Harry Potter Studio Tour | Review

At the very start of the year I got to visit the Harry Potter Studio Tour in London for the very first time. Upon looking back at some photos I decided to post about the experience there in case any one is interested in making a trip in the future. It is the place to be if you love the movies as the majority of the movies were filmed there in the studios that were there before they dedicated the space purely to the tour. The tour is longer than I could've imagined, you can wander by yourself at your own pace but there is a lot to get through and if you're a huge fan you'll want to take your time. This post will be full of spoilers about stuff that happens and what you can do in the tour so don't read if you want to be surprised on your visit! 

The first section is mainly props from each of the movies. One of the most exciting pieces for me was the Great Hall set-up. They had decorated it as if it were Hogwarts in the snow (they change it every once in a while to match the seasons and change it up a little if you visit often). We went during the Winter months so everything was snow-covered. The Great Hall was set up as if it were a scene in the movie with the tables decorated with food and garnishing and there are members of staff giving you information about the set and doing some small demonstrations. There was then a section full of various props from horcruxes, to costuming, to wands, and building pieces including Griffindor common room. There is an option to buy interactive earphones to hear about each display but I opted out as I like to read the signs and explore at my own pace usually. My favourite pieces from this section were the entrance to Dumbledore's office and the common room. 

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There were a lot of photo opportunities in each section of the tour, some including green screens and interactive pieces. There were also wand classes and interactive spots in-between and a lot of the behind the scenes into how they filmed/shot certain scenes like Quidditch. I loved how the tour was split up. The next section was into the forbidden forest (which you could skip as it is a little scary) it was so well done and the effects in that area were really realistic, if you've seen any of the movies you know how many creepy things live in that forest. When you come out you then get to see the Hogwarts Express and platform 9 3/4 for the first time, at first I thought it was just another photo opportunity, which it is, but you can also get on and explore different scenes from different films. After that you're able to head outside and visit some of the outdoor sets including The Night Bus, Privet Drive, and one of the pieces of the outside of Hogwarts. There's also a little cafe to refuel, with Butterbeer which you need to try if you haven't already. You can get it in ice-cream form too if you prefer but it's not made out of beer at all either way. It's a root beer mixture with cream poured on top it is very sweet but very nice.

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It took roughly two hours to complete the first half of the tour. I would consider this part the longest due to how much there is to see and the interactive elements. The next part is a more in depth look into behind the scenes, where there is detail into how costumes were made and the CGI effects which surrounded them. This showed a lot of detail into the creatures in the films like Dobby and how he was animated, as a lot of the previous props were inanimate. There was a lot to see here and you could spend just as long here especially if you're into special effects and makeup. There is also a section on different conceptual designs and inspirations from various artists. There is more set like pieces then where you can enter Diagon Alley. This was amazing to see the detail that was put into each shop to make it equally as individual and unique to the next one, definitely put you right in the movie scene. There was also a set for Gringotts at the end which was equally as stunning and detailed. Although Gringotts wouldn't be the place I'd want to visit first if I was in that world. There is then another interactive scene which I believe is new in this area, where a dragon seems to come toward you and breathe fire. It is very atmospheric and very clever visual effects to do the stunt, I'm sure there's videos online if you want to watch, but i recommend leaving it until you see it in person for the full effect.

The last little bit was probably my favourite and the most interesting to me. There was a huge replica of the Hogwarts castle all decorated under a snow effect. This was just magical to see. The detail of it is remarkable, and this was a set piece that was used throughout all of the movies to get shots of the castle for long distance shots. It's crazy how realistic it is. There's a lot of information about how it was build and its uses in the film around it and it was so stunning, I probably spent the most time here surprisingly. 

At the end of the tour there is a huge gift shop full of every thing you could possibly want from the wizarding world. Overall I really enjoyed the experience and I would recommend it. It is highly worth the money and you get a full days experience from it. It's not too far from London and if you are visiting there are tour buses that will do a day trip for it, and also scenes around London where they also filmed the movies. I would love to visit again in the future in a different season maybe when they do something new with it or go with someone who hasn't been before but it's a lot of fun.

Has anyone else been here before? What do you think?

Urban Decay Alice in Wonderland | Review & Swatches

I'm super excited to write this post but I've taken so long to get around to doing it. I also know this isn't a very new palette anymore but I couldn't find it anywhere for a good while. When I saw that Urban Decay were releasing another Alice in Wonderland palette I knew I was going to love it straight away. I am a huge Alice in Wonderland fan, I just love everything about it so a make up palette based on it yes please. As soon as I saw the pictures I fell in love with it, it's literally so pretty. It's based off the new Alice in Wonderland film Through The Looking Glass, which I actually never read which made it more exciting. I actually had the film in my June favourites. Anyway I've been trying out this palette for a few weeks and I thought I'd write what my opinions on it are and give it an honest review.

