Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Posted by cat2002116 on August 13, 2023
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was one of those children’s shows I used to watch all the time with my sister while growing up, so when I saw this movie advertised, I was interested in going to see it.

This movie was very similar to the storylines of other versions of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, with the four of them wanting to be normal and join the human world.

I liked seeing the story of how Splinter found the turtles and became their dad. I’ve always loved seeing the father and son relationship between Splinter and the turtles, and it was really sweet to see him trying to protect them from a very early age…and that he was still trying to protect them, even though his actions were clearly more stifling than anything else.

One of the main things I really liked about this movie was the fact that the turtles weren’t amazing fighters. The first scene where they fight, it seems more like they win by accident, since they start off experiencing ‘friendly fire’.

I did think April was an interesting character, and I liked the fact that, despite her wanting to be a reporter, she suffered from a severe case of anxiety the first time she tried speaking on live television. I definitely thought that made her seem like a well-rounded character.

I did find it a bit hard to follow the action scenes of this movie at times, as there were so many mutants working with Superfly. I think condensing down those mutants would have been better, as the movie didn’t really take the time to expand on more than the basics about those characters.

I did really like the visuals of this movie, although there were some scenes between Splinter and a cockroach towards the end that I just felt were…very inappropriate. Especially as there was more of a story between Leonardo and April, and nothing was really done with them.

I did think that Superfly worked really well as a villain, especially as I had the chance to see his origins at the beginning of the movie, which made me a little more sympathetic to him…even though what he was planning to do was completely wrong. Plus, it was interesting to see him trying to get the turtles on his side, rather than outright trying to attack them.

I did find this movie entertaining for what it was, but I can’t really say it added much to the franchise. It’s worth watching if you ever enjoyed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but I don’t think it’s a movie I would watch a second time.

Haunted Mansion 2023

Posted by cat2002116 on August 13, 2023
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I watched the first Haunted Mansion movie when I was much younger, so when I saw this movie advertised, I was immediately interested in seeing it…although I didn’t know if it was supposed to be a remake, or a sequel, or an entirely new storyline.

Although this movie does share some similarities to the first Haunted Mansion movie (such as a disembodied head in a crystal ball), it is also clearly an entirely new storyline. The movie starts out with a very sweet scene between Ben and Alyssa, with them meeting for the first time…although there was a very obvious goof, where Alyssa’s drink changes obviously from the beginning of their conversation to the end (she isn’t shown getting a new drink at all). And…while things did work out well between them…her accepting a drink someone had already bought did make me cringe.

Considering how Ben was in his initial appearance, it was very obvious that something bad had happened from the opening scene to the present day, although it was good that the movie didn’t immediately show what had happened with Alyssa and let that be revealed gradually.

I liked the fact that Gabbie didn’t follow the normal horror movie main character trope and was actually prepared to take Travis and leave the first moment she saw something supernatural. It did confuse me about why they were back in the house when Ben arrived there, but that was explained later in a way that made sense.

I really liked the secondary characters in this movie. Kent and Harriet were both really interesting characters, and I felt that they both had a lot of depth to them. I didn’t really get to know Bruce to the same level, but I thought he was still a good character…and it was fun to see him trying to take the lead and do dangerous things, even though Ben was trying to protect him.

I liked the fact that this movie was darker in tone, even while it had some elements of humour in places. However, I was disappointed in the fact that most of the ghosts just looked almost cartoonish. The effects used in this movie didn’t really mate the feel of the rest of the movie, so I think that was one thing this movie fell really short on.

On the whole, I did enjoy this movie. There were really good moments of tension along with the humour. I also really cared about the characters and the situation they were in. If you enjoy Disney movies with some darker themes and don’t mind more cartoonish special effects, I would recommend watching this movie.

Kill Joy

Posted by cat2002116 on August 3, 2023
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I enjoyed A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, so I was quite eager to read this…and thanks to my oldest nibling, I got the chance to read this.

