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Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)

Beatiful storyline and well executed but lacks in many ways

Before I start writing about Zack Snyder's Justice League; let me put my opinion here first.

Watchmen is still Snyder's top DC movie and 2nd best superhero movie ever made after The Dark Knight.

Alright... let's talk about this movie then.

What I loved:

• Storyline and the direction. Each sequence, very well detailed and beautifully executed. Especially Cyborg's future vision of all JL members are killed, Darkseid has won and Superman turns evil. Also the last sequence - Bruce's nightmere; the angry Mera...
• Darkseid - Zack has perfectly nailed him. Those flaming eyes after killing King Arthur and the Omega Beams... Man just loved it. (Uxas version was alright though).
• Steppenwolf - CGI was really good - both, with and without the armour. I prefer his face without the armour though - it looked more natural.
• Cyborg - was never a fan of him but liked his dark character and the way he's come out as one of the universe's main links.
• Cameos and future build ups - never thought that Flash would reverse the timeline this quickly which now opens up all new possibilities for DCEU to grow. Also loved how Martian Manhunter now starts showing up more often, Ryan Choi - takes charge of nano technology division of Star Labs, and a little cameo of dead Killowog in Bruce's nightmare sequence (and dead Supergirl in Superman's arms in Cyborg's vision?)

What I hated:

• Overall CGI - not convinced. May be Zack didn't have enough time and budget? Most of the Flash's scenes didn't look right. i.e Barry's shoes tearing, Barry saving Iris in slow mo, Iris' car blowing, and most of the Victor's visions when he goes to different places - didn't look real at all. Also, Flash's running is still weird.
• Overall movie tone and color grading - No! Weren't up to Zack's standards.
• I felt like Superman got very less time on screen. Henry deserved more.
• Martian Manhunter - looked TV Series level average. Needed more darker skin tone, may be some height and body structure modifications to more look like an alien and less human, and a serious look.
• Background score - It didn't disconnect me from any of the scenes so was not terrible; but also, I'm not humming any of the soundtracks back in my brain so was not great either. Most of them were from the past movies.
• 4:3 aspect ratio - I know Zack had a solid reason behind this and it might have worked well if the movie was released in theatres especially in IMAX. However, not many countries have IMAX, and on TV, our eyes are trained to see 16:9 ratio so those black bars on the sides were quite disturbing.

So... my rating would be 7/10 (almost gave 6.5 but I'll do some partiality here being a DC and Snyder fan). 😊

Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story (2020)

Detailed storyline very well executed. That is it!

First of all - this web series is not worth 9+ IMDB rating.

Direction, cinematography, background score (loved the title theme though) were average. Also, apart from Rajat Kapoor, K. K. Raina, and Ananth Narayan Mahadevan, acting were average for most actors including Pratik Gandhi who did not do anything exceptional. Even the dialogues were not too impressive.

The only best part about this web series was the Storyline. It was very detailed and well executed. I can give 7/10 for this.

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

A huge DC fan but this one was a garbage!

What a disaster movie. Every aspect in this movie is a pure garbage.

Storyline/Direction: Diana still misses the guy she met for a few days 60-70 years ago. "Dream Stone" - what a joke. Hundreds of good Wonder Woman comic stories, and this is the only one they came up with!!! And that guy Pedro Pascal was just unbearable.

To a Dream Stone, Diana wishes for Steve to come back to life, and how does he appear out of thin air? NO! His spirit goes into a random guy so Diana sees Steve in him (and us audience too) but others still see him as a random guy.

Steve and Diana go to Egypt to stop Max and they steal a plane from museum (they don't use a traditional way because Steve doesn't have a passport. BUT STEVE IS NOT STEVE IN REALITY, HE'S THAT RANDOM GUY. AND THAT RANDOM GUY MIGHT HAVE HAD A PASSPORT!). ANYWAY! They have working, fueled planes ready to fly at museum. HANG ON! Plane then becomes invisible. HOW! Well, as per comics, it was designed to be invisible and in some comics it was built using some sort of alien material which responds to Wonder Woman thoughts etc.. etc... BUT NO! In this movie, everything's about magic. So Diana uses her demigoddess powers to turn plane invisible.

