Rio 2

I am at the outset going to make a candid confession.  I didn’t like Rio too much.  I found it to be too much of an avian fantasy.  It seemed force fitted into one of the most gorgeous places on earth and that didn’t go too well with me.  I found a lot of characters to be over the top and frankly the concept was nowhere close to animations like Lion King or Finding Nemo or even Shrek (not one of my favourites).

Rio

And we finally get to one of the more expected animation movies of the year. Phew!!! That was one long wait. Over 4 months since I saw the trailer for the first time, Rio hit screens in India last weekend (pardon me for the delay in putting up the review but it has seriously been super hectic). And I almost lost all hope that it would get there in the first place. I mean, what is with production houses that release the trailer some 6 months before the movie and then keep you waiting for time immemorial. After a while it gets to your nerves a bit too much and does nothing to build up the excitement in anyways. I would hazard a guess that anything more than 3 months and it gets to be really boring. Trailer Life Cycle hypothesis is what I would like to call it.


Lets move onto the more relevant point of discussion - the 7th release in the Animation genre from movie power house Twentieth Century Fox (TCF). That they have released only 7 to date should give TCF a good enough indication that they are not really cut out best to play around much in this genre. Other than the Ice Age series, the rest of the lot have been quite average and in fact not worth mentioning. Rio probably makes it to the list that can just about claim to have made the cut with nothing terribly brilliant about it nor was it horrendously made to say it wasn’t worth a dekko. TCFs favourite animation director would have to be Carlos Saldanah who has given them their most successful franchise to date. But somehow the namesake of the Jackal isn’t able to re-create the magic of Ice Age. One may argue that it is unfair to compare previous works and treat this in isolation. On both counts, Rio falls just that tad bit short of being a superb animation movie in the league of Up or Finding Nemo or for that matter even Cars. Pixar needn’t quite worry for now with the quality of work that they are giving us.

Rio is the story of Blue (Jesse Eisenberg) who finds himself caught by a trapper in the jungles right outside the famed Samba City and then traded as an exotic species of bird – the Blue Macaw. And that too when the poor baby is just about excited about the concept of flying. Pretty soon he finds himself in the other hemisphere in the extremely cold state of Milwaukee. By chance, he is found by Linda (Leslie Mann) who takes care of him like her best friend. A few years later, Tulio (Rodrigo Santoro) arrives at Linda’s doorstep and gives her the news that Blue is the last of its species (do macaws live upto 15-20 years coz that’s the amount of time that seems to have passed between Linda finding Blue and today). Now here’s a nerdy girl who has probably not been on a date and a Macaw who doesn’t know how to fly and find themselves travelling to Rio where their little adventure sees Blue trying to make an impression on Jewel (Anne Hathaway). In between all of that is an avian villain, a parakeet who goes by the name of Nigel (Jemaine Clement) and some avian friends – a Toucan called Rafael (George Lopez). Keeping them company are Pedro (Will i Am ) and Nico (Jamie Foxx). A reasonable adventure but a bit short of being really good. The Animation is not outstanding in anyways. 3D and the music are quite weak with nothing to get too excited about. The voice overs are quite well done though. Overall a 6 on 10. The kids will definitely love it. But not meant for all ages.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi470260249/

X Men Origins - Wolverine

What defines a successful movie franchise? Or for that matter, any successful franchise? I would guess it would be scalability. In the easiest possible manner. When the first edition of X Men, directed by Bryan Singer was released 10 years back, I think the makers would have given serious thought to ensure that it was not the last time an X Men movie was released. 3 successful movies later, it was only natural that they go into letting people know how they all started in the first place. One can’t help but think that Wolverine is the first in the series of X Men Origins. Actually, one would hope that this is not the last coz they are all very well made to say the least. And they have Stan Lee and Jack Kirby to thank for starting it all nearly 50 years back.
James Howlett, as a young boy, kills his biological father Thomas Logan in a fit of rage when Logan Sr. kills his father John Howlett. Logan Sr. leaves behind Victor, who is James’ elder brother. Both of them then take off and Victor gets James to promise that they would look out for each other for as long as it takes. What they don’t quite understand is that they have natural regenerative powers. In other words, it would take a lot and I mean A LOT to really kill them. Over the next few decades, they grow into James (Hugh Jackman) and Victor (Liev Schrieber) Logan through all possible wars from the late 1800s to date.
As the years roll by, Victor’s rage gets completely out of control till he kills an officer who stops him from raping an innocent girl in ‘nam. After a while, Major William Stryker (Danny Huston) offers the brothers a place in the Team X which includes Bolt (Dominic Monaghan) who can control electricity, Wade (Ryan Reynolds) and manic swordsman, Agent Zero (Daniel Henney) an expert marksman, John Wraith (Will I Am) who can teleport and Dukes (Kevin Durand) who is indestructible in a manner of speaking. However, with Victor’s rage not improving and not being in agreement with the concept of Team X, Logan decides to part ways.
Six years later, Stryker tracks Logan who is now settled with Kayla Silverfox (Lynn Collins) and informs him that someone is killing the members of Team X one by one. Stryker asks Logan to help him in vain. However, when Kayla is killed shortly after, Victor agrees and gets enrolled into a programme where his bones are bonded with a new substance called Adamantium which is literally indestructible and recovered from a meteorite. However, he hears Stryker asking the team to erase his memory and flees. Knowing that Kayla was killed by Victor, Logan begins the search for his brother so that he can get his revenge. The transition is complete when he changes his dog tags from Logan to Wolverine.
Wolverine is directed by little known director Gavin Hood whose claim to fame before this would have been the 2005 South African Academy Award winning movie Tsotsi. That one was quite critically acclaimed. I haven’t seen that one yet and Wolverine does not completely inspire me to either. Hoods direction is just about at par and does enough to ensure that the excitement of the X Men franchise continues and keeps you looking forward to the next one.
Hugh Jackman continues to play the role of Wolverine like no else I can think of. The rest of the cast is quite passé. The movie overall is very exciting and quite full of action. Similar to the previous 3 editions of the X Men. Special Effects are definitely up there. Overall I would give this a 6 on 10. Worth a watch for sure. Preferably on the big screen though.