I really did enjoy this book. It’s a prequel to the original trilogy, and seems to have been written after the others, but I would personally say that it works really well as an introduction to the storyline and characters if people haven’t read the trilogy yet.

I really liked the beginning, with the invitation that came to Pip. I do have to say, though, I felt that the murder mystery game didn’t make things easy for the players, even disregarding the ending of the book and the big reveal. I feel like it would have made playing the game easier if the players were able to read their character booklets before the game was actually due to start…but then again, I guess the story wouldn’t have been as effective if the game company had done the logical thing.

I liked how each of the friend group got involved in the roles they were playing, even Lauren, who was showing signs of her irritating clingy personality with her constant need to message her boyfriend. Cara was my favourite when it came to playing her role, as she seemed to really get into the spirit of the game…plus, I really enjoyed her dramatic gasps every time something happened, or was revealed in the game.

I liked the fact that what had happened with Sal and Andie permeated so much of the book, whether it was Pip thinking about the connection of the murder with the town itself, or the group freaking out because of things that happened during the course of the evening.

If you haven’t read the trilogy, I would say to give this novella a try, as it works as a good introduction to the storyline and the characters. And if you have read the trilogy, I would still recommend reading this…as it’s easy to read and allows a good glimpse into more of the characters from the original books. I would definitely read more books about Pip, Cara, Connor, Jamie and Zach…less so about Lauren and Ant.

The Death of Doctor Strange

Posted by cat2002116 on August 3, 2023
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So, thanks to the same friend who bought me the last Doctor Strange comic I read, I got this comic book as well…which immediately intrigued me through the title and the blurb of the book.

It was interesting to see that, by this point, Doctor Strange had the use of his hands back. I did think that he was clearly trying to juggle too much, from performing surgery, to dealing with magical threats, and teaching students…so it did make me think he was obviously taking on too much.

I liked the feel of the murder mystery around this book…and it was pretty interesting to see the contrast between Doctor Strange of the present and Doctor Strange of the past. I did find myself getting amused by the exclamations of, “Zounds!” as well as Mordo commenting that he’d forgotten what Doctor Strange used to call himself.

I found the three mothers and their monstrous baby to be really intriguing villains, and I would have liked to see a bit more detail about them. Where did their baby come from? It probably wasn’t a biological connection, considering each of the mothers were so vastly different to each other and to the baby, so it would have been good to see a bit more about their history.

I really liked seeing the Avengers appear in this comic. I really liked the fact that they clearly had close friendships with Doctor Strange…or, at least, that Steve did; there wasn’t so much interaction with the rest of the group. And I really liked the dog, Bats. It was pretty awesome to see that Doctor Strange had a spirit dog (I assume) who he could talk to…and I liked the fact that his younger self acknowledged that he’d always wanted a dog.

It was interesting to see the younger version of Doctor Strange trying to navigate people and situations he wasn’t aware of. I also found Clea to be an interesting character, and it would have been nice to see more about her history with Doctor Strange.

On the whole, I found this comic book to be a really engaging storyline, with good villains and great use of foreshadowing. I definitely want to read more of Doctor Strange’s story in other comics.

Friend Like Me

Posted by cat2002116 on August 1, 2023
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(I received a free advance copy of this book in exchange for a review).

I have to admit, this book was very easy to read. It only took me a few hours to get through the whole thing…and the blurb had sounded really interesting. And I did find it quite easy to care about Amy as a character.

Unfortunately, the secondary characters in this book didn’t feel nearly as strong. I didn’t like the fact that all of the men were obsessed with Amy, and that all of the women (with one exception) seemed to hate/be insanely jealous of her. Even the parts of the book not written from Amy’s third person perspective basically had her be the main focus of everyone else’s world.

I think the two police officers could have been really interesting, but with the way that both were trying to warp the narrative (Brandon trying to make it fit Amy being innocent; Mindy trying to make the evidence fit Amy being the culprit). I also found the narration really hard to take seriously when one of the characters was written as literally ‘shaking her booty’. Unfortunately, that threw me straight out of the story and it took me a little while to be able to get back into it again.

