The Year 2005

Film

Sin City first came to mind when exploring the film industry in the year 2005. It was a solid, action adventure title, with the outstanding Bruce Willis and Clive Owen doing amazing jobs. But, then I remembered another film. Christopher Nolan's new look at the Batman franchise. Yes, you guessed it, my pick for the year 2005 is the fantastically brutal, dark and atmospheric Batman Begins. Nolan's vision of the Batman universe is dark, diverse and extremelly modern. What he did with Batman Begins was unique, taking it out of the original comic book tone of the previous franchise (Batman Forever, anyone? Yes, it sucked, big time), he's brought it into the modern world, with realistic action and a story that actually makes a lot of sense, rather than the older films with no story to progress on at all. Batman Begins stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne, aka Batman, fighting his fear of bats, then devising his plan to clean up the new, more realistic Gotham City. But, their is a larger plan at stake. We are introduced to many familiar characters, like the evil Scarecrow, portrayed perfectly by Cilian Murphy, as well as Liam Neeson's character, later revealed as Ra al Ggul, who gives a solid performance. Oh, and not forgetting Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Katie Homes and Gary Oldman. This film is violent, dark, sinister, mysteriousand atmospheric, all of which a Batman title should be. A solid film, and a solid reboot. Well done, Mr Nolan.

Game

A lot of thought went into this. Their were so many solid game titles. Like God Of War, the first in a great series of brutal, fun and engaging games that really impressed me, and the gamers all around the world. Then we had Shadow Of The Colossus. This was a fresh, dark and atmospheric title which had me, and probably many other gamers playing for weeks on end. Still to this day, those two games stand out, but not as much as the amazing survival horror title for game masters CapCom. Resident Evil 4, my pick for the year 2005. This fresh take on the Resident Evil series had gamers everywhere jumping for joy. It made my year, and still gives me shivers when playing. The unique game play system, the awesome graphics, the gory action, the solid list of characters and bosses and the solid story telling, Resident Evil 4 was simply immense. It still is, to this day, a great survival horror title, and will be remembered, certainly by me, for the rest of my life!