Ink of Blood

(This review may contain spoilers).

I liked this movie a lot more than I thought I would. Tree wasn’t a very sympathetic character at first, but as the movie went on, she grew on me quite a bit.

I wasn’t too happy with the way the explanation was handled, as I still had questions by the end of the movie. It was good to see Tree’s evolution and gradual reveal that there was more to her than just the stereotypical mean girl.

I couldn’t have said that the movie was a true Groundhog Day style one, as on the second day, even, characters said and did things they hadn’t on the first day. That could have been done quite cleverly, but as nothing was made of those changes, they just seemed like mistakes that weren’t caught.

There was a good amount of tension throughout this movie and although there were some really gory moments in it, those didn’t seem too over the top.

I did really like Carter and it was good to see him play a larger role in the movie than just being the guy who Tree happened to go home with the night before. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him at times. I would have liked to see a bit more of his roommate, who really only seemed to appear to make it clear the day was resetting.

As I mentioned earlier, I would have liked to have a bit more explanation about why this was happening to Tree. But I enjoyed being able to get to know her and the rest of the characters through the repeating day and by the end of the movie, I was fully invested in and cared about what happened to her.

This is a movie I wouldn’t mind watching again, even if I wouldn’t buy it as soon as it came out on DVD.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I haven’t read the book this movie is based on, but I still found the movie easy to follow. I couldn’t help but feel a lot of sympathy for the boy at the beginning of the movie, even though it was clear that he was going to grow up to be the murderer as shown in the trailers.

I did find Harry to be an interesting character. While I wasn’t sure what drove him to drink, it made him intriguingly flawed. I did, however, get increasingly frustrated with the lack of communication between him and Katrine. I think a lot could have been avoided if they’d just talked to each other – and the way they worked together seemed to be accidental.

I liked seeing Harry’s relationship with Oleg and it would have been good to see more of their interactions with each other.

I did, however, feel that there was too much going on in this movie. There were several other storylines that were introduced and then seemed to just fizzle out. And there were quite a few scenes where the viewer was shown how something happened, but the characters weren’t shown figuring it out.

It was interesting to see the two different cases and to see how they converged towards the end. I was, however, left with a lot of questions by the end. I felt that the police didn’t follow the leads and ignored some of the clues that were left. While the characters were well-written and the actors played well off each other, I didn’t think there was enough foreshadowing or clues for me to follow as a viewer.

I enjoyed this movie for what it was, but it’s not something I plan to watch again in the future. I felt there was too much going on and not enough given for the ending to click.

(This review may contain spoilers).

While I haven’t seen the original Blade Runner movie, I did find this one to be really easy to follow. I wouldn’t, however, suggest watching this movie for Harrison Ford, as despite the promise of the blurb, he doesn’t really have a cameo until right towards the end.

While I didn’t really think much of K at first, if I’m honest, he did grow on me as the movie went on, but I still didn’t find him as engaging as he could have been. I didn’t think there was as much depth to him as there was Joi – and it wasn’t until towards the end of the movie he seemed to be thinking for himself; and even then, he didn’t actually act under his own influence.

It was good to see the way society had changed, but there was very little ethnic diversity. Considering the apparent intermingling of cultures, I was disappointed not to see much, if any, ethnic diversity.

I originally found Luv to be an intriguing character, but by the end of the movie, she didn’t seem to have much depth to her. Like K, I felt she reacted as she was told to.

I did like seeing K’s journey to find out the truth, but I didn’t see him as having much emotional connection to anything, even to Joi. Ryan Gosling is a good actor, but I didn’t see much range in him even when the character wasn’t interacting with Joshi.

By the end of the movie, I was left with more questions than answers and although there was a lot of action, I didn’t feel as engaged as I could have been. The movie was long, but although it could have dragged a bit, I didn’t really get bored throughout. However, I don’t intend to watch this movie again in the future.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I don’t tend to watch Lego movies or television series. When they’re based off of already existing franchises, I tend to prefer the original formats. And I find the Lego versions to be childish rather than family-friendly. Having said that, I have a four-year-old nephew who loves Lego Ninjago. And the episodes I’ve seen when he has it on have intrigued me.

