Uneven and Underwhelming
I enjoy Luv Ranjan films.
I have seen most of his films in the cinema, except for Akaash Vani. A painful drag of a film in the name of romantic drama.

This is his second film I did not like. While not being as bad as the aforementioned Akaash Vani, this is a close second.
This film is about a breakup-artist Rohan Arora and the girl, Tinni he falls in love with. How their relationship occurs and fizzles out is the crux of the story.
The films tone is uneven at best. The opening scene is a zinger reminding one of Pyaar Ka Punchnama but way cooler. Then the whole romance angle happens and drags the film down. The song Tere Pyaar Mein lifts things up a bit again and then the first half end.
The second half elevates for a while before falling back down before the dragged-out climax.
There were times in the film I was cringing at the acting a dialogs, while other times thoroughly enjoying the humor. It felt like a Luv Ranjan films only in moments and those moments entertained me, but the rest of the film was quite disappointing.
Both the leads have worked hard on their looks by shedding weight and trying to look their career best but somehow this works against the film in making them feel very artificial and as a viewer I wasn’t able to connect to either of their viewpoints because they looked like vapid rich kids with overly toned abs (his) and perfectly flat stomach (hers).
The cinematography of the film is excellent, every shot looks big and lavish without going overboard and making sets look fake. The opening scene is especially well done.
But the story lets things down. Too much time is spent on the romance angle and not enough of it devoted to the break-up artist aspect.
The songs are good, but they alone cannot save this uneven messy film.
Rating : 5.5/10. Despite how good the songs and cinematography look on the big screen, this can be skipped for viewing on Netflix (with multiple breaks).
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One Time Watch
This is 31st Film in the MCU. That is a lot of films and long list of expectations. Ever since Endgame every MCU film feels not as necessary or as serious in its execution.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is not the worse MCU film, nor is it great. It gets the job done of entertaining us but doesn’t really use Ant-man’s shrinking premise cleverly in the plot at all.
This film feels more like a Star Wars film than an MCU film. The uniqueness of Ant-man 1 and 2 is gone with the interesting side characters and heist themes all lost in the quest for making a grand film.
Let’s get into some details without spoiling anything.
The Story:
The plot and premise of the film is extremely generic. They did not put a lot of effort into the premise of the film. Which is, ‘Scott Lang and his whole family gets sucked in the Quantum Realm by some mysterious powers’.

The Execution:
The film is full of new and weird sort of creatures and people. In that way it feels like a Guardians of the Galaxy film. There is a LOT happening visually in every frame of the film. So much so that the eye gets exhausted taking in all the new technology and creatures visible. Sometimes simple is better, but just because they can, they have gone completely overboard on the visual aspect of the quantum realm. Not to mention the MCU comedy often gets in the way of a serious or poignant scene. It’s getting difficult to take any character seriously as everyone is a quippy, sarcastic and humorous character. They really need to make films which can be grim without making jokes every 15 seconds. The jokes in this one was long overdrawn and lost it’s fun factor after 5 or so repetitions of the same sort of jokes.

The Characters:
Scott Lang’s Ant-man and Evangeline Lily’s Wasp are completely sidelined in the proceedings. With Hank and Janet both in the film, along with Scott’s daughter there are now 5 main characters to keep track of and this makes the film rather unfocussed.
Not to mention, the shrinking ability is rather useless in the film. It doesn’t play much of a significant role in the film’s plot. Because of this, both the named lead characters are now much more useless and irrelevant. Most of the major plot points are solved by fisticuffs anyway. There is never a scientific or clever solution to a problem except to use brute force.

The film’s new villain, who will be the villain in one form or another for the entirety of Phase 5 and 6 is nothing interesting as compared to Thanos. They are over using this villain and it will end up in a ‘been there done that’ sort of vibe, which the villain also gives out. He and his variants have done everything in the MCU timeline, so even if one dies, another one comes. This makes every single villain very non-significant and the film he is villainizing in, rather pointless.

Overall :
The ending act is once more a MCU typical ending with lots of things and explosions happening all over the place. This larger is better approach takes a lot of the human drama away from the film.
As an example, (no spoilers). It doesn’t matter if there is an army of 1000s fighting on the ground, its ALL noise till we have one person to focus on, someone to give drama to the scenes. (Remember Thor’s entrance in the Wakanda Battle?)

