Puroo Roy

Never in my life have I ever seen a Bollywood film with cinematography this good. Every shot looks like it can be a desktop wallpaper. Freddy Ginwala is such a likeable character. The only off-putting thing is that he is too handsome. It doesn't make sense why anyone would choose a protein shake over him.

I have just finished watching the movie on Prime Video and everything is absolutely fresh in my mind right now. I had no idea what I was going in for. I didn't read the original book or watch any trailer before seeing this movie. All I had heard was that this takes place in the same universe as Harry Potter, which is why I watched it. And honestly speaking, this movie is nothing different from what I expected it would be. The problem with this movie is that it's very, very cliched. It uses those exact plot points that make an annoying movie, well, annoying. That's literally how this movie begins: Making an annoying creature do things for which the protagonist gets in trouble. This is just like how Dobby was in The Chamber of Secrets, except over there he was doing it because he had been asked to do so. The marsupial mole over here wasn't doing it for any particular reason at all, except for being cringy. If I were Newt I'd have just let him get caught and die. And then of course, Newt is unregistered. The way the movie began made it seem like Newt was a complete idiot, except that the whole point behind his character is that he's smart. He's the only one person who cares about the beasts of the magical world unlike the zoophobic wizards. Every species in this whole movie - muggles, wizards, magical creatures - everyone was unlikeable. They all did things which made me want them to get their comeuppance. The only thing that saved this movie for me was the world building. I have heard that the book is actually a guidebook for all the creatures living in their universe. So this, being an adaptation, was the only good part in the entire movie. And it was so beautiful that I enjoyed this otherwise irritating movie. I really wish that was the main focus of the movie instead of them being about fugitives running from the law and something something Ezra Miller. Another thing I really liked about this movie is the depiction of the 1920's America. All the characters looked like they belonged in that age. The ignorant, hateful behaviour of the people from that time was very well depicted, if that was intentional. The acting was great. People reacted just like how they would if the CGI was present before them in real life. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a movie that seems to be more oriented for a young audience, since they are the ones who will find it more appealing. It has cool and cute animals, funny scenes, childish storyline and overall the 90's and early 00's vibe to it. It's a one time watch for the adults, since the only good thing to offer for a mature audience is the phenomenal CGI. It won't remain as interesting if watched for a second time, which is why I'd recommend you to not ruin the experience by watching it for the second time.

The fact that it released on 1st April makes it even funnier.

I had been planning to watch this movie for quite a long time. Three things really attracted me towards it. Firstly it's an animated movie about animals, and that rarely goes bad. Secondly its animation is so good, you can see every single fur on the owls and the leaves on the trees. Of course since it's directed by Zack Snyder, the visuals had to have a priority. And thirdly, the trailer. The music coupled with the slow motion shots made me wish I knew about this movie when it released. This looked like one of those movies which are meant to be watched in a theatre. Yesterday I finally watched it on Google Play Movies. It was made with so much perfection, it almost doesn't even feel like a 13 year old movie. It looks like it has been made in the recent years. The story follows two owlets who are still learning to fly but accidentally fall from a tree and while trying to get back up, are snagged by two bigger owls. They are taken away to the Pure Ones, who plan to turn them into warriors. While the main character, Soren, escapes from the pure ones, his brother Kludd is left behind and gets trained by Nyra, the queen of the pure ones. The animation of this movie, as I've said before, is phenomenal. I have never seen something so good outside of Disney's The Lion King remake. The colour palette is simply breathtaking, it almost feels like a video game. The environments in which they are present are also very picturesque. The way they fly while fighting or above the ocean is also very cool, it almost feels like a painting coming to life. The way Metal Beak is shown in a flashback of how Grimble became a part of The Pure Ones gave me goosebumps. The characters have both serious and light moments. There are many funny scenes in the movie, alongside the much darker ones. But there are negative points too. First of all it's very hard to understand who's who because everyone looks so similar. I thought Grimble, Jutt and Ezylryb were all the same characters the whole time, and I figured out they're all different only while looking up the Wikipedia page as I was writing this review. Secondly many scenes end very abruptly and there is not enough breathing time. Like when they meet the porcupine who tells them to fly across the sea, and then suddenly in the next scene they are in a storm. The beginning of the movie also feels like they're just trying to get that part done away with quickly and get to the action. Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole is one movie I'm gonna recommend everyone to watch, mainly for its visuals and family friendly content (compared to other Zack Snyder movies). I haven't read the books but now I really feel like doing so. The author is really lucky to have such a beautiful book adaptation. It is surely one of, if not the most underrated animated movies out there.

