Monthly Archives: October 2023

Film Reviews

Film Review: Drishyam 2 (2022)

STORY

Seven years after the Deshmukhs lost their son and couldn’t prove that the Salgaonkars were behind his killing, some efforts and developments rekindle the swollen mystery as the Salgaonkars face the heat once again.

INTRODUCTION

Drishyam is now a franchise that was born as a Malayalam film written and directed by Jeethu Joseph. It has been remade in several Indian languages. It took seven years to produce the Hindi sequel and interestingly, the original cast showed up in the sequel with no changes but additions.

REVIEW

The first film in Drishyam series met with a technical conclusion that can be considered as an open end and an ultimate conclusion at the same time. Continuing from there could have jeopardized the writing as I was unsure how possibly would the writer produce such circumstances. But guess what? That is what a writer is for. It is the beauty of the writing that can unlock any possibility. Therefore, with the highest level of satisfaction, Drishyam 2 faithfully continued and met with yet another incredible conclusion.

Between all this, the aesthetics didn’t drop. In the first half an hour, I felt that the continuity was a mistake but later on, the film proved that all that in the first thirty minutes was for a reason. Although, it took seven years to bring them back to interrogation and the court but why it took seven years to the Deshmukhs? The addition of IG police Tarun Ahlawat, who is also an old friend of Meera Deshmukh, intensifies the proceedings but again, why it took seven years? Why didn’t they took all that action on the Salgaonkars soon after how the first film ended? Perhaps they have been observing the Salgaonkars all these years and eventually dug the hole in the mystery.

With the entire story rolling towards another conclusion, the biggest curiosity was how will the film conclude now? It did met to a terrific end, in fact both the ending of the films were some mind blowing designs. But with this conclusion, the character of Vijay Salgaonkar now really raises my doubts. How is he that smart? The years-long planning to shield his family from any what-ifs needs a careful observation if Vijay is clean. I feel if Vijay has a rough background and he never got exposed. It is my theory that Vijay’s this suspicious angle has not been depicted at all. I want the writer to enlighten this.

PERFORMANCES

Ajay Devgn‘s character may have developed from the first film but I am a little concerned with his own acting. In recent years, his acting has gone cold with not much facial and body language. Shriya Saran and Ishita Dutta have upgraded from their previous performance. Shriya’s panic acting was good and Ishita’s epilepsy acts were fantastic. If anyone observe, the mother-daughter pairing of Shriya Saran and Ishita Dutta looks strange as compared to the first part. Now they look sisters. In real-life, Shriya is only 8 years older than Ishita. Tabu stands tall when it is about displaying how a strong woman will respond in her angst and grief.

Akshaye Khanna, one of the most underrated Bollywood actors of all-time. As usual, never disappointing. But if you carefully observe his recent CV, since his return to acting in 2016, his characters are usually in the law enforcement. He was inspector in Mom, investigation officer in Ittefaq, advocate in Section 375, and now an IG police. I am afraid this can make him a stereotype if he keeps playing similar roles again and again. Even before 2016, he has played these roles several times.

FRANCHISE LEGACY

No matter if Drishyam is a true story or fictitious. The plot of both the films are carefully written. Because if you notice, no one between both the families and the police is wrong or negative at all. They are all right in their own ways. There is only one wrong in the entire franchise and that piece of shit is dead. The plot is a rare and unfortunate situation where both the families are forced to use their power to defend against each other. What makes Drishyam so compelling lies in the roots of writing elements that sticks to realism.

CLOSING REMARKS

The one aspect that this film deserves to have a few minutes is a courtroom drama. It was clearly visible in the last scenes, that there should have been at least ten minutes in the courtroom due to shocking proceedings.

Drishyam 2 makes a solid case of a crime-thriller. The element of suspense and smart screenplay keeps you attentive. Will there be Drishyam 3? It is another open end as well as assumingly an ultimate conclusion. Stretching further may broke the rubber band this time. But again, it is the writer’s art. Drishyam 2 is an extraordinary and a faithful sequel.

