Review: Tron Legacy (2010)

Director: Joseph Kosinski
Cast: Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde
Rating: **

You can tell the source material is from the Eighties. There’s a young Jeff Bridges (as Kevin Flynn), for starters, looking like an uncanny EA Sports avatar of the real thing. There are identity disks stuck to everyone’s back (understandable, as an outdated program developed before SD cards). And then, there’s an obsession with bikes as the ultimate definition of cool (in the real and virtual world), and a neon-sign gaming arcade wherein lies the portal to the virtual world.

As purely a CGI show, Tron: Legacy is a landmark. The 3D is top notch (though you may want to remove your glasses for a brighter first half hour that’s shot in 2D), the deadly-trail-spewing light cycles and the world of the ‘Grid’ look pretty darn impressive. But that apart, itplays out with the plot predictability of a video game that’s picked up some Hollywood set pieces. Without a parent to watch over him, the young Sam Flynn (Garett Hedlund) grows up to be a rebel (think John Connor in Judgment Day) with a healthy disregard for money and work (Bruce Wayne). That’s until he finds purpose, albeit in a digital world. There he kicks some ass on a light cycle, meets his dad [the older Jeff Bridges as Sam Flynn], falls for a hot programme called Quorra (Olivia Wilde), and eventually escapes the evil programme Clu (also Jeff Bridges) and gets out alive. In that order.

But the problem is perhaps not that Tron: Legacy feels like a video game. The problem is that the two-hour film doesn’t have enough high-adrenaline gaming moments. The tournament-format fight sequence and the light cycle chase are promising, but you wish there was more. The ‘vintage’ space cycle begging for another action sequence is wasted, and the once Ducati-riding cool programmer Sam Flynn has lapsed into inaction. You almost feel sad for the man who doesn’t know Wi-Fi. Tron, the character after whom the movie is named, has no role to play, and the weird digital-world nightclub owner Zuse (Michael Sheen) belongs in Total Recall.

The 1982 Tron was supposedly ahead of its times in terms of CGI, but wasn’t much of a film. The belated legacy might go down the same path—a cult favourite perhaps that’ll sell merchandise, and eventually get made into a game.

For a convincing parallel universe of the imagination, Avatar is cooler. And that’s saying something.

- Sarit Ray

This review was originally written for gqindia.com (Click here to see...)

Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

Director: David Yates
Rating: ***

How do we keep it going? Split it in two. The idea that Rowling’s Deathly Hallows is such a dense story, only two films can do justice to it works as a marketing strategy. As a standalone film, I’m not so sure.

It has the sharp, impactful start you’ve come to expect of theHarry Potter franchise, so get there in time, guys. If you miss the first 10 minutes, you might as well go home and catch the next show. The pace slackens as the trio of Harry, Ron and Hermione go on their Lord-Of-The-Rings-ish must-destroy-horcrux mission. And then, it just ends, without the salvation of a climax.

This is a movie for fans — you see it because you’ve seen the other six, you’ve read (and re-read last week) the book, and you’ve been on YouTube checking out the trailer a month ago. For those uninitiated to the world of spells, Voldemort, Death Eaters and romantic angles, you might at least want to read up on Wikipedia.

This is no longer children’s fiction. A meeting of the Death Eaters sees Voldemort use the killing curse on a Hogwarts teacher and feed her to Nagini. The familiar corridors of Hogwarts and the assuring presence of Dumbledore are gone, and the trio are out in the real world, traversing spectacular locations and CGI-created scenery. These are dark times, and the mood is literally maintained with dark settings; even the mornings are consistently smoggy. A storytelling session of the legend of the Deathly Hallows allows for a brilliant five minutes of animation.

But this movie is as much about magic as it is about raging teenage hormones. We’re not just talking sedate kisses between Harry and Ginny. The now-gorgeous Emma Watson makes for a stunning Hermione, and neither Harry, Ron, nor director David Yates can ignore that. There’s overt chemistry between Harry and Hermione, and that makes Ron jealous. That along with the classic tired-of-being-the-sidekick syndrome makes him desert the duo temporarily. His apparition also shows the two making out. It’s not real, says Harry, hardcore Potter fans might agree, but we’re not complaining. Hermione’s magically expanding bag also allows her to pack by far the best wardrobe — Burberry trenches included.

It’s the second horcrux down at the end, and Voldemort has just acquired something powerful. We’re seeking the same answer we sought at the end of Half Blood Prince—how does it end? For me, this one was an incomplete film. But does it work as a two-and-a-half-hour lead up to a climax? Hell yes.

- Sarit Ray

This review was originally written for gqindia.com (Click here to see...)

