Ink of Blood

(This review may contain spoilers).

I haven’t read the book this movie is based on, but when I originally saw the trailer about a year or so ago, I was really intrigued by it. Even if it did seem like an action-spy movie, it came across as different enough that my interest was piqued.

It was good to see the different paths Dominika and Nate took, though Dominika had more of her past and motivations explored than Nate did.

While the scenes with Dominika being trained as a sparrow were really disturbing, they were also very intense to watch. I did think that Dominika came across as a very tough woman during the course of the film; even when she was being hurt, it was fairly obvious she wouldn’t break.

It was good to get glimpses of how the bigger picture worked with both the Russian and American intelligence agencies, though I did find it a bit harder by the end to figure out all of the politics involved.

There was a lot of violence in this movie and it was very gory in parts; though I have to say, it could have been a lot worse than it actually was. The movie didn’t shy away from the violence, but didn’t go over-the-top with it. I can’t really say the same for the sexual connotations, though.

Dominika’s uncle was a really disturbing character and I couldn’t help but cringe every time he appeared. I did kind of wonder what her mother was doing while Dominika was gone for so long, though, as it seemed like Dominika never made any attempts to check up on her.

Apart from Nate and Dominika, there weren’t very many likable characters in this movie…but I did really like them and I enjoyed seeing them interacting with each other.

This movie was engaging and I did like watching it. I would probably watch this movie again at some point in the future.

(This review may contain spoilers).

This isn’t the first Lara Croft movie I’ve seen, but so far, I think it might be my favourite.

This version of Lara Croft was very easy to empathise with and care about. It was really good to see the brief snippets of her past, as it allowed me to see the relationship she had with her father and something of what her life had been like growing up.

There wasn’t a lot of depth to the main villain of the movie, even though it was clear some attempt had been made to humanise him. The best types of villains are those who have good reasons behind their actions…or at least good reasons as far as they’re concerned. But many of his actions throughout just showed him as a completely evil person who enjoyed tormenting those forced to work under his command.

I found myself drawn really easily into this movie, even though it was kind of difficult to suspend my disbelief when it came to some of the things Lara could do. Some of those were foreshadowed and made sense; others really didn’t.

I did find the legend of Himiko to be really intriguing and it was particularly good to see the puzzles that had to be solved throughout.

I did think that, even though she was clearly capable of defending herself, Lara didn’t necessarily make the best decisions; and until she left to follow in the direction her father had taken, there were elements of telling rather than showing.

I couldn’t really say how true this movie stayed to the source material, but I did enjoy this movie and I did care about what happened to the characters. I probably wouldn’t rush to buy this movie on DVD, but I wouldn’t mind watching it again in the future.

(This review may contain spoilers).

When I originally saw this movie advertised, I was very interested in watching it, as someone who’s been a Christian for a long time. I was immediately intrigued by a movie portraying Jesus’ life that focused primarily on one of his apostles who was a woman.

Having said that, I found this movie difficult to engage with at first. I feel part of that was due to the lack of ethnic realism.

I also found it hard with so many characters shown all at once without much depth. For instance, I had no idea how many siblings Mary had. And out of all the other apostles following Jesus, only Peter and Judas Iscariot had any real development. While I can undetstand a movie not having the time to spend developing every person portrayed, this was a group of people spending weeks travelling together. I was disappointed that more time wasn’t spent showing the friendships and, yes, conflicts between this group of people.

I did really like the focus put on women in this movie, but I felt there were other scenes in the Bible portraying women that I would have liked to see expanded upon. For instance, Jesus’ closeness with Lazarus’ sister; and the Samaritan woman at the well he asked for a drink of water from.

While it was good to see the male apostles questioning and doubting, I almost felt that Mary came across as quite one-dimensional. She seemed kind of on a pedestal; someone who had no questions or doubts that would have shown her as a real person with faith increasing as she grew and learned.

I wasn’t quite as absorbed in this movie as I could have been, but I felt that the reasoning behind the focus on Mary was good and, ultimately, I’m glad I decided to give it a chance, even though I don’t think I’ll be watching it again any time soon.

(This review may contain spoilers).

It took me a little while to get to see this movie, but having seen it today, I’m glad I managed to before it went out of cinemas.

