Over to the Shire

In 2001 began a journey for me, sitting in IIMB campus, with Frodo Baggins, aided by Aragorn, Legolas, the dwarves, and the one and only Gandalf. The journey ended with The Hobbit – The Battle of the Five Armies. It is thus with a twinge of more than a little nostalgia, then, that I pen this review. Executed with the same standards of excellence that we have come to expect of the franchise, the latest movie is particularly notable for the emotional turns of Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) – the lure of gold, and the eventual return to nobility. In this edition, the five armies – dwarves, elves and men, face off against the orcs, and a fifth army joins and eventually tips the balance. Brilliant action scenes and depiction of the sheer ambiguity of alliances and their fall-outs make The Hobbit – The Battle of the Five Armies – quite exceptional. A must watch – but then if you have been with the series, that hardly needs any iteration

16/20

Frame by Frame

Not for a moment do I deny the cinematic quality, the excellent casting, the flawless special effects, and the sheer riveting spectacle that is The Hobbit - The Desolation of Smaug - the fifth installment of the LOTR/ Hobbit series. The issue is that we are perhaps too used to the excellence, and maybe the reader is left wondering just what justifiable reason could be given for stretching (by LOTR standards, a brief) novel to such lengthy proportions. Yes, it is a good watch while it is there. No, beyond a point, it is just pretty monotonous. A monotonous must-watch - a fate that i suspect that this Hollywood trend of milking franchises to the hilt will have to hear a lot more of

14.5/20

Far Above the Misty Mountains Cold

 

Today, after a decade and then some some, a troop of all-too-familiar dwarves entered my house. Led by a wizard, of course. With them, I left the comforts of the Shire, and embarked on an adventure. Where, every turn of the page, in years bygone, had brought new experiences to cherish. We headed out, saw off trolls that had strayed afar, got much-needed albeit much despised help in Rivendell. We headed out from there, to repossess our Kingdom from Smaug. Again we saw off goblins and orcs, with a little help this time from the Eagles. And thus, with The Hobbit – An Unexpected Journey – we are on our way. To a trilogy that is – however strangely – lagging LOTR – but so far, and as one has grown to expect, equally fascinating, overwhelming, and quite peerless in the world of movies. The unlikely combination of JRR Tolkein and Peter Jackson have created an alternate reality for me, something that I cannot quite put in the words of a bland little movie review

17.5/20

Tintin’s Back!

When an animated Herge holds up a sketch of the old and familiar Tintin to his new-age avatar, the comparison between two eras of amination could not be more pronounced. First things first. The Adventures of Tintin will be an unadulterated commercial and critical success. This movie leverages off today’s animation capabilities to resurrect an iconic character. The story is a loose adaptation of The Secret of the Unicorn and while much is familiar –including the story of Red Rachkam vs Sir Francis Haddock, there is a lot else that has been introduced or tweaked in the plot including the introduction of much of the unforgettable cast of characters of the series (with the possible exception of Professor Calculus). Diehard Tintin fans will also have a field day spotting the many references and trivia in the movie in relation to other books of the series. The incendiary combination of Spielberg and Peter Jackson combine for a masterpiece, and you will relive the unabashed adventure that is the Tintin comic. Suffice to say – do not miss this one

16.5/20

Family, Heaven, Anger, Love

A few weeks back there was Shutter Island. Now comes another movie - this time from none less than Peter Jackson - that is truly enthralling in its scope, brilliant in its execution, poignant to the core, and genuinely moving. Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan), teenage daughter of Jack and Abigail Salmon (Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz), is brutally murdered by George Harvey (Stanley Tucci), and finds herself in the afterlife, in a zone between earth and heaven, in The Lovely Bones. With the power to influence the emptions of her parents and siblings, the anger in her heart against her murderer, the love for her classmate Ray Singh (Reese Ritchie) unrequited, and the call from those in the afterlife to her to cross over to heaven, Susie must face the full complement of her emotions, while allowing her family to move on from the tragedy. I felt weak watching the depiction of a father’s love for his daughter, the great anger of Susie and the humble contrition as her anger leads her father into danger in the real world, and the quiet revealation and eventual poetic justice in respect of her captor. A movie to cherish for a long long time, beautifully woven, not a hint of superfluousness, on human relationships, coping with personal loss, and eventually moving on

17.5/20

The Darkest District

In Metamorphosis, Kafka explores social reaction to a man being transformed into a giant insect. In Blood Diamond, bounty hunter Leonardo DiCaprio shows the best and worst of humanity as he races through strife-torn Africa to liberate a family. District 9 has a Blair Witch Project style reality TV format buildup – aliens land up in Johannesburg with little to offer and nowhere else to go. They are stigmatized (“prawns” as epithet), victimized (“humans only”), and isolated and forced to live in a giant slum on the city outskirts. Their only hope of returning to their planet finds an unlikely hero in the form of Wikus Van de Merwe (Sharlto Copley), who, largely motivated by his own desire to return to normalcy, brings hope of deliverance in a disturbing milieu. District 9 manages to showcase the best and worst of man – persecution and sheer human cruelty, the arms race, and the profiteering from vice, in sharp contrast to the coming of age of Van De Merwe and his last gasp effort that gives the “prawns” their only last vestige of hope for escaping from the cruelty of man. An outstanding movie and one that, irrespective of the analogies I began with, I find it hard to think of a parallel

17.5/20