2.0 - Birdman or the unexpected ignorance of birds.

2.0 has been one of the most hyped movies ever to hit the screens and for plenty of reasons. It is a sequel to 2010's Endhiran which remains as one of the best blockbusters till date. Both superstar and Shankar have failed to live up to their reputation these past few years so in a way this is a vital movie for both of them. Can't say Shankar delivered but Rajini finally does it here.

The movie is set in 2018 with Rajini reprising his role as Dr. Vasikaran and as Chitti, Amy Jackson as Nila and Akshay Kumar as Pakshiraj. As known faces go, that's about it. This is one of my complaints regarding the movie in that it failed to call back Santhanam, Karunas and Aishwarya Rai. Its important for a sequel to let us know how connected they are to their predecessors and this movie fails to do so. This universe doesn't feel like the one in which Endhiran's events took place at all and that's a huge gripe.

As far as nostalgia goes, very little is used to hit us. We get a few familiar soundtracks, a couple of callbacks through dialogue and that's about it. I get that the movie tries its best to be original but the nostalgia card could have been played a bit more is what I felt.

Coming to the movie itself now, it has probably the most boring first half I've ever seen and I was really annoyed during the interval. Maybe some leeway can be given saying its all for build up but I found myself trying too hard to stop myself from falling asleep. It felt like they were trying to sell the movie purely by claiming that this has amazing CGI and a huge budget but without any kind of story. I felt cheated at the end of the first half and a little heartbroken seeing Rajini go through this dry phase. The plot was messy, the writing was weak and the pacing was horrible, I wanted it to just get over soon.

Then out of nowhere came a very structured, coherent, plot heavy and visually spectacular 2nd half. Pakshirajan's backstory had an extremely powerful message and had me invested in the movie again. Then came Thalaivar's 2.0, the Chitti we all came for. Superstar was back with the same charisma as he had in Endhiran giving us an amazing performance as 2.0 ready to take on Pakshirajan. The CGI got much better and polished in the second half. Even the comedy got way better, mostly coming from superstar and he single-handedly made things from boring and depressing to awesome and action-packed. The Climax was another amazing setpiece with fantastic CGI as well. There was another pleasant surprise towards the end teasing us a glimpse of what the next movie could be all about.

The story actually starts only in the second half and I was reminded of having to put up with 5 boring episodes of Game of Thrones then being rewarded with 2 amazing episodes. The comedy was really bad and the puns reminded me of the ones made by Mr. Freeze in that godawful Batman and Robin movie. I really missed Santhanam and Karunas and the casting could have easily been ten times better. Another disappointment was the music. Endhiran's songs and background scores were all so majestic and this feels like such a huge step down for Rahman. I'm not complaining that there should have been songs in the movie, in fact, I was shocked to see a Shankar movie without songs and happy that they decided to use the budget for CGI and not waste it on songs. Background scores could have been better and this totally doesn't feel like an ARR musical.

Overall, 2.0 fails to live up to the legacy of Endhiran, its another case of sequelitis but the second half is really what you're here for. Rajini's performance makes you forget its flaws and enjoy the movie for what it is. It does a terrible job at world building, suffers from poor writing but Pakshirajan's backstory, the social message and superstar's performance are a few things which are more than enough to make you want to watch it again in theatres. The social message is something we all should think about and make conscious attempts at eradicating the issue rather than talking about it over coffee. It hit me really hard and I guess that was the whole point of this movie and I give it full marks for that.

As a Tamilian and a movie buff, I'm proud to see our movie makers give so much importance to villains and make us take their side at times. Every great movie is remembered because of its villains and though 2.0 may not qualify as a great one, it did perfect justice to its villain and Akshay Kumar has done beautifully as Pakshirajan, a performance that will be remembered for ages to come. Villains starting to make sense almost makes us forget the fact that ultimately they're a villain and embrace the fact that they're human too. Thani Oruvan did that, Vikram Vedha did it and this one almost joins the club of great villains too.