   

The palette comes in a box of the same design and you slide the palette out. The design is like looking through a kaleidoscope and has colourful flower like patterns but it's just so pretty I don't even know how do describe it. The side of the palette has the quote 'I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I must have changed several times since then' which is a classic Alice quote. Then when it's opened there's another quote which reads 'I'm not strange, weird, off, nor crazy, my reality is just different from yours' which is so cute, Alice in Wonderland has the most creative and cute quotes. I love them.

   

When opened the top section reveals a mirror which also has a quote on it of probably the most famous quote 'We're all mad here'. The mirror looks like the mirror from the film and has loads of clocks that are melting almost like Dali's famous painting. Underneath the quote you can open the sections to reveal a pop up butterfly from the book and film. It's such a beautifully designed intricate palette and although there's really no need for it to be so fancy and complicated for just being an eye shadow palette I think it suits the themes of the film well. Quite quirky, interesting and a bit different from your average palette and definitely a great collectors item.

The shades on the palette are all so vibrant and some are definitely some I'm going to have to work up the courage to wear out. Each column is based off a certain Alice in Wonderland character which I only realized after I bought it. The first is Alice, then the Mad Hatter, Mirana or the White Queen, Iracebeth or Queen of Hearts and Time. There is meant to be five complete looks in total which I like the idea of, although obviously there's more than five.

The first swatches are from the Alice shades in the palette, Looking Glass, Reflection, Dormouse and Metamorphosis. These colours definitely look like something Alice would wear and I think the subtle shades would go well with a pop of blue. The shade Looking Glass is probably the most faded and subtle of the palette and it's very hard to see it but the other shades are very easy to blend and I find them very pigmented and easy to use.

The swatches above are of the Mad Hatter look which not in Mad Hatter terms are very outgoing and crazy shades to pair with each other. Again it looks very like the Mad Hatter and I've seen some inspired looks with these shades which are just beautiful. The colours are Hatter, Gone Mad, Paradox, and Cake. I haven't used many of these shades yet, they'll probably be my least used shades but I do love Gone Mad which is a deep purple colour and I think it looks great applied under the lash line.

The next shades are based off the White Queen also known as Mirana. These are the most neutral and natural colours on the palette by far. The shades are Lily, Duchess, Kingdom, and Chessboard. These are my favourite shades in the palette. Lily is by far my favourite shade, when first applied it looks like a nice pale beige white then it turns into such a pretty duochrome eye shadow and it becomes a metallic pink in the light and I absolutely love it. If I could only wear one eye shadow for the rest of my life it'd be that one. Duchess is a great match with that shadow and its a pretty light orange gold, even though it seems more beige in the swatch.

The next swatches are of the Queen of Hearts or Iracebeth. The shades are Royal Flush, Salazen Grum, Bandersnatch, and Heads Will Roll. I love Salazen Grum it's the perfect shimmery deep red and looks so pretty. I haven't worn the blue and turquoise shades yet as I feel like they don't really suit my blue eyes, but they feel like good quality.

The last character shades are of Time. They're the darkest shades in the palette and they are Mirror, Chronosphere, Dream on, and Time. These shades are very pigmented and dark. I love the shade Dream On, even though it's the shade many people have said is disappointing. It's not very pigmented but it's still pretty but I can see why people complain about it. All the rest of the shades are very pigmented and soft. 

I know many people have said that this palette isn't up with usual Urban Decay quality and isn't worth the money but I think the eye shadows are very good quality. There's probably two shades on the palette, Looking Glass and Dream On, that I'm not entirely happy with but the rest of them are of high standard and Urban Decay quality. For me this palette is more about the design and detail than the actual eye shadow shades. They're all pretty eye shadows that are soft and easily blended, yet the design of shades for each individual character and the overall design of the palette makes it worth the money. 

I would recommend this palette for sure as it's probably my favourite as of now. Also perfect for my fellow Disney fans. Has anyone tried this palette or seen the new film? What do you think?

Film Reviews | January

Here's yet another post I'm trying out to see how it goes. I've decided to combine the films I've gone to see over the past month into one post instead of making multiple posts because some films won't have enough to write about or aren't interesting enough to have their own post. I prefer reading collective film posts anyway so I'll probably enjoy writing about all the films I've seen more like this. I've gone to the cinema a good few times this month but I don't know how often I'm going to go in the months ahead. I do love visiting the cinema and seeing all the new releases and I do see quite a lot of them so hopefully I do a few more of these posts at least. Without me talking anymore here's a brief review of all the new release films I've seen over the past month. This will be long.

The Revenant
This is a film I had high expectations for as it was super hyped in the media, especially portraying Leonardo DiCaprio's role to be outstanding, so I went into the cinema expecting a super amazing over-hyped film. The story itself is simple, a plot of revenge and betrayal. It's set in the snowy wilderness and when Leonardo's character, Glass, gets attacked by a bear he's left for dead and he seeks revenge of the guy who killed his son in the process of his abandonment. The film itself is really long and I feel like there was a few unnecessary scenes that could've made the film much more enjoyable. It was gory and brutal and the harsh realities of the cold climate were kind of chilling and terrifying to watch. There was a lot of violence as it was about survival. I really didn't enjoy it and I wouldn't watch it again. The effects and the acting were superb I'll give them that, but I just felt the film was tedious and unnecessarily violent, there was also very little dialogue for such a long film.

