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All posts for the month August, 2024

The Amazing Spider-Man

Posted by cat2002116 on August 26, 2024
Posted in: Movies, Reviews, Superhero. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

I watched this movie when it came out originally at the cinema, and when I realised the Spiderman movies were being shown again at the cinema, I was immediately interested in going…as Andrew Garfield is my favourite Spiderman.

If you’re familiar with Spiderman in any of his incarnations or versions (including Spiderwoman), then you’ll recognise many of the characters in this movie. I liked the opening scene, with Peter spending time with his parents, as it made his grief at being effectively abandoned by them feel more real. I know they died, but speaking as someone who had a parent die, I can say that it still feels like abandonment…even though it wasn’t intentional.

Peter is a character who is immediately easy to empathise with, as he portrays an outsider really well. His interactions with Gwen are especially sweet…and I liked their exchange right after Peter is beaten up by Flash, where Gwen is trying to determine if he has a concussion or not and asks him his name.

Speaking of Flash, one of the things that I really appreciated about this movie was the fact that a lot of the characters had depth to them. Yeah, Flash was a bully at the start; but right after Uncle Ben is killed, he shows a lot of depth when he reaches out to actually try and support Peter…and by the end of the movie, they actually seem to be close to being friends, if not already there.

I also really loved that Peter wasn’t just magically able to control his powers after the spider bite. His hand sticking to a woman’s shirt, and ultimately ending with him accidentally pulling it off her, was really well done in how awkward it was…and how Peter ended up accidentally fighting the people on the train, trying to navigate his entirely new spidey sense.

There was a lot I really liked about this movie, such as Peter trying to reconcile being Spiderman along with his responsibilities as Peter Parker…and ultimately ending in the death of his Uncle Ben. I also really liked his interactions with Captain Stacy, Gwen’s dad. What happened at the end made me sad, as I think the two of them could have ultimately ended up working together, especially as Captain Stacy acknowledged that the city needed Spiderman.

On the whole, I really enjoyed watching this movie again. There was a lot of tension and some great character moments involved, and it was awesome to return to my favourite version of Spiderman. Amazing Spiderman 2 is due out at Cineworld this week, so I definitely intend to see it.

The Crow (2024 movie)

Posted by cat2002116 on August 26, 2024
Posted in: Horror, Movies, Reviews, Superhero, Supernatural. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

I’ve been watching The Crow: Stairway to Heaven for the past few weeks, so the plot of The Crow has been in my head very recently. And I was very interested in seeing this movie…to the point of going to see it on its opening weekend.

I have to admit that I was disappointed in this movie. I like Bill Skarsgård as an actor, but I think he plays better antagonists, or morally grey characters (It and Barbarian immediately spring to mind) than the protagonist in movies.

As another reviewer said, having Eric and Shelly be kind of bad characters in this movie sort of defeated the whole purpose of Eric coming back as the Crow in the first place. One of the main tragedies about their death was the fact that they were both good people who didn’t deserve what happened to them. However, this version of the two characters had them both alcoholic drug users…and no real reason as to why they were that way. The opening scene of Eric with the dying horse might have provided some insight, but there was no further context provided to that scene.

Vincent Roeg could have been a really interesting villain, but he just didn’t do much. And the incriminating video he was so obsessed with, to the point of murdering several people to stop it from getting out? It showed very little that could have got him into trouble, because as it’s revealed later, he’s not the one who does anything violent. And given who does, Shelly’s attitude doesn’t indicate she’s been affected by it at all. She doesn’t even try to find Zadie after breaking out of the prison/rehabilitation centre…I actually don’t know where she and Eric ended up, as it seems to be both.

I did think that the scene of the opera taking place interspersed with the scenes of Eric killing soldiers worked really well visually, to an extent…but eventually, those just became really over the top and unnecessarily so. And in the original movie (and TV series) Eric had friendships with Albrecht and Sarah, that made him human and more relateable. Since he didn’t have anyone outside of Shelly in this movie, there was nothing that really humanised him.

I think there were some attempts at foreshadowing in this movie, but it wasn’t really done in a clever way. It was more of, as soon as something was said, it was immediately obvious that that would change. For instance, Kronos says to Eric, ‘You’ll continue to heal as long as your love remains pure.’ As soon as he said those words, it was immediately obvious that something would happen to make Eric have doubts/cause his love to no longer be pure.

On the whole, I was disappointed in this movie, as I think it could have been so much better, especially when compared to the original Crow movie. It isn’t a movie I would want to watch again.

