wastelands – Movies of the Soul

Vampire Owl: Do you think that we really need another movie on survival?

Vampire Bat: Well, we are surviving right now. So, this is a realistic movie.

Vampire Owl: Does this have someone’s survival for centuries?

Vampire Bat: I think that this is just about a few days, maximum.

Vampire Owl: So, they are dealing with some crisis which would not matter for vampires.

Vampire Bat: You should understand that everything matters for vampires.

Vampire Owl: We are people of the past. So, future should not matter to us.

Vampire Bat: We live in the present whether we are in the past or future.

Vampire Owl: We do not live in timelines, we never did.

Vampire Bat: We blended in, and we become part of the nocturnal world then.

[Gets a kathi roll and three cups of Munnar tea].

What is the movie about? :: A family of four have been celebrating togetherness – Tom (Andreas Pietschmann), an expert oceanographer, Julia (Émilie Dequenne), an experienced doctor, and their two children Cassie (Lisa Delamar) and Ben (Lucas Ebel) are on a yacht named Orca somewhere in the Caribbean area, celebrating the boy’s thirteenth birthday and enjoying vacation, even though the girl does seem to miss her boyfriend too much, and finds the trip boring without his presence. She keeps making video calls to him even though the network connectivity is very low, often ruining family moments. This is a family vacation that occurs after quite a long time. There is something strange happening around though, as expert swimmer Julia almost drowns with sea getting rougher than usual, and whales also seems to flee, with some problems seemingly occurring with the compass too. There is a violent storm that also follows, and the family keeps themselves safe within the deck of the ship, passing out in the process.

So, what happens with the events here as we just keep looking? :: As they wake up next morning after the storm, the family is shocked to find out that the ocean has disappeared — there is no water, as the ocean bed has exposed itself as a strange desert. Tom feels that the poles of the planet have been reversed, leaving the oceans at what used to be land and vice versa. Even though there is no reply to their distress calls, they are finally able to contact Nao (Olivier Ho Hio Hen), a submariner who found himself on land from underneath the ocean floor all of a sudden. He feels that the poles will flip again in about a week and that the seas will return violently, devouring everything without trace. He offers his submarine as a safe location, with space for two more people, and Tom and wife quickly asks him to save their children. Nao gives them the coordinates, and they decide to start their journey only to find that something more has been unleashed there. Can they survive the unexpected terror on the way?

The defence of Survive :: A family trying to survive when there is almost no chance to do so is always worth our attention. After all, families staying together these days has been a rare thing as we look at most of them. The apocalyptic twist used here is nice, and nicely changed from the usual things which we keep finding everywhere. The end of the world has been shown clearly with only a few characters and grandeur of destruction is still felt. The visuals of a dry world nicely add to the same, and feels like a classic apocalypse with a twist to the incidents causing the same. The fine looks along with the sounds to set the mood has us interested early enough. The newly formed desert world is as interesting as the creatures and the debris that goes through them to make us feel the effect of the catastrophe rather than to spread fear. With action here and there and the family bonding moments, it does not drag, but keep the pace going – it is quite a short film indeed, and we are never out of the apocalyptic mood.

The claws of flaw :: The grand idea could have had further grandeur could have come up with a spectacle that we would remember for what is shown on the screen. There could have been some shots which would stay in our minds forever and remind us of this movie – the iconic shots could have been here, as the opportunity was clearly there. The idea of being terrifying is not that much around, and it never really gets into full fun either. Also, everything happens all of a sudden, and there is not much of an explanation for all these strange of end of the world incidents. The characters do not develop that much, and children show irritating side at times. The end also seems rushed, as if it has come around too soon after accelerating a little too much in the final moments. This is not that kind of a movie which we would feel the need to watch again, even with moments. The idea had possibilities from not just the ocean, but also from the newly formed wastelands and nature behaving strange.