Learning about Amy’s past gradually, through the course of the book, rather than all at once worked really well. I did feel bad about what she was going through and what she had gone through…and when it seemed like she’d found someone who would treat her well in the past, I was happy for her, despite knowing things were going to go very badly wrong.

I did figure out the truth behind the ‘friend’ who was messaging Amy fairly early on, although it was still good to see how the events unfolded in any case. And I did like how much Amy ended up second-guessing herself through the book. If there wasn’t the weird, obsessive, instant!love connection (at least on Brandon’s end), I would have liked reading the interactions between Amy and Brandon…although Brandon did seem to pick up a bit by the end of the book. Throughout most of the book, it was easy to suspend my disbelief, even though certain things that happened were a bit weird.

On the whole, this book was easy to read. I would recommend giving it a try if you enjoy reading thrillers and mysteries. Despite the issues I had with the secondary characters, I did keep reading to find out what would happen by the end. I wouldn’t read it a second time, but I think it was worth reading once.

Talk To Me

Posted by cat2002116 on July 24, 2023
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So. I feel like horror movies tend to follow a pretty simple formula:

Group of characters: Does something stupid and dangerous, like play with a ouija board or enter a haunted house.
Bad things occur, up to and including multiple people being killed.
Characters: Surprised Pikachu face.

I’d love to say this has no bearing in reality, but…replace ‘enter a haunted house’ with ‘have a party in the middle of a global pandemic’ and…yeah. I’m starting to think horror movies are just commentaries on people’s stupidity. Not all of them, of course…but I can’t honestly say that horror movie characters are stupider than real life people.

I wasn’t actually expecting to watch this movie today. There was a secret showing at Cineworld and I booked in for it. The movie had a rating of 15, but no genre indicated…and a rating of 15 could be so many different genres. After the trailers finished and the warnings of horror and bloody violence appeared, I did notice quite a few people walk out of the cinema, so I do think the genre (or at least an idea of the content) should have been included on the website.

Despite how formulaic this movie was, I did think that a severed hand rather than a ouija board or haunted house was a more unique way of having a group of teenagers open a doorway to the dead. And it was actually pretty interesting to see the way they all almost got high off of the experience (like doing drugs or drinking alcohol)…right up until things went so horribly and awfully wrong.

The problem with this movie was that the characters were so very bland. I actually had no real reason to care about what happened to them. Mia had apparently lost her mother, but I was confused over whether this had only just occurred, or if it had happened a while ago, because…she only seemed really affected by the loss when the plot called for it. And it apparently didn’t even occur to her to try and talk to her mother after the first time she held the hand?

The creepiest part of the movie was actually one of the bits that was shown in the trailer, where a possessed Mia is repeating, “Run!” over and over again. In this movie, she’s only talking to one of the other characters, which is actually a nice bit of foreshadowing…but aside from that, there was nothing really that creepy or standout about this movie. There were a couple of times I cringed and had to look away, but that was more to do with how disturbing the violence involving a minor character was…and that level probably should have pushed the movie towards an 18.

Apart from Mia, Jade and her mother and brother were the most developed characters, although I absolutely hated the mother. The way she spoke to Jade and accused her so much just made her come across as an abusive person. Okay, she was right about the party – but the way she interrogated Jade, Mia and Daniel over and over again left me feeling extremely uncomfortable about her. And even when she was understandably upset about what had happened, I couldn’t feel sorry for her because I was waiting for her to show more abuse, given how bad she’d been when there wasn’t an emergency.

On the whole, while there were a couple of unique aspects to this movie, it was pretty predictable with very little character development. From the trailer I saw, I was expecting a different kind of movie.

It’s probably worth seeing if you like horror movies and don’t mind particularly graphic scenes of violence, but I don’t think I’d watch this movie a second time.

Shatter Me

Posted by cat2002116 on July 23, 2023
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So, this book was one that I decided to get (when I had an Amazon gift voucher) due to various people I knew online enjoying the book and telling me it was good.

