Furious 7

Finally, made it to the movie in IMAX and 3D. Thankfully, I did not have an headache after the movie, which if not the 3D glasses, all the sound effects related to the blasts and the action sequences should have caused, but surprisingly no headache. In fact I felt so… energized.. 😉 Wonder why.

We know how it would end, we know who gets hurt and who doesn’t etc etc.. So no going into the story or anything. But when Jason Stratham and Vin Diesel really get into that street fight mode, I now know to whom my heart goes. Its Vin Diesel. Doubt cleared. I thought I will feel bad for Jason, but nope. Action sequences were amazing….be it jumping cars from that plane , or the bus sequence with Paul, the car flying between buildings, exchanging people between two running cars, whoa!!! They have taken the action to a whole new level. Too good.. I was on the edge of my seat for some of them and clapping so hard after they ended. Good one liners for Vin Diesel and some comic relief by Tyrese (especially the one where he has to jump with his car from the plane….and where he talks about management…) Jason doesn’t have much scope for acting and even with action, it was very primitive. Dwayne Johnson comes when he is required and no more. Sound track in the background was very good and was the sound effects.

But at the end, I had tears in my eyes. Because of the perfect tribute to Paul Walker that was done at the last 5-10 mins. Couldn’t have done it any better. Was so touching and heart felt. When we see the old clippings that is when we can see how much they have grown up in the span of these 6 movies. RIP Paul. And I am glad I watched this in theater in 3D and IMAX, even though the movie is both ridiculous and wonderful at the same time.

Furious or not ???

‘ Who want’s to watch a movie this weekend ? ‘ was the question posted by a friend on the WhatsApp friends group. It was assumed by everyone that the movie would be ‘Furious 7’, that got released today, even though we have ‘Cinderella’ and a couple of Hindi movies in the list too. One wanted to watch it for Paul Walker, the other wanted to drool over Vin Diesel and Jason Statham. I am not a big fan of this series. I haven’t watched all the 6 earlier movies. Only 3 of them, if I am not wrong. But I did like the ones I saw (and that did not include Tokyo Drift…couldn’t bring myself to watch that movie fully even thought it was playing on TV the other day…) And come on, Vin Diesel and his voice, why wouldn’t I like him. And I love speed racing and stuff. I love action. The trailer shows some amazing stunts which would be cool to watch…(see how the cars are flying ??? and how they land and stuff…whoa!!!) but still IMAX, 3D ??? I have never been a great fan of 3D movies.  Makes my head ache after using that glass. So, I am still a little undecided. My other close friend, skipped office to watch the premier show today with her husband and I know I cannot get a honest review from her, because she is a super crazy fan of this series. She owns all the DVD’s in this series. So yeah, a little confused and undecided, but I think I know what I might end up doing this weekend, inspite of all this…sigh

The Hobbit – The Battle of the Five Armies

When I saw the first two movies, I remembered posting that I would have to read the book before I saw the last part of it. But then that never happened. That shouldn’t be a reason to not see the movie now isn’t ? So I went ahead to watch the last part of the series ‘The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies‘ yesterday. No spoiler alert, because I will be falling into the minority group who haven’t read the story in the first place and it is sort of predictable if you have seen the first two movies. In IMAX, in 3D, it was good. Very good. I mean the visuals and the special effects. Story wise it is well know how it was going to end anyways and we have well defined and clichéd moments in it anyways. It was a little lengthier and did get a teeny tiny bit boring in between, but then that might also be because I am not fond of war scenes that keep going on and on. Martin Freeman’s expressions in some places are too good 🙂 Can’t help but chuckle, especially when he is just this (tiny gap between index finger and thumb) distance away from getting caught for his deceit. I really would appreciate if people stopped saying the line ‘Why does this hurt so much? If this is love, make it go away’. I am so tired of hearing that line. Please rephrase it or express it differently. I was a little sad that no one clapped for Smaug 😦 (did you see the Stephen Colbert’s interview with Smaug ? If not , check it out here, its amazing and so funny) Being the final one in the series, there was no way I would have missed it. If only they had edited a few portions of it, it would have been good. I still think that it might have done well with a single (even if it was a 3 hr) movie, but breaking the book into multiple series is the current fashion, so …

 

Interstellar again

Spoiler Alert

Yeah, finally made it to Interstellar in IMAX  yesterday(on a weekday, bunking office for a show that spans before and after the lunch time ….shhhhh). So, did that change my views on the movie, now that I watched it in a better screen with better sound and visual effects ? Before I go into that, let me tell you about the horrifying few minutes, where the movie started and every thing in the screen looked like a 3D movie sans the 3D glasses. You know where things are seen in double or triple. That is how it started and everyone looked at each other wondering if we forgot our glasses by mistake. But it was a IMAX movie not a 3D one for godsake. Then some of them went and complained and they stopped the screening for a few minutes. And when they restarted it, it started with the same blur but then it got better. Phew !!! The relief of it! The people who come to the theater should have some basic common sense , even though the theater keeps repeating some basic stuff  (like put your phone in silent mode, if you want to really speak please step out and take the call, don’t litter the theater) before the movie begins, we still hear the ringtones here and there. In one quiet moment, one lady from behind picked up her phone (which was ringing loudly of course) and told to the caller and to everyone in the theater, ‘I am in the movie hall’. Yeah, right! Seriously, when will these people learn ? And I am not even going into littering.

OK, now back to the movie. Nope, still nothing tugging my heart and making me emotional. But what was better ? The visuals….just wow. The impact of IMAX on this movie is amazing. It was like sometimes I felt like I was there in the space floating. When they were walking in Mann’s planet, I felt a little giddy. All that white and grey expanse does that to me , even if a little, in real life too. Sometimes seeing that teeny tiny speckle of space craft in that wide wide space makes you feel like nothing (not sure if that is a good thing, but then it is what it is). As my friend says frequently, ‘In the Grand Scheme of things…’

The sound effects. I could hear the dialogues very clearly and understand them better, even though they did have subtitles (which I ignored for most cases). I realized that I had missed some subtle humor in between when I had seen them the first time. I could appreciate some of the concepts much better now that I was able to hear them clearly. No disturbance or noise ruining it. The score of the movie was so so AMAZING in IMAX. I could feel the vibrations in my seat. It was that powerful. Pure awesomeness.

Since we knew the story and weren’t surprised by anything, we could analyze little bit on the characters. My friend found Cooper’s character a little annoying and a little hypocritical. No one here is the hero, except for the story. Even though we can still say that Mann was more of a villain in this.

Overall, I could appreciate the movie a lot better after watching it in IMAX both in terms of understanding (even though I can’t talk about any concepts from it related to the time and gravity yet) and the grandeur of the story thanks to the better sound and visual effects. Even if I had to spend a 150Rs more for that, it was totally worth it, except for that little scare in the beginning.

 

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.