RATING 8.2/10

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Film Reviews

Film Review: Ardh (2022)

STORY

In order to feed his wife and a kid, a struggling theatre actor Shiva impersonates as a transgender and begs on the street but sticks with his aim to break into the film industry and get a mainstream role but suffers setback after setback.

REVIEW

Ardh is a ZEE5 and visibly a pretty low-budget film where the heart and soul of the plot are in the right direction as well as Rajpal Yadav‘s performance. Sadly, nothing else does a favor to the film.

The film emphasizes on Mumbai being a city of dreams that either comes true or gets broken. Shiva is one of those millions of poor individuals who wants to become an actor in the film industry. Luckily, he is a theater actor but the theater is shut down due to lack of attendance. In the screenplay, the film addresses the struggling actors suffering from nepotism and the humiliation that the actors face during their hard time in the auditions like the staff assuming if the actor was actually a water boy or a cleaner as well as denying him a chance because of his short height.

In the middle of the film, Shiva in his transgender get up is paid by an interviewee on the bus stop and is asked to pray for him. That gives an idea to Shiva to earn money by disguising himself and begging on the street. In the last phase, a rickshaw driver offers him for sex to which he refuses. I actually guessed that after failing all his chances, the film will conclude on Shiva eventually giving up on acting and settling his mind to sell his body as a transgender sex worker. This could have been one of the most tragic conclusions of any Bollywood films in recent years. But like I said before in many film reviews, Bollywood don’t know how to give a technically fitting conclusion to most of the films at all.

Not sure if the director Palash Muchhal did this on purpose but my brother Wasey noted something interesting that I didn’t. He noted that while Shiva struggles to get the role, Sonu Nigam sings the male version of the track ‘Zindagi’. By the end of the film, when Shiva gives up and reaches to his usual begging routine as a transgender, ‘Zindagi’ is now sung by Rekha Bhardwaj hence convincing the audience that the change in voice from a man to a woman is the indication that his fate has permanently turned into becoming a beggar as a transgender. Only the director can confirm if this theory is accurate but I find the theory pretty interesting for a film that stood low profile on the aesthetics.

CLOSING REMARKS

I am unsure why the film was not decently financed despite being a ZEE5 exclusive. The plot was promising but the entire execution and the direction were sub-standard. There is no life in performances, Rajpal looks like a lonely bread and butter of the film. Yes, I know Rajpal Yadav in the lead cannot guarantee a box-office success. That is not how this industry works at all. But the film also does not deserves to be produced at a low scale. ZEE5 could have done some favor with a very good plot and a struggling screenplay but didn’t.

RATING 3/10

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Film Reviews

Film Review: Chup: Revenge of the Artist (2022)

STORY

The entertainment journalists in Mumbai are haunted in the mist of terrifying clouds when a serial killer is on lose brutally killing only film critics to whom the killer finds passing dishonest film reviews. Inspector Arvind Mathur is assigned to catch him and stop the madness.

INTRODUCTION

‘Chup: Revenge of the Artist‘ is a crime thriller. Two factors propelled me to watch this film. One was that R. Balki directed it who already has entertained us in the past directing some interesting films like Cheeni Kum, Paa, and Pad Man. The other reason is that Sunny Deol starred in it. When Sunny paaji stars, the general audience understands that the film is going to be an action-packed thriller with our He-Man smashing every possible existence throughtout the universe in larger-than-life fighting sequences. But this pick surprised me. So I was interested to know how R. Balki and Sunny Deol collaborate in such an interesting plot.

REVIEW

Almost forty minutes in the film, I felt the story was running in haste. The scenes were short and the dust of investigation was not settling. When you make a crime investigative film, the first forty minutes are the storyteller’s borrowed time to build an interesting crime case to the audience.

The dialogues are surprisingly boring. The leads towards the case are interesting but I just cannot feel myself flowing towards the screenplay because Balki’s direction throughout the film is ordinary.

