Kraven

Posted on August 27, 2025 by Tennyson

Vampire Owl: This is not the kind if superhero that we were looking for.

Vampire Bat: I am pretty sure that this is an anti-hero.

Vampire Owl: All vigilantes are not really anti-heroes.

Vampire Bat: Well, this one seems to have less heroism than others.

Vampire Owl: Sometimes villains are the true heroes.

Vampire Bat: You are talking about Thanos, aren’t you?

Vampire Owl: I always wished that they ended the series with The Avengers: Infinity War.

Vampire Bat: I also agree that a dead character should stay dead.

Vampire Owl: Well, death is only the beginning.

Vampire Bat: Yes, as far as the dead keep rising.

[Gets a vanilla shake and three cups of iced tea].

What is the movie about? :: Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe) is a much-feared drug lord and crime boss, and he moves to Ghana with his sons after the death of his wife, only to have his sons attacked by a lion and one of them even leaves him after seeing that his father brutally killed the animal. The family feels broken down, but the younger son stays with the father, whom considers him to be too weak to continue his legacy. The elder son Sergei Kravinoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) goes on to become Kraven the Hunter, an entity whose real identity is known. The younger son Dmitri Kravinoff (Fred Hechinger) lives with his father, but has no part in his crime business. Sergei goes on as a vigilante who hunts criminals. After assassinating an arms trafficker in a Russian prison, and following it up with a few others, he travels to London for Dmitri’s birthday where there is a family reunion including the father. But their reunion is short-lived, as mercenaries abduct Dmitri despite the best efforts of the big brother to stop the effort.

So, what happens with the events here as we just keep looking? :: The man who was behind this kidnapping, Aleksei Sytsevich (Alessandro Nivola) has been an opponent of Nikolai. He also has the strength of a rhinoceros along with its skin, after an experiment which was conducted a few years ago. Aleksei proposes an alliance with the brothers to overthrow Nikolai, and after agreeing to this, he says that they would be partners. As there seems to be no solution, Aleksei lures him to a monastery in Turkey, but the ambush is not successful. Aleksei hires the Foreigner (Christopher Abbott), a hypnotic assassin to kill him. Sergei’s only support it Calypso Ezili (Ariana DeBose), a lady who had also helped him earlier to survive when he was attacked by the lion as a child. Now, it remains to be seen if a deal or a raid could be done, as Nikolai is not ready to pay the kidnapper. Still, it is to be seen if the assassin would kill Sergei even before that. He finds himself searching without results, but some result is sure to come soon.

The defence of Kraven the Hunter :: There is the usual anti-hero dose being provided here, and there is a look at the environmental concern and the love for animals, as if an emergency of our times. The action scenes in the forest and grasslands bring a certain amount of variety here and there. A connection between the wild and the domestic is established easily. The actors seem to very much capable of working through the side of action, and the anti-hero side is indeed well-maintained here. The fights do feel more raw than stylish, and that often comes as a welcome change. The mystical elements do run through here. The antagonist is indeed strong, and there is more than one that goes with the title, all of them strong enough to make an impact. There is a lot of idea left for a possible sequel, as the ending seems to suggest more to come, and there is surely some mystery to be solved later. The anti-hero elements do work better than what Deadpool has been turning out to be with its ridiculous nonsense.

The claws of flaw :: The movie never manages to raise its level that much as it keeps moving through the safe zone and keep it even safer. In this world of too many superheroes, some risk needed to be taken in the right way to bring variety through innovation and not through strange representation and change of races and ethnicities. The movie also struggles with its special effects, and even its antagonist could have scored further with better computer-generated imagery. There should have been some Spider-Man connection made here, and without that presence even in the end credits, we struggle to believe in the seriousness here. The negative opinions about Madame Web might affected this one too, as the world of spiders surely seems to be in a crippling state – we miss The Amazing Spider-Man more than ever. There are complications about his position in this world, and the lack of clarity regarding his powers would mean more confusion – well, it is that kind of a family where everyone seems like an anti-hero or a villain and we do wonder about the situation being like this with just a hunter around.