VERDICT:
Fan in me: 7.5/10
Critic in me: 7/10

Another thing which surprised me was the fact that this movie had a post credit scene. Gone are the days where Marvel movies were the only ones that made you sit through credits, we're getting there very soon.

Fantastic beasts: The crimes of Grinderwald - The magic is wearing off

Harry Potter is one of the best franchises out there. Rowling stole our hearts with some of the best storytelling ever. It is now known that the fantastic beasts franchise will have a total of five movies in them and is a prequel to the Harry Potter series.

'Fantastic Beasts and where to find them' came out back in 2016 and let's be honest, most of us went to the theatres to just get to experience the world of Harry Potter again. The movie's hype was mainly because of the fact that it took place in the same universe of Harry Potter. All that aside it was still a decent movie with some good storytelling and writing. Eddie Redmayne was great as Newt Scamander and the beasts were great in them. The movie ended with the death of Credence, an obscurial.

One of the first few things we saw in the trailer to this movie was the return of Credence. This movie follows too many things, we see Newt trying to get back to Credence to save him, Grindelwald after Credence to get him on his side and the entire ministry of magic trying to get rid of him due to the fear of exposure of the magical world.

Johnny Depp - Gellert Grindelwald

Depp reprises his role as Grindelwald, the dark wizard who was kind of a magneto in the Harry Potter universe. He feels that the magical community has suffered enough trying to exist on their own in secret and that they should freely roam around everywhere. I've got to say, I really expected a memorable performance from Depp but I was bitterly disappointed and the storytelling will take the blame here. Grindelwald is supposed to be one of the most feared dark wizards, almost like a Voldemort but a bit earlier in time. His introduction scene was amazing but that's about it. Depp tried his best but Grindelwald really just felt like a typical Marvel movie villain who's just there because the movie needs a villain.

When Voldemort was on screen there was a fear factor among the heroes, his own death eaters, and the audience as well. Grindelwald, however, doesn't feel as scary as Ralph Fiennes. Can't blame the makeup, can't blame Depp I'll just have to put the blame on Rowling. The writing was bad, and apart from his introduction scene, almost every other scene had me batting my eyelashes in disappointment saying this isn't 'Gellert Grindelwald' definitely not the Grindelwald she spoke about in the Harry Potter series. As a huge fan of the franchise and as a huge fan of Grindelwald from the books I was just feeling disappointed in the end. 

Eddie Redmayne - Newt Scamander

The second best thing that happened to this movie was Newt. Eddie does another decent job as Newt. His love for the beasts hasn't changed and his relationship with Jacob gets better. Those two together give us some of the best moments. His silent love for Tina is something I'll never get tired of seeing and their chemistry is just awesome.

Newt's brother Theseus Scammander joins the cast as an Auror in the ministry. We get to know very little about their relationship and I guess it wasn't bad but at the same time there nothing worth remembering either. They share a couple of good moments but nothing great.

Newt's motivation, however, is awesome. It's clear that the writers wanted us to see some Harry Potter in Newt. His character is very similar to that of Harry and his relationship with Albus Dumbledore adds to this similarity even more. Great job by Eddie but too bad that the script was bad.

Jude Law - Albus Dumbledore

Initially, I wasn't sure this could work. Seeing John Watson as Albus Dumbledore was a bit confusing from the trailers but I've got to say, I never thought he would end up being the best part of the movie. Jude Law really did a fantastic job as Albus and now I can say no one could have done it any better.

His dialogues are excellent and they're as good as the ones from Harry Potter. Albus did give us some of the best quotes ever and they've managed to keep his writing neat. His interactions with Newt remind us a lot about the ones between Harry and Dumbledore. His scenes in Hogwarts brought tears to my eyes and was extremely satisfying, to say the least.

