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Sarah (7798 KP) rated The Girl in the Spider's Web (2018) in Movies

Jul 21, 2019

The Girl in the Spider's Web (2018)

2018 | Crime, Drama, Thriller

6.2

(27 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

Lackluster

I'm really not sure what prompted them to make this film. Instead of following on from the American version of Dragon Tattoo, they've instead chosen to skip the other 2 books in the original trilogy and go to what is probably the weakest book in the Lisbeth Salander series so far. And sadly, the film isnt any better.

Claire Foy is probably the only real highlight of this film as she's really rather good as Lisbeth. The rest of the cast are alright but nothing special though. There also doesn't appear to be much chemistry between Lisbeth and Mikhael and their conversations and interactions in this film are really rather dull and meaningless. And then there's the plot itself. Similar to the book, the plot is quite convoluted and a little over the top. And actually rather boring and lacklustre. There are some bits of action thrown in but not enough to hold interest and this film feels like it drags on for far too long. This is yet another unnecessary film made worse by the fact that they havent even bothered to follow the series in order.

Kudos

David McK (3425 KP) rated The Dark Tower (2017) in Movies

Jul 7, 2019

The Dark Tower (2017)

2017 | Horror, Sci-Fi, Western

5.6

(68 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Well, that was nothing at all like I expected.

I've read the first book in Stephen King's Dark Tower series, and (honestly) hadn't really thought it was all that great or understood what all the fuss was about - for my money, David Gemmell did a far better job in his Jon Shannow trilogy of novels.

Having said that, I recognise that Gemmell's name may not have quite the same resonance, the same 'pull' as Stephen King.

I wanted to see this when it came in the cinema, and now haven't watched it on Netflix, honestly? I'm glad I didn't waste my money.

Having only read the first book in Stephen King's series, I can't say how true (or otherwese) this is to the novel(s), but I've always thought the best book and movie adaptations compliment each other: watching (or reading) one, say, would make you want to hunt out the other. This was far from the ideal: only an hour and a half long, but felling MUCH longer, I found this to be slow, plodding, and lacking any real originality or flair or excitement.

One to avoid!

Kudos

Emma (519 KP) Jul 7, 2019

I just watched this the other day and quite enjoyed it. I thought the three leads gave quite good performances.

Kudos

Tim McGuire (301 KP) rated Harbinger Down (2015) in Movies

Nov 13, 2019

Harbinger Down (2015)

2015 | Horror, Sci-Fi

8.5

(2 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Old Movie Revisited: Harbinger Down. Now if you're anything like me, you've spent a fair amount of time thinking, Man, they should remake The Thing with Lance Henriksen. Well those dreams have been answered in the form of Harbinger Down. Now sure there are differences, Instead of an Arctic outpost, they are on a cargo ship in the arctic... Instead of a ufo crashing to earth with a nasty alien on board, this one has a russian space capsule, crashing to earth contaminated with a space virus... And from there its pretty much the same... including the mimicking of the host... Shit even the ending is the same, sorta, a lone survivor stranded in the arctic. Now all that aside, it wasn't a bad little low budget flick, and c'mon it has the low budget movie God in it, Mr Lance Henrikson, remember how he wowed us all in Close Encounters of the Third Kind as the guy standing in the background. Its almost as incredible as Cliff Clavin being part of the Rebel Alliance, its true!! But that was a long, long time ago, in what seems like a galaxy far far away... Filmbufftim on FB

Kudos

David McK (3425 KP) rated Mortal Engines (The Hungry City Chronicles, #1) in Books

Nov 20, 2019

Mortal Engines (The Hungry City Chronicles, #1)

Philip Reeve | 2004 | Fiction & Poetry, Science Fiction/Fantasy

6.9

(8 Ratings)

Book Rating

Well, that was … unusual .. to say the least.

This was one of those stories that I'd been meaning to read for ages, but had never really got round to, and proved to (effectively) be a mash-up of Young Adult dystopian future with steampunk.

Steampunk, as a genre, is not one that I've really read all that much in - ab out the only other one that currently springs to mind is Jim Butcher's Cinder Spires series (all one book, so far!), but I tend to associate it more with an alternate past or present than the far future, which is when this one is set.

The main draw for me - and, I'm sure, many others - was the central concept of cities on wheels, cities that need to keep mobile and scavenge/attack each other in order to keep going - or, as it is described here by characters within, of 'Municipal Darwinism'.

While I found the writing and general plot a bit - how shall I say? - lacklustre? flat? I did enjoy the central premise of the story, and may come back to the world to see what else happens in future instalments.