Jared Leto – Movies of the Soul

***Poster generated by AI for review purposes.

Vampire Owl: Aren’t we the true masters of the universe?

Vampire Bat: I do not think that they are talking about the vampire universe.

Vampire Owl: Every universe requires its own masters.

Vampire Bat: We already have Uncle Dracula here.

Vampire Owl: Yes, even Vampire Elders are there, but they are all symbolic heads.

Vampire Bat: So, you consider us as the true masters.

Vampire Owl: Well, this is the only working universe, isn’t it?

Vampire Bat: The only true universe with relevance, yes.

Vampire Owl: And the only realm without the pure human evil.

Vampire Bat: The human evil has already reached our borders. There is not much of magic left that seems to stop it.

[Gets a thattu dosa and three cups of Munnar tea].

What is the movie about? :: Adam (Nicholas Galitzine) works in human resources, while keeping on searching for a certain sword and lives with his only friend Hussein (Christian Vunipola) in Oklahoma City. People think that him keeping on searching for a sword and telling everyone a specific story about his escape from another planet are parts of his nerd madness which he always had since he was a kid. The search for the sword would affect both his work and social life, as he even tells the same story when on a date. Obsessed with finding the sword due to his memories about being part of another strange world in which he lived as the prince and had come to Earth with a magic sword, Adam receives an anonymous tip in the form of a text message that the sword is located and he reclaims it at a comic store, running away with it. But the next day, he is arrested for stealing the sword, but the police car is stopped in transit on the highway when a strange creature attacks them and halts the traffic. The ape-like creature turns out to be Beast Man (Gary Martin) who had come from another world and chases Adam.

So, what happens with the events here as we just keep looking? :: As Adam keeps running, a woman in white comes to the scene, identifying herself as his childhood friend, Teela (Camila Mendes). She tells him that the sword had given her a signal when it was claimed and raised to the sky, seemingly provided the same signal to many others of their planet far away. In this planet named Eternia which was once ruled by Adam’s parents King Randor (James Purefoy) and Queen Marlena (Charlotte Riley), no longer maintains that peace and prosperity after being taken over by Skeletor (Jared Leto), his sidekick Evil-Lyn (Alison Brie) and a number of other evil minions. This loss after being defeated by a cyborg and weapons expert of Skeletor, Trap Jaw (Sam C Wilson) had also left the commander-in-chief of the army of Eterna, Man-At-Arms a.k.a. Duncan (Idris Elba) to severe depression and alcoholism, much to the dismay of his daughter Teela. After training so many people of the planet to defend the evil forces, he along with many others had fallen into disarray after Skeletor took over and unleashed chaos.

And what more can happen in this world of chaos and destruction unleashed by forces of evil? :: It was the Sorceress (Morena Baccarin) who sent Adam to Earth to save him and the sword from Skeletor, and as it was the original home planet of the queen a long distance away from Eternia, safety was guaranteed, but as a child, he had lost the sword only to be found now, triggering alarms all around the universe. Adam and Teela manage to outrun the Beast Man and escape in their spaceship in front of shocked humans who could do nothing but stare. Back home, the resistance forces against Skeletor who are not imprisoned by Teela leaving her defence outpost and bringing a strange man with the sword, imprisons her and Adam along with an alcoholic Duncan and a former combat robot reprogrammed as a cleaning robot, Roboto (Kristen Wiig). But they escape with the help of the robot and keeps the sword with them while the defenders of the resistance are either killed or captured by Skeletor’s forces. As they try to escape them and come face to face against Trap Jaw, it seems to be the end for them, but can they find a way to defeat him and his shooters against all odds?