So, making a grand all in one fight like even Shang Chi had in its end becomes just a CGI fest with nothing to root for or give any sort of feeling or emotion to any scene.
The reason the CGI fest ending fight worked in Endgame is because it started small (Thor vs Thanos, then Cap joined in, then ALL the Avengers joined in. Every frame of that fight had someone’s favorite superhero punching a bad guy or doing something extremely cool.
In Ant-man 3, there is just so much cannon fodder who are dying and killing that the eye starts to wander.

Rating:
6/10.
Despite how negative my review might be, this is a fine one time watch at non premium rates. I paid premium price (Rs 600) for the FDFS Imax show and despite how good the screen quality was, it felt a little overpriced. If seen in normal 3D with a ticket price ranging from 200 to 300, this is a time pass entertainment film.
It doesn’t add much to the MCU, but it’s definitely better than Wakanda Forever. I liked Shang Chi first half a bit better, second half is about the same quality as this film. This film is slightly better than The Eternals. So, if you are an MCU fan, this is worth watching either in regular 3D or when it comes to OTT.
This is nowhere near as atrocious as Black Widow or Thor Love and Thunder (a film which made me actively grind my teeth in anger).
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MMR
Apart for 1 or 2 movie after Endgame, MCU has been underwhelming.
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Rohon Nag reviewed Avatar 2
This one just flows!
Avatar :The Way of Water
I cannot believe it has been 13 years since we all saw Avatar in theaters. Not to mention, 25 years since we saw Titanic in theaters!
It’s become a trend to hate on Avatar since its blockbuster release. But I loved the film in theaters back then and the many times I have seen it at home it still holds up. For me the first Avatar is one of the best Scf-Fi movies ever made.
So, the sequel of the BEST 3D movie ever is here and I just had to check it out in Imax 3D. No other format can do this film justice.

James Cameron is an amazing director. He has made 7 straight block busters in his career. This is his 8th one. This movie deals with what Jake Sully and his expanded family are doing on Pandora as the people from Earth are back in huge forces.
The story of the film is a bit generic as was the case with the previous film. I think the director has decided that the visual awe and spectacle of these film must come to the forefront and hence he keeps making the plots extremely simple and easy to follow. Its not like Cameron doesn’t make complicated plotted films, but Avatar 1 and 2 both are not that. So don’t go in expecting twists and turns and mind-bending plot devices. This is not a Nolan film. Some plot devices and points of the first film are re-used in some manner in this one and it doesn’t feel repetitive as its not happening to the same characters but it does all too familiar at times.
Instead, this movie is a visual spectacle. I challenge anyone to show a movie better made in the VFX department. The VFX is so good that its very easy to forget that every frame is CGI. The underwater scenes look like they were shot on location. Even the mechs and other technology look absolutely real. This is not a film that can be fully enjoyed at home. Anyone trying to catch it on OTT on their mobile is missing 90% of the films impact. So, this movie is a theatrical experience. Everyone was worried that Marvel movies have raised people’s bar for VFX or that VFX have become too common now so people might not enjoy this film. But the breathtaking level of CGI in this film is like nothing that has been seen on screen before. But to see the DETAILS you have to see it on a huge screen.
The acting is motion captured so to have bad performances would be really difficult. Still Neytiri comes across as a bit hysterical and high strung as compared to every other Na’vi and Human character including her children. But then she was like that in the previous film too.
The cinematography (though wholly digital) has to be seen to be believed. The shots are kept simple and there is not much of camera movements or nauseating Shakey camera moments. There are moments where you will feel like you are actually underwater and swimming. I typically HATE underwater films like Aquaman or Waterworld which come across and boring and tedious, but not this film. The underwater scenes are really well done. Plus the action underwater is swift yet clearly visible. It doesn’t become a visual mess like Aquaman. The scenes feel like they are really shot with blue Na’vi actors in some real ocean.
The music is adequate but none of the main themes really stuck out to me. But it gets the job done. James Horner the previous music director of the first part has tragically passed away. He will be missed sorely.
Overall : This is a must must watch in theaters. Make sure you have a clean 3D glass and the theater you visit has a good brightness. Seeing this at home is pointless.
Rating : 8/10. I frankly enjoyed the first one a lot more. This part 2 is visually amazing, but I feel the next two sequels might make me reconsider the rating of this film. Even though the story is complete and there is no cliff hanger moment, it does feel a bit incomplete. Its how Empire Strikes Back felt a bit hollow till the next part came out. So I liked the first one more than this one, but this still is a really good film with some great action moments.