Review: Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole

Director: Zack Snyder
Rating: **

Think 300. Then replace blood-spilling Spartan warriors with cute little barn owls, acting out the slow-mo fight sequences with apparently epochal consequences. It’s 90 odd minutes of pure joy, as far as the animation is concerned. Wish I could say the same about the story. This is what happens when Zack Snyder (of the 300and Watchmen fame, and anticipated Sucker Punch hype) makes a kid’s movie. The action is intense, the characters look capable of being dark and menacing; it’s almost a Frank Miller take on an innocuous genre but without the same brilliance.

It’s a morality tale of good over evil, good brother versus bad brother, and the coming of greatness of a common man, err, owl. A mercenary tribe is out to take over the owl world (read, evil) using an army of moonblinked owls (nocturnal bird equivalent of being brainwashed), and some mysterious material (owl equivalent of nuclear weapons, let’s say). The bad brother, Kludd, is taken under the evil owls’ wing, while the good brother, Soren, escapes and finds the fabled guardians (read, heroes). The guardians live in a mythical place that could be Na’vian Pandora. The ultimate showdown makes for a breathtaking 3D SFX orgasm, and you can tell that Snyder’s love for graphic action sequences takes over here, stopping just short of a bloodbath. Kid’s film, remember?

The trademark Snyder slow-mo action looks brilliant, and they would have been the highlight of the movie, if there wasn’t one every two minutes. Some of the best moments are Soren’s soul flight in the storm, and the laser-show-like climax. The voice talent is some of the finest—Jim Sturgess as the voice of Soren, Helen Mirren as the sorceress Nyra.

I’ve not read Kathryn Lasky’s books, on which this is based, but Tolkien’s influence is evident—the defeat of the super-villain has similarities to the first fall of Sauron.

Don’t expect this one to blow you away like Wall E, or even warm your heart like Up. Watch it nevertheless for the animated extravagance.

- Sarit Ray

This review was originally written for gqindia.com (Click here to see...)

Review: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010)

Director: Oliver Stone
Cast: Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, Cary Mulligan and Josh Brolin
Rating: ***

Just how much is too much? On Wall Street, it’s not the question you ask. Money is earned for money’s sake. Everything else is just by the way.

Oliver Stone’s two-decades late sequel to the original Wall Street begins where he left off in 1987. Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) is out of jail and has written a book predicting the latest financial crisis. But he’s really looking for a way to return to the top of the game, and he’ll manipulate anyone, including his daughter (Carey Mulligan), to get there.

Jacob Moore (Shia LaBeouf) is the new kid on the block – a sharp talent with the drive to get himself to the top too. Bretton James (Josh Brolin) is the proclaimed villain who plays dirty and eventually pays the price.

Since it is an Oliver Stone film, Wall Street brokers dress a lot cooler, speak in high rhetoric and ride fast bikes on weekends. And don't forget to throw in swanky mansions, swish parties and Goya paintings for good measure. There’s even a back story of drug addiction.

Nothing too new there, you might argue, especially since the basic characteristics of the game are the same as they were in the Eighties – it’s a dog eat dog world out there and money rules. Relationships, ethics and morals are for the faint-hearted, and success is judged only in terms of loss or gain.

But Money Never Sleeps does of course have some contemporary relevance, taking as its loose inspiration the demise of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, and the ensuing financial crisis. In a bid to bring the story up to date, even the quest for alternative energy and the power of the blog have been thrown in. Things also get technical at times, with a bewildering four screens flickering with numbers and graphs.

What makes the film work is a stellar performance by Michael Douglas who slips right into Gekko’s Berluti shoes as if he’d never taken them off. Shia puts in a sincere performance and you’re almost ready to forgive him for his earlier offerings.

Think of the new Wall Street as one of those gambling movies where your final hand can make or break you. Wall Street is where the big boys gamble. And greed, after all, is primal.

- Sarit Ray

This review was originally written for gqindia.com (Click here to see...)

Review: Despicable Me (2010)

Director: Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud
Cast: Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Julie Andrews, Will Arnett, Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, Elsie Fisher, Kristen Wiig
Rating: ***

He looks like Uncle Fester with a beak nose, and speaks with a Russian villain accent. He bursts a kid’s balloon, and pretends to be a recorded voice when girls from an orphanage ring the bell to sell cookies. That apart, bad guy Gru isn’t all that bad. Plus, he’s got one hell of a flame-exhausting ride (take that, Batman) and totes a freeze gun.