While I wouldn’t have said this movie was terrible unique, it was really entertaining to watch. I enjoyed seeing Miguel interacting with his family and I thought the way his family history was told at the beginning worked really well.

There wasn’t a lot of interaction between Miguel’s family and the rest of the people in the town, so it was difficult to see how their refusal to allow music into their lives was viewed by everyone around them.

It was good to see that Miguel had such a strong passion for music and I found it really easy to empathise with him and his desire to follow his dream. I would say that his parents didn’t really seem to have much depth to them, or even to really interact with him; certainly not as much as his grandmother and great-grandmother.

I would have liked a bit more detail about the spirit guides and how they worked, as it seemed that only certain souls had them…and it was also amusing how those guides seemed to fit in with the personalities of their souls.

There was quite a bit of humour in this movie and I really liked the underlying themes of family. The land of the dead really stood out in comparison to the land of the living, but I couldn’t help feeling sorry for the souls who were completely forgotten about. It seemed that ‘final death’ would be inevitable for any soul.

This movie engaged me really well and I was completely absorbed in watching it. While I wouldn’t rush to buy it on DVD, it’s a film I wouldn’t mind watching again in the future.

(This review may contain spoilers).

When I saw this movie originally advertised at the cinema, it was one that immediately intrigued me, even though it wasn’t a genre that I would normally go out of my way to watch. So when it turned out the secret showing at my local cinema was for this movie, I was very happy.

Simon was a character I immediately found it really easy to identify with. It was really nice to see glimpses of his relationships with his parents and sister. I kind of wished his background with his friends ad been expanded upon a bit more, but I definitely liked what I saw of their friendship. And even though the letters between Simon and Blue were an important part of the movie, it was good to see other parts of Simon’s life were just as important.

While there was some attempt to make Martin a more sympathetic character, even by the end of the movie, I really didn’t like him.

I had some mixed feelings about the principal, as his attitude of wanting to be friends with everyone actually came across as quite fake.

There was a lot more humour in this movie than I was expecting and it was nice to see the way the feelings grew between Simon and Blue, even though neither of them knew who the other was. It was also good to see the way Simon imagined the email writer each time he thought he’d figured out Blue’s identity.

There were a lot of really sweet moments in this movie and I found it really easy to empathise with and care about what happened to Simon. By the end of the film, my romantic side had been fully reawakened; and I was very happy with everything that happened in the finale.

(This review may contain spoilers).

It took me a while to sit down and write out this review as, even though I try not to go into movies with any preconceptions, I walked out of this one feeling very disappointed.

I thought there was lot of telling rather than showing, particularly when it came to Elisa not being able to talk. There weren’t any issues with people understanding her and the only time someone didn’t, it was when she would have been put in a bad situation if she had been understood.

The relationship that formed between Elisa and Amphibian Man was probably the most powerful part of this movie, even if it was hard to see the latter as really humanoid. There were some really sweet moments in this movie and I thought it was good to see the effects of segregation, even if the problems faced by someone with a disability weren’t really shown.

I did like seeing the friendship between Elisa and Zelda, as well as Zelda’s interactions and relationship with Giles.

To be honest, it was the first scene of this movie that was thoroughly engaging and actually quite beautiful to watch. The rest of the movie didn’t really have that same dreamlike quality to it that I’d engaged with right at the start.
I really didn’t like Strickland; which was sort of the point, I guess. But as a villain, he had zero depth to him. Plus, his wife looked like a completely stereotypical housewife from that time and it was very hard to take that seriously.

I did like seeing the characters work together and although there were some very disturbing, gory scenes, the movie was very entertaining to watch. I did find it engaging, despite there being issues I would have liked to see improved upon. I wouldn’t choose to watch this movie again any time soon, though.

(This review may contain spoilers).

When I saw the trailer for this movie, I was immediately intrigued by the idea, even though I was fairly sure it would follow the same kind of criteria as many other movies for teenagers I’ve seen.

I found it quite hard to relate to Kyle at first. Mostly because the character seemed to come across as really one-dimensional and shallow. I found some of the secondary characters intriguing, but the fact there was hardly any ethnic diversity made me disappointed in the movie.

