Review and Analysis of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)"

                                                    "I'm going on an adventure"

                                                                                                      -Bilbo Baggins

Movies based on the themes of fantasy and mystical environments have always enthralled audiences worldwide and have gained significant acceptance. The concept of exploring an unknown world which does not exist has always been intriguing as well as appealing. In the year 2001, Peter Jackson came up with a spectacular vision in film making. He laid grounds for  a trilogy so powerful which would stand against the sands of time in film era and which would be hailed as one of the most epic trilogies of all time- The Lord Of The Rings. The trilogy was an instant hit and appealed to audiences both on an emotional as well as imaginative level. It had everything-a great story, a powerful ensemble cast, terrific performances and some of the greatest visual effects of all time. The films were based on J.R.R Tolkien's novel of the same name and for the most part remains true and faithful to the book. Personally, I enjoyed the trilogy and own the complete extended blu -ray collection of it. For me the movie was complete,perfect and everything I hoped for. It stands today as one of my favorite trilogies ever. One of the things which got me excited in 2011 was when I heard that Jackson is about to come up with a prequel to this trilogy based on the novel once again. Back was the awesome feeling, and back was the excitement that I will be returning to middle-earth once more. Did my excitement payoff in the end? 

It certainly did. While not as much as I had in the Lord of the Rings trilogy but it certainly did. The movie certainly brought me back to Jackson's way of storytelling and it made me realize that any movie related to the concept of middle-earth or Tolkien's work has to be taken on by him only because it is Jackson who understands it best and it is he who can direct it best. For people familiar with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the film follows the adventure of the Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) as he joins with Gandalf, the wizard (Ian McKellen) and the company of 13 dwarves,led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) as they try to reclaim their lost kingdom, Erebor which was taken over by a ferocious dragon by the name of Smaug. Thorin has an old deadly grudge with one of the orcs, Azog the defiler, who killed his father during a battle and who has put a bounty on his head. The rest of the film follows their epic journey through various exotic and dangerous locations of middle earth as they head for the "Lonely Mountain" inside which their city is situated.

                                                      "So....this is the Hobbit"

The film is unique in itself due to the reason that while keeping the core elements of the Lord of the Rings at heart its not dark or carries the apocalyptic theme as the previous movies did. Jackson in an interview stated that he wanted the film to have a different feel than former ones. And he succeeded on that. The movie is smart, funny and at the same time tries to connect with us on an emotional level just as the same way LOTR did. James Horner's awesome soundtrack is back and contributes on a different level to the score while keeping the basic themes the same. In other words, the movie keeps some of the core elements of LOTR the same while modifying the rest of them for a completely different set of trilogy. The pacing of the film is good and Bilbo and Thorin are successfully made into well fleshed out characters whom we really care for. We see the transformations taking place in Bilbo as he sees the world outside his home and we also realize the fact that he won't be the same Hobbit he once was when he is back. Gandalf acts as a successful guide much as the same way he did (or will) to Frodo and Sam in the LOTR films. Some of the characters are also back from the previous movies like Lord Elrond (Hugo Weaving), Saruman the White (Christopher Lee), Lady Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) and my personal favorite of all time-Gollum (Andy Serkis). All of them add to the richness and detail of the story and at the same time we are also given foreshadowing events of the future which do a great idea of explaining the events of LOTR. The film is filled with tons of action sequences with dwarves battling orcs, goblins with a sense of humor involved in them. I also liked some of the small details which Jackson filled for those who loved LOTR to the core, for example-the three trolls who turned to stone when sunlight shone upon them. They are clearly seen in LOTR still standing there. The journey although filled with action also took a break in between in which the characters had talks of sentiment and value which made the characters more caring for the audience.

