In the late 21st century Earth was diseased, polluted, and vastly over-populated.
(The camera shows over-crowded, garbage-riddled, crumbling dirty cities with smoke-filled skylines)
Earth's wealthiest residents fled the planet to preserve their way of life.
(This is where the camera pans out moving away from Earth and focusing over a massive ring shaped structure orbiting the planet Earth... This is...)
ELYSIUM...
(Supported by a star shaped spike structure that extends from a central core to the the massive ring. The inside of the massive ring made up of huge curving landscapes consisting of beautiful grassy lawns, huge white houses and sparkling water bodies. A virtual paradise compared to the hell that earth has become...)
So starts Elysium. An artificial space habitat built by the "have"s, to keep away the "have-not"s and still enjoy the best that money and technology can offer. Sterile air, open beautiful spaces, Robot servants and Medical technology that can "re-atomize" your body to heal any and every disease or injury within minutes...
And there is the Earth. The abode of the "have-not"s. Congested, over-populated, polluted. Tightly controlled by robot police, and many of the population serving the companies that enrich the "have"s who are the Elysium citizens, even the basic necessities like medical care are hard to come by. The squalor and the living conditions are clearly apparent in the garbage-riddled landscape, the crumbling buildings where people live, the over-crowded hospitals and public places...
One such have-not is Max. As a kid he has always dreamed of buying a ticket to the beautiful and fabled paradise of Elysium. Once involved in criminal activities during his early youth, now he works hard as an assembly worker in Armadyne Corp, an armaments company that provides not only the weaponry for Elysium and the police force on earth, but also designed the controlling system of Elysium itself. One day he meets with an accident while at work. Exposed to lethal dose of radiation, he has mere five days to live. And all the company gives him as compensation is a vial of capsules that would make his final days painless, and relieves him of work.
The only thing that can save him is a Med-bay - a near magical technological marvel that can re-atomize your body cells and cure any disease within minutes. The only med-bays available are on Elysium. So he approaches a smuggler named Spider, for whom he has worked before, hoping to get himself smuggled into Elysium. But Spider asks him to perform a last job for him. A job so daring and dangerous, that no person in his right mind would take it up. But Max would. He is going to die anyway. What has he got to loose? They plan to steal secret information off a high-profile Elysium citizen, and use it to buy their way into Elysium. But they land up obtaining information that's so confidential that soon they are being man-hunted for it...
The movie succeeds pretty nicely as an action flick. Though it starts off slow, it soon picks up pace and hardly ever slackens thereafter. Some slow motion action shots are quite breathtaking. Though it is not your run of the mill action flick that starts off with a bang and involves superheroes and over-the-top action sequences, it does offer some nice sci-fi action eye-candy - some pretty cool futuristic armaments, fighter droids, and some very good action sequences.
Most of the actors have acted pretty well. Which was to be expected considering that the star-cast boasts such brilliant actors like Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Alice Braga and William Fichtner.
But I liked this movie more for its concept. There are few sci-fi movies that succeed to present ideas that are possible in the foreseeable future. To make you realize with horror and trepidation that - "OMG, this may happen; it may really happen in a few years"... (One such movie I had seen before is Repo Men [2010] - another dystopian sci-fi action flick). Elysium is one such movie. If you look beyond the action and the sci-fi entertainment it offers, you may realize that what has been portrayed in the movie may very-well happen in the near future. The way our population is growing exponentially, and the economic divide between the haves and the have-nots widening every day, the day is not far when we might be thrust into just such an exploitative dystopian social structure... Maybe we already are living in such an exploitative economic system - economic slaves enriching the already rich "haves". The over-population will simply make it worse in the the near-future...
The writer and director Neill Blomkamp says that it is a comment on the contemporary human condition. "Everybody wants to ask me lately about my predictions for the future," he says, "No, no, no. This isn't science fiction. This is today. This is now."... In a way, he is right...
My Ratings: 3.5
This is a movie about a manned mission's Last Days on Mars. So this makes it one of the few movies that says it all in the title itself.
Aurora Mission...
Duration: 6 months...
Remaining time: 19 hours...
