Live-action film adaptation by Zack Snyder of popular comics Watchmen.
Watchmen, in its director's cut version is exactly what I had expected from a film adaptation. The story sticks religiously to the original scenario, the same angles, the same shots, the same panels! Almost as if the comics are brought to life.
Once you add the film extras, Tales of the Black Freighter and Under the Hood, it's a perfect homage to Watchmen, which in its time was a radical departure from other superhero comics.
However, the only diversion from the original story is that there is no alien invasion engineered by Ozymandias, the common enemy being Dr Manhattan. Many things are left unexplained - what exactly is Dr Manhattan's machine, his energy, how is it detonated in the world's cities?
As I had long suspected, Nite Owl is indeed a copycat of Batman, similar technologies (Archie, owl siren, night vision, cave-like hideout), similar suits & even has an owl version of the batarang! :P
If you've liked the comics, you'll absolutely love the film. ;)
Rating - 7.5/10
Knowing
A film which started on a doomsday prediction from the past turns into an alien rescue mission. You could see right through the special effects - the plane & train crash instead of terrifying you, makes you say "duh." It was a good story, but the under-par acting from Nicholas Cage & the lack of a final plot wrap-up ruined it. Knowing is a watch-once-&-forget-it sci-fi movie.
Rating - 6.5/10
Fast and Furious 4
The story of Fast and Furious is situated in between 2Fast2Furious & Tokyo Drift, with (one of my least favourite actors) Vin Diesel back. The story looks like a rerun of 2Fast2Furious - Dom & Brian participate in a race where the winner will form part of a drug smuggling ring between US & Mexico. To be frank, I didn't like the movie. The cars weren't that exciting & the races were boring, especially those tunnel scenes that had too much CGI. Of all films in the Fast and Furious series, this one is the worst. :|
Rating - 6/10
Twilight
After watching this movie, I can confirm that there is nothing exceptional in it. It's an average story with somewhat irritating acting & lines. All the hype can be attributed to tweens with pea-sized brains, hooked on Miley Cyrus's songs. Best moment in the film was the final vampire battle, which turned out to be a one-and-a-half-minute duel.
Only positive thing is that they used Linkin Park's Leave Out All The Rest in the ending credits. :)
Rating - 4/10 (Twilight S.U.C.K.S!)
Dragonball Evolution
If you are a Dragonball fan, stay away from this movie! & if you are not a Dragonball fan, make as if you never ever heard of it!
This movie slaughters the very essence of the Dragonball saga, right from the story to the characters. Piccolo would have looked scarier wearing a Halloween mask (or even a surgical mask) rather than that horrible make-up bought off eBay. Goku's transformation into Ozaru almost made me puke. :'(
The post-credits ending sealed my conviction that this was the worst movie I've seen this year! :|
Rating - 2/10 (2's only for the cute chicks)
Banlieue 13 Ultimatum
Banlieue 13 is the best French film I've seen and B13-U comes very close to replicating its success. Again it features the same free-running & the martial arts action. You'll love it for the action, but the big let-down was the story - it's almost the same as the last one. The authorities want to destroy district B13 & the good guys convince the bad guys to stop it.
Rating - 7/10