Max goes to President's office and grants him a wish to have more nukes and suddenly he randomly sees some satellite designs around the office and in return he asks for that technology so through some radio waves he can touch everyone on the planet. WHAT!!! Sorry I didn't understand this concept (may be writers too didn't understand this) so let's move on...

Barbara on plane asks Max for another wish that she would want to become a predator and he turns him into Cheetah! WW's arch-enemy finally; they have a "good 5 minutes" fight when WW got to wear Hawkgirl's costume to protect her from Cheetah's deadly claws but so powerful Cheetah tears it down in just a couple of minutes and then angry WW defeats Cheetah in next 2 minutes without the costume. WHAT!!!. Director here un-defines all physics/electricity laws too.

...the list could go on - when and how WW tied Lasso on Max's feet where she first struggled to get her Lasso through to him due to some cyclone created around him!!! She then asks everyone on this planet to renounce their wishes (what if someone had already wished for the end of the world?) including Max, who also renounce his wish suddenly starts caring about his son etc... etc...

Cinematography/CGI: I don't know if it's just me or others too, lighting seemed so awful throughout the movie. That first 15 mins race scene looked so unreal and the Egypt chase had web-series level graphics. When I complain about lighting, I think they completely forgot to put any lighting during the final WW-Cheetah fight sequence. It was so dark and barely visible, may be they were hiding Cheetah's poor graphical fur or something.

Background Score: May be one of the worst works from legendry Hans Zimmer. Same big, loud typical Hans Zimmer score that he did for every other superhero movies. Apart from the trailer theme (which was again nothing but a remix of "Blue Monday") background score can completely be ignored.

Breathe: Into the Shadows (2020)

3 Stars for lockdown timepass!

You're not missing anything new if you've skipped this show.

The concept is very common - there have been 50+ movies/TV shows already in the market based on Dissociative Identity Disorder.

Abhishek A. Bachchan, Nithya Menen, and Amit Sadh - nothing special to see (in terms of acting) apart from their good looking faces.

Hrishikesh Joshi and Shrikant Verma are the only ones who have acted well for their roles.

Black Panther (2018)

An average and typical Marvel film

97% Rotten Tomatoes. Really? Critics have gone mad or been paid a descent amount of money.

It has no special story, and the plot is totally predictable. Colors and visuals are the only gorgeous parts of this film. I felt cheated after how amazingly Black Panther was shown in Civil War.

It has been released in 3D but there are merely a few shots that felt good in 3D.

Overall acting is okay; no actor leaves their mark on your mind. And as always, this Marvel movie too suffers with the villain deficiency syndrome.

6 out of 10 from me, that's it.

Logan (2017)

Great Ending

"Logan"

What an emotional and satisfying tribute to the great actor. Finally, Jackman gets a "Wolverine" film what he deserved.

All the performances are amazing; Specially Jackman, and Stewart are the best and may be best of their X-Men careers. I hope that we'll see retirement of Wolverine, and Professor X characters as nobody will be better than them.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

Lame and boring plot.

The movie takes forever to end, and offers no surprises on the way. Also, five post-credits scenes is probably a little much, too.

Again, suffering from the usual MCU villain deficiency syndrome, poor storyline, and direction. Lacked the wit & humor of the first film and certainly not as good as the first one.

Marvel has to keep in mind that only CGI don't make a good movie.

Tip: Do not spend your money in the cinema wait for it to come online.

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

This wasn't a Thor movie at all!

May be this is mostly targeted for children to teenage aged audiences. Humorous, colorful, C.G.I packed, with retro soundtracks. Making a comedy movie formula has worked on Guardians of the Galaxy, and Deadpool already, that doesn't mean that it has to be imposed in Thor too.

Not bad if you have cheap tickets, but don't pay extra for IMAX/3D experience (we watched in 3D).

**SPOILER ALERT AHEAD**

• Hulk's (and of course Dr. Strange's) character is somewhat forced into the film. Even his CGI looks cheap too.