SPOILER FREE REVIEW I am a huge fan of The Matrix franchise, and this movie just released today in India. My friends and I were deciding whether to watch Spider-Man: No Way Home or this. One of us is a big Spider-Man hater and so we decided we will watch this movie, and we will watch Spider-Man: No Way Home some other time. Initially I was very sceptical about this movie since I didn't exactly like Revolutions, but The Matrix: Awakens had given me hope that this is going to be some really good stuff. In my opinion, this movie is going to be very divisive, as in the case of Black Widow or Man of Steel. Either you will really love it or absolutely hate it. It has some really good cinematography and action scenes. Unlike the previous trilogy which has too much green colour, this one is actually quite colourful. On the downside, however, it has nostalgia pandering, circlejerking (there's literally a five minute scene in which people are praising The Matrix Trilogy and saying how much Warner Bros liked it), quirky references to gaming, too much exposition, unnecessary flashbacks and overall the movie starts feeling very much dragged in the first half itself. I almost dozed off at the part where Priyanka Chopra comes as the adult Sati. While the first half was pretty Meh, the second half was pretty dope, especially after Agent Smith and Agent Johnson come. So what happens over here is that Neo has been taking blue pills prescribed to him by his psychiatrist, which make him forget what The Matrix was. Instead he vaguely remembers them in the form of memories, from which he has created a video game franchise based on it. In this movie The Matrix trilogy is a game series, and Thomas Anderson is a game designer. Now Morpheus has to convince Neo to take the Red Pill and join The Matrix again. I can't speak more than this without giving spoilers, so I will just recommend you to sit till the end, after the roll credits there is a post credit scene that you definitely wouldn't want to miss out. The movie does have a lot of references to the previous movies, but you don't need to rewatch them as long as you remember the basics, since most of the time the important scenes are just shown in the flashbacks. That even includes the iconic scene where Neo bends backward to dodge Agent Smith's bullets. Speaking of Agent Smith, however, he isn't exactly great in this movie. Most of it is carried by Agent Johnson instead. Neo was, once again, my favourite character in this movie. He actually feels like someone who is coming back after a long time to take what belongs to him. Ever since Keanu Reeves has grown his beard, he has been giving that kind of a look. So overall I'd say while The Matrix: Resurrections has a better CGI and action scenes and is even funny at some points, it lacks the cohesive story or any ground-breaking visual that the first movie had. And that is saying something since it came out after 18 years so something new was expected. That, however, should not be seen as something completely negative since it is not supposed to be a reboot, but just a normal sequel. If I were to rank the four movies, I'd say The Matrix > Reloaded > Resurrections > Revolutions. So yeah, if you liked Reloaded and Revolutions, you will like this too.

