Peter Jackson got noticed when he made a film called ‘Bad Taste’. It’s about  group of aliens that chase human flesh for their intergalactic fast-food chain.

In the early 90s our local cable guy played this movie, that too during Diwali festival season. I confronted him later when he paid a visit to collect the monthly bill and asked him ‘why’…’WHY’ of all the movies he had to broadcast this movie, and that too during the festival season. Don’t quite recollect what he said other than his broad smile. I am sure, I will not pose the same question to him, had his choice were ‘Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ now 🙂

Peter Jackson has come a long way from his amateurish, home-grown special effects laden films to blockbuster spectacles that have raised the bar in story-telling and audio-visual splendor. It’s an amazing journey for Peter Jackson, and so it is for the audience of his movies.

‘The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug’ is a delight for senses and a must watch for all movie lovers. The movie takes-off with a small back-story that connects to the prequel and moves ahead with break-neck speed. As the good and bad forces unite to battle it it out, The Hobbit and the dwarves march on to the lonely mountain to confront the dragon and make a claim on the dwarves’ fortune. Peter Jackson reserves the best to the last, and the scenes with the dragon are outstanding. The ending disappoints but the rest of the movie’s experience more than compensates for it and makes you wanting for more. (A third installment is on the anvil, of course).

It calls for a brilliant mix of art and craft to create a true blockbuster, that can be watched with family n’ friends. Peter Jackson and his home-grown Weta Digital are probably the best in this business right now. Hope he looks beyond and digs into old Telugu hits like ‘Patala Bhairavi’ or a few of the Vithalayacharya’s films and create ‘our’ heroes on the big screen 🙂

Youtube has a content management system(CMS) that allows movie producers to upload a reference file of their work and apply a policy to the user uploaded files. The content producers can either choose to monetize such ‘claimed’ videos by allowing Youtube to play advertisements in these videos or simply take down such content.

Wonder what would happen if such a CMS comes into vogue for copyright management of films worldwide. What if a content clearance exchange with such fingerprinting system  is used before a film hits distribution channels. Guess, most of our films would never make out of this exchange ‘claim’ free.

‘Aata Arambham’ a Tamil dubbed film that has a quite few inspirations (aka claims) at the ‘clip’ level. Let it be the first hacking scene which is nicely adapted from ‘Swordfish’ or the iron box scene from ‘Pride and Glory’ or the (very diluted) Dubai hacking scene from ‘Mission Imposisble: Ghost Protocol’…and many more that might have slipped my CMS would have made it to this movie directed by Vishnuvardhan.

Swordfish: Interview 

Swordfish: Before climax

Iron box scene from ‘Pride and Glory’

If you leave the CMS aspect, the movie works for the most part primarily because of its pace and main cast. The second half sags under the weight of a predictable flashback episode but the director makes amends towards the climax. Ajith carries the film on his portly self, and the rest of the cast support him adequately. Yuvan Shankar Raja’s background score is a definite plus (Ajith’s theme though appears a bit monotonous and could have had a few variations).

VFX are not upto the mark specially in the blast scenes and with all the progress in this domain, one would definitely expect more. Also glaring is the inconsistency in appearance of Ajith and Rana, which might be due to the long shooting schedules and other projects?

Speaking of which, Rana who is introduced in the beginning of the movie, in what might be his ‘Bahubali’ getup, suddenly sports a trimmed look. Now this wouldn’t look so odd, had it not happened in the middle of a commando operation on the lines of ‘The Raid: Redemption’.

No matter how good a screen adaptation or a how brilliant the director, it is the actors who have to deliver.  ‘Catching Fire’ is one such example. Jennifer lawrence (as Katniss), Woody Harrelson (Haymitch Abernathy), Donald Sutherland (President Snow), Stanley Tucci (Caesar Flickerman) and Philip Seymour Hoffman (Plutarch Heavensbee), hold sway on the audience. It’s amazing to watch how little and how much they do, to bring their characters to life.

Catching Fire, the second installment in the trilogy, is more of a battle between the President and Katniss, against the backdrop of the rebellion gathering strength and Katniss emerging as a symbol for the people in subjugation.  Katniss is once gain hurled into the arena, to fight it out with winners of the previous editions of Hunger Games. The movie works on all levels and sets up nicely for the third part, the finale (?).

‘Hunger games’ as a book is an  interesting projection of present on to future, thus making it real enough for a wide range of readers’ connect.  It’s bit of an oxymoron to call a science fiction book contemporary and real, but books like ‘Hunger Games’ achieve this rare feat. The trilogy also manages to give a higher purpose to the 12-18 year olds (that’s the age required to participate in the games and also the target audience) thus making their violence ‘holy’ enough for the readers to grasp the larger themes.

Violence is visceral and liberation ethereal. It is their combination and the measure of them, that decide if the film would emerge as an ‘Ong-Bak’ or The Gladiator’.