War of the Worlds / Batman Begins

War of the worlds
Steven Spielberg, Tom Cruise

Director Steven Spielberg's agonizing adaptation of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds. The movie claims to have finished shooting in 72 days – and it shows.

Gaping holes perforate the screenplay, leaving the audience with visible question marks hovering over their heads. Clearly, the bigwigs wanted to pack off the film to the theatres. The result: a harried ending drops the seemingly believable buildup like a hot potato. Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) is a negligent father, separated from his wife, Mary Ann (Miranda Otto) and children, Rachel and Robbie (Dakota Fanning, Justin Chatwin). Mary Ann and her fiancé leave to Boston, leaving the children in Ray's care. Incidentally, aliens in tripod-looking machines pick this day to surface from the core of the earth and start to feed on earthlings, once they're tired of freezing them.

What results is a whirlwind of (intentionally?) cluttered events. Robbie runs off, swearing to batter them bad aliens, they seek shelter with Harlan Ogilvy (aging Tim Robbins who has forcefully been lodged into the script) and somehow Ray and Rachel make it to Boston. Predictable, you say? Wait till you hear the end. The aliens are defeated. And how? They catch a cold. What takes the cake: Robbie's already at Boston, waiting.

The saving grace would be the editing and the extra effects. Audio effects are good enough to scare. A minor one would be the accuracy of the images of the tripod-looking thingummies and the scenes post-genocide. Meaning, unlike the rest of the movie, these small bundles of joy won't have Wells doing somersaults in his grave. If you really want to be optimistic, you could say Fanning does a great job of being a scared kid. If you aren't busy cowering in your seat owing to Rachel's screaming like a banshee, you'll be pre-occupied with how Robbie manages to get to Boston amidst the freeze-or-feed fest. Remotely interesting trivia: Ray's character and the music score by John Williams are two of director Spielberg's trademarks.

The sole consolation in the story is how clearly Wells emphasizes on the interdependence of all creatures. The moral of conveyed is simple: no matter how small the organism is, the Earth still needs it.

The moral of this movie experience, however: do NOT get swayed by swanky trailers!

- Finch, Scout

(Paranoid. Media student. Avid blogger. Modest writer.
Movie critic wannabe.Movie trasher, currently.
Continued ranting inevitably proves
she needs Psychiatric Help.
blog:http://melchizedek.blogspot.com/)

****

Batman Begins (2005)
Directed by
Christopher Nolan

For Batman fans this particular movie could give some concrete answers to his obscure teens and his batman persona, not to mention the choice of costume, how the bat sky-signal came to be, how he got those splendid moves and—aha--the birth of the batmobile!

Bruce Wayne as a boy falls down a well and is assaulted by bats, after which he is panics at the very thought of them. He also witnesses the death of his parents and grows into a brooding young adult, who has numerous questions about justice, revenge and most of all, fear. So, like all good white people in search of answers, Bruce (Christian Bale) journeys on a spiritual quest towards the East, leaving behind his wealth and fame. After enduring many hardships, he rescued from a prison by Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson) who sees some potential in him and becomes his tutor.

When Henri Ducard rescues Bruce and figures he’s on the lookout for something, he gives him the brief, cryptic advice that them gurus are so famous for; go look for that blue flower on that white mountain and you will find what you are looking for. Bruce does as he should and lo!- the path to the Ninja Institute of the sinister Ra’s Al Ghul comes into view. And so begins the Dark Knight’s training with Liam Neeson, who drops words of wisdom like "You never learn. Pay attention to your surroundings!" "Your parents' death was not your fault. It was your father's. He failed to act." But most of all the stupendously enlightening "To conquer fear, you must become fear". A minor adjustment from the usual ‘To conquer your fears you must face them’. So what does Bruce do?

He becomes his worst fear, he becomes----BATMAN….
(Take a whiff of the blue-flower brew and ye too shall attain nirvana!!)

Bruce returns to Gotham. Something fishy and underhanded exposes itself, it is the Ra’s Al Ghul Ninja Insitute itself that wishes to destroy Gotham, for the city has gone ahead of itself with greed and corruption. Infact, the Ra’s Ghul cult lays claim to the burning of London and the fall of Rome, as they have done with any civilisation that is run by corrupt politicians and is a breeding ground for crime. All that stuff you read in the history books is actually crap!!

So it is upto to Bruce to rescue Gotham, and he sets of doing so with a little help from Morgan Freeman, who designs the fantastic gear. Gary Oldman plays one of the good detectives. Katie Holmes is one of the incorruptible lawyers left in the rat infested city of Gotham. Lets not forget Micheal Caine who plays the faithful Wayne Mansion butler Alfred. Ken Watanabe plays Ra’s Al Ghul, though he looked a lot more studlier in The Last Samurai.

Well, in spite of the great Imax-Dome-spondilitis-most vomitus experience, 2 hours of being closer to Christian Bale’s mouth than I would have liked to have been; and also in spite of the guru-shishya enlightenment stereotype, I liked the film. It’s a great visual experience.

Don’t miss this film, and remember "It’s not who you are underneath but what you do that defines you" (in other words, pretty is as pretty does).

And stay away from The Dome!

-movie buff