Mutant Woes

X-Men - Days of Future Past - is another prequel to a continuum of X Men movies that I have long lost track of. This one is about Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) being sent to the past (1973, to be precise), to save mutant-kind from the scourge of the Sentinels - robots that have been created by the Trask group to find and exterminate mutants. A week down the line, I vaguely remember it as a mildly watchable movie but little else besides - a sign that this franchise, like several others, is for the diehard fan beyond a point

11/20

Full of Beans

With a few smartly crafted twists and turns, Jack the Giant Slayer is the story of Jack (Nicholas Hoult), a spunky if somewhat distracted farm-boy, his muse the Princess Isabelle (Eleanor Tomlinson), and a few knights of the realm of Cloister – notable among them the honorable Elmont (Ewan Mc Gregor) and the nefarious Roderick (Stanley Tucci). When a small escapade leads Jack to possess certain beans, and his paths cross with that of a princess bent on escaping the confines of her castle, the two embark on an unlikely adventure that faces up to the Kingdom of Giants, the stuff of fables brought to a grim reality. Quite the children’s entertainer, and never a dull moment - mostly

11.5/20

War of Conscience
What makes Valkyrie clearly stand out from the common or garden Third Reich movie is the depiction of the careful build-up and execution of a plot where a majority of the participants are engaged throughout in a zone of ambiguity where while they are fairly sure of what to believe in, they are not clear about what their role in the same should be. Apart from the clear ideology of von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise), the indecision of the likes of Olbricht (Bill Nighy) and the ostensible undying allegiance to the Fuehrer from the likes of Fromm (Tom Wilkinson), make for immense viewing pleasure. In the end, this is a movie set in war where there is not a single genuine battle scene, just the air raids in different circumstances – with his troops and with family respectively – that reinforce in von Stauffenberg his belief in the futility of it all. Rather, this movie is all about strong and carefully constructed character portrayals of a set of distinct individuals who chose to differ from the establishment, but in their own separate ways

15.5/20