Movie Review - AVATAR - A familiar tale in an Unfamiliar World...

Avatar - the most anticipated movie of the year, is out and "woaahh" does it score high on imagination. If Imagination, Creativity and Vision were the only criteria to judge a film, this film sets standards beyond compare.

Pandora - is something we hope our planet could be, or probably was. It's got aboriginals- slender, tall, with enhanced sensory capabilities and with a cord to literally connect to the network of nature.  Its animals sleek, fast, dangerous, colorful. Its Flora huge, colorful, iridescent. Its water sparkling and pure. Its mountains hovering in air ! But yes, Human's are still a very ARROGANT race. Even in their imagination, they think that any dominant / intelligent species of any world  to be some kind of an AVATAR of the human race. 2 legs, 2 hands, 1 head, 2 eyes - think of any intelligent alien form imagined in movies and its got a human-like structure. But then all barriers of imagination cannot be broken in one movie itself.

The amount of detailing gone into the creation of the imaginary world is stupendous. The Vision commendable. The performances are adequate. The background score is awesome. Technically this movie is brilliant.

But then as I said a movie cannot be judged as a visual spectacle alone, atleast when it tells an emotional story. The movie is yet another statement on the greed of the human race. First destroy your own planet by sucking out all its wealth and then use your powers to invade other worlds and suck them dry too. So, here the earthlings have entered Pandora and the most important thing for them is a mineral - way way more precious & powerful than Plutonium. A team of scientist have created a mixed breed between a human and an aboriginal; and this Avatar is controlled by the human from whos gene the mix breed is created. You have a matrix type chamber where you sleep and you are mentally connected to your AVATAR and can control all its motions. And our hero's AVATAR, manages to infiltrate the native clan, pass on their secrets to the humans and when Humans try to exploit them, he realises his mistakes and fights for the natives.

The story is a familiar one;that of an opressor  and an opressed; and how the opressed stand up and fight for their right, their liberation, their world. Nothing new. And here , it somehow remains a spectacle and does not transcend beyond that. Just when it is about to connect to you its over. Though it leaves a tremendous potential for many more Sequels. A whole new world gives you the power to write whole new stories in this world.

If you ask me to choose between AVATAR and TITANIC - I would  probably go for TITANIC, because , to me, it had 2 very strong characters, with whom I could connect and the movie was more than just a visual spectacle, more than the special effects - it was about the love between 2 individuals. That touched a chord with me. And this is where AVATAR does not score too high. Independence Day was more emotionally charged, Jurassic Park was more thrilling, there are not many movies better than "Braveheart" when it comes to opressed fighting back and one more movie from MelGibson "Apocalypto" which was on the same theme and was a brilliant mixture of emotions and effects. But none were perfect. What I am asking for is a perfect film, - which is rare. AVATAR transcends all boundaries of visual effects and  scores decently on the human aspect as well ( unlike a 2012 or a 10,000 BC ).

This movie is like an introduction to the world and that takes up most of the time. After this if any sequels are made, the director can concentrate on making a more wholesome and touching experience.

Definitely a BIG BIG "YES" from me for you to go visit the theater, open the Pandora's box and watch this movie of a familiar story in an unfamiliar world. The spectacle, the technology is enough to enthrall you, and you will come out wanting more, coz you are just getting comfortable in the surroundings with your 3D glasses.

Rating : 8 / 10

Movie review : Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of crystal skull -- Adventure at its best

Genre: Adventure
Rating: 7.5 / 10

Boy, what a ride.... Well some hero's dont grow old, some sequels dont go bad and this one surely proves that. With a team like George Lucas - Story, Harrison Ford - Hero, Cate Blanchett - the vamp and Steven Speilberg - Director , you can hardly go wrong. Throw in a pot pouri of stunts, some amazing locales, a mind bending archeological adventure and some amazing sequences of acrobatics, pure luck and comedy - and you get a sure fire entertainer.

