Ink of Blood

(This review may contain spoilers).

I was actually pretty excited about going to see Justice League at the cinema. While some of the movies in the DC Cinematic Universe have been a bit hit and miss, I’ve still been enjoying seeing the journey they’re taking.

It was nice to see the backgrounds of the Flash and Aquaman, though I felt that a lot more depth could have been shown when it came to Aquaman. There were hints of a lot of conflict between him and his people, but those hints were kind of lost in everything else that was going on.

While I am kind of biased towards the actor for the Flash in the television series, I did actually really like him in the movie. There were some very good elements of humour involving him and while I wouldn’t have said this film was quite as engaging as the Marvel Universe team-ups, I was very focused on the movie and it did draw me in.

It was kind of necessary to watch Batman Vs. Superman, as the film is almost a direct sequel to that. Ben Afleck was quite good as Batman; better than he was in Batman Vs. Superman, I felt. And it was nice to see the personal lives of Barry and Victor. I really liked Victor and it was nice to see his relationship with his father. I couldn’t help but feel some empathy for what he was going through, but it was good to see that he was still trying to work with the others.

It was also good to get to see the Amazons, but I felt there was an element of the soldiers being thrown away and it was nearly impossible to care about them, as they just seemed to keep on coming and the ones who died seemed to be expendable.

There was a lot of good action in this movie and I enjoyed seeing the main characters relating to each other. In the future, I would be interested in re-watching this movie. And I plan to buy it on DVD.

If you watch this movie, make sure you stay till the end, as there is an extra scene.

(This review may contain spoilers).

This movie was a lot more intense to watch than I was expecting. I really liked the relationship shown between Max and Jake. Even though there was clearly a lot of complications, it was really good to see how they interacted with each other.

There was a lot of action in this movie and it was really good to see that action take place on two different fronts. I did think that those in a position of power handled things badly, though.

It was strange to see Robert Sheehan in this, as I couldn’t help seeing him as Nathan from Misfits. It was a bit disappointing not to get more depth with him and some of the other characters on the space station.

I thought the concept of the satellites controlling the weather and stopping the extremes was a really good one and it was also good to see something that might well be possible in reality, if countries could work together.

There was a lot going on in this movie, but it was good that the main characters at least had relationships with other people and other things they cared about. I liked seeing Max with Sarah and Jake with his daughter.

I did think there were a few clichés in this movie and some of the science kind of went over my head. There were some quite clever aspects of this movie and I felt very engaged with the storyline and the characters.

All in all, I found this movie to be really entertaining to watch, with characters and a plot I truly cared about. I plan to watch this movie again in the future and probably buy it when it comes out on DVD – and it would be good to see a sequel, perhaps set in the future when Jake’s daughter is all grown up.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I actually found this movie quite hard to watch – not because it wasn’t good, but because I grew so used to seeing David Suchet as Poirot. Even by the end, I couldn’t get used to Kenneth Branagh.

At the same time, this movie was quite entertaining to watch. It was good to see Poirot putting together clues and making connections with his ‘little grey cells’, even if I didn’t always follow his reasoning. For instance, there’d been little to no foreshadowing of Ratchett’s real identity before the murder occurred.

I did get somewhat confused with the sheer amount of characters that were on the train and I felt that the closed quarters could have been utilised a whole lot more than they were to generate a sense of claustrophobia in both the characters and the viewer. The camera angles shot from above just made it confusing and difficult to see any real details.

I did think it was good that Poirot had different ways of questioning people based on their personalities, but that could also have been utilised better – shown instead of referenced once by a character and then not brought up again.

I thought the actors did a good job of playing off each other. I did, however, keep forgetting what time period the movie was placed in. Apart from some throwaway racist lines, there wasn’t really all that much.

It was good to have revelations about the characters come out as Poirot interacted with them, but as everyone was hiding something, it just became a long game of waiting.

While everything did come together, I didn’t really feel satisfied by the end of the movie. I wouldn’t have said it really added anything to the franchise and just seemed to be about retelling the original movie. I don’t have any plans to watch this movie again.

(This review may contain spoilers).

As I watched the Pokémon cartoons as a child, and continue to enjoy playing the games, I was immediately interested in watching this movie.

