To be honest…I did not enjoy this movie. At all. I watched the trailer and it made very little sense; and then I watched the film itself and the confusion I felt after watching the trailer was only heightened. It was disappointing, because of the previous two movies directed by the same person, I’d enjoyed Midsommar…and while I didn’t really enjoy Hereditary to the same extent, it still wasn’t like this movie.
There were some interesting parts of this movie. For instance, there was a tiny hint of mystery in the dreams that Beau kept having, where he was watching his mother and another boy arguing. The boy looked identical to Beau at that age, but Beau was watching the two of them from where he was sitting in the bath…at least, that’s what it seemed like from the camera angles. And that element of mystery could have been explored much further…but at the end of the movie, I was left wondering what in the world had happened; and was that dream actually a memory, or was it just included to raise confusion even more?
Another thing I found quite interesting, although I did feel the scene went on far too long, was when Beau is watching a play in the forest and fantasises that he’s the main character in the play. He obviously feels an affinity to the person in the play who cuts off his own chains, but although that could have been a truly symbolic moment, any possibility of that is lost with the over-long scene of the man separated from his family and trying to find his way back to them. And that could probably have had a better effect of drawing both Beau and me as a viewer in if there wasn’t the narrator constantly saying, ‘You will….’
The movie was, on the whole, very confusing. I definitely felt that it could have been condensed down a lot – it really didn’t need to be three hours long and I was fairly bored watching it; enough that I kept getting my phone out to check what the time was. I wasn’t even really sure what genre the movie was supposed to be; and even though Beau was meant to be the main character, I didn’t really care about him…or indeed any of the characters in this movie.
I really can’t recommend watching this movie. It wasn’t engaging enough to keep my attention throughout and it was far too long when it could have been so much shorter…and potentially better, without all of the extra filler.
This isn’t a movie I have any interest in watching again.
I was very intrigued by the plot of this movie, although the idea of people with the ability to hypnotise others with just their words isn’t a truly original one.
The movie definitely had Inception vibes to it. I found the overarching storyline to be really good, but I did feel that Ben Affleck’s acting was kind of wooden. That did make a lot of sense with what was revealed later on, but I spent a lot of the movie confused about why a good actor was suddenly not as good.
There was an awful lot that was going on in this movie, even though things seemed fairly straightforward at first. I mentioned above that this movie had a feel very similar to Inception. There’s even one scene where the whole world seems to turn upside down, although it seems to indicate that Danny’s perception of reality was changed, rather than reality itself.
I did find Diana’s explanation of how someone acting under hypnosis to be really interesting. She comments that those who use hypnosis make their victims see whatever reality will make them act in the way the person hypnotising them wants them to…and that seems to hold true throughout the whole movie, even when everything changes so drastically.
The movie was mainly focused on Danny and the journey he was taking throughout. The secondary characters weren’t really developed in the same way, especially because there was a real sense of not knowing what, or even who, was truly real and what existed only in Danny’s head.
The strongest relationship in the movie, apart from the one between Danny and Diana, was the one between Danny and his partner, Nicks. I would have liked some more background and detail about Nicks. Even with what was revealed later on, I felt there was more of a relationship between Danny and Nicks and it would have been good to see more of an exploration…especially because so many of the secondary characters just weren’t developed enough to care about.
All in all, this movie was one that I really liked watching. It wasn’t what I was expecting when I first stepped into the cinema and when the movie originally started, but I don’t think that was necessarily a bad thing. There were some clever moments of foreshadowing in this movie and a couple of things happened that I didn’t expect. Yes, there were some things that could have been done better…but on the whole, the movie was a really intriguing watch. It held my attention throughout and I’d be interested in watching a sequel to this movie, perhaps one where the wider world is explored.
I went to Starfury’s DC event last year as well, but unfortunately, it was shortly after my medical emergency, which meant that I was on crutches and dealing with a brand new diagnosis of diabetes, while also staying in a hotel that was about a twenty minute walk from the venue. Normally, I would make that walk with zero problems…but last time, my healing leg made it impossible for me to walk without having to take frequent breaks. This time, the hotel me and my oldest nibling, Ry, stayed in was closer to the venue of the actual convention, so made things a lot easier.
This time as well, I had a gold ticket, which allowed me to be part of the meet and greet with the nine guests at the con. I didn’t realise how many gold attendees there were (200), so what I thought would be a half an hour meet and greet turned into more than an hour and a half (sorry about that, Ry!)