It is their last excursion out in the sands of the Red Planet. Kim, an ambitious and now disillusioned scientist, is busy collecting the last samples they would take back home. Samples, that she dejectedly observes, are as sterile and fruitless as the ones they have been collecting for the past 6 months... As she is driven back to base by the team 'chauffers' (would the term "Rover Driver" sound funny?) Campbell and Lane, another scientist, Marko, prepares to go out. He claims that he needs to check "a Gamma sensor that's not responding", something he confesses he forgot to check. As he heads out, Kim, his obvious rival, becomes suspicious. She checks his workstation. What she finds out implicates two things: one - Marko lied, and two - he may have stumbled upon a profound discovery... And then disaster strikes...
The story is strictly okay. On the sci-fi front, it does not explore any new ideas. On the action front, it does not add any unnecessary and unrealistic stunts. On the thriller-horror part, it delivers shocks and jolts with the pitch-perfect timing. The characters are neither too shallow, nor too detailed. Some of the characters are well-sketched enough to fit into the plot. <Spoiler> The idea that the very first discovered extra-terrestrial bacteria should turn humans into zombies, is quite preposterous, not to mention a bit difficult to digest... </Spoiler>
The special effects are quite nice. The spaceship, the base and the rovers are depicted very nicely. Can't comment on the depiction of the Mars itself. Never been there, you know ;-P... But it looked too drab, like some desert on earth itself viewed through an orange red filter. Maybe the red planet is as arid and drab as depicted in the movie? Who knows? The sets and props of the insides of the rovers and the base are good enough enough. Some of the scenes shot through the dark, abandoned and wrecked corridors and rooms of the Base well shot enough to make one's hair stand on end.
Almost all the performances are good enough. Liev Schrieber, who plays the role of Vincent Campbell, steals the show. He fits the role of the reluctant protagonist like a glove on the hand - so much so that he almost defined the character by his performance. I also liked the performances of Olivia William (as Kim Aldrich, the scientist), Elias Koteas (as Brunel, the leader of the team) and Romola Garai (as Lane).
This is the second sci-fi movie of this year (2013), that I liked because it steers clear of unnecessary dramatics (the first one was Europa Report - which is a better movie than this one though). And therein lies its charm... It refrains from taking the well-trodden path of a typical action-packed horror-thriller in space. It keeps everything low-key. And yet manages to deliver thrills and jolts at exactly the right places and manages to maintain a steady pace. There is action, yes, but its pretty realistic. No extraordinary stunts. No super-human feats. And yet, it manages to entertain. In short the movie is very well executed and well directed.
In short, it is certainly worth a watch at least once.
My Rating: 2.5
After watching V/H/S, the first Horror Anthology in this series, I was a bit apprehensive about watching this one. Not only because such serial movies tend to become repetitive, losing the novelty of the first one. But also due to the fact that the first movie did not impress me so much. Yet, I decided to give this one a try. And I can't say I was disappointed. Not that this movie was very impressive or ground-breaking or anything. For it suffers from the same handicaps that the first movie did. But it also scores as good as the first one for exploring some original ideas.
Just like the first movie, this too is an anthology of horror short films, each one directed by a different director, and each one exploring an individual unrelated story. Each short film uses the now well-worn found-footage format. And one of the shorts is used as a frame narrative, which also acts as an individual story on its own.
The movie starts off with "Tape 49" directed by Simon Barrett. This one acts as a frame narrative, within which the other stories take place. It tells the story of a P.I. who has been commissioned by a college student's mother to investigate her son's disappearance. While searching through the abandoned and dark home of the college student, they stumble upon a series of VHS tapes. While the P.I. search the house, his colleague plays the tapes to get a clue as to the missing student's whereabouts. This frame narrative story is even more drab and mediocre than the frame narrative story of the first movie. It tries to explain how viewing the tapes can lead to disastrous circumstances (duh!). There are hardly any surprises and shocks. The story is uninspired. The direction appears awkward. On the whole, I personally did not like it very much.