The love angle of Danny and Nila is unusual due to their mutual interests but boring start of their knowing each other because of unnatural coincidences.

The film falls flat in the second half. Despite having so much potential to give a better conclusion of the case, the quality writing was terribly missing. And one major reason for a disappointing continuity was the revelation of the culprit in the first half of the film. The nature of the case and the whole screenplay pretty much gave an impression to me and surely to everyone who watched the film that Chup will be a suspense crime-thriller with our jaws dropping out in the final scenes. But in the first hour, the makers of the film gave us no chills to guess the person in quest and drop some obvious hints that led to disappointment.

And then average performances. I got to see Pooja Bhatt in a film in ages. Her character looked promising but had not much contribution due to extremely less screen presence. Sunny Deol was okay but Dulquer Salmaan as the maniac in the hunt was disappointing. He is a good actor but this role was not his. That craziness of cutting people and spreading their blood as an art, you need a special romance in those psycho eyes. And that was missing in Dulquer Salmaan. If I was the director of this film, I would have picked either Ranveer Singh or Rajkummar Rao.

The film also suffers from plotholes and I had to question if Balki really was directing all this. There is a mistake in two same murder sequences with the lady feeding her cat where at the same angle, we see the killer walking out from behind but in the previous sequence, the killer wasn’t. Whereas the camera angle was same.

Danny throws Nila from the third or fourth floor of the building and believe it or not, Nila survives with blood on her face. She was thrown on the path, on the hard surface. How come she survived with her head visibly hit on the path with that force? Even Arvind Mathur jumped from that height and dropped down with a leg injury. How come Danny not hear a wheel cart on the rail track coming towards them?

GURU DUTT

Chup is an obvious and ardent tribute to the legendary filmmaker, Guru Dutt. The sound that is repeatedly used in the background, the old songs, and a few scenes in the film especially the studio scene are all the prestigious references of Guru Dutt’s cinematic artistry. Shaping a villainous character’s origins inspired from Guru Dutt’s real-life melancholy over a failure of his film is the biggest plus of the film. I liked the idea where I need to look at Guru Dutt’s angle, what if he had turned a killer of all the people who disliked his cult classic ‘Kaaghaz Ke Phool‘?

CLOSING REMARKS

The story of Chup is easily one of the best of 2022 Bollywood but a failure to give justice through direction and screenplay.

RATINGS 4/10

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TV Reviews

TV Review: The Reckoning (2023)

STORY & INTRODUCTION

The Reckoning is a 4-episode BBC One docu-drama miniseries based on the life of Jimmy Savile. If you are a British, the man needs no introduction. For those who don’t know him, this man was a popular DJ who later became a well-known figure when he joined the BBC where he hosted ‘Top of the Pops‘ and ‘Jim’ll Fix It‘. He was heavily involved in charity work and his undoubtedly biggest achievement was raising £40 million in charity for different medical institutes. With this humanitarian effort came his name into much prominence and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Margaret Thatcher and the Royal Family.

This iconic figure, who actually became easily one of the most respectful, beloved, heroic, and a Godly figure in Britain’s 20th century, had kept all of them happy for around sixty years. But almost a year after his death, the world realized that there is a small part of the world to whom he also made cry with agony. The investigations proved to everyone’s massive shock that this Jimmy Savile had sexually abused/assaulted more than five hundred people, mostly underage, as young as five. Jimmy, Britain’s beloved icon, turned out to be serial sexual abuser, rapist, and pedophile.

BBC’LL FIX IT?

When Jimmy Savile’s victims showed up one after the other and the world got to know the truth that Savile had been raping children and teenagers for more than fifty years, so many questions were risen on different organizations and institutes especially the broadcasting giants the BBC. This man gave four decades to the BBC. It is impossible to assume that such an organization had no clue of his backdoor offences. They of course knew what he was doing and there was no stopping at all. That builds an opinion that the BBC protected his legacy. But after his death, the damage on the BBC’s legacy was done.