Starfury remains one of my favourite convention companies and I can’t recommend them enough. Even one of the guests (Meg DeLacy, I believe), confirmed that the event felt more intimate than other signing events. I figure that she and Brec Bassinger must have had a really good time last year, as they both came back this year.
I only had three photos this year, one of which was thanks to a friend who gave me the money for the third one. I enjoyed all three of the photos, though I was very disappointed when I realised I’d forgotten to take off my glasses for my photo with Tyler!
I also have a confession to make. I haven’t actually watched most of the shows that were represented at this convention, although I did truly enjoy meeting the actors. I have watched some of Teen Wolf, which is why I got an autograph from Tyler Hoechlin from the show, of him as Derek Hale:
I had actually watched Titans, at least the first series, so getting to meet Conor Leslie was really awesome. I did get an autograph from her through Galaxy Con, but Starfury had such a great selection of photos to get signed, and the prices of extra autographs are so great, I had to buy an extra 10×8 to get signed by her:
And while I hadn’t actually seen any of Batwoman, Javicia Leslie was a truly great person to meet. She was one of those genuinely nice people and even though her queue was pretty long during the autograph session, I didn’t feel rushed…and felt very much like she truly took the time to talk to just about everyone who was meeting her.
Nicole Kang was someone who had so much energy and gave off the vibe that she really wanted to be at the convention. From the very first meet and greet, to seeing her in the autographs, she was a truly lovely person to meet! Her autograph queue was very long and moved very slowly…but it was not only because she took the time to write more than just the basic on every autograph, she also talked to every person. And as you can see, I got an autograph in a lovely green pen! (It’s seriously the only autograph I have in a pretty green pen!)
The other person I got a 10×8 autograph from was Yvette Monreal, who was from Stargirl. She was a bit quiet, but from the photos I’ve seen she had with people, she seems to be a really engaging person to meet. And as you can see from the below autograph, she not only wrote her character name, but also drew a picture of a cat face on each autograph, as near as I can tell. A lot of respect to her for how long that must have taken! At later conventions, when I have the budget, I’d love to get a photo with both her and Meg DeLacy.
As a gold ticket holder, I also got all autographs included in my ticket price, with the exception of Nicole Kang, who was an extra guest. Although there were posters for every attendeed to get signed (three for regular ticket holders; four for gold), I always prefer to get my con booklet signed; partly because they fit in my folders better, but also because it’s what I did right from the start, when I attended my first conventions with my mum. I even have one of the booklets left from one of the Sci Fi Balls in Bournemouth!
Last year, my favourite meet was Brec Bassinger, despite the fact that I’ve not seen Stargirl. I paid for a photo op with her and she was truly one of the loveliest people I’ve ever met. She took the time to talk to every person before the photos were taken…and this time, although I didn’t have a photo with her, I still got an autograph from her. And I was able to talk to her about being diabetic at the meet and greet, which helped a lot as someone only diagnosed a year ago.
So, yeah, I was able to get 13 autographs in total, which is far more than I’d be able to get at any signing events for the same amount of money! I told Tyler at the meet and greet that Starfury was one of the best convention companies…of course, he then asked me to explain, and I figured, ‘Wait and see!’ wasn’t an appropriate response. So I did try and explain how inclusive and open Starfury is to everyone, no matter who they are. He left before the closing ceremony, but I hope he saw how good Starfury is for himself.
Anyway, I can’t recommend Starfury enough. It’s honestly the best convention company and I have a lot of friends I met there. Plus, since I’m dealing with being a diabetic and major hypos (I had a blood sugar of 2.9 on the Saturday that left me unable to get off my friend’s couch for about 40 minutes), the access side of the convention is super helpful.
Just like the previous book I read, this book immediately grabbed my attention when I saw it in the book shop. The blurb sounded very interesting and I was immediately curious to see how such a society worked, where the only death came at the hands of the scythes…people just the same as those who they glean.
I found it interesting to get glimpses into how different scythes made their choices on who to glean. While it seemed like Faraday was one of those who did his best to be as fair as possible (using statistics from the Age of Mortality, treating each person like an individual and picking different, unique ways to glean each of them), I also felt that there was a fundamental element of unfairness to it. For instance, he picked someone based on the possibility that this person might have gone out drinking and driving, despite there being no evidence to indicate that person would do so. But then, I guess it’s hard to make a choice like that, to take someone’s life, no matter what kind of spin you put on it. Still. Since natural death was entirely eradicated, it felt grossly unfair to glean someone who hadn’t even reached their majority yet. I preferred Scythe Curie’s way of gleaning, even though it wasn’t the perfect way of doing so.
