Avengers Endgame review: "Possibly the greatest blockbuster, it's inevitable!!!"

On May 2nd, 2008 when Marvel Cinematic Universe released "Iron Man" little did anyone expect it to become the beginning of an experience that would have the fans asking for more. It sowed the seeds for Phase 1 of MCU & after a decade which saw 21 enthralling movies across three phases all building up to the ultimate grand finale, the "Infinity" saga. The first part was mind boggling as it saw Thanos wipe out half of all life which included many of our super heroes as well. As "Avengers:Endgame" unfolds, the question in all of our minds is what it would take for the Avengers to reverse the tragedy. With gargantuan expectations to be satisfied, the Russo brothers have a tough task in their hand. So will both Avengers & Russos succeed in their mission???

About three weeks have passed since Thanos's (Josh Brolin) deadly snap & the remaining Avengers are on the lookout for options as to whether the situation could be salvaged in some way. It is at this juncture that Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) rescues Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) & Nebula (Karen Gillan) who were drifting in space & gets them back to the rest. They combine their forces to locate the whereabouts of Thanos & tracks him down in an uninhabited planet. With none of his men by his side, the mad Titan seemed like a sitting duck & the Avengers wasted no time to take him down. But will they able to get hold of the Infinity stones or did Thanos have another trick up his sleeve???

After the captivating "Infinity War", the Russo brothers (Anthony & Joe)  had their hands full with "Endgame" as they had to scale it beyond the dizzying heights that the prequel had acquired. Since both the movies were shot back to back, the technical personnel remained the same with Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely in charge of the screenplay. The challenge in front of them & the Russo brothers were to come with a plausible solution that could get things back to normalcy. That solution happened to be time travel something which was expected with the Quantum Realm angle explored in the "Antman" series. However, that exactly where the problem with this movie lies as it's way too complex despite the explanations provided by Prof Hulk & Ancient One which led to quite a few loose ends like Gamora, Nebula etc. Though the 182 minutes without a break didnt seem like a long time at all, there was still scope for cutting off some flab.

But despite all that, it doesn't hinder the viewing experience as it was ABSOLUTELY EXHILARATING!!! It had all the elements that we wanted be it the liberal sprinkling of humour that Marvel is known for, action sequences that evoked goose bumps & even emotional scenes that moistened many eyes (it definitely includes me).  It's impossible to single out people for praise coz it was brilliance across the board starting from the Russos, Markus, McFeely, Trent Opaloch (visuals), Alan Silvestri (music), VFX team, stunt coordinators etc. A standing ovation to the late Stan Lee & Jack Kirby without whom all of this wouldnt have been possible.

Whatever might be the vision of the makers, if the artists that they choose cant portray it effectively onto the screen, then this whole exercise serves no purpose at all. It all began with Robert Downey Jr donning the Iron Man's suit & there was no turning back ever since. I was his fan even before he appeared in this avatar but that star worship has now elevated several folds over with his captivating act. Just like him another person who is one of the pillars of this incredible franchise is Chris Evans who was absolutely brilliant as the Cap. The list is endless be it Scarlett Johannson, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd, Josh Brolin, Jeremy Renner, Tom Holland, Brie Larson, Josh Brolin, Chris Pratt,  etc etc., all of whom have done utmost justice to their roles.

Verdict: The box office is in a state of shock as the collections have just gone through the roof with an opening day collection of about $150M. To be frank, I dont find it surprising as pretty much the entire movie buffs across the globe wanted to watch it. With word of mouth also in favour, it's truly set to create records like never before. So will James Cameron's stranglehold on the top 2 spots ("Avatar" & "Titanic") finally weaken?? I certainly believe it's INEVITABLE. In short, a MUST WATCH extravaganza!!!

Rating: 4.25/5

Regards...Ben

Super Deluxe review: “Quirky & brilliant in equal measure!!!”

After the enthralling experience of “Lucifer”, I presumed that the last weekend would be a rather sedate affair spent stocking up my pantry apart from watching IPL & the Miami Masters (by the way, the GOAT won it…polichu mone!!!).  However, that’s when I realized that Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s “Super Deluxe” had hit the screens on Friday & I was more than eager to check it out as it had an enviable star cast, not to mention Thiagarajan took the industry by storm with his debut venture “Aaranya Kaandam” in 2011. I had seen the stills of the movie & it had attracted my attention, so I was pretty much sure that I was in for a roller coaster ride. But how impactful it would be was something that I never fathomed.

