stunts, some brilliant sequences. It represents the good ride I expected and is a fitting end to an enjoyable series. It looks great. It is fun. AS much as it is long I never felt like I was enduring it, even when some issues arose.

It's not flawless however. It does have a sagging middle, the pace goes out of it for about half an hour in the middle as the second act puts in place a lot of stuff.

Bane is inherently not the great, memorable character that the Joker was. A lot of that is down to the mystery behind him, a lot more is down to the film refocusing on Bruce - TDK saw him take a backseat, it's the Jokers film. This most certainly is not Bane's film. Bane has other issues - the audio has been fixed but retains the 'HE'S TALKING THROUGH A MEGAPHONE AND EVERYTHING HE SAYS SOUNDS DUBBED OVER EVERYTHING ELSE' (although thanks to moronic kids, even that wasn't enough for me to miss things - not a criticism of the film as it was true for every other character. Cheers children, **** you). Much was made of his brutality. It largely doesn't translate to the film imo. The rating prevents showing the results of Bane's brutality and barring a couple of choice moments, the only register of just how hideously dangerous this man is that is that when Batman punches him, he don't stay punched, and when he hits Batman, the Bat feels it. A higher rating (that was never happening) would have helped. Still, the character carries weight regardless. He's just no classic.

There are some silly issues - an early chase starts in daylight and a cut later (same chase) it's darkness. It's like someone goes round a corner and the sun gets turned off. I bet many people don't notice that, I did and sighed a little. The soundtrack is too much - it's good but blimey it dominates some scenes. And so on.

The plot adds... unnecessary additions. To it's credit this means that my prediction for the plot is a little off, they added a few layers of complexity, particularly at the beginning. Unfortunately it feels like some of these were added to allow Nolan to 'say' a few things (make no doubt about it, rather like TDK has a discourse in it on terrorism, this film has similar), but he never seems to reach a conclusion about what he wanted to make a point about.

As good as some of the action is, there are other bits that don't have the... wallop is probably the perfect word... that you want. An extension of Bane not being as brutal as you want when he gets his hands dirty is that the fight sequences feels like they lack a little bang. I can't quite put my finger on why, in this film, when Batman is kicking ass, he inherently feels like he's kicking less ass than he did in the previous film.

This all sounds like more was bad than good... it wasn't. I thoroughly enjoyed it, even with the hideous audience. It tells a good tale and it's a rather more... straightforward plot ultimately than we might have expected. It'll do crazily well and deserves too, and I can definitely see a select few putting it as the best of Nolan Batman's. Theres much to like. It's not better than TDK. But it is good. It feels like the film that would arise had Begins and TDK had a child.

I think you'll enjoy it.

I agree with most of this which saves me the typing. Its good its not better than TDK cause that had an amazing performance by the Joker that gave that whole movie an edge that nothing will ever be able to copy or better.

Like it or not a movie like this hangs on the 'bad guy' i love Tom Hardy but i think hes wasted in this, yes he's big so what! they might as well of got some wrestler in like they did in the last Batman incarnation. He wears a mask which unfortunately confirmed my initial reservations, you cant see any expressions the actor makes and you cant under stand a word he says (slight exaggeration). i really couldn't engage with Bane, when the joker comes on the screen in TDK he owns it u hang on every word, every mannerism. Bane doesn't work for me.

The rest is as per what i quoted its good maybe with another watch with less hype and excitement i might enjoy it more

I have never ever seen a proper movie (as in not a crap comedy type thing or B movie) that was such a mess. I honestly cant see how it got by any screenings and surly Ridley watched it and realised that it didn't make any sense?? It beautifully shot but i really in shock about how the movie was released in that state

He needs to contribute more. It's all well and good making a few decent passes, interceptions, tackles, tracking your man etc. But that is bread and butter for a Prem player. What is he contributing to the team on top of that, he doesn't create many chances, doesn't score goals, doesn't have an imposing prescence on the pitch. I like him, he's got a good attitude and is a good player, but does he have any other strings to his bow to make him a long term prospect in the middle of the park for a top half Prem side.

spot on! he needs to this as milner did before him, till then he's not good enough

Need to stop looking at these spoilers cause i've gone from worry to dread!!

the only thing is as stevo says the joker would have looked pretty stupid, and with a photo taken out of context like that its always going to look bad. question is why release a photo that looks that bad? that's the worrying thing the quality control is slipping, the joker reveal was first class, this aint

**edit just realised my avatar is back in fashion! only took like 3 years but i hung in there

I'm getting worried now, cant believe Nolan would mess it up but i'm struggling to see how bane and catwoman are going to fit in, the photos dont look good

Hi General

***I have a question you can actually answer rather than some of the rants, i mean supposed, questions you get thrown at you here***

I took part in a 5 side tournament on the last weekend of the season with the Irish lions fan club, we played on Saturday and won though to the final on Sunday that was played on villa park after the Liverpool game. my question is there was filming done by avtv on Saturday and the final itself was filmed on the Sunday with a team photo taken as well. this was all done by somebody at the club. Do you who i need to chase to get a copy of the video and team photo? it was an amazing weekend and would love to have these!

Thanks!

Really happy they didnt change the bat mobile and just got the same one again! But i'm not convinced about banes mask its bordering on the older batman movies

Was discussing this while watching the game today. He is very much like Roy Keane in the way he gets the ball and moves it on fast and simple and keeps his side ticking over. He's very much un-like Roy Keane in the way that he's never going to drive forward with the ball or put in a great tackle. I think he's good but withholding my final judgement for now, wanna see him and Ireland in the same side first i think they could compliment each other well

ITK-ish but not really

Went over for the villa Liverpool game and landing back in Dublin airport Shay given got off the another plane and was walking through passport check with all the villa fans around him begging him to sign for us, he said nothing really and smiled, he is taller than you think and pretty big looked in great shape. i've seen him for ireland this year and he still makes those great saves

As you can guess from my sign up date compared to my post count i dont post much. Its mainly because the main site is shockingly bad. I read the first page of most topics to see what the actual 'News' is then stop. Had a look in there an there's topic titled something like randy invest or sell up. that's ridicules, or someone posts a mock up of the kick and the first post after is ' no way thats real' etc etc' i know it would be boring if everyone agreed with each other but some arguments have me doubting the educational system.

Ha ha just listening to BBC final score. the reporter at the game said 'not a full strength Villa side by any means...' i wonder who he thinks plays for us??

I thought he did well, but starting!? what kind of a joke manager do we have? surely he should have been brought on as a sub first.

?

One of the best on the pitch? Great move by the manager!

One of the best on the pitch is saying very little these days. The team is not performing to a high level at the minute and anyone who puts in a solid performance stands out. I agree with the above comment about Hogg he never looked comfortable always rushed and is out of his depth. Hogg will not be a first team player at this club. I think Delph will be, he showed more than Hogg in his first start after a long break which in its self is encouraging. The simple fact is until someone steps in Milners shoes then they aren't good enough and we need to keep looking.

I thought he did well, but starting!? what kind of a joke manager do we have? surely he should have been brought on as a sub first.

i think we are getting mixed up with GH results and the liverpool issue to pass a fair comment.

Do we as fans accept that as our manager GH is right to disregard any player no matter how talented if they don't fit the plan. Or do we want a manager who can bring the best out of different personalties for the benefit of the team.

I would have thought that in any company/job/team that as manager your job is the second of the 2. but its too easy to say nope your no good, your not in my plans any more ask for a transfer request.

If i could ask GH one question it'd be, we know how good SI can be, why arent you getting that out of him??