#HorrorMovieWeeklyRoundup | Week 3

Had wanted to make this a weekly feature but was unable to do so partially due to the exams and mainly because of my slothful disposition.

You can read the first two reviews here:

#HorrorMovieWeeklyRoundup | Week 1

#HorrorMovieWeeklyRoundup | Week 2

1. Carrie [1976]-

If you see the film poster, you would think that this would be one of the most scariest movies ever made. Far from being a horror movie (Carrie’s religious whacko mother was the horror element, in fact ), it is a poignant story about an emotionally and physically abused girl who discovers that she possesses telekinetic powers which can be unleashed with terrifying consequences when pushed to the limits. Carrie can also be considered as symbolic of the bullying incidents that happen at school and how an abused psyche can lash out with disastrous results. Sissy Spacek puts in an unbelievable performance as the meek recluse Carrie and ‘carries’ the movie on her shoulders right from the shower room menarche scene to the climax. A must watch!

Horror quotient: Low | 4.5/5 stars

I recently watched the trailer of the Carrie remake and they have messed up the casting itself. Chloe Moretz as Carrie? Come on!

2. Cabin Fever [2002]

Directed by Eli Roth who later on opened a new chapter in the torture porn genre with his Hostel movies, Cabin Fever is a mediocre movie with hardly any horror. A group of friends go to the woods and get infected by a flesh-eating virus. It is more about how people would react when faced with such a situation e.g. Imagine you are out on a trip with some friends and some of you contract a spreadable infection. Then what would you do? And how would the locals in that area react? The movie is about this. (Hope… that doesn’t happen *evil smile*)

Horror quotient: Mild | 2.5/5 stars

3. Demons [1985]

A piece of advice- If you are a horror fan, then lap up any movie that has the name Dario Argento associated with it. Directed by Lamberto Bava under the aegis of Argento, Demons is a complete roller-coaster ride. The plot? People go to watch a movie, demons attack and all hell breaks loose. The soundtrack- hard punk rock music (unlikely to be seen in your conventional horror movie) complements the campy feel of the movie. Bare-fanged demons run havoc, there is gratuitous violence and gore and the cheesy acting adds to the entertainment. A fun watch.

Horror quotient: High | 3/5 stars

4. The Shining [1980]

Ashamed to admit that I hadn’t watched this until now. Based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name, The Shining is every bit the terrifying horror film it is touted to be. We have Jack Nicholson, (who anyway looks abnormal even when completely normal) playing the character of Jack Torrance, suffering from writer’s block and experiencing hallucinatory visions of the hotel’s past horror. His mental breakdown, his wife’s ever petrified expressions and especially his ESP gifted son’s horrifying premonitions are the best parts of the movie. Kubrick maintains an eerie, chilling fear that engulfs every frame of the movie and gets you squirming every now and then. Truly a remarkable film from a remarkable director!

Horror quotient: Very high | 5/5 stars

Man Of Steel: Movie Review

*Warning: Spoilers follow.*

LOLZ.
There is nothing to spoil.
You can expect the obvious story in the first movie of a reboot series where a superhero meets a supervillain.

I feel quite lazy in updating my blog and would rather post the movie review on Facebook where you can just post what you want to say in a jiffy without going through the drill of formatting, uploading pics and all that stuff. Anyway, since Superman has been my first childhood superhero (and my favorite ever. Batman comes second), a review of Man Of Steel was necessary.

First of all, the movie plot- what is it about? Man Of Steel is mainly a Superman origins movie which follows the story of Kal-El from the mayhem and doom swirling around the planet Krypton to his superhero world-saving act on earth. The story is nothing much to speak about and you can expect things to unravel in exactly the way you expect. There are quite some positives and negatives in this movie, some of which are:

Thumbs Up-

1. The mind-boggling jaw-dropping scale of action that is unleashed on screen is the delight of every fan looking for their adrenaline gratification. You can just gape open-mouthed at the blitzkrieg of impressive CGI and thunderous visual effects that are embedded within each frame of the movie. In short, the SFX-action in Man of Steel >>>> SFX-Action in Transformers+ Iron Man + The Avengers combined. It is really on a gargantuan scale and has to be seen to be believed.