                          "Do you smell it? The scent of fear...your father reeked of it"

One of the biggest things I loved about this film apart from the things stated above were the villains. I thought that Azog was a perfectly developed villain. He was scary, threatening as well as menacing. Not to mention the scars on his face and body made him look more deadly. In the LOTR trilogies, I never found orcs to be threatening as the entire movie was focused on the fear of Sauron. But in this movie, I found myself for the first time being truly threatened by this orc and always rooted for the characters to run away from him. Not to mention, the final fight between him and Thorin made was emotional and tense. Another one, whom I personally loved in the LOTR trilogies was the return of Gollum, who is one of my favourite anti-villains, the character with which I was always in a cross between sympathizing and unsympathizing. The moment between him and Bilbo was truly one of the most outstanding scenes in the movie and my personal favorite. Once again, I won't spoil it for you but its funny and cute but also threatening at the same time. Also, it had one of the most sympathetic scenes in it when Bilbo decides not kill him and spare his life which (which leads to the events of LOTR). For those of you who always wondered how the ring ended up in Bilbo's hands, this moment answers it for you.

However, with everything being said I still had some minor complaints with this movie. Considering the impact which LOTR made in our minds with the help of rich characters and their development, I felt that apart from Bilbo and Thorin, the rest of the dwarves were plainly sidelined. They were never given much screen time and when they were it was very hard to recognize who was who. Aside from recognized 1-2 of them, they all ended up being a random mess which was left for us to solve. During the battle sequences, there was no tension involved as we never cared for them the same way we did for the characters in LOTR. That should not have been ignored due to the fact that the film was basically revolving around the theme of Dwarves and their lifestyle. I hope Jackson fleshes them out in the next two movies which are to follow. I have yet to check out the 2nd movie.

                                     "What has it got in its nasty little pocketses?"

Overall, Jackson brought us back to the land of Middle-Earth which hasn't changed much since the last time we saw it in 2003. This time we get an "old wine in a new bottle" with the film being more light in tone with small foreshadowing events of the future. I would recommend everyone to not compare it to LOTR as this trilogy is a little different in the way of themes and storytelling. As a standalone film, it is much more enjoyable, epic and at the same time nostalgic to the previous grand trilogy.

My rating-85%

Review and Analysis of "Insidious (2010)"

                                           "Its not the house that is haunted. Its your son"

                                                                                                                    -Elise Reiner

The horror genre has always depended on scares. We have seen many directors from the classic genre to the modern ones who have all relied on different methods of scare tactics to frighten the audience. From creating a tense atmosphere, scary faces, jump in your seat moments and in rare cases, psychological fear, this genre has always been at risk due to the fact that once an audience gets used to a particular cheap trick by the director, they know what's going to come next and they are prepared for it and hence, they are not scared. Its a big challenge for the film industry, provide out of the box, new thrills which have never been seen before and look fresh to the audience. Although, we have also seen movies using the same old tricks and still scaring the crap out of us. Director James Wan, the creator of the "Saw franchise" brings us a modern horror film which gives us just that and for the most part audience will get what they want in this, if they ignore a few problems in it.

Written by Leigh Whannell, who played Adam in the 2004 thriller "Saw", the plot follows a couple Renai (Rose Byrne) and Josh Lambert (Patrick Wilson) who move into a  new house with their three children-Foster, Dalton and an infant girl Cali. Things start to shake when their son Dalton accidentally goes into a state of coma whom the doctors cannot identify the source of as the rest of his bodily functions are working properly. After being admitted to the hospital for a period of 3 months with no improvements, the couple realize that the coma may be permanent and Dalton will have to be under a supervised parent care forever in the house. After moving him back in, everything goes berserk-from creepy people roaming in the house, to doors opening and closing by themselves, to occasional mix of monster and human growls on Cali's baby monitor. Later on in the plot it is revealed that Dalton has an ability of "astral projection" and his soul has wandered too far into a realm called "The Further" where is soul has been trapped (hence the reason for the coma) by the undead people and they are all waiting to take over his physical body so that they can enter into the human world. An interesting concept explored in the horror genre if you ask me. The rest of the plot revolves around bringing his trapped soul back to the real world and getting rid of all the spirits who want to latch onto his physical body.