Alien: Romulus

Posted by cat2002116 on August 25, 2024
Posted in: Horror, Movies, Reviews, Science Fiction. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

I was definitely interested in watching this movie, as I’ve watched almost all of the previous Alien movies. The only one I haven’t actually seen is the second Alien Vs. Predator movie.

I will say that I pretty much knew what I was getting into, going into this movie. After all, the Alien movies are pretty formulaic…but knowing what to expect going into the movie didn’t really detract from me actually enjoying this movie.

One of the strongest parts about this movie, I have to say, was the relationship between Rain and Andy. I thought there were a lot of sweet moments between them…and it was good to see an android character utilised in that way, as I always find the idea of the AI in androids quite fascinating. Unfortunately, while both Rain and Andy…and their relationship…were extremely well-developed, I couldn’t necessarily say the same about the rest of the characters. For instance, I didn’t really know enough about Navarro to care about what happened to her. I didn’t even know that she was Bjorn’s girlfriend.

I did like the conflict that stemmed from Bjorn’s dislike of androids. I really didn’t think his attitude towards was exactly fair, as you wouldn’t hate all humans if one human made the same decision to sacrifice a few lives to save many. But that conflict definitely made things a bit more interesting, as relationships between characters in horror movies, good and bad ones, are something that make me care about what happens to them.

Right at the start of the movie, I actually thought that there was something wrong with the film, as the opening scene had absolutely no sound to it at all. I really thought that the lack of sound when the opening scene was shown worked really well…and it was a shame that that was the only time it happened.

I thought that having Rook (or Ash) appear in the movie as a synthetic was a good idea, even if the original actor has sadly passed away. It was a really good easter egg…the same way as Andy quoting one famous line from the second movie, even though it sounded kind of stilted from him.

I do think that the characters actually did make some smart decisions, which is more than I normally see characters do in horror movies. There were a couple of nice elements of foreshadowing that worked really well, at least in my opinion, and the reactions of the characters actually made quite a lot of sense.

All told, I actually did enjoy this movie, and I felt it was a really nice addition to the Alien franchise. I’d definitely be interested in seeing more of these characters if there’s a sequel.

Hell Train

Posted by cat2002116 on August 17, 2024
Posted in: Books, Horror, Reviews. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

I’ve been getting a lot of books coming up on my Facebook feed that are available through Kindle Unlimited, and this was another one that caught my attention when it came up. I found both the title and the blurb intriguing enough to read, even though it wasn’t a really unique idea.

The book opens up from the point of view of the train driver, Dan…which was something that I felt was a bit harmful to the ending. The beginning of the book heavily implied that Dan had no idea what was going on…which is later revealed to be untrue, as he’s pretty heavily involved.

After the setup that implies something weird is going on, the book switches over to Clip, who is travelling on the train with her boyfriend, Xavi. And the two of them are half of the most well-developed characters in the book, with the other half being Gina and Harley. I found it really easy to care about what happened to the four of them.

I will say that most of the characters were pretty much exactly what they appeared to be on the surface. The only exception to that was Dan…and I mentioned the problem with him earlier. But Grant is another character who springs to mind, as his betrayal at the end of the book isn’t a surprise at all – there was no subtlety to his character at all. And Mudz and Kyle were basically thugs. Even though Kyle showed some depth, the secrets that eventually caught up to him and Mudz were pretty obvious.

I was really intrigued by the whole Sacrificed Spouse angle, and her initial appearance was extremely creepy. I also really liked when Clip realised that the rest of the train was disappearing, as that added a whole new level of threat to the group, since it felt very much like they were running out of time.

I did feel that, towards the end of the book, there was an awful lot of exposition that detracted from the tension of the book. I do like to have things explained, but there was no mystery left about anything…and I really didn’t think it was necessary for the Sacrifical Spouse to stop and explain exactly what the ritual was going to do.

I did think that the whole cabin fever the characters were experiencing came across really well; I just kind of wish there’d been more depth to some of the characters. And a little more foreshadowing for the main villain. I do plan to read more books by this author in the future, though, as despite the issues, I did find this book easy and quick to read.

Blind Rage

Posted by cat2002116 on August 14, 2024
Posted in: Apocalyptic, Books, Horror, Reviews. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

I’ll preface this review by saying that I don’t read or watch a lot of fiction involving zombies. You’ll know, from my reviews, that I really like horror fiction. However, I like my horror to actually have the chance of characters surviving…even if that doesn’t happen the majority of the time.