• Odin, why bother casting him in the first place? The all-father, one of the most powerful characters of Thor franchise looks tired and bored to continue with the series.

• Valkyrie, is she supposed to be a musclebound warrior or some glamorous cat-walking (cheap) cosplaying model?

• Karl Urban, "Executioner" again. Great choice but poorly portrayed. You once played Judge Dredd Karl, remember that?

If it was supposed to be an (officially) funny movie, Korg was the best!!!

Justice League (2017)

Lacking DC's originality

**SPOILERS** **DON'T READ IF YOU'RE YET TO WATCH**

Not bad! But definitely not great. TDK-trilogy and Watchmen still hold my votes for best DC movies ever produced.

Somewhere it felt like they're trying to imitate Marvel - simple and fast pacing plot, no surprises, some jokes were forcefully placed, bad CGI, and a weak villain. Looks like they have concentrated too much on action instead of the plot.

I was hoping for more classic, dark, and serious Batman who doesn't care but his own version of justice. But how they portrayed him is, suddenly changed to a lighter mood, cracking little jokes - Not acceptable to me.

We know WW is DCEU's only hit, and Gal's charm has totally worked on WW's character, but that doesn't mean she would become the wisest, strongest, and dominant character of the league. Even Batman, King of Atlantis, The fastest man alive, and Cyborg felt like begging to WW - please guide us, we are nothing without you.

Aquaman isn't as bad-ass as he looks in trailers but still nicely portrayed and cracks some jokes too.

Flash is doing good so far, but slightly trying hard to be funny. This time his jokes just managed to land well, but hope he doesn't become next Lex Luthor from BvS or Joker from SS.

Superman, so he finally smiled! (with his digitally removed mustache). Good entry, just like what Superman deserves. He has become so powerful that he knocked out Steppenwolf who was "bothering the others" since two hours in just couple of punches - way too rushed on this part, otherwise Superman (again, except from his awkward lips CGI) was great.

Steppenwolf is the second worst villain after Enchantress and the CGI is just awful.

Overall good movie, definitely an improvement from MoS, and BvS, but maybe not as good as WW still.

Wonder Woman (2017)

Above Average Movie (Best of DCEU So Far)

IMDb: 8.5, and Rotten Tomatoes: 93% (atm). Well, I think these ratings are slightly overrated. 🤔

Wonder Woman is indeed a good movie but definitely not the best of DC yet (though TDK was not part of DCEU, it still holds the best DC movie title till date).

I'd give Wonder Woman ~7.0.

I can see all the hard work what Gal Gadot (as an actor), and Patty Jenkins (as a director) have put in this movie, and this might be the best of their works too. But still, at some points I felt that Gal has put too much efforts (in a few scenes only) and ended up doing overacting (not as overacted as Jesse Heisenberg (Lex Luthor), and Jared Leto (The Joker) though). Also, her charm and cuteness don't translate into the Wonder Woman's character.

Good parts:

• DCEU has had too much pressure to make this movie bright and witty (some jokes have landed so well to be honest) in order to attract all genre of audiences.

• Although the plot was very generic, Patty and Matthew Jensen (cinematographer) have shaped it really well.

• Chris Pine (Steve Trevor) has done a great job, and thank god they didn't stretch their romance too far.

Bad parts:

• All the action scenes in the trailers - that's all; no additional action scenes in the actual movie.

• CGI & special effects - again, this is the part where DCEU seriously needs to work on.

• Just like Suicide Squad (and any other Marvel movies), this movie suffers with the super-villain syndrome too.

• Danny Huston (Ludendorff) has done an awful acting, and putting Ares - The God of War was somehow out of the shape for the movie.

• And last but the most important part - it was loud, but the background score did not leave any effect on the movie (it's missing the magical touch of Hans Zimmer).

So overall, it's an above average superhero movie which has successfully managed to save the sinking boat of DCEU. And now, let's see what Lord Snyder has to deliver us in November. Hope he brings back the original darkness of DC comics (similar to what he did with Watchmen) into it's original mode.