The performers of the soul :: Aaron Taylor-Johnson leads the way pretty well as the anti-hero who goes on hunting without remorse, as he chooses the worst people. There might be the question if someone bigger would have been there, but this would feel good enough due to his dedicated work. Even though Ariana DeBose as Calypso Ezili manages pretty well, Diaana Babnicova who played the younger version seemed to match the character the best, and a deviation from the past is visible around there. Alessandro Nivola makes a fine antagonist, and even with lesser graphics and special effects, he is indeed a menacing villain and a match for the protagonist. Christopher Abbott plays the other villain, and the menace should have been given more time as we look at it. About Russell Crowe, we see a certain amount of grey side here, and it is also something to remember as we move away from this movie. Fred Hechinger who made a point will surely have more to make in the sequel as we notice the ending moments.

How it finishes :: Kraven the Hunter adds to that list of lesser-known anti-heroes, even though it might never be as popular as Venom and Deadpool who became the main characters out of Spider-Man and Wolverine. This is that movie which seemed to have been missed by too many people around here. Unlike those earlier superhero movies, this one is the flick which came with no hype at all, and most people also failed to realize that this one existed in the theatres nearby. They would expect many things here, but they would no not much about him, as this man is no hero that the people in this part of the world have ever known. All these are happening in a timeline where fine superhero movies like Minnal Murali and Gundala and brought about by those industries which have not been known for creating this kind of a universe. With that long comic support, it is surprising that people of Spidey are struggling to make an impact. I would for a better work with a sequel even though this one did work well enough.

Release date: 13h December 2024
Running time: 127 minutes
Directed by: J C Chandor
Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola, Christopher Abbott, Russell Crowe

<<< Click here to go to the previous review.

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Nosferatu

Posted on June 25, 2025 by Tennyson

Vampire Owl: Finally, our Count is coming back to the big screen.

Vampire Bat: This one is not really the true Dracula Uncle.

Vampire Owl: Well, Count Orlok is not lesser than Count Dracula.

Vampire Bat: I have heard from humans that this Orlok is an illegal version.

Vampire Owl: Well, there are no such rules in vampire kingdom, right?

Vampire Bat: Human rules need not apply here, but we should know.

Vampire Owl: We will never really know the humans.

Vampire Bat: We will know everything except their inherent evil.

Vampire Owl: Well, which is why we do not transform humans into vampires anymore.

Vampire Bat: I am sure that they want to; the greed for eternal life and perpetual youth.

[Gets a tea cake and three cups of Ooty tea].

What is the movie about? :: Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp) is a recently married young woman who has had too many nightmares in her life in the past, and it is revealed that her recent bad dream about being married to death and everyone around her dead. It is revealed that while looking for consolation from her loneliness and depression in life, during her random chants and prayers, she had ended up creating a psychic link with Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård), or what they villagers of Romania used to call Nosferatu, with Romanian roots. The nocturnal creature of pure evil had marked Ellen from thousands of kilometres away, and this connection often led her into situations of seizures and sleepwalking. She keeps having hallucinations and a feeling of being with death, from which escape seems almost impossible. She has been living in the German town of Wisborg with her husband Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) and is irreversibly in love with him as it seems, but this connection seems to have journeyed through the unimaginable, the darkest of the woods and deepest of the rivers and lakes.

So, what happens with the events here as we just keep looking? :: It is then that Thomas accepts the offer to sell the partially ruined Grünewald Manor to a reclusive lord named Count Orlok located somewhere in Romania. Ellen talks about her nightmares and pleads Thomas not to leave for those unknown lands where a certain cursed evil lurks, but the offer from his employer is too much for him not to accept this opportunity of a life time. He leaves her in the care of his wealthy friend and famous shipbuilder Friedrich Harding (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his wife Anna Harding (Emma Corrin) who lives with their two little daughters. As he arrives at the Carpathians in the Transylvanian area of Romania, Thomas is warned not to wander around during the nights and not to visit Orlok. During the same night, he still wanders around and witnesses a group of gypsies running a ritual with a fully naked woman on a horse which ends with the exhuming and impaling a vampire’s corpse with a wooden stake, ending the undead life with a lot of blood coming out of its mouth. The next morning, he finds no help or support, and leaves for the count’s castle alone and on foot.

