Ink of Blood

(This review may contain spoilers).

Looking through the horror movies on Netflix, this was one that immediately stood out. While I was a bit unsure of the movie first off, considering just how many bad horror movies I’ve stumbled across, I was pleasantly surprised by this movie.

While it’s very clear, from Lily’s narration at the beginning of the movie, how it will end, the journey to get there was unexpected and actually hauntingly beautiful at times. The way the lives and deaths of Polly, Iris and Lily were intertwined was actually quite powerful and while there were a lot of unanswered questions by the end of the movie, I was left feeling quite moved and almost with the sensation of wanting to watch the movie again for the first time.

The confusion exhibited by Iris was almost heartbreaking to watch and although there were some creepy moments in this movie, the atmosphere itself was almost calming, which is a strange way of describing a horror movie. There wasn’t really any violence, even in the story and hints of what happened to Polly.

At the beginning, Lily seemed quite stilted and uncomfortable, which seemed more because of the character than the actress. I actually very much liked watching her little habits and getting to know her as a character, something I don’t tend to see so much with other horror films, that are more interested in making the audience jump than in forming an emotional connection to the characters, to the point of caring about the inevitable ending.

I do think the scenes of Polly as a ghost detracted from the atmosphere of the movie. The flashbacks worked well, but as soon as the viewers started seeing things in greater detail, I think the movie lost some of its effectiveness. The blurred images were much more hard-hitting and fit better with the narration at the beginning.

I don’t think I’ll watch this movie again. Not because I didn’t engage with it, but I don’t think it would be as effective to already know what’s going to happen. For me, this was an effective one-time movie.

(This review may contain spoilers).

After trying and failing to watch another movie, I decided to watch this one instead. And while it wasn’t perfect and left a lot of unanswered questions, I felt this movie was one of the better films I’ve watched.

I liked that this movie was in such a small area, as it gave me the opportunity to get to know the main characters more closely. While the first scene showed a very bloody moment, there was actually very little gore involved; and I felt that what wasn’t shown was more terrifying than what was.

It was interesting to note the parallels in the two women, both in the present and in the past. The movie didn’t rely so much on jump scares and was very much more a slow build-up, allowing me, as a viewer, to really feel the isolation and confusion experienced by Joanna.

The real moments of confusion came with the intrusion of the real-world, such as Jeff’s ex-girlfriend and what ultimately happened to her. There were very few scenes that took place outside the flat, but while I thought I eventually figured out what was going on with what was happening in the flat, the outside world just made things even more confusing. There was one very creepy, well-done scene with a payphone ringing outside, even though I did have the question in my mind of exactly how that could have been heard from inside the flat.

I was disappointed in the ending of the movie, if I’m completely honest. While the ending itself wasn’t bad, there were still a lot of unanswered questions and situations that were left hanging. Even the last few glimpses that gave me a few theories about what was really going on didn’t really give me a lot of information.

This movie wasn’t one I would watch again, to be completely honest. There were some good effects and Lisa was easy to identify with, but I felt the ending fell quite short of my expectations.

(This review may contain spoilers).

This film looked like it might be really entertaining from the trailer, but after about fifteen minutes into the movie, I found it hard to differentiate between Lisa and Kate.

I have to say, I did think there were some really beautiful camera shots right from the start of the movie. The appearance of the sharks added a really scary element and succeeded in making sure I will never ever go down into the ocean in a cage. No matter how ‘safe’ it apparently is.

Unfortunately, it seemed like many of the characters in this movie didn’t use much in the way of common sense. Lisa and Kate’s reactions after the cage snaps make a lot of sense, but Kate’s insistence she could teach her sister to dive within a few minutes was dangerously arrogant. Since Captain Taylor seemed aware Lisa wasn’t confident, I felt he shouldn’t have been so quick to let them go down if he was supposed to be truly responsible.

While there were some moments of realism in this movie, I was a bit disappointed that the main characters didn’t really do a whole lot other than scream and flail, despite knowing that doing so would make their air run out faster.

The idea of being trapped underwater is a really scary one and the movie did do a good job of showing that. The sharks were huge and terrifying to see and there were some good camera angles that added to the whole atmosphere of the movie.

I didn’t really like the ending, as I felt that, even though it had been foreshadowed and was plausible, the real ending didn’t show much strength on Lisa’s part.

Despite there being some really creepy moments, and I felt Kate was quite a resourceful character, I felt this movie fell short of the mark. Towards the end, there was a really over-the-top scene that made me work out what was going on.

