So, I have to be honest…I was pretty disappointed in this movie. I’ve seen various different versions of the Three Musketeers (The Man in the Iron Mask, cartoon dog versions, BBC’s The Three Musketeers….), so I was pretty excited to watch this one and…it juat wasn’t as good as I thought it could be.
D’Artagnan was definitely the most well-rounded character of this movie, but his first interactions with Athos, Porthos and Aramis showed a more arrogant, reckless side to him that really didn’t come to fruition during the rest of the movie. Why did he goad each of them into wanting to duel? What was his end goal? To win them over so that he could get them to vouch for him to join the musketeers in the end? Honestly, it seemed like this was just thrown into the movie for no reason other than to get D’Artagnan in front of the musketeers.
Unfortunately, this pretty much fit the theme of the movie. There was a lot of potential here, but it all fell rather flat. There was too much telling by the other characters and not enough showing. What were Athos’ demons? Why was he so willing to accept death and thought it was possible he’d actually killed a woman? And where was Aramis’ conflicts that Porthos references? If those had been shown, it would have made for a much more interesting movie.
I did think that the strongest part of this movie was the political intrigue and the relationship between the King and the Queen, as most of the true conflicts of the conflicts in the movie came from the Queen’s obvious feelings towards another man and her having to navigate the suspicions of her husband. It would have been good to see more detail about that, instead of the forced romance between D’Artagnan and Constance. Honestly, the film would have been much better without the romance shoehorned in and more development in the characterisation of the musketeers.
The sword fights in the movie were visually appealing and Eva Green’s version of Milady was a really intriguing one. While I didn’t particularly enjoy this version of the story, I’d be interested in watching the second movie in order to see more of Milady and learn about her history in this version. But I don’t have any interest in rewatching this movie…and I would hope that the sequel actually spends more time showing instead of telling.
Brandon Sanderson is definitely a great fantasy author. Warbreaker remains one of my favourite fantasy books of all time and I really enjoyed reading Elantris too. So when I read the blurb for this novella, I was immediately intrigued. Even though it wasn’t really a fantasy book, there were some science fiction elements, which is another of my favourite genres.
The premise of this book was a really interesting one, with two detectives entering a ‘snapshot’ of their world. A snapshot is pretty much a recreation of a day, that law enforcement use to find information for cases they need to solve. While a snapshot could be seen as similar to a video or a tape recording, it’s actually so much more detailed than that, being an exact recreation of the day…down to everyone in the snapshot believing they’re real. However, because of this, it’s also possible for deviations to be introduced, since real world people’s counterparts can be influenced within the world of the snapshot.
At first, the plot of this book seemed quite simple. Davis and Chaz were looking for the location of a gun used to commit a crime in the real world…and then they were stuck there, waiting around for the next case they were supposed to be investigating.
As the book went on, there was a nice thread of tension in Davis’ reactions with his partner. It was pretty clear that Davis was building up to something that was going to happen…and while it wasn’t clear exactly what it was, it was obvious that it was something that would change things entirely.
One thing I found quite interesting was the concept of the badges that showed people in the snapshot they weren’t real. Chaz seems to take an almost perverse pleasure in it, while Davis does feel guilty when he accidentally uses that badge instead of the law enforcement one. I did like that and the other contrasts between the two of them.
The other big plot of this book was the Photographer, whose victims added a deeper element of tension and suspense to the book. While the snapshot wasn’t real in and of itself, what it was showing was real…and it was pretty unsettling to think about that happening in the real world, underneath all of the people going around their normal routine.
All in all, I really enjoyed reading this novella. The world was a really intriguing one and one I would like to see further explored. I’d also like to see more of the characters introduced in this novella and the contrast between the world of the snapshot and the real world. It definitely felt like an introduction to a much wider world.
So. I did watch the original Willow movie, though it was a number of years back, and I remember I really enjoyed it…though I don’t remember a whole lot about it, apart from the scene towards the end where Willow saves Elora.
I’ve not been too good at sitting down and watching movies, but after both my sister and my oldest nibling encouraged me to watch this, I went ahead and did so.
I do think you need to have a passing knowledge of the original movie, at least, to fully enjoy and understand this movie. I enjoyed the opportunity to see so much more of the world of Willow, as well as to learn more about the history of the world and more about the true threat, which wasn’t as simple as it had been in the movie.
