Skyfall - Doesn't Bond with the Series

Bond, James Bond! This one liner name by itself would make one watch any James Bond movie. James Bond movies don't just have a story, it has stunning visuals, great action, good and a believable plot and on top of all that , it has a CLASS!
Skyfall is about a data chip that has been stolen from the MI6 ( the British Secret Service HQ). This chip has information about all the top secret operatives around the world working. Daniel Craig goes after the person who steals the Chip, course of this action he's shot by another operative by accident and he is proclaimed dead. He then returns back after being saved by a women whom he's seen to have some intimate moments in the dark ( 5 secs max ). Also he's seen drinking some cheap liquor in the Turkey region. Following the loss of the chip the person who stole it bombs the MI6 HQ and thereby sending messages to Agents M ( Judi Dench ). James Bond after hearing about the event comes back to London where he's put back into service after some tests. Meanwhile Judi Dench is asked to resign due to her incapability to save the secretive chip, the new head of the secret service isn't impressed with James Bond.

He's then sent to Shangai from where he rendezvous with Javier Bardem the actor who shook as all with an  extraordinary performance in "No country for Old men". It happens that he was an old operative for the Secret Service and is extracting vengeance for being let go by Agent M during his operation in China.

What was the real motive and how James Bond handles the situation is the core for the movie Skyfall.

The screen play seems very sloppy especially in the second half of the movie, nobody cares about the missing chips and its contents. It doesn't clearly state the purpose of the whole movie until almost the end of the movie. Action scenes in the movie seem long and made me feel as when they would end. The movie had silence in many parts of the movie something that's not an usual in Bond movies. But where they had the background music playing it was good.

The movie lacked any style, it did not have any women whom Bond usually romances with, no BMWs or Aston Martins, no spy gadget  and to top it all no clear espionage missions. If the producers wanted to replace their key actors they didn't have to make a complete movie for that. They could've just made a few scenes showing the retirement of their staff.

I would say a 200 million Dollar budget just wasted. The only way the franchise would make money is by making people watch it for the first time for the Bond name it has earned in its past.

I would give this a 4.5 /10 for its action and music , nothing more than that!

Billa 2 - Highlight or Prequel?

I hope everyone knows for the fact Billa 2 is not actually part 2 of Billa but the prequel. Ajith is shown as a refugee ftom SriLanka and then slowly emerges into a petty gangster and then by doing risky jobs gets noticed by powerful Dons and finally emerges as a Don himself. 

This is the core of the story and there are absolutely no twists and turns! 

The lady love of Billa , Parvathi Omanakuttan ( again a female lead role wasted ) comes only 5 to 6 minutes in the entire movie and had absolutely no chances to prove herself. The other female actress Bruna Abdullah is another accessory for the movie who doesn't have any weight age except for the fact she gets killed by Billa's.

Dialogues in the movie  are a plus and it justifies every kill/move Ajith makes. The back ground score also carries the movie well but the songs in the movie felt so much out of place. I felt the director hired these dancers for a few weeks and decided he needed to make complete use of those girls which resulted in having 3 unnecessary item songs which were just too loud with hardly any audible lyrics.

Cinematography and the stunts stand out and give a great visual treat to the audience.

 Chakri Toletti wanted to project the image and invincibility of Ajith for his Fans and has exceeded their expectations reaching a saturation point. Some/most scenes had no logic at all or backed with no supporting plots they just seemed like a video game where ""Ajith Kills the Bad Guys". 

Overall the movie felt like a highlight of a gangster movie solely carried by Ajith,  A true cinema lover would find this movie a very very big trailer.

If you've got nothing to lose and wanted to spend some time hearing explosions and gun fire hop in and you will enjoy the movie. 

My rating for the movie is 3.5

Avengers - Entertainment Unlimited !

How come one superhero wasn't enough?? 

The Avengers as you've all guessed by watching the trailers and reading comics is an ensemble of all the super heroes in one mission. 

The Avengers in this part are , Captain America, Thor, IronMan, Hulk and Hawkeye and my favorite avenger-Black Widow played by Scarlett Johansen ( She looked stunning!!!! ). 

This is the first movie of the Avenger series which shows how and why the avengers come together.

The story is simple Thor's brother Loki tries to enslave the humans by using the power of the "Tesseract" to teleport "Evil" God's creations and creatures from the land of the Gods, Asgard. The Avengers put together by SHIELD's lead, Fury ( Samuel Jackson ) try and stop these creatures/Demi Gods from taking over the world. 