Sure the story wuld seem to far fetched, but thats just the goal. How you get to the goal is far more important and I must say the journey is a damn good one. So , once again the Russians are after some power beyond imagination, they are in the pursuit of knowledge far greater than any other known to mankind - knowledge of the paranormal, the supernatural and the way to get this is by finding a Crystal skull and taking it to its destined place. Mr. Henry Jones urf Indiana Jones is dragged along this twisted adventure because of his peerless knowledge. On the way he runs, leaps, punches, kicks, finds his long lost girlfriend, discovers his only son and simply rocks as only he can. There are these insane scenes of pure conincidences, of jigsaw puzzle type action sequences - where everything fits just right in the end. Indiana remains as lucky as ever, and he remains as adventurous as ever. His wife says when his son asks her "whats he gonna do now?" she replies "I dont know, even he doesnt. He doesnt plan that far!!!" .. And thats how the movie unravels - one mind bending sequence after another.

Harrison Fords rules . A big bow to him. Its sad that this might be his last Indiana Jones, but I would love it if he continues on and on for years to come by, even if he is on a wheelchair. Because he brings the character -Indiana Jones - his personality and grace. His successor is Shia LaBeouf. Though he has potential, but he has mighty big shoes to fill. He is OK along with Ford, but without him I fear he might fall flat.

Then again you can always be sure of one thing. If Steven directs it and George writes it, You will love it :)... (Spielberg, Lucas and Ford) Rock on you 3 legends of Cinema ....

Movie Review: 10000 B.C. - An utter waste!

Rating: 3 / 10

The much awaited 10000 BC by the much acclaimed director of "Independence day" and "Day after tommorow" , falls flat on its face and never recovers. Its got the most boring and cliched script, amazingly toothless dialogues and sonorous background score.

The story is about this tribe, where a small girl arrives from a far far land as a profecy of the impending devastation. A small boy - our hero falls head over heels for her. Then when they grow old, the prophecy comes true and the Villians drag many of our hero's tribe mates and ofcourse the heroin away. So our valiant hero trudges through Snow capped mountains, carnivorous birds ridden forests and miles of desert to reach the villians den. Here the villian - who is considered to be god, has lakhs of slaves belted to make huge Inca temples. And our hero brings out a revilution and kills the so called god. Happy ending!

You would probably laugh your head off at the utterly dumb dialogues and situations. This director seems completely inspired by some Old Hindi film, where villian picks up heroin, hero goes on mission with sidekick, side kick dies, hero fights the villian, villian manages to kill heroin, hero in rage kills villian and then heroin comes alive due to some heavy duty praying to god!!! Spare us mr.Roland Emmerich. Apart from some excellent graphics this is a total waste of time, money and effort.

Go to the theater at your own peril , but if you have to, take along loads of crazy friends. Then you can enjoy this boring but unintentionally filmy and funny movie. Then you can hoot, clap, shout, laugh and make the rest of the audience enjoy this prehistoric crap.

Review - "National Treasure - Book of secrets" - A Popcorn Flick

Rating: 5 /10 .

The movie as you would have seen in the box-office reports, hasnt exactly set the screen on fire. Neither has it got any critical acclaim. I realised why when I saw this movie.

Though it is complete timepass and a fast paced movie, its lost the charm of the first endevour. You get a feeling that the director is trying hard to entertain. You also get a feeling that the director thought of the end first and then worked backwards, thinking of amazing ways to make the clues un-fathomable to anyone but Nicholas Cage.

Its got all the cliche's you could possibly think of. Its got an estranged couple, coming back together to solve a mystery and you know what happens in the end. Ofcourse they kiss and make up. Then there is the damsel in distress bit. To top it theres the bumbling side kick. A few more weaknesses for the hero, like his mom and dad, make it very simple for the villian to control the strings.

So, Nicholas Cage is giving a speech when Ed Harris(humaara pyaara villian) comes and accuses Cage's great grandfather of being a traitor and one of the conspirators who killed Abraham Lincoln!! Yeah right!!! To clear his name, Cage decides to find a CITY OF GOLD, which could prove his great grandfathers innocence. Then starts a not so special ride, which has some ridiculous conspiracies and some mind boggling secrets. He even kidnaps the President of United States to get to the bottom of this mystery!! can you beat that???

Overall a timepass flick, perfect for a boring afternoon. So if you get a softcopy of this, do watch it with some home popcorn.