Zero Review

Zero was one of the most awaited and ambitious movie of Shah Rukh Khan specially after the debacle of his last movie Jab Harry Met Sejal. I have tried to review this movie objectively but still being a huge Shah Rukh fan I will not be able to detach myself from the fandom of Shah Rukh. Thus if I sing praises of the movie in any way it is because of my love for Shah Rukh Khan. So lets get started.

Zero is a movie which tries to explore many emotions and how different events change a person. With this objective the movie tries many things without properly laying down the reasons for why the events are happening. Thus the audience is left confused as to what is happening on screen and why? The first half of the movie with its rustic feel is good and pacy in parts. The high point of the first half is the song sequence of Mere Naam Tu where Shah Rukh is seen in his romantic avatar. Nothing else comes close to that in the movie. However the second half is the real letdown. The first half hour of the second half promises to be interesting but then with weird twists and turns the movie ends up being a combination of love story and science fiction movie. Thus if you look at the whole movie you are really confused about what the director wanted to convey with the movie. There does not seem to be a central plot which baffles me. If the plot is that a Zero becomes a Hero, it does not come out clearly. If anyone can find out what the real plot is, please let me know.

This movie has good acting from all the actors. While Shah Rukh Khan shines through the movie as Bauua Singh, the midget, Anushka Sharma does a good job at depicting the emotions for a person with Cerebral Palsy and Katrina Kaif is fabulous as a celebrity who has just had a break-up. Even the supporting cast of Tigmanshu Dhulia and Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub has done a fantastic job at making the audience laugh at their scenes.

Anand L. Rai seems to have done a mixed job at directing this movie. While the first half is directed well the second half because of its confusing plot does not seem to have any direction at all, thus reflecting poorly on the director. Even his movie Ranjhana seemed to have suffered from the same confusing second half, though it was better than that of Zero. It is always difficult to direct a movie with a poor script and it can be seen that the poor script has crept into his direction.

Overall if you are a Shah Rukh fan you must go on and see the movie. But I guess since I am writing this review a week late you must have already seen it. For the others, you can go for the good acting from all the actors and a good first half.

Rating - 2.5 / 5 (I was thinking of giving the movie a 3, but the confusing second half made me give this movie .5 lesser)

Aquaman Review

Aquaman was one of the most awaited movies from the DCEU and many expectations were riding on it, as far as the fate of DCEU is concerned. The movie finally released in India on 14th December 2018, a week ahead of the US release, and here are my views on the movie.

If I am to compare Aquaman to the other DCEU movies, it is not as good as Wonder Woman, but certainly better than all the other DCEU movies - Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad and Justice League. Now that we have established how the movie ranks in the DCEU, lets look at what works and what doesn't work for the movie. The movie does a pretty good job at telling the audience what Aquaman can do and what are his superpowers, which was mostly a mystery in his last movie - Justice League. The movie moves along at a fast pace for most parts, but it does slow down at some places. Some crisper editing would have helped the movie become better. Being a superhero movie, this movie has a lot of CGI and VFX shots, which are very good at bringing the underwater world to life. However at places they look tacky and you can easily figure out that the action on screen is pure CGI, which should not be the case. The story is good but at times the action on screen doesn't seem very compelling. Even though we know that the world is in danger, but the audience does not sense the danger, as they very well know the hero is going to save the day. The writing could certainly have been improved to get the audience more involved with the plot.

Jason Momoa as Aquaman certainly steals the show here as he looks and acts like the superhero very well. He is undoubtedly the star of this movie. Patrick Wilson as Orm, is good and he leaves impact as the movie's main villain. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Black Manta is very good and should have been given a longer role. However he will be an antagonist in future DCEU movies as per proof in the mid credit scene, and thus waiting to watch how he will be used in future. All the other actors including Amber Heard, Willem Dafoe and Nicole Kidman are fine in their roles.

James Wan has done a good job at resurrecting DCEU and his good direction is visible through most of the movie. However a sub par script hasn't helped his cause. We have previously seen him direct some very good horror stories. He should have included some horror and thriller elements in this movie as well to make it more exciting.

One of the good things about this movie are its action sequences and the action choreography. The first action scene with Nicole Kidman is perhaps the best action choreography seen in this movie. The chase sequence where the Atlanteans and Black Manta are chasing Aquaman and Mera is also very good and innovative. Thus full marks to the action team here. However the action and direction at other places could have been improved.

Overall the movie is certainly watchable. But does it guarantee a second watch - I don't think so. So go ahead and watch this movie with your loves ones this holiday season.

Rating - 3.5 / 5

2.0 Review

2.0, called as the Spritual Sequel to Shankar's 2010 movie Robot, has finally been released worldwide. Fortunately I got the chance to watch the movie in the first weekend of its release, and I have mixed feelings about the movie.

2.0 has been made on a larger than life scale with a budget going around Rs. 550 crore, which was unthinkable for an Indian movie. Lets first talk about the positives. The biggest positive of the movie are its Visual Effects. It can be seen that enormous amount of work has gone into the Visual Effects of this movie as they are just spectacular, when you consider that it is an Indian movie. The VFX are the best yet for an Indian movie, however they still fall short of Hollywood, mainly because of budget constraints. This is the one thing that raises the bar of this movie. Another thing that goes for this movie is Rajnikanth. He shines through the movie along with Akshay Kumar and makes the movie enjoyable. The third positive point, and this is something that I give credit to Shankar for his movies, is the importance he gives to women's roles. Amy Jackson has got a large enough role and she does not go unnoticed. And it is also perfect casting, as she didn't have to emote for the role. 

Now coming to the negatives. The biggest negative point is the script of the movie, The makers were so engrossed in the getting the visual effects right that they forgot to pay attention to the movie's script. There is not much character development because of which character deaths do not shock us. And finally when the reason for all the deaths and devastation is revealed, it does not seem very plausible. Even the concept of how the movie's villain was formed is not very convincing and raises a lot of questions. The second negative is how the visual effects have been handled and included in the movie. While Hollywood has learnt the art of using VFX as a support to tell their stories without losing out on the human element of their stories, 2.0 fails in this effort. The VFX in this movie seem to have become more important than the story itself and instead of helping the story move forward they take the center stage. Indian movies need to learn to marry VFX with a movie's story. Unless they do that this problem will remain. The third negative is that most of the movie's focus is on Rajnikanth and his avatars, which relegates the others, including Akshay Kumar, into secondary characters. In total there are only 4 characters who are central to the plot (to of them being Rajnikanth himself), which is very low considering the scale and story of this movie. Development of higher number of important characters would have lent more credibility to the story, an example being the Bahubali movies.

On the acting front not much can be said as you can see only Rajnikanth throughout the movie, who has done a decent job in bringing out the various avatars. Amy Jackson has been cast perfectly as a robot and as it did not require much emotions and acting. Akshay Kumar though looks good in some parts, seems to be hamming in most of the action sequences involving him. Acting wise there is nothing to see in the movie.

Shankar is truly a phenomenal director who has time and again shown the grip he has on his art with slick movies. However with this movie, it seems he was more interested in showcasing the VFX quality and thus fails to bring the same quality in his direction. However he has been able to bring his vision to life and that is one heck of a work done. Full marks to the director for his vision.

Thankfully there are not too many songs in the movie and those which are there help in moving the story forward. Thus the songs are welcome in this movie. The movie's background score is also good and brings out the mood of the movie.

Overall this is one of the most ambitious projects ever attempted in Indian movie industry and all Sci-Fi fans should go and watch this visual extravaganza.

Rating - 3.5 / 5 (.5 extra for breakthrough VFX)