I really liked both Rowan and Citra as individual characters, and I really enjoyed their separate storylines. However, I didn’t think the romance between them worked. I didn’t feel that the two of them had really interacted enough for their feelings to be realistic. To be quite honest, I would have been more interested in a book exploring a potential relationship between Rowan and Volta. In comparison to Citra, Rowan spent a lot more time with Volta…and seemed to actually get to know him more.
I liked the inclusion of the writings from the different scythes. Those allowed me glimpses into more of their personalities…and although I absolutely hated Goddard, his writings gave me more of a glimpse into his mindset and personality than I really wanted. And while I agree that the scythes shouldn’t actually enjoy their work…I can’t help but think how scarring it would be to someone’s soul to be in charge of mass gleanings like he was. It’s clearly bad enough for the ‘good’ scythes to glean one person at a time (Citra’s observation of Faraday after gleaning a child springs to mind)…I feel like someone having to mass glean like that would quickly self-glean after only a very short period of time.
All in all, this book was a really interesting, unique idea. While reading, I had a lot of thoughts of, ‘What would I do in this situation?’ And even though I’m not interested in reading about the romance between Rowan and Citra, I am interested in seeing more of both of them as individual characters…as well as more of the world itself…so I do intend to read the next book in this series in the future.
Obviously, I was very excited about this movie, given I love superhero movies and Marvel in particular. And Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 was such an emotional rollercoaster, I was really looking forward to something similar with this third movie.
I did really enjoy this movie. I didn’t think it was quite as good as the second one. I did think it stretched my suspension of disbelief a little far, even considering the sort of fantastical themes so prevalent in superhero movies. For instance, Nebula just able to pop broken limbs into place as if she was fixing a dent. Those scenes were very hard to take seriously.
I also have to be honest and say I really wasn’t keen on Gamora in this movie. And don’t get me wrong; it’s not because I ship her and Peter together. I would have much preferred romance not to be shoehorned into the movie…but I liked the version of Gamora who didn’t hesitate to hug her sister and who gave up the location of the soul stone just to save Nebula from further suffering. Past Gamora had more morals than the one in this movie and it’s a real shame that development wasn’t in the version of Gamora in this movie.
I really liked learning more about Rocket and a huge amount of this movie really tugged at my heartstrings. The first time I saw this, one of the scenes made me tear up and a second one made me bawl outright…and then the second time I watched the movie, I full on cried at both scenes (because I knew what was coming!)
I would have liked to see more character development of both Mantis and Drax. Their personalities are different to the rest of the Guardians, but I felt that those differences were only played for comedy, instead of letting them grow in their own right. I was especially disappointed not to see more of Mantis and Quill’s relationship, after learning Mantis is Quill’s sister.
I did like seeing Kraglin and it was really good to see his character go through something of an arc. Honestly, it was refreshing to see someone trying and failing to do something right. I also found Adam Warlock to be an interesting character…although his accent did make it hard to take him seriously.
All in all, I did enjoy this movie. It was a lot of fun and worth watching, even if only to learn more about Rocket’s history…although it didn’t show anything of Rocket’s first meeting with Groot, which would have been nice to see. I can’t say this movie is perfect, but in my humble opinion, it’s a worthy addition to the MCU and definitely worth watching if you’re a fan.
This book definitely ‘stood out’ for me among the crowd. I’d just been to the doctor’s and as a reward to myself, I decided to get a new book. (I actually walked out with two, but that’s another story).
As you can probably tell from the above picture, this book stood out mostly because of the colours. In a sea of black and white spines, the fiery orange/red was different enough to spark my interest. And when I looked at the cover and read the blurb, I very quickly made the decision to buy this book.
While the blurb itself didn’t suggest a book that was entirely unique (pilots able to transform mechanical beasts into warriors; women seen as lesser than men), it was interesting enough to immediately catch my attention. And I read the entire book in two days, so I can 100% say that the book far exceeded my expectations.
Zetian was a character who I was immediately able to connect with. There is a warning about domestic violence and abuse at the beginning of this book and that warning is definitely well-deserved. To give you an example, without going into too much detail, Zetian is subject to her feet being bound. There is some graphic detail, but it does fit a lot of her character, so I think the detail was necessary to understand her character better.
