X-Men: Days of Future Past

In 6 editions of the franchise, X Men has generated $2.31 billion at the box office.  That is billion with a “buh” as Alan Harper (2.5 men) would put it.  Now the sad part is that despite this massive level of success, it is still not in the top 10 franchises of all time.  Embarassingly below the Twilight series.  With Days of Future Past, they should easily surge ahead of the silly tweenage romance.

12 Years A Slave

My first experience with Steve McQueen (the director not the actor) was with a movie titled Shame that I saw nearly 2 years back during my trip down under.  I was a novice at reviewing (marginally better now) and didn’t quite take too kindly to the bold moves that McQueen confronted us with (http://kartikr.blogspot.in/2012/02/shame.html) and of course his favourite actor – Michael Fassbender.

Prometheus

3 movies released this weekend and I got the chance to watch all 3 of them. The one I picked last night was Ridley Scott’s much awaited multi starrer – Prometheus. Once again it was an opportunity to see a master director with a style that’s clearly differentiated from any other director. You will not find it too difficult to identify a movie from Ridley Scott if you are in a quiz. He has maintained the same style over the past 30 plus years.

Whether it was Blade Runner or Aliens in the Sci Fi genre or the more serious American Gangster, there is an attention to detail that would amaze most people. In the Sci Fi genre where Ridley Scott seems most comfortable with, the quality of the effects have gone sky rocketing with the increase of technology available. However, the basic essence of slowly building up tempo to a stunning crescendo and leaving enough room to build a franchise at the end of the day. Prometheus is no different.

Prometheus revolves around the basic question that has dogged mankind for eons as of now – Where did it all begin? Where did we come from? Do we blindly accept 200 years of Darwinism or do we look upon it with the skepticism that we have always looked at things around us? All it takes is Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Dr. Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) to stumble upon some interesting murals dated back to over 3000 years in Scotland in the year 2098 to raise questions. A pattern clearly emerges around murals discovered across the world that points to a galaxy trillions of miles away.

It takes a very rich man – Peter Weyland puts his financial muscle behind Shaw and Holloway. A space mission over a 2 year period on a shuttle called Prometheus finds itself in the same planet indicated by the patterns. The planet is extremely similar to earth and could actually give us answers that we have been searching for.

Prometheus is, as always an extremely well made Ridley Scott movie. The emphasis on the alien beings is again – as always – very high. The detailing of every single feature is stunning. And therefore, the fear of what the being is capable of is supreme. Right from the small and insignificant looking worm to a gory octopus like being or the thing that is left behind at the end of it all that looks like the alien from Scott’s earlier movie of the same name – everything has the stamp of Ridley Scott on it. Now all you need to do, is to find your way to the IMAX Screen to maximize the impact. 7.5 on 10 again. Superb.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2405016345/

Shame

This one is going to be a really tough one to write. This and the one which will follow. A movie called Martha Marcy May Marlene. Both movies which promised quite a bit and in all honesty I would be lying if I said they failed miserably. They were both just art house cinema in the truest sense of the word. To be fair, the poster for SHAME clearly called out, “THE MOST PROVOCATIVE AND COMPELLING FILM OF THE YEAR” amongst a few other adjectives such as Mesmerising and Dynamite and Exquisite and Emotive. All of these amongst clusters of 5 stars. But then no one said that it was all of this for the art house cinema buff. Like the people who would love Terrence Malik’s Tree of Life to bits. Surely you get the drift by now.

So I was suckered into a movie directed by Steve McQueen. Who turns out to be nowhere close to the more popular and better known star of Bullit. Nopes. This gentleman is an acclaimed (unheard to me) director with one other art house movie before this which I am certain has several layers just like Shame had. This Steve McQueen to his credit is a bold African American director. One would understand why I use the term bold after you are about 30 odd seconds into the movie. Even without watching his previous movie, I am quite certain it would be one where he tells it like it is. For e.g. if the a bullet to the head means blood splattering all around then that would be the way it has to be shown.

It is probably the reason why Shame would seem like a soft pornographic movie – ok correction – pornographic movie. In the first 5 minutes you would have seen how well endowed Michael Fassbender is and a couple of graphic sex scenes are thrown before the first 30 minutes are done and dusted. And before the movie is done with, you would have experienced different situations from your fantasies. Let me try and recount them. With one woman in a dark alley against a large container (probably a garbage bin). With a high end prostitute at home. With a seriously attractive African American woman. With another prostitute recounting your fantasy of doing it with the woman pressed against a glass window. Getting a blow job from a man. Doing it with 2 women.

The purists would say this is art and not pornography. To portray the story of a person who has a sex addiction problem is very brave indeed. How else would you show a movie about the topic. But for the not so mature audiences which include this writer, who I must say is not used to such topics being dealt with so openly, it will be quite difficult to sit through without squirming in your seat. I just found the movie too slow and randomly edited but the performances were very solid indeed. Full points for bravery. 6 on 10 for the movie.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3969097241/

X Men First Class

This one is actually a slight dampner of sorts. Although the effects make up for a lot that it seems to have been missed in other departments and the fact that the number of X Men fans across the world aren’t going to reduce with probably the first effort that has been just over average would put the owners of the franchise at some ease. The mutants are here to stay just as they sign off by saying – MUTANT AND PROUD. You can expect many more stories going forward from this “different” bunch. In fact, X Men First Class has set it up beautifully for several sequels in the coming years. Rest assured, the impact from the previous 4 have left enough of an impact on fans and non fans alike to keep coming back to the movie halls. It will take quite a disaster to make any dent on the fan following.

The producers, however, have to really take a long hard look at the past 3 directors and they would probably find an answer there. Brett Ratner (X3), Gavin Hood (Wolverine) and Matthew Vaughn (XMFC) just don’t measure up to the magic that was created by Bryan Singer in X1 and X2. Ratner, Hood and Vaughn seem to rely much more on the effects and really don’t focus as much on building a story that is irresistible. Although XMFC does try to build up the background on the entire concept, I felt they tried to do just that little too much and lost out on the story somewhere in between. I wouldn’t be wrong if I were to say that the term First Class actually came to life – The movie seemed more like a class room session. Something like Course - XMen Class – 101 – I hope u got what I meant to say. It would be clear when u do watch the movie.

My intent till now has not been to blast XMFC at all and I must apologise if it was perceived as a whipping. The movie is definitely worth a watch and you will not get bored. The classic fan though may land up being a tad disappointed. But his passion will drive him to give the movie a score that is more than what it deserves. I would give it a 6 on 10. Maybe a bit harsh. But I am also pegging it against the previous editions and I find that this one was just about par for the course. And if the characters were not fleshed out as well as they were – especially Xavier, Magneto and Raven – I would have given it 5. But for these aspects, there is nothing much other than effects. Acting is just about there to create some aura around the characters. The casting is apt but then this is as much as what McAvoy and company can get upto in terms of acting in a super hero movie. It’s a big screen watch for certain – you cant watch XMFC on the small screen and miss out on the effects.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi168926489/