The next story is "Phase I Clinical Trials" directed by Adam Wingard. There is one thing I really liked about the first movie. That is the use of various types of hidden cams, including a spy cam on eye-glasses. This movie takes a giant leap further in that regard. For example, in this story, the hidden camera is located within the eye-implant of the protagonist. Neat, huh!? A guy, who has nearly lost his vision of one of his eyes in an accident, is fitted with an artificial implant that will help him see again from his impaired eye. It is an experimental device and hence the company will be capturing the footage of whatever the man views through his eye and saving it for a few days, for testing purpose only. But guess what? The guy starts seeing people that aren't supposed to be there... The premise of the story is pretty interesting. Its jolts and shocks are effective enough. So is some of the explanation that comes forward in the form of a girl who comes to the protagonist's help. On the whole, this story was quite better as compared to the other stories in the lot...
The next one is "A Ride in the Park" directed by Eduardo Sánchez and Gregg Hale. It is a short story about horror that takes place inside some sort of national park. Its a zombie story (which is not surprising considering that the Z-word is the new magic buzz-word in Horror movies nowadays, isn't it?). There is one area in which this movie pushes the boundaries of the shaky camera genre even further - that area being, the placement of the camera. In this short story, the camera is located on the helmet of a cyclist who has turned into a zombie. Apart from this very novel idea and an excessive amount of blood, gore and disemboweled zombies, this short film doesn't have anything interesting.
The next one is "Safe Haven" directed by Timo Tjahjanto and Gareth Huw Evans. This one is Indonasian. It is also the longest story in the batch. And personally, I think it is the best one in the anthology. A news crew approaches the "father" of a reclusive religious cult. They are invited to interview him and visit the cult's abode. What they discover there makes a pretty interesting good old-fashioned traditional horror tale.
The last story is named "Slumber Party" directed by Jason Eisener. It is about a slumber party held by a bunch of kids at their home - an open property complete with a barn - near a big lake. There is sibling rivalry and fun and frolic. All is going well until they spot unusual lights on the lake. This one is the most uninteresting story of the lot. Except for one novel innovation. The hidden camera that captures most of the footage of the episode is mounted by one kid on the head of their pet dog!
This movie certainly scores points for pushing the frontiers of the shaky camera sub-genre beyond what its predecessor did. And it loses some points for a few script as well as directorial failures similar to ones evident in some of the stories from the first movie. It has a lot of unnecessary blood and gore and a couple of unnecessary sexually explicit scenes. But some of its stories are so good that they make it a worthwhile watch, at least once, if not more.
My Ratings: 2
No. This is not about the World's End. Or is it?
The World's End is a pub at the end of what the teenagers of Newton Haven call the Golden Mile - a pub crawl that covers 11 other pubs before terminating at this one. On the day of their graduation, Gary King and his 4 buddies decide to "conquer the Golden Mile", drinking a beer in each of the "twelve pubs along a legendary path of alcoholic indulgence"... They never manage to finish it...
That was 20 years back. Flash forward to the present. All the 4 friends are busy and settled down in their respective professions. And Gary King? He is institutionalized. Trying to come to terms with the disappointment and meaninglessness that life has become. But there is the business of the Golden Mile. The crawl they started but never finished. Unfinished business.
So Gary decides to go and finish it once and for all. But of course he cant do it without his 4 buddies. But its "Gary fucking King". The guy who, according to his best pal Andy, can do anything... So Gary visits each one of them. And using his obnoxious charm, manages to convince, persuade and at times emotionally blackmail them to join him in their 20 years old quest.
So the four friends find themselves back in Newton Haven, following the indomitable and insufferable Gary King. And while they are at it, they stumble upon a conspiracy that threatens to change their world...
This is one movie that, for me, defies classification. It is the concluding part of the famous Flavours Cornetto Trilogy (though, it is in no way related to either of the 2 predecessors). But unlike its prequels, it is not really a parody. It is a good comedy. At the same time it is quite an interesting piece of "social science fiction". It boasts some pretty cool action scenes. But best of all, it paints the characters of the 5 friends quite well. The shattered promise of youth, the nostalgic collective memories of a bunch of friends before life separated them, their trip down that memory lane, and their unresolved hopes, conflicts and desires. The movie manages to capture all this very nicely.
The script is well written. Much detailed and well crafted than either of the predecessors. Hats off to the Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg. Edgar Wright's direction is, as always, awesome - bearing the unique signature that anyone who has seen the other two movies in the trilogy would quickly recognize.