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Forget Ram Setu, save bollywood first!
Available now on rent with Amazon Prime, Ram Setu is a movie I wanted to watch, but the trailer made me doubt its quality enough that I didn’t want to take a trip to the theaters.
The movie’s plot is all about an atheist archeologist trying to discover if the Ram Setu is a natural formation or a man-made structure at the behest of some corporate overlords.
I found the film to be extremely lazily made and it feels like a cash grab attempt to rake in the box office moolah. It’s a very weak attempt to make money off Shri Ram’s name.
The film is extremely weak technically. Let me list a few of them.
A scene introducing us to the villain, shot in ‘rain’ where the source of the water is clearly coming from a hose pipe besides the camera. Not to mention a reporter mentions a ‘LOT of people are protesting’. But on screen there is barely 20 or 30 people. Maybe they forgot to give the budget for digital doubles to populate the rest of the scene.
In a scene where the villains are chasing the hero on speed boats, the villain’s henchman has a gun with its stock gone back (indicating it’s not working). He keeps firing the same non working gun for 2 more scenes (with artificial looking muzzle flashes). That’s laughable.
The production thinks the people watching the movie are dumb. Taking the audience for granted.
Not to mention a lot of the Background scores are rip-offs of Hollywood classics.
The scene introducing us to the floating lab rips off the Jurassic Park theme. The next scene where the hero (Akshay aka Aryan) is wearing the underwater suit has the music ripped off from “My Heart will go on’ from Titanic!
The techno ‘Ram Ram’ song is fine, but it is used VERY horribly. It doesn’t have any impact on the film as its not used during anything climactic. Bollywood JUST doesn’t know to use music well (copied or otherwise). They used the track better in the trailers for sure.
The CGI scenes are extremely weak. The scene of them looking for a waterfall in Sri Lanka is so badly composited, it has some graphics out of scale with the others. Every person may not notice the details of what is wrong, but it just bad enough to be noticeable that something is not working in the VFX.
The film itself never gets too serious or hectic even when characters are dying it doesn’t seem like a big deal and the seriousness doesn’t come through. So can blame the editing there a bit as well.
The entire second half of the film drags on a lot. The ending is decent with some facts thrown in but it’s a bit too little and too late to save the film.
Don’t even get me started on the helicopter scene towards the ending. That’s one of the worst blue screen scenes in cinema history.
Overall: If you are really curious, it’s an ok one-time watch. But one has to ignore the bad CGI, the bad acting, the bad dialogs. I only enjoyed the last 15 mins or so as it had some facts thrown into the screenplay as Akki suddenly plays the lawyer in the ongoing proceedings and there is a small but fun ending twist which I saw coming a mile away, but it’s still nice.

Rating: 5/10. One time watch when its free on Amazon Prime. No point renting it also.
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Does not manage to manipulate the emotions!
Cuttputlli Movie Review
This movie is a remake of the 2018 Tamil film Ratsasan. I had completely missed this gem of a film at release and decided to watch it recently due to all this remake news.
I am so glad I caught the original. It is an exceptionally well made serial killer film. It has it’s own small flaws but the film is riveting to watch and reminded me of Zodiac and Seven.

The same is not true for its half-hearted remake. Cuttputlli fails at every single level the original worked. The atmosphere of dread and tension is not there, the film is shorter in runtime than the original and does not setup the serial killer or his story well. The ending is extremely rushed and sort of funny really.
Also, in the original, the hero is an underdog. His boss / supervisor is a total tool and does not let him do his work, nor does she agree with any of his assessment despite being proven right again and again.
In the remake by the third act, Akshay’s boss is following him around like a lost puppy and obeying his every lead and command. This removes the underdog challenge set on the main character and totally takes away from the ending.

