AVATAR

A wait of 12 years for a movie from your favorite director, was it worth it? Just like many around me, I was very skeptical about the movie, watching the blue creatures in the trailers. Dubbed as the most expensive movie ever made by man, Avatar promised a 3D experience like never before and it lived upto it.  Its kind of a cliche these days that we hardly find any bad performances in a movie made by the leading directors, but this movie would stand out from the rest considering the animation aspect of the characters. Team Avatar simply excels in portraying every detail of their ideas. By the time the last frame rolled I was absolutely in love with Pandora, the moon of a distant planet where all the narration takes place. A decent emotional scene from a regular love story always gives out a feel good emotion but imagine it happening in a bioluminescensent  environment during Pandora’s night enhanced by the 3D aspect.

I am sure this movie would be a benchmark on many technical aspects and as many said  ” a pre and post AVATAR era”. By the time the movie finished, I got a feeling that I just visited pandora and came back to Santa Clara, CA. It being a 2hrs 40 min movie, James Cameron made sure that the narration keeps you involved in the movie with the right mix of a good story and mind blowing visual effects.  If your calender is full for the coming week, just make a place for this movie on an imax screen no matter what before some one gives out a spoiler. I am pretty sure it would rewrite all the records created by the Titanic 12 years ago… Great Job Team Avatar, a special mention for James Cameroon for making his dream into a spectacular experience and entertaining us like never before. After completing this post I am driving to the IMAX screen for the next show …

Big Screen Watch Value – 9.7/10.

DVD Watch Value – 8/10.

15 minutes

What would be the consequences when people love their work or they are damn good about what they do?Just to put it another way, what happens when two people involved in a series of crimes are up against NYC’s high profile cop and an arson investigator, all of whom fit the above assumption.  Now you may get a feeling that bad guys create a big mess and  end up in jail or die while the good guys save the day but the unpredictability of the plot makes 15 minutes an edge of the seat thriller.  Karel Roden and Oleg Taktarov excel in their characters as European guys, special mention to Oleg with his comic timing in the midst of seriousness of the film; where as Edward Burns was decent in his role as an arson investigator . It was another day at work for Robert De Nero where he was flawless as a high profile cop and and Charlize Theron was a surprise in her short role. A good portrayal of characters with a gripping screenplay makes 15 minutes an entertaining length of 2 hours.

Big Screen Watch Value  : 7.6/10

DVD Watch Value :  8.4/10

District 9

Aliens arriving, aircraft battles , one of the lead characters sacrificing their lives to become heroes and save the day for the earthlings, have seen lot of stuff from my high school days. This was the mindset with which I entered the movie theater. I was completely wrong. What impressed me most was the portrayal of basic human instincts. How does an ordinary man react to extraordinary circumstances which turn his life upside down. There is no doubt that Neil Blomkamp must have been inspired by the apartheid era or the district 6 events but

make some space in your busy time for this one

he succeeds in showing the events of imbalance in a region due to xenophobia. To summarize the movie without revealing the plot, District9 is a struggle of a common man and an alien father against the system defying all odds. One thing which the movie promises is, it’s not one of those predictable all blowing up boring happy endings.  I am happy that I didn’t had to sit through the unnecessary blowing up of stuff which were offered all through the summer but was treated to a tight plot and a gripping screenplay. District9 is definitely worth the buck spent.

Big Screen Watch Value – 8.5/10

DVD   Watch Value – 9/10