After a dark force conquers Canterlot, the Mane 6 - Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity - embark on an unforgettable journey beyond Equestria where they meet new friends and exciting challenges on a quest to use the magic of friendship to save their homeland.*

More delayed than usual, this is part three of my 2018 Wrap-Up. I wasn't sure how to do this part. For previous years, I broke it up into songs, discoveries, and albums. However, as with pretty much everything, I tuned out a bit in 2018 and instead of listening to new albums and artists, found myself looking back and spending quite a bit of time with Billie Holiday.

More delayed than usual, this is part two of my 2018 Wrap-Up. For 2018, I had relaxed goals for everything, because I wanted to see how much I watch if left to my own devices without a challenge pushing me. My reading goal for 2018 was 25 books and I read a total of 31. The problem I had with this list is that all of the books I read fell into two categories. I either loved them...or felt indifferent about them.

An aggressive race of aliens took over Planet Earth and humanity's at its end, living in giant bunkers below ground. Young Military rookie S.U.M.1 (Iwan Rheon) is sent to the surface to save a group of unprotected survivors. (IMDB)

Directed by Christian Pasquariello
Written by Christian Pasquariello & Gabrielle Pfeiffer
Starring Iwan Rheon (S.U.M.1), Andre Hennicke (MAC), Rainer Werner (V.A.X.7), Norman Reedus (K.E.R.4), Tim Williams (Base), and Lesley Suzanne Dean (M.A.T.E)
Released: December 2017
Runtime: 1hr 32min
Rating: TV-MA
Genre(s): Horror, Scifi, Thriller

This review contains spoilers!

The main reason for watching this film I found while randomly browsing titles on Amazon Prime Video is Iwan Rheon. I have been a fan of his acting since seeing him on Misfits as Simon several years ago. In Alien Invasion: S.U.M.1, Rheon plays the disturbingly blonde soldier, S.U.M.1 in a world where aliens have forced humans underground. S.U.M.1's task is to manage a tower that helps secure the final defenses of humanity and to help direct any humans left above ground to the underground shelter. His only companion being a friendly rat, S.U.M.1 slowly develops paranoia and begins to question what his real mission is and if the aliens are even real. However, after walking down a path that seems to be building up to a twist reminiscent of M. Night Shaylaman's The Village, we make a sharp U-turn back to alien land with the reveal of a spider-crab monstrosity.

Up to this point, the film is actually pretty interesting and even though the suspected twist is easy to pick up on before many clues are given, it easily sucks you in. I loved the acting, especially by Rheon (shocker, I know) and the u-turn was somewhat refreshing/unexpected even though the graphics for the alien reveal were horrendous.

Rating: ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆ 5/10

Film information, summary, and cover image from IMDB.

A young woman is involuntarily committed to a mental institution, where she is confronted by her greatest fear--but is it real or a product of her delusion? (IMDB)

Rating: R
Runtime: 1 hour 38 minutes
Genre(s): Horror/Mystery/Thriller
Released: March 2018
Directed by Steven Soderbergh.
Written by Jonathan Berstein & James Greer
Starring Claire Foy as Sawyer Valentini, Joshua Leonard as David Strine, Jay Pharoah as Nate Hoffman, and Juno Temple as Violet.


 Please note that this review includes some minor spoilers.

Unsane is described as a horror/mystery/thriller film, but the only real horror in the film is how effectively it preys on some of the worst fears that women have. Ultimately I found it to just be a thriller that was trying to trick you into thinking it was a horror film. (Granted, it did decide to include the black guy stereotype…)

More delayed than usual, this is part one of my 2018 Wrap-Up. For 2018, I had relaxed goals for everything, because I wanted to see how much I watch if left to my own devices without a challenge pushing me. I watched 87 movies and the majority of those were re-watches (and the majority of those were just Disney). I think I only watched around 15-20 new to me films, which made the creation of this top ten more difficult than usual.

Life in deep space could be a drag sometimes, but Daisy supposed things could have been worse. They were still alive, after all, which was always a plus in her book. Now if only she could figure out who, or what, was endangering her return home, things would be just peachy.
It had been one hell of a way to start the day––being rudely snapped from a deep cryo-sleep, and in the middle of a ship-wide crisis to boot––but Daisy was pleased to note that the ship had not decompressed, the crew hadn’t been blasted into space, and, most importantly, they hadn’t simply blown up. At least not yet. So, they had that going for them, but being stuck on a damaged ship in the inky depths of space as it limped toward Earth was not exactly the relaxing trip home she’d imagined.
With the powerful AI supercomputer guiding the craft beginning to show some disconcerting quirks of its own, and its unsettling cyborg assistant nosing into her affairs, Daisy’s unease was rapidly growing. Add to the mix a crew of mechanically-enhanced humans, any one of whom she suspected might not be what they seemed, and Daisy found herself with a sense of pending dread tickling the periphery of her mind.
Something was very much not right––she could feel it in her bones. The tricky part now was going to be figuring out what the threat was, before it could manifest from a mere sinking feeling in her gut into a potentially deadly reality. 

I absolutely devoured this book. It moves fast, not really giving you time to breathe (or overthink certain plot issues) and incorporates plenty of wonderful nerdy sci-fi references and great humor. However, once you have finished reading it and begin to think about what happened, problems arise. Daisy is definitely prejudiced, to the point of being violent, and I really do not like rooting for someone like that. Many of the reactions (not just from Daisy) are just unrealistic, people do not think or act the way they do in the book.  I am not a scientist and I do not read sci-fi for scientifically accurate information. However, if you do...I’m pretty sure it will annoy you.
Since, as previously mentioned, I do not read science FICTION for facts or complete realism, I am planning on reading the other four books in the series...and soon. Does Daisy’s Run have problems? Definitely. However, overall, it is an incredibly enjoyable journey and I can’t wait to continue it.

*I receive a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 4/5

Book & Author Information:

Published: November 2018
Buy: Amazon

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Quote image created using Canva and book cover from Goodreads. The summary is also from Goodreads.