The performers of the soul :: The movie had to depend on its performances, as there are only a few characters and the focus is so much on them. There is no scope for falling behind with this particular aspect, as the grandeur of the visuals make way for the characters with ease. Émilie Dequenne plays the mother and doctor figure trying to save her family, and she shows the fight so well, fighting against all odds. Andreas Pietschmann plays the protector, the strong father who keeps hoping to save his children and wife even at the cost of his own life. The two manages the role so well that they make the perfect parents. Lucas Ebel adds more or less to the emotional side as the child who needs support. Lisa Delamar lays the younger child with emotional problems and tension with other members of the family. From the beginning stage itself, we see she wants to be with her boyfriend and not with the family, and the rebel role is managed well. Arben Bajraktaraj and Olivier Ho Hio Hen adds well in support.

How it finishes :: Survival against all odds when even nature goes against you is something a lot more interesting than one can think about. This movie manages to be successful in doing the same even though not without the feeling that the grand idea did not get the execution it really deserved – still, it manages to rise well and create something of interest and remain entertaining from the beginning stages itself. With quality added to its visuals and the tense moments which brings the thrills in an apocalyptic world, one would appreciate the effort behind the movie. We would still keep wondering how huge this movie with such a premise and idea could have become, as we see movies like Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra and Minnal Murali doing so much with such a low budget in this part of the world. Then you see a family surviving in a world without hope, and it could even have a sequel that could expand things. Well, good people will always find themselves in trouble, and evil survives and thrives, doesn’t it?

Release date: 19th June 2024
Running time: 86 minutes
Directed by: Frédéric Jardin
Starring: Émilie Dequenne, Andreas Pietschmann, Lisa Delamar, Lucas Ebel

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@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Vampire Owl: I remember watching Mad Max: Fury Road.

Vampire Bat: Yes, that was when you arrived late in the movie theatre.

Vampire Owl: I was not that late because there were too many advertisements.

Vampire Bat: Still, you arrive late each and every time.

Vampire Owl: I am only as late as it is required of me.

Vampire Bat: You fail to watch the beginning of every movie.

Vampire Owl: Some of the beginnings are not that worthy to be watched.

Vampire Bat: What is a movie without its beginning?

Vampire Owl: We often start our vampire lives in the middle, don’t we?

Vampire Bat: I would agree to that. Why shouldn’t I?

[Gets a chilly chicken pizza and three cups of Kodaikanal tea].

What is the movie about? :: Many decades have passed after the grand apocalypse that has turned the lands to the wastelands with no hope of returning to the green glory. Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) maintains control over the wastelands with his biker gang and manages to get his hands on a child who seems to be from a land of plenty far outside the world known to them. With her mother who attacks them tortured to death for not revealing the location of that particular place, he adopts the child as his own without hesitation while murdering anyone who has a second opinion about such ideas. Years later, there is new clue about the place with abundant resources, and Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme) who rules the Citadel with hidden resources finds himself attacked by Dementus and his gang, but manages to defeat the bikers with ease with the help of his fanatic, suicidal War Boys. Dementus manages to capture Gastown, an oil refinery which supplies power to the Citadel, which helps him to come up with a deal for resources from Immortan Joe, but losses the child Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) in the process.

So, what happens with the events here as we just keep looking? :: Furiosa manages to escape from being the future wife of Immortan Joe or any of his children, and disguised as a mute War Boy, Furiosa works her way up through the ranks of Citadel. She helps them in building the War Rig, a heavily armed fuel supply tanker that could survive the wastelands where there is no law, but ruthlessness. As she teams up with Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke) and manages to win impossible battles, she becomes Jack’s second-in-command and is promoted to the ranks of a Praetorian, despite everyone including Immortal Joe coming to know that she is not a War Boy, but a girl in disguise. She gets the honour and privilege in the Citadel, even from the toughest warriors, and is feared by many. But she does not stop thinking about escaping from the situation and go back to her original home and live with her people. For this, Jack also pledges to support her, and they make plans to escape. But can they really get away from the Citadel? And what will Dementus at Gastown think about it?

