Movie Review - "Watchmen"

"MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS"

I was looking forward to "Watchmen". Personally, I am a huge fan of sci-fi and fantasy movies (my dog is named Obi-wan). So I eventually land up watching most sci-fi movies and liking many which others absolutely detest (Waterworld, Alien vs Predator to name a few).

I read "Watchmen" last year and was amazed by the creativity, blown away by the plot and, quite frankly, a little bored by the speed at which the story moved. Even to a naive film critic like me, it was apparent that capturing the essense of such a progressive, creative and complex story on screen would be tremendously difficult.

Director Zack Snyder manages to do that, to a large extent. Through his signature semi-slow motion fight sequences and the camera technique that were present in "300", he creates the fantasy world of 1980's USA with President Nixon still in power after winning the Vietnam War with the help of the Watchmen. It's easy to draw similarities between Christopher Nolan and him despite their distinct styles.

But the sets, photography and special effects are the not the 'meat and potatoes' of this super hero flick. The characters and the story is the most important part of this movie. I suspect that this is one of the main reasons for a lukewarm response by audiences that expected to be wowed away by action sequences, special effects and invincible superheroes.

Let's get to the crux of the movie - the characters. The acting of Jackie Earle Haley (Rorschach) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Comedian) is exceptional. Haley, in particular, was outstanding.

Crudup (Dr. Manhattan), Ackerman (Silk Spectre) and Wilson (Nite Owl) are ok - with some good moments and some bad moments. According to me, all three of them were miscast. I am certain there are other actors who would have portrayed these characters better.

I have always liked Carla Gugino in all the little roles she does (and she rarely does anything of consequence). Goode as Ozymandias is the weakest link of the movie. It would be unfair to call his acting terrible but he fails to deliver the critical punch that the movie requires to attract more people to the theatres.

All in all, I came out of the theatre entertained. The movie was not exceptional but contrary to what others have said, I think it is much better than "300".

Movie review - “Firaaq”

“THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS — but read it anyway”

I went to watch Firaaq not knowing anything about the film and therefore not expecting much from it either. The fact that Naseeruddin Shah was in the movie was reason enough to pay the 300 Rupees to go watch it.

As someone deeply interested in politics and having been involved in several psuedo-intellectual conversations and debates about the Godhra riots, I was immediately interested and was keen to see what the director/writer’s take was on the Godhra incident. But as the movie went on, I realized that this movie was not about wrong or right, the writer did not take sides. There was no moral of the story and the movie was despair-inducing without showing any real desperate scene.

Did I find this frustrating? A little … It might have been nice to see a tighter script with some definite conclusions but I was glad that the movie was original, creative, emotionally complex and realistic - characteristics that are not present in most Bollywood movies.

Most of the characters were really well developed. The casting was spot on as most of the actors did a great job. There were 5 intertwined stories.

In the first, Paresh Rawal and Deepti Naval were exceptionally stellar. Their characters, their acting, their presence, their story was brilliant. I was always a fan of Paresh Rawal. Deepti Naval, where have you been? It would be nice to see you in more movies. Without these 2 and their episode, the movie would have been below par.

Naseer is wasted in the movie. His story starts off promisingly and he almost pulls off a weak story but it falls short. Towards the end, I was just hoping that the movie would not focus on his story but on Rawal/Naval or Suri/Chopra.

The Sameer story (with Sanjay Suri and Tisca Chopra) was decent. Sanjay Suri does a fairly good job of portraying the responsible guy who’s been f***ed over because of no fault of his. He did a similar character in “Sorry Bhai” (which was a terrible movie). Tisca is very good. I have to say that she did not make too much of an impression on me in “Taare Zameen Par” but her portrayal in this movie was very believable and likable.

The Mehndi girl story was ok; it could have been so much better … in terms of story, acting and the final outcome.

The last storyof the 5 guys running around for the gun - now, that was the disastrous part about the movie. I kept on thinking aloud - “Now what are these 5 morons doing? Would someone please shoot them?” That whole episode should have been re-written or omitted.

I came out of the movie feeling a little disappointed but that does not take away from the fact that the direction was excellent, the idea was original and creative, the acting was great and that the movie was subtle and emotionally complex. A great directorial debut for Nandita Das (I only found out that she was the director after the movie). I will see her next film.