[mayankk]

Originally Posted by JVH

Legend - 4/5

A ----snip---- a fan for life.

Brilliant movie, brilliant actor. Not taking anything away from him, but if you liked this, watch the rise of the krays. It's way more British in the story telling.

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by mayankk

So, the outside of left field casting of Ben Affleck did not work like Bale or ledger or Hardy? Any reviews, guys?

You got it. Now just as background info, some are Star Wars fans, some are Trekkies, some are comic books fans, Marvel fans etc, I am none of those. I am however, an accidental DC fan.. call it due to watching the Batman animated series of WB in Cartoon Network, the Superman animated series as well as the Justice League as a kid in the late 90's. Also who can forget Smallville.

First off, the Nolan trilogy is a stand-alone, it cannot and should not be compared to BvS in any way or form. The trilogy is a masterpiece more so for its relevance shown towards the real state of functioning in this world, it is a portrayal of a real, corrupt society with a "what if" thrown in. What if one vigilante rose to fight a system that is corrupted by only money and power. It set a standard for believable cinema that other movie-makers are only now getting to understand and Bale stands in a league of his own when it comes to acting. The trilogy is also understood to be set in the late-90's era since it began production only in 2003.

Now I might get a bit technical but it is relevant. BvS is a completely new movie, Warner has done what is called a retcon of all DC characters. Back to comics world it is, with re-writing the laws of physics, human capabilities and on a few occasions, complete lack of logic. Some points of the movie first - Ben Affleck did a good job, the script failed his character not his acting and he is the first person to come closest to animated series Batman. Henry Cavill like his last movie as well, destroys who Superman is with his constipated, wooden acting.. blame both the script and the actor for this. The director Snyder is overrated and cannot even hold two lines together during interviews, his script is just as incoherent, disjointed and well childish.

For fans of DC these points will surely chop the movie experience a level or 2 down :
- Superman isn't Superman, period. Just a bi-polar roid-rager.
- Superman's nemesis in the end (don't want to spoil the name just in case) is shown at about .01% of its original capability. The animated version can fight for a week with Supes without losing breath and can smash the whole JL like insects in a second. Surprisingly the movie also shows it at about twice its original size despite the weakness.
- Supes himself is shown to be considerably weaker than prior versions.
- Wonder Woman - below average, even though in reviews most people liked her.
- Lex Luthor - horrendous portrayal by Jessie Eisenberg, he ruined one of Superman's most feared enemies. Originally shown to be tall, extremely refined and much more intelligent than anyone on the planet, this one was a bumbling mess of a boy (he is shown to be Lex Jr though). His acting along with Snyders story killed it and hence the negative reviews.

Overall a 7/10 for Ben Affleck side of things, otherwise a 2/10 overall. Christopher Reeve made for a far better Supes in his day.

[deetjohn]

Dawn of Justice is sad. I didn't expect much, but the movie still felt pretty bad.

The lead characters are both hollow and the script is way too weak. Even the Batmobile was sad. The only saving grace is Wonder Woman. Maybe since she got very limited screen space.

I am just so glad that Christian Bale didn't take this up.

Avoid if possible.

[Fraz33r]

Originally Posted by deetjohn

Dawn of Justice is sad. I didn't expect much......

Avoid if possible.

+1 Agree to that. If I wasn't in the theater, I would probably would have changed the channel. No connect with the audience, superficial emotions, and lack luster ( or is should say luthor) antagonist.

Glad, that best trilogy actors stayed away from this mish mash.

[maddy42]

Concussion: Watched this will smith starrer last night as i was expecting it to be a oscar contender but it did not get any nominations. Movie is about a doctor who finds out about NFL players having brain injury and his fight to have it public. Started off really well but lost steam in the middle and the ending was not very clear or didnt finish well.

I would rate it 3/5 just for the story and will smiths acting. The rest of the cast were average.

Maddy

[amitoj]

Charlize Theron in FF8

Woohoo! Now THAT gives me something to look forward to in Fast 8!

[JonSnow]

Originally Posted by JVH

Legend - 4/5

A long flight time gives me a chance to watch movies I hadn't even heard of. So I see this movie title among the options and hit the play button only knowing that Tom Hardy is starring. I have mostly seen Tom in most of the Nolan movies and of course in the awesome Mad Max - Fury Road.

What follows is the most spell binding, engaging and thrilling double role performance by Tom Hardy. The 2 roles cannot be more contrasting but Tom Hardy makes it look very easy. This is the most sublime, complete and versatile performance I have ever seen of an actor in one single movie.

This is a typical rise of a gangster movie and the eventual fall with it. So there is nothing new here from story point of view. Those who have seen
Goodfellas can easily co-relate. Loved the brit cockney accent and the humor throughout the movie.

To me, this movie is Tom Hardy's alone. Watch this movie for his awesome performance. Now am a fan for life.

Yes, Tom Hardy has given a great performance in this movie. He didn't get to show his acting talent in movies like Dark Knight Returns but he is an awesome actor. I would recommend the movie Locke, where I felt he has given his best performance.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by deetjohn

Dawn of Justice is sad. I didn't expect much, but the movie still felt pretty bad.



