X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Wolverine is the definitive anti-hero superhero- Dark, brooding, anti-authoritarian, bulging biceps, admantium claws, indestructible body and loads of attitude. He is the character around whom the X-Men franchisee has been built and the X-Men trilogy did not explore his past to a great extent. The announcement that 20th century fox was making a movie showcasing the origins of Wolverine was met with an enthusiastic fan response. X-Men Origins: Wolverine had all the ingredients required for it to be another Marvel classic like the Iron Man.

Alas, 20th Century Fox decided to cash on the success and popularity of X-Men movies and focus on action,not on the story. The result is a 2 hour collage of action clips showcasing how destructive Wolverine can be. The story of X-Men Origins: Wolverine veers away from the comic book on quite a few occasions without any need and any reason.

Professor Charles Xavier mentions in X-Men that Wolverine could be much older than him and he was not wrong. Apparently, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) was born sometime in the 19th century before the American Civil War as James Logan. He and Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber),who later becomes Sabretooth of the X-Men trilogy, are brothers with similar powers but are poles apart in terms of their thinking. The elder brother i.e. Victor embraces his animal nature and gives in to the temptation becoming a killing machine (why is the elder brother always the bad one?) while the younger brother Logan can still differentiate between the right and the wrong and refuses to kill innocents. Victor kills a superior officer in the Vietnam war and Logan defends him resulting in both of them facing the firing squad. With their super-accelerated healing, Sabretooth and Logan survive and are invited by Major Stryker (Danny Huston, not a patch on Stryker of X2) to join Team X, a team of mutants under the command of Stryker. Logan gets disillusioned by the methods employed by Team X and walks away from Team X and Victor.

Rest of the movie is how Logan becomes Wolverine, gets admantium claws instead of the default bone claws he was born with, fights off a super-mutant created by Mutant X and loses his memory. The emotional angle which is now a de-facto standard in all superhero movies is there but neither the loss of loved one nor brothers uniting against a common threat has any emotional impact.

The action in Wolverine is good without being spectacular. X-Men Origins:Wolverine is a story of vengeance but the audience does not connect with the angst of the hero or his motive for revenge. Hence, the end result is just another run of the mill action film without any multiple viewing value.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine has earned money for 20th century fox but at the cost of dragging the X-Men franchisee further back after the disappointing X3. There is also an attempt to do a Marvel by putting an end credit scene just like the Iron Man or The Hulk but it is a disappointment and does not tie with the beginning of X-Men movie. It seems there is one more movie in the making for Wolverine as a prequel to X-Men. Let's hope it is not as forgettable as X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Why so serious?

The Dark Knight is one of the most anticipated movies of the year and it had a huge act to follow. Batman Begins was the best batman movie till date. In fact, it is considered to be the best superhero movie of all times by many (including the reviewer). Everyone has the same question in their minds. Does The Dark Knight deliver?

It does.

Spectacularly.

The Dark Knight begins with Gotham finding its feet and its voice against the criminal underworld. After the fall of Carmaine Falcone, the remaining crime bosses are the ones in-charge. However, the newly elected district attorney. Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) along with assistant district attorney, Rachel Dawses (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and Lt. Gordon (Gary Oldman) are the ones opposing them and succeeding. Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent plays the role of “The White Knight” of Gotham with aplomb and comes across as a sincere guy who really wants to do good. Batman (Christian Bale) is happy with the way things are going and even comments in a scene that Gotham may no longer need Batman. But none of them accounted for one thing, The Joker.

If the hero can only be as good as the villain then Batman enjoys a huge advantage over other superheroes. The Joker is unparalleled in his unpredictability, creativity and committing the most heinous of crimes with a smile on his face and one liner on his lips.

The Joker (Heath Ledger) unleashes terror throughout Gotham in his hunt for Batman and almost succeeds in bringing down Batman. Heath Ledger has created a psychopath which compares to the likes of Hannibal Lector and Jack Torrance (The Shining). Jack Nicholson’s Joker was the funny kind of joker who would create mayhem while laughing. Heath Ledger’s Joker creates anarchy with a grin on his face and ice-cold sarcasm in his eyes. He exists just to destroy. He is frightening because no one knows where or how will he strike next. The only thing that can be predicted as that he is going to strike and strike big. He is hated because he asks questions that we do not want to answer. Every one-liner joker says deserves to be on a tee especially "Why so serious?". This line is as iconic as "I'm having an old friend for dinner" (Silence of the Lambs) or "I see dead people" (The Sixth Sense). The last role of Heath Ledger is his best one. It is an Oscar-worthy performance if there ever was one.

