The Dark Knight Rises - Review

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES - A fast paced movie with the same dark tones that we have gotten used to with the first two movies. A fitting end to a fantastic trilogy, a must watch for anyone who likes superheroes.

Before I start this blog, I want to take a moment to remember the people who lost their lives in the mindless shooting that took place at the midnight screening @ Aurora, Colorado. There are really no words that will help make any sense of what happened we can just hope that all the families of the people who lost their lives and the ones who were injured are able to cope with this tragedy.

But as they say in show business, the show must go on. And when you show up for the movie two hours before it starts and you are the 75th person in line, that tells you how much people are anticipating a fantastic finish. It was an amazing experience to hear the guys at the theater come up and say, "Hey Guys, the movie will start exactly at 3.50 PM and there will be no trailers". The movie was in IMAX on the big 70mm screen on which despite not being 3-D made the entire experience so much larger than usual from the first frame all the way to the last.

I have always felt that the first movie in the series (Batman Begins) was the best in the series and I don't think this movie changes that, but it's close, with this movie showing a much more human side to Batman, than The Dark Knight. There is no doubt now, that this series will top my list of best super hero movies, but here's my review anyway.

The movie picks up where the last movie left off, with the city honoring the death of Harvey Dent by launching the Dent Act to clean up the city and the Batman taking the fall for all of Dent's deeds. Christian Bale's portrayal of Bruce Wayne makes you see the man and his personality all the time even when he is behind the mask. But in this movie, just like the previous one he was matched by a brilliant performance by the antagonist, Tom Hardy as Bane and supported by a cast of fabulous actors.

Every word from Bane sends shivers down your back as you see the total incongruity between a big muscle man with a sophisticated and mechanical voice that brings in so much dread. It's Bane's character that makes you feel the humanity in the Batman. And the caped crusader's relationship with Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) also takes the edge of the hero making him seem more human as he looks for the best in the Catwoman.

There's not much else to say about this movie without giving away too much of the story line. All I can really say is that it's the perfect end to the trilogy and a must watch for any fan.

My Rating - 4.5 on 5.

Rahul

The Amazing Spiderman IMAX Review

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN - "A younger, dark, slick and funny re-incarnation of the franchise. With it's quick wit, fresh take and special effects, it's definitely a hit."

After three Spider-man movies in the recent times, one may have thought one more movie that tries to re-start the franchise would be just another re-make. But I guess any movie that is made well and with the right elements can click. I guess that's what happened with this movie.

Andrew Garfield's take on this masked superhero is different from Tobey Maguire's portrayal that he makes the character his own. This Spider-man is really a teenager with an amazing intellect and camera skills, but he's not just some geeky boy with glasses who gets stung by a spider, this guy has a personal story to his evolution into Spider-man.

The introduction of his parents into the story adds a very slick layer of complexity which helps marry his story with genetics and his curiosity to to unravel his history and of course a chance to show him grow from just the teenager into a guy who realizes his responsibility. But as usual, Uncle Ben had to die for Peter Parker to become Spider-man, but this movie added a lot more depth to his character, to show where he gets his morals and what drives him down the road he goes. The bad guy in this movie is also bears a notable mention - the Lizard, who's fights and spars with Spidey provide a sense of reality to something that is so deep in science fiction that it could never be real.

What's the one thing that takes away points from this movie? Well that would be Irrfan Khan's portrayal of the Oscorp flunkie who wants to test out the miracle cure on the world. In the entire movie, it was only his performance that was flat and bereft of any emotion or connection to any of the other characters.

But eventually, the big question is if this movie worked? I think it went beyond worked, it surpassed the previous version and has created for itself an opportunity to sit right below the Dark Knight in terms of super hero movies, but all that depends on how they follow this movie up.

My Rating - 4 on 5




- Rahul

Prometheus - Movie Review IMAX

PROMETHEUS - "A powerful Sci-Fi concept that has been used to great effect in the past, but falls flat in this case. It's slow movie with lacklustre acting and storyline"

The movie is set in some 75 years in the future, with a pair of archeologists looking at a 35,000 year old cave painting which depicts ancient humans pointing to a celestial systems light years away. They find that this same system has been noticed in many different civilizations across the globe. They set out on an expedition with a team of scientists, explorers and a very life like robot.The movie then basically surrounds their experience on the planet, looking for the aliens they called "The Engineers" the people who they believed brought humaity to earth.

As you'd expect from the trailer, things don't go as planned and some strange things happen that cause people to start dying. The action continues throughout the movie with the story culiminating in the team realizing that they were not on the home of their ancestors but rather at a place of death.

The movie really does not explain a lot of the topics that it picks up on, Who are these Engineers? How did our ancestors know about them? What's with the alien in the last scene? It centers too much on the action then on the actual story and is a real let down. On the whole I would not really recommend going to the movies to watch this movie. Wait for the movie on TV, it's fine for a bored sunday afternoon when you don't have anything else to watch.

What would I rate this movie? Well, it would be 2 on 5.

