Inception

I recently caught myself reading my own reflections of some choice movies I posted about last year. I was delighted to rediscover the insight I’d had on them; so having seen a couple of good films lately, hopefully I’ll continue the trend.

As I posted almost twelve months ago, while I’ll try and keep this entry spoiler free it is definitely better to read it after you’ve seen the movie in question and formed your own view of the film.

In my review of the Soloist last year I commented that while I don’t mind a good thinking man’s film I usually prefer them to be interlaced with a couple of explosions and some exciting action sequences. Enter: Inception.

While I don’t consider myself a film geek, as I rarely know the director of a film when walking into the cinema. If I’m particularly inspired by an idea or enjoyable film I’ll often crave more of its back story. This is a pretty simple venture in today’s world with the internet and sites like IMDB and enthusiast podcasts etc. It turns out that Inception is directed by one of the more critically acclaimed talents in the industry today. Nick Nolan is rapidly becoming a household name, directing the two latest Batman movies as well as Memento to name a small sample of his back catalogue.

Upon reflection it becomes obvious that Inception is directed by a gifted film maker, some of the action scenes in the middle of the film are brilliantly original, no mean feat in cinematography these days. I also found the pacing to be extremely well staged with clever - tried and true - storytelling tricks injected to keep the audience as well informed of the story as required. I can’t say the story isn’t completely void of plot holes but sometimes I think these are purposefully positioned to let the audience interpret it themselves – much like a cryptic line in a the words to an emotional song.

I was also pretty offended by the ending of the film; I read it described as “a fifty/fifty bet each way by the director”. I tend to agree with this as some in the audience would have liked to be told the story ended one way, and the other potion of the audience would anticipate the other. The film simply refused to confirm either, creating its own social networking buzz among patrons that have viewed it.

I’ve formed my own opinion but still feel slightly robbed that it wasn’t expressed in full by the film itself. It’s the storyteller’s story to define the ending … not mine.

At the end of the day Inception is an easy movie to recommend to others, and I even look forward to my eventual re-unrevealing of its mysteries when I watch it anew …

Iron Man 2

I recently caught Iron Man 2 in the cinema, and it is worth disclosing that I'm a pretty big fan of the original. The original is actually one disc in my two movie blu-ray collection but I guess that is another post on to itself.

I should begin with the customary read at your own peril, as while I'll make efforts not to provide any spoilers these thoughts are best read once you've seen and formed your own opinions.

Strictly speaking Iron Man 2 doesn't bring anything new to the table, but then I don't really think there was anything missing from the first instalment. I've recently gotten in to the habit of completely inverting my eyes from any film promotion that I've already decided I'll go see. Once again this tactic served me well having not seen all the blowy-up-bits in the shorts. I recommend this tactic to anyone else who thinks modern day trailers are to revealing for their own good.

As far as special effects go they where ace, but then these days unless the director is after a cheesy half baked look they often are flawless. - well with the exception of this film. I also liked the way the storyline of the first was vaguely extended but different enough to provide both films with independent endings, I'm looking at you "Kill Bill: Vol 1" and "The Matrix Reloaded"

However the really innovative thing that Iron Man 2 contributes to is the 'comic book' like cross promotion that Marvel have been brewing for the last two years as we lead up to the visionary 'Avengers' movie. Together with the recent Hulk film along with Iron Man (1) and the scheduled next year releases of Thor and Captain America. The Avengers movie set to hit big screens in 2012 will include all the aforementioned super heros and one can only imagine a band of super villains to match.

It really isn't anything new for the comic book scene with super heros and villains often making cameos in each others source material. However it is great to see Marvel extend the idea to the big screen, which is arguably risker given the cost to illustrate a comic versus bank roll a hollywood blockbuster feature film.

If you haven't already seen Iron Man 2 I highly recommend it and make sure you stick around after the credits for the teaser scene and keep an eye out in movie for the Captain America reference ...

Thank-you DigiDNA

Well I didn’t even last a week before blabbering about something iPhone. Ironically this is a post about an application that helps overcome one of the biggest downfalls of the Jesusphone.

FileAid is an iPhone application built by DigiDNA that allows you to transfer files from your PC to your phone essentially giving you usb memory card like storage, particularly appealing since I splurged and bought the 32 GB model.

This alone doesn’t really position FileAid as anything revolutionary as a number of applications allow you to transfer files from Mac, Linux and Windows via WiFi to the iPhone. The genius behind FileAid’s ying is its yang counterpart DiskAid.

DiskAid is a desktop application with support for Mac and Windows (sorry penguin lovers) that allows you to connect to your iPhone via a usb cable and transfer files on to your iPhone assuming you have FileAid installed. This becomes amazingly powerful if you are transferring GBs of data like I had to recently. As the transfer speed of the usb cable blows any WiFi speed out of the water and you only need consult physics to work that out.

the good

FileAid supports all the basic file formats you’d expect allowing you to view documents and even play iPhone supported media internally within the application. It also has a healthy number of options around security and these are accessible via the actual app and not hidden in the settings pane. During WiFi file transfer the iPhone is essentially an anonymous ftp server which is better for transfer speeds. At the moment FileAid a free download to your iPhone via the app store.

DiskAid has a clean interface both in the Mac and Windows version with clearly labelled buttons to allow you to intuitively perform tasks without seeking any help. It automatically detects when the iPhone is plugged in and makes it clear when you’re good to go and can start transferring files and has its own status bar to track progress. DiskAid is available for a free 14 day trial and can be purchased online from the DigiDNA online store for around $10.00.

the bad

FileAid has a number of views and while I might be using it for a specific task they seem unnecessary and more confusing than worthwhile. While I have no issue with the ‘folder’ view strangely the last option, I don’t see a use in sorting all the files on ‘File Type’, ‘Date’ or ‘Name’ particularly if you have a plethora of files as seeming them outside of their folder structure but in alphabetical order for example is plain confusing. I also found it annoying although I’ve come to accept it now that you needed to be in the ‘sharing help’ screen to connect to the iPhone over WiFi from either Mac or Windows.

DiskAid unfortunately requires iTunes to be installed to allow the USB file transfer and this adds to its overall footprint on the host machine.

and the ugly

For some reason FileAid and DiskAid both have different default paths so unless you see the setting in FileAid to ‘Use DiskAid folder instead of FileAid folder for FTP’ it can be frustrating trying to use usb and WiFi transfers in unison and although I solved it eventually I think it’s an ugly design decision. Another ugly side effect of using an anonymous ftp server for file transfer between the Mac and the iPhone is the Mac doesn’t have any simple out of the box anonymous ftp client so the developers suggest you download CyberDuck which is an annoying step if at a mates and wanting to grab a file quickly. Last but not least and I guess more of a criticism of Apples backup process but if you dump a large number of files on your iPhone and then sync with iTunes you’ll end up transferring all those files into a backup of your iPhone which really isn’t necessary.

At the end of the day besides some major short comings as much Apples fault as DigiDNA the FileAid/DiskAid combination provides the much needed usb file transfer feature, and is particularly powerful for large media files and install iso’s as long as you remember to transfer them to your primary machine before backing up your phone with iTunes.

I give it 7/10 and wonder if it is the best usb file transferring solution I’ll ever see on my non-jail broken iPhone ...