The background music in the Tamil original is a derivative of the interstellar (2014) theme music. They use rather well and that music amps up the tension several notches. This remake uses it own generic crime thriller music with zero tension in most scenes. The film feels like it is in a hurry to get its story over with and takes a lot of shortcuts to just end the film quickly.
I have nothing more to say about this failed remake, its better to watch the original film Ratsasan on Jio cinema. Trust me, that film is a lot better than this lacking remake.

Rating: 5/10. Has very little tension or intrigue, the emotional moments don’t hit. The killer’s backstory revelation is totally wasted in this remake due to a rush to end the film within 2hours and 15 mins or so. Do watch the Tamil original for a good thriller movie.

P.S : There is NO Cuttputlli (puppet) in the film at all, the title change is just bizarre, the way the opening title comes, seems to be a last moment rush job. The doll being used to strike terror is not a puppet, it could have been, but the film was named mission Cinderella or something silly before. The serial killer is not shown any connection with puppetry or is trying puppeteers the situation.

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Thundering but no Rain!
I have been a fan of Marvel Films since 2008’s Iron Man. Many Marvel fans are recent additions after the Avengers Infinity War and Endgame Saga, so overall they might not be as jaded with Marvel as the original fans who have been through 27 films and countless number of TV Show spinoffs.
So, this review is by a jaded Marvel fan. For us OG fans, we have a been there, done that, seen it all attitude. We sort of feel how Thor feels in this film, there is crazy action happening and Thor is sitting there silently, contemplating his existence. I sort of felt like the same, there is a lot of good action set pieces, but not much of excited me.
Thor Love and Thunder is the 4th Thor film. Thor Ragnarok, the third film was in my opinion the best Thor film till now. This is about even with the first film, but that one had a much more emotion journey at its core. Love and thunder somehow lost out on the emotional parts, despite them being there in the film, it made me the audience, feel nothing inside.
But its not all doom and gloom, this is an unusually stand-alone Thor movie with its own self-contained villain and works well on its own. The comedy is funny, the typical absurdism of Taika Waititi is present in most scenes. But the director fails in creating a soul for the film.
Gorr The God butcher is the new villain of the film and despite casting a very talented actor, I found Gorr neither menacing nor scary. He comes off as a more tragic version Baron Zemo (from Captain America: Civil War) with a similar backstory to evoke empathy for the character, but not much is done with that sense of empathy till the climax. Unlike Civil War, we don’t connect to the villain, nor does his cause feel totally justified. Some more scenes of Gorr actually butchering Gods might have helped, but we get to see only the remains of his handy work and never actually see him in action.
The best part of the film is obviously Thor. Which is awesome, since some fans had speculated that they would let Jane overshadow him, but she really doesn’t. She puts up her best Thor impression, but nothing comes close to Chris Hemsworth’s delivery and comic timing. He is magnificent in the film, but due to his long and arduous journey, Thor is now a static character. Despite him losing someone important in EVERY single film he is in, somehow his arc felt a bit lackluster.
Coming to the new Thor in the film, Jane Foster is now also Thor. They explain this away with something the original Thor said to Mjolnir in a flashback. Jane is pretty good in this film, but she was good in the previous two also. Her role is pretty much the same as in Thor: The Dark World, but only with a bit more fighting involved. So, despite the new Female Thor gimmick, it doesn’t really add much to the film. Kat Dennings as Darcy is barely in the film and is not at all utilized, same goes for Dr. Selvig.
The big star cameos are fun in the film, but Matt Daemon does overstay his welcome by one scene too many. Russel Crowe as Zeus is again underutilized.
The soundtrack of 80’s hits is quite good and seems like Taika went through my MP3 playlist for this soundtrack…
Overall, this was a decent one-time watch. I liked the film overall without being too emotionally invested in it nor did it go all out with the action, the only two notable action set pieces are in the beginning (that one with the Ajay Devgn style Bike split was awesome) and the climactic fight was good, but nothing on the level of Thor Ragnarok’s ending which had multiple super epic moments.
Here is my issue with this new crop of Marvel films, especially post Endgame, every film feels safe and nothing truly explosive happens. Nothing truly surprising or epic, its all sort of on a similar level. This same issue plagued Dr. Strange: The Multiverse of Madness, it just did not live up to its name. Here in Thor: Love and Thunder, the story is fine, but it doesn’t have any sense of true menace or foreboding with an character who can kill Gods. He is barely an menace to our team of Godly superheroes.
Rating: 6.5/10. For Marvel fans, this is a fun one-time watch. If you don’t follow Marvel films, why bother at this point?
P.S : Stay for both the end credits scenes. They add quite a bit to the story. Unlike Dr Strange 2’s end credit scene which was an waste of time.