The Characters
I’m going to start with my two favourite characters: Kit and Jade. During most of the series, it’s really obvious they both have feelings for each other…to the point that even some of the other characters comment on the tension between them. But even outside of their relationship and the inevitable resolution (I was so happy when they finally kissed), both of them were really strong people. Throughout the series, I felt they both had amazing character development and some really impressive scenes. I seriously loved the scene when they’re all fighting in the rain, although it was also a very tense and emotional scene towards the end.
So, yeah, Kit and Jade were not only my favourite characters of the series, but they were also the best part of the series as a whole…at least in my opinion. Compared to the other main romance, theirs was a whole lot more believable.
Honourable mention goes to Prince Graydon, who was still a likable character despite not being my top favourite. He’s the only one who none of the other characters have a personal relationship with and yet he still goes along with them on the quest and does his best to help them. He doesn’t hesitate or hold back and even accepts that there’s a point the others might need to take his life. Honestly, he’s got a lot of depth to him and I would have liked to see more of him through the series.
Okay, so I have to talk about my least favourite character…Elora, who just spent the entire series really irritating me. She felt like a flat character who was just written to be the Cinderella archetype. To be honest, Sorsha did her absolutely zero favours by keeping her as no more than a servant! Because when it came to it, she was absolutely useless…until the plot called for her to be otherwise and then she could suddenly perform magic without anything other than instincts. And why did they bother dyeing her hair? Red hair isn’t even that uncommon!
Honestly, it would have been better if Elora’s identity hadn’t been discovered at all. Unfortunately, once it was revealed, she just fell into the stereotypical chosen one personality. And I’ll be honest – someone with Kit’s personality would have been a much more interesting Elora. Or Jade could have been. She even had the red hair!
The Bone Reavers
Part of the wider world of Willow, the bone reavers came across as a really big enemy. It was really good to see them developed as more than just a faceless enemy. I would have liked to spend a bit more time exploring their people and culture in the series, but it was good to see some of them. Also, it showed that the people considered to be the good guys might not be so perfect after all.
Other Races
As I mentioned above, getting to see more of the wider world of Willow was also really good. This included the brownies and also the trolls…the latter of which were completely different to how I would have pictured them. Okay, they looked more like yetis than actual trolls; but the perfectly civil words the troll leader spoke definitely took me by surprise.
And I did especially like the brownies. It was interesting to see that they’d built their own little society under where the bone reavers were living and I especially liked their interactions with Willow.
Final Thoughts
On the whole, I did enjoy this series. There were characters I loved, but also characters I really didn’t like. The characters I loved were what kept me watching the series and focused throughout the eight episodes. I do think that Elora didn’t work as a main character and could have just been a mystery. She didn’t really add much to the series itself, apart from right at the very end, and there were a lot more interesting characters I wanted to see more of.
I’d be interested in watching the second series of this, when and if it comes out, because I’d like to see more of the world and the characters I did like seeing. Plus, even though Arik was a bit guillable (in Kit’s words), it would be good to see how he fits in with the rest of the group.
If you enjoyed the original movie, I think you’d proably like this as well. I would recommend it for people who enjoy fantasy and magic, too, as those are some of the strongest parts of this series.
This isn’t actually the first time I’ve seen this play. I went to see it with the original cast members, so I was pretty interested in seeing how another group of actors portrayed the characters I was already familiar with. Plus, I was curious to see if there were any bits I’d missed out on the first time. And I’d been invited to go by a couple of friends, so….
The play had what seemed to be a fairly simple premise. Jen and her husband, Sam, have recently moved into a new house, along with their baby, but while Sam’s away on a trip, Jen starts hearing strange noises coming from their daughter’s room: footsteps and the sense there’s someone there who she can’t see. And she tells Sam, who doesn’t believe her, because he’s a man of science, of logic, who scoffs at the very idea of ghosts.
This is the reason for the dinner party, for Jen to prove – to her husband and possibly herself – that what she’s experienced the last four nights has been real. And to that end, she invites another couple to join them: Lauren, an old friend of Sam’s who specialises in mental health, and Ben, a builder who, it turns out, has had his own experience with the supernatural.
There are only four characters who really appear in this play and the actors do a good job of building the tension, as well as defusing it at the times it’s necessary. While the cast in this version didn’t seem to bounce off each other as well as those in the version I saw, it was still pretty good, with some nice bits of foreshadowing involved.
I do have to say, the constant screaming of the foxes got old really quick. Yes, it worked the first time to make people jump…but after that, it was just eye-rolling.
