WebCards News and Updates

The Most Luxurious Place Ever?

I am currently sitting in the “business centre” of the Club Hotel Dolphin in Sri Lanka. I am on my honeymoon as I mentioned in my previous post.

This place is without a doubt the most amazing place I have ever been. I thought I would quickly post this photo.

I will be able to post loads more when I get back.

Changes

Big things are happening this weekend… I am getting married.
The WebCards project has been pretty much static over the last few months while I have been planning the big day. Not to mention getting started with a new job.
I will be away for two weeks and then WebCards will get back on track.

There are a fantastic set of users who regularly contribute to the forums and bug tracker over on Sourceforge and I want people to know that I do take note of what is posted and read every single bug report. You may think posting a feature request or bug report is achieving nothing but I promise you it is not true.

There are a whole list of features that I am ready to introduce into the next release of WebCards and I want to see it develop into a nicely rounded, stable piece of software. So please keep posting comments, filing bug reports and sending me emails telling me what problems you are having.

Thanks for your continued support.
Chris

Review: Spiderman III

After watching Spiderman III over the weekend I was left with mixed feelings.

It is the first film that I have been eagerly awaiting for a long time and perhaps it was that expectation that left me feeling ever so slightly disappointed. My review contains spoilers so don’t read it if you don’t want to know what happens.

Firstly I have to say that the main two criticisms I have heard about this movie, namely it being too long and the story line being too complicated, are not opinions that I agree with. I didn’t feel myself getting tired and I didn’t find myself particularly lost as to what was going on.

My main criticism was some of the missing bits in the story. Firstly, where did the black goo come from that enhanced people’s aggression? It came down in a meteor. Was it a coincidence it landed near Peter Parker and followed him home or was it dropped and aimed at him? This parasitic creature seems to come looking for Peter Parker. I don’t know if this came from the comic book or whether I am rwading too much into it, but it seems to me like that deserves some more explanation.

Spidey ends up fighting fights two bad guys in this film. The first is Flint Marko. His becomes known as The Sandman after his DNA bonds with sand when he falls into a pit housing a scientific experiment. He also turns out to be the guy who killed uncle Ben in the first film.
The second bad guy is Venom. A rival photographer to Peter Parker, Eddie Brock, gets transformed into an evil black creature when the aforementioned black goo falls onto him after Spiderman forces it out of himself. I did note, however, that the name Venom wasn’t actually mentioned at all in the film.

There are some incredible fighting scenes in this film as you would expect, as well as some of the best computer animations I have ever seen in a movie. There are also some very funny scenes, as Peter Parker becomes cocky and aggressive after being consumed by the black goo.

The final battle scene is the other problem I had. It is such an anticlimax, especially when comapred to the scene with Harry Osborn fighting Spiderman. It turns out that Venom apparently can’t stand the chimes of a bell! Spiderman surrounds him with scaffloding poles and continuously hits them, creating a noise that drives Venom crazy. Spidey throws in a grenade and Venom is no more. And how does Spiderman offload The Sandman? Actually, he doesn’t. Sandman convinces Parker that killing uncle Ben was an accident. Parker forgives him and Sandman blows away into the night.

Considering the build up Venom got during the months before the film was released his appearance was almost a cameo. Venom certainly deserves his own film as Sandman would have been a more than adequate enemy for this one.

Overall, I thought it was a good film but just not quite as good as I wanted it to be.