Simon Pegg plays the role of the cocky, obnoxious and gritty Gary King. That Simon Pegg is a great actor has been evident in the previous two movies from the trilogy. But this one exhibits equally great acting skills by Nick Frost. He plays the role of the adorable but grumpy Andy, Gary's best buddy. The rest of the actors have played their parts well too.
The movie picks up very nicely and never once slows down.
The dialogues are at times funny ("What the fuck is WTF?"), and witty ("He used to ask me what I wanted to do with my life.told him I just wanted to have a good time. He thought that was funny. It wasn't meant to be."), and at times serious enough to the point of being philosophical ("How can you tell when you're drunk if you're never sober"). Sometimes they are a commentary on us humans and our idiosyncrasies ("Your reliance on profanity is a measure of your immaturity as a man and a species.")... That's what I liked a lot about the script... It has a lot of substance to it.
The action is at times intense. As compared to the other two movies in the series, the action sequences in this one are very professionally shot. Many action movies rely on the shaking of the camera to portray intense action. This one avoid the shaky camerawork. Instead it portrays the fight sequences very lucidly and in detail. Its fun to watch, except if you can make yourself digest the fact that all the five protagonists who are bashing up so many people, are supposed to be in their middle ages, with no indication of their acquaintance to martial arts.
Compared to the other two movies in the trilogy, this one has the best climax. The climax of Hot Fuzz was, according to me, a serious botch up. The climax of Shaun of the Dead was simply mediocre. But the climax of this one is well executed. It wraps up the story to a very satisfying and logical conclusion.
The science fiction part of the movie does not necessarily consist of an original premise. But the idea is well executed. The main idea is to make a social commentary on the vagaries of the human race, while proclaiming our right to be free to mess up ourselves the way we please. Which the movie sets forth pretty effectively, using comedy or satire as a medium.
According to me, this one was the best one of the three movies that make up the Flavours Cornetto Trilogy. And its certainly worth a watch at least once.
My ratings: 3.5
For me it started with 28 Days Later. There was something about the idea of the world and the life as we know it, being shot to hell, that sucked me in... Empty streets, abandoned houses, crashed lonely vehicles, not a being in sight... And add to that, the danger of your fellow humans gone wild, crazy and, technically dead... Zombies out to get you on the mean streets of a deserted city, chasing you down dark corridors of apartment buildings... It was your worst nightmare come true...
I lapped them all up. Right from Rec and Rec 2 to I am Legend and Frank Darabont's Walking Dead TV Series. Some of them were groundbreaking and stunning. Many others were just copy-paste jobs with hardly any inspired or original contributions to the genre.
World War Z does expand the horizons of the Zombie genre by portraying the zombie apocalypse on a global scale. Its does for zombie movies what 2012 did for natural disaster movies.
It is the story of a former United Nations investigator who is out with his family when the streets around him abruptly erupt into chaos. He manages to flee with his wife and two daughters as they try to survive the sudden outbreak of a rabies like disease (what a cliché) that turns a human bitten by an infected one into a frenzied biting zombie within seconds. He gets help and shelter from his former boss, a high-ranking official in the UN. His family is safe for now, but on one condition. He is reluctantly entrusted the task of accompanying a virologist and a team of soldiers, as the venture out into the midst of danger and chaos, in search for the origins of the disease, hoping to find a cure. Thus starts his perilous journey which will take him round the globe, in search for a possible cure to this apocalyptic disease.
Seriously speaking, story and concept-wise, there is hardly anything original about this one. Some of the ideas are almost preposterous. The plot and the story are too over-dramatic and unrealistic. And yet there are two things that make this movie worth watching at least once. Awesome visuals and breathtaking action sequences.
It portrays the zombie outbreak pretty nicely. Throngs upon throngs of frenzied infected zombies fill up the screen like hundreds of ants. The action is intense. The story roars ahead at breakneck speed, hardly allowing the viewer a moment to mull upon the ridiculousness of some of the ideas. Arial views of fallen cities and zombie-infested landscapes are visually stunning. An international cast of actors that ensure good acting that went waste thanks to an over-dramatic script.
If you don't mind switching off your brain and watching the movie for pure entertainment's sake, then you are in for a pretty intense joy ride. For me, the movie earns no points for realism and originality. But it succeeds to entertain pretty well.
