Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – Film Review

Posted on November 13, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Ryan Coogler

Writers: Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole

Starring: Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, Florence Kasumba, Dominique Thorne, Michaela Coel, Tenoch Huerta, Martin Freeman, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Angela Bassett

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is the final film in Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Like the first Black Panther, it is directed by Ryan Coogler, who also co-wrote the script with Joe Robert Cole. For the most part this is a standard Marvel film. There’s lot of great CGI, big battles, and a formulaic plotline as expected. Namor being introduced to the MCU is pretty great, since he’s one of the earliest Marvel characters, first appearing in 1939, before even Captain America was first published. After the events of the previous films, the rest of the world wants to get their hands on vibranium, with some even trying to steal it. When America uses a device to discover there’s vibranium outside of Wakanda, which is inside the underwater kingdom of Talokan. Namor is the leader of the kingdom who wants to wage war on the world above the sea, keeping his kingdom safe in the progress. He offers Wakanda an ultimatum, join him or be destroyed alongside the rest of the world.

The film is sadly, way, way too long. No superhero film needs to be two hours and forty minutes, and this one really drags at points. It’s a marathon to get through. Thankfully, it all looks great, with great costumes, CGI, and some incredible action, especially in the final act. The performances are all really good as well from the entire cast. It’s a Marvel film, and doesn’t really stray too far away from the previous films.

What really sets this apart from other Marvel films is the emotional weight of the loss of Chadwick Boseman in real life, which is echoed in the film with the death of T’Challa. It has some genuinely emotional moments and honours Boseman, with the funeral of T’Challa early in the film and the Marvel Studios logo only showing scenes of him. It’s a nice and fitting tribute to a great actor. His loss is felt throughout the film as well, really adding an emotional weight to it all.

As Phase Four comes to a close, at least in the films since there’s still The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special to come in a few weeks, there’s so much Marvel that it’s hard to keep up with it, especially with the almost endless supply of Disney Plus shows. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is entertaining, with some real emotional weight, but it’s not as special as the first one by a long shot.

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Beastars – Volume Two – Manga Review

Posted on November 12, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

The second volume of Beastars continues the story of Cherryton Academy, a boarding school with a diverse set of animal students, both carnivores and herbivores. The story focuses on Legoshi, a wolf who tries to keep himself to himself and blend into the background. While the first volume opens with an alpaca being murdered, there’s almost no mention of it in volume two, although the tensions it caused is still running high.

Most of this volume focuses on Adler, the play that the drama club is performing. Legoshi is a member of the club, working as a stagehand on lighting. It’s revealed that there’s a reason why specific students are chosen to be members of the club, and I’m guessing that will be quite significant further down the line. It feels like there’s a lot of mystery at Cherryton Academy and I’m looking forward to seeing it being revealed.

We also get more interaction with Haru, a rabbit that Legoshi almost killed in the previous volume when he started to let his primal instincts take control. On the outside she’s a small cute rabbit who most people seem to want to protect, which frustrates her. There’s a rumour going around school about her, and no one wants to be seen near her. Legoshi, feels like there’s more going on with her than most people realise. Their dynamic is pretty great so far and I’m looking forward to seeing this develop over the series.

Tense is definitely the word to describe the later half of this volume. I won’t spoil it, but it’s absolutely brilliantly written and I was eagerly reading to find out what happens next. There’s a little bit of violence, which is quite brutal as a reminder that despite it’s premise this is not for children. It’s tackling some interesting themes like the importance of diversity in entertainment, slut-shaming, and self-worth. One of my favourite characters so far is Louis, the leader of the drama club. A herbivore who wants to be seen to be as strong as a carnivore. He’s an amazing actor, who people will flock to see, and will do everything in his power to keep up his reputation. I feel like there’s a lot about his character that will be revealed later and I’m excited to find out.

Beastars volume 2 is simply a fantastic manga volume. It’s rare that I find a manga so completely engrossing that all I want to do is read more, but this series has me hooked and I’ll be reading every volume of this as quickly as I possibly can. If you’re looking for something different, that’s quite dark for a story about a school filled with talking animals, then Beastars is well worth checking out.

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Beastars – Volume 1 – Manga Review

Posted on November 11, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

I went into Beastars knowing absolutely nothing about it. Based on the cover alone, I had assumed that it would be similar to the Vertigo comic Fables, and that the wolf on the front cover would be some kind of detective. I was pretty wrong about that. The wolf is Legoshi (named after Bela Lugosi), a student at Cherryton Academy, who is also a member of the drama club working as a stage hand. The Academy is shaken when an alpaca, Tem, is murdered and all eyes turn on the carnivores in the school.

In the world of the manga herbivores and carnivores both live side by side, although there’s a lot of distrust between them. Just because there’s laws to say that carnivores can’t eat meat, doesn’t stop the herbivores from panicking whenever they’re alone with Legoshi or any of the other carnivores. While the manga starts with the the murder, the mystery is not really the focus at all, at least not for volume one.

Instead we get quite a slow introduction to the main characters, and what’s happening with the drama club. After finishing the volume, which I did enjoy quite a bit, I don’t really know where the story is going. It could be a murder mystery, or a straight up drama where the murder just kicks off the events, and there’s even a hint that it may be more of a Romeo and Juliet style romance story. It’s probably all of those things, but the first volume is more focused on setting the scene than kickstarting any story arcs. I quite like the pace of it, and the slow revealing of the characters. There are quite a lot of characters though, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to struggle to remember their names, at least until the main characters become more obvious.