                       "The further is a world far beyond our own,yet it's all around us"

The acting is pretty good, with Rose Bryne playing the terrified mother who always shows a sense of vulnerability and Patrick Wilson playing the vigilant father who has a hard time believing the fact that there are supernatural elements involved here. There are also small comedic reliefs performed by Leigh Whannell and Angus Sampson as Specs and Tucker who play the typical geeky and nerdy ghost hunters lead Lin Shaye who plays Elise Rainier who acts as a medium to the audience for the communication of the entire main plot. The pacing of the film was pretty good, most particularly the first half, where Wan tries to slowly build up the suspense and tension through slow moving cameras and scary dialogues. For the hardcore horror fans, there is also a big reference to Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" which is considered one of the most influential horror films of all time. When I noticed that, I couldn't help but smile. And to be perfectly honest, I found the film to be disturbing, most particularly, the ghosts which were portrayed. While none of the ghosts were given a backstory of how they became one, its the unknown about them that makes them all the more scary. This is again one of the tactics employed by horror movie directors, in which the entity, spirit or the ghost's origins are left a mystery to make them more scary and indestructible. The film succeeds in it and will give the audience a genuine scare. The lighting, the flashes and the split second frames of the ghosts on camera are truly terrifying. One of the creepiest sequences in the whole film is Josh's journey in the further to find his son's soul. I won't spoil it for you but make sure you don't close your eyes during the entire scene. Wan accomplished all of these small details without a flaw and if he wanted to scare people, I guess he finally got it.

                                      "Are these the things that I have been seeing?"

With all that said, what was wrong in it? Wan had the perfect ingredients to make a modern, suspenseful, scary and an effective story. Well, first of all it was the fast pacing of the second half of the film which drags it down. The film takes so much time on character development and advancing the plot that once it realized the audience understood everything it rushed itself to a finish. It felt like a wasted effort on the director's part. You don't take so much time to on a suspenseful level to build something and then just finish it just like that. Also, there were a lot of plot holes involved and I am pretty sure you would have them too once the movie is finished. The finale of the film was pretty shaky and it started to feel more like a CGI fest. I agree that some of the scenes were genuinely creepy in the final act as well but it just felt that had the film been following on the same pace as the first half it would have been much more successful and complete. An example can be derived from Wan's own "Saw" where the first half of the film though slow build up the tension and the second half made us more tense by cleverly rushing though at the same time not letting go of its core roots-the feeling of dread and helplessness. That's what I felt the film could have taken care of, most particularly because of Wan's involvement. I believe "The Conjuring" was much better in terms of pacing and story telling.

                                                 "Oh my God,dad. He's looking."

With all that said, Insidious is still an enjoyable horror film and its definitely going to be a thrill ride for the normal horror movie lovers. However, for veteran fans of this genre, there may be a certain disappointment. Still, if you look past all its flaws even the veteran fans will get a kick out of knowing that Wan placed references to old classics, scared us with cheap tactics which worked well even though we are so used to them and used some good monster and make up design which made the entities demonic and scary. Also, there is a cliffhanger ending which will immediately crave you for the sequel. Am I going to see it? Of course, because I still want to know and hope there is more to this story than what meets the eye.

My rating- 65%

                          

Review and Analysis of "The Wolf Of Wall Street (2013)"

"There is no nobility in poverty"

                                                                              -Jordan Belfort

One of the best directors ever to hit the silver screen has been Martin Scorsese who has enthralled us with visionary stories related to themes of money, greed, corruption and downfall. He has made a considerable number of films with veterans in the field of acting, most particularly the great Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci and many others. One of his recent collaborations in the decade has been with the actor Leonardo DiCaprio. Its this strange chemistry involved between this director and actor through which they have given us some of the best movies ever by working together. It feels as though both are never complete without each other unless we see them collaborating together. I have been a big time fan of Scorsese and seeing another one of his works again after 2010 was a good comeback. Scorsese gets back to his base roots again with "The Wolf Of Wall Street". Let's find out whether this stock is undervalued or overvalued.

The film follows the true story of Jordan Belfort(Leonardo DiCaprio), who starts his career as a stockbroker in L.F. Rothschild. Due to one of the biggest stock market crashes on a 1987 of Monday, known as "Black Monday", the company shuts down and he is left unemployed. Due to his interest in the stock market, he desperately looks for a job as a broker even though the scope of getting a broker career is down. He hits upon a newspaper article through which he gets to know about a type of business flourishing in the stock market known as a "Boiler Room" in which penny stocks were sold to investors through "pump and dump schemes" by giving them false representations and facts so that fraudulent sales can be committed earning the runners a commission of about 50%. Having been mentored by one of his former senior employees about always getting the money in your pocket instead of his client's he becomes quickly engrossed in the idea and due to his excellent selling skills earned by working in Rothschild starts taking his illegal business to a whole new level by recruiting some of his friends, most notably Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill). He forms his own company by the name of Stratton Oakmont, Inc. through which he starts to sell penny stocks to rich people and starts to earn tremendous amounts through market manipulation. The rest of the story involves around him and Donnie becoming involved in drugs, money and adultery to the point of addiction and insanity and his subsequent incrimination and arrest by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