My Rating: 2.0
Some Sci-Fi movies are about ideas and the science of the future. Some, or rather most of them are about high-tech action based in the future. This movie is about the the pursuit of discovery, and how far can a team of humans go, in order to make that discovery...
I am a sucker for Sci-Fi movies. The ideas and the science in them appeal to me. While trawling through the net for prospective Sci-Fi movies of this year, the name "Europa Report" caught my attention. The title itself sounded so appealing. I have always been fascinated by Europa. With its shiny white surface covered with red patches and what looks like scratch marks, I find it most intriguing among the four famous "Galilean Moons" of Jupiter (so named because they were first discovered by Galileo). So I dived in without even looking up its trailer...
When the movie started, I was a bit disappointed to know that it used the Found Footage format, making use of footage from various stationary and hand-held cameras to tell the story. I have seen one found footage Sci-Fi movie before - Apollo 18, and I was a bit disappointed by it. No doubt it had its share of thrills and suspense, which are a hallmark of any good Found Footage movie. But the basic premise, the idea behind the story did not appeal to me at all. Plus, Sci-Fi movies are a lot about eye-candy - VFX, beautiful outer-space locales, a spanning panorama of stars, fancy space-ships, the works... And one can't expect good VFX in the found footage format because of the stationary camera and its comparatively mediocre ability to capture good visuals.
But by the time the movie ended, it left me feeling mildly enthralled. The movie's story had managed to invoke in me the awe and wonder I had felt as a youngster, every time I would let my imagination soar at the prospect of travelling through space, wondered what we would find out there...
The movie does not weigh itself down with an over-ambitious scientific idea. Its premise is quite simple. A team of six astronauts embark on a voyage through interplanetary space to Europa - one of the moons of Jupiter. Their mission: to search for signs of life under Europa's crust of ice.
The mission is being sponsored and executed by Europa Ventures, a private firm. For a welcome change, NASA is nowhere involved - its a privately funded mission. The footage from the various cameras on board the spaceship are being broadcast back to earth.
The first half depicts their journey through the vast chasm of space that lies between the planets. The movie captures well the enthusiasm of the crew. And its infectious. After all, they are going farther than any Man has ever gone before. But like any ground-breaking voyages, this one is full of perils. The first disaster strikes, when halfway through, they loose all communications. While trying to repair the comm modules, one of the crew members is lost. All the exhilaration of the unique voyage suddenly dies out. The harsh reality of the perilous nature of the voyage suddenly dawns upon them all. But this will not be the last disaster they face... The stakes are high, for, if successful, they believe that their discovery could prove to be a most profound one in Human history. So they press on. How the crew members face one difficulty after another, and how they press on against all odds, and the sacrifices they make in pursuit of their discovery, is what fuels the rest of the story.
The found footage format does put a damper on what could have been a very good movie experience. But there are moments in the movie which not only justify the found footage format, but actually take advantage of it to give an entertaining movie experience. For example, this is one of the very few rare Sci-Fi movies which explains and portrays the use of centrifugal force to generate artificial gravity in zero-G. Its a nice little scene where a guy is shooting a personal tour of the ship for his kid. The guy hands the camera to his colleague, and then climbs the stairs from the ground (which is the inner surface of the rotating ship) towards its center of the ship, and as he ascends, he begins to float. And while he floats, we can see beyond (or above?) him, another astronaut descending (going upwards in reverse) at the opposite end of the ship.
There are moments when the found footage format does get on the nerves though. And it doesn't help that during the first half, the story keeps toggling to and fro between flash-back and flash-forward, giving us a sneak-peek of impending disaster. It gets a bit confusing at times. One has to concentrate on the timeline displayed in months : days : hours format every time the story switches back or forward in time.
If you have seen the movie Mission to Mars, then you will recognize the similarity of the plots. To be frank, Mission to Mars scores over Europa Report, because it was shot in normal format. So it was able to render some really awesome sequences (the space walk rescue attempt is one of my most favourite sequences in that movie). But it loses to Europa Report in one aspect. Its climax was too over-done for my taste. But Europa Report has managed to maintain rationality in its somewhat action-wise subdued but utterly realistic and believable climax. And in the end, it does manage to answer a question raised within the movie itself: "Compared to the breadth of knowledge yet to be known, what does your life actually matter?"
