cliche – Movies of the Soul

Vampire Owl :: It is strange that we haven’t yet watched the first big movie of the year yet.

Vampire Bat :: Yes, and it was also going to be one of the last movies of last year until the release was postponed.

Vampire Owl :: Then we are going to watch a movie which has a two year presence.

Vampire Bat :: Well, if you wish to explain the delay of a movie in that manner.

Vampire Owl :: Haven’t we finished the rest of the big movies? I don’t think that we have the opportunity not to watch this one.

Vampire Bat :: Yes, we also need to begin this year’s movie watching experience without delay.

Vampire Owl :: Exactly; only a fine beginning can ensure that we will end up watching one hundred movies in the theatres by the end of the year.

Vampire Bat :: We have to get there. It is a century which I could have achieved easily if the first six months had more movies watched in the theatres.

Vampire Owl :: So, lets begin the journey within the first week of the year itself.

Vampire Bat :: So be it. We shall begin our battles at this theatre.

[Gets the tickets with some cheese popcorn].

What is it about? :: Tom (Unni Mukundan) is leading a happy life with his little brother Jerry (Master Ilhan) and parents in the city, as he also works with modifying cars while the family also owns a restaurant. His best friend in Kapra (Balu Varghese) working as a car mechanic who doesn’t know how to repair anything. It is during one of these days that Diya (Priya Kandwal) comes into his life with the beginning of the rainy season. They gets closer and as expected, falls in love, with Tom already infatuated with her. As Diya keeps driving her father’s specially modified car through the busy city, she drives her way into Edgar (Tovino Thomas) who is a rich gangster controlling the most powerful criminal empire in the city. Edgar doesn’t like anyone touching his car, as it is to him like the dog is to John Wick, but Diya’s driving doesn’t help.

The defence of Style :: As the name suggests, the movie does look good, and it is stylish; you will know that it is special with the looks right from the beginning itself. The visuals are splendid and there are some good stunts performed in here. There is the attempt to use this visual advantage all the time, and as the big action entertainers have gone so less in number, this one also tries to make something out of that side. The action sequences were mostly very good, but the best one is surprisingly the one from the villain which comes first; that one has the least slow motion sequences and special acts as it is done straight in a believable way; it also kept the style factor very high. There are some pretty good jokes in the middle and the extended sequence after the movie that comes with the credits become a welcome addition. There are some thrills too, even though it is the first half romance and comedy which entertains next after the villain who makes smaller appearances than expected.

Claws of flaw :: There is not much of a story around here, and things go on as predicted. As the makers had already mentioned in the posters, this is indeed the first cliche story of the year, and there is no attempt to add anything different to that anywhere in the story. The later stunts in the movie got a little too much of the flying bodies, and more heroism; the final stunt deviates into the extra masala territory with more villains beaten up – even as this is supposed to have cliches, may be there were elements which could have made this one more believable, but they are left untouched in the end. I am pretty sure that the Malayali audience would have wanted a more believable cliche story as we consider the time from around interval are concerned. The stage was set by the end of first half, and then the movie slowly goes to that too much predictable finish which is not that much for this generation – we are surely beyond that kind of heroism. There could have been more funny moments too along with better songs.

Performers of the soul :: It is the villain who steals the show in this movie, and even though he appears only in a few sequences, it is Tovino Thomas who gets all the appreciation from the audience after the critically acclaimed Ennu Ninte Moideen fame. But as everyone would have wanted, he needed to be there for more time, but we see that he will only be there when the need is there. The makers haven’t used the powerful image that this villain had in the beginning of this movie, to the maximum advantage. The psychotic side of the villain is not used to benefit the movie either, and there goes the bonus which could have lifted this movie to the next level. I would say that when you have a villain with such big screen presence, you shouldn’t restrict him – he should be allowed to thrive like the evil existence that he is supposed to be. But it is not really the case here.