The defence of Furiosa :: Here is one prequel that leads well to the next one with its story and the narrative. The establishment of connection seems to be one thing done with precision and so is the choice of the main character, the titular person who makes all the difference, even though the other characters often get lost in the process. The fights here would not seem any big for those who have watched the predecessor, which set the world as something grand for vehicular mayhem, but this one adds the emotional touch to it, to make things feel better. The world still looks grand, with the land after apocalypse is just as we would expect it to be, both with the looks and the content. The feeling of danger is there, and so is hopelessness, as we see a world without greenery of expectations – the environment seems to have finally met its end here, as it expected with so many fake environment lovers wandering around even in our world who make absolutely no impact, and instead creates some nonsense just to escape from their responsibilities, and in the process, wastes the time of people and much of the resources too. At the same time, the fights on the truck remains the best, and the titular character is a classic action character doing the same, and the support makes an impact too.

The claws of flaw :: Slower than its predecessor and with its main character talking so less, the movie has a little bit of struggle at times to keep going on a path similar to what happened on that Fury Road with Max. It takes too much time to get into action and has too long a run-time. There is also too much time when nothing really happens. The green place is not a believable thing at all in that world, considering the various features of it, even though after an apocalypse, everything else shown there feels not just real within that universe, but even possible now. The greenery in the nothingness would have been better if it was established as something not that big. Then, the villain is too unpredictable, and it’s the kind of villainy that takes the funny side for no reason instead of staying menacing at all times. It keeps one wondering if the same thing happened because of the Thor series going dumb and silly after Thor: Ragnarok. We know that there has not been a likable Thor with the same actor since that classic movie with God of Thunder fighting the Goddess of Death. It could be the Marvel foolishness discovery syndrome. The franchise which was full of vehicular mayhem could have done better with this one and should have come at least close to the fast-paced quality of the screen that was displayed by its predecessor.

The performers of the soul :: The movie belongs to Anya Taylor-Joy who comes up with a performance which perfectly blends into the mood of the movie, and we feel with her here. Alyla Browne who plays the same character at a younger age is not that far behind in performance either. Anya excels with her facial expressions, limited dialogues and the actions sequences which seems to make a point that she has got a diversion from The Witch, Morgan, Split and Glass. From the possibility of becoming the next scream queen, she might be going on to be the one action star whom we can have in those futuristic action movies that have had remakes in the past or are going for a few, Total Recall for example. It is sad that most of her movies never really released in this part of the world, and even if they did, never really had enough screens to prove their existence in busy theatres showing movies of too many languages. Chris Hemsworth makes a fine impact, but the focus is never really on him, and we end up forgetting him due to the way the movie is written. So, it is Tom Burke who makes the next fine impact. Then there is Charlee Fraser who rules the first few minutes of the movie.

How it finishes :: The movie could have been better than Mad Max: Fury Road, but that level is surely not reached. A prequel could have done so much, but this one only manages to connect well and add a little bit more of reason of the happenings of the film which released earlier. There is no bigger battle or something of grandeur that raises the level of this one, as it goes through a slower path. But this one manages to do its job as a prequel which acts as a raising stone for sure. With some fine performances, one can be sure to enjoy the Fury Road better after watching this tale of Furiosa – it is how things should go, and not the other way around. If this prequel is watched first, the quality of the 2014 movie would improve even more, and that should be the way to go. This one provides the wastelands with a beginning for the new generation, as the other movies of the series go a long way behind, and they were never among the best known action films in this part of the world for sure.

Release date: 24th May 2024
Running time: 148 minutes
Directed by: George Miller
Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, Alyla Browne, George Shevtsov, Lachy Hulme, John Howard, Angus Sampson, Charlee Fraser, Elsa Pataky, Nathan Jones, Josh Helman, David Field, Rahel Romahn, David Collins, Goran D Kleut, C J Bloomfield, Ian Roberts, Guy Spence, Rob Jones, Clarence Ryan, Tim Burns, Quaden Bayles