The Joker dominates Batman to an extent that batman comes to a crossroad: to give in to Joker’s demands to stop the mayhem or to try and fight him while the whole city stands against him. He has Alfred (Michael Cain) and Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) by his side but that might not be enough.

Who wins in the end is up for debate and for you to see and decide.

However, the movie does have some flaws. Rachel Dawses is once again more of a showpiece. Even Alfred and Lucius are more of a guest appearance than a full fledged role.

Non-Batman fan(atics) might find that the first half drags a little as it sets the theme for the action packed second half and there is one big flaw at the ending that would make the Joker fans jump up and protest.

The Dark Knight is almost the perfect superhero movie. Batman Begins set the tone for restarting the batman franchisee and The Dark Knight takes it up several notches. The story, direction, dialogues, special effects, screenplay could not have been better. The Dark Knight is a dark, superhero movie with edge of the seat action. But what makes The Dark Knight as the de facto standard for superhero movies is the depiction of struggle between good and evil along with the internal struggle of Batman himself (thankfully without any tears cough Superman Returns cough).

The Dark Knight and The Joker are hard acts to follow. But hey, that is exactly what we thought after Batman Begins.

- Courtesy, Bangalore Mirror

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows

Warning: Spoilers

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, one of the most anticipated books of all times, is it worth the wait?
The answer would be yes.
But Harry Potter 7 is not a masterpiece by any stretch of imagination or even the best book in the series (for me atleast).

The book has a tepid beginning and a lame ending. However, the central part of the book is the part worth waiting for. The quest for the horcruxes, the story of the deathly hallows etc keep one hooked to the book.

However the book doesnt have as many twists & turns as Prisoner of Azkaban, nor is it as spell binding as Goblet of Fire (my favourite one by far) and lacks the humor of Chamber of Secrets. But its not supposed to be humorous. The darkest book in the series by far with loads of deaths, close shaves and thankfully no mush.

10 years & 7 books later, Harry Potter saga comes to an end. The ending is open & shut so I dont expect a book 8. However, I want more Harry Potter books on the first coming of Voldemort, the life of Albus Dumbledore.i.e. The prequels to Harry Potter. Hope Rowling is listening.

PS: Quite a few of the predictions made by Shradz & me were spot on. Maybe we should write a fantasy series ourselves

The Godfather Returns by Mark Winegardner

Personally speaking, I consider The Godfather is one of the greatest literary works of all times. A perfect mix of impressive storyline, philosophy, psychology and unforgettable characters. Hence, The Godfather Returns the sequel to The Godfather became a must read for someone like me. So the foremost question is whether Mark Winegardner will be able to do justice to Mario Puzo’s masterpiece?
The Godfather Returns picks up from the same day on which The Godfather ends, starting with execution of Carlo Rizzi and Tessio with Michael Corleone taking over the reins of Corleone family as Don Corleone. The story starts from 1955 and stretches upto 1962. This time period also includes the movie,Godfather II, which covers the year from 1958-59.
I won’t be discussing the story of the book to avoid spoiling the book for those who shall be reading it. Instead, I shall touch only the positives and the negatives of the book.
The biggest positive of the book is that once again we get to see Michael Corleone and Tom Hagen. Michael Corleone as The Godfather is different from Vito Corleone i.e. he isn’t shown as a copy of Vito but there are some vital differences because of his upbringing. That's too say, he is less Sicilian than Vito.There is a chapter on Michael’s young life similar to Vito's in The Godfather in which we see Michael struggling to avoid becoming a member of family business and leaves home to join the Marines instead. Unfortunately, these are the only few positives.
The Godfather Returns has got a plethora of characters - The children of Sonny, Tom, Connie, Michael etc, the various crime families in America, a couple of crime families from Sicily etc. After midway, the story starts to get tangled up. Another flaw is that too much print space is given to Johnny Fontane and his exploits in Hollywood. At the end, the story brings in CIA, political assassinations etc and becomes a bit too fantastic. Despite these negatives, The Godfather Returns is a good read but a warning – Do not compare it to The Godfather and there will be no disappointment.

Contact by Carl Sagan

"Mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe." -- Galileo Galilei"

A question to all the atheists. What if Galileo was really right ? If scientists can give MATHEMATICAL proof of existence of a higher power throughout the Universe, will all the atheist change their allegiance ?