On the whole a really nice Sci-Fi flick. Worth watching at least once...
My Rating: 3.5
After watching Children of Men directed by Alfonso Cuarón, I was eager to watch his newest release Gravity. And the wait was worth it!
For a movie named 'Gravity', most of it takes place in an absence of it. Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are a part of a team of astronauts on a mission to do some repair-work on the famous Hubble Space telescope, when disaster strikes. Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are the only survivors. And in the cold, dark and empty loneliness of Space, with communications and vital instruments down, they have to battle against seemingly insurmountable odds to survive and get back to Earth.
If I were to describe the movie in minimum amount of words, I would call it "visually stunning". I am glad I watched it in 3D. People associate 3D with action scenes where fast moving things hurtling towards the camera appear as if they are actually coming straight at you. I was under the same misconception until I saw the movie Sanctum in 3D. Much of that movie is shot within caves and under water, where most of the scenes have a dark background. This makes the feebly illuminated portions stand out. And it looks even better in 3D, where the contours appear so well-defined. The lights playing over the huge caverns, or on the surface of the water way above (when the camera is under water), or on the bubbles floating around, look almost magical in their clarity, thanks to the 3D effects. Same is the case with Gravity.
In Space, everything is either dark, or very brightly illuminated by the naked sun rays. This contrasting interplay of light and darkness makes things stand out very nicely in 3D. Most of the movie takes place in orbit around the Earth. The slow graceful movements of the astronauts in space is captured very nicely. So are the various objects, large and small, floating around in empty space. It all adds up to a very stunning visual experience.
The views of the Earth as the backdrop, from far above in orbit are stunning. So is the depiction of the space shuttle and the ISS. The movie depicts the rare beauty of the Earth and the nature from space, even as the tense story-line moves from one catastrophe to the other.
In spite of being a Sci-Fi movie, it does not have your distant planets, fancy star-ships, aliens or super-advanced technology. The director has tried to keep it as near to the present-day science as possible. Though I am not sure how much of the science portrayed in the movie is realistic or actually plausible, it does not seem improbable to the layman. The harsh and dangerous environment of space is the villain and the indomitable human spirit to survive against all odds is the true hero of the movie.
For most of its part, the story hurtles along at break-neck speed. It does slow down a bit in the second half, which many of you might find a bit boring. But its worth the wait as the story once again picks up speed as it approaches the climax.
The characters of both the protagonists are neither too shallow, nor overly well-defined. But at least they are sketched realistically. Both Sandra Bullock and George Clooney do justice to the characters with their great acting skills. Sandra Bullock's acting is especially nice.
The story is not as complex as some other Space disaster-survival movies like Apollo 13. But the visual effects are ground-breaking and worth the money.
My Ratings: 3.5
Right from the time shaky camera / found footage genre captured my imagination after watching Paranormal Activity and Rec, I have searched for and viewed quite a lot of similar movies. Some were mediocre. Many were disappointing. After a while, it just becomes s.o.s (same old story). Boring and repetitive.
But sometimes, a movie comes along, that does something different with a worn out formula, and leaves a mark on your memory. One such movie was The Last Exorcism... When I read that the movie used shaky camera technique, my first impression was: "Paranormal Activity meets The Exorcist"... Which proved wrong.
To be frank, the movie does not have anything new to add to the well worn shaky camera technique. The acting is strictly ok. So is the direction. But the real winner was the story. I will not disclose exactly why, except for stating that its a pretty rational take on the ritual of exorcism. The only thing that one might not like is the twist ending that might leave a bitter aftertaste for the rational viewer. Personally, I enjoyed the end as well.
My rating (for "The Last Exorcism"): 3.5
And then I stumbled across a sequel to this nice flick. I was surprised, because as far as I could tell, there was nothing left in the climax of the first movie to warrant a sequel. Maybe it won't be the continuation of the same story. But a different story with different characters but same central theme? I was wrong...
If you enjoyed the first movie, and expect something similar, you will be disappointed. First of all, the sequel veers away from the shaky camera technique used in the first movie. It has your traditional movie camera work. Secondly, it continues the story from the first part, which by all means should have ended right there in the first part itself. And thirdly, the theme of the story is entirely different from the brilliant theme of the first part. So by all counts, the sequel is a disappointing flick.