Hence, the BBC came up with this show and I must say that this move has to be one of the greatest media ironies of all ironies. I would like to quote Pragya Agarwal who wrote in one of her articles for The Independent:

“It also feels insidiously callous and thoughtless that an organisation that played a role in glorifying a sex offender and profiting from him [the BBC], while covering up his actions for many decades, are once again capitalizing on his “brand” and the fascination that viewers have with monsters and true crime.”

I mean straight up. I was excited that a show on Jimmy Savile was announced but I was very surprised that none other than the BBC was funding the project. But after watching it, I must say that the BBC has painted different shades. The BBC shows his true colors and dramatizes how BBC was fooled by this man. Even showed us that he was not considered for ‘Jim’ll Fix It’ in the first place because of his mysterious personality.

Throughout the show, you will notice that the BBC keeps popping and one can convincingly declare it to be intentional. Like I said before, it is ironic that BBC produced the show on someone to whose arse they protected for a long time. No doubt it is either brave or foolish to fund a project, so their side of story has to be wildly clear that how and why they protected him. Instead, BBC portrays themselves that they had no clue about his crimes due to lack of evidences. That makes them more naive.

REAL VICTIMS

Due to the nature of its being a four-episode miniseries, each episode begins and ends with four real-life Jimmy Savile victims with their names altered for obvious reasons. Moreover, their narrative has been dramatized in the show. Not that the others got unrecognized, but in a limited capacity, I will take these four cases as representation of all the victims. For sure, no medium can cover all the victims at all.

Despite being a show about a sex predator, there is no sign of nudity or rape scenes at all. The darkest dramatizing, if I remember, is grabbing. And I am okay with the show not shooting to those haunting moments of the victims obviously to maintain respect and solidarity who suffered. The makers handled the sensitive content very well.

Some of the scenes were very impactful. I liked the one where he takes the kid into his office and then he realizes that something horrible is about to happen. The very next scene, the frame shows up that says Jim Fixed It For Me.

I do not wish to harm the victims of all ages and time but something that disturbs me about not that predator but the teenage victims is the immense blindness of being the rat of the pied piper. The dramatization depicts that young girls followed him to his home. How come did you not sense that you were not entering to someone’s home without a guardian but into a danger zone? How could you trust a stranger to an extent to visit to his place? Why didn’t you check your parents or any guardian at all that this man was inviting you to his home? A girl literally went with him to his residence with such excitement on her face until he locked the door that brought her back to her senses. What were you thinking when you were going with him? That the grandpa will feed you with a shepherd’s pie? I am not blaming the victims for the horrors this man inflicted, I am reasoning your stupidity that gave him the advantage.

TO BE OR NOT TO BE?

Many of you around the world opine that TV shows and films based on people involved in such crimes must not be put to work. Reason? That will encourage criminals and break the victims who are already suffering.

I am not in full but partial disagreement. Because, in this line of work, people either glamorize the dramatization of real-life events or forward their accurate screenplay to compel the viewers with the eye-openers in a dramatic way that they will watch for both reasons, passing their time and knowing the facts.

Yes, for that we have documentaries but that format cannot go mainstream and eye-catching to most of the general viewers. Therefore, live-action shows like ‘The Reckoning’ becomes necessary to understand what a dirty old man he was. In a couple of years, there have been two tv shows on Savile. Previously, there was a 2-episode series on Netflix about him, “Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story”. Because it was a documentary but not live-action, many of you didn’t bother to take interest but did for this show because someplays him and becomes more direct. So we are more interested to know in live-action than a documentary.

STEVE COOGAN

We all are very familiar to this great actor and comedian Steve Coogan. A versatile like him who has played many different roles in his career must be praised for being bold enough to agree playing Jimmy Savile and face the heat. I’ll say he took the chance because he knew that this role will garnish his filmography. And there could have been no better actor than him to play this role.