Carl Sagan was a distinguished astronomer who worked for making science popular with the masses. He is the author of multiple books like Cosmos, Contact, Comet etc.

Contact is not a novel about extraterrestrial intelligence in the strictest sense. What I mean by this is that it does not discuss UFOs, aliens coming to earth and abducting humans etc. It deals with the world wide response (religious, political) in case an alien civilization contacts humans. It ends with an example of the kind of proof that might make skeptics believe in existence of a higher power.

The largest radio observatory on earth in Mexico dedicated to SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) starts receiving signal from a star system 26 light years away. The signals are not random atmospheric noise and do not correspond to any known signals (pulsars etc). After trying all possible explanations, scientists conclude that this can only be an alien civilization trying to contact us. After much analysis, scientists conclude that the signal contains blue print to build a machine to travel to the alien civilization. Debate rages across the world from from the point of view religious beliefs, political situations and defence. Finally, the machine is built and 5 ppl make the journey. They became the first humans to make contact becoming messengers of mankind. Rest of the novel is abt the journey, the contact and ends raising the question of existence of God.

Contact soes not belong to Michael Crichton school of sci-fi. It beautifully integrates social, religious questions with a scientific outlook. A very good read.

Batman Begins

*ing Christian Bale, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman

What separates Batman from all the other superheroes ? He doesn't have any superpower like all the rest and also (till now) he didn't have a good movie to his credit like the others.

Batman Begins is one of the better superhero movies and certainly the best in Batman series. All the previous movies (except Batman to some extent) did not do justice to the Dark Knight. Chris Nolan has shown that Memento, Insomnia were no fluke.
Ever had a few questions about Batman,namely

If Batman or Bruce Wayne did not have any special powers and loads of money, why did he decide to become Batman ?
Not out of a sense of duty but for revenge. Revenge for killings of his parents by a mugger. Later on, this need for revenge was replaced by protecting Gotham from the scum and bring justice.

Why the name Batman ?
Because as a child, bats were his worst fears.

You might have a few more questions but hey, I am not here to answer questions. I have a review to write.

Bruce Wayne(Christian Bale) is a man driven by revenge for the murder of his parents. His childhood friend, Rachel (Katie Holmes) shows him that justice comes above revenge. Bruce disappears from public eye to find answers to his questions and ends up in Bhutan living like criminals, participating in crimes understanding the criminal psychology ? There he runs into an ancient clan, League of Shadows headed by Ra's Al Ghul (Ken Watanbe) with Ducard (Liam Neeson) as his lieutenant. Ducard becomes Bruce's mentor teaching him skills to fight, overcome his fear making him a complete fighter.
At the last stage of his training, Bruce comes to know the real purpose of League of Shadows. Whenever crime & injustice in the world reaches a pinnacle, League of Shadows destroys one city as an example to what crime & injustice can do to the world. They were responsible for destruction of Rome, burning of London etc. Now its Gotham's turn to be destroyed. Knowing this, Bruce destroys the League of Shadows killing Ra's Al Ghul and saving only Ducard.
Returning to Gotham (where he is believed dead), he finds that Wayne Enterprises is about to be taken public, crime situation is even worse than when he left and Rachel has become Assistant DA. He decides people need a symbol to believe in justice and becomes that symbol as Batman. He firstly destroys the city mafia but finds out that someone else with more ulterior motives is working the mafia. See the movie to find out who he is & what r the motives.

Christian Bale has suits the role of Batman and Bruce Wayne as a perfection. Young, rich, playboy as Bruce and dark, sinister as Batman. Even his voice as Batman has been changed for the impact.
Michael Caine comes up with a wonderful performance as Alfred, the butler inserting humour in the story, picking up Bruce when he is down etc.
Liam Neeson as Ducard has given a good performance (as always) and his dual persona is relieved pretty late in the movie.
Morgan Freeman is Lucius Fox, a scientist/inventor with Wayne Enterprises who knows what Bruce Wayne is upto even though not told explicitly. He is to Batman what M is to Bond.
Gary Oldman is Sgt. Jim Gordon. He has to play the part of a sincere, honest cop. This is one of the key roles in the story showing that the movie is just beginning. If anybody remembers the other Batman movies, Jim Gordon is always shown as the Commissioner of Police.
Cillian Murphy plays the role of Scarecrow. He leaves an impact in the small role and looks menacing.
Katie Holmes as Rachel is the love interest of Bruce. She had to look beautiful and she has done that

Background score is pretty good. It has the potential to become something like the James Bond theme if used in subsequent movies.