I’m very glad I decided to give this book a chance. It was really easy to read, and Juliette was a character who was easy to empathise with. I thought the use of the strikethroughs to show how her thoughts were so chaotic was really unique…and while it did throw me a bit to have numbers written as numbers and not in words (2 instead of two, for instance), it didn’t take long for me to accept that as part of her character.

I wasn’t especially sold on the love triangle that was going on between Juliette, Adam and Werner. All three characters were interesting in their own right, even if Werner came across as a really sadistic, cruel person after trying to force Juliette to use her powers on a toddler. There were hints of more depth to him than how he immediately came across…though I really hope that if he becomes a good guy in later books, his refusal to accept the word ‘No’ is dealt with. Too many books have male characters forcing themselves on female characters and it’s not only treated as normal, but the woman suddenly realises it’s what she wanted all along (I’m looking at you, Carpathian series).

I really liked the fact that, while it was clear Juliette couldn’t actually touch anyone (or be touched by them), it wasn’t immediately clear just what her ability was until later in the book. And learning gradually about her history, not only with Adam but also with her parents and the other schoolchildren when she went to school, was a really good way of introducing her past…even if she did fall into a huge amount of cliches I’ve noticed with many heroines in young adult books.

I really liked Kenji’s character, and I would have liked to see a bit more of him rather than him appearing more towards the end. I really enjoyed his banter with Adam…but was far less sold on the apparent obsession he too developed with Juliette, constantly trying to flirt with her and hit on her. Yeah, he backed off once it was clear that Adam and Juliette was involved, but his refusal to take ‘I’m not interested,’ gracefully really soured my opinion of him as a character…and my view of this book as a whole, if I’m honest. I’m not a big fan of the overpowered woman who becomes the whole centre of every single character’s universe. I’m interested in seeing the world through a character’s eyes, not seeing every other character tell her what an amazing, powerful, ‘We need you so much!’ person she is. Conflicts make characters interesting. Not everyone has to love her and obsess mindlessly over her.

Wow, sorry. That went a bit more ranty than I was planning. Basically, if it wasn’t for everyone becoming so obsessed with Juliette, this book would be a solid four out of five stars. But making pretty much every person only think about her and want to get her, despite there being other people with abilities? Yeah, that’s dropped down the star rating.

I might give the next book in this series a try, but not if I’m going to be only reading about how much everyone wants to get their hands on her…both figuratively and literally. Unfortunately, this book just hit too many of those negative cliches for me by the end…and I’m so annoyed, because I would have enjoyed this so much otherwise.

Barbie 2023

Posted by cat2002116 on July 23, 2023
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So. Being someone who used to love playing with Barbies…and who has also watched some of the Barbie animated movies as an adult (I am not ashamed)…I was immediately excited to see this movie, and really happy I got the chance to se it on Friday with my sister and my oldest nibling.

This movie was a lot of fun. I loved the opening scene, showing how Barbie’s appearance changed girls’ lives for the better…at least as far as the Barbies were aware.

It was really interesting to see Barbieland and how it all worked. The narrator commenting on how things worked, such as, ‘You don’t play a doll walking out of her house,’ to explain why Barbie was floating down from her roof worked really well. And I thought it was really interesting to see how other parts of the world worked. For instance, Barbie not actually eating and just ‘pretending’…but at the same time, she was able to drive her car, even though it wasn’t actually a real car, so….

I did feel bad for Ken, at least to begin with, since he was clearly in love with Barbie and she didn’t feel the same way about him. I actually really liked how this movie handled that between stereotypical Barbie and Ken.

I did feel somewhat bad for all of the Kens, since not that far into the movie, it became very clear that none of them had homes of their own. It isn’t very clear where the Kens go at night, or where they wake up…compared to the Barbies, who each wake up in their dreamhouse with the whole day reset…at least, that’s what it seems like, considering all the Barbies woke up in their own individual dream houses after having the girls’ night sleepover.