The screenplay never deviated from the core of the story and there wasn't any one moment where I felt the movie was boring. The action sequences were breathtaking, loud and perfectly choreographed, I'd say special effects at its best. There's so much special effects in the movie and yet you don't notice anything, that's how good it is. At this rate I believe Marvel might soon buy the company which makes these special effects and make it an in-house unit. 

The camera work though very difficult since they need to make it in 3D , would've been better had they shot the movie in IMAX instead of remastering it, there were a few action scenes which were not clear ( ie too fast transition) since it was not shot in IMAX. Adding some complication to the special effects and the way we see it was the 3D. Though it was good, some scenes were not as good as normal special effects, the 3D distorted the picture a bit.

Music was excellent, nevertheless it comes from a guy who's considered "The Guru"  of comic recreations and animation movies, Alan Silvestri. Using the London Symphony Orchestra was a very good decision since a movie of such grandeur needs a lift in the music department as well. The surround sound was one of the best I've heard in a long time ...

What was so good about the movie was even though the movie was an action movie it had a lot of humor in between the scenes which lifted the nail biting tension off ( even though there wasn't any ;) ) 

Overall the movie was a great entertainer! I might even watch it again...

My rating for this would be a 8.5!

3 - Excellent experimentation !

The story revolves around 2 people and only two people. A wonderfully crafted Psychological Drama/Thriller which might have some impact on everyone who watches it. I still couldn't understand why they named the movie 3, was it for portraying 3 stages of the lead actors life or for something else?

Film starts with people mourning at the death of Ram (Dhanush). Seen here are , Ram's wife Janani ( Shruthi Hassan), Dhanush's folks ( Prabhu and Bhanupriya) and Shruthi's folks (Rohini and someone). The story goes back and forth into past and present pointing out how Dhanush and Shruthi love each other and how they make decisions about themselves. The first half of the movie concentrates on only the courtship of the 2 protagonists of the movie. It seemed very stereotypical but very elegant on how two people can fall in love and how things can be easy if the right chords are struck at the right time. Midst this come couple of scenes where the police officer conveys a Autopsy report ( which is silenced by the BGM ) but is very shocking and painful to Shruthi. Then she also discovers a letter written to Shruthi from Dhanush before he died which is not clear but is apologetic. The next half of the movie deals with who or what killed Dhanush and what troubled Dhanush's marriage and how the intimacy shared between the couple is wrecked. Since the story has some suspenseful plot I am not going further into the story.

Before you get bored by the review, I would like to mention the feel of the movie would have been completely different ( Extremely Boring ) had the Background Score been any less powerful. I'd say, the score carried the entire movie though the screenplay was powerful. The score had a very heavy inspiration of Roman folk music and some Country Waltz. There were scenes where the music was a bit over powering the dialogues ( poor sound engineering ).

The acting department was flawless but for Shruthi Hassan. She has done her part but she still needs to experiment on many of her expressions, especially CRYING. She looks too ugly and unnatural when she cries. 

People should start comparing her with Kamal Hassan, Shivaji's son did not become like Sivaji, Amitabh's son couldn't become like Amitabh. Sathyaraj's son - don't even think about it. So lets not expect something from Shruthi in the scale of Kamal Hassan. 

It was a good feeling to see veteran actors like Bhanupriya , Rohini and Prabhu in one screen though they have very less influence. Dhanush doesn't need any critic for his acting, its sad to see that he's raising his "Bench-Mark" in each movie the expectations are wild. Sivakarthikeyan has single won Hands-down with his slapstick comedy along with Dhanush. He has indeed propelled the first half through his snippets  from falling under the usual Hero-Heroine love category. 

Screenplay was good but flawed and lost continuity at many instances, 

• For how many months will Shruthi wear the "Thaali" in yellow thread?
• For how many months will Dhanush's friend Senthil be in a cast and have a plaster in his forehead. 
• In one scene, he's seen without one but then has one in the next.  
• Dhanush places a letter in his right pocket but Shruthi takes it out from the left one.
• Dhanush says Shruthi is sad after marriage, and invites her parents home. But they celebrate their "First Night" after how many days???
• Shruthi says she's known Dhanush for 10 years, but they've been married for how long?

Even though hard to notice, quite a number of flaws and discontinuity in the screenplay. I hope Aishwarya will correct herself in her next movie. Switching between present, past and talking about the possibilities captivated the audience and a good way of story telling. 

Overall its a feel good movie with a subtle message. Please don't go to the movie with "Why this KolaVeri" expectation, its a very different Genre that was not previously handled Indian/Tamil Cinema which not many can easily pull with only 2 Characters.

My rating for this would be a 6.5!