In June, the beautiful journey continues...

This is that time of the year when a movie lover can seamlessly lose himself in one movie after the other, jumping from one world to another in the span of a week, living a life of ecstasy and joy where there is no room for misery and disappointment. The grand Summer season! We have moved from the pure sci-fi thrill of Oblivion to the superhero saga in Iron Man 3, back to sci-fi with an emotional connect in Star Trek Into Darkness and then raced with pace in Fast & Furious 6. In many geographies, the last weekend of May could well end with more wonders from a killer planet in After Earth and the magic behind a heist in Now You See Me. With June, this wonderful journey is set to continue. Ride it along with these five movies that you should not afford to miss!

5) The Internship: Some comic relief is a must in an otherwise Hollywood era which is being filled with apocalyptic themes and superhero sagas. The Internship is vying to do just that with the successful duo of The Wedding Crashers, Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, reuniting. And even if they were to miss a step or two in their comic acts, there is always the lure of getting a look inside Google and the treats it holds for its employees (even if we get to see an exaggerated version of it)!   

4) Monsters University: A Pixar film would usually be one of the most awaited films of the year. This prequel to the highly successful Monsters Inc. sadly does not seem to be. The trailers have seemed to lack the Pixar awe and I get a sense that a disappointment similar to Cars 2 lurks in the corner. Eh, how I wish to be proven wrong! It’s a Pixar film nonetheless, and so a visit to the theatres should be on the cards.

3) White House Down: Gerard Butler has already played the guy who saved the President earlier in the year. Now it’s the ladies' man, Channing Tatum, to do so! If the trailers are indicative of what the final product would be, expect lots of stuff blowing up in Roland Emmerich style, lots of cool action and lots of humour. White House Down is all set to be a perfect summer flick, where things do not make much sense and yet you enjoy rooting for the good guys. To be watched with buckets of popcorn and loads of pepsi!

2) World War Z: A zombie pandemic is set to destroy the human race and someone has to step up to save the world. No, this is not one of the Resident Evil movies. While the premise of World War Z may not be uncommon, it is the presence of Brad Pitt that puts the movie on another shelf altogether. To add to that, the trailer has showcased quite a staggering zombie pyramid; seems the people behind the movie have not held anything back in terms of visual effects, with the production budget close to $200 million! 

1) Man of Steel: June 14, 2013. That is the date to mark on your calendars. The day the famous Kryptonian arrives on Earth to protect mankind. He's done it before, so what's turning this movie into something that many across the globe are eagerly waiting for? The two men at the helm of things - Christopher Nolan as the Producer and Zack Snyder as the Director. It's a glorious partnership of two amazing creative men who have the task of building a story around one of the greatest superheroes of all time. If this itself was not exciting enough, the trailers and the TV spots have added more to the building frenzy. With this movie also being rumoured to set the stage for a Justice League film sometime in the future, Man of Steel does indeed have a lot riding on its shoulders. Will it live up to the expectations? Heck yeah, he's Superman after all! 

The trailer for Man of Steel below for another viewing before the D-Day arrives.

Trailer #2 for Percy Jackson #2

Having seen the buckets, tractors and trucks of gold that the movies produced on the back of the Harry Potter books generated for Warner Bros, one should not really blame anyone else for trying the same formula. That is human nature after all. And 20th Century Fox got good source material too. The Percy Jackson series, that has a set of five books in the original series and then a sequel series where three books have been published so far. A lovable, enjoyable book series, which while not in the league of Harry Potter, is refreshing in its richness of Greek tradition showcased in the backdrop of the current world. The book series has a large young fan base, the key factor needed to create another grand movie franchise. 

But alas, 20th Century Fox goofed up with the first one, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Many may not even be aware of its 2010 release. One can write elaborately on what went wrong with the movie, and why it did not really impact the box-office, but one needs to be in the mood to lament and crib and cry on things so terribly wrong with the world. I am not in that mood, so I shall let it pass. But if a movie maker was looking at how to get a franchise right, here is an older post outlining some basic suggestions, very basic indeed, but so often overlooked.  

The studio is giving it another try, for it still made some money on the previous movie, though nothing in the league of a Harry Potter movie. Maybe they will correct things in the sequel, the trailer of which is promising somewhat. But with the continuity factor prevalent in such movies, I wonder now if the Percy Jackson series will ever be able to reach its true potential on the big screen. Eh, that is someone else's problem, right? The second and latest trailer for the sequel, titled Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Sea of Monsters is right below.

Blue is the Warmest Color

There ain't really any new story doing the rounds that's worth talking of much. Or at least I could not locate any. Fast & Furious 6 is clearly the hot topic with more than $300 million earned in worldwide revenues so far. But one has to move on quickly as the summer season does not really give the time to dwindle on a movie for too long. After Earth and Now You See Me lurk in the shadows. The real other big story is the conclusion of the Cannes film festival. And one is always eager to know the winner of the prestigious Palme d'Or, awarded by a jury which is currently headed by Steven Spielberg. So it is but appropriate to mention the name of La vie d'Adèle, or call it Blue is the Warmest Color, a French lesbian love story, that has been handed this coveted award. The rather sensitive topic of the movie has come under the background of protests in Paris against a same-sex marriage law in the country. And some are seeing a political angle in awarding the top honour to this movie at Cannes. 

