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

2012: long and predictable

Release date: November 11, 2009
Release country: US

This has been one of the most awaited movies. Why? Because of an amazing and promising trailer.

This movie is about the geological changes that bring on the collapse of earth's crust. This fulfills the prophecy of the destruction of the mankind on 12-21-2012. Of coarse there is a plan to save the human race and the execution of this plan provides a cross section of human nature like the optimist, the leader, the family man and the mean one

The movie has disappointed most movie watchers including myself because though the movie talks about the unthinkable yet the drama is very predictable. All characters are in black and white. The amazing scenes that promised to be the USP of the movie and lured us to the theatres are just too many. Plus the movie goes on and on and on… probably too much work went in creating these scenes and thus the editor was not willing to cut any of them out.

Some very ordinary acting which stops you from sympathizing with any of the characters. Great concept but lost in execution.

My rating: 2/5

Movie Review : District 9 - Sci-fi-licious....

Genre : Sci Fi

Whats it about - The most amazing thing happens. An alien mothership gets stranded in Earths atmosphere. After days of waiting, humans enter the spacecraft to find millions of alien beings. These are then relocated onto earth in District 9. Initially humans accept them, but slowly they cannot tolerate these aliens so close to their city and want them out of their territory. The movie is about a private company trying to relocate the millions of aliens from District 9 to a new District remotely located.

This film is shot brilliantly. A very unique storytelling technique is used. The whole film is shot like a documentary. The events unfold as people narrate parts of the story. Its shot on a medium scale budget but can be a lesson for big budget movies like Terminator, Transformers on how to make an engaging and entertaining movie without splurging millions. Plus the main protagonist and the other supporting cast are completely unknown, yet their performances speak volumes. It shows that you do not need superstars to make an awesome film.

The director seems to be making a very pertinent point in this era of extreme prejudice. Everywhere people are beginning to look at non-state people as aliens. Indians are treated as aliens in Australia, Asians are looked on as aliens in America, North Indians are looked upon as aliens in Chennai, UPites are not welcome in Mumbai and so on as so forth. There is so much intolerance. This literally puts aliens on earth and shows our animosity towards them. It turns the alien genre on its head and makes us the predators.

This film is a must watch. Do not miss it if u r a sci-fi fan , coz this is simply sci-fi-licious...

Rating : 8 / 10

A BEAUTIFUL MIND

While downloading this movie from the hub network, my mind was occupied with very beautiful scenes of movie; obviously those were dreamed things because of title of movie- as at that moment I didn't know anything about the movie. However when I watched this movie, I found it other way round. I was startled as movie started, as there was nothing what I was expecting out of it; but there are lots of things that detest you from unwinding your seat belts. This movie is nothing but the autobiography of Dr John Nash. (Which I came to know later)

This movie is very interesting in the first half, but as it moves on it goes somewhat weird, if and only if you didn’t follow the previous part, so keep your eyes, ears and brains active while watching the movie. Certainly, it roles on the monotonous back so it becomes quite cumbersome to watch but don’t let your nerves loose; it’s a good movie.

This is a real story of a mathematician from US studying at Princeton University, Dr John Nash. This movie’s starting part shows the approach of his study since his college days. This guy used to work heavily on mathematics, for each and every thing he tried to go through mathematics. He said, “Classes will dull your mind & destroy the potential of authentic creativity”. (Please make a note of it). He had been focused on the governing dynamics throughout his career. He was so engrossed with his work that he got alienated from his fellows, as he always thought that their dances and sport can be cause for his distraction from experiments and studies, socially estranged. He wanted to publish the paper of his original idea, not the one which is already there. But he ends up doing work on Economics, through governing dynamics. To find the answer for how he ends up in economics, his authentic creativity, watch the movie.

Middle part of the movie is quite sluggish, so bear with that. Dr. Nash- believer in numbers, equations and logic; gets the Nobel Prize in 1994 (most coveted honor on this earth) for his theories. During his speech, at the prize ceremony, he gives credit to his lady-love (wife) and says that love is the only equation which is mysterious for him.

He is the man who came up with “Non-cooperative Game Theory”. This theory helped to develop equilibrium in non-cooperative environment; where amongst the players nobody knows what will be the outcome as there is no explicit or implicit binding between the players and their strategies. John has shown that under such constraints there is at least one possible static outcome. This theory is now known as “Nash Equilibrium” His theories have influenced global trade relations, national labor relations and even breakthroughs in evolutionary biology.

Watch this movie; only if you like this review.