The moment when Steve Coogan voices Jimmy Seville, my eyebrows rise and I am taken aback when he acts Jimmy Seville. The mannerism, the eccentric persona, the Yorkshire accent, the way he smokes his cigar, were all well caught up. I never felt a vocal difference between Steve and Jimmy which is remarkable. Perhaps, it was a piece of cake for Steve as he is from Lancashire and Jimmy was from Yorkshire, and if I am not wrong, both accents are quite similar. But one edge of impression was quite missing from Steve Coogan and that is Jimmy’s crazy facial expressions. There was no craziness on his face. The whole time, due to cold facial expressions, he looked like a very old Moe Howard or Glenn Close in a white granny wig.

But if this show becomes successful or well-known that is only because of Steve Coogan’s presence. It was a fabulous performance where not for once I felt if he was in the show but Jimmy himself. He was that excellent.

CLOSING REMARKS

Must I believe that the BBC has done a favor by making a miniseries and somehow made an effort clearing their name? Not at all. The Reckoning is not at all reckoning. It shows the rise and fall of Jimmy Savile. And while he was grabbing all that national attention for decades, the BBC installed some episodic moments of his going pervert and committing the crime. There were more insights in the Netflix documentary than this series. Nothing much new did I discover about him.

I must also praise the BBC that the one major pull on Savile’s intentions was rightly handled. Which, as a matter of fact, is dogmatizing that the entire humanitarian effort of his lifetime was for the cover up of his crimes. The question mark over his humanitarian effort was raised several times which indirectly means that the BBC now finally but behind close doors, admit that funding and shielding this man is a permanent damage to their legacy. The BBC will never go down for sure but the Jimmy Savile chapter, no matter how many justifications they present to the audience, will always hurt them.

RATINGS 5/10

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Film Reviews

Film Review: Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva (2022)

STORY

Shiva and Isha fall in love at first sight and during their kesariyapa, Isha learns that Shiva has supernatural powers and some force is foretelling him that some evil powers are going to destroy their universe. But Shiva can rescue if he finds out where his powers came from.

INTRODUCTION

Brahmāstra is director Ayan Mukherji‘s brain temple and as per Ranbir Kapoor, Ayan has spent six years of his life in shaping the project into an outstanding story. I was personally interested to watch this epic for a couple of years. Because I sensed potential and growth in the plot. When the first trailer arrived, I realized I was right.

Another point that build my interest for the film was that in 2017, producer Karan Johar had already planned to turn Brahmāstra into a fantasy trilogy that indicates how much efforts were made for nurturing this project. Bollywood industry doesn’t reveal such magnitude of planning for producing a film. And that too a fantasy genre where Bollywood compromises over the visual effects that surely will never match to the outer world. But guys! the times they are a-Changin’. If you observe some mega projects, you will see the visual effects do are striking the chords. After the success of the first part of Brahmāstra, Ayan has now announced that the second part is coming in 2026! We are still three years away from the happening!

ASTRAVERSE

Brahmāstra is the first chapter of the cinematic universe that is now officially called ‘Astraverse’. So what is Astra? Astra is a celestial weapon created by the Lord and presided over by a specific Deity. That Deity must have the required knowledge about the astra. So when that Deity properly invokes, the astra becomes functional resulting in deep consequences. Astras have their significance in Hindu mythology as many astras were summoned by deities involved in the books of Ramayana and Mahabharata.

So Ayan coined an idea that by knowing the significance of the power of astras, why not apply the mythological elements of the ancient India in the modern state to fight against the evil powers and shape it into a cinematic universe?

REVIEW

When you watch Brahmāstra, you will get a different vibe about the story and you will start growing with the film but after roughly 38 minutes. Yes, the existence of a stereotypical content is a distraction and no one can fix that in India. It is a three-hour film and several times I opine that a film can be concluded in 90 minutes. But this is an exceptional case. Because first it is a fantasy and then a mega project concluding in three films. So a lot has to be detailed.