The really unique idea of this movie was the whole idea of the Universe app, as I liked that it made what was ‘put out there’ come true. I thought it was amusing how, on occasion, what Kyle put out there wasn’t what he was expecting what would happen, but it was a bit disappointing that not much else was done with that.

I didn’t really find Kyle very sympathetic throughout the movie and even though, by the end, he had more of a real friendship with Lonnie, for a lot of the movie, it seemed like Kyle was a really bad friend to him.

I didn’t think Kyle’s sister had a lot of depth to her, to be honest. She just seemed to latch onto her boyfriend and become a completely different person just for him. To be honest, none of the characters demonstrated a lot of depth or strength; and the person I felt the most sympathy for was Kyle’ mother.

While there were some brief moments of humour in this movie, I thought there wasn’t much that allowed it to stand out. The characters were fairly stereotypical and the Universe app could have been played with a lot more.

This movie was entertaining to watch, but I didn’t feel it was anything special and didn’t really feel it was enough to stand out. There was a lot that could have been improved upon.

I don’t intend to watch this movie again, at least any time soon.

(This review may contain spoilers).

To probably absolutely no one’s surprise, I immediately jumped at the opportunity to watch Black Panther on the day it came out at my local cinema.

I liked being able to get a little bit of background on the history of the black panthers, but although the images were very visually appealing, I didn’t feel like they fit with the rest of the movie.

I really liked being able to see something of the culture of Wakanda and the cIonflicts faced with bringing technology into a society that was more traditional. I thought the hints of conflicts between the characters were good and there were some very strong elements of foreshadowing throughout.

I did feel that the trailers for a certain future movie in the franchise removed some of the tension and worry about one of the characters.

While I did like T’Challa, I actually liked his sister and Okoye a whole lot more and I felt they were shown to have a lot more depth to them, while T’Challa was more of the stereotypical hero with his own journey to go on. And I was a bit disappointed that Nakia didn’t really have much depth to her apart from being a fairly stereotypical rebellious love interest.

I didn’t think there was as much humour in this movie as Marvel usually seems to contain, but there was plenty of action and tension to keep me focused throughout.

It was good to see a cameo, however brief, of one of the minor characters -Everett Ross – from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And it was really good to see him developed a bit more and to see something of a true friendship forming between him and T’Challa.

One of the strongest parts of the movie, I felt, was the history of T’Challa’s family and how the past resurfaced in the present. I enjoyed seeing the glimpses of the culture and being able to see another character brought from the comics to the MCU.

I couldn’t really say this was my favourite Marvel movie, but I did find it very entertaining and wouldn’t mind watching it again. If you do go to see it, make sure you stay until the end, as there are two extra scenes during and post-credits.

(This review may contain spoilers).

Having watched and enjoyed the previous two movies in this franchise, I was very excited when I saw the trailer for this one, even though I try not to get too hyped up before watching a movie.

It was good that this movie went straight into the action. I found myself immdiately drawn into the plight of the characters; but this movie won’t make any sense if you haven’t seen the previous two. I’d even go so far as to say rewatch them in preparation for seeing the third.

Perhaps the best part of the movie, at least in my opinion, was the friendship between Thomas and Newt. I loved their interactions and I felt they were the strongest characters in this movie.

I felt that Frypan in particular hadn’t been developed through the three movies. I would have liked to see more of him than just being a tagalong, which was what he came across as.

I didn’t really think much of Brenda in this movie, I have to say. There was considerably less of her sense of her self-preservation and more of her acting foolishly. It’s even stated in a conversation she has that she’s acting out of character. I liked her relationship with Jorge, but I didn’t really like her.

While I felt there was some attempt to give Teresa more depth, I didn’t really like her either – and I thought that Ava’s own arc was left hanging when it could have been explored in so much more depth.

Parts of this movie were very intense to watch, but the zombie-like cranks weren’t as creepy as they had been in the second movie.

I did like that there were some small elements of humour to offset the tension and it was also good to see a return of one of the previous characters and the conflicts that arose from that.

This movie didn’t really let up on the action or intensity and even though the cranks lost a lot of their effectiveness from the previous movie, there was still enough to make me care when they were attacking the characters.

I’ve seen this movie twice at the cinema now and plan to see it a third time. I also intend to buy it on DVD when it comes out.

If you’ve watched the previous movies in this franchise, I strongly recommend seeing this one.