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Powerful
I wanted to watch this film in theaters but somehow, I didn’t get the chance. I had seen the trailer during a YouTube ad and it caught my attention. There were also banners of orange outside the theaters playing the movie. Now that Dharmaveer is on OTT, I finally got a chance to see this film.
Despite living in Navi Mumbai (District Thane), I had never heard of Anand Dighe till I saw this film. The time he was active in politics, I had zero interest in the same. So just like the story of this film, which introduces us to a clueless reporter, sad about missing her first Bollywood party and being forced to cover some obscure politician’s death anniversary, I too started the film totally blank.
The film’s screenplay does an excellent job of slowly unravelling to viewers who Anand Dighe was as a person and his accomplishments.
Direction :
The film is rather well made, despite some slow sequences, it is well directed. Because regional cinema doesn’t get the care and attention to detail that mainstream Bollywood does, that is no reason for a film not to be well made. Good film making doesn’t require budget, it needs vision.
The film is also shot well without going overboard. They kept the style of cinematography natural and free flowing rather than trying some failed tricks like in Sarkar 2.
Acting :
Prasad Oak is very realistic and believable as the lead. It doesn’t even seem like acting. He embodies the character rather well. The rest of the cast, playing Anand Dighe’s protégées etc. are also competent. Not one performance is out of character or hammy. Often overlooked, Marathi actors are tremendous performers. Sadly, Bollywood rarely thinks so, hope that changes in the future.
Overall , since all the people in the film are based on real people, the casting team has done an phenomenal job. Every known politician face matches the actors and by the end this starts to feel more like a docu-drama than a fictional film.
Overall :
The film is rather well made, it’s a worth watch for everyone who wants to know more about this person who changed so many lives and who is remember till date in his area of Thane. The music is also well done, the title track playing behind is powerful and without the strong music, the movie might have fallen flat. It manages to evoke the correct emotions and also educates the audience about who this person was and why his legacy still lives on to this day.

Rating : 8/10. A must watch for fans of biopics. Anyone who follows current politics might also find this film very interesting.


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Best of the BEST!
Top Gun: Maverick

Rarely do movie sequels which come decades after the original actually manage to live up to expectation or surpass the original in anyway.

For Example, Independence Day: Resurgence, Dumb And Dumber To etc.

What is even rarer is for such a long delayed sequel to actually live up to the nostalgia.

For Example, Star Wars Episode 7, Tron: Legacy (Directed co-incidentally by the same director as Top Gun Maverick.)

What’s totally unheard of, is such a sequel, out doing the original, blowing it completely out of the water and becoming an instant classic.

Top Gun Maverick is such a rarity.
Let’s get to the good parts.

The Story.
Unlike the 1986 original, this time… The story / Plot is much more coherent, focused, mission based, urgent and overall better done in every way. Unlike random rivalries and a coming of age for Fighter pilots’ story. This time, they have to train perfectly at Top Gun or they will die on the mission. That sense of urgency helps the sequel a lot.

We also see Pete still being wrung out by his superior officers just like he used to be in his youth and that works well for the story, as it shows us that despite the years he is still the same inside.

Acting.
Tom Cruise was 56 when he shot this film, he was 22 or 23 when the first one was made. But in the intervening years, he has not lost his form even a little bit. He manages to get back into the character of Pete Michell, without it feeling like Ethan Hunt. Sure, Pete is older, he is world weary, but he still has it, he is Maverick.
Speaking of still having it, Tom cruise still has the same physique as when he was 23. Maybe better. That’s not just impressive, it shows an insane level of dedication.

Miles Teller is good in most movies, he works here fine, but doesn’t really have a whole lot to do.