And what is to follow as the Count maintains all the control over the world known to him? :: In his castle, Count Orlok welcomed Thomas as the aristocrat that required respect at all times. But soon, his existence as something more than human is revealed to Thomas, who hopes to escape, but the paths of the castle only lead to the crypt where the count is sleeping in his coffin, and he is not able to attack him as the vampire awakens, and so do his demonic hounds. He understands that he will have to remain a prisoner in the castle forever, as the document which the count made him sign might not be the Romanian version of the deal concerning the property, but a document dissolving his marriage to Ellen and the vampire had also taken his locket, containing a lock of her hair. He understands the vampire is going after his wife, and jumps into the river below the castle to escape. But the count has already started his journey and has infested a ship which is on its way to Germany. He will not stop at anything unless he becomes together with Ellen. Can anyone stop this evil from embracing her and also spread through the whole of Western Europe? Or will the blood-seeking demon have a blood feast that will last forever?

The defence of Nosferatu :: The movie achieves atmospheric horror and thrives with the sound effects as much as the visuals. There is fear running through the air, as we rarely see a world thriving on light here. The psychological side very strong here, and the performance of Lily-Rose Depp is truly magical here, with so many moments to remember, and the final few moments of her is out of this world. I cannot stop myself from not being the new admirer of Johnny Depp’s daughter as I have been a fan of him. I can say that I have never seen the main female character of any version of Bram Stoker’s work getting such attention which is supported by a performance of grandeur. The connection to the demonic creature and talk about all of this terror has never been so perfectly detailed and connected to the female lead. Nicholas Hoult and Willem Dafoe works the roles just as expected, while Bill Skarsgård’s demon is something we have not seen before, well divergent in looks and actions to create more terror. Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Emma Corin move through expected paths. These are not just characters, but people who immerse us in their wisely created world with fine performances.

Positives and negatives :: It can be said that there is no movie based on Bram Stoker’s work that has provided an emotional and haunting touch like this one, and a terrifying vampire movie becoming an emotional tale of love and selflessness keeps us rooting for the film even more, like never before. The movie basically like music which strives for a fight against the most terrifying form of evil with love. By the end, here we know that as evil always finds a way, so does goodness and self-sacrifice. Finally, we know that the melancholy of the main character is not hers alone, but of all of us. It is a poetry on what it takes to thrive against the most ancient forms of evil. The sequence in the forest makes a fine reflection which is to come, and there are some classic shots in the castle that elevates this movie to a psychic-psychological mood which is rarely seen in the adaptations. The final image from where the camera zooms out reflects the same, and that too with a melancholic beauty. There is also some work with demonic possession, which is actually shown without any overdose. This is indeed a fine Gothic work that reflects the Victorian Age even when not in Britain. The one thing that we might really be missing is the Brides of Dracula.

How it finishes :: This is the one movie which becomes a fine divergent tribute to both the 1922 version of Nosferatu and the many later versions of Dracula as well as the original book, along with being a different entity in itself. There seems to be so many inspirations, and many creative ideas placed around here. This version is sure to be remembered as a classic in future, no matter problems critics would find, which would be lost in the process. This version might be the one which needs even more attention than what it has managed. This is that version of the vampire that maintains all kinds of feeling which are related to a vampire as a nocturnal creature that feeds from the lifeforce of humans. There are not many movies which can pay homage to so many of its predecessors and still remain something new. This one, with some fantastic performance and an atmosphere which would put even the high-budget movies to shame, manages to rise and seek theatre experience – it is quite depressing that the movie was not really found in theatres when it released.

Release date: 25th December 2024
Running time: 132 minutes
Directed by: Robert Eggers
Starring: Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Willem Dafoe, Katerina Bila

<<< Click here to go to the previous review.