While it was interesting to see the movie start off in the real world, I didn’t really like that aspect. The rest of the movie didn’t really resonate with me so much emotionally, as it was more difficult to suspend my disbelief due to that opening scene.

I liked Lloyd a lot, but I struggled a bit more to differentiate between the rest of the ninjas. Out of those, it was only Zane who was distinctive enough to stand out for me.

It was easy to empathise with Lloyd’s feelings of abandonment, but I felt Garmadon didn’t really have as much depth to him as I’d seen in the series my nephew watches. For a villain, I felt he was very immature.

Although there were some humorous moments in this movie, there was really only one that made me come close to laughing. That was also the scene that made me wonder how virtually no one in the city of Ninjago had figured out the identities of the ninjas.

I did like the instances of bonding between Garmadon and Lloyd during the course of the journey, but the appearance of the cat, while it did kind of fit in with the feel of the movie, introduced an element that made it more difficult for me to suspend my disbelief.

All in all, this was an okay movie that worked as a family film, but I didn’t think there was much below the surface. I’m sure my nephew would enjoy watching the movie, though.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I didn’t go into this movie with too many expectations. I’d say it was entertaining to watch, but not really anything special in the way of horror movies. I mean, it did firm in my mind that ‘spooky forest’ is high on my list of places to avoid, along with ‘unexplored caves’ and ‘dark basements’, but I’ve had that sense from other movies.

It was hard not to feel some empathy towards Luke. In the trailer, his actions in hiding while his friend was killed could be seen as cowardly. The truth is, it’s impossible for someone to predict how they will react until they are actually faced with a life or death situation.

One problem I felt with this movie was that, as soon as the four men entered the forest, it was like they’d never existed outside of it. At least two of them were married and one had children, but apart from a couple of throwaway lines – and one scene at the end – nothing really showed that part of them. No phone calls. No e-mails, even.

There was little I felt that was new and different about this movie. There were a few creepy moments, but that came from the unseen. As soon as I saw the reality, any fear was lost.

By the end of the movie, I was actually quite disappointed. While Luke did go down in my estimation, considering some of the actions he took, that was more of a personal taste thing and given that most of the movie revolved around four characters, I did think the actors did a good job of playing off each other. But a lot of the horror was long and drawn out. Quite predictable, really. But my disappointment came from hallucinations seen by one of the characters. Particularly in light of the revelations at the end, I was expecting the movie to take a more unexpected turn.

This movie did more or less follow the criteria of any slasher movie, but with characters who were well-developed and likable in their interactions with each other. I wouldn’t watch it again, as there’d be nothing to gain from that, but it was entertaining enough the first time.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I watched the original movie this one was based on and I enjoyed that one a lot more than this, to be honest. I was very hesitant about watching this movie, but I thought I’d give it a chance and see if it might be better than I thought.

The thought of whether there’s life after death is one that is questioned a lot, so the idea of the flatlining itself was quite an intriguing one. But the original film handled it a lot better.

This movie was very much more about being a supernatural horror than making people think. There were too many cheap jump scares in this movie, with an atmosphere more than a little familiar.

Out of the characters, I found Courtney and Ray to have the most depth to them. Jamie just seemed to be a typical rich playboy, complete with living on a boat. Sophia came across as quite weak and passive…and Marlo was, to me, a very unsympathetic character, especially when her ‘secret’ was inevitably revealed.

On the other hand, I found it easy to relate to and empathise with Courtney. She had a lot of depth to her and even though I thought she handled things really badly when the movie took a darker turn, I found her a really intriguing character. And Ray, I thought, had more sense than many characters in horror movies seem to.

It was disappointing that, even though Kiefer Sutherland had a cameo in this movie, there were no links in to the original. There was nothing subtle about what the characters were experiencing and the flatline scenes actually gave away a lot of what the main characters had done wrong.

This movie would have been better as a sequel to the first rather than a remake. It was okay to watch once, but there was little that was unique or really added to the original. It was what I was expecting, but still disappointing. This isn’t a movie I intend to watch again.