I don’t think I’ll be watching this film again. I had some high expectations, but unlike the last film I watched with someone facing off against a shark, I found this rather anti-climactic.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I remember watching this movie originally when it came out at the cinema, but recently decided to watch it again, as it was available on Netflix.

It was interesting to see something of the contrasts between the two groups of heroes – or masked vigilantes. While I do like the chivalrous hero, the characters in this movie were far more gritty and had quite a lot of depth to them. Rorschach wasn’t the stereotypical hero, but I found him a lot more interesting.

I found Dr. Manhattan very hard to connect to, which I think was probably down to the character. He appeared to be divorced from his emotions, but even in the flashbacks, I didn’t really care that much for him. Especially after the way he broke up with his previous girlfriend and started a relationship with Laurie.

I would have liked more background on the individual characters. I saw what motivated Rorschach and I saw Dr. Manhattan’s past, but the others just seemed to be there. I wasn’t clear on why Dan joined the group. Or Adrian initially, even though both of them seemed quite idealistic at first, only to be later jaded. And it was an interesting twist to see them after they’d broken up and, in some cases, unmasked.

This movie was a lot darker than most comic-book based movies I’ve seen. The so-called good guys tended to be more in the grey area and I think perhaps Dan was the only one who I really saw as a hero. Though Laurie did demonstrate a lot of physical strength, even if I wasn’t sure I particularly liked her at times.

I had very mixed feelings about the ending, as this was a movie with characters I could understand even when they were on opposite sides. I imagine I’ll watch this movie again in the future and I would have liked to see a sequel to it.

(This review may contain spoilers).

While I don’t tend to watch war films that much, I was intrigued by the trailer of this and the idea of seeing another movie that showed the realities of war, rather than glorifying it, but still showed the kind of heroism ordinary people displayed.

The movie moved around a lot, showing different events all happening at the same time. While it did a good job of showing the confusion and terror of the battle, I found it quite difficult to fully engage with each thing that was going on. It was easy to see the desperation in some of the soldiers who just wanted to go home. And, of course, the way the war affected those people who lived.

I also found it difficult to differentiate the men in the planes. It was good to see the way the small boat tried to pick up and help the men who went down, even if there was a cost to that.

While there was violence in this movie, I thought it seemed downplayed quite a bit. In comparison to the previous war movie I saw (Hacksaw Ridge), the violence was shown across the troops and not individually, which I felt wasn’t quite as effective. However, the fear and survival instinct of the men came through very strongly. Even if there were some soldiers I felt made some morally wrong choices, at least in the movie.

I was very drawn into the movie, even though there were some difficult parts to watch. While I didn’t know much, if anything, of the soldiers’ pasts or relationships, I cared about them in the present time. And it was easy to get caught up in the emotions they experienced, whether it was fear or elation.

I felt this movie was quite powerful to watch the first time through, but I don’t think I personally would gain anything from watching it a second time through, so I won’t be going to see it again or buying it on DVD.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I’ve seen Rise and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, so when I saw this advertised, I immediately wanted to watch this.

This movie was one of those that drew me easily in almost straight away, but I really didn’t like the humans in this movie. Apart from the little girl, all of the humans were clearly the bad guys.

I really liked seeing Caesar interacting with his family and the other apes. In many ways, the apes were more human than the humans and the battle scene at the beginning was really intense.

There were a lot of contradictions with the apes acting the part of ‘donkeys’. Considering they were initially against humans, though not to the level of their leader, it didn’t make a whole lot of sense they would choose to ally themselves with those trying to eradicate the apes.

I was a bit disappointed not to see more of the individual apes. Lake in particular was one I would have liked to see expanded upon. What was she like, other than a lifemate to Caesar’s son?

I did think that the trailer showed a very different storyline to the one that was actually shown in the movie. Without giving anything away, I’d assumed that there would be more of a moral ambiguity with Caesar. I thought I’d be seeing a lot more darkness with him. And while there were elements of that darkness I’d expected to see, it didn’t cross the line I was expecting.

I felt a lot of sympathy for Bad Ape. I was close to tears when he was talking about his life…and I was very emotional by the end of the movie. In a way, I was thankful there were some elements of humour, as otherwise, the film would have been very intense.
I have to say, while I liked many of the apes, Maurice was probably my favourite. I was glad to see a lot of him in this movie.

While I did find the ending quite difficult to watch, this is a movie I would probably see again and, more than likely, buy on DVD.