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Nocturnal Animals

Posted on May 1, 2017 by Tennyson

What is the movie about? :: Susan Morrow (Amy Adams) receives the manuscript of a novel written by her former husband Edward Sheffield (Jake Gyllenhaal). It is named Nocturnal Animals after Edward’s special nickname for Susan. After an art gallery show, and while going through a flawed marriage to an unfaithful man and a busy businessman who doesn’t have much for, Hutton Morrow (Armie Hammer), she is disturbed and has almost no sleep during the nights. In a world which seems to have nothing much to her, she hopes for change, and it is brought to her by this book dedicated to her. She becomes completely immersed in the novel, and that also brings back the memories of her with Edward, a relationship which she once considered to be full of love.

The story of the novel :: The novel titled Nocturnal Animals tells the story of a man named Tony Hastings (Jake Gyllenhaal) who leads a family of three, including his wife and daughter. He is a calm and peaceful man who comes across three local criminals, Ray (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), Lou (Karl Glusman), and Turk (Robert Aramayo ) during a long trip with his family through the countryside during late night. There is no real reason, but still a confrontation occurs between them and Tony, and his wife Laura (Isla Fisher) and their daughter India (Ellie Bamber) are kidnapped by the young men looking for trouble. Tony is unable to do anything to stop the three men, and somehow manages to get to a nearby farmhouse to call the police for help.

How the novel continues with its tale :: Detective Bobby Andes (Michael Shannon) is assigned to the case of missing women, and as a dedicated officer, begins the investigation rgiht away. There is no clue about the criminals in the beginning, but the corpses of Laura and India are found inside an abandoned building. Tony is angry and frustrated with his inability to protect his loved ones and wishes for vengeance. But soon, he will have his chance, as Bobby is also looking forward to bringing the criminals to justice with what might be his final case. Still, there might not be enough evidence to frame all three of them, and they wonder if the best chance here is to take the law into their hands – but are they ready for the same?

The defence of Nocturnal Animals :: There is beauty and intensity in the way in which this tale is presented to the audience – we get to go through both the tales which are not directly connected to each other, even though deep inside, the same feeling runs through. The incidents in the story within the story is also a reflection of the happenings of the other, as the protagonist losses his wife as well as the child who was aborted, due to his own inability to stop the process, even as he feels that he really could have. It is loss of love and the never ending suffering that is shown in both tales, one violent as it is shown clearly as a simple tale of loss and vengeance, and the other deeply moving inside even though shown less outside.

The claws of flaw :: Nocturnal Animals is surely not a movie for everyone, as it can easily make people stop watching it very early itself. You might feel the need in the opening sequence itself, and it also remains slow for some more time – but surviving these moments is necessary to feel what comes after them, and as we get further in, we understand that this is one of the most different tales of people of our time, and there is a clear reflection of how bad the relationships can go, as what one thinks as love is not always the same, and infatuation and the pretension of love is never really the same as what goes underneath. It is up-to the viewer to get into this movie, and also go deep into its two tales to make things work. It is that kind of a movie which will work the best as long as you keep thinking and connecting all things together. Nocturnal Animals is for the kind of people who connect well, and feel the connection deeply.

Performers of the soul :: Among the cast, it is Amy Adams’ performance that strikes the viewers first, as she is indeed the protagonist of the real world, while Jake Gyllenhaal strikes us hard from the imaginary world inside the novel, which also doesn’t feel less real. After Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and before the upcoming Justice League, Amy has one other movie, Arrival, and combined with Nocturnal Animals, make her the one performer to look out for from the last year. It is the character’s fears and insecurities that get best shown here, especially that of turning into her own mother. We know what Jake Gyllenhaal is capable of, and his character goes through suffering not just in the imaginary world, but also in the real one – we remember Enemy too, don’t we? Michael Shannon’s nomination for Best Supporting Actor at 89th Academy Awards and the same for Taylor-Johnson at BAFTA comes as no surprise either.

How it finishes :: Nocturnal Animals is the kind of movie that would have required a lot of skill to bring it through to the audience, and if we think more about the same, a certain amount of skill is required not just on one side, but also on two. It tells us that love is not love just because you had an infatuation during your youth – it is about responsibility, and about being there when the other person needs you the most. You don’t really fall in love just because you think that you do – then you do that with different people too often. It is a lesson that the new generation needs when they are in love just by seeing one side of the one that they love – it is never going to last long, and after knowing that the person who loved might not be the same as the one who is in the marriage, where does the love before marriage stand? So, is it better to start falling in love after marriage? Well, Nocturnal Animals brings different things to ponder about for different people it is that kind of a flick with raw emotions.