This book isn’t exactly about zombies, although the people who lose their minds after looking up at the sky certainly share characteristics with zombies. After all, they’re overtaken by rage that makes them unable to see anything else; literally, as they’re turned blind. This phenomenon doesn’t actually strike everyone in the world…although it’s not actually clear whether some people don’t turn just because they don’t look up at the sky, or if they too are immune. Some of those people who didn’t look up at the sky and didn’t turn at the start of the book actually end up looking at the sky later on…and end up turning.

I don’t think I can blame the people who look up at the sky, to be perfectly honest. After all, if I saw a whole lot of people stopping and looking up at the sky, I’d probably do the exact same thing. In that respect, I think the author did a really good job of capturing that sense of curiosity that a lot of people have. If something’s happening, a lot of people are going to look.

There are a lot of tense scenes in this first book, especially after the initial crack in the sky appears. By that point, everyone knows that something is causing people to lose their minds and turn on everyone else around them…and most of them are waiting for the next incident to occur. The countdown to when, especially from the perspective of those who get early warning signals (the loss of hearing and the sensation that someone’s watching them) was enough to keep me on the edge of my seat.

I do feel there could have been less POV characters in this book, as the constant switching didn’t leave me with enough time to connect emotionally with many of those characters who only appeared for a chapter or two. I did care a lot about what was happening to Gina, Mark and Tommy, though, as they were the ones I got to know the most over the course of the book.

By the end of this book, I was left with a lot more questions than answers. And, of course, it ended on something of a cliffhanger. I am intrigued enough to read the next books in the series at some point in the future, though, as I’m keen to get the answers to some of my questions.

Trap

Posted by cat2002116 on August 14, 2024
Posted in: Horror, Movies, Reviews. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment


This was a movie that I kept seeing trailers for; not on purpose, but because it kept coming up when I was watching YouTube videos, or when I went to the cinema.

Sadly, while I really did want to see this film, this was definitely a case of the trailer giving away too much of the movie’s plot. I did enjoy watching the movie, especially with my oldest nibling, but I felt that there weren’t any real surprises, as the trailer had made it clear who Cooper actually was.

There was a lot of tension in this movie, and I did enjoy seeing how Cooper was outwitting those who were there to try and apprehend him. Josh Hartnett did a really good job portraying Cooper, and the steady decline in his mental state as the movie went on. To begin with, it was hard to reconcile the loving father at the start of the movie with the idea that he was likely a serial killer…but it became more and more believable that he was as the movie progressed.

I really liked Riley as a character, and not just because she bore more than a passing resemblance to my oldest nibling. Being a fan of events like conventions, I was really able to relate to her enthusiasm at seeing Lady Raven on stage, and how excited she was to be able to see her. I also loved the scene where everyone puts on the flashlight apps on their phones. That scene was visually a really good one.

I was a bit surprised by how big a role Lady Raven actually ended up playing in the movie. To begin with, it seemed like she was just going to be seen from afar…but as the movie went on and she became more and more involved in the plot, I found myself liking her more and more. She might have been scared at various points, but she also came across as very brave in a way that was more realistic than I’m really used to seeing in a lot of horror movies.

I liked Jamie as a character in the movie, though I cringed at how much he gave away to Cooper. I know Cooper gave off a family guy vibe (helped along by the presence of his daughter) and revealed he was a fireman…but come on, Jamie! Don’t just go giving your security code to the charming stranger you’ve only just met. Considering I have to deal with a lot of confidential things, his blase attitude made me cringe.

I also couldn’t really understand why Cooper shoved a young girl down some stairs, since that did nothing to get him out of the building and he surely didn’t think the distraction would be enough to escape? Perhaps an argument could be made that he was beginning to grow desperate, but given how calculated he was to start, that didn’t really seem to fit his character.

There were a lot of good things about this movie. I might have liked to see an actual twist, but I still liked watching this movie. And, of course, I really liked seeing M. Night Shymalan’s cameo, which I told my nibling we should look out for.

I would definitely say this movie is worth seeing, even if I was a bit disappointed that there was no real twist.

Gallows Born

Posted by cat2002116 on August 14, 2024
Posted in: Books, Fantasy, Reviews, Young Adult. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

This book was one that came up on my Facebook feed when I was browsing through. The blurb was intriguing, even though the plot wasn’t hugely original, so I decided to give it a try.