Jennifer Connelly still has her look and charm and despite being a few years younger than Cruise, she fits the role of his ex-flame perfectly.

Action, Stunts and Non-CGI.
There is not a lot of action scenes in the film, but the ones that are there, make it count. They have made the film like it is still 1980s. What I mean by that is, the action set pieces are not so much in quantity that they lose their appeal, nor has there been anything super duper unrealistic shown. The plane stunts are real when possible and anything a bit over the top is pushing on the boundaries of realistic without breaking it.
I was so happy to see a proper plane-based action movie which was not fully CGI (Looking at you ‘Stealth’).
I am tired of the fact that the only big budget action movies they make now a days are superhero films. This is a non-super hero, 80’s style action, done mostly without CGI and it really shines through.
Every actor had to film their scenes inside the plane while it was being flown around at high G’s. That’s insane to think about in this CGI riddled world of film making.

Overall.
This film is all about the 80’s nostalgia done right. It is not so backward looking that it becomes cheesy or boring, but its not afraid to be a proper sequel to the first movie. The music is back. the Top Gun anthem blares and it still has the same effect it did all those years ago. Danger Zone is back and compared to the songs now, it’s a gem.

Rating.
I really didn’t find anything negative in the film. After a long time, I am seeing a film, in which I had absolutely no gripes what so ever and enjoyed every part of it immensely.
This is a perfect 10/10 for me. The best-case scenario of a sequel done spectacularly well.

P.s: Very Mild Spoilers follow.
Is it just me or does the whole mission at Top Gun academy seem like a tribute to the Death Star run of Star Wars Episode 4. The canyon run, the pin point targeting of a ventilation shaft, it all seems like such a nice nod to one of our favorite Sci-Fi films of all time…

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It would be Madness to Skip this one
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
This was mine and many other’s second most awaited film in this Phase of the MCU. The producers of this film knew that and originally, they had lined up this film BEFORE Spiderman No Way Home.
Because they knew this movie wouldn’t be able to top the three spidermen and the unity of all Spiderman’s previous famous villains. However due to some reason, these movies were shifted around. So now people expect Multiverse of Madness to top Spider-man’s 3 Peters cameos.
Well, good news is, it has some great cameos. Bad news is, they are just that. Cameos. Nothing more than that.
With that out of the way, the movie is surprisingly standalone in nature and one needs to have seen only Wanda Vision previously (and obviously the previous Dr Strange movie) for it all to make sense.
For a deeper dive, I will add a list of movies to check out AFTER the review. This list might be considered a spoiler.
Coming back to the movie…
There was so much discussion about the possible cameos in the film that no one stopped to ask, Wait? What’s the story? Is it just Dr Strange wandering through the multiverse and meeting different superheroes?
Thankfully that is not it.
However The story is a bit weak, but good direction by First Time MCU director Sam Raimi (Veteran Director of the first Spiderman Trilogy) elevates the average material into an above average film. That’s what good directors do. Even if the script is a bit weak, they direct away into making an engaging, superbly entertaining film. Dr Strange 2 is certainly those and more.
The movie doesn’t let go of your attention even for a moment. The first half is more or less breathless and the second half is only calmer by a degree. There is a scene in the movie which would excite musicians and how the film’s score is used in a very unique manner.
I am not going to discuss the plot and story of the film at all, keeping things spoiler free. The new character America Chavez (very poor choice of name really) is rather good. She feels settled into the MCU without any effort. She is the soul of the film and the actress Xochitl Gomez does a good job of portraying this new MCU hero. Her character arc is central to the film’s premise.
Dr Strange himself is now emerging as the de-facto leader after Iron Man. Benedict Cumberbatch is a splendid actor and he is totally settled into his role as Strange. I hope he continues to be Dr. Strange for many more years to come.
Other side characters like Wong and Christine are also present and do a decent job. Overall acting is not what people would notice in this film.
The action, the 3D is mind blowing. The multiverse is used relatively less, but it sets up a lot more to come in the MCU. This was supposed to be BEFORE the Spiderman movie, so relatively its scope and scale is slightly smaller than that film.
However that is not a bad thing. The plot stays focused on its main characters without wandering and by the end of it, you need like you have to see it again, just to get all the details.
Rating: 8/10 Easily. The 3D viewing experience is totally needed. The scenes are cut well for 3D and it doesn’t pain the eyes at all.