Chris Nolan's direction is simply superb. He has been able to portray what Batman is from inside - Dark, brooding superhero. This darkness can be seen throughout the movie with almost no scenes in bright light. There is a scene with Batman using bats as allies which is my favourite scene from the movie. Also, he leaves a hint for the sequel with Joker as the villain in the last scene of the movie. Can't wait for the next Batman to come out.

Dude, Where is my country by Michael Moore

' They kill 3000 of our countrymen and its terrorism.

We kill 6000 of their countrymen and its liberation ! '

Everybody must have heard the name of Michael Moore. The guy who on winning the coveted Oscar used the stage to denounce his own President and his policies, the one man army trying as hard as John Kerry to remove Bush from office. Michael Moore is easily the biggest critic of George W Bush. He is the maker of documentaries like Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11. I was surprised to find out that he is an author with a few bestsellers to his credit.

The book will seem similar to Fahrenheit 9/11. Like the documentary, this book is also concentrated on questioning the drama leading to Bush's election in 2000, policies of Bush administration and the War on Iraq. It also presents the commercial relations between Bush family, Saudi Royal Family and Oil Tycoons. I guess everyone is familiar with most of the facts, figures, incidents in the book but still there are few facts that I did not know e.g. Many of us are aware that Dick Cheney, Vice President was CEO of Haliburton Corporation but atleast I was unaware of the fact that Zalmay Khalilzad, US Ambassador to Afghanistan and Hamid Karzai, the President of Afghanistan were Unocal employees.When such facts check out on the net, it makes you wonder.

You still might disagree with me on the reason to read this book. For such people, the reason is FUN. The book is outrageously funny full of sarcasm coupled with a satirical style. It has chapters titled How to Stop Terrorism, Stop Being a Terrorist! and Jesus W Christ.

Initial chapters present various facts and figures, central chapters are purely comic and the last chapters concentrate on US politics and the upcoming US elections (this book was written b4 the Presidential Elections). These last chapters can be skipped.

Michael Moore goes a bit overboard criticizing not only Bush (in my opinion) but almost every commercial entity in US. He also tries to show the hardships he had to face while trying to get this book printed. However, the point that he was able to get his books published and present his movies/documentaries, itself is a tribute to democracy and will of the people. There are worse ways to pass your time than reading this book e.g. watching Mr & Mrs Smith.

PS: Atleast read the chapter Jesus W Christ under any circumstances

Executive Orders by Tom Clancy

Executive Orders is the sequel to Debt of Honor and I believe this is
the last book in the Jack Ryan series.
At the end of Debt of Honor, Jack Ryan becomes President of the US,
the most powerful man on earth. The country was faced with a
leadership crisis and there was no one but Jack Ryan to step in. If
you have read any Jack Ryan book, you would know that he is not a
politician/bureaucrat but a hard hitting analyst. The infamous US
press aided by an ex-Vice President attacks his life, policies and
every decision.
The world also takes note of this, assumes Jack to be a wimp instead
of a hawk and many nations start taking liberties in international
matters. An assassination in Middle East leads to flaring of matters,
China-Taiwan issue comes up again and there is a huge domestic crisis.
Can Jack deal with all these matters alongside the fact that his
family life and every step he takes invite public scrutiny and
criticism from the press? Will he be able to return USA to previous
status quo in world matters? This is the central idea around which the
story evolves.
I thought I knew what to expect from a Tom Clancy novel but here he
has surpassed my expectations.The details regarding the Presidential
Security, various crisis occuring around the world, the operation of
Press in US etc have never seemed truer. At the end of the novel,
there is a war that USA has to fight. Descriptions of army vehicles,
tanks, soldiers, their feelings, strategies employed in the war etc
are as close to reality as a civilian like me can hope for.
I think after Executive Orders, there has been one more Tom Clancy
novel which features Jack Ryan's son. Haven't read that yet but should be
good. At 1358 pages, this book is the thickest book I've yet read
(more than Atlas Shrugged or LOTR) and I don't see any book close
enough to break this record yet.

