Ink of Blood

(This review may contain spoilers).

While I don’t normally watch films set during wartime, I was intrigued by the trailer of this movie. And since I recognised the two main actors in this movie, I knew it would be a good plot.

This movie was almost divided into two halves. While those two halves were both intense in their own way, it was good they were also different enough to be engaging in their own way.

I did, however, feel like the first half was a bit rushed. While I had the impression quite a bit of time had passed by, I couldn’t quite believe in the feelings Max and Marianne had towards each other. In a way, it did feel like the second half of the movie made the reasons for that clear… but I found much of the second half difficult to suspend my disbelief for, especially during a scene with a jail. Of course, I don’t know very many details about this time period, so I couldn’t speak for how realistic it was. There were two women clearly romantically involved… but there was very little detail about either of them, even though one was Max’s sister. I would have liked some more exploration of their characters and how they interacted with Max and Marianne, rather than just being two rather generic women.

I did think that Max’s and Marianne’s interactions through the first half of the movie did a good job of establishing Max’s personality and it was good to see he had a goal for the end of the movie.

I found the second half of the movie more intense to watch and found myself leaning forward, on the edge of my seat, waiting to see what would happen. I would have preferred the ending to be different… but I honestly couldn’t have seen it ending another way.

While I did become engaged with this movie and cared about the characters and the plot, I don’t think this is a movie I would watch again, as it doesn’t feel I would gain much from re-watching it.

(This review may contain spoilers).

Having enjoyed the Harry Potter movies… and seeing there was a midnight showing of this movie… I decided I wanted to go and see it.

I thought the movie was particularly good when it came to the visuals. The world inside Newt’s suitcase was particularly engaging and it was especially good to be able to see something of the differences in the wizarding cultures.

I did feel the movie was a bit lacking in plot development. I liked Newt, to an extent, and I really liked Kowalski. I even liked Tina and her sister, even though I thought Tina made quite a few mistakes. I was able to empathise more with her… and also more with Kowalski than Newt. Although I liked Newt, he was a little harder to get a read on.

I did think the movie spent more time on the visuals than on developing the storyline. While it was good to see that each of the ‘beasts’ had its own distinctive personality, I felt the plot involving the wizarding community seemed a bit tacked on.

I also felt there was a real lack of foreshadowing in this movie. There were quite a few things shown at the end that didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

I did enjoy Queenie and Kowalski’s interactions. I thought they were both sweet in their own way and even though Kowalski struggled at first, it was really good to see him start to take everything in stride.

I did feel a lot of sympathy for Credence, but considerably less so for his mother. I would have liked some more details about Modesty’s background, as I really didn’t know what to make of her.

The strongest element of this movie was definitely the visual aspect. I think the movie could have been made better by utilising more foreshadowing… but I did feel the ending let it down. While I am going to be watching the movie again with my niece, I don’t intend to buy it on DVD… even though I will probably watch the next movies in the franchise.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I felt this movie also lacked a bit in living up to its potential. I did think it was intriguing to see Peter interacting with his patients. I did feel quite a bit of sympathy for Erica in particular… and there was at least one scarily effective scene with her involved.

I would have liked to see more of Peter interacting with Carol and other characters outside of his patients and colleague. There was a lot that felt very surreal even outside of the strange patients.

It was difficult to see Elizabeth interacting with Peter, especially as the movie went on and towards the end. I did find it confusing to get the constant flashbacks to the past. While I could understand the desire to keep some parts a mystery, even by the end of the movie, I was left with a lot of unanswered questions.

There were quite a few creepy moments and it was good to see there were a lot of personal links to the part of Peter’s past. He did, however, seem to have connections with some characters that only sparked for a short while. I felt what happened with Barry would have been more effective if I’d had the chance to get to know him better.

I did think that some of the characters made some quite bad choices, especially Barbara, considering she was supposed to be a police officer. I did like learning about her history, but I think her character could have been utilised better.

This wasn’t a film I would likely choose to watch again. While there was a lot of potential in the storyline and a few jump scares, I didn’t feel able to form a deeper emotional connection to the characters and by the end of the movie, I was confused about exactly what had happened. The scenes with Peter and his daughter were emotional, but didn’t really feel realistic.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I actually thought there was a lot of potential in this movie. When I read the blurb, I thought the idea was intriguing… and the very first scene was engaging and I was immediately interested in knowing what had happened with Mary.

While it was good to see the sort of personality Mary had had before a piece of her soul was gone, I lost a lot of interest after the start of the movie.

Even though there were parts of this movie that were disturbing (especially towards the end), it actually felt really juvenile. The ghost/spirit that kept appearing looked more cartoonish… and I felt that the acting was really over the top at times and lacked emotion at others. The only character I found realistic and consistent in the family relationship was Victor.

