Shhhhh.... Let the music play!

Rating: 3.5/5

A trip to the movie theater is always refreshing. specially if the movie is good. Yesterday, I had the pleasure of watching X-Men First class. I truly felt that the entertainment value that it provided was higher than any other x-men movie that I have seen so far.


Though by default I am a little biased towards X-men in terms of its main theme and idea, I felt this movie had a lot to boast about. First thing which is favorable in the movie is the post production. The print's final treatment is great and imparts a very retro look and feel to it.

Lets talk a bit about the story now without giving away any spoilers. One of the prime things that the movie does is establishing Magnetos background story and how he became what he is. Though his story is very typical and lacks originality but its built upon in a good way. Superhero movies with a darker elements to the heroes with special powers is always interesting like how we see in Batman, watchmen etc.The same has been a key element in X-men. You never know which mutant will chose which side, that is Magnetos or Professor Xavier. Though, one keeps secretly wishing that mutants will take Professor Xavier's side but at the same time one can't help feeling favorably towards team Magneto every time the humans show their crappy, evil, destructive and deceptive side. Xavier from time to time loses his favorability every time he is an ass to his best friend.

Some really cool mutants with really interesting powers have been introduced in this movie. They awaken our inner child who wishes to do what that mutant is doing. This movie presents host of very sexy cool new characters. One is saddened however about the early death of few as we could not see them in their full glory. Like how it feels when a butterfly dies as a pupa and is never able to show its true colors and fly freely. I would not tell you guys the details of the mutants and their powers because that is one thing you should watch the movie to discover on your own.

On the acting front, Kevin Bacon shines the brightest playing the character called Sebastian Shaw as Magnetos creator and the main villain. He is closely followed by the Magnetos role played by Micheal Fassbender. His acting is aided by his physique which so aptly does justice to the character. The rest of the cast did ok and perhaps mystique character delivered the most to the viewer played by Jenifer Lawrance.

Make up was good for some mutants but rather disastrous for others. For example mystique and beast makeup was worse than previous x-men movies.Azazel's make up is the worst of all. On the bright side  Emma Frost and Angel's getup is great.  This movie explains the adoption of Magneto's helmet however, it fails to explain him taking up cape after sporting skin tight shirts and tshirts through out the movie. Shift to cape just feels like a fashion disaster after that. Also the ending could have been handled in a better way I suppose.

I would recommend you all to watch this movie for its entertainment value and retro feel.

It is one of those days when to every thing all what I say is Bah! Humbug! For those of you who do not understand the meaning of it, as per Wikipedia, "its present meaning as an exclamation is closer to 'nonsense' or 'gibberish'". Most famously it was used repeatedly in "A Christmas Carol" of Charles Dickens by a grouchy old man name Ebeneezer Scrooge. At the end of this tale, however, he becomes a happy generous man after he has been visited by three Christmas ghosts. That was his story. However, as far as mine is concerned, seems like I will stay grouchy a bit longer than one night.

We humans are so thankless and pathetic, we like to dwell in our misery I suppose. Equating even the most wonderful things and people around us to 0 and holding on tight to the feelings of self pity. Though perhaps I am quite conscious of the fact that self pity is one of the worse forms of self indulgence and selfishness, however, sometimes, its really hard to get oneself out of that state of mind. Sense of non-accomplishment, perhaps whose main reason is my own laziness, sense of mundanety and boredom, which is again due to me and every stupid thing like that, as a constant thought sits on one's brain like a snake which has its jaws penetrated inside me and whose venom has spread so much that I am unable to break myself free from these feelings.

Numerous movies have been made on this self indulgent pity with either of two endings. One that the hero breaks free from this sad feelings and redeems himself and his lost happiness. Another is that he falls deeper and deeper into it and ultimately falls to his destruction. Lets see what the future holds for me. Perhaps  with the support network that i have, I might reach the first ending rather than the second. :) <- O look! a tiny smile is already starting to appear.

Seems like Levis Original Pakistan has gotten hold of this new chick on the block Zoe Viccaji to do a series of non original songs. I mean .. come on! how can you run a campaign called Levis original by featuring all the non original songs. Currently, they have released "bichra yaar" of strings featuring Zoe Viccaji and strings and "Anjanay" featuring Bilal Khan and Zoe Viccaji.


I am sorry to say, it does not succeed to hit a chord. While I have no doubt that perhaps Zoe Viccaji might have more to offer than what she has showed in these two songs, but i am sorry to say, these two covers do not showcase her abilities at all. To begin with the cover arrangements are not good , in fact, they sound the same and do not give much singing margin to the singers. Zoe's vocal capacity at least in these two songs feels very limited.

If some one wants to learn how to do covers, i guess one of the best programs to watch for it is American Idol. It might be one of the biggest commercial successes but it surely brings a lot to the table. All the singers who generally do make it to the top 20 have huge range of vocal abilities to showcase while doing covers. Their challenge is not only to showcase their vocal abilities but also to bring some thing new to the song while doing the covers. Additionally, there is one thing that the judges and producers always talk about in the program which is "the WOW moment". Yes.. there is always a wow moment in the cover. Wow moment which showcases some thing special about the singers and wows others.

The above are few of the basic things which are missing from these two covers. It lacks some thing original cos the only change one truly feels is the change in tempo rather than change in arrangement. Secondly, they fail to showcase the vocal abilities of the singers and thirdly, they lack the wow factor. Song starts and ends as it started. Another thing that Zoe has not been able to incorporate in the song is to put feelings to the words, while she tries to change the way they originally sound, however, she fails to sing them with emotion.I heard her interview where she said Levis gave her artistic freedom while recording these song, i only wish she would have brought  to the table with the artistic freedom that she was given. Bilal still does a better job than Zoe, however, he has failed to impress as well.

As far as the video of Bichra Yaar is concerned, initial photography is nice, however, it loses the focus points after the first minute. With zoe's constant face doing pa pa ra is very distracting. The post production is good but the main problem is the focus point of the frames.

Peace out!