The lead characters are both hollow and the script is way too weak. Even the Batmobile was sad. The only saving grace is Wonder Woman. Maybe since she got very limited screen space.



Avoid if possible.

Couldn't agree more. I Went to see this movie last weekend, weird ass movie. Waste of time and money

[johannskaria]

Funnily enough had gone for 'Zootopia', an animated movie few weeks before with my sound engineer friend and we both loved it!

[Fillmore]

The Jungle Book - 4.5/5

Its a brilliant movie, well made with good graphics.
Very small children might not like it as there are some scenes which may scare kids i.e. with the sound effects.
The storyline is almost the same as the animated Jungle book.
The songs are scaled down when compared to the first version, but they are present.

A real life boy with CGI animals, the animals are good as well. Not as perfect as in The Life of Pi I would say,
but not bad either.

All in all a good watch.

[sukhoi30]

Originally Posted by Fillmore

All in all a good watch.

Jungle Book - 4.5 / 5

I second that. It is a brilliant movie with some real good special effects. I watched this with family in 4DX screen. The sound and the 3D effects are really great. I specially loved the stampeding buffaloes scene. It must have taken several months to make such an effect.

But, the flaw is in its dialogue delivery. The american accent is all too pervasive. They should have improved their pronunciations to make it a bit more realistic. In this movie, Akela becomes "Akila", Bhaloo becomes "Balu", Raksha becomes "Raakshaa" and so on.

Neel Sethi's acting is ok, ok, I feel. In many scenes (Sher Khan's scene, Kaa's scene), you could see him blankly staring at the animals without any sign of fear. Not sure if that was in the script or he just couldn't emote fear.

I am not sure if young children will get scared but my kid (8 yrs) loved the movie.


On a side note, many theaters these days have introduced "English" subtitles for English movies. That is super irritating. I know they want to do that to increase viewership, but it really spoils movie watching for some.
Many movies with such special effects should be watched without any disturbance. When people around you munch pop corns, we are simple losing out on many sound effects in the movie.

[Technocrat]

The Jungle Book

Will keep it simple, very disappointing, I understand they wanted to be different than the previous one but the way they have messed up with stories & characters was just unbearable.

They couldn't even decide whether its a serious movie or a funny one, the characters suddenly start singing the famous funny lines in the middle of a serious scene.

Neel Sethi was good & the only saving grace.

2/5

Batman V Superman

I have been wondering what to post about this one and I think as most of the folks have already expressed their disappointment, I am no different.

Originally Posted by dark.knight

The director Snyder is overrated and cannot even hold two lines together during interviews, his script is just as incoherent, disjointed and well childish.

+1, I always felt he was over rated even for his previous movies.

1.5/5

While it is not fair, it is inevitable to compare how Marvel has created & slowly built up its cinematic universe in an amazing way vs what DC is doing, we are now fans of even the characters which were not very popular(e.g. I didn't know much about Ironman, Thor, Antman before the movies)

WB along with DC are completely clueless(only exception being Arrow & Gotham the TV series), they are introducing major characters like Wonder woman before making a film of her own & they somehow decided that making a dedicated movie after introducing her makes more sense

Marvel has beautifully created their TV & Movie characters unlike DC who will have two different people playing Flash in the movie(Justice League) & the TV series. Same goes for Gotham, they are creating parallel universe in TV & Movies.

Same might happen for Arrow & other TV characters as well, no thought process.

And looking at the way Marvel is creating new Characters with their near perfect casting, it will be long before a DC movie will come anywhere near a Marvel one.

Check out the trailer for Dr Strange, looks like another great movie in the making.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31lEwIF6AcI

[LonelyPlanet]

Caught up with the oscar winning Spotlight (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1895587/) on a flight to US last week.
The movie is a true story on how the Boston Globe uncovers the massive scandal related to child molestation and cover up by the church.
Very nicely depicted
Verdict 4/5

[GTO]

Originally Posted by LonelyPlanet

Caught up with the oscar winning Spotlight (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1895587/) on a flight to US last week.

Verdict 4/5

Fantastic movie. I watched it based on recommendations from this thread. Awesome performances.

Also watched The Intern based on recommendations here and it's easily 5/5, all thanks to Robert De Niro.

[vibbs]

Watched Captain America Civil War today. Good movie. Standard super hero movie fare. Quite a few ones are lined up in this Genre this year.

Civil war has already got a lead over the other big superhero movie this year- BvS. I believe it will maintain that too. It is clearly a superior movie than Dawn of Justice. It has all the ingredients that you expect out of a good Marvel movie and some more. Brilliant fight sequences, massive sets, witty oneliners. You ask it you got it. Only downside, probably you get too much of those, with the number of movies Marvel is churning out these days. As a fan I am not complaining though.

Black panther and Spidey steal the show. You are always worried with a Marvel movie that the trailers probably show a little too much. Here too they were generous with easter eggs in the trailers but not all the great moments are shown in the trailers.

While winter soldier still is my favourite movie in the MCU, this one's not too bad. I would rank it better than AOU. And I think Cap holds his own well enough against the ensemble to still call this a Captain America movie although you might be tempted to call this Avengers 2.5


Disclaimer: I am a super hero movie fan and more so an MCU fan so this is a highly biased review.