X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Labels: movie review, wolverine, X-Men
Last Watch: The Bourne Ultimatum Last Read: The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton
I am an open book You just need to know the language
Labels: movie review, wolverine, X-Men
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
Labels: Deathly Hallows
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.