Ink of Blood

(This review may contain spoilers).

I don’t normally watch war movies, but when I saw this movie advertised, I was immediately intrigued by the story of a soldier who wouldn’t ever fire a gun. And that was helped by the actors I recognised… although, having only seen Vince Vaughn in serious things, I was a bit unsure when I saw his name on the credits.

I found this movie to be really engaging. It was really easy to care about the characters; although towards the end, it was harder to differentiate between the different soldiers while the fighting was going on.

I really empathised with Desmond throughout this movie. I don’t know how true to life the earlier parts of the movie were, but if even a small part of it was true… well, I didn’t have a lot of respect for the soldiers and commander/sergeant after they attempted to force Desmond to leave. (He was far stronger than I think I would have been).

I liked being able to see Desmond and Dorothy’s relationship forming before he enlisted in the army. While that part of the movie seemed to go too fast, it was good to see Desmond’ relationship with his parents and brother. And it was particularly difficult to see what things were like with his father. While it was obvious Tom was suffering from PTSD, it was still hard to see how Desmond, Hal and their mother had to deal with it. And even though Tom did come through for Desmond, I didn’t think it made him a much better person.

There was a small amount of humour in this movie, at least before it got to the events at Hacksaw Ridge. I have no idea if there actually was a soldier who was naked throughout the first day of training, but it did work to relieve the tension… at least a little.

I really like Sam Worthington as an actor… but the character of Captain Glover was one I really disliked. While there was more depth to him shown as the movie went on, both him and Sergeant Howell came across as jerks for a long time.

There was a lot of violence and gore in this movie, to the point I thought it should have been an 18 rating rather than a 15. The film did show Desmond’s determination and as the movie went on, I was on the edge of my seat, wanting to see what would happen. And the ending of the movie, where it showed clips of the real-life people, was a nice touch.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I have some mixed feelings about this movie. I liked the general atmosphere, but while I was watching, it felt very old-style… so when the characters used mobile phones or laptops, it seemed very strange.

I did like both Mia and Sebastian, but barring their first meeting, I didn’t really feel there was much in the way of conflict in their relationship. It wasn’t until more than halfway through that any real tension within their relationship came about.

I was disappointed not to see much depth to the secondary characters. Mia had some friends who only appeared in two scenes and had virtually nothing to differentiate them from each other; apart from the colours of the clothes they wore.

The music did add something of an atmosphere, but I didn’t think any of the songs were distinctive enough to make an impression. I wouldn’t have said this movie could have been called a musical, as the amount of songs seemed very low.

While Mia’s dream of being an actress was fairly obvious, it did take a little while for me to realise exactly what Sebastian’s dream was.

Although I mentioned earlier that there was very little conflict in the actual relationship, the story also lingered too long without any conflict outside. I would have liked to see more depth to Mia and Sebastian outside each other. For instance, Mia kept walking out of her job. And she also walked out on the dinner with her boyfriend (who wasn’t even mentioned for a lot of the film – I assumed Mia was single). But neither of those things cropped up again. And Sebastian’s rent was past due… but other than showing one notice, there was nothing else mentioned.

I have to say, I did find the ending disappointing. I felt there wasn’t enough of a buildup to it and although it could have worked… I just felt there wasn’t enough to the characters until towards the end. I was very bored for a lot of the movie and this wasn’t one I would watch again.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I actually wasn’t planning to watch this movie, as I haven’t actually seen any of the films in this franchise before. But I had a day off and this was still showing, so I decided to go ahead.

I didn’t feel like this film was particularly deep, which wasn’t a bad thing. I liked the characters, especially Adele. I would have liked to learn a bit more about her background, although the brief little character profiles were interesting to see and added a new dimension to the movie; at least in my opinion.

While I didn’t like Nina Dobrev’s character in the Vampire Diaries, I didn’t mind her character, Becky, in this. She made me outright laugh at times with her lack of a filter.

I didn’t really have any opinions on Xiang and his team when they first appeared. They originally seemed like stereotypical bad guys; and Serena came across as quite unstable. As the movie went on, though, I was able to connect better to them emotionally and I felt they had a lot more depth than they’d seemed to at first. And despite having seen Donnie Yen (Xiang) in another film quite recently, I didn’t have any confusion. (Rogue One, in case anyone’s wondering).