“Politics was not in the room with us,” Spielberg said. “We just all felt (this) was a profound love story. We didn't think about how it was going to play, we just were really happy that someone had the courage to tell this story the way he did." That's it! A movie most of the times is nothing more than that, it is just a movie. Someone's imagination and creativity brought to life. It holds a soul of its own, invites you to share a journey but eventually you both have to go your own separate ways. Movies like these, would undoubtedly be pulled in a mire of controversy and politics, for rattling certain sections of society. But questioning the decisions of an elite panel in one of the film festivals to promote a political propaganda, is absurd. Despite being one who spends time in the world of movies beyond what may be deemed healthy, I too understand that a movie does not bring about radical changes in the structure of society. It provides a route for people to express themselves, it may inspire the ones who watch it, but it is eventually people like you and me who need to be the real difference, not the movies of the weekend. So give movies the space in your lives that it may well deserve, but not more. Nothing more. 

A clip from Blue is the Warmest Color. The complete movie though has a run-time of slightly more than three hours (if not edited for cinematic release). So in the near future, if you plan to sit through the whole thing, do not forget a tubful of popcorn and lotsa pepsi!

F&F 6 posts second best opening weekend of the year

If anybody ever doubted how fast the Fast & Furious franchise could go, think again. Fast & Furious 6 grabbed $98.5 million from its first weekend in North America, best of the franchise, about $13 million more than the opening weekend earnings of Fast Five. The sixth movie of a franchise does not usually set the bar, but this movie has simply upped the tempo in style; this is the second highest opening for a sixth movie in a franchise after of course the earnings of the sixth in the Star Wars saga. While Fast & Furious is running on full throttle, The Hangover has seen its demise with the third movie grossing the weakest opening weekend earnings of the franchise. It was nice to see Star Trek Into Darkness report a dip of only 48% in its second weekend earnings (anything less than 50% is what I consider pretty good!) posting $38 million in North America. New release, Epic, finished fourth with a pretty solid but not overtly impressive $34.2 million in its first weekend (about $10 million less than The Croods). 

So how good really is the opening of Fast & Furious 6? It's the second best of the year so far, and while there are a few movies lined up which would be aiming to topple this opening, notably Man of Steel, it's really going to take a Superman to do better than this. This is how the weekend earnings of Fast & Furious 6 compares with the opening figures of other big movies released in the year so far. 

No wonder, Universal Pictures is all eager to get the seventh movie zooming to theatres next year itself. How bigger can the franchise get? Or have we seen it peak? Movie business is such where you think you know answers to these questions, but you never really do. So till Vin Diesel and his crew return for the next movie in 2014, here's the video that was played in the opening credits with the lovely rap song We Own It in the background. Enjoy!

Singer-Whedon tussle for Quicksilver

This is gonna be fun. Disputes and altercations are not uncommon in the movie business. But when one springs out in the open, it is gobbled upon eagerly. This dispute surrounds the character from the Marvel comics, Quicksilver. Another one of Stan Lee's creations, Quicksilver is a mutant, a really really fast mutant, all thanks to the superhuman speed he possesses. He goes by the name Pietro, is the son of none other than the powerful Magneto, and twin brother of Wanda aka Scarlet Witch. And, what else? Oh, yeah, he is also part of the Avengers lineup, having been recruited by Tony Stark. 

And this is where the fun begins. Joss Whedon had announced previously his intention to include Quicksilver and his sister in the team for Avengers 2, which is of course a Marvel production. And then comes this tweet from Bryan Singer: "Before he was an Avenger, he was just a REALLY fast kid. Thrilled to say Evan Peters is joining X-Men: Days Of Future Past as Quicksilver.” Woah! Whedon would have been like 'What just happened here!?' 

This is what is going on. Marvel do not hold the movie rights for quite a few of their comic characters, most notably X-Men, which is currently held by Fox Studios. Now Quicksilver falls in the rather weird category of comic characters whose rights are held by two movie studios simultaneously! Marvel Studios owns the parts of the character’s history where he’s part of  Avengers, while Fox owns the parts where he’s a mutant and not included in the Avengers lineup, and neither studio can use or mention aspects of the character owned by the other. So Bryan Singer and Fox are within their rights to bring Quicksilver to the big screen in X-Men: Days of Future Past. What is going to annoy Marvel more is the fact that Singer's movie is slated for a 2014 release, while Whedon's sequel would be releasing only in 2015. So the bragging rights of introducing Quicksilver to the movie audience would be held by Bryan Singer. Hey, he's gone ahead and signed up Evan Peters too, the chap on the right in the shot below which is from Kick-Ass.

So call it what you want. Fox v/s Marvel. X-Men v/s Avengers. Singer v/s Whedon. Quicksilver v/s Quicksilver. It just made things interesting. Whether Singer has introduced this character just to have a bit off fun at Whedon's expense, who knows? Will Avengers 2 hold any continuation of the Quicksilver story that might be introduced in X-Men: Days Of Future Past? Highly unlikely. But would it really bother the movie watchers? Seriously doubt it. This would make up for some cool movie trivia though. In whatever fashion this shapes up, for there are articles that say things are being talked behind doors between the two studios, just make the character enjoyable, one buzzing with youth and energy, as he is in the comics. And that is how everyone will be happy in the end! Or whatever close to happiness we can come to...

Fast & Furious 6: Thank you, God, for fast cars!