Further performers of the soul :: Unni Mukundan does his role in a simple way, without adding anything grand. Action will surely work nicely for him, as proven. The movie should be a fine setting for him to reclaim the action hero image which he had displayed so well in Mallu Singh. Priya Kandwal manages to be a lot pretty in this debut movie, and even as she doesn’t have much to perform here except for being the fairest one around, she does her job without trouble. I am sure that Malayalam movies will see more of this debutante heroine. Balu Varghese is the one who handles most of the funny side, and he keeps his usual style here, and it works despite not that much humour being worked on here. Vijayaraghavan also has some humour elements to work with here. Also look out for the kid who has his own nice moments. Noby plays another character bringing some humour, but disappears soon. Shine Tom Chacko has just one scene which is not really relevant.

How it finishes :: Coming from the makers of the surprise hit Ithihasa, maybe the audience would have expected a lot more. The challenges are from the most awaited movie of 2015 which was Charlie, the funniest movie of 2015 which was Adi Kapyare Kootamani and the proven crowd-puller which was Two Countries. With Jo and the Boy also around at that time, the shifting of this movie to one week later was pretty much the good idea. With most people already watched the rest of the movie in the theatres, Style surely has a better chance – it is also the kind of movie which Malayalam movie industry has kept away from for quite some time; the entertainer filled with cliches. There will be the kind of audience who will be looking for this kind – there is one hero, one heroine and a villain who doesn’t like them both; you know what to expect.

Release date: 2nd January 2016
Running time: 155 minutes
Directed by: Binu S
Starring: Unni Mukundan, Tovino Thomas, Balu Varghese, Priya Kandwal, Vijayaraghavan, Master Ilhan, Noby Markose, Dominic, Baiju, Shine Tom Chacko

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

What is Battleship? :: I have to admit that I had no idea that this was an alien movie mostly based on the sea before I went on to watch it. Yes, I found out that a Hollywood movie has released in the local theatre which would cost me absolutely no travelling charges and just the fifty rupees for the ticket, and wasted no time in looking for the plot synopsis or the reviews. Convert it, and it is not even one Unites States Dollar – too good for a movie with Hollywood effects. Thank God for the cheap tickets even in those multiplexes. Well, let me tell you that this is a confused movie, as it clearly wonders what is is supposed to do and why it is exists. In the meaningless or rather absurd world that it creates, the movie wonders what is it doing. But there is lot of entertainment in store in that world. If people can make Krrish 3 a superhit, why not this one? Always a better science fiction story than Krrish 3 – with better graphics, better story and a lot more. The best thing is that nobody really comes up and gives it a four out of five.

The Setting :: I always loved Battleship as the guessing game that it is. In spite of reminding me of that very old game called Minesweeper which I played while my computer lab hours of Plus Two, it was fun enough and may be one of those few games which I could just win by making some of the most stupid guesses. I didn’t know how to play the other games including Hearts, Solitaire and Backgammon and my only hope was to install Pinball or Allen Border’s Cricket – those were the days of floppy games, the memories keeping me nostalgic. So here comes Battleship as a movie, and I wondered how is it related to the game? May be because the makers were trying too much of a guessing game about the success of this movie, or may be our hero’s guess work has finally paid off and the alien invaders are defeated. There is indeed a lot of strange happenings in the movie, and I would like to guess that the aliens too guessed after having their own guessing game, may be named “Starship” – yes this has aliens and the military, and lots of battleships from both sides.

What is it about? :: Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch) is an undisciplined U.S. Navy officer who is in love with Samantha Shane (Brookyln Decker) who is the daughter of Admiral Terrance Shane (Liam Neeson) and our hero is just steps away from being discharged from the navy. But sometimes good things come in the form of an invasion and the best things come in the form of an alien invasion, that too concentrating in the ocean, thus giving him that opportunity to be the alien war hero. Well, five alien spacecrafts arrive, thanks to the curious Earthling cats trying to kill themselves with their space programs and their attempts to communicate and travel to the other world. The Navy fleet comes in contact with an alien fleet and gets most of their forces destroyed. With most of the people dead and Alex Hopper being the next person on charge, he has to take on the aliens with whatever crew he has left (which obviously includes Rihanna’s character) while his girlfriend who is with a U.S. Army veteran tries to take on some other aliens in another way.