2. The villains- General Zod and his henchmen prove to be more than a match for Superman and the self-righteous motives (of saving Krypton and his race)  instead of some ‘conquering the universe’ shit works out well. In fact, you can say that Zod is more of an anti-hero than villain. (By the way, what do supervillains intend to do in those ludicrous ‘taking over the universe’ plots? Destroy everything and then stare stupidly around at nothingness wearing bright spandex pants?)

Thumbs Down-

Ah, the negatives. Even though the movie instills in you a sense of awe due to its stupendous action-destruction sequences, there are quite some drawbacks which prevent Man of Steel from being the perfect Superman movie that fans had been waiting for.

1. The story follows a non-linear sequence which becomes confusing at times. You feel like blurting out- ‘Hey, why is Superman here? How did he get here? What is this about?’ type stuff. All this doesn’t matter later on though, when you get bombarded with the guilty-pleasure glory of furious super-action pyrotechnics.

2. Henry Cavill and Amy Adams. See, neither is there any time in the movie to get the chemistry between Superman and Lois Lane crackling nor does Henry Cavill in particular make any effort to be more interesting. He seems like a jaded out handsome dude who needs to work more on his acting. I haven’t seen any of his previous work but the overall result is boring in this one.

3. Yet another annoying thing were the Christianity-God references and the implied analogy of Superman and Jesus. I don’t know whether this was Nolan’s idea of making Superman seem like a more complicated character, forever introspecting on his existentiality but religious symbolism should be kept to a minimum in superhero movies.

Final Verdict: A must watch for action buffs and fans of the comic. Here is finally a movie that delivers on what you actually expect when you intend to watch a Superman movie. Zack Snyder has initiated the mega-scale awesomeness which would blow your socks off in the future sequels too. And people who complain about the excessive action or compare it with The Dark Knight trilogy, there is a LOT OF difference between Superman and Batman comics. Please go read them or either watch some Terrence Malick movie if you dislike the wham bang action. Remember the time when you used to watch such movies as a kid? Did you go in the movie hall expecting soul-searching dialogues and philosophical bromides? NO!

3.5/5 stars

Additional Reading:

16 Actors Who Have Portrayed Superman

Superman’s Symbol, Shield, Emblem, Logo and Its History

The Evolution of The Superman Logo

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES- MOVIE REVIEW

**WARNING** 

MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD. READ ONLY AFTER YOU HAVE WATCHED THE MOVIE

So finally. I have watched The Dark Knight Rises. The movie that millions of Batman fans had been fervently waiting for, expectations sky-high (especially after the brilliance of The Dark Knight) and anticipating nothing less than a cinematic marvel that would blow them off their feet, a monumental piece of cinema with great acting, incredible action, the right dose of suspense and humour and an ending that would leave Batmaniacs gasping for breath.

Unfortunately, it falls flat on many counts and despite the superbtastic soundtrack by Hans Zimmer and some really impressive action sequences, The Dark Knight Rises fails to live upto the hype created ever since the name of the movie was announced.

What are the positives here? Well, only a few. One of them is surely Anne Hathaway as Catwoman, a crafty, unapologetic burglar with a love-hate relation with Bruce Wayne and Batman. The latest toy of Batman- the flying contraption or the Batwing is another positive which induces a feeling of awe during the action scenes, which are very well-executed.

But there are flaws aplenty. For instance:

1. Cliched, done to death plot– Consider most of the action movies in Hollywood, Bollywood or any other movie industry- most involve spies or some retired special agent who is ‘called back for duty’ to take on a villain who threatens up to blow up a city with a nuclear bomb. Exactly the same happens in The Dark Knight Rises. The aura of suspense is missed throughout the movie. Also, Batman’s initial encounter with Bane doesn’t evoke any feeling of dread and gloom.

2. & 3. Bane and the Bane-Talia romantic angle- Undeniably the weakest link in the movie. Bane is a loser, wussy villain who sounds like an 80-year-old- granddad. The voice of Bane has definitely been altered, because you can notice in the prologue his deeper, more sinister vocalism. Damn you Christopher Nolan  I felt like guffawing whenever Bane opened his mouth. Also, when Miranda Tate is revealed to be Talia Al Ghul, the pathetic Bane actually becomes emotional. Boy, what an embarassment. Nolan’s Joker would roast him alive if he ever crossed his path.