Movie franchises, not based on a long and established book series like Harry Potter, generally fade with time, generate lower returns with the sequels, switch to direct-to-DVD releases and if it's worth it, may be rebooted at some point of time. Or else they end after a trilogy has been shot, for the pay-scale of actors, directors and practically everyone shoots up, once the three movies mentioned in their contracts are done with and been successful. But the Fast & Furious franchise has acted in its own strange little way. After Vin Diesel had opted out of the sequel to the original, and Paul Walker went missing from the third, the franchise was all set to end. It should have in fact, it seemed like the obvious thing to happen. But a cameo from Vin Diesel at the end of the third movie got the studio thinking, and boom... just like that, they got the old crew back, added new big characters, and have successfully transitioned the series from street-racing action to heist dramas, giving us three more delightful action-filled movies, with a seventh already underway! Wicked!

Fast & Furious 6 continues from where Fast Five left off. Dominic Toretto's (Vin Diesel) crew is still on the Wanted list but the members have safely relocated to various places around the globe, upgrading their lifestyles after the big haul from Rio. Enter Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) and his crew, which includes a certain Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), who are knocking off military convoys with a bigger plan in mind. Agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) knows only one crew who can stop them (of course!). Time to call them out of their retirement. And what's in it for Toretto and Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) and the crew? Chance to take Letty home, and complete amnesty for their past crimes. Fair enough! What follows next is packed with slick action, action and more action, in the Fast & Furious style. Vrooommm!

Much of the credit for the transformation/resurrection of the series has to go to the director Justin Lin and the writer Chris Morgan who have been at the helm of things from the third movie onwards. They have scaled up the activities of Toretto's crew quite well, creating bigger personas and a sense of awe around them. Fast & Furious 6 works further in the same direction, establishing a reason to bring these wanted criminals back into normal society. The movie again excels in creating some of the most exciting car chase scenes seen in Hollywood, starting off with two cars accelerating across a narrow roadway in a mountainous terrain, a full throttle chase in the busy streets of London, fun filled street car race, and a massive finale in Spain that simply blows you away. If you thought the final chase in Brazil in Fast Five topped in terms of mindless but pulsating action and speed, you ain't seen nothing yet till you watch what unfolds in the last thirty odd minutes of Fast & Furious 6.

Justin Lin in his final movie as director for this franchise, makes this movie tick in the way he made the others do too. By shooting the riveting action scenes with some really cool camera placements, slick editing, and perfect sound mixers, keeping a simplistic plot around it, which even if you care not much about would not ruin your day. If for some reason you did wonder about the basic plot premise, you would find big enough holes in it that an alligator can nestle in. So better stop asking, 'how is this possible?', or 'why did he do this?' and enjoy the main reason one walks into a Fast & Furious movie, the action. 

As one would say that a car is not complete without its driver, the same holds good here. While none of these actors are walking away with the Academy Award, their dead-pan expressions and gruff voices are the perfect fit for these movies. The crew here has worked together for quite sometime now and the camaraderie is there to be seen. The broad theme of this movie is not surprisingly, 'family is everything'. Vin Diesel and Paul Walker fit well together, Dwayne Johnson flexes his muscles at every given chance, and return of Michelle Rodriguez kinda completes things again. The love between Sung Kang's Han and Gal Gadot's Gisele grows in its own way, while Chris Bridges as Tej and Tyrese Gibson as Roman shine in most of the hilarious moments of the movie. Jordana Brewster as Mia has a limited role in this one, but heck, there are so many actors to contend with now! Luke Evans, the antagonist of the movie, establishes a strong screen presence and his deep Welsh voice had me engrossed before with his performance in The Raven. Evans could be an actor worth keeping an eye out for; he would be seen next in the two upcoming movies of The Hobbit series. 

Two moments in this movie, apart from the car chases, which are worth pointing out. First, the fight scenes between Gina Carano, playing an agent assisting Hobbs, and Michelle Rodriguez. They have given the word 'cat fight' a different dimension altogether. Carano is a professional MMA fighter, Rodriguez is one of those few ass-kicking female actors, and put them together, they had a well-shot grueling combat scene, which made the other fights look tame! Second, the end-credit scene, of course. Boy, oh boy! Apart from the post-credit scenes of the movies in the Avengers lineup, I cannot think of any other where the audience went 'woooahhh!' at such a decibel level. And it deserved it, it was perfect, it was terrific! The tone has already been set for the seventh movie (releasing next year), with this end-credit scene and now Torreto, you gonna meet someone such as whom you have never met before! Get, set, go......

PS: Don't miss the opening credits as well. There is a montage created from scenes of the previous movies, many with Diesel and Walker in it. It sets the mood as the song We Own It by Wiz Khalifa ft 2 Chainz plays in the background!

Another planned reboot... it's Timecop this time

Aaah, another reboot. Another attempt to create a franchise. Another one of those ‘let us revisit the old, tie them up with a fancy ribbon and present it as something fresh to a new audience’. This time, they aren’t even going that far back. Oh well, maybe two decades is considered a time long gone by some. So as Hollywood Reporter reports, the movie that is supposed to get a makeover this time is the 1994 sci-fi Timecop. A movie I haven’t seen yet, but now intrigued, for Timecop is considered quite a commercial and critical success, something you usually don’t say on a Jean Claude-Van Damme movie. Imdb is surprisingly not that lenient with its votes; a mere 5.7 is what Timecop has received. The plot of Timecop seems to carry the same time-twisting enigma that movies of this genre have, with Van Damme playing a cop who regulates time travel and has to take on a rogue politician who wants to misuse it. The success of Timecop also led to a TV series and then a low-budget sequel.

