HuMan's MILLENNIAL REVIEW BLOG

Superman is a classic superhero. He has been around for almost a century and provided inspiration to children and adults alike. He has a certain righteousness that is unparalleled by any other superhero I have ever read about. He isn’t the best or most interesting superhero, but Superman carries himself in a status that isn’t built as easily as other people think. In this essay I will iterate why I think Superman is the morally best superhero and why being him is difficult. (And some thoughts on the 2025 movie) The most memorable thing about superheroes will always be their origin stories. Spiderman had uncle ben, Batman has his parents, and the Flash has his mom. Superman has no real tragedies that motivate him against evil. He has two healthy parents who just raised him to be a good person. Sure, he lost his entire civilization of Krypton, but he was a baby when it happened and maybe he may feel alienated (pun intended), but he cannot feel traumatized enough to do good because of tha...

  Ok, this might be my 4th draft of today. If I can't keep writing, it might be fatigue. But if I can, that's great too. (Ok yea, I am on the second paragraph, and I am definitely fatigued. Let's stick to one review per day.) Oppenheimer, I got to this move too late, I know. I watched it a whole year after the Barbenheimer thing happened. I saw Barbie sometime in fall last semester, but only now resolved to finally watch Oppenheimer. In my defense, it is a long commitment. 3 hours. Some old hindi movies used to be 3 hours and I could rarely tolerate those. I still remember how long the songs were in Munna bhai and Lage raho munna bhai. Regardless, now that I have sat through three hours of this beauty, what do I think? I think it was hella artsy. I haven't seen a movie this artsy since I used to keep oscar movies checklists back in 2019. I used to watch all the oscar nominated movies, and I would feel like a true connoisseur of sorts. 

  This will be another quickie. I missed this because I have been on hiatus from any marvel content in the last year. I have been making a comeback only because of Ms. Marvel. I should write a review on that, but it would be highly biased because I have a major crush on Iman Vellani and it wouldn't be a fair review. Regardless, Werewolf by night is a pleasant short film. It comes at a runtime of about an hour long, and is perfectly edited to introduce all the monsters it feels are relevant. There is a good 'twist' that I think most people saw coming, but one I did not so I thought that was great. The 'monster' is a welcome addition to the MCU as well and I love seeing his portrayal here. He is scary and has a great presence. Elsa Bloodstone is fun too. She is badass and mysterious, awesome in all the right ways. I find the fact that it's mostly black and white pretty interesting. There is a 'bloody' action scene that is very reminiscent of Kill Bill. The...

Maharaja is a simple story of a father. This is a spoiler review, so yea. Look away if you haven't already seen it. As stated a million times everywhere, the screenplay of Maharaja is the standout feature. It is only a layer on top of a simple story of a father, and his vengeance for his daughter. I initially found it very engaging up until the 3/4th mark before the reveal that he was in fact not the one who was assaulted, because it was pretty obvious from the get go, that it was either something in the dustbin, or about the dustbin that he finds so fascinating. So the mystery of what this man was talking about, coupled with many instances of humor kept me quite engaged. Of course, if it was revealed early on in the film that such atrocities were performed on the girl, the movie would not have been able to hold it's comedic tone for any length of time after that.  After the reveal of the break in and the rape however, I was struck with a wave of sadness. Which is good, I think...

 Jug Jugg Jeeyo is a film about divorce. As dismal as it sounds the movie barely treats it with the emotional gravity that a separation should bring. Varun Dhawan and Kiara Advani do sport an engaging chemistry, which is why their separation makes us feel really bad for them. Still, then they get completely overshadowed when Varun's dad drops a bomb on him. If this movie had a stronger focus on separation it would be a significantly more meaningful movie with some really powerful scenes but instead it chooses to be an unexpected comedy of confusion in mind bending situations. It is as though if Marriage Story was shit. They could've done several things better, Manish Paul is misused as in many scenes he seems and sounds smart and then immediately disproves that in a later scene. The inconsistency in character is what bugs me. Anil Kapoor could've been a genuinely great role model on how compromising and maintaining relationships is integral to keeping any relationship but i...

  The most notable antagonist of Jaadugar is the protagonist themselves. Meenu's self destructiveness harms not only him but everyone he imposes his self-proclaimed 'true love' on. It is increasingly bothersome as the movie progresses because I personally grew to despise his decisions and need to achieve something with complete disregard for the people who care for him so unconditionally. He repeatedly uses them, ignores them, and shuns them except to benefit anyone but himself.  The performance of Jitendra Kumar as Meenu adds no flair to the character whatsoever. I guess I expected some kind of feigned emotional weight whenever he tries to deceive or inveigle someone. But it is so apparently obvious that he is faking it that even in the in universe characters catch it in one go. On top of that it is no joking matter whenever he attempts to manipulate someone. He consistently forces his love and how he perceives it and does everything in his way, which while reiterated seve...

  The south Indian film industry is one that is appreciated almost all over India. With its tacky action and unrealistic depictions of heroes, the films nonetheless succeed in presenting a competent entertainment experience. Personally, that was the case for Bahubali and now Vikram. The excessive use of CGI, prevailing of good over evil without any gray area or personal dilemma. Vikram even features a detective helping out a vigilante who is technically carrying out terrorist-like operations. As an ardent fan of Batman and the principles that he operates with, the confidence that this is all depicted in with respect to opposing a simple villain is too lightweight. Beating up anyone who opposes you, supremely vilifying someone who runs a drug ring, or to the downright slightly inappropriate treatment of women characters. There is a heartfelt scene when Kamal Haasan treats a prostitute with some kind form of affection but that is defaulted later on with the death of another female ch...