Room
This is probably my favourite film I've seen recently. It's about a young woman and her child who is five years old, that are held captive in a room for seven years by the mothers kidnapper. The film is extremely sad and really well captured. The feelings of isolation and claustrophobia are very strongly felt even from the start. The mother and son relationship is beautiful and the comparison and contrast between them is interesting. The film was heartbreaking and I did cry at one point. The cinematography was great and the child actor was so good I was so impressed. Also realizing that things like that really happen made it so much more terrifying than any horror film. I would recommend this film over The Revenant any day and I will surely watch it again.

Creed
I had never seen any of the Rocky films previously, I'd never been very interested in fight films. I find they're very predictable and you already know exactly what's going to happen even before you go into the cinema. Despite being predictable it was a good feel good film and it wasn't as boring as I thought it was going to be. It was good action and the fight scenes did make me cringe at times, I don't really understand why boxing like that is allowed but nonetheless it is a good watch, I've heard that it's one of the best Rocky films, I can't see myself watching the previous films anytime soon so I won't know very soon anyway.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens
This was probably the first film I'd seen in the new year and only looking back on the film now I can say I enjoyed it. I had never seen any Star Wars films previous to this, no one kill me, so I had no idea what to expect from this film. I did know the general gist of what had happened in previous films and I did know all the characters so it was a good start anyway. I thought what better time to get into the film franchise than now when it's had a full revamp and aims to bring a new era of Star Wars fans forward.
 Firstly I was super excited to see a female main character, especially as this is Daisy Ridley's first major film I was super impressed by her, the pressure on her must have been insane. Character wise, I loved every single character and it's so easy to like them or even just that they have a strong presence. It didn't take me long to understand the story, which is great for us new fans. Although unfortunately, story wise, I do feel like it's a copy of the original and lacks it's own originality, note that this is from someone who's never seen the original films. From what I already knew about the films it was exactly what I expected so I didn't think it was too great. I do think that the new characters could go somewhere different with the story in the next film hopefully. I also fell in love with the little robot BB8, he's probably one of the reasons I enjoyed the film.

In the Heart of the Sea
This was probably the least talked about film I've seen recently. It's a version of the Moby Dick story and as I've never read the book I can't compare the two. As the name suggests it's a sea faring journey to the heart of the sea to collect whale blubber and along the way they encounter Moby Dick. The film is mainly another film of survival trying to get home from a ship wreck. I did find it a little uncomfortable to watch at times but I thought it was done really well and Chris Hemsworth did a fantastic job. It's emotional and action packed and I wouldn't watch it if you're prone to sea-sickness.

Spotlight
I would say this is also a favourite view from this month. The story follows a group of reporters who are trying to write an article about the Catholic Church and abuse and find it hard to uncover what the church has tried so hard to keep hidden. I thought the film would've been boring and repetitive but it really wasn't it was entertaining and eye-opening. I found it heartbreaking at times because of the amount of truth behind it also. The acting was excellent and two of my favourite actors star in it, Rachel McAdams and Mark Ruffalo. It didn't have just one focal character but four and I think it made the story more intriguing for something that is seemingly so uneventful. I can't say too much about the film without giving it all away as it's a very low key plot film just like the events that inspired it. I would highly recommend this film.

I hope you enjoyed reading my rambles on the films I've seen recently and I will probably do more slightly shorter ones in the future, when I have less free time.

Has anyone else seen any of these films or seen a good one recently?

Disney's Inside Out Movie Review

I can't remember the last time I went to see a Disney film in the cinema and when I saw the ad for this film I knew I was going to love it, I love every Disney film anyway.

The film is about the workings of the human brain, in a very Disney way. Disney personifies the human emotions of Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust and Anger. These are the characters that are in control of our emotions and how we're feeling, done super cutely. 
The film is inside the mind of one child Riley, who's just moved house and is feeling a range of emotions and for the emotions, they have to try and keep her happy. The film follows the journey of Sadness and Joy who get lost inside Riley's mind and have to get back to make her happy again basically.

I loved this film! It has everything you would expect from a Disney film. The characters are super lovable, the story line is a great concept, it's fun and it's humorous. It's its own world and it's full of really creative things like imagination land. They try to explain everything about how they think the brain works in such a cool way, like why we dream things that we do and why we get certain songs stuck in our heads all the time.
It deals with the falling apart of friendships and family relationships and how to cope with it. At one point in the film, which I think is on the ad, you get a glimpse into the brains of Riley's parents too when they're having an argument, it's really well thought out and everything links back to everything in it.
It gets emotional at parts, but maybe that's just me. It deals with letting go of childish behaviours  and growing up and there's always that one part in Disney films that makes me want to cry, and of course this film has it.

Overall I found this film super quirky fun and something that I'd happily watch seven times in a row. I know not everyone will feel the same, but as a Disney lover I'm probably just a bit biased.

Has anyone else seen this or want to go see it?