Thinking About Movies: KungFu Panda 2 (2011)

The biggest challenge for any sequel is to live upto atleast 75-80% of its original version and hence make a profitable business. KungFu Panda 2 does not belong to this category. Yes..thats right. KP2 is definitely ahead of its original version what if its marginally; its still an achievement. Continuing about sequel philosphy, the only movie, in my perspective and as per my limited knowledge, which could be termed as mother of all sequels was Terminator 2-The Judgement Day. On the other hand, the big sequel disaster was 'The Lost world (Jurassic Park2)' which could hardly manage half business as compared to the original. The next (third) part though was horrible. Well..let not divert from the topic and talk more about KP2.

KP2 has all the masala an animation movie require; eismey action hai, comedy hai, drama hai, tragedy hai...mm, sorry tragedy nahin hai. So, its all fun filled movie with a cleverly written storyline matching with its first part. The audience in kids would really have a good treat (remeber my review on Rango..where I said kids might not like the movie) . I could still recollect the typical kid HaHas in the theatre and amuse myself.

One thing I am realizing about hollywood animation movies coming lately that central character bear the trait of the actor who is going to dub them. While in 'Rango', the lizard actions looked so similar to Jack Sparrow(Johny Depp); here the panda seemed to mimic Jack Black at so many places. This marvelleousness should go to the creative directors for sure.

Now, coming to my favourite part, 3D. Hmm...POcrbn4 and now this....make me feel ..has Hollywood actually reached the peak of realistic world that as with 3D, they are able to realisticaly create even those images which are not practically possible or do not exist in real world. If not, what else could be missing....may be the smell. The screens would start emitting odours depending on the scenes. Imagine the scene from 'Slumdog Millionaire', where the hero kid fells into dip shit and the smell would have spread across the whole theatre. Emmm....let us consider this is the peak now in movie making; no more advancements required.

So, in KP2, again like POcrbn2, the 3D looks more a thought process rather than implementation. The various scenes like free fall, rain of weapons and that blistering dragon ball in the climax were too good to be real.

Hence, my rating for KP2 is '4.5/5' owing to the living up to expectation along with amazing 3D effects. My closure comments as the closure of the movie suggests that part 3 is very soon on its way.

Thinking About Movies: Pirates Of The Carribean -On Stranger Tides (2011)

After the triology, myself (and not even the producers) thought about coming up with a new venture of this franchisee. Hence, I was surprised but not amused when I heard of the part 4. However, when I came to know that the movie would be shot itself using 3D technology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_Digital_3-D) rather than implying 3D at post production; this is where my interest began to came. I have been fan of the special effects of POCrbn franchise and seeing those in 3d were was my biggest interest rather than the plot itself. I mean when the story has finished why would you create another one unnecessarily?!

Its not that I have not seen fantasy 3D movies lately (Narnya being the latest one) but wanted to check out how shooting a movie in 3d itself makes a difference. So...with all these prejudices when I started watching the movie, all of them came true.

The movie shots were definitely 3d-ily effective where the depth between objects was very peculiar and distinctive. It was evident that both cinematography and direction were done keeping 3d in mind - in general terms, absolute pleasure for eyes.

Apart from this, unfortunately, very critically speaking...the movie is waste in terms of plot and story. There was no mention of Keira's character at all while the heroic crew of Captain Barbosa was completely absent. Our own Jack Sparrow (there is a caption somewhere in between) seemed bit weak as compared to his character while more humorous at times. The 3d effect made Penelope Cruze look at her own age; I mean..she definitely look older than the character she is playing. The intention of 3d is to make look everything realistic..right?!

For me..it is '2.5/5' where all the points are because of awesome 3d effects whether it is long shots, deep shots, close shots and rapid movement shots. I am going for a complele package when I am going to see a movie ..a mere presentation without content won't effect me too much! Sorry!

Dialogue: Wife 'Body' speaks to Hubby 'Mind'!!!

{Context: I am suffering with viral infection but somehow do not feel sitting at home. At the end of the day, I could easily see my body complaining against my mind. I thought in this situation, what if body would have been wife of mind and then how conversation would have happened between the two...}

Mrs. Body: Mr. Mind..Would you 'mind' if I take sometime of you and talk to you?

Mr. Mind: Yeah...! (anticipating what is going to come)

Mrs. B: Mr. M...you very well know that my each bone seems to have broken down by that idiot viral infection! Still..you want to drag me around?

Mr. M: Mrs. B..do not be so selfish...you know..if I do not do so then we might cause distress to other minds.

