Ink of Blood

(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.

(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.