And if Batman were indeed the epitome of cool, this guy’s got a cool(er) underground lair where Pacman-like, gibberish-talking minions do his bidding. Movies with Steve Carell (or even just his voice) seem to be incomplete without a spy or a 007 angle. So there’s a balding, hard-of-hearing version of the scientist who invents cookie robots and fart guns (when asked for a dart gun, that is).

But there are no out and out bad people in a kids’ movie, so Gru must be transformed. By the same three orphans who came to sell him cookies. He adopts them so he can sneak in his cookie robots to steal a shrink ray from his rival, Vector, the gennext nerd-turned challenger to the throne of the top villain in the world.

Gru’s ultimate plan for the greatest crime ever: steal the moon. So he builds a rocket in his basement (one up on Tony Stark this time), flies to space, shrinks the moon and brings it back. Easy as you like it.

Along the way, the girls work their magic on him, he grudgingly plays parent to them, and discovers he’s pretty good at it. There are enough good laughs to make the film work for you as well as the kids – while a visit to the amusement park gives the CGI team the perfect opportunity to show off their 3D skills (remember, this is neither Pixar nor Disney).

I must say though, I would rather have paid to see the movie in 2D than watch a dimmer screen while wearing silly 25-rupee paper glasses.

-Sarit Ray

This review was originally written for gqindia.com (Click here to see...)

Review: Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)

Director: Paul WS Anderson
Cast: Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter
Rating: **

In a game, you don’t ask questions. Just pick up your weapon and start shooting any goddamn thing that looks bad. The Resident Evil film franchise, now in its fourth installment with Afterlife, clearly borrows its logic (or the lack of it) from its game equivalent. There’s all the blood and gore you expect, state-of-the-art graphics, and slow-mo fight sequences.

For once, here’s a movie you’re glad is in 3D, even if the pictures are still darker than ideal and the heavy fibre glasses (better than the paper ones though) are heavy as hell.

High points: Milla Jovovich (as Project Alice) and her new zombie-slaying partner, Ali Larter (as Claire Redfield). Jovovich has a standard menacing expression throughout, apt perhaps for the last hero in a post-apocalyptic world. Larter has the expressions of a plastic doll. But who cares, when you can kick butt looking as hot as she does? Leather-wearing, gun and sword wielding, the two of them could have had not one word to say, and still been enough reason (perhaps the only reason) to watch the movie.

Predictably, there’s not much effort at storytelling. Alice seeks revenge against Umbrella Corporation and Albert Wesker (yeah, that dude in the dark glasses) who are responsible for the deadly T-Cell experiment that made zombies and led to the present apocalypse. But early in the film, Alice loses her superpowers and becomes human again. The only difference is that there’s just one Jovovich for the rest of the film and not the dozen who appear in the first fight sequence. She can still walk away unscathed from a plane bursting into flames (leather suit, hair and make-up intact), jump off buildings and shoot through a field full of killer zombies.

If you’re asking why such films are made, you’re asking the wrong question. Sit back, enjoy the effects, enjoy the fact that Jovovich and Larter make guns sexier than Schwarzenegger ever could. Think of it as a video game and you might just like it. If you still don’t like it, go play Farmville instead.

- Sarit Ray

Review: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

An unfair thing to say about a film, perhaps, but nostalgia makes for good marketing. It’s probably why you watched This Is It. It’s why you’ll watch Terry Gilliam’s (now thankfully complete) The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, even as it releases in India nearly eight months after opening at international cinemas.

But that’s not to say Gilliam’s fantasy doesn’t impress. It follows the rather absurd story of a travelling dance troupe whose thousand-year-old leader Doctor Parnassus (Christopher Plummer), takes audience members through a magic mirror to make the eternal choice between good and evil.

But it’s no scam, as Ledger’s character Tony Shepherd finds out. The mirror is a Carrol-esque tunnel to Wonderland, a dreamscape of video games, giant pearls and pumps, or for Tony, ladders to reach the clouds. Points to Gilliam’s fantasy world for impressing even without 3D.
The doctor, we learn, was a monk and a storyteller – hence the reference to Mount Parnassus, the mythological home of poetry and music. He also likes a drink and a bet, so pretty much your ideal flawed Faustus figure to wager with the devil (played by Tom Waits) for immortality and youth.

Inside the mirror, Tony has different faces, namely those of Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Collin Farrell, who stepped in to complete Imaginarium after Ledger’s death midway through the filming. Sure, it demands a certain suspension of disbelief. Nevertheless the very Hollywood workaround does add to the film’s surrealism – even if Farrell ends up stealing the show from Ledger in the final scene.

- Sarit Ray

This review was originally written for gqindia.com (Click here to see...)