Release date: 18th November 2016
Running time: 116 minutes
Directed by: Tom Ford
Starring: Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Isla Fisher, Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Armie Hammer, Laura Linney, Andrea Riseborough, Michael Sheen, Ellie Bamber, Karl Glusman, Robert Aramayo, Graham Beckel, India Menuez, Zawe Ashton, Jena Malone, Kristin Bauer van Straten

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Age of Ultron

Posted on April 25, 2015 by Tennyson

What is it about? :: The movie begins with the team of Avengers including Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) attacking a Hydra fort which is concentrated around a town in Eastern Europe. They manage to recover Loki’s Scepter and get out of there, even though they meet two enhanced humans, the Maximoff twins (Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson) who offer tough resistance with their special superpowers. But an attempt by the two part-time superhero scientists of the group to use the artificial intelligence within the artifact goes the wrong way as it unleashes what they called the Ultron and it takes over almost all the available information in the internet including the protected information. The new creation attempts to get stronger with one aim in mind – the extinction of mankind.

The defence of Avengers: Age of Ultron :: This second movie is a big improvement from the first movie, even though there will be big fan boys of the predecessor who will find it very difficult to accept the same. Here, we see more brains than any usual Marvel movie. There is improvement in almost every department, with the characters, special effects as well as the action sequences. The addition of the two new characters, Quick Sliver and the Scarlet Witch in the form of the Maximoff has powered the movie big time. Even the dialogues get better with this one as the funny as well as the thought-provoking moments work wonders, and there is more strength in each department added separately. The action and the dialogues are given so much attention that we feel that just the minimum plot is needed. This looks so good and works so good, and the defence says that you money will be well spent as sparks fly with maximum strength.

Positives and Negatives :: Some of these can give the feeling of being repetitive, and even with a small presence of this repetition, if you feel more than a small amount of the same, it is because you don’t see the big complete picture here. The plot about having the artificial intelligence seeking the destruction of mankind and the loading of consciousness happen to be too common these days, but this has managed to handle the same very well so that the feeling of having gone through this is minimal. It takes a big effort to improve from a movie which was so loved, and the success of Avengers: Age of Ultron comes as a lesson to many superhero movies which are waiting to be released. You can say that there was too much action and so many superheroes, but count them as positives. The only one thing which we miss from the previous movie is the presence of Tom Hiddleston as Loki – but considering how the Marvel Universe is progressing, he should come back only in another story.

Performers of the soul :: What you have to love here is that Jeremy Renner finally gets his due, as Hawkeye becomes that identity of the group who is more human that anybody else, and helps his team to come back together. To be frank, all the characters get some extra in this one, and the only person who might have got slightly lesser in significance might be the Iron Man itself, but then, he comes up with moments of his own – for he is Robert Downey Jr. Chris Evans’ Captain America still remains the most likable character in movie and he is so much the man to admire. Mark Ruffalo’s Hulky side continues being the better one and the romantic elements are rather unnecessary, as it also makes Scarlett Johansson less Black Widow and more Natasha Romanoff when not needed. You also have to love how Cobie Smulders makes an impression in what seems to be a smaller role, and Samuel L. Jackson continues to make the big impact – well, he is the fury with all the fury!

Further Performers of the soul :: Anthony Mackie as Falcon has a small presence while Don Cheadle as War Machine gets more even though not anywhere close to the Avengers and the big newer additions to this movie. The two artificial intelligence creatures are well-portrayed, but if you ask me about the best addition to this sequel, I would go for the enhanced twins. I remember last seeing Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen together as husband and wife in Godzilla, and now we have them as the twins. Even though the former has some very nice moments of action, it is the latter who steals the show as the character we know in the comics as the Scarlet Witch. When the former depends on the slow motions sequences which are created to indicate his speed as the Quicksilver that he is in the comics, the latter has her much weirder skills as she goes on and makes the character a joy to watch – she is so perfect in this avatar; check her expressions and movements while in action, and you have to love this casting.