Mrs. B: Mr. M..do you think that is the actual reason?! I think you like to do it to prove yourself to other minds which is totally unnecessary, I believe.

Mr. M: Nothing like that but its more related to my satisfaction and peace!

Mrs. B: ....and guess 'who' is calling me selfish!

Mr. M: C'mon...do I not take care of you? I first gave you a days rest..then I have been putting you in warm clothing under severe AC, giving you a litre of glucose every day, providing you all medication! This is I am doing while I am working and still taking care of you!

Mrs. B: Should I say 'Thank You' here! What happens at the end of the day to me is the result of all your 'care'! While you are in peace and been satisfied, I am in complete 'distress'!

Mr. M:...but do not I give you a proper rest after that!

Mrs. B(shouts): ..and do you think that is enough?!! tell me!

Mr. M: Do not yell..things will be okay soon!

Mrs. B: I have been hearing this from long time....!!!

Long Pause......

Mr. M: I need to go sleep we'll talk later!

{I know this conversation will not stop here }

Thinking about movies: Source Code (2011)

'Source Code' as per me: "An excellent brain teaser after Inception" and I would also say that "Nothing IT about it".

If you put 'Ground Hog Day', 'Inception', 'Matrix' with bits of 'Avatar' in a food processor along with precisely perfect amount of direction, crisp story telling mechanism and lot of imagination, you would come up with this marvellous piece in 'Source Code'. I wont exaggerate when I say that this is a sci-fi 'Who did it' detective movie which completely involves viewers in resolving the case by taking them again and again to crime scene.
Since it is a suspense movie, I would restrict in telling anything about the plot as that may ruin it. However, I could say that the movie is about an experiment of a computer program 'Source Code' to solve a crime situation using time travelling.

The movie is though fast paced but has a slight minor slump in between when plot do not seem to change; however, that is there momentarily. Also, the movie finishes in around 1hr 25 minutes which keeps you gasping for more. May be I was greedy in looking for more problems which the program 'Source Code' could solve. I think the producer would definitely give me Part 2 for that.

As it is from producers of '2012', I was expecting lot of special effects but, on the contrary, the effects does not come so explictly while they have been clearly weaved with with plot that you do not realize that it would be a special effect. A surpise element for me was in the movie was Russell Peters and if you ask me what he was doing there, I would suggest to see the movie and find out.

My rating is '4/5' to this movie which blends science, technology with in a detective story.

Thinking About Movies: Rango (2011)

When me and my friends were deciding on watching an animation movie this season, the majority were for Rio. I was however adamant on watching this after seeing its awesome trailer on youtube. Thus, it made me nervous when we actually sat for watching the movie; what if the movie is average; my friends would definitely kill me for sure. When we came out, I was all in appraise while I was awestruck by not only the effects but also the story telling and the persona of this.

"Kids are definitely not going to like this movie".. I mean if we only talk about the plot. And if we compare it with 'Rio', while Rio is more colour and life; this movie is kindda dark and talks about quest for life. At the same time,ironically, it revolves around a Chameleon while Chameleons are known for their skills of changing their colours.

Set besides a Texas backdrop, where a pet Chameleon ( who has some nonliving toys as his friends) who have kind of mastered himself as enjoying his loneliness by proclaiming himself as a hero; accidentally lands with real life creatures in mice, moles, tortoise, birds etc. No, when I am saying this creatures, these are not as 'beautiful' as shown in fairytales but rather dirty and pessimistic creatures . So coming back to Chameleon, as in Rango, with his 'Jack Sparrow' type antics and luck his way, was able to impress these creatures of an isolated town who then see in him the ray of hope regarding a quest which viewers would find in the movie. However, Rango needs to find his true identity first and help these creatures and whether he is really capable of.

The movie is from producers of 'Pirates of The Carribean' franchise so you can always imagine the quality of animation and special effects over the animation. The meinute details regarding look and feel of each reptile has been taken care while carefully and cleverly putting across human emotions over their faces. I am now going to look very closely at my house lizard to see if it can really give that expression.
The movie plot is a fine blend of comedy and drama with some actions at the end. My fav char in the movie after Rango is the rattle snake. I am now convinced that the actual sound which rattle snake makes is when a machine gun at the ends of his tails aligns and loads itself. Yaar, yeh imagination public kahaan sey laati hai.

My rating is '4.5/5' to this an unconventional and gripping animation movie while using creatures over a good plot. Believe me, these creatures are much different from those in 'Champak' or 'Jatak Kathaiyen' or even 'Ice Age' for that matter.