The defence of Masters of the Universe :: The movie has some stunning visuals with the setting in a beautiful planet. The world is too good with the fantasy model buildings and the environment which makes it feel like a colourful paradise. Nicholas Galitzine makes a fine impact as the protagonist, while Idris Elba brings the fun. But the best impact is made by Camila Mendes as Teela, who remains a stunner in those action sequences with her movement and style, as the only one true character who is a born-fighter continuing to be so at all times. Jared Leto as Skeletor is a villain to remember, and gets the screen-time he missed as the Joker in Suicide Squad. Morena Baccarin who gets back after The Wrecking Crew gets less screen time even as such a significant character. Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn works nicely too as one never sees any evil this cute and strong in magic. The humour in the movie also remains so much fun, and the elements taken from cartoon are nicely placed here without too much darkness ever coming into picture. Adora a.k.a. She-Ra played by Lauren Saliu shown during mid-credits also keeps us interested as the one scene itself seems to bring lot of hope for a possible sequel about which we are still not that sure.

Positives and negatives :: This is a feeling of nostalgia, and as we had the cartoon of the same name running in Malayalam in this part of the world, there is no other superhero who had this much of an influence on us as children. We had to return home early from school and then we would successfully watch this one. In the case of the movie, people might find that this is a little bit too cartoonish and as more for the children, but those would be the people who forgot how they grew up watching this, and if Avengers, Justice League and team could be taken as full action, this could be too. The supporting characters here could have had some more time, while cutting some time from the moments spent on Earth. The final fight is lovely to watch, even though the moments back on Earth coming in between do not impress much. The quality of the computer-generated imagery losses some quality at times, but remains stable and stylish for most of the time. Use of more magic could have made the world look more charming, and even more shown as part of an exploration like in Avatar, as the design here never far behind.

How it finishes :: The lack of some seriousness might be the reason why it had the same effect as John Carter at the box-office, but one cannot forget the fact that it was one fine movie, and one of the best of that year. We can blame the strange movie-watching habits of the biggest markets of the movie which did not even make Pacific Rim a super-hit, but Asia serves that title well. All these movies surely did well in this part of the world, and one keeps wondering if a better trailer could have meant better result for the movie at the box-office. I would surely love to see its sequel with the lady superhero, but one has to wonder if the same would happen when the total collection is considered. But this is sure to do well on Amazon Prime Video, and that should also mean something to everyone. For now, this is a charming adventure and entertainer which does not have a dull moment once the scenes shift to the far away planet. The beautiful spectacle of a world with a classic adventure with battles to remember is not something that we can always see with this much charm. People can find cartoon-faults, but I find this to be something I should have watched on the big screen with all of its big screen splendour.

Release date: 5 June 2026
Running time: 140 minutes
Directed by: Travis Knight
Starring: Nicholas Galitzine, Camila Mendes, Alison Brie, James Purefoy, Morena Baccarin, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Kristen Wiig, Jared Leto, Idris Elba

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@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

What is the movie about? :: During the events that follow Superman’s (Henry Cavill) death in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, CIA’s Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) assembles Task Force X, a team consisting of dangerous criminals. The team was to consist of a highly skilled hitman who is never supposed to miss with his gun in the hands – Deadshot (Will Smith), a former psychiatrist who has a lot of madness inside her which she isn’t afraid to show to the world creating chaos – Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), a pyrokinetic gangster who refuses to be evil anymore after a disaster – El Diablo (Jay Hernandez), a thief who is exceptionally skilled in using boomerang – Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), a genetically mutated crocodile-like human supposed to have cannibalistic tendencies along with his superior strength – Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), and a mercenary with high level grappling and scaling skills with a lot of combat practice – Slipknot (Adam Beach).

So, what happens next in the movie? :: Amanda intends to use them for the defence of the nation, as the big void which was left by the superhero’s death is sure to make it easy for the dangerous and twisted criminals and metahumans to strike terror upon the heart of common man, and the usual military and police might not be able to stop them. The new expendable assets are placed under the command of Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman). Each member has a nano bomb inside their necks, which could be activated to explode, so as to make sure that none of these criminals try to do anything smart of make an attempt to escape. Another one whom Amanda intend to recruit is Rick Flag’s girlfriend and archeologist Dr. June Moone (Cara Delevingne) whose other form is Enchantress, an ancient goddess and witch who has taken over her body, and appears at times.

