Jurassic World : not enough crunch

Spoiler alert!

Again, one of many firsts. I left the little one at home with my parents to watch this one.

Not to say I haven't left her before, but that was mostly for work rather than pure entertainment. So we bought the tickets for the late night show. And the entire day passed in excitement.

And to top it all, it was 3D. How much more exciting can it get!

I quite like the Jurassic park franchise. Till now it has delivered. Earlier it was novelty of watching dinosaurs and for the later parts, it was scare factor. The build up to this one, hence was quite high. At least in my mind.

The concept of the story was good. And it could have gone places. But unfortunately it became idiotic in the end.

This new Jurassic World, is a huge amusement park, the creation of one Mr Masrani. They create a dino with dino-non dino genes as the stellar future attraction. Only it turns out to be quite intelligent. And starts eating everything in sight. And there is mayhem everywhere. The dino looks ferocious, has vicious teeth which we keep seeing close quarters. 2 kids lost in the jungle. So far so good. After this it becomes haphazard. Dino chases after kids.. kids jump over waterfall  and escape. All the time we were thinking, will it jump too? Or maybe it will appear on the other side of the waterfall and scare the living daylights out of us. But it just calmly walks away!

And then the movie gets sadder. They get other trained dinos to capture this dino. The large dino should have been the focus of the movie. But suddenly for next 20 mins, it is nowhere to be seen.

The ending is atrocious. You will see a lot of dino fighting. And one T rex emerges as the victor  with some help from a croc like dino! All the humans are just hiding. I actually got bored.

Where is all that mist .... the scary anticipation of the jaw grinding dinosaurs.. It is sad sad sad.

For one, there is not  much 3D. And second, the plot just loses steam midway.

Oh, how I was looking forward to this one. It is one of my favourite creature franchises!!! Much better than the anacondas of the world!!

Now to wait for the next one  :(

 

The books or the TV series : asoiaf

So I read the song of ice and fire series after my good friend, S and fellow blogger, mommie, strongly recommended it to me. This was in 2013. I literally gobbled up the first two books. And then I bought the rest and finished the series in a few months. My mind was whirling with questions and thoughts and I discussed it with Mommie as she was the only person who had read all the books.

Sometime later, it came back to haunt me in the form of this TV series. I am a bit of a snob. Whoever watches the series and doesn't read the book.. They are not really into it, I feel. They take the easy way out of watching a compressed version of the wonderful books. And people in this bracket, except for a couple of people like Scarlett, are not really readers. They claim to read and discuss asoiaf as if it is the most wonderful thing they know about. I love correcting them and telling them to read the damn books! And it kills me when they start a conversation in a room.. Have you seen this show! As if!!! Wannabes, I tell you!!

So I tried watching the show, I saw a few episodes and I couldn't watch it. Maybe because I wanted my visualisation through the book to remain as is.

Now the show is back again.. So much brouhaha on the net regarding the TV series. Over the last few days I have been reading online articles bashing theTV series. And I am loving it. This has rekindled my interest in asoiaf. I think it's time to dust off the book covers and read it again! 

Maybe then I will watch the TV series and criticise it like crazy!! :D 

Dil Dhadkne Do : the end of my sabbatical from movies

If you know the earlier me (pre pregnancy me i.e.), you would know that I used to be a movie buff. More than the movie, I used to love going to the theatre, the entire experience of it, the escape from the routine. I was a "deprived" child, we hardly used to go to the theatre. And when I joined college,  I went crazy. I used to watch anything and everything to make up for 12 yrs!!

Post marriage, the trend continued, with my husband a willing (may have been reluctant) participant.
I used to watch a movie in the theatre every weekend, sometimes 2 movies back to back. I just shied away from watching 3 movies back to back but am sure I would have done that as well if I had a chance.

The last movie that I watched in the theatre was Agnipath. Its been 3+ yrs now. Finally, the drought broke.

 My husband was still thinking - "should we, should we not. Is the baby old enough to watch a movie". I was apprehensive. I had posted many years ago how I used to find people irritating, those who got their crying babies to the theatre. And I did not want to be one of them. So, we have been thinking about taking her to the movies for the last few months. But there was nothing in the recent past we could take her for.

My sister wanted to watch DDD. And her daughter who is 9 gets along very well with mine. My mom also really really wanted to watch this before she goes back to Kerala. She wont get any company there.

So both of them kind of forced our hand and we finally booked the tickets on Friday.

I had already readied N for the theatre for the last few months. She was mainly enticed with popcorn.

We went, she cried during trailers as one of them was quite violent, then we watched. She watched for an hour before she slept off.

