Spider-Man: Far From Home

Posted by cat2002116 on November 4, 2024
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I obviously watched this movie when it originally came out, so I knew what was coming when I went to see it at the cinema a second time. But I did really enjoy seeing this movie for a second time.

Since this movie was set directly after Endgame, it was a bit different in tone compared to the first Tom Holland as Spider-Man movie. For one thing, it started with a tribute video to all of those who’d died during the events of Endgame, which was really bittersweet.

I liked the fact that Peter was planning to tell MJ how he felt. It was nice to see MJ get a bit more development in this movie as well. I liked her character in the previous movie, but in this one, she was a really great, interesting character. And I really loved her interactions with Peter. I especially loved when she assumes he’s going to tell her he’s Spider-Man, as it makes a lot of sense that MJ would be able to work it out, since she’s pretty smart.

I thought there were some really nice moments of humour in this movie, especially when Peter was wearing the EDITH glasses and desperately trying to delete a picture…only to accidentally send a nuke towards the bus he was on with his fellow students.

I thought the whole thing with Mysterio started out as really interesting – and honestly, I would have liked it if he had not in fact turned out to be a bad guy. Especially considering the route the next movie took with the multiverse.

I really liked that Ned and Betty had a relationship, and they had some really cute moments in this movie. I didn’t think it made sense that they broke up, as it would have been nice to see them continue to date and Ned having to keep Peter’s secret identity from his girlfriend.

I liked that Flash had a little more depth to him this movie, even though he was still a major jerk. It was pretty cute that he really likes Spider-Man, and even says that Spider-Man is better than Mysterio…although he’s still a real jerk to Peter.

There were a lot of great character moments in this movie, along with a lot of great tension. And the movie did end on something of a cliffhanger, which set it up nicely for the third movie in the series.

All told, I really did enjoy this movie. It was a great sequel to Homecoming and I really enjoyed the relationships between the characters. It was a great movie to watch a second time through and I would probably watch it again in the future.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Posted by cat2002116 on September 29, 2024
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While I haven’t actually seen the original Beetlejuice, I knew enough about the movie to decide I was interested enough to watch the sequel now that it’s out. And I have to say that I really did enjoy this movie, for all it was extremely over the top and quite gross and even disturbing in places.

I really liked the relationship between Lydia and her daughter, Astrid, and how it seemed to mirror Lydia’s own relationship with her stepmother growing up. I really like Jenna Ortega as an actress, thanks to the latest Scream movies and Wednesday, and I thought she was really good in this movie. I was able to empathise with her conflicted relationship with her mother…and it was interesting that Astrid didn’t believe in Lydia’s ability, given that her mother was so famous for her abilities. I will say that, at the beginning of the movie, I wasn’t sure if Lydia’s abilities were actually real or not…at least until she saw the ghost in the women’s bathroom, who I would have liked to know a bit more about.

I liked the buildup to Beetlejuice being summoned, although I’m not sure if I was misunderstanding the rules of the whole thing, as he kept appearing to Lydia even before being summoned. Maybe he wasn’t able to actually manipulate the world of the living until his name was spoken three times, though?

I think Michael Keaton does a really good job of portraying Beetlejuice, though it completely threw me when the movie suddenly turned into a foreign language film (complete with subtitles) as he proceeded to reveal his history with Delores. I will say that was certainly an…interesting way of showing their history, and I guess it fit in with the weird feel of the whole movie, but even so.

I liked seeing the absolute chaos that the afterlife was, as I felt that was a really creative part of this movie. I also really loved the music sequence with the Soul Train to the Great Beyond…and that scene in particular felt very tense. I also really liked Wolf’s character, even though he was just an actor who’d died while filming his role of a policeman. Was it a bit over the top? Yeah, though I get the feeling that’s how it’s supposed to be. But I was able to follow the movie pretty well, even without having seen the original, and I thought it was a lot of fun.

If you enjoyed watching the first Beetlejuice movie, I would definitely recommend watching this one. Even if you haven’t, but this genre is still one you’d watch, I would definitely recommend giving this one a try.

Speak No Evil

Posted by cat2002116 on September 23, 2024
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I don’t think I’ve seen the original Speak No Evil, but I was intrigued by this one…especially as I really like James McAvoy as an actor. And he definitely did not disappoint in this movie.