A plot that seems could pull off some lovely sci-fi moments, which it apparently did. Back in 1994. So I’ll watch that one. I don’t even have to go back in time to do so. Why mess around with it? Beats me. Reboots / remakes, just like re-runs, are something I’m not particularly a fan of. A reboot of a 50-year old movie makes sense. While keeping the memories of the old one alive, the new director gets to spin off another tale for the modern times. Aka Django. Reboot of a franchise when it loses steam brings in its own charm. Aka Star Trek. Rebooting an old movie that itself failed to impress and make it better, is bold. Aka Judge Dredd. And a reboot could be the only option left when the original team packs up their bags, and you are clueless how to take it forward (not a big fan of this, though). Aka Spider-Man.

But the laziest thing to do is pick up a successful movie, not even that old, cast a new team, not even make the effort to shake up the storyline much, and then say, voila, here is a new movie! Aka Total Recall. One of the weakest movies of 2012, Total Recall did nothing more than ruin the name of the original of 1990. Hope that is not where Timecop is headed to! And to answer the original question, as to why do this, it still beats me. There is no dearth of good fresh scripts in Hollywood, no dearth of quality writers, no dearth of good directors. But what maybe is amiss are bold studios, who believe in creating classics for future generations to exclaim about, something that 50 years later would call for a remake. Studios encouraging something new, something different, showcasing to the audience a new theme, a new story to ponder upon. All that recreating the previous hit movies would do, alas, is lead to comparisons with the original. Will it be for the better or worse for Timecop, only time will tell…

Why to watch Fast & Furious 6?

If you ain’t looking for fun and enjoyment on the big screen and are rather obsessed with movies filled with drama that you can connect with, then reading this post is not worth your time. But if you feel an exhilaration sweep through you when a Dodge Charger vrooms aloud on the big screen preparing to push its 900 hp power to the maximum, then you are definitely hooked onto the Fast & Furious franchise. With one of the major summer attractions about to arrive in theatres soon, here are enough reasons to look forward to the sixth movie of a highly successful movie franchise.

- For the cars and the races and the cars: The Fast & Furious series has been littered with numerous cars, driven by a number of actors and actresses. These cars have been pushed to their limits, dashed, smashed, spun wildly, raced, rolled, and what not. Hardly ever braked. Not only have the stunts been exciting, but their shooting (crafty camerawork) has also been exemplary with the tension and the thrill resonating with the viewers. It is time to see these beauties in action again, the biggest reason to buy the ticket!

- For Justin Lin: This guy entered the franchise a little late, directing the third movie, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, which seemed the end of the franchise back then. But Lin simply pulled the series back from the dead in Fast & Furious (fourth movie) by bringing the old crew back and shooting some of the best car racing / chasing scenes of the franchise. Fast & Furious 6 will be his fourth and last movie of the series as director since he’s refused to work on the limited timeframe allowed by the studio for the seventh flick. So expect insane action in this flick as I hope Justin Lin bids farewell with all guns blazing, maybe creating something more mind-boggling then the chase scene on the roads of Brazil in the finale of Fast Five.

- For Michelle Rodriguez: Presumed dead in Fast & Furious, she was declared anything but in the post-credit scene of Fast Five, allowing her very much to reunite with the team in the latest flick. Rodriguez is probably one of the true tough action-oriented actresses in Hollywood, having starred also in Resident Evil series, Avatar, SWAT and Battle: Los Angeles. She complements Vin Diesel’s character perfectly, and it would be fun to see this toughie back behind the wheels, giving the muscled men a run for their money. To add on to the girl power, Fast & Furious 6 got the former mixed martial arts fighter, Gina Carano too!

- For the brotherhood: I meant, for the big guys of the movie who dominate the screen and for the camaraderie they share. Vin Diesel and Paul Walker (who isn't that bulky, but that’s not the point) will be sharing screen space for the fourth time in this franchise, and it’s a partnership that has grown with time. Their friendship turned rivalry turned friendship has been the cornerstone of the previous movies’ plots. While it is unlikely to turn sour anymore, their ego clash on who is the better driver, still brings out the smiles. Add to that the hefty presence of Dwayne Johnson. He brought the ‘newness’ factor in the previous movie, and there was no way he wouldn’t have been asked to continue his role. Will be wonderful to watch the trio back on screen again, and back behind the wheels!

There would be many more reasons to end up in front of the big screen again on the weekend. But these would do for me. Fast & Furious 6 should be a fun ride, just waiting to happen. Go ahead and enjoy it!

"The Oscars is basically the Kobayashi Maru test."

Seth MacFarlane, the guy who directed Ted and somehow got involved in hosting the Oscars last time round, tweeted back in February, "The Oscars is basically the Kobayashi Maru test." For the non-Trekkies of this world, the Kobayashi Maru test is used as part of the Starfleet training exercise in the Star Trek universe. MacFarlane compares the Oscars (or rather 'hosting the Oscars') with this test since the Kobayashi Maru test is considered to generate only a no-win scenario, something that MacFarlane has brutally learnt after his stint as the Oscars host. That may seem a harsh judgement to make on the job of hosting one of the biggest movie events of the year, but for MacFarlane it does hold true. He has lately tweeted that he would not be hosting next year's Oscars due to his tight schedule and his desire to sleep too. And the critics who would have lined up to have a go again, will be now waiting to bite into fresh meat that would host the show next. Was the criticism on Seth MacFarlane as the Oscars host justified? 