Overall : After a ok-ok Shang Chi, below average Eternals, this is a Solid entry into the MCU. (Not counting Spiderman as that is joint Sony and Marvel). This is so far the best Phase 4 MCU film by Marvel. For all fans this is a must watch in theaters. For non MCU fans, here is a list of movies to catch up to before this film.

Must Watch:
1. Doctor Strange (2016)
2. Avengers Infinity War / Endgame. (2018-2019)
3. Wanda Vision (2021)

Deep Dive
1. X-Men (2000)
2. Captain Marvel (2019)
3. Marvel’s What if (2021)

Deeper Dive
1. Fantastic Four
2. Inhumans
3. Evil Dead 2


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Salaam Rocky Bhai!
I didn’t like KGF Chapter-1 the first time I saw it. I couldn’t even get to the mines section of the film. To me, the film felt like an overlong music video. Every few minutes things got an extreme level of build up and then after a hero walk / reveal, we have another build-up. I was seeing the Kannada Version as I prefer seeing movies in their original language with subtitles.
This was back in 2018.
Recently, I saw the trailer of KGF Chapter 2 and the trailer was intriguing enough that, even though I hated the first part, I decided to give it another go. I swallowed humble pie and tried the Hindi version.
Now that I didn’t have to read the subtitles while keep track of the breakneck speed of the edit and the random 1000 cuts every minute, I could enjoy the film a lot more. What killed it for me the first time was having to read the subtitles while keeping an eye on the proceedings at the same time. After the second half, I started to like the film and by the end I wanted to see Part 2 immediately.
So, I booked my ticket the very next day. I had managed to skip the agonising wait most KGF fans had for almost 4 years for Part 2 to come out.
In my local theatre, the show was house full. Not a single seat was empty. The cheers started with Rocky’s entry and continue during every hero walk, action, punch or good dialogue.
KGF Chapter 2 is not just a mass movie, it’s a massive movie. It like a mustang which keep accelerating, it never slows down, is not subtle, the background music is ear shattering and the audience screaming on top of that is absolutely insane.
So, getting past all of that, KGF 2 has a simple story, its Scarface done south Indian style. Its Dewaar / Kalla Patthar on steroids. This is not a movie where we wait for quite subtle moments, or character drama, its all larger than life. The acting is hyper, the action is loud, though not as well choreographed as RRR or Baahubali. The scope of the film is immense.
I hear this films budget is 120-140cr. Every Rupee is visible on screen. The cinematography is top notch. The color pallet is dark, ashen and broody. The look of this film is dark, gritty and perfectly suits its narration.
I have not seen any other film of Yash. I had not even heard of him till KGF-1 had come out. I suspect neither had most other Hindi speaking, northern India film viewer. But with KGF-2 Yash has managed easily what the Khans, Kumars and Kapoors of Bollywood have not managed. To give a perfect anti-Hero who connects with the audience. Here is a total unknown till 4 years ago, whose movie is going to make more than the top Bollywood actors have managed in 2019-22. (Speaking about opening weekend here).
I enjoyed this film immensely. The action is implausible, the characters manage to walk through fire unscathed, get shot and be A-Ok 2 days later, but this is not the film to worry about such things. It’s a mad ride and it’s there for enjoyment. The hero Rocky literally takes on the Indian government, that’s totally taking things to another level.
The only two things I didn’t like was the choppy black screen induced edit of the car chase scene. It looks like a poor copy of Mad Max Fury Road and as if the editor didn’t have all the VFX shots ready, so he inserted random black screens in tune with the music to make it look impactful. Another thing I didn’t like was the romantic track, it didn’t serve any purpose and takes away from the mad cap antics of the lead Rocky.
Rating : 7.5/10 as a movie. In theatres, among loud blasting BGM, screaming fans, this feels like a 9/10.
I would rate KGF-1 a solid 7/10. I have only seen it in OTT.
P.S: After the movie ended, the roof nearly came out with whistles, hoots and cheers. Plus, there is a post credit scene. Which also nearly brought the house down again.

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