I got the pleasure of catching this in Dubai with an Indian friend with an International audience, so my experiences with it are going to be different and possibly more pleasurable than a typical Western audience is going to experience. The people laughed and cheered and clapped and actually dug the movie for the fun it is, which for some reason in the West is considered bad manners (audience to fit the movie: if you're watching something serious and contemplative by all means everyone should be quiet and respectful, but when you're watching this, if you're not cheering you're doing it wrong).
This movie is India's current biggest budget feature starring Shahrukh Khan upstaging Endhiran for budget and featuring a cameo of its star Rajnikanth. Both are silly effects filled bonanzas but Khan owns his own visual effects company that put to work some real Hollywood level stuff--in fact in my opinion upstaged Hollywood a little bit, if only because this movie still had some intent toward honest storytelling and didn't feel too rehashed/retread. Otherwise this Bollywood is pure Hollywood, and those who look to foreign lands to escape the entrapment of the commercial cinematic field are going to be disappointed. That said, hey, this movie is a lot of fun. It is some seriously epic stuff.
Shahrukh Khan is a game developer who, to win the heart of his son, creates a villain Ra-One ("Ravaan", a multifaced demon) supposedly more powerful than the hero. Of course, the father knows that good is more powerful and designs the game to be winnable, but unfortunately the AI in the video game becomes self aware and uses new 3D projection technology to break out in the real world to hunt down the son like an Indian T-1000. Daddy done gets himself kill't but he's left behind an avatar in the form of G-One ("Giwan", heart) to protect child and mother from a macabre end. It's all action, song and dance, and Pinocchio wants to be a real boy from there.
And it's AWESOME. The movie is split into two parts with intermission, and the first part is really much better than the second, but the movie is filled with memorable scenes and performances, the effects look good, Shahrukh Khan gets some laughs as a robot, and positive messages are learned about the power of your heart, rejecting evil, and not smoking. Indian movies I've seen are not afraid to be sentimental so this movie has a bit of that, but if Western audiences can get passed their snark they'll probably enjoy those sequences too. Khan was interviewed in Dubai saying this is a family friendly movie but I have to say there was one Demolition Man like sequence that may be worth reconsidering--a good movie for preteens and up.
I like the line about Ravaan having to be killed again because he isn't dead. Good stuff.
--PolarisDiB
This movie is India's current biggest budget feature starring Shahrukh Khan upstaging Endhiran for budget and featuring a cameo of its star Rajnikanth. Both are silly effects filled bonanzas but Khan owns his own visual effects company that put to work some real Hollywood level stuff--in fact in my opinion upstaged Hollywood a little bit, if only because this movie still had some intent toward honest storytelling and didn't feel too rehashed/retread. Otherwise this Bollywood is pure Hollywood, and those who look to foreign lands to escape the entrapment of the commercial cinematic field are going to be disappointed. That said, hey, this movie is a lot of fun. It is some seriously epic stuff.
Shahrukh Khan is a game developer who, to win the heart of his son, creates a villain Ra-One ("Ravaan", a multifaced demon) supposedly more powerful than the hero. Of course, the father knows that good is more powerful and designs the game to be winnable, but unfortunately the AI in the video game becomes self aware and uses new 3D projection technology to break out in the real world to hunt down the son like an Indian T-1000. Daddy done gets himself kill't but he's left behind an avatar in the form of G-One ("Giwan", heart) to protect child and mother from a macabre end. It's all action, song and dance, and Pinocchio wants to be a real boy from there.
And it's AWESOME. The movie is split into two parts with intermission, and the first part is really much better than the second, but the movie is filled with memorable scenes and performances, the effects look good, Shahrukh Khan gets some laughs as a robot, and positive messages are learned about the power of your heart, rejecting evil, and not smoking. Indian movies I've seen are not afraid to be sentimental so this movie has a bit of that, but if Western audiences can get passed their snark they'll probably enjoy those sequences too. Khan was interviewed in Dubai saying this is a family friendly movie but I have to say there was one Demolition Man like sequence that may be worth reconsidering--a good movie for preteens and up.
I like the line about Ravaan having to be killed again because he isn't dead. Good stuff.
--PolarisDiB