I would love to loudly shout out a NO here. MacFarlane did his job fairly well; he did not dazzle and amaze everyone with jokes that would make you laugh for many minutes at a stretch, but brought his own style of wit and threw them around with a youthfulness that lightened the mood. He kept the show buoyant and spirited, but not with slapstick loud comedy, rather with a bit of subtleness. More importantly, he did not run the show, he did not own the show, he simply hosted it, and let the Oscars be what it is meant to be -- which is about rewarding quality work in the field of cinema. 

At the end of it all, I did not recollect much of MacFarlane's jokes, but then was I supposed to? I was not sitting in a stand-up comedy show after all. I did remember Daniel Day-Lewis becoming the first to receive three Oscars in Best Actor category and that amazing speech he bestowed upon us. I can easily recollect Christoph Waltz humbly collecting his reward for a truly amazing performance, Quentin Tarantino saying 'Peace Out' to end his winning speech, Jennifer Lawrence becoming the youngest recipient of the Best Actress award, and the elation of team Argo after collecting the final award of the night. Those are the memories of the Oscar night I wish to take. Along with a nicely suited up Seth MacFarlane, looking relaxed, enjoying hosting this mammoth show and never appearing to make a grab for the spotlight. MacFarlane did a good job, period! If only there weren't people paying people to evaluate each and everything that moved on this planet, we could have lived with more freedom and less cynicism. There is still a lot of time before the next host for the Oscars is declared, and I hope he or she too is willing to live in the shadows on that day, without worrying about those who spare no thoughts before judging. Peace out!

Star Trek Into Darkness does well, but not well enough

It's another Monday of the summer season, and a day for most studios to reflect back on the weekend gone (eh, they probably be at it from Sunday night itself!). On how the movie fared financially, how strong is the word-of-mouth, how much of the publicity helped the movie score brownie points and how much of it had to bite the dust. For there is nothing bigger than a weekend, especially the first weekend, in the movie business. 

It was the turn of Star Trek Into Darkness to be judged this time. The sequel releasing four years after the reboot of 2009, grossed $70.6 million for the first weekend after its release in North America (USA and Canada), and if you include the Thursday opening figures, it has garnered $84 million. Now those are good numbers, but sadly still not good enough. The weekend numbers are still short of the 2009's Star Trek opening performance in North America by about $5 million. That's quite a bit of disappointment. When you talk of popular franchises, you do expect the sequels nowadays to snatch more earnings.  

It is tough to say what has gone wrong for Star Trek Into Darkness, for its reviews have been great, its Imdb score stands at more than 8 as of now, it had enough publicity to create interest even amongst the non-Trekkies and J.J. Abrams is no small a name in sci-fi movie business. What really seems to have been a bummer for the movie is the heated up month of May with Iron Man 3 still calling out to its followers and The Great Gatsby managing a much better box office score than what would have been expected. It's still not doomsday though and the studio, Paramount Pictures, should make a profit from the Abrams' flick. Star Trek Into Darkness could well turn out to be the biggest movie of the franchise, thanks to the strong openings being seen in foreign markets where it has earned another $80 million already and should easily displace the meek $128 million of its predecessor. C'mon crew, let's push the Enterprise a bit more! 

Iron Man 3 dipped another weekend by 52% and still manages to earn $35 million for its third weekend in North America. Well, that's the power of an Iron Man movie of course! While it may not be reaching that $500 million mark some faithfuls (including me) had been expecting, it still should end up north of $400 million. The Great Gatsby grabbed $23 million for its second weekend and took the third spot, continuing the strong run. Now it is the turn of Fast & Furious 6, The Hangover Part III and Epic to open up this weekend in North America and try to grab a footing in the already crowded market place. Boy, just creating a good movie is no longer enough, is it?

Iron Man 3 Malibu scene in storyboards

While any job on a movie set could be worth taking, one of the most creative ones is that of a storyboard artist. The storyboard artist is the one who is given the initial task of bringing  alive the director's vision through sketches. He (or she) comes into play much before production work has commenced, creating the storyboards that will showcase how the scenes in the script can be created on the screen. The storyboard artist can be considered a director of sorts, who needs to have enough knowledge of film-making. The storyboards created by him are then used by the cinematographer during production to bring events on screen. 

Creating the storyboards is a hell of a job and ain't only about sketching away. This too, like many aspects in movie making, has evolved with time and become more technical and sharper. Federico D'Alessandro is one of the known names in this field, recently acting as the Head Storyboard Artist for Iron Man 3.  D'Alessandro recently shared the early storyboards of the now quite famous Malibu attack scene from the movie. It's a brilliant scene altogether, the final one which we saw in theatres, but it is equally brilliant when you see these storyboards taking shape. It becomes more impressive when you keep in mind that this footage has been created months before the production, and Shane Black has kept much of it the same in the final shot. There are a few interesting differences though, especially one with how the classic old suits got blown away, which a geeky movie lover can enjoy!

Epic: Tiny men fail to fly too high!

Blue Sky Studios is one of the respectable animation studios in Hollywood, which is probably jostling with DreamWorks Animation to cement its place in the minds of the audience as the one whose animated movie to look forward to when a Pixar movie is not in town. Probably, a bit cheeky thing to say; an executive of Blue Sky Studios would definitely never agree with this being the vision of the studio. But such is the case in the Hollywood animation market as of now. So with DreamWorks having already released The Croods earlier in the year, which though one of its rather average productions has raked enough money to start talks of a sequel, and Pixar's Monsters University about a month away, it was the turn of Blue Sky Studios (creators of the phenomenally successful Ice Age series, the charming Horton Hears a Who, and the surprisingly wonderful Rio) to demonstrate what it can do with its set of sketches and crayons and more. 