When it comes to detailing in long breathing, the origins of the main characters, Shiva and Isha, were not touched. I am fine with that due to the fact that they are some ordinary people with nothing special in the background. But Shiva’s mother was briefed only because that mattered in the plot. Ayan emphasized on Shiva’s character development which worked slowly in the middle of the film.

BUDGET

Brahmāstra is produced at a gigantic budget of around ₹450 crore out of which ₹150 crore is spend on VFX. And after watching this film, I can declare by all means that I have never watched a Bollywood film in my life with such a high command on the visual effects. From a typical Bollywood standard, visual effects are the most compelling portion of their cinematic presentation. Especially, from the second half when picturising the world of Brahmānsh (Āshram), a secret society. Knowing the supernatural school requires more VFX work, the result is fabulous. Especially in the track ‘Deva, Deva‘, you will get a different feeling like never before. The whole proceeding in the song was outstanding. The element of passion, joy, and wielding of power is well-picturized.

CASTING

The other means of costing in the production budget that much is also due to a star-studded line-up of actors involved in the project. Starring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt, Brahmāstra has a supporting cast of Amitabh Bachchan, Dimple Kapadia, and Nagarjuna. Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone have important cameos too.

Coming back on Ranbir and Alia, they were in relationship when Brahmāstra was filming, and newly married when released. Knowing that they were in love, it made their on-screen chemistry more natural, faithful, and more dedicating. But I must say that Ayan could have made their relationship building more natural in several ways. We are squeezed with Bollywood’s eternal romantic artistry that a boy and a girl have to fall in love at first sight and pace that up gradually.

HOW COME?

Some commonsense were also compromised in the continuity. How come no one happen to catch Mohan Bhargav in the open sky with his astra? The news went viral about his death the next day. How come no camera caught the sight or a CCTV footage checked what happened that fateful night? 

Shiva and Isha travel Varanasi to save someone’s life. Knowing the fact that the killers are arriving soon, they or Ayan Mukherji preferred to do Kesariya first. The song ended with Shiva’s hand firing in the water. How come no one nearby noticed that at all?

Isha, throughout the film, is a larger-than-life character. She came from London, met Shiva and fell in love. And realized that Shiva was a different being. Next day, she decided to trust his supernatural explanation and go with him to Varanasi and stop a guy to be killed. Her mind and body settled for such showdown, just like that. Alia Bhatt usually selects the films where her character has substance. This time she was just a typical heroine who will stand for her hero in any given situation and give him the center stage for all heroism. The dialogues could have been better but were cringy and flat.

RETURN OF THE SCIENTIST

An innovative method was used for Brahmāstra’s story that is continuing an established character of a certain film which is not at all connected. Shah Rukh’s famous character of the NASA scientist Mohan Bhargav from Swades was revived in Brahmāstra. Mohan is shown that after returning to India, he wielded supernatural power. Although, it was quite an interesting idea but Mohan no way reminded me of Swades thanks to Shah Rukh’s stereotypical performance that vastly distinguished from his original version of Mohan. There was a staggering difference in executing both roles. How did Ayan reprise Mohan Bhargav? Both Swades and Brahmāstra are financed by different production companies. The one common factor that bridges the film is Ayan himself. He co.wrote the script and assisted Swades’ director Ashutosh Gowariker. Perhaps the latter has something to do with it.

CLOSING REMARKS

I want to appreciate Ayan Mukherji for believing his instinct and working on his creativity. Spending six years of life over a thought deserves better prospects. With all the mainstream elements surrendering the film’s main motive, I will say that Brahmāstra has still managed carrying to success on the shoulders of an interesting plot, magnificent VFX, and impressive sound work. Without a doubt, Brahmāstra is the promising beginning to an exciting universe.

RATINGS 6.5/10

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Film Reviews

Film Review: The Flash (2023)

STORY

Bruce Wayne warns Barry Allen of severe consequences if he keeps traveling back in time to see his mother alive. Overcome by his emotions, Barry uses speed force to alter the past and ends up in another universe where there is another version of Barry with his mother alive.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to yet another sad chapter of an ever-collapsing brain-farting universe of DCEU or DCU. A cinematic universe whose Gods are still devising a plan to jump-start and level with Disney Studio‘s Marvel Cinematic Universe.