The opening scene of the book was pretty tense, with a young woman being accused of stealing from the castle and about to be executed for it. Right from the start, it’s obvious that there’s a lot more to the execution than the so-called crime Nel committed. This is partly due to Gelwin’s protestations of her sister’s innocence…and partly due to the fact that Nel, upon being executed, gives birth to a little boy, which is, of course, where the title of the book comes from.

Bane’s life in Crookfell is fairly typical of a main character in a fantasy book. He’s an outcast, with a dead mother and a dead guardian…his only living guardian is physically and verbally abusive…and everyone in the town hates him. He also has a special marking, or tattoo, on his arm that marks him in some way and is later important to the plot.

Despite the large amount of cliches, I found Bane to be a character who was easy to empathise with. I also really appreciated that, while there are some elements of ‘you can fight so well because it’s in your genes’, he’s actually trained to fight and it’s in a way that makes sense, in spite of being used as a literal punching bag during one of his (many) bullies’ own attempts at training.

I really wasn’t a fan of the romance that seemed shoehorned into this book. Belle seemed to follow the whole Cinderella trope, but I didn’t find her to be an interesting character. I knew barely anything about her, apart from what Bane so, so she didn’t feel ‘real’ to me. On the other hand, Alruna had more depth to her…but I’m really not a fan of the whole enemies to lovers trope, especially as the whole reason Alruna hates Bane is because he killed her brother to save his own life. I have a serious problem with people who want others to suffer/die when their only ‘crime’ was defending themselves…and, in Bane’s case, the rest of his town.

The idea of the Fug was quite an intriguing one, especially with how it related to Vikings and Norse mythology. I liked the fact that it wasn’t all revealed at once, instead being shown gradually as the book went along.

On the whole, I did find this book easy to read…but Bane was the only character I really felt any real connection to. I did like Gelwin, but as she only appeared at the start of the book, I didn’t really form a connection with her. If you like fantasy that’s easy to read and fairly engaging, this book is probably worth reading. At some point in the future, I’d probably be interested in reading the next books in this series.

Five Survive

Posted by cat2002116 on August 8, 2024
Posted in: Books, Reviews, Thriller, Young Adult. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

I originally started reading this book several months ago, but thanks to how bad one of the main characters was, I ended up putting it down until my oldest nibling told me they’d read it faster than the previous standalone book by Holly Jackson. So then I picked it up again…and finished reading it in less than a day.

I found Red to be a character who was really easy to empathise with and understand. I actually liked most of the characters who were trapped in the RV; except for Oliver, who didn’t seem to have a single redeeming quality to him. I was actually a bit disappointed, given how well developed the other characters were.

I thought Holly Jackson did a really good job of showing the tension and claustraphobia as the six main characters became trapped in the RV by a sniper. I do think that going along with every one of Oliver’s plans was a mistake, especially as he became more and more unhinged as time went on. At the same time, though, I guess no one else tried to step in, so maybe it was understandable.

I really liked seeing Red’s interactions with Arthur, as I thought they were very cute together. I really liked how Arthur bonded with Red by writing his own messages on his hand…and I liked that he constantly checked in with her, as it seemed like none of the others were really doing that; even Maddy, who was supposed to be Red’s best friend.

I do think that the group could have looked at what secret one of them held long before they actually did. Yes, the group was focusing on trying to escape…and assumed the secret was linked to the case being handled by Maddy and Oliver’s mother. However, as soon as it became clear that it wasn’t about Oliver or Maddy, it surprises me that no one thought to start asking about secrets.

I did find myself caring about all of the characters; except for Oliver, really. Yes, all of them had secrets of their own…some connected to the current situation they found themselves in and others that had nothing to do with why the sniper was targeting them. I thought the way those secrets came out were very seamless, and some of them made for very good red herrings. And the ending did manage to surprise me a bit.

All in all, I did really enjoy reading this book. It was quick and easy, and I’m glad I gave it a second chance. If you enjoyed A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, I would recommend giving this book a try too.

Stay Awake

Posted by cat2002116 on August 6, 2024
Posted in: Books, Mystery, Reviews, Thriller. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

I actually heard about this book when I watched a YouTube video about horror/scary books that should be made into TV series. The explanation of the plot sounded so intriguing, I was immediately interested and looked up the book on Amazon Kindle. It wasn’t very expensive, so I bought it…and then the YouTuber commented that the book wasn’t all that great, in spite of the interesting premise.