Most of this book completely subverted my expectations. The setup was basically that Zetian planned to kill the pilot who had supposedly murdered her sister, Yang Guang. And their first meeting seemed to follow the basic formula of a young adult romance: where it starts with the main female character hating the main male character, but eventually, they fall in love and the conflicts are resolved and….
And then Zetian kills Yang Guang.
I was honestly shocked. But it made sense, since the book was more about Zetian and her journey. There was actually romance included and even a love triangle, and even though I did find the scenes between Zetian and Yizhi a bit boring, I did like the way the love triangle was handled. Again, my expectations were subverted and it was nice to see the romance handled in a different way.
All in all, this book was one I really enjoyed reading. It was dark and intense to read, though there were some bits of humour that startled a laugh out of me when they came. The characters of Zetian and Shimin were the strongest part of this book and were the ones I cared the most about.
The book did end on a cliffhanger and I’m really hoping a sequel will be written soon. I want to know more about this world, about the characters and what was revealed at the end of the book. There’s so much more to the world that I would love to explore.
I did actually watch (and really enjoy) Searching, when it originally came out at the cinema. I don’t remember a whole lot about it, but I remember it was really cleverly done with how the story was told entirely through the use of social media. When I saw this movie advertised, I was immediately intrigued…but didn’t know if it would be done as well as the first movie.
This film did a really good job of drawing me in right from the beginning. The scene of June and her father playing together was incredibly sweet…and then there was a huge amount of tension when her father’s nose started bleeding and it became very clear that June’s father had passed away.
I didn’t really like June’s mother at the beginning of the movie, to be honest. Despite the fact that June was 18, her mother seemed to be treating her like a child. I could completely understand June’s frustration at having what amounted to a babysitter sent to check on her.
Much like its predecessor Searching, Missing was entirely told through the use of social media/video cameras/etc. I felt that was one of the strongest parts of this movie. It helped to keep the tension ramped up quite a bit, since as the viewer, the only information I had came from what June herself could see.
Speaking of June, she was probably the best character in this movie. She was resourceful and intelligent, but I felt the movie definitely did a good job of keeping her actions within the scope of what she could realistically do. I did question what she eventually ended up doing for food, though, since the money her mother obviously would have run out eventually.
There was a lot of good tension throughout this movie and I definitely liked some of the secondary characters, especially Veena and Javi. I also thought it was good to see some hints of conflict come through as June’s desperation to find her mother grew.
All in all, I really did enjoy this movie. It didn’t really feel like a direct sequel to Searching, although I did appreciate the easter egg to the first movie in the scene showing the ending of Searching.
I’ve seen other movies use a similar way of telling the story by making use of modern day technology, but I think Missing (and Searching) does it particularly well. June’s search for her mother drew me in as a viewer and I really cared about her character and what she was going through. There were some areas that moved a bit slowly, but on the whole, it was enjoyable to watch…and I’d probably see it again, in case there were any elements of foreshadowing, or clues, that I missed the first time through.
So, I will be honest…I really like Power Rangers. I know it’s a bit cheesy, but I grew up watching Mighty Morphin Power Rangers with my sister. We’d always argue over who got to be the pink ranger. And although I haven’t watched every episode and every series of Power Rangers, I do enjoy dipping in and out…especially when I get the opportunity to watch it with my nephew Freddie.
I liked the fact that the movie started out with the action straight away. It wasn’t immediately clear how Rita Repulsa had returned (since the last time she’d appeared, she was turned good by Zordon’s wave of energy), but a flashback cleared up a lot of that confusion…and Billy’s intentions to try and bring Zordon back made a lot of sense to me. After all, Zordon was pretty much a father figure; not just to the original group of Power Rangers, but many others as well.
It wasn’t exactly clear why or how the original Power Rangers still had their morphing ability, as my understanding was that most of them had given up their power, since other rangers had taken their place. Plus, I’d thought that the original dinosaur morphing abilities had been taken from them early on. Then again, as I said, I’ve been dipping in and out of the series, so maybe I missed them regaining those morphing abilities? And come to think of it, Jason appeared in Forever Red and used his original morpher.
I really liked the fact that this movie came across as very much a tribute to Trini. I remember it was pretty shocking to me to find out that the actress had passed away; and while Trini was killed by Rita at the very start of the movie, her presence was very much felt throughout.
I liked the addition of Minh, Trini’s daughter, and I really liked her relationship with Zack. He was honestly a great guardian to her, especially when she was trying to use the morpher for purely selfish purposes. And the conflict between Minh and Billy was honestly truly great to see.