India's answer to the Godfather

D completes the trilogy of movies on Mumbai Underworld made by RGV. To me, its India's answer to the Godfather trilogy. No movie has been able to capture the essence of American Mafia like the Godfather and so does the trilogy.Unlike Godfather, this trilogy is not continuous i.e. no character appears in two movies and no two movies are sequels. Satya shows the functioning of Underworld at grassroot levels, Company shows the ppl who control the Underworld and D connects these two as to how ppl from grassroot levels become the rulers of the underworld. Like Godfather series, this trilogy was packed with amazing performances, tight storyline, gr8 background score etc. Manoj Bajpai as Bhikhu in 'Satya', Chakravorty as 'Satya', Ajay Devgan as 'Malik Bhai', Vivek Oberoi as 'Chandu' and Randeep Hooda as 'Deshu' shall count as one of the best performances of these actors ever. Like Godfather Series, this trilogy boasts of strong performances by the supporting cast e.g. 'Kalu Mama' in Satya, Mohanlal as ACP in Company, Chunky Pandey as Raghav in D. My order of excellence for Godfather is Godfather II, The Godfather and Godfather III(which was one of the worst sequels ever made, completely destroyed the credibility of the series) and for the Indian trilogy is Company, Satya and D. So will D do the trilogy what Godfather III did to Godfather ? Read ahead to find out

D is supposed to start before 'Company' and show the rise of character of Malik played by Ajay Devgan. D is for Deshu, a mechanic from Dubai who comes to Mumbai because of some family problem. One day he witnesses a gang killing and is caught in the crossfire between police and underworld. understandably, he does not identify the killer and is tortured by the police. Realizing that a commoner has no future in this city, he consciously decides to become a gangster and joins the underworld. Slowly, slowly using his brains and working as a modern day CEO i.e. using incentives, motivation, mergers & acquisitions etc. He becomes No. 2 man of the group. After this, jealousy creeps up in the top echlons of the group. Finally, Deshu has to kill every man opposing him and take control of the group.

The storyline of the movie is very good but there are some fatal flaws. Many scenes in the movie have music superimposed over them allowing you to hear only the punchlines. The total duration of the movie is 1 hour 45 min including intermission (in PVR, where intermissions are longer than ususal) and this includes one and a half song. So there is almost nil character development. Everyone's character is known from the start and a serious viewer can accurately predict what's gonna happen next. The dialogues are good with every character having some good dialogues. Deshu's character has got some pretty good punch lines and he is delivered them as a gangster is supposed too, coldly without showing emotion in a businesslike manner.

All and all a good movie and a fitting end to the trilogy (much better than Godfather III to The Godfather). But I won't advice ppl to go and watch the movie in a theatre, instead wait for the CD/DVD. Its not a masterpiece like Satya or Company but still a decent watch.

1984 by George Orwell

"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows"

Quite a few people will consider this statement as hilarious or maybe childish but not after reading 1984, George Orwell's masterpiece. The novel was written in 1949 and is the story of Winston Smith, a simple person living in London in 1984. In 1984, there were only three large countries left - Eastasia, Eurasia, Oceania which were constantly at war with one another. London was a part of Oceania governed by The Party with Big Brother at its helm. It is a totalitarian government which controls not only people's actions but also their minds. Everywhere there are huge posters of Big Brother staring down with the caption Big Brother is Watching You. Every home has a telescreen, a gadget similar to television. Telescreen is the most important propaganda machine of The Party. It cannot be turned off and continuously plays patriotic music, songs and news. Moreover, it is two way transmit i.e. it can transmit images and voices from one's home to the Thought Police.Thought Police is the security arm of The Party as even a thought against the Party is a crime (Thought Crime), the Thought Police exists to punish such criminals identified through their gestures, facial expressions etc.

Another more potent instrument is the language NEWSPEAK instead of English (OLDSPEAK). The purpose of NEWSPEAK was the constraint the thinking of people by not allowing them words to think rebelliously. This was done by limiting the vocabulary of the language through elimination of undesirable words. This shall be further clear by the following example

A word contains its opposite in itself. Take 'good' for example. If you have a word like good, what is the need for a word like 'bad'. Instead we have 'ungood'. Similarly, for a stronger version of 'good', instead of 'excellent','splendid' we have 'plusgood' or 'doublyplusgood'. The complete spectrum of good and bad can be covered in a single word itself.

Here, I won't be discussing the worst instrument of The Party and allow future readers to experience the shock themselves.

I went through a range of emotions while reading this book from comic in the beginning to disbelieving in the middle to pure horror in the end. This book is supposed to be a satire on totalitarianism but the fun disappears once you consider if such a society is truly possible. Just 250 pages of this book are enough to shake a person's belief in system, society and written history. I request fellow readers to treat it not as a satire but as a non-fiction to experience its complete impact.

PS:- Please go through the appendix on NEWSPEAK before reading the book