Since books (and movies, TV series, video games, etc.) can be subjective, I decided to give this book a try anyway, and I did find it a really quick, easy read. I will say, however, that it did hit a couple of my dislikes when it comes to books. For instance, there was a huge amount of info dumping in Detective Halliday’s sections of the book…and the book also kept switching between first and third person and present and past tense, which unfortunately made the book a little confusing and hard to follow at times.

A lot of this book made me think of the movie Memento, which this book had a very similar premise to. I did find Liv to be a character who was really easy to relate to and empathise with. Right from the very first scene, when she’s in the cab going back to what she thinks is her apartment, I was able to feel her confusion and disorientation about what was going on. It was clear that she didn’t have any memory of what had happened and why she had a bloodstained knife in her hand, and I could definitely empathise with her confusion and fear as the news reports start talking about the murder scene with the words Stay Awake written in blood at the scene; the same words that Liv has written on her own skin, because every time she falls asleep, her memory resets.

I will say that the constant flashbacks to two years ago made it really hard for me to follow the exact timeline in the present day. Later on in the book, it’s heavily implied that the entire murder investigation took place in a day…and I’m sorry, but that just didn’t feel realistic to me. I know, I know. It’s a book about a person whose memory resets every time she goes to sleep; it’s not exactly realistic. But suspending my disbelief about that was vastly different to suspending my disbelief about two detectives doing so much in less than 24 hours.

While I did find the constant flashbacks to be quite confusing, it was good to learn about what had happened to Liv gradually, as she herself learned about what had happened two years ago. However, I do think there could have been a different, better way of gradually revealing that information, since the constant changes in tense and voice made it difficult to switch focus.

Despite the problems, I did actually enjoy reading this book. It had a really interesting premise, and the main character was someone I really cared about and empathised with. I would be interested in reading more books by this same author in the future, so long as just one style is used when writing!

Spirited Away

Posted by cat2002116 on August 5, 2024
Posted in: Fantasy, Plays, Reviews. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

I’ll preface this review by saying that the animated movie of Spirited Away is one of my favourite movies of all times. I’d say that it’s one of my sister’s favourite movies, too. So when she offered to pay for tickets to the theatre showing in London this year, for my birthday, I immediately jumped at the chance.

I seriously loved the show, and I’m so happy that I got to experience seeing it with my sister. I will say that being in the balcony did give a bit of a restricted view, as the balcony itself blocked a small portion of the stage. Unfortunately, part of the story did take place in an area that was blocked from view, so if you go to see the play, I would suggest avoiding the balcony seating.

Spirited Away the movie is an animated movie, and I was really interested to see how that carried through onto the stage. I thought the animated parts worked really well…and I especially liked seeing Yubaba’s giant head and how that was created on the stage.

I really loved the visual aspects of the play. The opening scene played out at the very front of the stage, which unfortunately did mean I missed a few moments of Chihiro and her parents. It had been a while since I saw the animated movie, so while I remembered most of the basic storyline, I couldn’t remember all of the intricate details. However, after Chihiro and her parents went through the tunnel, the whole stage opened up…and I felt like I was getting a glimpse into a much bigger world. There was a lot of space on the stage, and the cast definitely made use of it.

The costumes and look of the characters fit so well with what I remembered from the original movie, which was really awesome. I loved Lin especially, as she looked and sounded so much like her counterpart from the movie…and Lin was always one of my favourites from the movie, along with Chihiro and Haku, of course.

Speaking of Chihiro and Haku, I thought the play did a really good job of showing the friendship and relationship between them. Since that was one of the strongest elements of the original movie, it was really important to me that that come across well in the theatre show…and I really felt it did.

Another aspect that I truly liked about this show was the music. The song about the gods going into the bathhouse right at the start was really good…and I particularly liked the song and dance when the gold is scattered in the bathhouse the first time; although to be honest, I was confused and thought they were golden fans at first!

The show was actually subtitled, which is something I’ve never experienced at a theatre show before. It wasn’t entirely easy to read the subtitles and watch what was going on at the same time. However, the screens showing the subtitles were very clear; they were just set quite far above the stage, so I was trying to read the subtitles as fast as possible and then watch was going on on the stage. I’m a fast reader, but I did find it difficult to take in both at times.

Despite the issues with the restricted view, I did really enjoy this show and I found it a really good retelling of one of my favourite movies. I would definitely recommend watching this show, especially if you’re a fan of Japanese animated movies.