The atmosphere of the play worked really well. It truly felt like I was sitting in the living room with the four of them. And all of the talk of ghosts and science was a great way to get to know the characters even more. I especially liked the drinking game, where they talked about why people didn’t see more ghosts and that maybe it was difficult to make the journey. While the theories weren’t revealed to be anything more than that in the play, they were interesting to think about.
All in all, this play was entertaining and I enjoyed seeing it both times, with different actors involved. I don’t think I’ll go and see it a third time, but I think it’s definitely worth seeing twice…if only to see the clues throughout that you might have missed the first time through.
So. This book was one that immediately caught my attention when I was in Waterstones some weeks ago. The cover is very pretty and immediately caught my eye and the blurb sounded intriguing. And I did read some of the start of the book, just to make sure it was one that I would enjoy reading. It took me a couple of weeks after finding this book to get my hands on it, but when I finally did, I was really happy to read it.
I found the main character, Teo, to be really engaging and relatable. It was really easy to care about him and I could immediately see the divide between the Jades and the Golds in the world of this book.
I really liked the obvious references and uses of Aztec mythology. It was really interesting to see those kinds of sacrifices carried through to the modern day, where the characters had cell phones and used Instagram and TikTok. While it clearly wasn’t a case of people getting their hearts ripped out every day, the Sunbearer Trials clearly linked in to that…and the legend about Sol at the beginning of the book, and the sacrifice they made to keep the Obsidians away from people, was such an integral part of the world, I felt like I was a part of it as well while I was reading it.
I was really happy to see that Teo’s wings finally caught up to what his true gender was…although I found myself getting really irritated on his behalf at reading how so many people around him just touched his wings without asking for permission. I mean, that should be a normal action! Ask for consent! (Of course, I say that, but as I type this, I’m reminded that some people seem to consider a pregnant woman’s body as something they have every right to touch, so….) Anyway, it was really sad to read that Teo had got so used to being touched without his consent, it didn’t even occur to him that Aurelio was holding back because he hadn’t received permission.
Speaking of Aurelio, I didn’t much like him (or his sister) at first during the book, but it was hard to hold onto that dislike the more I read of his and Teo’s interactions. By the end of the book, I was kind of wishing that they would end up together. I could feel the chemistry between them every time they interacted.
My other favourite character was, 100%, Niya. She was such a down to earth character who brought some needed levity to the book, even while she came across as more of a hero, a true hero, than many of the other so-called Golds. Plus, I loved the way Niya and Teo worked together to try and keep Xio alive, even though Niya could have easily pulled ahead of the two Jades. She didn’t even consider it, which made her rise a lot in my estimation.
The book didn’t end the way I thought it would, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It did end on a cliffhanger, which I hadn’t actually realised was going to occur…and now I’m annoyed, because I have to wait for the next book in the series and who knows when that will come out?
Ahem. Anyway. I really enjoyed this book. Yes, it had Hunger Games vibes, but it definitely stood away from that series. I enjoyed it a lot and I want to read the next book in the series. A solid four out of five stars. If you’re on the fence about reading it, give it a try!
I thought I’d reviewed this movie after watching and reviewing the other two in this trilogy, but apparently not…so I will rectify that now, after having rewatched the Fear Street trilogy.
After spending two movies with the setup of Sarah Fier as the main villain of the piece, as the witch who’d cursed the entire town of Shadyside, setting up this movie to show Sarah’s history and the path she took towards the feared witch of the present day was a really interesting idea. I thought it was a clever idea to reuse the actors who had appeared in the later movies to portray their 1666 counterparts, since there was already an emotional connection to many of them.
In the town of Union, back in 1666, Sarah isn’t a witch. She isn’t an outcast. She’s a girl only the same age as Deena from the modern day, who finds herself in Sarah’s body back in the past. And Deena, in Sarah’s body, finds herself embroiled in a witch hunt that ultimately ends in tragedy…a tragedy that hits home all the more because it’s not what the previous movies have set you up to expect.
One thing this movie does especially well is showing the effects of a witch hunt. Sarah puts it incredibly well when she tells Hannah, the girl she loves, that she doesn’t fear the devil; that what she fears are the neighbours who would accuse her, or the mother who would allow her daughter to hang for no other reason than because the people need a scapegoat…someone to blame when things go wrong.
Deena’s return to the present day comes with the knowledge of the true history of Union…and the real person who is responsible for what those in Shadyside have been going through over the last three centuries. And breaking the curse isn’t as simple as reuniting Sarah’s hand with the rest of her body, because, of course, Sarah wasn’t the one who cursed Shadyside in the first place.