I learnt about this movie from Reddit, when someone posted a screenshot on Batman v Superman Ultimate Edition being available on HBO Max but since this movie was also in the screenshot, everyone started talking about it. I live in India so HBO Max hasn't reached me yet, but I did manage to find this on Netflix. Since my subscription was just one day away from ending, I decided to give it a try. And honestly I had no idea what I was going to expect, so anything would have been good enough for me. It has the Bat Family and a huge rogue gallery so that was a plus for me, and seeing how much Japanese appreciate Batman was also very interesting to see. Batman Ninja doesn't exactly have a solid storyline. That's the biggest down point in the movie, and the reason why everyone here is giving it a poor rating. Gorilla Grodd has made a time machine that would send all the villains to the past, but Batman and his sidekicks also reach the spot thinking Grodd is planning something evil. As a result they all go back to Feudal Japan where Joker and Harley Quinn, Two-Face, Deathstroke, Poison Ivy and Gorilla Grodd have all prepared their own empires and are going to attack each other. Meanwhile Batman tries to gather an army of monkeys and trains to be a ninja so that he can fight them all. The movie uses all kinds of Japanese stereotypes you can imagine - Feudal Japan, samurais, the bamboo tapping playing in the background whenever someone is walking in a village, the giant robots (because why not?), speaking out Japanese accent English in a manly voice, Catwoman behaving like a cat-girl, and of course, monkeys. Many people are also saying that the English dub is terrible, to which I'd ask, why were you watching it in English dub in the first place? I watched it in Japanese the way it was intended to, so I didn't find any problem there. The animation is what completely got me sold. Every frame is drawn by hand and still it is so smooth. The fight scenes are all very well done and as an animator myself I can guarantee you, it is really, really hard to show an action scene without a reference or motion capture, something most anime do nowadays. The characters were also very well drawn, unlike the weird things DC has been making nowadays (looking at you, Injustice and Superman: Man of Tomorrow). There were bad parts in it like less of Batman and more of Ninja, and I completely understand why this movie gets so much hate. I won't be surprised if this review gets bombarded to be unhelpful. But we should appreciate what it did right. Since Batman Ninja is a standalone movie, we don't need to watch anything before and after this. Plus it is only a little more than an hour and a half long, so it's not like it will take too much time. If you want to see how Batman will look like reimagined as an anime, do check it out once. But if you're not, you don't really need to see it.

I know, many people will mark this review unhelpful when Chapter 2 comes closer to release. But honestly those toxic fans are the reason why my hopes from this film were so high. When the trailer for KGF: Chapter 2 came, many people were saying that this film will mark the end of Bollywood. I saw KGF: Chapter 1 hoping that this film will be something like Baahubali (without the CGI of course). But no, this isn't any different from any normal South Indian film. In fact, it is pretty much what everyone hates about Bollywood. It has eve teasing, corrupt politicians, peaceful religion shown as good people and Hindus shown as bad people, unrealistic action and item songs. The film begins by mentioning Rocky (of course, the most unique name for a hero) is the most wanted criminal in Indian history, and yet there is nowhere that his account has been mentioned. Now I have several questions. How come one book is the only source of the people knowing about the biggest criminal to ever exist? How come no one else wrote about it? I'm 99% sure there must have been some Ravish Kumars or Arnab Goswamis at the time who would write this down at least in secret. And what about the TV channels who must have accidentally aired it before it was announced that it has to be a secret? And what about international news sources? If they can write about Dawood Ibrahim, why not about this? But anyway, let's not get carried away by just one illogical thing. There are a dozen more to come. Now, Rocky had been told in his childhood by his dying mother that he has to become the richest and the most powerful person in the world, and that's what he sets out to do. Except there is one problem - he doesn't even know what the most powerful position is. He goes in the side of the underworld and tries his best to establish himself over there, while the UN secretary-general probably laughs in the corner. Also keep in mind that the UN secretary-general is only the most powerful person in the world, not the richest. So now he has to get to a position without looking suspiciously rich. But don't worry about that, because Rocky is too busy singing Happy Birthday while killing bad guys. Speaking of killing bad guys, everytime Rocky fights, there are always like, a dozen jump cuts and lights flickering. He can kill his enemies and his audience who suffer from epileptic seizures. And speaking of epileptic seizures, let's play the drinking game. Every time the screen blacks out, you take one sip. By the end of the film you won't have enough space in your body to insert more liquid. Good luck in the toilet. And speaking of drinking, of course no South Indian film can be completed without harassing or verbally abusing a woman till she gives in. So there is the villain's daughter who is drinking in the public after blocking the road (it looked like a cheap parody of Watchmen). Now I don't know if the Hindi dubbing was so horrendous or the dialogues were actually so bad, but our hero starts speaking gibberish while beating her henchmen. But once the second half starts the film gets much better. Rocky goes inside KGF, and that is where the big story starts. At that point I have no complaints. In fact, it is where the film shows why it is so popular. However, there also some of the cinematography problems do exist, like the bad camera angles, quick jump cuts and of course, the screen going black. But the selling point of the film is the colour grading. That has been done very well, to the point that some scenes look like perfect desktop wallpapers. The ending looked very iconic, something that one will remember while leaving the theatre.