At the movies...

Angels & Demons:

Most of you people who’ve known me personally, would also know that I love English movies. I must say, I really can’t stay away from the Movie Hall’s, which currently is only Sathyam, since that’s the one decent one in Chennai. Last week I walked into this much awaited movie ‘Angel & Demons’, a remake of the original book written by Dan Brown. Comparatively this movie turned out to be a better remake of the book than ‘Da Vinci Code’, which was quite surprising. Personally I’d rate the movie a solid 4 out of 5, considering the drama that it has revolving around the Papal Conclave. Considering the success of Dan, in turning 2 of his most famous novels into Hollywood hits I wouldn’t be shocked to see the other books such as Digital Fortress, Deception Point & The lost Symbol, made it to Hollywood too. In my case however, I’d have to accept that I haven’t read either ‘Da Vinci Code’ or ‘Angel & Demons’, but I somehow feel that ‘Angel & Demons’ was much better.

With public scenes outside the Sistine Chapel, realistic representation of the Cardinals, exciting clues and mysterious murders, this movie is a must watch for movie buffs. The size of the anti-matter explosion at the end of the movie with hardly any damage to the ground underneath is also quite not believable. Of course you would need a good background on the Vatican, election process and other subtle activities that Christianity has been known for since time immemorial. People not used to watching English regularly would probably find it boring or hard to follow too.

STAR TREK: The Future Begins

And while the topic is about movies, I’d also like to mention that I went for the other new movie Star Trek: The Future Begins, which turned out to be quite disappointing. Being a hard core fan of Star Trek for the past 18 odd years, I can’t but refuse that I had my hopes built up and expected quite a lot from this movie. However, unlike the regular TV Series, the movie had merged together unique shades of romance, action and sci-fi.

Few things that I noticed were that Cap. James T Kirk (Chris Pine) definitely does not pass for a Star Fleet Academy Pass out. Chris neither has the authority nor the obvious smartness of Cap. Jean Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). Moreover, the movie desperately needs the presence of an attractive female like Lieutenant Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) or Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis). The role of Zoe Saldana as Uhura with the ‘not so interesting’ romance with Captain Spock is quite negligible as well. All in all, I’d give this a rating of 3 out of 5, suitable for a watch only if you’re a Star Trek fan and intend not to miss any of its movies.