Tag: a court of mist and fury

Week in Review (Dec 26, 2021 – Jan 1, 2022)

~ colourfulgranny ~ 1 Comment

New year, new TV show and movies to watch, new books to read and new reviews to write. I’m hoping to still keep fresh insight coming with my reviews and keep it interesting. Thanks for sticking around for another year, readers! Happy new year!

What have I been doing this week? I’m glad you asked! Here’s what’s been on my watchlist this week:

*Note: My reviews usually contain spoilers. You have been warned. Proceed at your own risk.*

Movies

The King’s Man (2021)

I have been waiting for The King’s Man for an age, and it’s finally here!

I have a particular love for Matthew Vaughn’s crazy style of storytelling and have watched a large body of his work, including the two previous installments in this series (loved the first, hated the second). There were several factors of this film that I was looking forward to. The World War I setting, Matthew Goode starring (despite him not being in any of the promotional material, which was rather annoying) and getting to see the origin of the organization.

While the film had several predictable beats in terms of the plot, it was visually appealing and Vaughn went all out with his camera movement and directing his actors. His fight sequences looked like choreographed dances, and at least the duel between Orlando Oxford (Ralph Fiennes) and Rasputin (Rhys Ifans) was more ballet than battle.

However, there were parts where it felt like directing choices were made more for shock value than actually serving the story. Rasputin “fixing” Oxford’s leg and Conrad’s (Harris Dickinson) death are two that come to mind. Vaughn has always had a strange sense of humor where violence is concerned, and seeing the way he handled some of the stylistic choices of what was the genocide of young men during one of the most grueling wars in history felt distasteful.

Going off that same ideology, I had a similar issue with this film that I did with the original Kingsman: while I don’t condone their methods, I actually agree with the so-called villains’ ideologies. In this film, Morton was perfectly justified in feeling resentment towards the English for what is generational oppression and mistreatment of the Scottish people. The film really glossed over Morton’s motivation, but I suspect that if the film had gone into more detail on his reasoning, a lot more viewers would feel similarly to me. And while I was glad that Goode is finally getting more big name projects, it did feel a bit wrong to have an Englishman play a Scot who despises the English.

Overall, The King’s Man felt tonally inconsistent, and while not a piece of high cinema, I enjoyed it nonetheless for what it was: a fun, crazy and sometimes heartfelt movie. And I don’t think it really set out to be more than that.

Books

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas – Ch 19-69

Wow, did this book take a turn from where I last left off!

ACOMAF is insane, in that it took the work that was done in its predecessor and undid all of it. From the very beginning, Maas set up Tamlin as this shining beacon that Feyre could turn to when she had lost all hope, but once she’s pulled into Rhys’s world she doesn’t even look twice at him. While I have absolutely no problem whatsoever with an organic change in relationship where two people naturally outgrow one another, Maas seems to be focusing more on erasure; worse than that, she puts Tamlin down in order to big up Rhysand, which bothers me to no end.

What bothered me even more, though is that Feyre doesn’t seem to realize that she is in fact just repeating the same patterns that she is condemning: placing blind trust in a man that she knows little about; only having the illusion of agency in a situation while having every decision ultimately made for her; being subtly guided and manipulated into following others’ agenda.

That being said, I absolutely flew through this book. Curiosity at what madness Maas would bring me next had me going through at breakneck speed, and it was a fascinating read. With Feyre now having infiltrated the Spring Court, war with Hybern imminent and Rhys and Feyre having confirmed their mating bond (ew), the next book promises to be a crazy ride.

Week in Review (Dec 5 – 11, 2021)

~ colourfulgranny ~ 1 Comment

What have I been doing this week? I’m glad you asked! Here’s what’s been on my watchlist this week:

*Note: My reviews usually contain spoilers. You have been warned. Proceed at your own risk.*

Books

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas – Ch 1-18

The follow-up to Sarah J. Maas’s excellent first book is off to an interesting start. The book picks up a little while after the events of Thorns and Roses, and Feyre is preparing for her impending wedding to Tamlin. As the future wife of a High Lord, she is receiving training on court etiquette and what will be expected of her in this role. However, it is clear that she would much rather receive training on how to use her new Fae body and the powers it seems to slowly exhibit. Tamlin and the members of his court, on the other hand, are strongly against it, saying that it sends the wrong message to the other courts. And therein lies the crux of their main conflict. 

Feyre is written as a pretty standard heroine, self-deprecating but incredibly skilled; however, now with the added abilities I do find it heartbreaking that she would put herself down so much and consider herself unworthy of being Tamlin’s wife. She is going through some intense PTSD following the events of ACOTAR and having to kill two Fae in cold blood, and it seems that not a single soul in the Spring Court seems to know or care (outside of perhaps Lucien). Add to that wedding stress and a strained relationship with Tam and it’s no wonder that Rhysand is so shocked at the toll it’s taken on her, and takes her away to the Night Court when she eventually breaks down.

I find it incredibly intriguing that Rhysand has taken such an interest in Feyre. I don’t think his intentions are as noble as we are being led to believe, but I do like that Feyre is still getting more of an education than she might have done at the Spring Court. I find it quite shocking that she also does allude to the possibility that she only fell in love with Tamlin becuase he was the first person who showed interest in her, but it seems that she may be repeating that pattern with Rhys (even though I do find Rhys fascinating as a character, I don’t really ship them).

One thing that I do wish we had in the book was other points of view. I would love to have seen Tam’s reaction to Feyre being taken, or Rhys’s take on the Bone Carver. Now that we are getting more into the history and political landscape of Prythian, Feyre sometimes feels limited in her viewpoint as an outsider of their world.

I am looking forward to the upcoming war, and seeing Feyre take steps towards her recovery. I’m also looking forward to seeing the consequences of Feyre moving to the Night Court, and how she’ll impact the impending war.