The defence of Battleship :: It is better than the other two alien movies which turned out to be success at the box-office in the earlier years, Skyline (2010) and Battle: Los Angeles (2011), but this wouldn’t be that much of a box-office success, mostly due to the higher budget and secondly due to it coming later, after Cowboys and Aliens as well as The Darkest Hour, none of them creating that big impression which the alien movies needed. I don’t think that none of these movies are bad though. Well, I would say that this one needs to be watched just for its action sequences, well-designed alien spacecrafts and weaponry, the special effects and the well-designed alien creatures. We could take the virus-logic of the 1996 Will Smith movie which they decided to name Independence Day and most of the audience accepted the movie which one of the worst climaxes that anyone could think about, and so thinking more about this movie is vain, and one has to accept this one for the effort that was put into it and all that has worked.

The claws of flaw :: There is good design, but that mostly leaves the alien ships as transformers of the ocean (but still having their own style), and the movie concentrates rather too much on the navy which is rather an overdose which one could have avoided. They could have had it, but with lesser emphasis on the awesomeness of that navy or rather decreasing the screen-time. Yes, the name of the movie is Battleship, but it doesn’t mean that you have to praise battleships and show them again and again making us feel that it is the hero and the characters are not important at all. You have someone like Taylor Kitsch and someone as awesome as Liam Neeson, but where is the focus? On the battleships of humans and aliens. May be it can have a big basket to keep its collection of cliches. When a movie tries to claim that it is adapted from a game like Battleship, what can you expect? They can’t even copy the cutscenes or dialogues! Why water? Because they want to show battleships a lot!

Performers of the Soul :: Taylor Kitsch is there playing the protagonist (the one which is human), but doesn’t have that good a role which could prove his abilities, and is still good with the character. John Carter was awesome and his performance was great, and another thing that I appreciate about him is that he is ready to do a sequel to the movie which might be highly unlikely due to its previous box-office performance. I am proud of thee and Lynn Collins. He deserves better than this, just like John Carter deserved a lot more. I really don’t know why they had Rihanna in the movie, and it is a question better left unanswered. Brooklyn Decker has her presence, but one has to think that she wasn’t really needed in this movie, and this so much pales in comparison to how she has been in Sports Illustrated. Another question is that how could they waste an actor like Liam Neeson is such an insignificant role? Ra’s al Ghul and Jean Veljean should dislike that, and I am not even going to Oskar Schindler.

How it finishes :: Battleship is more of an excuse to make another alien invasion movie and get some box-office collection from it. People can watch it to stare at Brooklyn Decker, but it also gives us some reasons why the third movie of Transformers was not that good (as if the second was of any good). This movie also has the CGI and special effects which rival that series, and has Brooklyn Decker instead of Megan Fox and the other lady who was there for the looks. Battleship will not be a movie franchise like Transformers, and this might be the last time we see such an alien movie based on the ocean, but this movie can surely provide us with a lot of entertainment as long as one chooses to watch it. This is still a better movie than Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Transformers: Dark of the Moon – if you ever come across these movies at the same time on television, watch this one; has more logic, common sense, style and even better characters and story than the mis-adventures from Bay, and not to forget the use of graphics and the right use of special effects on the explosions and stuff.

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Release date: 18th May 2012
Running time: 131 minutes
Directed by: Peter Berg
Starring: Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgård, Rihanna, Brooklyn Decker, Liam Neeson, Tadanobu Asano, Jesse Plemons, Adam Godley, Gregory D. Gadson, Peter MacNicol, John Tui, Hamish Linklater