So, what all trouble awaits our people? :: Enchantress is not someone who will take this dishonour of her godly self lightly, as she turns on Amanda for imprisoning her, and with the help of her brother Incubus (Alain Chanoine), unleashes terror. The ancient evil finds herself ready to destroy everything that humans holds dear in return for their disrespectful treatment of her. With their vast magical abilities, the brother and sister duo takes control of a subway station and transforms humans into monsters listening only to their command. But Enchantress is just one of their problems as there is someone else after them – The Joker (Jared Leto) who is coming to get Harley Quinn. The situation only gets worse when the team members get the reality about what all are being hidden from them. But they form the last hope for humanity in a world without Superman – what will they choose to do with the world having done nothing for them?

The defence of Suicide Squad :: We can consider this movie more as some kind of poetry in motion, with lots of music being used here and there, and the way in which the action progresses is also nothing less than poetic – you will see a lot of it with the Harley Quinn – Joker sequences which come as flashback scenes. The movie had to introduce so many characters at once, and this one has managed to do that – something which a lot of movies will fail to do, and some of them won’t even try, and in that case, Suicide Squad is a clear winner with its attempts. There are smart dialogues and fine action sequences, with those special effects doing the job really well. Unlike the fake characters in the overrated Guardians of the Galaxy, there is no pretending going on here either – we know who all these people, and they make us believe. Well, you don’t need to pretend that you didn’t like this one just because a number of critics said so!

Positives and negatives :: There is no doubt that people will have many reasons to like as well as dislike this movie, and there will be occasions when both will be the same – certain beauty of some parts of this movie will be what some people won’t like, and vice versa; it is how this movie works personally. There are also some characters that go away without being noticed, and even with a full squad, some of them are just not completely there. We surely needed more of the Joker, but it is not there – he is not the villain as some people might have thought, as the Enchantress takes up that position. Also in comparison, one might not find this version of the man to be making that much impact as they wanted him to. Opposite to what some people had said, this is actually a better movie than the hype which was Guardians of the Galaxy, as we get to connect to the bad guys as people in this flick, unlike the fakes which we had there – and the fun here is more real, and so is the danger.

Performers of the soul :: The best of performances begin with Margot Robbie as the crazy female villain who brings a grand effect to us. There is something about each action of the character, and this one is a full entertainer as long as she is there. There is a certain kind of dark poetry related to her, and some of it can be seen also in the Enchantress played by Cara Delevingne who brings one of the better female villains around – there is something about her from the very first time she is introduced, and whether as the witch-goddess or as the archeologist, she looks too good. Will Smith also scores at his moments, as the hitman who makes us emotionally connected to the character. Jay Hernandez has El Diablo going steady, while the rest of the bad guys just follow the path with these people getting to score more than the others, and as I said earlier, the Joker is underused.

How it finishes :: Suicide Squad is special because it is different, and even in that difference, this one is divergent in an excellent manner. Maybe people still wanted to have the same kind of superhero movies, but not with this one – it has decide to change things, and it is one’s choice to like it or go for the “usual superhero saving the day after destroying a whole city and killing so many people around” kind of thing. Even with the so called criminals teaming up, the number of common people killed in this movie is not much – not that much of top level evil in the bad guys, as you can see. This would make a perfect video game too, with these interesting characters around – but if there is a computer game existing for a movie, won’t the pseudo-intellectuals reviewing the movies make this one look even worse with their reviews? Lets hope that movies like Suicide Squad will be saved from such people! At the same time, I hope that you have enough divergence and a little bit of madness in you good enough to understand this movie.

Release date: 5th August 2016
Running time: 123 minutes
Directed by: David Ayer
Starring: Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Cara Delevingne, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Jay Hernandez, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Ike Barinholtz, Scott Eastwood, Karen Fukuhara, Ike Barinholtz, Adam Beach, Alain Chanoine, David Harbour, Alex Meraz, Jim Parrack, Shailyn Pierre-Dixon, Corina Calderon, Ben Affleck (cameo), Ezra Miller (Cameo), David Ayer (cameo), Jason Momoa (cameo)