I really liked the way this movie drew everything together from the previous two movies. The characters were intelligent and worked well together. I liked the plan that Deena and the others came up with at the end, to save their town from the evil that’s been plaguing it. And I loved the relationship between Deena and Sam. (I’m not the only one getting Supernatural vibes from Fear Street, am I?)
When I originally started watching the Fear Street trilogy, I assumed it was just going to be a normal slasher horror movie with very little plot or originality. But by the time I reached this one, I found there was a lot more going on under the surface. If you enjoy horror with characters you actually care about, I recommend this trilogy as one to watch.
So. This isn’t the first horror movie I’ve seen based on exorcisms in the Catholic church. Thinking back, The Rite is one particular movie that stands out in my mind.
I haven’t read any of the writings by the real Gabriele Amorth, so I can’t really speak to how accurately this movie kept to those. Considering it’s a horror movie, though, I strongly suspect that a lot of liberties were taken with the original source material.
The opening scene of this movie was fairly stereotypical, with Gabriele carrying out what seemed to be a normal exorcism…if a little theatrical. Those theatrics made sense later on, as Gabriele was forced to explain himself in front of his peers. After all, as he put it, some people needed psychiatric help, some people needed theatrics…and a very few actually need to have an exorcism performed. And, of course, this movie is primarily about one of those cases.
The movie is a fairly stereotypical horror movie. All of the jump scares were expected and didn’t really have an effect on me. Probably the strongest part of this movie was the character of Gabriele, who was about as far from a stereotypical priest as it’s possible to get. He was sarcastic and made jokes and came up with any excuse to have a drink of whiskey. Honestly, I thought Russell Crowe did a really good job in this role. It was also really good to see the hints of Gabriele’s past…the guilt that he carried that the demon could use to get at him.
I was intrigued by the links in to the Spanish Inquisition and the history of the church, as well as the reveal of what the demon’s true motivations were…what it really wanted from Gabriele. I didn’t find Julia or Amy to be particularly strong characters and I think a trick was missed in how the demon could have played on them individually. The psychological aspects could have been done a lot better and made the movie a lot creepier.
I did enjoy the interactions between Gabriele and Esquibel. It was nice to see the friendship that formed between them through the course of the movie and that it played a part in how things ended.
On the whole, this movie was entertaining, but I felt like it was something I’d seen done before. Nothing new was really added to the genre and while the characters were interesting, I did find myself just waiting for the inevitable. I would like to see a movie that relies less on the jump scares and gore for the sake of gore, and more on the psychological aspects of horror.
After receiving this book as a birthday present from my sister and two of my niblings, I was really interested in reading it. The cover looked absolutely beautiful and the blurb immediately caught my attention.
I really liked the setting of this book. It felt like there was a lot of Chinese culture used (at least, I assume it’s Chinese, as that’s the sense I get reading the book), which sort of made me think of Firefly, where people used Chinese as easily as they used English. But I found it particularly interesting to see how important the hospitality/tea ceremony was, even in interactions that were fraught with tension…such as Rice Fish’s interactions with her son, Hồ.
Speaking of Hồ, I had some very mixed feelings about him. On the one hand, I thought that his actions were causing him to cross the line into being a truly villainous character. His alliance with one of the main antagnoists only served to make me see him even more as one of the bad guys, especially when it was clear some of the pirates weren’t willing to honour the deal they’d made to offer protection to those who’d paid for it. However, as the book went on, Hồ seemed less like a villain and more like someone who’d seen a relationship between his mothers that was, for all intents and purposes, only a marriage in name.
Speaking of the Red Scholar, while she didn’t actually appear in the book, having been killed before the events of it, her shadow seemed to fall over everything. And what I saw of her, I really disliked. It didn’t truly seem like she’d ever cared for Rice Fish, just using the mindship for her own ends and caring little for the fact that their actions and lack of relationship had a negative impact on Hồ.
I really liked the concept of the mindships, although I would have liked a bit more information about them. For instance, how did they have siblings? I would have liked to see more of Crow’s Words in this book. Compared to a lot of the other characters like Tám, Cám and even Tiên), he was very much more of an enigma and that only made me more interested in him.
Some of the politics in this book were very confusing, but I really appreciated the fact that Rice Fish did have dreams and ideals. They might not have been entirely realistic, but they did add an extra layer to her character and made her feel more real as I was reading the book.