But why do I mention it here? Because there are two things that make the movie stand out.
First is the brilliant direction and camera-work. Its pretty neat for a horror flick. They have made good use of the light and the settings instead of excessive and unnecessary use of CG. The direction is nice too. Throughout the movie, they have managed to maintain the pace. Instead of using blood-and-gore or horror, the movie creates an unsettling atmosphere, which manages to satisfy the hunger of the horror movie fan.
Second thing worth mentioning in this movie is the acting of Ashley Bell who enacts the lead protagonist. Sometimes a bit overdone, her acting still manages to seem very convincing and professional. She certainly has good acting potential and I hope she does not get stereotyped for these kind of roles only.
But both of these good attributes cannot hide the disappointing fact that the story of the sequel is really below average. Yet these two points make it worth watching once, if not more.
The movie ends with an opening for yet another sequel. But I seriously hope they don't go for it. As it is, the current sequel was stretching it a bit too far. Stretch it more, and the rubber-band will break...
My ratings (for the sequel "The Last Exorcism II"): 2.5
It was the name that captured my attention first. Ship of Theseus. Sounds like a sci-fi movie. And I am a diehard scifi fan. So when my friend sent me the link to its trailer, I watched it enthusiastically. But the trailer turned out to be anything but scifi... Not that i was disappointed. For there were scenes and dialogs in the trailer that promised a 'hatke' movie experience - something unfortunately difficult to come by in Hindi or indian-made English movies.
My curiosity was piqued. So this rainy and traffic-ridden Saturday (20 May 2013) found me sitting in the PVR Theatre reading the meaning behind the title of the film.
For that's how the movie starts. It displays what exactly the Ship of Theseus means. Its a pretty interesting premise. If you plan to watch the movie, then don't skip this start. Otherwise the basic concept behind the movie and why its named this way, will be lost on you.
If you have seen the trailer you will know that the film has at least 3 central characters. The film gives us a glimpse into the life of each of these characters. Each story is different and unconnected. These 3 stories form 3 different parts of the film. Each narrated at a stretch from an unspecific start to an apparently incomplete ending. There is no visual cue to indicate an end of one story and the start of another. Suddenly the scene changes, the characters and the settings change and the viewer is plunged straight into the next story without warning.
The first story is of a lady suffering from cornial infection. So for all practical purposes she is blind. And guess what she does for a hobby? Photography... Its interesting, even inspiring to see her capturing pictures in spite of her disability. But in some scenes, the movie drags a little. At least I found it a bit slow-going. People having interest in photography and a deeper empathy would find it more interesting than I did.
The next story is about a monk. Frankly speaking, it was this character that I found most fascinating when I watched the trailer. And certainly it was fascinating at the start. There are a lot of philosophical ideas, discussions and debates thrown around during this story. But after a while it became too much for my mind to grasp it all and process it. I was there with 2 friends. One dozed off during this part while the other found it pretty thought-provoking (to quote in his own words he had "goosebumps" and his "mind was numb"). Me, I thought there was a lot of 'intellectual masturbation' (to borrow the term used in the movie itself) going on. But it left me with no release and a mild case of intellectual blue balls.
I finally found my intellectual release in the 3rd story. It was funny and serious, thought provoking and entertaining, unbelievable yet realistic... Everything a good movie should be...
And then there was the climax. It was cherry on top of this tri-layered cake. An expected yet perfect surprise ending that wraps it all up pretty neatly. After the climax, all the 3 apparently incomplete stories become complete.
The movie is full of some pretty serious speculations. It raises some very serious questions. And it tried to give some very important messages. The cinematography is awesome. Some of the scenes are breath-taking. Without much use of CGI or SFX or fancy sets, they have made good use of the real-life surroundings and natural light very effectively. And my friend tells me it was shot entirely using a DSLR camera! The lead actors have done some pretty decent acting. But kudos to the writer-director, for coming up with such thought provoking stories, sketching such believable and well-defined characters and yet managing to keep it all entertaining...
It is not a commercial movie. If you are looking for mere entertainment, please find it else where. But if you like some good thought provoking and eye opener unusual film, then go for this one...
My rating: 3.5