One more thing, what in the bejabbers was that Talia-Bane romance? It reduced Bane to nothing more than a henchman of Talia who was ‘fulfilling her father’s wishes’. And if the ages of Bane and Talia in the flashback are as shown- an adult and a kid, then clearly Bane is a paedophile. He was what…boning the child Talia? PAEDO!

4. The ludicrous ending- First of all, Christopher Nolan had said there would be no Robin in the movie. Then why in the name of all that is holy was the reference to Robin regarding Gordon-Lewitt’s character- John Blake even made, eh? And the ending, oh wow, Batman flew away with the nuke in his batwing and its shown that 5 seconds before detonation, he is still sitting in his uran khatola. No way he could have escaped and cleared 6+ miles to survive that blast. Batman is NOT SUPERMAN!

Nolan also said ‘we want to end it in the biggest way possible’. This was the epic end? A cheesy nuclear blast and the hero saves the entire city? Pah! Get more innovative, Mr. Nolan.

5. Too many characters- In a superhero movie, the focus should remain on the superhero vs supervillain battle. In The Dark Knight Rises, its a complete clutter with many unnecessary characters. Its all about Gotham city, in fact. I was wondering if Bane was really required in the movie… because his role is nothing more than of a thug doing the bidding of his masters.

All in all, for me, someone who had spammed the timelines of people on Twitter and Facebook, assuring them that this would be the biggest superhero movie ever made, The Dark Knight Rises was a big disappointment.

Final review of the Batman trilogy:

Batman Begins- 4/5 stars

The Dark Knight- 5/5 stars

The Dark Knight Rises- 3/5 stars.    3.8/5 stars

* After reading this review–> http://www.forbes.com/sites/markhughes/2012/07/26/the-meaning-of-joseph-gordon-levitts-fate-in-the-dark-knight-rises-spoilers/  the rating for TDKR has been increased to 3.8

 

For additional reading: 

1. How much would it cost to be Batman in real life? http://mashable.com/2012/07/30/how-much-would-it-cost-to-be-batman/

2. Hero worship: Why Nolan’s Batman is the king of movie superheroes http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/07/28/hero-worship-why-nolans-batman-is-the-king-of-movie-superheroes

3. Five Leadership Lessons From Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2012/07/30/five-leadership-lessons-from-christopher-nolans-batman-trilogy/

4. A look at every single bat-tool Batman has utilized! http://www.ign.com/wikis/the-dark-knight-rises/Bat-Gadgets

5. How The Dark Knight Rises reveals Batman’s conservative soul http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/9405999/How-the-Dark-Knight-Rises-reveals-Batmans-Conservative-soul.html

Battleship: Movie Review

From director Peter Berg ( The Kingdom, Hancock) and Hasbro studio, Battleship is an average CGI fest with the proverbial alien doomsday plot played out to earsplitting proportions. The plot is somewhat similar to Transformers 3, except that instead of Autobots, you have the US naval fleet with the thoroughly annoying Taylor Kitsch (who is becoming like Shia Le Beouf -manages to land up as the lead in gargantuan budget movies and thereby decreasing the tolerance level by several notches).

 YES MR. PRODUCER! I WILL SINK THIS MOVIE LIKE THE SHIP I AM ON! REMEMBER JOHN CARTER, EH?

Accompanying him is Japanese superstar Tadanobu Asano (nothing to speak about) … and…

.

.

.

 Dafuq am I doing in this movie? Dafuq is this in my hands?

The less said, the better.

Anyways.

There is one moment in the movie in which the naval crew uses the tactics of the Battleship board game to successfully outwit the dumbass aliens.

Best part of the movie, that.

As for the aliens, they look like Master Chief in the Halo game i.e.

YEAAAHHH!! AM I BADASS OR WHAT?

But take off their helmets and they look slightly better than..

Yeah. No kidding.

The climax of the movie is more cliched and hammy than the Bollywood 70s. The mega-scale destruction and screeching explosions become a bit irritating after some time and at the end, you are left as jaded as the performance of Rihanna.

Verdict : Watch only if you are a hardcore fan of explosion movies and don’t give a fig about dialogues, plot, character development and all that jazz.

2/5 stars