On the whole, I did enjoy this book a lot. There was a great slow burn with the romance and the visuals of the characters, particularly Rice Fish, were really well-written. I’m definitely interested in reading more books by this author, and from the same world as this one, in the future.
I watched the original Shazam! movie and was very interested in watching the sequel when it came out. So when I had the chance to watch this at the cinema, I was immediately interested.
The very first scene of this movie introduces the threat of Hespera and Kalypso, the Daughters of Atlas who are attempting to gain their powers back and bring their own realm back to life. They are immediately shown to be ruthless and willing to do whatever it takes to further their goals, killing everyone in the museum that held what they wanted to retrieve without any kind of hesitation or remorse.
This movie was obviously set some time after the first one and it was really good to see that there were some tensions and conflicts forming between the family. And it was also really sad to see Billy trying desperately to keep everyone together and working as a family, even though he wasn’t at the point of being able to call Rosa and Victor Mom and Dad. It was especially good to see Mary trying to juggle being a superhero along with her need to work and go on to further education. And it was also really good to see Billy’s relationship with Freddy, who was really annoyed by his older brother’s (only by a month) overprotectiveness, but it was obvious they really cared about each other.
On the subject of family, I really loved how accepting Rosa and Victor were of all their children. From the start, it seemed like they made a huge effort to interact with all of the children…and I could feel Rosa’s sadness when Billy insisted on calling her and Victor by their names, rather than Mom and Dad.
There was a lot of humour in this movie that really helped to defuse the tension. Plus, the actors who played the adult versions of Billy and his siblings did a really good job of showing the mannerisms and personality of the younger forms. And the tension in this movie really came across well. I was on the edge of my seat a lot throughout this movie and I was so caught up in watching it, I didn’t take my phone out to check the time even once!
I also really liked the interactions and relationship that formed between Freddy and Anthea. I really felt that was one of the strongest parts of the movie and there was a lot of character development on both of their parts. I’m not a big fan of romance shoehorned into every movie, but this was a particularly sweet one that was given time to grow.
All in all, this was a movie I really enjoyed that had engaging characters I really cared about and moments that had me laughing out loud. It’s definitely a movie I’d enjoy watching again and if you enjoy superhero movies and liked the first Shazam!, you’ll definitely enjoy this one.
Also, there are two extra scenes after the movie is finished, so if you do watch it, make sure you stay until the end!
After seeing X at the cinema last year, I was interested in seeing the movie that was the prequel to it…showing the path that Pearl took that ultimately ended with her becoming the serial killer as seen in X.
It was hard not to feel some empathy for Pearl, given how difficult her life was and the hard relationship she had with her mother. I didn’t really like Pearl as a character, but I did feel for the person stuck in a life that she really didn’t want, waiting for her husband to return home from the war and having to deal with an illness that a lot of people in the town were suffering from.
This movie did a really good job of feeling like a very old-style movie. Right from the start, I felt like I was pulled into the world of the movie…however, parts of it felt more like a stage production than a true movie. Almost like it was perhaps an idealised version of Pearl’s story?
It was interesting to see the progression of Pearl from a trapped, isolated wife to the serial killer that she becomes before the events of X. Right from the start, it is very clear that there’s something wrong with Pearl. After all, she goes from dancing in the barn, pretending that the animals are her audience, to killing a goose with a pitchfork and feeding it to an alligator…and that’s one of the very first scenes of the movie.
It was very difficult to see the condition that Pearl’s father was in during this movie. I wasn’t sure if he’d had a stroke, or if there’d been an accident of some kind…but Pearl had clearly had a very close relationship with her father, although some parts of it were a bit strange, such as Pearl bathing naked with her father in the room with her.
Parts of this movie were very gruesome, but I didn’t really feel much of a connection to many of the characters in this movie. A lot of them, I was seeing through Pearl’s eyes…and because she didn’t really seem to care about the people around her, that’s probably why I couldn’t really care about them either.
There was quite a creepy/intense scene towards the end of the movie, where Pearl picks up an axe and stalks after one of her victims in broad daylight…which was actually when a lot of the violence happened. That felt quite surreal, as a lot of the time in slasher/murder movies, the violence takes place at night time, or at least in a darkened house.
All in all, this movie was okay to watch. I wouldn’t choose to watch it again, but the atmosphere and feel of the movie were quite good. If you have seen X, this movie does show Pearl’s background, so I think it’s good to watch in that respect.
Ink of Blood 