I will say that this movie was basically what you see on the tin…or, rather, what you see in the trailer. A couple with their daughter meet another couple with their son while on holiday, and the couple with their son invite the other couple and their daughter to come on holiday with them. Everything seems fairly normal and straightforward, right?

Well…no. Because once Ben and Louise with their daughter Agnes go to visit Paddy and Ciara and their son Ant, things begin to take a more sinister turn. It starts off as fairly innocent enough, with Paddy giving Louise (who’s already stated she’s a vegetarian) some meat to try, and the sheets on the bed Ben and Louise are given having obvious stains on them. These are both fairly mild things when taken alone, but it doesn’t take long before the situation begins to escalate.

I did feel that the tension built really well in this movie. I liked Louise, and even if I thought Ben was kind of weak at times, the two of them had a depth to their relationship that came across really well. I’m not sure if this was deliberate, but it definitely felt like there was some sexual tension between Paddy and Ben. It would have been good if that had been explored a little bit more, as if Ben had been struggling with his sexuality, that would have added more depth to his character, in my opinion.

I didn’t mind the children characters so much, but I did find Agnes to be slightly irritating at times. For instance, I can understand her anxiety, but her reaction of kicking the back of the seat in the car that nearly resulted in a crash absolutely should have been addressed. I also felt that, for her age, she didn’t seem to pick up on any of the clues Ant was giving her that something was seriously wrong between him and his parents. Given that she had enough presence of mind to fake her period when she finally realised something was wrong, the only reason I can think that she didn’t realise something was wrong was because her character was dumbed down. Really, all of them were dumbed down.

I felt that this movie worked pretty well as an action movie, and there were some great cat and mouse scenes towards the end of the movie. But as I said at the beginning of this review, there were no real surprises in this movie. There are no twists and turns, but the actors and the characters they portray definitely make this movie worth watching, in my opinion.

Corpse Party

Posted by cat2002116 on September 15, 2024
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I watched a YouTube video about the computer game, so I was quite interested in watching the movie version of the game. I’ve also found that Japanese horror tends to be more engaging and less about the gory violence than a lot of Western horror movies. However, I will say that this movie did not stint on the gore at all. I sort of knew what I was getting into, based on the clips of the game, but I was still a little surprised.

I did feel that there were too many characters all introduced at once. For instance, the first person who was killed (the teacher) didn’t really do much at the beginning of the movie. I didn’t know why she was still at the school, and I didn’t know why she was included in the friendship chant. To be honest, I was confused about why Yuka was included in it as well. There was nothing to indicate that either Yuka (the younger sister of one of the students) or the teacher had close relationships with Mayu, who was supposed to be leaving, so why were they included in it?

I mentioned that this movie doesn’t hold back on the gore, and the very first death (the teacher) makes that very clear. However, I did get taken out of the movie briefly by the death scene. The teacher’s appearance after being struck in the head looked like a Barbie doll’s head had been caved in, rather than a person dying. The special effects did get better, at least marginally so, but some of them still seemed a little cartoonish.

Naomi was one of the characters who was very well-developed, and I would have liked to see more of her friendship with Seiko, especially as it seemed Seiko had feelings for Naomi she wasn’t comfortable admitting to. Despite their history together not really being that developed, I did think they had a really sweet scene between them towards the end of the movie.

I also really liked Satoshi as a character. His goal was clearly to find his sister, but he came across as wanting to save the others, given that he protected Naomi and also asked Yoshiki to take care of her and Ayumi while he tried to find Yuka again. I really didn’t like Ayumi – her motivations didn’t seem to make much sense, and just made her come across as a pretty awful person.

There were a lot of really great tense scenes in this movie, even though it was really gory in places. Yes, a lot of the minor characters weren’t really well-developed, but by the end of the movie, I did really care about most of the surviving characters. Except for Ayumi, if I’m completely honest.

On the whole, I did find this movie interesting and engaging, although it was quite similar when compared to other Japanese horror. I did like how things ended with Sachiko, though.

If you’re a fan of Japanese horror, I would say that, personally, I feel this movie is worth watching.

AFRAID

Posted by cat2002116 on September 15, 2024
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I didn’t actually know much about this movie going into it. I knew it was a horror movie, of course, but I hadn’t seen any trailers of the movie, so I didn’t have any expectations walking into this movie.