The storyline is taken very seriously, despite it being filled with anthropomorphic animals. There were a couple of funny moments, but it’s a lot darker than I was expecting. There’s a some heavy themes in the story, most notably the allegory for racism through the distrust between the carnivores and herbivores. It’s an interesting way to look at everything.

While I came round to it pretty quickly, the art style is quite unique and I wasn’t quite sure when I was reading the first few pages. It looks a little rough and there are moments when I couldn’t quite tell who the character in the panel was and had to re-read it. That’s more of a ‘me-thing’ as it wasn’t what I was used to, and by the end of the book I’d gotten into sync with it.

Overall, I think the first volume of Beastars is a great introduction to the series. I’ll definitely be reading more as soon as I can.

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Falling for Christmas – Film Review

Posted on November 10, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Janeen Damian

Writers: Jeff Bonnett and Ron Oliver

Starring: Lindsay Lohan, Chord Overstreet, George Young, Jack Wagner, Alejandra Flores, and Olivia Perez

Most of the focus on Falling for Christmas, the latest Netflix Christmas film, is that it’s a comeback for Lindsay Lohan who hasn’t really appeared in many films in the last decade. Beyond that, it’s an easy-going and low-stakes Christmas rom-com that doesn’t try to be anything but that. It’s entertaining and if you’ve seen any of Netflix’s Christmas offerings (like A Castle for Christmas, which appears in this as a film on TV in one scene) then you pretty much know what to expect.  

Lohan stars as Sierra Belmont, an heiress to a large ski resort, and is overpampered and quite spoilt. She has people who do everything for her, from dress her to clean up after her every morning. Her boyfriend is a popular social media influencer, Tad (George Young) who seems to only want to be with Sierra for the publicity, planning out their selfies together to get maximum likes online. He’s pretty much what you’d expect, self-obsessed and lives quite a privileged life.

Tad takes Sierra on a ski trip up a mountain, in order to get a perfect photo, even though neither of them really know what they’re doing. You know disaster is coming, and it does when Tad proposes and before Sierra can respond they both start to fall down the mountain, tumbling about in an accident that would have definitely killed Sierra in real life, especially when her head bounces of a tree. But it doesn’t kill her, instead she develops amnesia and is picked up by the hero of the story Jake (Chord Overstreet), who is grieving the loss of his wife a couple years prior. So she doesn’t have to eat hospital food, because you know, just because she has amnesia doesn’t mean she doesn’t have taste, she stays with Jake who runs a smaller hotel/ski resort. The pair start to fall in love, while at the same time Tad wanders about in the wilderness, as he doesn’t have his phone to guide him.

Everything about this film is completely ridiculous, but it’s still charming and funny enough to be enjoyable. The plot is completely unbelievable, from the insane ski-accident that Sierra pretty much suffers no physical injury, or how the hospital just let her go to stay with Jake because she’s a bit of a handful. It’s even pretty much a plot point that Santa concocts the entire plot to bring Sierra and Jake together, which you just have to go along with. In case it wasn’t obvious, this is something you need to just switch off and enjoy, and it works nicely as braindead watching. Jake seems to be the most perfect guy in the world, and brings out the best in Sierra, who goes by Sarah while she’s suffering from amnesia. There’s a fair few funny scenes and the predictable formulaic rom-com plot that you’d expect with nothing new brought to the genre. Tad’s side-plot where he befriends a survivalist, Ralph, who helps him get back to humanity is also funny. To top it all off there’s a blooper reel over the credits, that’s probably funnier than the actual film.     

For people who grew up with films like Freaky Friday (2003) and Mean Girls, it’s good to see Lohan back in a leading role. She’s good in the film, and hopefully this is the start of a renaissance for her. It’s not a perfect or great Christmas film, but it’s still fun to watch and would make for a good Christmas afternoon film for the whole family to watch.

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The Book of the Most Precious Substance by Sara Gran

Posted on November 9, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Lily had the perfect life, her book was receiving great reviews and she was went on globetrotting book tours, her partner Abel seems to be perfect in every way. Then tragedy erupts in her life when Abel starts to show signs of dementia. In order to survive, Lily starts to sell her book collection and leaves behind her writing life and becomes a full time bookseller. When another bookseller gives her a tip that there’s a buyer looking for one of the rarest occult books, known as The Book of the Most Previous Substance, Lily stars another adventure seeking down the book, seeing the money as a way to solve most of her problems.

I found out about this book as it was listed under ‘horror’ and ‘mystery and thriller’. The first few chapters of this book had me absolutely hooked, detailing Lily’s life and her selling books. I found it interesting and engaging right from the first page and just wanted to know what was going to happen next. I thought I was in for something quite special. Then as the book continued it was much more erotic than I was expecting, and I couldn’t find anything that I would class as horror in it at all.

Perhaps the biggest issue with this for me, is that I didn’t like the characters. Lily is a fine character at the beginning, but as she’s influenced by the magic within the book she’s seeking, she becomes much darker. Her business partner, Lucas, is supposed to be very charming, but I found him very slimy and unlikable. He didn’t come across as someone with the charisma that he was supposed to have.

The ending, is also a little poor. I could see most of it coming a mile off, and I found the twist a little rubbish. Then the final chapter wraps things up with one nice bit in the garden, which I thought was really well done, but it was an underwhelming ending to the mystery. Around halfway through the book it just fell into a formula of finding someone who had either owned a copy of the book, or knew someone who did, and just asking them for the next lead, as they were pretty much all willing to help.

I think overall, the book just wasn’t for me. It was well written, but I didn’t enjoy it. The mystery was pretty simple and hidden under a sex-filled shadow, that took up way too many pages. There are plenty of other reviews that have praised it, but if like me, you’re looking for a horror mystery, then this ain’t it.

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