    "I have been a rich man and I have been  a poor man"

Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the greatest actors of his time and he definitely gave a terrific, yet at the same time, maniacal, funny and insane performance. Its very hard for actors to portray all three of them at the same time. I can guarantee that some of the explicit scenes which he performs as the character of Jordan Belfort in his private life as well as his office will be disturbing to most viewers due to the authenticity involved which reflected his lavish lifestyle. I won't spoil any of them for you because they are that complex. The film was purposely made in a black comedy style so that the scenes and circumstances of the characters could entertain the audience and not to disturb them and Scorsese does a great job at it. Some of the scenes are ridiculously funny and done over the top, most particularly the scenes involving Jonah Hill and DiCaprio having conversations. We get to see the character of Jordan, from a curious hardworking money earner who wants to get a taste of luxury like all of us, transforming into a greedy, selfish, obsessed person who slowly starts to break to the point of insanity due to the amount of drugs in his nervous system. Black comedy does it all, his insanity and addiction are depicted in such a funny manner that you won't be able to stop yourself from moments of convulsions. One of the most memorable sequences is the car crawling scene, you'll have to see it to believe it. Another great performance was given by Jonah Hill as Donnie who is at the same level as Belfort when it comes to over the top moments and conversations. The insanity of Belfort is both motivational and disturbing as we see how his office colleagues worship him and follow him as a cult status leader. In the future, I always wondered whether a new religion could have been established by Stratton Oakmont by Belfort himself where the people may have started to worship him as a God. That's the height of greed and that's the power of power which was done superbly by DiCaprio himself. At one point, I started to compare his performance to Al Pacino in "Scarface" and Jack Nicholson in "The Shining".

                                                                           "I know what you did"

The film also starts to get interesting when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the FBI start to tap into the investigation against the company lead by Agent Patrick Denham (Kyle Chandler) who also gives a good performance of a dedicated agent trying to bring Belfort down. The scenes with him and Belfort are executed well, most notably, the "friendly conversation" which takes place on the yacht, Naomi. During the end when you see him raid his office arresting everyone you can feel a sense of accomplishment as well as ruffle because you know its the downfall of a maniac whose performance you loved during the whole film. He plays the silent agent, who doesn't appear in the film until halfway yet leaves a memorable impact as a person who speaks less but does everything with a bang.
Now, we come to the one of the biggest controversies involved with this film- explicit scenes of adultery and vulgarity. Within the first few minutes, you'll know that this is not a movie to be viewed with kids. The movie was banned in some countries mostly due to these reasons solely. What I feel that even though Scorsese was trying to show the impact to too much drugs and money on human morality and commendably did a bold job at displaying it, some of the scenes could have been cut down or removed not due to the reason that its not contributing anything to the film, but due to the fact that some of the audience could have been easily disturbed by it (and they were). Its like a bitter medicine, where its necessary to see it to experience the "ugly" side of the american dream but you have to have a strong stomach to digest it after you have seen it. That's where I felt the film should have brought a proper balance. There are many movies which have done that while showing corruption and greed, including Scorsese's own "Goodfellas". That was the only flaw I found with this movie.

                                                                       "You're going to jail"

Overall, I found it to be a great film with big moments of black humor crafted wonderfully as Scorsese does. The pacing and storytelling is excellent and the soundtrack is a reminiscent to the 80's culture. I loved the performance of Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill and hoping to see him and Scorsese get back together on another project soon. If you have even a bleak interest in stock market and want to see one of the oldest frauds which took place on Wall Street during the 80's era after Black Monday, or if you are interested in one of the memorable crimes which took place in the United States of America, go for it.

P.S.- DiCaprio fans will not be disappointed, this is one of his best performances till date.

My rating-80%