nickjjoy

For his third feature after Mirrormask and The Gospel of Us, renowned artist Dave McKean invites us to a cottage where grief, the past and magic all collide. This labour of love was filmed on location on the rugged North Devonshire coast seven years ago just before the investment collapsed. McKean has spent the intervening years working on the CGI, soundtrack and pickups.

For those familiar with the artist's work in illustrating the seminal Arkham Asylum and the covers for the run of Neil Gaiman's Sandman, he again delivers his unique vision of long-limbed, warped fantasy characters, adorned with horns and not-quite faces. Designed, written, directed, co-scored and more by McKean, this truly is a labour of love. The plot follows an estranged couple coming to terms with a personal loss, trying to find some diversion by visiting a mutual friend and his young partner (Defiance and Mirrormask's Stephanie Leonidas). But the past has a way of catching up with you, and as secrets are revealed, home truths open the superficial cracks in the relationships. And that's where the fantasy comes to play.

McKean is working to the maxim 'write what you know about', basing the story in part on the experiences of a personal friend. By making the central male characters (Michael Maloney and Ben Daniels) old art school buddies he also gives himself permission to decorate the home with relevant paintings and sketches and maybe giving voice to some of his own personal views on the abuse of art? Deliberately ambiguous, a rationalist might claim that the fantasy elements can be explained as fever dreams or drunken deliriums. But what about that mysterious doctor? Is it just a magical weekend of Luna-cy?

What a pleasant surprise Terminator Salvation is. Director McG can now be defined by this movie rather than his Charlie's Angels flicks.

Playing somewhere between Aliens and Transformers, this robot monster mash-up is non-stop and relentless. Action sequence follows action sequence, with a great sound mix - at times you are literally gasping for breath, particularly with a chase through the desert followed by Terminator motorbikes. There's loads of visual and dialogue nods to the previous two decent movies (T3 seems to be wisely avoided, though strangely these are the same screenwriters) and it's left nicely open for further instalments.

Bale is very growly and Batman-ny, but it's not really his film. The real star is Sam Worthington as mysterious Marcus. Imagine an Arnie that can actually act! Star Trek's Chekhov (Anton Yelchin) is also great as the young Kyle Reese, and even a cute kid character doesn't do anything too annoying. Oh, and even the iconic Brad Fiedel five-note boom boom boom - boom boom Terminator theme is present and correct to remind you that this is the real deal.

The movie is dedicated to Terminator supremo Stan Winston, and I can't think of any better way to honour his great legacy of effects work. With five or six different Terminator models on display and some fab aerial stuff, this is the film that T3 should have been. True, you do spend time wondering which was the scene when Christina Bale lost his rag, but considering how extreme and tense the whole movie is, you can kind of forgive him.