I think this movie could have done with being expanded upon. I actually wasn’t sure if Gina was supposed to actually be Mary’s mother, as at one point, she talks about her as ‘that girl’ in a scene that’s supposed to be quite an emotional one.

While it was interesting to see the contrast between Mary before and after, it was harder to relate emotionally to her and I felt a lot of the connections between characters weren’t formed fully or shown in the right way.

I felt that this movie could have benefitted from a few less characters and although there were a few engaging scenes, the acting seemed to lack a lot of emotion and even Mary’s relationship with her sister didn’t seem very loving. There were a couple of potential jump scares… but those were ones I saw coming a mile off.

There was a lot of potential in this movie, but I felt it fell short of what it could have been. This isn’t a movie I would watch again, I’m afraid.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I felt the way this movie started was really powerful and intense. The relationship Louise had with her daughter was a powerful running theme through this movie and although it wasn’t clear what kind of relationship she had with her daughter’s father at first, things began to make sense as the movie went on.

I thought it was interesting to see how the different countries reacted to the appearance of the aliens. The fact that some of them had different ways of communicating with the aliens was particularly intriguing and I thought it made a lot of sense that they were all reluctant to work together.

I did think that a lot of time was glossed over. Even though I enjoyed seeing little snippets of Louise and Ian’s relationship, by the end of the movie, I felt it wasn’t as believable as it could have been. And while it was interesting to see snippets from Ian’s perspective, I felt that a lot of the main focus was on Louise. The movie was more character-driven, but it seemed to only be driven by one character.

There were parts of this movie I felt were very surreal. It was interesting to see the effects the aliens were having in Louise’s dreams, but there was one scene in particular that felt more surreal than it actually should have, considering it was a scene in reality where Louise was talking to the aliens.

I did think there was a lot of good acting and the actions of most of the characters made sense. This film did require attention being paid, though, as there was quite a bit of foreshadowing and links to earlier scenes in the movie.

I did find this movie entertaining and engaging to watch. While I wouldn’t buy it straight away as soon as it comes out on DVD, I wouldn’t mind watching it again in the future.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I haven’t read the book this movie is based on, but when I saw this film advertised, I knew I wanted to see this, as I’ve always liked cats… and although it was clear this movie would be intense and emotional to watch, it also had a few lighthearted moments and some really nice scenes between the characters.

I thought Bob was adorable and it was good to see how James bonded with his cat. There were a few scenes that made me smile, such as when James insisted that Bob could understand what he was saying.

I had a lot of sympathy for James, as it seemed like he hit rock bottom in this movie. It was pretty awful to see how bad things were for him, but I did like that he had people prepared to help him and give him a chance. While I didn’t think I especially liked Val for some of the film, by the end, she had grown on me quite a bit.

I did feel quite a bit of sympathy for Baz, although it was clear that he wasn’t prepared to even make the effort. It was good to see James interacting with the other people around him. I liked Belle, but I felt she wasn’t as supportive as she might have been, even though I could understand why she felt like she did.

It was interesting to see how James was affected by everything, but I liked how it seemed it was inevitable for him to accept Bob into his life.

I liked that there were some elements of humour in this movie and it was interesting how the characters kept remarking that Bob had come to the place he was needed. I thought it was sweet to see how Bob worked with James when he busked and there was some humour when it came to the comments on the YouTube videos.

There were some really intense scenes and I wouldn’t recommend this film as one for younger children, as it does contain instances of drug use. But there were some really sweet moments in this film and it was definitely one I would watch again in the future.

(This review may contain spoilers).

When I originally saw this movie advertised, I wasn’t initially planning to see it. The more I saw it advertised, though, the more intrigued I was by the storyline and interested to see how the movie would handle someone who was autistic.

I thought Ben Affleck did a really good job in the role. While he played a character who was emotionally disconnected from other people, I found it really easy to empathise with Christian; and it was good to see the contrast between him as a child and how he dealt with his reality as an adult.

Although I could, in some ways, understand why his father parented the way he had, I developed a strong dislike for the father by the end of the movie.

It was good to get something of an insight into the way Christian’s mind worked, though I would have liked to see more of his relationship with his brother. It was good to see him interacting with the woman on the phone and I did like seeing him and Dana learning about each other. However, I found it really hard to believe the almost-kiss. I felt the emotion wasn’t really there and that it was just included because every movie now has to contain some kind of romance.

I did like the fact there were two storylines running alongside each other and it was good to see how the two plots converged and to learn about the different characters’ connections to each other.

There was a lot of good action in this movie, in particular towards the end. I did like how I had the opportunity to learn about Christian’s past as the movie went on. I did figure out one of the twists, but I found the explanation as to what was going on a bit difficult to understand.

I did find Brax to be an intriguing character, but I wasn’t sure I really liked him, even though I would have liked to see a bit more about him.

I did find this movie a really engaging one to watch and it was one I wouldn’t mind seeing again in the future.