After seven years of inception, or maybe ten if I do not dare to miss Man of Steel, the story of this cinematic universe still fails to get the confidence vote of comic book audience and DC Comics loyalists. Meetings after meetings, reshoots after reshoots, executive producers are still clueless and now almost every Justice League actor is out besides Jason Momoa. If you ever get to know that a DC film has been interrupted with the bosses ordering reshoots, realize that the film is already marching towards the failure before even hitting the theatres.

REVIEW

The Flash is just another DC superhero film that is badly trying to follow one of the successful routes of MCU philosophy which is dragging humor in almost everything. Yes, The Flash is a cool dude and I cannot imagine his solo film going dark despite his dark origins and many portions of comic book pages turning black in the past.

The Flash film is supposed to entertain the audience. But you have to apply the fun and the entertainment only when the cinematic universe is either fixed or turning towards a game-changer. Fixing the universe and being a game changer are the two major factors this film was to be made responsible for. Instead, the film overcooked the whole screenplay with a very unconvincing plot. After such a messed up plot and extremely bad CGI, you will have to ask yourself, what was the value of the entire story of the film? Exactly, close to none.

Warner Bros. bosses have still not learned their lesson from DCEU failures. You cannot drag so many characters in a single film to get the audience approval. The story of the film needs breathing. And there is no space or time of maturing the supporting characters who are introduced.

Michael Keaton‘s Batman has returned and roped into this miserable DC universe just like wrestling legends are often dragged to WWE events to attract the audience. After mere ten minutes of onscreen appearance, Keaton’s Batman agrees to fight alongside visibly two boys with silly jokes to find Superman and stop General Zod from invading the planet. Ten Minutes! Keaton’s Batman who looked so washed up to his old game suddenly finds reason to return and fight. Such development requires build up and that lacked here.

There is nothing Wow! about Supergirl at all. Boring introduction, unattractive fighting sequences, and no character development. Plus, Sasha Calle doesn’t look fit for the role. Michael Shannon‘s General Zod is terribly wasted. You must have felt Zod’s wrath in Man of Steel ten years ago. Why? Because Zod’s character was widely stretched to fit in the story and make you feel uncomfortable about his madness. But this time, I was not getting that thrill to see him attempting to invade the planet. Zod was in the film for hardly 15 minutes.

Unprecedented cameos in the final act were meaningless and once again, dragged. Yes, thank you. Super thank you for finally uniting Christopher Reeve‘s Superman and Helen Slater‘s Supergirl in the same frame in such a blood-boiling use of CGI. But at what cost? In fact, I am curious to know the real cost of production for “The Flash”. Wikipedia and various sources on the internet says that this film costs over $200 million in the production. I fail to believe a film with such heaving budget hitting the theatres with that deepfake and horrible CGI.

The dialogues of the film lacks substance. There is no impact but very off dialogues.”Come on Barbie, Let’s go party?” “You wanna get nuts? Let’s get nuts.” The Music score is super ordinary. So many vital scenes lack a musical impact. Zero inspiration.

I am unsure of Ezra Miller‘s future after being surrounded with so many controversies but after watching “The Flash”, I feel it is time to find a new face. This character portrayal is way too cheesy. And it feels like the television portrayal by Grant Gustin was more fitting and closer to comic books in comparison.

Some interesting developments come out from this film. Like Barry was in Metropolis when Zod starting killing people. Ben Affleck‘s Batman riding Batpod similar to what Christian Bale and Anne Hathaway drove in “The Dark Knight Trilogy“. Our Boba Fett shows up as Tom Curry of the other world to whom Barry calls to check if he is Arthur Curry‘s father. Keaton’s Batman electrocuting Flash is a straight comic reference from “Flashpoint“.