I was a bit confused by the opening scene of the movie, as it was clearly supposed to be a computer game, but it was a really poorly made one. Considering what later happened in the movie and that it was apparently set in the modern day…and possibly even later in the future…I was seriously questioning why the computer graphics in the game were so bad.

I did feel that this movie had a lot of potential that, sadly, didn’t come to fruition. It was very slow-moving for most of the movie, and while AIA was an interesting concept…especially considering the existence of Alexa and Cortana and Siri…she just didn’t seem to be as much of a threat as she could have been.

The opening scene, after the surprisingly bad computer graphics, did have some potential. AIA talking to the little girl, telling her that her parents were going to get rid of her, was a pretty scary concept…and the mother trying to find her daughter who’d suddenly disappeared was a good way of building up tension right at the beginning. Unfortunately, that tension was absent throughout most of the rest of the movie.

I felt that this movie would have worked better as a family movie, rather than a horror movie. The relationship between Curtis and Meredith was quite sweet, even though I empathised with Meredith feeling like all she was now was ‘Mom’. I could understand why she found AIA so helpful at first, but the problem was that she went from suspicious, to accepting, to outright rejecting…and it just didn’t allow me to relate to the character all that well. I also really liked the children, but…they didn’t feel like siblings at all. There were hardly any interactions between Iris, Preston or Cal. I know there was the age difference, but most siblings are still going to interact with each other. The three of them just felt like strangers to each other.

Really, for most of the movie, I was questioning…why? Why was AIA considered such a problem? AIA didn’t do anything outwardly suspicious. Yes, as a viewer, I could see that there were situations where AIA was problematic, like when she showed Preston the swatting videos. However, these weren’t shown to the characters, so…why was Curtis so suspicious of everything? Really, it didn’t feel realistic…even when having to suspend my disbelief of a horror movie anyway.

To be honest, this movie would have done a much better job if it had been simply about a family dealing with an AI without the added elements of horror. There was so much this movie could have done, but it was slow-moving, a short movie, and wasn’t actually that scary. I never actually felt like the characters were in any real danger.

If you’re looking for a horror movie, I wouldn’t recommend watching this movie. It definitely gives off more family vibes. Sadly, it was another disappointing horror.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Posted by cat2002116 on September 5, 2024
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Since The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was showing again at the cinema, I definitely wanted to go and see it. And I still remembered bits of the movie, even though some of what I remembered wasn’t actually accurate.

I liked seeing how Peter was juggling his life as Peter Parker with his responsibilities as Spider-Man. I really liked how it seemed like he was actually working with the police, instead of just being a vigilante…and it was good to see that he was affected by the events of the first movie; specifically the death of Gwen’s father and the promise Captain Stacy had extracted from him.

One of the things I really liked about this movie was the friendship between Peter and Harry, even if it was strained due to Harry dying and Peter keeping his secret identity…well, secret. I would have liked to see more of their interactions, as I really enjoyed seeing their friendship.

I did feel quite a lot of empathy for Max in this movie, even if he did come across as kind of creepy at times. Really, he just seemed to be really lonely…and I felt bad that he got left behind to fix the tank with the electric eels in. It also felt really sad that Peter didn’t remember his name, even though Peter had a lot on his plate outside of being Spider-Man. I really did like the scene where he was wearing a fireman’s hat and using the hose, though.

There was a lot that was serious about this movie, but I also really liked the fact that there were moments of humour in it. I laughed when Peter accidentally came out in his graduation gown with his Spider-Man mask still on…and I felt so much empathy for him when he kept seeing Captain Stacy, reminding him of the promise he’d made to stay away from Gwen. I knew what would happen at the end, which made it even more difficult to see how Peter was torn between his love for Gwen and wanting to protect her from the danger he was in as Spider-Man.

I liked the opening scene of this movie, with Peter’s parents and the mystery that surrounded them. Having Peter figure out what his father was actually doing, and how it affected his relationship with his Aunt May, was a really good part of this movie. I did feel bad that May had to work two jobs to pay for him to go to college…and part of me would have really liked to see her realise that Peter was Spider-Man, especially towards the end.

I really enjoyed seeing this movie a second time, and I still wish that there’d been a third Amazing Spider-Man. It was good to see Andrew Garfield appear again, though, and I definitely intend to watch the next three Spider-Man films (Tom Holland’s Spider-Man) at the cinema over the next three weeks.

The Amazing Spider-Man

Posted by cat2002116 on August 26, 2024
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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
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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
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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
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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.