Rahul

Avengers - IMAX 3D Movie Review

Avengers IMAX 3D - "Action packed super hero movie with all the characters putting in stellar performaces mixed in with brilliant special effects and 3D sequences. Definately worth a watch in IMAX"

 It's been a long time since I posted a movie review. I have seen quite a few movies since then but none of them have been momorable enough to review. So after a gap of 5 months, reviews are back due to popular demand (you know who you are!!!).

I had been waiting to watch this movie for a long time, but I was not expecting too much from the movie, because I thought that a movie with so many big names and big superhero characters in their own right may not be able to co-exist in one movie. It was a really plesant surprise that all the characters bounced each others characters off the others and made the entire movie look really coheisve and cool. In the lead up to the movie the standalone movies introducing each of the characters had a combination of hits and misses. The Iron Man franchise has been strong, Captain America was good & Thor was dissapointing. The Hulk has had 2 incarnations in the last decade with Edward Norton's incarnation being far and away the better one. But this movie introduced a new actor for the Hullk in Mark Ruffalo, who played an incarnation quite similar to the one Edward Norton had played in The Incredible Hulk (2008) and brought Bruce Banner and Hulk much closer to each other.

The movie picks up right where the Captain America & Thor movies left off, with S.H.E.I.L.D trying to analyze and build power source and weapons from the Tesseract, the blue cube that Hydra used in the Captain America movie to build all those weapons. Loki arrives and steals the Tesseract as it can be used to create wormholes to other dimensions and Chintauri promise him the Earth in exchange for it. After this most of the movie is basically self explanatory, Nick Fury brings these characters together to save the world from this threat.

The movie combines very witty dialogue with brilliant action sequences keeping you hooked throughout. The last 30 minutes of the movie has a lot of 3D scenes which makes the experience even more interesting. If you have not yet seen  the movie, go watch it. What are you waiting for?

The bottom line, this movie is a 4 on 5 for any superhero movie fan.

Rahul

The Adventures of TINTIN - Review

The Adventures of TINTIN - "Seeing the comic come to life in with such amazing graphics is good, but not great. The movie disappoints with it's changes from the original and a poor finish"


I must admit it's been almost 15 years since I last saw a TINTIN comic. But some of the most fun I had as a kid was reading these comics by Herge. This Steven Spielberg movie tries to take 3  books that introduce of Captain Haddock and the Unicorn's legacy.



The Crab with the Golden Claws
The Secret of the Unicorn
Red Rackham's Treasure


But to really have done justice to the books in this one movie, there was real artistic licence needed where elements from the 3 books were borrowed and tried to mesh into one book. The movie concentrates on Tintin meeting Haddock and their adventures in finding the secrets of the Unicorn. But Haddock did not meet Tintin while trying to uncover the Unicorn's secrets, he met him 2 books earlier, so they had to take part from the earlier book (Carb with the Golden Claw). All the way through the movie all you can do is make comparisons to the books and that's it's pitfall unfortunately. Too many changes to the story and an effort to combine 80% of Red Rackham's treasure into 10 minutes, created a very disappointing ending to the movie.

When you leave the movie theater, if you think about the movie in isolation, I'll say it was an average movie with really good graphics. In terms of the Tintin comics, the movie was a disappointment.

My Rating. 2.5/5.

happy new year,
Rahul.

Don 2 - Review

DON 2 - "Traditional Action, Music & Bollywood Masala, with a incredibly slow first half and a good second half. Nothing to write home about, but fun at the movies nevertheless."

The Return of the King, That's the tag line the movie set out with and it's also the legend it had to live up to. I don't think anyone ever claimed that the first Don movie or it's subsequent remakes were classic movies with fantastic plots twists. But the first movie was an Amitabh Bachchan, angry young man classic with song and dance and fight sequences and Shah Rukh Kahn's re-interpretation was a stylized movie with a brilliant plot twist at the end at left most of us really thrilled that we saw something other than just a re-make. But what the movie did more than anything was left the door open for this one. Don 2.

For those that have not seen the first movie, please remember this is a sequel, and does not make much sense without the first one, but anyway it was a fast paced movie that slowed down along the way but picked up steam at the end, but was full of good music, car chases and fight sequences throughout. Good old masala. So anyone expecting anything more would be disappointed.

Let's get to the point. How was Part 2? Well to be honest if I had left during the intermission I would have gladly said the movie is horrible. The first half of the movie is long drawn out and boring, the acting by all actors in the movie is terrible, with not one of them showing an ounce of emotion. Kareena Kapoor showed more emotion in the one song that she came in the first movie than all of them did in this movie put together. But the movie does compensate with a good second half where they actually get into the job of storytelling and the twist at the end though expected, makes you leave the theater with a smile on your face. Does the movie shamelessly borrow sequences from Mission Impossible, sure and you are going to see the similarity all the time. But you will enjoy it.

So my rating? 2.5 would be it. Not good or bad.

A review is not going to make you go watch or avoid this movie, somewhere along the way you will watch it. The action is really good, the car chases are fun and you do recognize the music from the first movie, so like I said before it's Good old masala.

Rahul