One of the
secrets / essentials of making the sequel better than its predecessor would be
to first retain the director. Nothing
spurs a director (or so I would assume) more than the desire to better her/his
previous work. Of course, this may not
be a guarantee but it is definitely a key to raising the probability of success. Marc Webb sure comes from the earlier school
of thought in this part of The Amazing Spiderman. Amazing indeed.
Showing posts with label Andrew Garfield. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Andrew Garfield. Show all posts
Thursday, 1 May 2014
Monday, 2 July 2012
The Amazing Spider Man
Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) is back. One can choose to go “What the hell???? Don’t these guys get enough of making the same movie again and again and again and then when you think its all done they get one more just for posterity”. One can also choose to go, “Wow!!! Lets see what Spiderman is upto this time around”. Fortunately, I fall in the latter category and went to the screen expecting a good show. The good news – I was not disappointed. The not so good news – I wasn’t half as excited when I exited the movie as I was when I left the hall after say, The Avengers.
A better part of the movie goes through the same old rigmarole of how Peter Parker allows curiosity to get the better of him only to get bitten by a mutant spider of some kind and then turns into Spiderman. The difference however – in each one of the movies – is how he lands up being Spiderman. This time around it is by one which is being used to test gene therapy of some kind which will allow human beings to lose all of their weaknesses.
Leading the project is Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans – remember the nerdy character who doesn’t have a bath and is Hugh Grant’s room mate in Notting Hill – I couldn’t believe it either) who used to be Peter’s old man’s best mate. Richard Parker (Campbell Scott) suddenly disappeared under circumstances that can best be described as mysterious. Doc stops keeping in touch with the Parkers. Period. Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field) both find this quite weird but have done nothing to reach out to Connors either. Connors is now heading research @ Oscorp and is charged with the responsibility of keeping Osborne alive – a job that Rajit Ratha (Irrfan Khan) knows how to do.
The Amazing Spiderman – thankfully doesn’t not stop in its differences with the name. It goes onto give a different story and therefore can keep the audiences engaged if they have seen the trilogy that preceded it. If they haven’t then this is one will be a good entertainer. The 3D effects are far superior to any of the previous ones. And Marc Webb – who has only one full length feature to his credit prior to this one – comes up with the goods for sure.
It’s a super hero movie so don’t look for acting as such but the performances are definitely above the expected level. The disappointing part for us Indians is that we would have expected our own Irrfan Chacha to have a meatier role. His screen time is restricted to about 2 minutes and 38.91 seconds. I give the movie 7 on 10 and I guess you will enjoy it. But honestly – not as good as the previous ones.
Watch the movie on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBfk0MqD67s
A better part of the movie goes through the same old rigmarole of how Peter Parker allows curiosity to get the better of him only to get bitten by a mutant spider of some kind and then turns into Spiderman. The difference however – in each one of the movies – is how he lands up being Spiderman. This time around it is by one which is being used to test gene therapy of some kind which will allow human beings to lose all of their weaknesses.
Leading the project is Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans – remember the nerdy character who doesn’t have a bath and is Hugh Grant’s room mate in Notting Hill – I couldn’t believe it either) who used to be Peter’s old man’s best mate. Richard Parker (Campbell Scott) suddenly disappeared under circumstances that can best be described as mysterious. Doc stops keeping in touch with the Parkers. Period. Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field) both find this quite weird but have done nothing to reach out to Connors either. Connors is now heading research @ Oscorp and is charged with the responsibility of keeping Osborne alive – a job that Rajit Ratha (Irrfan Khan) knows how to do.
The Amazing Spiderman – thankfully doesn’t not stop in its differences with the name. It goes onto give a different story and therefore can keep the audiences engaged if they have seen the trilogy that preceded it. If they haven’t then this is one will be a good entertainer. The 3D effects are far superior to any of the previous ones. And Marc Webb – who has only one full length feature to his credit prior to this one – comes up with the goods for sure.
It’s a super hero movie so don’t look for acting as such but the performances are definitely above the expected level. The disappointing part for us Indians is that we would have expected our own Irrfan Chacha to have a meatier role. His screen time is restricted to about 2 minutes and 38.91 seconds. I give the movie 7 on 10 and I guess you will enjoy it. But honestly – not as good as the previous ones.
Watch the movie on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBfk0MqD67s
Saturday, 13 November 2010
The Social Network
My First Look @ Social Network was in July. It was by far one of the best trailers I have seen in modern cinema. I had in fact written about it as well. Superb utilization of audio and visual cues to create an impact that leaves you asking, “I WANT to see this one”. When I walked into the theatre late last night, I was only hoping that I would not be let down. Add to that the rave reviews given by people who saw it the previous evening @ a paid preview and the pressure for “The Social Network” to deliver was immense to say the least. Thankfully I was not let down at all.