I really loved being able to see Kat and Rocky; not just because they were also early generation rangers, but because it was really good to see them living their own lives, with their own responsibilities…but still rangers (as the title says) and ready to fight alongside their former teammates. Honestly, I would have liked to see more of their lives outside being power rangers for Billy and Zack, since it seemed like they weren’t really doing anything else.
All in all, I did enjoy this movie. There were some nice nods to the original series and it was good to see some of the original actors return, even though it was a little sad that there wasn’t a full reunion. I think that if you were a fan of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Power Rangers in general, you’d probably enjoy this movie.
I think I’ve only watched one or two movies in the Evil Dead franchise, though it was quite a long time ago now, so I only really remember a few bits and pieces…more the iconic scenes…from the movies I have watched.
The opening scene of the movie is pretty typical, starting with a creepy, obviously possessed woman who attacks her cousin and boyfriend. One of the creepiest parts of the opening scene is when the possessed woman (the deadite) starts quoting from the book that her cousin is reading.
I didn’t think there was anything really that special or different about this movie. It was better than a lot of horror movies I’ve seen, as it took a bit more time to actually develop the main characters after the initial opening scene. I did feel like the relationship between the siblings, Bridget, Danny and Kassie, was the strongest part of the movie. I thought it was really good when Bridget and Danny automatically protected their younger sister when the earthquake occurred…and despite the fact that they were both still children (or teenagers), they were actually able to make some fairly good survival choices. And while Danny did go against one of the number one rules in horror movies (don’t go down into the creepy basement), I can’t really fault him for what happened.
Having said that, I do think that some of the decisions taken by Beth weren’t all that intelligent. For instance, she closes herself off in one of the other rooms to listen to recordings, using headphones…even while knowing her possessed, dangerous sister is still out in the hallway and has already killed multiple people. Personally, I wouldn’t have left the children alone in another room.
There were some good elements of foreshadowing in this movie, which worked really well. And the movie definitely didn’t shy away from any gore. There were some really gross, disgusting scenes in the film, but also some clear nods to the original Evil Dead movie. For instance, there’s a scene towards the end with a bloodied Beth holding onto a chainsaw.
I was on the edge of my seat a couple of times through the movie, although that was more because I was waiting for the inevitable carnage than because I was expecting the characters to have a chance at survival.
If you enjoy horror movies with plenty of gore and lots of death, you’ll probably enjoy this one…especially as a new addition to the Evil Dead franchise. Having said that, although there are nods to the original movies, I don’t think you need to be familiar with the franchise to understand what’s going on here.
So. This movie was a lot of fun to watch. I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from this movie – I just had some spare time after work and figured I’d watch it.
I liked the fact that this movie didn’t take itself too seriously. Renfield worked really well as a narrator. The fact he had to eat bugs to trigger his abilities was extremely disgusting, but was a really interesting way of having the abilities of the main character triggered.
It was good that the character of Dracula didn’t really appear that much in the movie, as I felt that it allowed the focus to be more on the character of Renfield and the struggles he was facing. Plus, it was much harder to take Nicholas Cage as a seriously dangerous villain even when he was attacking people. Yes, this movie didn’t take itself seriously and was clearly meant to be dark comedy, but many of the other characters had depth to them despite the genre. Not so much the character of Dracula. However, I did really like the fact this movie made use of the general mythos of vampires: sunlight being deadly, unable to enter somewhere unless invited in, etc. (Which made little sense that Renfield then put a welcome mat in front of his apartment door, since surely he would have known it would issue an open invitation to Dracula?)
I really liked Rebecca as a character in this movie and I felt she was one of the strongest parts of this movie. I enjoyed her interactions with Renfield, especially with his awkward attempts to form a relationship with her…but I also really liked that it was saving her that triggered the change in Renfield and him trying to be a better person, a hero, and no longer Dracula’s thrall.
There were quite a few good comedy moments in this movie, some of which I found myself laughing out loud at. Along with the humour, of course, there was also a lot of gore and disgusting moments…it is a dark comedy, after all. Also, a lot of the secondary characters are really only there to be cannon fodder. The main characters are easy to care about and have a lot of depth to them, but for instance, the rest of the police officers don’t come across as individual characters at all, but more as a hive mind. However, I did feel bad for Carol, who kept getting interrupted every time she was trying to get support from the rest of the group.
All in all, this was a good movie to watch. It was entertaining and funny to watch. I don’t think I’d rush out to purchase the movie on DVD, but I wouldn’t mind watching it again in the future.
Ink of Blood 