Epic is based on a children's book, The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs, written by William Joyce, who himself is not a name unknown in the movie industry, having been a conceptual and art designer for Toy Story and A Bug's Life, besides being involved in quite a few other projects, like last year's Rise of the Guardians, in different capacities. The film opens with a young girl, Mary Katherine returning to meet her father, who lives in the forest, obsessed with his search for 'little men' who reside in the forest. At this time, the little creatures of the forest (who do exist) are out to witness their Queen elect a new heir which would keep the life and spirit of the forest intact. Safeguarding her are a group of soldiers called Leafmen, led by their leader Ronin. The ceremony does not go ahead as planned, with the Boggans, a group that thrives in rot and decay, led by Mandrake plan to eliminate the queen before the heir is selected. As should be expected, Mary Katherine inadvertently stumbles into this battle, finds herself shrunk to a fraction of her size and tasked with a role that could very well decide the existence of the forest itself. A typical 'good vs evil' battle is about to follow!

Epic starts off with some of the best opening lines I've heard in recent times, on how if you stand still in a forest long enough, you can hear the internal battle that is always raging within, a battle between life and decay. With the tone rightly set, Epic unfortunately fails to takes off to those heights again until maybe the last 30 minutes of the movie as the final battle scales up. The movie is set to be largely an adventure in a forest but never conveys the feel of a forest, apart from the presence of a rare deer. It remains limited in its tiny world of snails, slugs, toads and leafmen, eventually limiting the exhilaration that one was expected to feel from a movie that had a story which could have been grandiose. Epic tries to weave a lot of storylines together, beyond the 'good vs evil' battle, be it the difficult relationship between a daughter and her father, the relationship between a mentor and a renegade leafman, a budding love interest, a young bloke trying to figure out his life, a snail wishing to join the leafmen, and even a young creature dreaming of being a queen someday. And while each of these themes come across, none of them become the highlight of the movie, each emerging at its designated moment and then fizzling out. It is specially disappointing when you consider that Chris Wedge is the director of the film, who has previously been at the helm of things for 2002's Ice Age (though he was also responsible for the rather forgettable Robots).  

But while Epic disappoints to reach the epic proportions a summer animated release is expected to, it still has enough moments to carry the audience through the around-100 minutes of running time. Some of the best comic scenes of the movie are provided by Mub (a slug) and Grug (a snail), voiced by Aziz Ansari and Chris O'Dowd respectively, who have their own important roles to play in this adventure. The lead pairing of Mary Katherine and Nod, the leafman who does not want to be, are voiced by young starlets, Amanda Seyfried and Josh Hutcherson, who provide the right amount of youth and charm to their characters. The voices of the seasoned leaders of the Leafmen and Boggans are voiced by Colin Farrell and Christoph Waltz, who seemed like odd choices and even though Waltz has its own special way of lighting up the screen with his voice, he is not much of a modulator for an animated movie such as a Robbie Williams or a Jim Carrey. The other cast includes quite a number of popular singers, including Beyonce, Pitbull and the most interesting, Steven Tyler (who plays a caterpillar!), just to maybe catch up on fans of another world altogether. 

Blue Sky Studios has Rio 2 slated for 2014 which we hope would keep the heart of the previous movie alive. And then one of the most beloved cartoon series, Peanuts, would be brought to life by the studio for a 2015 release. So there should be enough excitement inside the studio for the movies that are slated hereon. And even though Epic, which would be released in USA next weekend, is unlikely to generate earnings of the kind previously seen by the studio as Star Trek Into Darkness and Fast & Furious 6 likely to play party poopers, one does hope that the studio does not enter a downward moving trajectory and notches up the excitement level in its upcoming movies to get the thrill and fun of an Ice Age back!  

We get the original Merida back!

It's just another bizarre day. The week has gone on long enough but the weekend still seems far away. Sometimes you wish that you could simply leap over the last hurdle called Friday, but it refuses to back off. The anger has piled up enough and yet I am not turning green nor growing bigger. Two buttons did breakout but that is another matter altogether. So all I am looking for is some nice pleasant news or story to read up and feel better. Alas, on such a day you do not find any. So I'll pick up a slightly weird one, though some might find it an important one too. 

This news has been making the rounds for quite sometime. It started with Disney being a traditional Disney and not accepting the ways of the modern world. What did they do? The unthinkable, as some die-hards would say. They messed around with one of Pixar's now popular creations, Princess Merida of last year's Brave. A swashbuckling young girl who would take on a bear with her quiver of arrows and bow rather than engage in the Disney-like princess lifestyle and settle down with her Prince Charming. Pixar made it work, with Brave becoming one of the big hits of 2012. But Disney had other ideas when it came to inducting Merida in Disney's Princess Collection and maybe then selling merchandise featuring her. So they redesigned her appearance, and as some are calling it 'sexed' her up. 

