Independence Day: Resurgence

I really need to start writing these reviews as soon as I've seen the film otherwise I lose all memory of details and end up spending an age trying to remember what actually happened.

Now, Independence Day.

I wouldn't say I was a hugeee fan of the first one. It's good, don't get me wrong. But Adeel is a massive fan so I always knew we'd watch the second one.

I was pretty excited though, wondering what they'd do different this time.

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Like with everyone else (I assume), I was disappointed that Will Smith wasn't reprising his role after 20 years. Everyone else managed to be in it, yet one of the main characters wasn't. Annoying much?

However, I did find Liam Hemsworth to be a pretty good substitute.

He's playing his usual sort of charming, funny role. But I enjoyed his subplot with the romance and even more so the fact that his girl got in on the action of fighting with the aliens as well.

Maika Monroe was pretty good as Hemsworth's love interest and the former President's daughter. Like I said, I loved how she was able to be a helpful role in bringing down the alien force. It wasn't all left down to the men as usual which was nice.

Jeff Goldblum as always was amazing. I will forever enjoy anything he is in after playing Ian in Jurassic Park. Enough said.

The rest of the cast were good too, especially Bill Pullman as a slightly going-off-the-rails Whitmore.

The storyline was pretty much the same except with bigger aliens and some of the characters (like Whitmore) having all of these visions to sort of predict their next attack.

I liked the added element of alien and human working together against a bigger alien foe and the CGI and finale were spectacular.

I can't really remember much else, I just know I enjoyed it!

Plenty of action, some edge of your seat moments and a good dose of romance/feel good moments.

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Rating:
★★★★★



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The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2

It's been a long time coming - but I have finally seen the final Hunger Games. Hurrah!

Spoilers ahead (if you haven't seen it yet!)

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Personally, from start to finish, I was trying to work out what was coming next in each scene because of having read the trilogy last year. I can't decide whether this was annoying or not, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it nevertheless.

It surpassed all of my expectations, nailing every scene - the loss's, the war, the down moments for characters to reflect or grow. It was brilliant. I think Jennifer Lawrence is a wonderful actress, she really gets stuck into each and every role she plays, portraying a whole array of emotions perfectly. There wouldn't be anyone else to play Katniss Everdeen so well.

Johanna and Finnick continued to amuse throughout, relieving some of the building tension. I also thought Peeta's constant struggle against himself was extraordinary. I really felt for him. I wasn't so convinced by the harsh goodbye between Katniss and Gale though - if he'd been her best friend throughout, could you be so cold in the goodbye?

I think parts of the film were definitely predictable, even for those who hadn't read it (scene below for sure), although I still think it was great. The scene below was so tense, you knew she wasn't going to kill Snow, but a part of me almost thought she would. I also had hoped (a lot) that the director wouldn't want to kill off Finnick, but my hopes were dashed as soon as I saw the scene unfold. Heartbreaking - it's always the characters that have just achieved their "happy ending" that get killed. Boo.

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The most emotional scene - for me - was when she returns home and sees Prim's cat in the kitchen. I felt torn - grief for Katniss's loss, but also worry for the poor cat getting struck repeatedly by all those flying objects Katniss was throwing! I'm so glad she picked it up and made a fuss of it, it was such a beautiful scene.

My possible only issue with the film was the ending. As with the novel, I don't think the final scene was necessarily needed. It was only okay. It was nice though to see Peeta and Katniss's life after, but kind of an anti-climax after all of the action.

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Rating:
★★★★★


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