Along with Adele, I did particularly like Serena… at least as the film went on. There was a lot of good action in this movie and I did care about the characters and the storyline. While there was real danger involved, I felt like the person responsible for what was happening hadn’t been foreshadowed. The other villain was much more obvious.

While there were moments where it was hard to suspend my disbelief, it was good to have a clear idea of who the good guys were and who the bad guys were, even if things did change later. And it was nice to see the groups working together towards the end.

All told, I did enjoy this film and it was easy to watch even without having seen any of the other movies in this franchise. It didn’t require any thinking, but it was a lot of fun.

(This review may contain spoilers).

When I originally saw this move advertised, it immediately caught my attention. While the director has made some movies that aren’t as good in the past, there have also been past movies by him I’ve enjoyed.

I felt this movie had a lot that was good about it. I did feel that James McAvoy’s portrayal of ‘Kevin’ and the other personalities was really good. I thought his ability to portray the three different main personalities, along with hints of the others, was really good.

I would have liked a bit more background on the other two girls along with Casey. I felt Casey was easy to empathise with and understand. The flashbacks showed how she’d reached the point of surviving, no matter what; but I couldn’t help being concerned about her towards the end.

I found Dennis, one of the personalities, to have a lot more depth to him than his initial appearance suggested. He wasn’t ‘good’, but compared to Miss. Patricia… I felt he was very much in the grey area.

It was interesting to see the glimpses of the different personalities, but it was harder to see how they might all fit together into one whole, unlike a different movie with the same sort of idea.

I was a bit surprised not to see anything of the three girls having gone missing from the outside. Given Doctor Karen Fletcher knew what Dennis did, it was something of a surprise that she didn’t even mention them. Or really grow suspicious, given the urgent e-mails she kept getting.

I did feel this movie crossed the line into science fiction. While that might not have been a problem generally, the science behind certain things really didn’t seem sound. While Dennis claimed to be the biggest, there was no visual evidence of that; and there is a big difference between someone’s blood sugar changing to the point of needing insulin and completely changing the size of the body.

Despite the unrealistic feelings of the biology, I did find this movie entertaining to watch. Despite being played by the same actor, the personalities seemed different enough that there was no confusion about who was who. Towards the end, I even started caring about Kevin.

This movie is one I would like to see again in the future and although I don’t hold out much hope, it would be good if the hinted-at sequel actually makes an appearance.

(This review may contain spoilers).

When I saw this movie advertised, I was quite intrigued by the concept of a killer only a danger when someone knew the name. And the first scene was very effective, as it showed a man driven by desperation to the point of going on a shooting spree to wipe out the name. And the scene itself was powerful, considering the stark contrast between the idyllic suburb and the violence of the murder spree.

From there, however, I felt the movie began going downhill. Like with so many modern horror movies, it used too many cheap jump scares. And partway through the movie, it felt like I’d missed a lot of build-up when Sasha started talking about how the Bye Bye Man was coming for her.

Speaking of Sasha… out of the four who first heard the name, only Elliot actually seemed to have any depth to him. I felt like I was being told what his relationships with Sasha and John were like, rather than seeing for myself. And I was in agreement with Virgil. Whose girlfriend was Sasha’s anyway?

It was good to see Elliot trying to track down the origins of the Bye Bye Man, but as soon as ‘he’ started appearing, any fear of the unknown was lost. I was very disappointed that the showings of the train tracks didn’t go anywhere.

I did think it was good to see that the police actually seemed competent in this movie. I did feel a lot for Elliot and his attempts to protect anyone else from hearing the name. Out of the four, it seemed he was the only active one… or at least the only one trying to do anything about the trap they were in.

I felt the movie would have been more effective if the Bye Bye Man hadn’t existed outside of the characters’ heads. On the whole, there was a lot of potential in this movie that I felt wasn’t lived up to. This isn’t a movie I plan to watch again.

(This review may contain spoilers).

This was a movie I had very mixed feelings about seeing. While I did think it looked engaging and had a more unique plot, barring being based on a book, it also looked like it was going to be difficult to watch on an emotional level.