As the images show, the hair was no longer ragged, the dress suited her better, the boyish enthusiasm of one with a bow and arrows was lost and a princess-like touch was introduced. It may have worked in a different era, gone maybe unnoticed for a little while. Not now. You do not challenge the feminists! The revolt started with Brenda Chapman, the director of Brave, making her views public on this remodeling, calling it "a blatantly sexist marketing move based on money." Then came in the online petitioners. Eh, you can never keep the online voices down! A petition that picked up pace rapidly with more than 200,000 people jumping aboard, made Disney realise that something was wrong. Duh!? So as various sources now point out, Disney has learnt its lesson and our beloved original Merida is back! Well, it's not that dramatic. Disney claim that the tweaked photos floating online were meant only for a few line of products and the original Merida was always the one Disney wanted. Blahh... never are people bold enough to accept their follies! But in the end, the online petitioners have made Merida proud. Way to go!

If you really want to read up on something truly more bizarre, then maybe this story on an actress suing Imdb for revealing her real age, might be the thing for you! Let the weekend come quick...

About Time, Curtis' next (trailer out!)

Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones's Diary, Love Actually and A Girl in the Cafe. See any common running thread amongst them? British films. Romantic comedy films. Right on both counts. And, written by Richard Curtis, one of the most successful comedy screenwriters, who has also written a few episodes for the iconic TV series Mr. Bean. With such a repertoire behind him, it is but obvious that the next feature film to have the words 'Written by Richard Curtis' hovering on the poster should pique one's interest. This one has 'Written and directed by Richard Curtis', which makes it all the more interesting. 

So here it is... About Time is the name of the next Richard Curtis feature film, starring Domhnall Gleeson (might remember him as Bill Weasley from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows), the richly talented Bill Nighy and the ever alluring Rachel McAdams. About Time is a romantic comedy film, as one should have expected by now, but has a sci-fi angle to it as well, which calls for a bit more attention. A brief plot synopsis from wikipedia goes something like this:

At the age of 21, Tim Lake (Domhnall Gleeson) discovers he can travel in time. The night after another unsatisfactory New Year party, Tim's father (Bill Nighy) tells his son that the men in his family have always had the ability to travel through time. Tim can't change history, but he can change what happens and has happened in his own life — so he decides to make his world a better place by getting a girlfriend. However, when he accidentally erases the timeline, he must try and win her over again. 

Seems there is a bit of Groundhog Day here, mixed with some aspects of The Time Traveler's Wife. Maybe a pinch of 50 First Dates as well (watch the trailer). I would have dismissed this movie initially, but it has the Curtis tag to it along with a lovely first trailer which hits off the right notes as far as the romantic comedy angle is concerned, with the sci-fi aspects adding a bit more fun and appeal to the storyline. About Time is being distributed by Universal Studios and is planned to be released in September 2013 in UK and in November 2013 in USA. Watch the trailer below and figure out for yourself, whether you would want to keep aside time after all for About Time (apologies for the pun!).

And this still from the film is just to bask further in the warmth of the McAdams smile!

A weekend of excellence

When it's summer, it is difficult to ignore the weekend box office results on a Monday. The numbers are so colossal that they require our attention. A few millions seem like peanuts, as records are shattered or come close to being shattered, and the possibility of future sequels of a movie franchise or its eventual doom into the darkness may just be decided on such a weekend. And the weekend that has most recently bid us adieu has been one of the brightest for Hollywood this year so far. 

Iron Man 3 has, as expected, led the charts, earning $72.5 million in its second weekend in North America. But its fall of 58% from the first weekend earnings is a bit more than I expected. Iron Man fell by only 48% in the second weekend, and The Avengers fell by 50%. Iron Man 2 fell by 59% though it of course did not have such strong opening weekend figures as Iron Man 3. If the subsequent weekend declines do not stabilise, Iron Man 3 may find itself falling short of the $500 million mark, say by about $50 million. The foreign markets are however jumping all over the red and gold suit with total worldwide figures reaching close to $950 million already! The special attention paid by Disney to the Chinese audience has very much paid off as China has added $95 million already to the kitty making Iron Man 3 a bigger hit than even The Avengers in this region. And this is true not only for China, but also for Vietnam, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Indonesia. Crossing the $1 billion mark is going to be a piece of cake now for Stark & Co., but how further can Iron Man fly hereon, is the question that remains to be seen. 

The pleasant surprise (or call it shocker) for the weekend was the strong performance of The Great Gatsby which earned $51 million in its opening weekend. For a romantic drama based on the classic novel of F. Scott Fitzgerald, this movie's earnings would have surpassed expectations of even the studio Warner Bros. And despite Leonardo Di Caprio's stellar acting career and steady box office performances, The Great Gatsby provides him his second best opening weekend figures after Inception. Strong numbers have floated in this weekend in the US box office and the trend is expected to continue with Star Trek Into Darkness to release in US in the coming weekend. The international release of J.J. Abrams' flick in some foreign markets last weekend has already seen a collection figure 70% higher than the earnings from these markets for the previous Star Trek. So if all goes as per plan, Star Trek Into Darkness could be set to become the all-time highest grossing movie of the Star Trek franchise. It could very well turn out to be a bright green summer indeed!

Star Trek Into Darkness: A voyage that continues to excel!

