Smorgasbord Fantasia

Ok, so we admit it. We went to watch Aquaman purely because of Jason Drogho Momoa . (And well,  the redhead, you gotta love'em, eh) But how much of beefy brawn surf humour and undulating wavy underwater hair-wigs can you tolerate, when you really just walked in hoping for a super hero origin story right? Well, seems like you can take almost three stinking hours of it. So Aquaman , the latest salvo from the sinking DC ship just about has enough ballast to keep the ship afloat a bit more, I guess. It's filled with mind blowing action set pieces, crazy CGI and ...yawn...ennui-inducing plot lines. Don't get me wrong, It's not a bad movie but I clearly was hard-pressed to find that soul buried deep under all that recklessly inventive CGI effects ( Octopoid drummers, Shark rides, Killer Sea Horses the list is endless!) and the boring politicking of the Atlantean princes that just didn't end. Towards the sozzled climax full of colourful water-gun plasma explosion...

When I first saw the trailers a year back, I got my hopes up, though in the heart of my hearts, I knew it would be a futile effort. Especially since most of the great scenes in the movie itself would be packaged into that slick trailer and marketed. The movie usually has nothing newer to offer. It released in India two weeks back and one Saturday evening, having got nothing else to do, I decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, had to drag my wifey along. And with the words, “Barbarian” splashed across the posters, there was no two ways about how the movie would turn out! We entered as Morgan Freeman was giving us a tour of the world of Heboria ( Oh wait, I confess I haven’t read the Robert Jordan versions or the numerous comic books floating around, but heck, I acquit myself as I’ve seen the classic Arnie-version that came the year I was two, 1984 J Anyways, going back to the movie, it was not that bad as I imagined it to be. Set pieces and action made me cringe in my seat and I ...