It was very easy to empathise with Conor and what he was going through, even though I didn’t have a chance to see what he was like before his mother fell sick. There were times I ached along with him, especially when it came to what was going on at his school.

As a viewer, I felt like the adults in Conor’s life didn’t really care about him; or at least not enough to really see him. I felt their decisions to let him get away with virtually everything ultimately did more harm than good; and as for his father, while I like the actor, I felt he consistently said and did the wrong thing. In many ways, his grandmother was the only adult (apart from his mother) I was able to empathise with.

It was good to see the visuals used in the stories the monster told Conor. I thought the story about the prince and the queen was particularly effective, especially as the tropes seemed turned on their heads.

The nightmare Conor had of his mother dangling over the pit was hard enough to see, even without the monster encouraging him to voice what he really felt. And even though he clearly felt guilty, it was impossible to blame him for how he felt.

On the whole, this movie was emotionally engaging to watch and although it dealt with some very tough subject matter, I thought the use of the fantasy worked really well. And while it was dark in parts, I thought that worked, as children do have real, dark issues to deal with.

I don’t think I’d watch this film again, but I felt it was worth watching the first time.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I have to be honest… I haven’t actually played any of the Assassin’s Creed games, although I do know a few small details; enough to know about the setting of the movie.

While I do feel Michael Fassbender is a good actor, I felt there was something missing in this movie. It was good to see the flashbacks to Aguilar’s history and to be as in the dark as Cal was. I found it interesting to see his past, but even by the end, I was left a bit lost as to the motives of his parents.

I would have liked a bit more detail about the Animus. I spent a lot of the movie assuming it only had one purpose, only for that assumption to be completely derailed by the end. While that scene could perhaps be explained away by Cal hallucinating, that wasn’t the impression I had.

I would have liked a bit more detail about the background of the secondary characters. While it was obvious what Sofia and Rikkin’s end goal was, the others like Cal seemed to be trying to stop, or at least be against, the hunt for the apple.

Towards the end of the movie and at certain points throughout, there was a lot of engaging action. It was also good to see something of the morals and ethics of the Assassin’s Guild, though I would have liked to know a bit more detail about the members. The film definitely showed the end days of the guild.

I didn’t think there was enough of a build to the events of the end. It seemed there was a real lack of foreshadowing throughout and not enough about what drove Cal.

I did think there was a lot put into this movie from the visual effects and the fighting scenes. But this movie wasn’t as engaging as it could have been and I felt a lot of the character development fell by the wayside.

While I did feel this movie was lacking, it did trigger an interest in actually playing the games some time in the future.

(This review may contain spoilers).

This wasn’t a movie I actually planned to see, but I found myself drawn to it due to the actors and I was in the frame of mind where I was okay with watching something I knew would be emotionally upsetting.

I felt this movie was really moving to watch and I was able to empathise with Howard really easily. It helped to see the contrast of how he was at the start of the film compared to how he was later.

I didn’t really like his colleagues, even though I felt some sympathy for Simon. While all of them did have more depth than the start of the movie initially suggested, I did think their actions throughout were definitely not okay.

While the main focus of the movie was on Howard and who he had lost, I thought it was good to see more of the secondary characters and how Brigitte, Raffi and Amy ultimately seemed to help Whit, Claire and Simon… even though I didn’t really feel like they helped Howard.

There was a lot about this movie that really tugged on the heartstrings, particularly when it came to Howard’s daughter. While she didn’t actually appear much during the movie, the after-effects of her presence were definitely felt.

It was a little difficult to figure out why parts of the movie seemed almost supernatural. While a mix of genres can be engaging and add a new dimension to a movie, I would have liked to know for certain either way.

I didn’t think much of Whit, even outside of what he and the others were doing to Howard. While the ending showed a better relationship with his daughter, I did think the fact he had an affair made him the ‘bad guy’, no matter what his reasons were – not that those were really explained.

On the whole, this movie was a moving one to watch and there were a couple of surprises, especially towards the end. In many ways, it was effective to see Howard and his colleagues separately, as I feel the movie wouldn’t have had so much of an impact without both sides.

This isn’t a movie I would choose to watch again, but it was moving and emotionally effective the first time through. If you’re on the fence about seeing this, I would suggest giving it a try.