Soul exploration :: While it will be interesting to see what Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch will have to offer for the Avengers in the next movies, let’s get into this movie’s soul. The first movie was too simple, and it was like there is an alien invasion coming up and a superhero team has to save the world just like that – but here we have a movie which is more than just mindless superhero action – this one has space for thoughts, and an expansion of the movie’s ideas in our own way. The movie asks one major question about chaos and order, and where the truth and a perfect righteous situation lies – in the acceptance of order or in the chaos that comes with a revolution? Another question is if the human extinction is the only right way to peace. We all want a better world, are we prepared to change? There are times when you have to feel the mankind itself is too less worthy. Do we find peace these days? We haven’t even evolved out of religious, caste-based and ethnic hatred, and we always have new ones coming up.

How it finishes :: Avengers: Age of Ultron is a spectacle of a very high quality, may be matching that of the immortals of Asgard, and you need to watch this one at the theatre itself. I was not surprised by the houseful shows of this movie at the local theatre too, as this is that good, even in the non-3D version which was there. Yes, it is quite understandable that Fast and Furious 7 managed to be pretty much okay and for the love for the series and Paul Walker, we just can’t stop thinking about that movie. But after two weeks, the big one has released, and this might the highest grossing movie of 2015 if surprises won’t jump in. Well, it will be more of a shock to me if this one won’t end up as the movie which brought the most money for its makers. Avengers: Age of Ultron deserves your presence, and there is absolutely no need to wait for anything else right now. Mark my words, and don’t listen to the lesser mortals, for the Vampire Bat finds this one better than its predecessor, and this is like the heaviest action ever.

Release date: 24th April 2015 (India); 1st May 2015 (US)
Running time: 141 minutes
Directed by: Joss Whedon
Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Don Cheadle, Cobie Smulders, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hayley Atwell, Paul Bettany, Anthony Mackie, Samuel L. Jackson, Idris Elba, Stellan Skarsgård, James Spader

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Godzilla

Posted on May 17, 2014 by Tennyson

From W.B. Yeats’ The Second Coming
“The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”
The first thing that came to my mind while looking at that Godzilla poster was this poem, and not Pacific Rim or that movie of the same name from 1998. The same was rather justified by watching the movie, as there was something special about this creature this time, and the deviation from the master of destruction which it was supposed to be, is something which adds more mystery to the same. The mystery about the beast which is mentioned in this poem has kept me thinking throughout my studies of English Literature, and now there is the monster, Godzilla who comes up with the element of mystery and surprise.

What is it about? :: Getting out of that 1919 poem by the Irish poet and coming back to our present scenario, the movie begins with some film reels involving atomic explosion and a huge creature partially rising from under the water. The story belongs to Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) though, a military officer specialized in bomb disposal married to his beautiful wife and a nurse wife Elle (Elizabeth Olsen), having one son. When his father Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) is arrested in Japan for trespassing into a quarantined area, he travels there and gets him out of prison, only to join him in the mission to find how his mother died at the same place long ago. But as they get inside the area, they find out that there is actually nothing like the radiation at a place when a nuclear disaster had taken place, and it is not quarantined to save people, but to hide a huge secret which can change the future of mankind forever. The secret will soon be revealed inside a secret complex area, but as it comes to light, there might actually be no real hope for humanity. There will be chaos and destruction unleashed on the world as monsters awaken, and the beginning of all this was years ago.

The defence of Godzilla :: I can’t remember much from the 1998 movie, but from what I can recollect, this is surely a big improvement. Well, as I was a kid at that time, it wouldn’t have been of much use if I had an opinion at that time too. Well, this Godzilla is different, and a big change is that the humanity is not really fighting Godzilla this time, even as there is no denial of confrontations and rockets fired, with destruction caused. Now, that should be a surprise, and the number of monstrous entities should be more than you expect. Unlike Pacific Rim, the movie also has a dark style and there is the more powerful terror element at work. The creatures are designed to look terrifying, and they serve their purpose as they become harbingers of death and destruction with their size and lethal power. There is absolutely nothing funny about their presence or the whole movie as it keeps the seriousness and the atmosphere of horror throughout, between great action supported by the special effects and background score. It is a nice introduction that has been given to the younger audience about this monster who hasn’t graved the screen for sometime. They goes on with the story really well, and there is a lot of suspense built around what is happening around.