I really liked being able to see all of the different types of Barbie, along with those like Allan, Midge and Skipper. Allan was probably one of the best parts of this movie, with the comments he came out with and how he was shown to be dealing with everything that had happened.

I really enjoyed Barbie and Ken ending up in the real world and being able to see the different ways both Barbie and Ken saw the real world. I also really liked Barbie’s evolution as a character through the movie; Margot Robbie is a fantastic actress, and I felt she really got the chance to shine in this role.

On the whole, this movie was a lot of fun to watch, but I also felt it dealt with a couple of very serious issues. I was really happy that there was no main focus on romance, and that the movie was instead about Barbie’s journey…and I really liked how the movie ended. Basically, this whole movie was really good; and if you’ve ever enjoyed playing with Barbies, no matter what gender you are, I would highly recommend watching this movie.

Nothing But Blackened Teeth

Posted by cat2002116 on July 22, 2023
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I was a bit hesitant about buying this book, since even though my sister sent me the link and said, ‘I think this might be something you’d like,’ it was a bit more expensive for a book that was only 100 pages (more of a novella), and there were quite a few mixed reviews about it. But then I bought several books for my KIndle, and that included this book.

I did think that there was a lot of potential to this book. The cover was very striking, and the blurb sounded really intriguing.

Unfortunately, it was really hard to care about all of the characters except for Cat, who was the narrator. For most of the book, it felt like the events were happening in a dream…like it wasn’t really very real. Apart from Cat, the only character who had any real development was the ghost herself…who I felt sorry for the more I learned about her fate and how long she’d been waiting for, with the only company being of the sacrificed girls who wouldn’t be able to keep her warm for very long.

It did seem a bit much that all it took was Talia going to investigate a strange noise for Lin to start talking about horror movie cliches. Sometimes fourth wall breaks work, but this book wasn’t one of those times. And the random insertion about Cat being bisexual came completely out of left field, because the only time it was even mentioned was Lin saying it was why she’d be one of the first killed. Up until that point, it had just been made clear that she had romantic history with…well, all three of the guys in the group.

This book definitely could have done with being longer, allowing for the characters to be more developed. There was a lot of potential…and I did think that the scenes with Cat and the ghost were suitably creepy. I just wish that the other characters had been developed enough so that I’d actually care about what happened to them.

Savage Spider-Man

Posted by cat2002116 on July 22, 2023
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Reading the note at the beginning of this comic, it was stated outright that this comic book would be non-stop…and I have to admit, that was definitely the case here.

I was a bit lost by the sudden appearance of Spider-Man basically coming across as a villain…as a monster, as stated on the front cover of the comic. I didn’t really know what was going on with the serum, other than it seemed to have caused a breakdown in Peter Parker’s intelligence, causing Spider-Man to become savage. It also seemed to enable him to…control other creatures/people who had the same spider abilities as him? Kind of like a whole hive mind of spider-people, though I wasn’t sure if they were other humans, or animals that Peter had somehow developed the ability to control.

I did find the enemies who wanted to ‘purify’ people very interesting, although I was really confused about why they were wearing animal masks. Were they supposed to be part animals? Or just wearing masks for some reason? Unlike a lot of the other comics, this wasn’t one that was so easy to pick up partway through the story. I did feel that the enemies were a real, credible threat, though. And the release of the serum to ‘purge’ people contained a lot of tension.

It was really interesting to see the evolution of the A-PLUS serum in Peter Parker’s body, and how he went from the Savage Spider-Man to what seemed to be a being much higher on the evolutionary scale. It made me wonder what more he might have become if the serum had been allowed to stay in his system…but, of course, it was too dangerous to be allowed to run rampant.

I also liked the writing and artwork of this comic book, especially when it came to Peter’s spidey-sense being shown. And, of course, I really liked the brief cameo of Doctor Strange towards the end of the comic book.

On the whole, although this story was a little difficult to follow, I did enjoy reading it. I’d be very interested in reading the comics leading up to this storyline…as well as seeing any after effects of this on Peter Parker later on.