Too man missed opportunities

 This movie had so many opportunities to hit us hard with nostalgia and the scenes where Albus is in Hogwarts did exactly that. I don't know who played McGonagall but her voice was perfect. The moment I heard her, I knew it was McGonagall and two minutes later it was confirmed.

Rowling could have played the nostalgia card a bit more, true we saw Nicholas Flamel and Nagini but it just wasn't enough. They nailed the Hogwarts scenes, the soundtrack was great Dumbledore was great but it just wasn't enough for me and I'm sure any Potterhead would agree.

This movie is more about Credence's search for love and finding out who he truly is. There was a huge twist towards the ending and I'm still not sure how to feel about it. I guess there's a chance that the next movie could probably be good and definitely better than this one. Ezra Miller, however, does a decent job as Credence.

Poor handling of characters and messy plot

The plot was just confusing, there were too many characters I guess but the Harry Potter series is known to deal with these many characters with ease but the plot here was just all over the place. Grindelwald's rise, Newt's story, Credence's search, Dumbledore's purpose, Tina's story it was all just confusing and I couldn't know who the focus was on here. Sure, the CGI was great the soundtrack was good, Dumbledore and Newt were good and I liked how Queenie reacted to all this but other than that there wasn't anything worth remembering at all.

Should Rowling step aside?

Maybe it's time Rowling stepped aside from the Harry Potter series for a while? Maybe she should give her fans a chance, you can't expect epicness from someone who has been with the same franchise for over three decades. Nothing against Rowling here, I love her, I worship her but I feel like she should have made this more memorable. The reason fantastic beasts and where to find them was even nearly interesting was due to the fact that it was Rowling's story and I really thought she would nail Grindelwald's character here. All controversies aside I thought at least Depp would give us something worth remembering.

Nagini and Flamel wasted

I'm sure that the Potterheads would be disappointed after this. For instance, they showed Nagini in the trailers. She has a surprisingly long screentime but the only thing that was interesting about her was the fact that she will become one of the Horcruxes of Voldemort in the future. We don't get to see a proper backstory at all and removing her from the story would have made no difference at all. The next time I see Nagini on screen in one of these Harry Potter movies, I'll know that this snake used to be that clueless dumb person from fantastic beasts who didn't do anything and I could have lived better not knowing this. If they want to hit us with nostalgia they should have played it properly.

Even Nicholas Flamel for that matter didn't seem interesting. I really wished that they'd have built some sort of story for the both of them but unfortunately they didn't. Jacob was way more interesting than Flamel. Easter eggs could have been better too, but when they were there, it was great. They could have probably shown us some Voldemort Easter egg, Tom Riddle maybe or some Gaunt house storyline. Maybe throw in some Potters, Weasleys, they left all these cool storylines and they went for Nagini and Flammel and they were both equally boring and Nagini even more so.

As a fan, I really wanted to like it and if it had been at least a little better, I would have really supported it. I'm not saying that the story of the fantastic beasts should have been better than the Harry Potter stories, there's no way I'm seeing that happening but they should at least try not to spoil the legacy of it. I was so hyped for this but in the end, I was simply heartbroken to see such a weak portrayal of Grindelwald and such poor use of nostalgia and Easter eggs.

When I saw the Quidditch pitch and Hogwarts I was back to when I was six watching the philosopher's stone in theatres for the first time, my heart just couldn't take it. The movie ends well, showing us a glimpse of Grindelwald's army and opening the possibility of a Dumbledore versus Grinderwald showdown in the near future. Three more movies to go, I'm still expecting some magic and hopefully, Rowling and Yates can do a better job.

Verdict
Fan in me: 6.3/10
Critic in me: 5/10

If the idea of this franchise is to be a prequel to the Harry Potter series and to show us Dumbledore versus Grindelwald, they should have maybe started with their childhood, Ariana and Aberforth, and some Godric's hollow maybe. The timeline they chose was a bad one and if I see a prequel or a flashback in this series I'm really going to be pissed. Don't let us down the next time Rowling, or maybe give someone else a chance.