When Paramount Pictures decided to reboot the Star Trek franchise in 2009, the primary question would have been, how do you take forward the tales of the original crew of the Enterprise? Do you start from the very beginning and re-tell it all to a new generation? Or do you continue from where they left off? It's a tricky question, one you need to ponder on to get it right, because just relaunching a famous series does not assure anything. Rebooting the Superman series through Superman Returns in 2006 failed so badly that the producers have to reboot it again now, this time venturing back to the origins. Batman on the other hand was splendidly brought back in Batman Begins by distancing itself from the previous movies which had turned rotten. A series like Fast & Furious came back by placing the fourth movie after the second movie in the timeline, thereby going back to the original crew. Star Trek though tried something quite novel and splendid. J.J. Abrams and his team, using the sci-fi background that the series already provided them, created a shift in the timeline itself, an 'alternate reality' right from the day of James Kirk's birth, thereby allowing them to explore the adventures of the crew of the Enterprise on their own terms but managing the keep the characterizations the same. A brilliant move, satisfying the original 'Trekkies' and giving an altogether new series for the latest generation of movie watchers. 

Star Trek Into Darkness begins with crew of the USS Enterprise, in this 'alternate reality', locked in an adventure on the planet Nibiru to save the primary inhabitants from extinction. The movie starts off at a fast pace as Captain James Kirk (Chris Pine) and Dr. McCoy (Karl Urban) are chased by the inhabitants, while Spock (Zachary Quinto) is engaged in work to stop an erupting volcano. Eventually, this initial adventure leads to Kirk breaking one of the Prime Directives and setting things in motion for the adventures to follow. The Starfleet is at this time facing an attack by a new nemesis who is identified as John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch), a Starfleet member himself. Captain Kirk is allowed to venture on in search of Harrison by Admiral Marcus (Peter Weller) and that is how the Enterprise crew of explorers are turned into a group of combatants. Harrison is though not who he seems to be, and as things develop, one is rendered deeper and deeper into an intriguing plot which evokes admiration, love, rage and a sense of honour above it all. Bonds are tested more than once, between friends, between lovers, between students and mentors. And by the end of it all, only the toughest and strongest bonds are meant to survive. 

The script written by the original team of 2009's Star Trek, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, along with new joinee, Damon Lindelof, forms the heart of the movie. While Star Trek explored the origins of two of the central characters, Kirk and Spock, their differences and their similarities, Star Trek Into Darkness brings into focus the challenges in their friendship due to the vast differences in their personalities. And yet it in no way holds back to bring forth the admiration that they have of each other, and how they will stand up for one another when required. In one of the most emotional scenes of the movie, Spock speaks out his heart to Kirk (in the small way that he can) saying, "Because we are friends!" and that is when you realise the extent of their love for each other. If you are asking whether this is a James Kirk film or a Spock film, you are asking the wrong question. Star Trek Into Darkness belongs to them both, unquestionably, and makes for one of the best partnerships between two leading male actors, ever seen. 

With the excellence of the script, follows the excellence of the director, J.J. Abrams. His masterclass was in display with Star Trek and his reputation remains untarnished with the sequel. Abrams masterfully blends in emotions in an action-filled sci-fi flick, in a manner only a few can. His understanding of the bonds between different characters is there to be seen, whether he shoots a scene with Kirk and Spock, or Spock and McCoy, or Kirk and Sulu, or Uhura and Spock. The camera placements are perfect, the scenes showcasing the vastness of space are extraordinary, and especially the battle between two starships at warp speed is worth highlighting. Abrams has always said that he has never been a great fan of the original  Star Trek series which has allowed him to create something new here, but there are quite  a bit of influences of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in this one which would excite the original Trekkies thoroughly. 

The movie is filled with quality acting from start to end as was the case with the previous Star Trek. Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto have matured as actors as have their characters in the course of these two movies and for the new generation of watchers, they will always be James Kirk and Spock. As is with their characters, Pine and Quinto seem to add something more to each other when they are together in a scene than when separate, and this conflict of gut feelings of Krik and logic of Spock when combined, truly completes things. The rest of the crew of the Enterprise complement the duo at every step, making them appear rightly as a 'family'. Dr. McCoy has some of the best one-liners in this one and his cynicism brings another shade of colour to the movie. Uhura, Scotty, Sulu and Chekov, each have their moments to shine, testing their strength to rise on the occasion, and along with the characters so do the actors with aplomb. Admiral Pike is lovable as always, and Peter Weller as Admiral Marcus enjoys good screen time and makes a strong impression overall. 

Coming to Benedict Cumberbacth, he is a name to remember, if you have not done so yet. Many will recollect him from the TV Series Sherlock. You will hear him in the Hobbit trilogy as he voices the dragon Smaug. You will meet him this year itself when he plays Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate. And you will never forget him once you have seen Star Trek Into Darkness. Cumberbacth is one of the upcoming stars in Hollywood, talented to the core and has a screen presence which is electrifying to say the least. His role really kicks off in the second half of the movie but when it does, oh boy, he dwarfs the rest. Playing a character filled with pride, rage and ambition, Cumberbatch seems to simply will himself to be that person and enacts it with such ease that you forget he ever played a charming but annoying Sherlock Holmes. Great things can be expected from this young British actor. 

Star Trek Into Darkness, in short, is more than just a sci-fi movie and keeps the essence of Star Trek alive. It raised no eyebrows when J.J. Abrams was offered to direct the next of the Star Wars movie, for no one else can touch the right emotional chords in a sci-fi movie than him. While many would be jubilant to see Star Wars in safe hands and awaiting the planned 2015 release of the next movie, today one just feels a pinch of sadness that the next Abrams directed Star Trek movie cannot be seen soon. What path does the Enterprise take from here on, one does not know. But is that not the point of the starship's adventures after all? To seek the unexplored! So till we hear from the crew once again, live long and prosper!