  Doctor Strange back in 2016 was arguably one of the most visually bizarre cinematic experiences. That was until 2018's infinity war and afterward every MCU movie aimed only to one-up one another in terms of graphical spectacles. The focus, however, of that movie was very well balanced. It didn't linger on the scene with the butterfly in space. There was the whole arc of Dr. Stephen Strange going from arrogant surgeon to one who attains enlightenment as destiny to protect our universe as we know it.  The threat he faced was Dormammu, a multi-dimensional entity that devoured and enslaved civilizations (rang some bells very similar to Galactus from F4 back then). The doctor now faces a unique problem. A fellow avenger hell-bent on acquiring a power I will not describe to avoid spoilers. But, keep in mind, that watching WandaVision helps experience this movie from Wanda's point of view. Otherwise, it ends up looking like Dr. Strange stopping someone from doing wrong. The stro...

  Originally Published: 4th January 2021 Movie: Tenet I actually liked Tenet. Kat looked really hot and captivating, and yes, it did counteract the extreme unnecessary and forced evilness of Andrei Sator. Priya also had an engaging on-screen presence. The Protagonist seems so lost yet trained for the entirety of Tenet. And Neil has to be the best part about Tenet. As for the movie, it is depicted and treated in a very filler or prologue kind of way. You know how in Nolan's Batman each movie felt independent and enjoyable on its own, Tenet feels like the upcoming follow-up will truly and properly explain and do justice to Tenet. However, it waits to reason whether or not the public is willing to wait. I really did still love the sci-fi concept of it. It felt new and unexplored. Something I would watch more if better refined. Maybe next time focus less on the logic and just get to the epic action set pieces pls Nolan. Originally Published: 5th January 2021 Movie:  WW84 Are u fuc...

You know, I for one really agree with how this movie is called “The Hidden World” and not just part 2, like its predecessor. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is in very little ways a full sequel, more like a stretched epilogue so it’s easier to say goodbye to your favorite lovable characters, I have been a fan of this franchise ever since the first How to Train Your Dragon came out. I absolutely loved the characters and also related them all to real people in my life. So it really got me thinking as to why this movie wasn’t just called part 3. Now, to be honest I wasn’t very impressed when I first saw the trailer. The featuring of a female white light fury seemed like a bit of a stretch to me and I was afraid that my favorite franchise would end in steaming hot mess. However, gladly that is not the case, on the contrary, it just serves as a super satisfying end to the series. The light fury can sometimes manage to come off as very annoying but otherwise she is kept to a...

Bumblebee is a heartfelt movie that shifts the focus of the transformers franchise from being just a compilation of Michael Bay explosions to being a sensitive story of a connection between 2 beings, who have both lost something significant and are having trouble adapting to changing environments. The movie stars my new celebrity crush Hailee Steinfeld who had recently also been in the marvelous Spiderverse as Spider-woman. Although she is showered in makeup to look like she is 18, she still manages to give a performance which really radiates the feelings of her character. Also, playing the lead role here makes her even more loveable. The impressive opening consisting of Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Cybertron and the beautiful well-choreographed scenes definitely give it the kickstart to keep the audience engaged throughout the remaining runtime of the movie.   Very few scenes which are generally used for exposition are interesting at first but on second viewing feel draggy a...

Captain Marvel is a movie that unfortunately fails to deliver a specific theatrical experience we have come to expect from most Marvel movies these days. The action seems to come from a lazy Michael Bay movie consisting of random explosions and action that never really engages. So the IMAX experience for this movie I would say is definitely not worth it. However, this can be very much overlooked since what defines this movie is a satisfying and pretty interesting origin story. It has silly little tie-ins which don’t matter too much since it is all based in 1995 and exercises full creative freedom to present a decent origin story. I would like to address all the hate this movie received, I simply cannot ignore all the bad publicity it had gotten from getting a rough start on the Tomatometer to making a few people feel left out. It was what many described a PR nightmare. Now all this did very much influence my expectation when going in. I had not seen any of the trailers and...

As mentioned in a previous post, Captain America: Civil War is to date my favorite MCU movie. This movie had everything that I had hoped it would and gave me an ending I could possibly never anticipate. If you still don’t have the ending spoiled for you, my advice don’t waste any time- go and watch the movie already. It presents the events in such perfect harmony you can’t help but feel engaged, and with we go to the pros of this movie: As mentioned already, a major plus point was perfect distribution between certain plot points. Whatever it is the movie is delivering to you, be it dialogues and diplomacy or guns blazing-fast clashing action madness, the amazingly beautiful direction makes it very satisfying. This feature flick succeeds at exactly what other films failed, and by fail you know I’m talking about BvS. Going deep into why BvS failed was 2 simple points: 1. Completely boring and unjustified fight sequences and, 2. Sloppy and not-so-surprising introduction to ...

Avengers: Infinity War is my second favorite Marvel movie right after Captain America: Civil War, or how I like to refer to it as Avengers 2.5. Up until now, a disturbing trend Marvel has been following with respect to their Avengers movies has been the fact that rather than fighting the villain, a large segment of the movies are the heroes fighting amongst themselves, and the plot taking a random heroic turn and in the end everyone gets a happily ever after. Thank God for us, Avengers: Infinity War isn’t like that. Though the roster for this movie is absolutely humongous, the scenes are handled so well you just can’t seem to get bored by it. In contrary to Avengers: Age of Ultron which made me so sleepy I didn’t even notice most details of that movie. So let’s get into this spoiler free review. Directed by the Russo Brothers, this movie’s lead roles are taken by Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Benedict Cumberbatch (Dr. Stephen Strange), Josh Brolin (Thanos), Zoe Saldana (Gamo...