Carlos Sánchez Criado

Review of “The Batman”

Superhero movies are always a sensitive matter to talk about. On one hand, there are
the aficionados of the main character, who supports the franchise or the brand by
watching every movie that is released in theaters and by buying all of the
merchandising that is available. On the other hand, the film critics, usually portrayed as
snob and ancient men who dislike every film not directed by Francis Ford Coppola or
Martin Scorsese. “The Batman” tries to please both sides.
It may be true that seen one superhero movie, seen them all, especially when there is
a formula behind to make sure that the fans are happy with it and that hundreds of
millions of dollars are gained the on the opening weekend, and “The Batman” does not
necessarily follow that formula. First of all, it is mandatory to make clear that this
movie is an auteur film and feels as such, with many characteristic shots of the director
Matt Reeves, being used along the film. Also, the tone of the movie barely has any
comic reliefs, and they don´t feel forced at any point, which usually happens on Marvel
movies, for example.
Many critics have said things such as the movie being a copy of “Seven” or “The Zodiac
Killer”, which in a way seems hilarious as during the press tour, the director mentioned
several times that he is a very big fan of those films and that he tried to pay tribute to
them in his movie. Also, another very common complaint is that the movie is too dark,
in both meanings, with a very greedy tone and with not much to see during the night
scenes (which are close to the 85% of the total).
“The Batman” is not for everyone, and specially not for kids. It is not the typical
superhero movie, being much more grounded and with many more adult subject to
take on. Nonetheless, a must watch piece for this summer.

Report
As a spokesman of the local newspaper, my work was to conduct a survey in order to
find out if the locals would like to have a Saturday supplement with their copy of the
newspaper and if so, what kind of content they would like to see. To achieve my goal, I
went around the city asking aleatory civilians for their point of view on the subject.

Facing the difficult and painful fact that our newspaper is not that popular amongst the
population, many of the survey respondents agreed that they would love to have a
free supplement with their copy of our newspaper, although not so many agree when
realizing that such supplement would be something exclusive of Sundays.
Many of the interviewees also agreed that even such option existed, they already
belong to some sort of loyalty program with other national level newspaper which also
have different supplements during the week, each one focused on a different matter,
such as fashion, cars or local news, as some examples.

When asking about what sort of content would please the readers, a bast array of
answer were received, even though elderly survey respondents agreed that a list of
free activities to do on Sundays are basically a must-have, followed by a film review in
order to be informed about the movie offer available in-town. On the other hand,
younger readers seemed to believe that a local-focused section would be greatly
appreciated, as well as a technology report, adding the related news and a review of a
hot item, such as a phone, headphones, etc.

As a conclusion, a as an answer to the question that if a supplement would be a good

idea, the answer is a resounding no, merely because the amount of reader is not
enough and it would be wiser to attract a wider audience first.

Hotel Letter
Dear Sir or Madam.

My name is Carlos Sánchez Criado, and I stayed in your hotel, the “Barajas 3 Seasons”
in Madrid from June 5th to June 7th. I am writing this letter to complain about how
despicable the service was as an ensemble, all going from the from desk to the
cleaning services.

My first encounter with the hotel´s personnel was not the appropriate. When ringing
the bell trying to be attended, there was no sign of human traces nearby. After 15
minutes waiting, I decided to head to the bar, simply to wait and to spend some time.
Half an hour later, the lobby staff returned and I jumped from my desk with anger.
Turns out it was their lunch break, without shift, apparently. Once I was given my key
room, I found out that the room was untidy to say the less. Dirty sheets, hairs on the
bathroom and stains on the carpet.

Once again, I headed to the lobby to complain about these imperfections in my room.
The explanation that I received: “Our occupancy is full and we are afraid that some of
our washing machines are broken, so we are out of clean sheets at the moment, but
that should change along the afternoon”. That could be an acceptable but when I
complaint about the dirtiness of the room in general, I was told that the cleaners had
already finished their shift and nothing could be done about it, not until the next
morning, and not a single compensation was offered to me for the inconvenience,
neither a bit of empathy was shown towards my person.
What I demand is some sort of financial rewards, either by giving me some of my
money back or by simply receiving some sort of coupon with a financial discount in any
of your hotels.

If you require further information, please do not hesitate to ask,

Carlos Sánchez Criado

“The day that changed my life”

I remember that as if it was yesterday. It was a Thursday night and the next day; I had
an exam. It all happened about 6 years ago. It was late, almost 3 AM (due to the exam,
I´ve had stayed late to study the final bits). Suddenly, I remembered something; I had
to take out the garbage.

When I left the building, there was not a single soul on the street. It was a stormy night
and a 2-minute walk was mandatory to reach the garbage containers. Clever me, I did
not bring an umbrella with me and the only thing that was protecting me from the rain
was the hoody I was wearing. Next to the containers, there was a street lamp. When I
was returning to my building´s door, a lightning struck the lamppost and a huge
electric explosion happened. At first, I jumped out of my skin from the shock, and
stood in the middle of the street, looking at the streetlight, frozen by the fear of what
just happened. It kept sparkling a few times and then, it all went quiet, until I saw that
the lamp started to lean towards me. The lightning had hit the bottom of it and its
balance was impaired. Luckily, I was far enough to avoid its impact on the ground, only
a few shards of glass hit my pants, but there was no damaged.

When I got home, I couldn´t sleep and I stayed up until 7AM. I was kept in shock for
the rest of the day, and since then, I was never the same. I decided to ask for
professional help to help me figuring out what had happened and why I was even
scared of leaving the house. It might not be the most shocking story ever, but it had a
tremendous impact on me.

Popular Culture
Popular culture, mass culture or pop culture could be defined as a set of practices,
beliefs and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a society at a given point in time.
It is usually related to how people think or may think about certain subjects by using
the power of the influence and it can be differentiated into different groups, such as:
entertainment, sports, news, politics, fashion, technology and slang.
On the first text, the main focus is on how the pop culture is used to obtain profit, by
following a practice that sometimes may be contrary to what people want. Basically, if
the industry wants to earn money, it must do so by offering what the people really
want and if the opposite situation happens, a failure with the cost of millions of dollars
will happen. It is contradictory only because the industry, most of the times, offers
products with no interest whatsoever, due to the excessive offer there is.

On the second text, the focus is quite different, affirming that culture should not be
produced or, at least, not to decide what the masses should do, or control them in
general, forcing them to acquire information. Is at that moment when the writer
names the big companies or enterprises who rule over the people, and they really
should not have the authority to have such power.

At the end, pop culture is a human creation for humans, but it all happens very
naturally. As said in text 1, it all depends on each person´s taste, and once the
attention has been attracted, most of the job is done. Usually, pop culture is based on
curious and random facts, and does not depend so much on some higher power trying
to brain-wash the population in order to become rich and to lead the people at will.