Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children

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I am getting so bad at this whole keeping-to-my-schedule-for-blogging-thing.

I just can't seem to find the motivation or the time at the moment to write any posts, not even the reviews.

Christmas may be the most wonderful time of the year, but it's also the most stressful and time-consuming as well.

You've got to do all your Christmas shopping, wrapping and writing cards. 

You've got to fit in all the Christmassy things you want to do like Winter Wonderland, markets, light switch ons and so on. 

But you've also got a five day work week and weekends choc-o-bloc full with seeing people you won't see over the holidays or trying to relax amidst all of the mayhem.

How are you supposed to do it all?!

Moving swiftly on.

We saw this strange film a few months ago now on Date Night.

We went out for dinner one Friday night at Frankie and Benny's and then popped over to the cinema to see Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children.

And it was indeed peculiar.

I don't really know where to start.

The plot was odd - a young boy can see creatures from a world most people cannot see. He finds himself thrown into this mysterious world and meets an awful lot of interesting people whom he needs to eventually help save.

Going in and out of this time loop business was enough to give me a headache. It was interesting, don't get me wrong, but so so weird.

Eva Green seems to excel at weirdness and she was no different in this. Terence Stamp (having last seen him as Mordred in Merlin) has certainly shot up - height-wise. His acting wasn't brilliant but it wasn't terrible either. Samuel L. Jackson was terrifying.

The creatures - hollows - were intriguing. I can't think what they reminded me of at the time but I liked that they were invisible to almost everyone, it added more tension.

Funnily enough - even though I don't think he really needed to be in the film, he didn't really have anything to do with it - I liked Chris O'Dowd's character as Abe's father. He added comedic value to the film in a sarcastic kind of way.

I thought it ended way to quickly considering the length of the film itself. I found the main parts to be dragging a bit but the tie-up happened in about five minutes. All too quickly if you ask me.

An interesting dark fantasy film with some intriguing qualities to its characters and plot.

I probably wouldn't watch it again though.

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Rating:
★★☆☆☆

The Legend of Tarzan

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I really need to start writing these film reviews up within a week of watching them even if I don't post them straight away 'cause I can barely remember any details, just my overall feeling towards them!

I know I was hesitant about this film because I adore the Disney version of Tarzan so much (in fact, I'd go as far to say it is my favourite Disney film full stop).

But I thought it had the potential to be good considering the cast, i.e. Alexander Skarsgard and Margot Robbie.

But unfortunately, for me, this film didn't live up to the high standards I have from the Disney version or to any other films those two actors have been in before.

I thought it was very slow-paced and I found myself trying to fight off sleep which is unusual for me because I have a weird habit of once I've started something, I need to finish it no matter how bad it is.

I'm not saying it's a bad film, it just didn't have that much impact on me.

I enjoyed the way it was shot, the cinematography was beautiful. It did a wonderful job of portraying the century it was based in as well as the conflict between the culture of the Congo tribes and Victorian London.

Christoph Waltz, as always, did a fantastic job as the villain. I know he seems to have been typecast into the villains role, but it is for good reason as he does it so well.

I can't really remember Margot Robbie making much of an impact on me in this film except for her obvious beauty, that was all.

And Alexander Skarsgard, well, I loved him in True Blood, but I felt he was a little flat in this. Plus, is it just me or was he paler as Tarzan than he was when he was playing a vampire? Weird.

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Rating: ★★☆☆☆

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"Your Focus Determines Your Reality."

- Qui-Gon Jinn (Star Wars IV)

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The original three. 

I can't believe it took me soooooo long to watch these! I think they were brilliant. I definitely have a new found love for Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher - their initial scenes with witty retorts flying back and forth was great. 

The costumes, the music score, the plot - it was all just fantastic. 

For some reason I didn't particularly warm to Luke Skywalker, I'm not entirely sure why but I thought his altercation with Yoda was amusing. 

All three are thoroughly enjoyable and something I would definitely watch time and time again. Can't wait to see the new one!

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The prequels though. These I was not impressed with. 

Yes, you could say a bit of background information was shed on how Darth Vader became who he was, but it wasn't necessarily needed. 

Plus, I feel that all of the performances from the cast fell flat - including Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman and Samuel L. Jackson. Yoda also became more of an irritation than an addition to the film. 

The only bit I would have to say I enjoyed was the final battle scene between Obi and Darth. 

What a disappointment. I probably wouldn't watch them again.

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Rating:
IV, V, VI - ★★★★★

I, II, III - ★★☆☆☆


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