When ‘The Flash’ was announced years ago, my first impression was that this film will be based on “Flashpoint” due to the nature of the continuity in the first phase of DCEU indicating about it when Barry comes from the future to warn Bruce in Batman v Superman. But I guess I was in delusion to assume if WB executives will come up with a plan smart enough to run a comic book inspired storyline.

PLUSES

Despite being immensely disappointed with the film, I liked a couple of scenes. One was Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne’s thought-provoking advises to Barry. The life lesson Bruce gave here to Barry were quite hard hitting that actually makes Ben Affleck’s version of Bruce more subtle. I wish DCEU had valued this angle of Bruce/Batman. The other scene was Barry meeting his mother one last time in the supermarket. Knowing the fact that he is reversing the altered timeline which means his mother will remain killed in the past breaks Barry and makes the audience re-imagine what if the sons and daughters meet their dead parents while traveling back in time one last time? How does it feel? Painful, isn’t it? This is what Bruce was trying to understand Barry, “These scars we have make us who we are. We’re not meant to go back and fix them. And there’s nothing broken with you that needs to be fixed.”

TWO BATMEN IN THE SAME FILM!!!

A cinematic delight to our eyes was appearance of not one but two Batmen in the same film. Let’s not talk about the third Bruce Wayne of the film which was also meaningless. But anyway, a story that had to make two Batmen from different worlds appear for Barry didn’t give much chills to the audience. One may ask themselves, should two Batmen have shared the same screen? Just like three Spidermen? I think it obviously would have been exciting. But at what cost? The given story didn’t support to bring them together. So I think it was a good decision. Maybe it would have been more heartbreaking to see two Batmen together being part of an unusual disappointment.

THE DCEU MESS UP

So what now? Now, I wait for Aquaman and observe how James Gunn‘s vision for a fresh DC universe will give birth from there. Am I excited? About what? This DCEU had a weak foundation due to a punctured storyline that was unjust to the Justice League. The slating of the films, the interferences of Warner Bros. bosses, the reshoots of the films, the Joss Whedon chapter, and last of all rejecting Zack Snyder‘s version of continuing of what possibly looked like a very promising trilogy of the JL. All this failed to present a DCEU that we comic geeks ever wanted to watch out.

Just take a small example of planning Michael Keaton to play a Nick Fury kind of role in the future films of the DCEU. And for that purpose, Keaton starred in this film. And then, he worked in Batgirl and then the upcoming sequel of Aquaman. When WB hired James Gunn, he came up with a new plan that held no future for Keaton. Therefore, he was killed in ‘The Flash’. Batgirl got shelved in the post production. And his scenes from Aquaman cut. How do you expect actors to work with you in this universe for a long period?

ANOTHER BOX-OFFICE DISASTER!

When it comes to the box-office collections, The Flash, believe it or not, is the sixth consecutive flop in the DCEU. Shazam in 2019 was the last DCEU film that met success. Since then, two of the DCEU films didn’t even reach the cost of the film budget, Wonder Woman 1984, and The Suicide Squad. Perhaps because of COVID-hit 2020. But still, the last three DCEU films didn’t even meet the break even point. And now Blue Beetle has become the seventh consecutive flop in the DCEU.

GUNN’S VISION

Shall I be optimist about James Gunn’s vision for future DCU? See I am inclined towards Zack Snyder’s vision but it is useless to whine about something that is shelved. The one aspect I really like about Gunn is that he is a comic geek and knows this shit. The developments of the future projects that he announced all have essence of comic books which is exactly what a comic geek desperately wants; a universe that identifies and recognizes the efforts and contributions of the writers. Where and what is the enthusiasm if a superhero film doesn’t have a comic book value at all? To devalue book sources and detach a comic character and story line for a new once-upon-a-time, you need to come up with an extremely rich writing content that can hit the audience while playing the right chords. So not every film can be Joker at all.

CLOSING REMARKS

To end my never-ending assessment, take ‘The Flash’ as a comedy film and a forgettable past, and for some time, we believe in the theory that S stands for Hope.

RATINGS: 3/10

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