And just like that, going to the Movies is not a problem anymore!! Yay!!!!!!!!!


Ok, so for the actual movie.

I really liked it. I enjoyed it. I know there are many reviews on FB which are on the contrary. But I really really liked the movie.  The thing with Zoya Akhtar movies is that a lot of it is reality. When I say reality, I mean what we regular people go through in our life. There will always be something that connects with you.

I remember when I watched Zindagi na milegi dubara, incidentally one of favourite movies that I never miss whenever it airs on TV, I connected with the theme of prioritising. You really need to take a step back and think is this so important to me!!

Scenes from DDD are easily interchangeable with any family. I used to be in Delhi for quite a while and this really happens. The scene that had Rahul Bose saying, we are from such a forward family.. we allow our daughter in law to work! That is so true. It hit the nail on its head. And the societal pressure. We all face it, in some way or the other - from parents, from other elder people in the family, from in laws, from neighbours etc etc etc. I have faced it, have seen others going through it..

"Don't marry outside community, what will people think."
" You are doing economics, its not a subject for girls. You will fail"
"Don't join this field. Take a bank job, best for girls"
"You are married, wear some gold at least - people will say we didn't give you anything"
"You don't have a child even after 6 yrs of marriage. Do you have a problem"


And yakety yak. It really brings to fore so many things that we face in life. And look at us, we are all so educated.

I loved the movie. Anil Kapoor was brilliant. Plane le lo. LOL. I think he and Shefali Shah were the best.

I also liked Ranveer Singh's character. I admit I never liked Ranveer. He is too much in your face, I think. But he has a way of creeping up on you. After DDD, if you ask me this question again, I would say.. ummm, ah.. I don't know. I actually kind of, started liking him now. He gets completely into the spirit of the character I feel.

Others were good too.. Priyanka Chopra, a small cameo by Anushka Sharma and Farhan Akhtar. I liked the dynamics between everyone.. the uncles and aunties galore. Why only North Indian family.. you transplant them in a South Indian setting too, you would find it resonates with them too.

2-3 songs only, all of them good!

The end, everyone felt was abrupt. It finished on a note where you are left wondering - will Farhan and Priyanka get together, will they get arrested, will Ranveer find Anushka.. but then, all of Zoya Akhtar's movies have ended like that. Even for Zindagi, I felt that the first time I watched it. But the more you think about it, the more you feel, it was the perfect end. The best possible. And with DDD too. It ended at the right moment.  Finally, it is all about the family. Work will happen, people will come and go.. family remains.

I am happy after watching Dil Dhadkne Do. You may say I liked it as it has been 3 yrs! But I don't think so. The real test is if I still like it whenever I watch it on TV. And continue to watch it every time it airs.

Next is what?

A lot of crunching and grinding noises ... Jurassic World!!!







 

The great migration

I have been talking about the "shift " to anyone and everyone possible.

So for whosoever is familiar with Bangalore (why am I even saying this, only friends read my blog.. but it feels good to write these things :)), I stay or used to stay, in central Bangalore, close to MG road.

But now due to my daughter starting school tomorrow, we have had to shift to one end of the earth! It is a very crowded end, inhabited by many techie kind of people, a nice place if you continue to stay there and not move to other parts of the city!

So yesterday, with all our bags packed, we moved to my sisters place. Our place isn't ready yet. I didn't even get a chance to say bye.

Daughters school is closeby, husband's office is next door. I am the one who needs to travel all over the city to go for any meeting :(.

Life is tough. Ho hum. I need a break. Once we shift to our house, we have decided we will run away to some place for a quick weekend break - hampi / coorg .. somewhere

Well, on with the new.

 

Mc Australia favourites

I do not remember which season it is, but that's straying away from the point. 

I was telling Scarlett yesterday that I don't have favourites yet.. And suddenly in a day, I Do!!

I really like Billie. You know, quietly confident, does her own thing without all the brouhaha that always accompanies other contestants. I really like her. 

I know many people like Georgia! She is sweet not brash or arrogant about her skills.. . But .. There is always a but.. I am rooting for Billie. She kind of creeps up on you.. Silently working in the background.

And today I thought Jessie could be another contestant I may cheer on!! 

It is such a nice show isn't it! Everyone.. From me, my daughter who is 3, my mom in law who watches vernacular shows, husband who cannot stand most of the stuff we women watch, my mother who is hooked on to Hindi serials.. everyone watches it together at 9.. And everyone has an opinion. It is fantastic, isn't it. Who would have thought, a few years back, food would be the topic of  such an awesome show. 

And this year, they do not even have any Indians on the show... And look at us.. We are still watching!!