J Jagannath: Superhero marathon

My pet peeve about modern-day Hollywood movies is that each season is infested with the super hero movies that are frankly just sterile and imbued with mindless slam-bang action sequences. However,  a recent spate of movies suggests not all is wrong with this genre as yet.

My prime exhibit is writer-director James Mangold’s Logan, the latest instalment of the Wolverine franchise. Hugh Jackman is back again in a role that is almost like second skin to him but he brings a weariness this time that makes the movie truly unconventional. The past-his-prime James Howlett is now driving a limousine and taking care of Professor X (the ever wonderful Patrick Stewart) until he’s entrusted to take a young mutant like him (debutant Dafne Keen as Laura) to point of safety.

Boyd Holbrook is menace reincarnate as Donald Pierce, the mercenary after Laura. Logan starts off like Mad Max meets Looper in New Mexico until a really beautiful fight scene breaks out, which was worth the admission fee, where Laura shows off her lycanthropic chops. The movie is leavened with such blithe amorality, which is also oodles of fun, that I was willing to ignore how distended the movie is at its 140-minute duration.

This has to be Jackman’s best outing in the longest time. Long gone is the smoulder he has been carrying around for 17 years as part of the franchise. His gait is stunted, the claws have lost their edge but when he breaks out of the stasis, Mangold ensures the screen lights up. The movie ends with a spectacular duel where the garden variety of young X-Men come together to defeat the rival forces. Logan is quite possibly the best superhero movie I watched after Dredd. Mangold’s movie transcends its genre as a grounded, fully realised one.

Chris McKay’s Lego Batman has Gotham’s caped crusader in Lego blocks and it’s a dotty take on Christopher Nolan’s sober, patronising Batman movies. Will Arnett’s mischievously gruffy voice as Batman gives the deliciously spoofed proceedings the right kind of kick. It’s a minor revelation that a 3D animation movie gives us more insight into Bruce Wayne’s existence in his man cave than any of the Nolan movies.

The movie does get clunky and prods along unlike its predecessor, but McKay redeems it with some genuinely good visual gags. That moment when he heats the lobster in the microwave or when his bête noire The Joker (Zach Galifianakis in pristine form) sifts through Batman’s treacly movie collection that includes Jerry Maguire.

The plot revolves around The Joker getting together a rag-tag team of super villains, including Enthiran, so that Batman will finally take him seriously. Galifianakis’ affected tone is pitch perfect and nearly makes one wish he was dubbing for Jared Leto in the execrable Suicide Squad.

A still from Logan

Keanu Reeves isn’t exactly a super hero in John Wick 2, but his antics are nothing less than a famed crusader. Taking off from its predecessor, the movie is about Reeves finishing a near impossible task fobbed on him as part of the “Marker”. While the movie scores high on wham-bang brio-fuelled action, the sequences get one-dimensional. There’s a beautiful sequence, though, that is set in what looks like New York’s newly opened Second Avenue subway station. When Reeves murders baddies under such exquisite camouflage, one wonders if Tarantino should be lionised anymore.

Baahubali is the closest to a proper super hero Indian cinema has produced after Mr India (Krissh and Ra.One were too much of caricatures). Expectations are higher than the citadels of the mythcial Mahishmati kingdom, and the trailer of Baahubali 2 suggests that S S Rajamouli is living up to them. The climactic nostril-flaring and pectoral-muscle-showcasing duel between Rana and Prabhas seem worth the two-year wait. M M Keeravani’s stirring soundtrack and Senthil Kumar’s lavish cinematography make the movie compelling already. 

Anyway, my quibbling apart, I’m looking forward to the answer to the all-important question that has turned into a hashtag “WKKB”: Why Kattappa Killed Baahubali.
 

jagannath.jamma@bsmail.in