One would think that everyone knows or has at least heard of Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg). But not too many would know about the grime behind the entire success story and how things really built up between Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), Dustin Moskovitz (Joseph Mazzello) & Chris Hughes (Patrick Mapel) on one side and the team of Cameron Winklevoss (Arnie Hammer), Tyler Winklevoss (Josh Pence) & Divya Narendra (Max Minghella) on the other. And where the hell is Mark in all this? Mark is stuck in the middle and getting chewed for borrowing and idea that was supposedly the Winklevoss’. But who was responsible for actually making it the biggest mega trend in recent times? No points for guessing that.
The Social Network takes a really close look at the build up of the facebook story from the really early days on the Harvard Campus. Starting with the night that Mark manages to really piss off one Erica Albright (Rooney Mara) over dinner and then goes onto blog about her. He then in a fit a rage starts putting together “Face Mash” which gets 20K hits in 2 hours and crashes the Harvard server by 4 am. Following this, he is put on 6 months academic suspension when the Winklevoss’ get in touch with him for a social network called harvardconnection.com (later called ConnectU.com). Mark agrees to work on it but knows that he is onto something really big out here and spends the next 7 weeks building the first version of www.thefacebook.com which he goes onto announce. Obviously the trio of the Winklevoss’ and Divya Narendra are not at all pleased but do not want to behave like gentlemen of Harvard and so don’t take him to court. But once the juggernaut starts rolling, there is no stopping it and we are know that FB now has more than 500 million active users.
The Social Network is in line for a nomination for the best movie @ the Oscars next year. It will not win the Oscar thanks to one Christopher Nolan but will definitely earn itself a nomination. In what is probably the 2nd best movie made this year, David Fincher gives us yet another fabulous 2 hours. Fincher is best known for starting his movie career in 1995 with Seven. 15 years and 5 more huge movies later, he has given us yet another reason to cheer about. Superb direction and awesome editing are the stand out features of the movie. It takes a while to get used to the cuts in between nearly 6 parallel story lines. And be forewarned that it is a severely dialogue intensive movie with loads of internet jargon thrown in. But also watch out for the slick humour thrown in as garnish.
I could not have thought of anyone else to play the part of Mark Zuckerberg than Jesse Eisenberg. Not that he has any movies where his acting talent has been on display but then again, he never had the likes of David Fincher to work with. Jesse does a wonderful job with the portrayal of Mark and so does the rest of the cast. Stand out performances from Andrew Garfield as Eduardo Saverin & surprise surprise Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker (Napster fame). Performances all through are very intense.
Must watch movie folks – 8 on 10 clearly.
One would think that everyone knows or has at least heard of Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg). But not too many would know about the grime behind the entire success story and how things really built up between Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), Dustin Moskovitz (Joseph Mazzello) & Chris Hughes (Patrick Mapel) on one side and the team of Cameron Winklevoss (Arnie Hammer), Tyler Winklevoss (Josh Pence) & Divya Narendra (Max Minghella) on the other. And where the hell is Mark in all this? Mark is stuck in the middle and getting chewed for borrowing and idea that was supposedly the Winklevoss’. But who was responsible for actually making it the biggest mega trend in recent times? No points for guessing that.
The Social Network takes a really close look at the build up of the facebook story from the really early days on the Harvard Campus. Starting with the night that Mark manages to really piss off one Erica Albright (Rooney Mara) over dinner and then goes onto blog about her. He then in a fit a rage starts putting together “Face Mash” which gets 20K hits in 2 hours and crashes the Harvard server by 4 am. Following this, he is put on 6 months academic suspension when the Winklevoss’ get in touch with him for a social network called harvardconnection.com (later called ConnectU.com). Mark agrees to work on it but knows that he is onto something really big out here and spends the next 7 weeks building the first version of www.thefacebook.com which he goes onto announce. Obviously the trio of the Winklevoss’ and Divya Narendra are not at all pleased but do not want to behave like gentlemen of Harvard and so don’t take him to court. But once the juggernaut starts rolling, there is no stopping it and we are know that FB now has more than 500 million active users.
The Social Network is in line for a nomination for the best movie @ the Oscars next year. It will not win the Oscar thanks to one Christopher Nolan but will definitely earn itself a nomination. In what is probably the 2nd best movie made this year, David Fincher gives us yet another fabulous 2 hours. Fincher is best known for starting his movie career in 1995 with Seven. 15 years and 5 more huge movies later, he has given us yet another reason to cheer about. Superb direction and awesome editing are the stand out features of the movie. It takes a while to get used to the cuts in between nearly 6 parallel story lines. And be forewarned that it is a severely dialogue intensive movie with loads of internet jargon thrown in. But also watch out for the slick humour thrown in as garnish.
I could not have thought of anyone else to play the part of Mark Zuckerberg than Jesse Eisenberg. Not that he has any movies where his acting talent has been on display but then again, he never had the likes of David Fincher to work with. Jesse does a wonderful job with the portrayal of Mark and so does the rest of the cast. Stand out performances from Andrew Garfield as Eduardo Saverin & surprise surprise Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker (Napster fame). Performances all through are very intense.
Must watch movie folks – 8 on 10 clearly.
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