The claws of flaw :: Godzilla has released after Pacific Rim; it is not much of a flaw as both deals with the monsters in a different way, but that should hurt a bit for the audience. If this had come before Pacific Rim, that might have actually helped both movies. This should still gross more than the 2013 monster-robot extravaganza, thanks to the title referring to the king of monsters, already running houseful here. There is also no denying a certain amount of slow start to the things unlike Pacific Rim which pounces directly into the action scene. The human characters don’t really impress, and there is no dialogue which will cause an adrenaline rush. The nature-related theme is not fully explored, and this could have actually had a message about the need to preserve environment and get rid of the nuclear warheads. There is a certain amount of uncertainty on what the director was actually planning to bring to the audience; Pacific Rim was certain about it, but not this movie. If it had focused better on the human characters or kept the focus completely on the creatures, this surely would have worked even better. After all, everybody wants to see the giant creatures on the big screen.

Performers of the soul :: Our main hero is played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson and it seems to work on most occasions except for a few when he turns wooden. One would still feel that the character has come alive just because there was the need for a hero in this movie. Elizabeth Olsen plays the less explored character of his wife and doesn’t get much attention; neither should be anything memorable. They will be seen together as siblings, or the super-powered evil twins in The Avengers 2 as Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch; she played a character attracted to her father in Oldboy – she surely is having a strange combination of characters to play; but unlike Oldboy, she has almost nothing to do that actually affects the movie here, and that should be a let down. The rest of the cast also has very less to do, as this is the world of the monsters where humans become spectators most of the time, and even when they are doing something, the effects are minimal. Even as the monsters come quite late, this slow and steady sacrifice of human characters start very early in the movie and goes on to the end. Well, the monsters need to scare and kill a lot of people, so there is that purpose.

Soul exploration :: The movie shows Godzilla as a force of nature, something that is beyond humans to stop, but the same can also be said about the other creatures. The fact that these creatures feed on radiation is something to be noted. Thus the movie is indirectly a message against the problem that the nuclear power can cause, and the creatures of radiation are rather the symbols of the evil that can be brought upon the current society by the development of science and technology which have been used in such a manner that it makes things convenient, but not better. Godzilla is referred to as a force of nature (that reminds me of what an article called the cricketers Virender Sehwag, Adam Gilchrist and Shahid Afridi a long time ago), and he becomes that force of nature which will bring balance on Earth, whether its enemies are other creatures or the human beings themselves. Well, Godzilla is nothing like the other two creatures which belong to one species, one being the smaller male with wings and the other being the bigger female, stronger without wings. The force of nature is rather the great equalizer, which makes its own choices and takes sides. That is what makes this monster so different and gives the viewers so much to look forward to. Yes, men think that they can control nature with science, but it is indeed the other way around!

How it finishes :: We were given two Malayalam movies with big stars this weekend in the form of How Old Are You and Mr. Fraud and it is a big decision to choose this one over them, but that won’t be too difficult at many places as they would be already booked. The crowd for Godzilla assures the success of the movie, but also makes sure that the two movies I mentioned are already houseful. Godzilla might have lesser audience in the weekdays, but seems to be good enough to stay above par. If you liked Pacific Rim, you will surely like this one too, and the degree of the liking shall depend on what you need, a light action thriller with style or a dark horror thriller with action, Godzilla fitting to the latter detail. Lets take some time to spare some time for these creatures from the depths of Earth, not just the alpha predator which is Godzilla, but the other two mentioned as MUTO (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism)! Yet there is one more thing to remember, and that is about the minuteness of humanity against the universe and its secrets, and lets not consider science and technology as the greatest achievement of humanity; it is rather the respect of the fellow humans, environment and the other creatures that should interest us.

Release date: 16th May 2014
Running time: 123 minutes
Directed by: Gareth Edwards
Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Ken Watanabe, Juliette Binoche, Sally Hawkins, David Strathairn, Bryan Cranston