The camera opens with a woman having an illicit relationship with her ex-lover & due to her misfortune, he dies on the bed while they were indulged in coitus. That female happened to be Vaembu (Samantha Akkineni) & just as she was wondering as to what to do with the corpse, her husband Mugilan (Fahadh Faasil) returns home. Similarly, there are three other parallel tracks which doesn’t quite link directly with any of them but still has some sort of an effect. One of them involved a godman Arputham (Mysskin), who believed that he was destined to be the Lord’s special one as he had survived the tsunami. In another track, four sexually frustrated teenagers seek porn for gratification only to realize that the star in it, Leela (Ramya Krishnan) was the mother of one of them. The final track involved the wait of a six-year-old Rasukkutty (Ashwanth Ashokkumar) for his father Manikam (Vijay Sethupathy), who to the family’s dismay had become a transgender & assumed the name of Shilpa.

As I mentioned earlier, Thiagarajan made his mark with his debut venture which had both the critics & movie aficionados go gaga. His latest venture is no different as it has a multi-layered brilliant script with the screenplay written by him & a host of individuals such as Mysskin, Nalan Kumarasamy & Neelan K Sekar. Each of them has proved their credentials in the past with exceptional movies adorning their CVs. Over here as well, we get to see their brilliance as they present their takes on amorality with respect to life, masculinity, infidelity & spirituality. All the stories have been excellently presented with due thought given to the dialogues & screenplay (though I felt that by watching it just once we might not imbibe all of them). I absolutely loved the shrewd placement of certain items like the type of movie posters pasted in the CD shop & at another place (revealing more will be a spoiler). Similarly, the choice of dialogues & songs in the background when the characters spoke, or thought was outstanding.

Despite a running time of close to 3 h, I am pretty much sure that once you allow yourselves to be engrossed in it; then it doesn’t take a toll on you. But even then, I still felt Sathyaraj Natarajan could have made the latter half crisper coz personally I wasn’t quite interested with the sci-fi part. Just like the director & his screenplay army, there are a few other technicians who deserves special mention. This includes P.S Vinod & Nirav Shah who has done an outstanding job with the visuals & the saturated colours that they had used across the frames. When it comes to music & BGM, Yuvan Shankar Raja wows us with an exceptional job with the clever placement of his father & legend Illayaraja’s songs as well as his own subtle background scores and silence.

Frankly speaking, it’s hard to choose the best performer among the lot as each one of them were equally brilliant. Since we already know the capabilities of Sethupathi & Fahadh, I will prefer to first talk about someone who absolutely floored me & that was the small kid, Ashok. His naturality & innocent smile makes us love him and introspect as to how uncomplicated children are. I really expect him to bag a couple of awards for this performance (maybe even on a National level). Sethupathi continues to render us speechless with his breath-taking act & this was yet another one. Only very few main stream actors (reminds me of Jayasurya in “Njaan Marykutty”) would be ballsy & capable enough to take up such a role, so hats off to him. I haven’t followed Samantha’s career keenly but from the ones that I have watched this was undoubtedly her best performance ever. After the sly, crazy & authoritative husband in “Kubalangi Nights”, here we have a fantastic Fahadh don the role of a cheated husband with absolute conviction who has no option but to help his wife. The roles that were given to Ramya Krishnan & Bhagavathy Perumal (as SI Berlin) will stun everyone as we would have never thought of such kind of a casting & both have given standout performances. As for the rest of the cast, Gayathrie (as Jyothi) Mysskin (as Arputham) & the teenagers have all done their parts aptly.

Verdict: It’s undoubtedly one of the most unique movies that I have ever watched & I absolutely loved the thought that has gone into the story as well as the execution. It would be fair to admit that I might not have been able to assimilate whatever Thiagarajan wanted to project coz I feel it’s a movie which becomes more comprehensible with repeated viewing. It is both unapologetic & blunt of what it wants to convey but at the same time it keeps us entertained. In short, a must watch!!!

Rating: 4/5

Regards…Ben