Ink of Blood

(This review may contain spoilers).

I’ve watched all of the Pirates of the Caribbean to date, so when I saw this movie advertised, I was immediately eager to see this movie.

It was nice to see a return to the story of the original trilogy. It was a bit sad to see Henry trying to find a way to save his father and Will being so completely resigned to his fate, though I was a bit surprised not to see anything of Elizabeth Swann until right at the end of the movie.

While I do like Jack Sparrow, it was good that he wasn’t the main character like in the previous movie. I don’t think he’s a character who can carry the whole movie – and I felt a lot less of his brilliance came through in this movie. It was good to see the flashback and I was quite impressed with the younger version of Jack Sparrow.

While it was good to see Barbossa put in an appearance in this movie (I really like his character. I’ve felt that he’s really interesting and multidimensional), I didn’t really care about his crew, so when members died, I was pretty ambivalent about it. Plus, it seemed like he had an infinite number of crew members.

While I did like Henry, I didn’t especially like Carina and I felt the romance between them wasn’t necessary and didn’t really add anything to the plot.

I did feel like the plot of this movie was something of a repeat of the first, with the dead/zombie pirates. While there were some good special effects in the movie, it was hard to watch it and not think of the first film.

There were some really good moments of humour and I thought it was good to see that there were elements of realism, such as sores and scabies.

The movie was entertaining and I did enjoy watching it. It kept me engaged throughout and I cared about Henry’s goal, even if I was a bit less sure of what drove Carina. I would watch the movie again, even though I won’t buy the DVD as soon as it comes out.

If you watch this movie, make sure you stay until the very end of the credits.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

While I haven’t read the first book in this series, I still found this book to be quite easy to read and follow. There was a bit of information dumping, but on the whole, I found the plot to be interesting and engaging. And there were some really good moments of banter between a lot of the characters.

While I did think there were some instances where the romance didn’t exactly fit…and scenes where the romance felt somewhat over the top… I did like seeing Geri and Cooper interact together. And it was really good to see Geri as a strong female character, although I didn’t really like her partner. Aimee had some interesting moments, but I felt she was a fairly stereotypical character. And the attraction between her and Hasan didn’t really feel real.

It was good to see the kind of technology there was in the world, though I would have liked to see more of the pop travel, as I wasn’t sure how it worked. It was interesting to see how androids had become a main fixture in the world, and how the potential use of them in the police force was a political debate.

I did find it a bit disappointing that so many of the male characters came across as sexist. I would have liked to see a bit more variation, even if there would still have been some people with those attitudes.

I did feel it didn’t work so well to have the book keep switching to Crewes’ perspective, as it meant there was very little kept secret and virtually no twists. I think the book would have benefitted from only sticking to one perspective. And I was a little disappointed that there was very little grey in the character of the main villain, especially given that his past indicated he was a good man. It would have been good to see something of what caused him to change in such a drastic way.

I did like seeing Cooper’s relationship with both his brother and the people he had to work with, but I would have liked to see a bit more of both and the latter without being coloured by one of his friends affected by the closest pretty woman.

I did enjoy reading this book and in the future, I would probably read the rest of the books in this series.

(This review may contain spoilers).

Having watched the previous movies in this current franchise, I was immediately interested in watching this one and jumped at the opportunity to while on holiday.

On the whole, I’d say Wonder Woman was fairly good as a movie. Diana’s naivety and innocence came across really well and I felt Gal Gadot was perfect to portray her. It was really good to have the opportunity to see Diana as a child and her relationship with not only her mother, but the rest of the Amazons. And it was interesting to see the story of their history as told to Diana as a child.

I thought it was particularly good to see how Diana adapted to leaving the island, but there was less of a culture shock than I might have expected. I did like the elements of humour in this movie and I really did like the fight scene right at the beginning with the Amazons. At the same time, it was good to see war wasn’t justified and that there was a stark contrast between the battle Diana was used to and the war mankind was fighting.

I also cared about the secondary characters. They came across as real people and I liked the interactions between them and Diana. I was amused by the way a lot of them didn’t seem to know how to take her… and I found myself getting a bit emotional at times during the film, especially in regards to learning about what some of the other characters truly wanted to do.

I found myself on the edge of my seat for a lot of the movie and while there were some good special effects, I didn’t feel like they took away from the storyline. It was also nice to see the way it fit in with Batman VS. Superman.

There aren’t any scenes at the end credits, so don’t stay back.

I did enjoy watching this movie and I personally thought it was really good. While I wouldn’t buy it as soon as it comes out on DVD, I definitely wouldn’t mind watching this movie again.

(This review may contain spoilers).

King Arthur was one of the legends I thoroughly enjoyed reading while I was growing up, enchanted with the tales of chivalry, knights and magic. So when I saw this movie advertised, I was immediately intrigued and wanted to see it.

Almost as soon as this film started, at least when Arthur became an adult, it felt like a Middle Ages mafia movie. In spite of this and the several instances of modern-day language, I did like Arthur’s character, but I felt very few of the minor characters were really developed that much. I often found myself completely lost over who was who.

I did really like the way the story was told, even if the constant flashbacks were somewhat confusing. There were some really intense scenes, in particular the one where Arthur first comes into contact with Excalibur. And it was difficult to learn of and to see the ultimate fate of Uther.

I actually found myself feeling sympathy for the Lady of the Lake, even though she only appeared the once. It seemed like she had quite a lonely existence…at least from what I could see.

I did find the Mage an intriguing character, but I felt that she was left very much in the background. She was supposed to be the next Merlin, but there was very little detail shown about her history or even much of her personality. I felt like there was a lot left unfinished by the end of the movie.

There were some good elements of humour and I liked the relationship between Back Lack and his son. I felt the ladies in the brothel were just grouped together as one character and there was no individuality shown to them.

I also noticed that none of the characters seemed to age – barring Arthur and his cousin, who were children at the start.

I liked the acceptance and hints of magic and it was good to see a new take on the origins tale of King Arthur. But although this film was entertaining to watch and drew me in, it’s definitely vastly different to the original versions.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I’ve seen all of the Alien movies to date, though the only Predator movie I’ve seen is Alien VS. Predator.

While I did find this movie entertaining to watch, I did feel like the characters made one bad decision after the other. It wasn’t very clear how the crew had been chosen for the mission. If any of them were scientists or doctors… and if any of them were, the decision to go onto an unknown planet with no protective gear, no matter how breathable the air supposedly is, was an insanely stupid idea.

I felt only a handful of the characters were really developed a lot. There were some relationships, but as the majority of them weren’t really shown, it was hard to care when people began dying. I spent most of the movie just waiting for each person to die.

Ironically, the characters I felt were developed the most weren’t even human – Walter and David. It was good to see their almost human reactions and interactions, though I definitely preferred Walter over David. It was a mark of how good an actor Michael Fassbender is that he could play two totally different characters.

A lot of this movie was visually dark, which made it hard at times to see what was going on. And there were some motivations that didn’t make a whole lot of sense, even by the end of the movie.

While there was a lot of gore in this film, it wasn’t until the end that the iconic Alien actually put in an appearance. There were, however, quite a few other iconic scenes, such as the face-hugger and creature bursting out of someone’s chest.

This movie was entertaining to watch, but I didn’t particularly care about the fate of a lot of the characters. And I also picked up on certain things long before they happened. I felt the fact the other characters didn’t made them come across as quite inept.

All told, I wouldn’t watch this movie again…but if you’re a fan of the Alien franchise, you probably do want to see this.