At first, I was kind of disappointed, as the first five minutes of the movie effectively rehashed the first episode of the cartoons. However, after the opening credits, I actually became quite emotionally invested in the movie. Even if Ash does seem to be perpetually stuck in the body of a ten-year-old.

It was interesting to see the movie focus so much on the legendary Pokémon, but I particularly liked the friendship shown between Ash and his Pokémon. However, although there were some darker elements in this, I didn’t really feel those were explored enough, especially when it came to Ash reacting badly to Cross (who I thought looked very much like his main Pokémon with his hair).

I did like Verity and Sorrel, but I also felt that Verity seemed very similar to Misty personality-wise at the start. It was really good to learn about both of them and a bit about their history.

I also particularly liked seeing the different types of Pokémon, though it was a bit surprising that Ash didn’t have the Pokedex I’ve grown so used to seeing throughout both the series and games.

I also liked the appearance of Team Rocket, but I didn’t really feel they added anything to the movie. And both James and Meowth sounded vastly different, which was hard to get my head round.

While it was good to see the acknowledgement that Ash was a kid away from home and to see his calls to his Mom, there wasn’t really much shown of Pokémon outside of battle. And they seemed to come across more as pets.

I did enjoy watching this movie and I wouldn’t mind watching it again in the future, even though I probably wouldn’t rush to buy it on DVD.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I’ll preface this review by saying this is the first movie in the Saw franchise I’ve seen. I wouldn’t have seen this one, except the trailer was engaging enough to make me want to watch it.

Okay, so I had very mixed feelings by the time this movie finished. I do know the basic concept of the franchise, so I knew what to expect.

The scene at the start did a good job of drawing me into the movie, even though the more I learned about the ‘victim’, the less sympathy I had for him.

The scenes interspersed with the games Jigsaw’s victims were forced to play were quite enlightening, more so when I found out more about them. Of course, the more I learned about them, the less I cared about their fates. Really, only Anna seemed to care at all about something other than her own life. And then what I learned of her was completely at odds with what I’d seen of her while held captive. To make it more believable, there should have been more of an evolution of character shown outside of the games.

On the police side of things, there seemed to be more just standing around saying, ‘this is impossible,’ until towards the end. Apart from Logan and Eleanor, I didn’t feel the individual police officers had a whole lot of depth to them. And Eleanor didn’t really seem to have much substance outside of her fascination with Jigsaw.

The movie was particularly gruesome throughout and definitely deserved its 18 rating. It was good to see how things began coming together, but I didn’t really feel like there were many chances for jigsaw’s victims.

I did think that the movie was very cleverly done and it did resonate with me. I actually found Jigsaw to be more sympathetic than I was expecting; and this movie did trigger an interest in watching the other movies in the franchise at some point in the future. It seemed to blur some lines morally and that was very interesting to see.

(This review may contain spoilers).

When I initially saw the trailer of this movie, I thought it looked like a lot of fun. Plus, I really like Marvel – and Thor is one of my favourite superheroes in the cinematic universe – so I’ve been looking forward to this movie for a long time.

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Loki had always been my favourite character; and he definitely was in this movie, even though he did start to get a bit predictable after a while. But I really enjoyed seeing him and Thor interacting.

I was very disappointed with what happened with the Warriors Three, as I would have liked to see more of them. It was also disappointing not to see anything of Sif in this movie, or even to have a mention of her.

I did like that there were some moments of comedy in this movie, even if there wasn’t as much as I’ve seen in other Marvel movies. I didn’t like Valkyrie very much to begin with, but she did grow on me by the end of the movie.

It was nice to see Hulk with more of a personality outside of being ‘big, mean and green’. In many ways, he came across as very childlike.

I found it interesting to learn more of Hela and get glimpses of her history with Odin. I have to say, though, I didn’t find her nearly as complex a villain as Loki, though.

It was good to see Doctor Strange appear, however briefly, even though that scene didn’t really add anything for those who have been keeping up with the MCU. It was good to see the nods to the other superheroes, even though there were no references to the civil war.

I did really enjoy this movie and I fully intend to buy it when it comes out on DVD. Make sure you stay till the end if you go to see it, though.