Binge Watch Suggestion List - Part IV 🙂

I am sharing below my pick list with short reviews of 4 international Amazon Prime Video web series showcasing strong, liberal, talented and entertaining lady protagonist(s) -

1. Covert Affairs (13 Jul 2010, 7 Jun 2011, 10 Jul 2012, 16 Jul 2013, 24 Jun 2014)
Genre: Action Thriller Espionage Drama
Country of Origin: United States
Seasons: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
No. of Episodes: 11, 16, 16, 16, 16
Running Time: 45 minutes

Short Review: Annie Walker (Piper Perabo) is a young CIA field agent who works in conjunction with August "Auggie" Anderson (Christopher Gorham), an extremely talented blind CIA tech operative. Throughout the series, she comes across a lot of life threatening missions, a couple of love angles and betrayals. She speaks seven languages and is multi skilled.

Not particularly beautiful, but quite an impressive and agile personality, Annie Walker lights up the screen whenever she appears in a frame. In spite of being a hard core result oriented spy, she is a humanitarian in her approach.

The series is quite engaging and relaxing.

2. Nikita (9 Sep 2010, 2011
Genre: Action Thriller Espionage Drama
Country of Origin: United States
Seasons: 1, 2, 3, 4
No. of Episodes: 22, 23, 22, 6
Running Time: 42 minutes

Short Review: The series is an adaptation of the Luc Besson's French film 'La Femme Nikita'.

The lean and athletic Nikita Mears (Maggie Q) is rescued from death row by Division, a secret government organization, wherein she is trained and hired to do off-the-book assassination of dangerous and threatening personnels.

With the course of time, Nikita realizes that Division has been created and is managed by Oversight, a black operations centric organization and ever since it's first director and founding member has gone rogue, Division is actually undertaking private killing contracts!

First she goes into three years hiding, then surfaces with the resolution of terminating the entire aforementioned net of black operations.

It's an ultra complex series with a lot of layers and a bevy of important characters. The series is quite well scripted and manages to keep the audience guessing till the end. Maggie Q is simply fantastic in action scenes.

3. Diablo Guardian (3 May 2018, 12 Apr 2019)
Genre: Comedy Drama
Country of Origin: Mexico
Seasons: 1, 2
No. of Episodes: 10, 8
Running Time: 45 minutes

Short Review: The series is based on the 2003 novel 'Diablo Guardián' by Xavier Velasco.

Violetta (Paulina Gaitán) is a sucker for luxurious and materialistic lifestyle and leaves her ordinary Mexico life for the glittery life of New York, with $217,000 in hand, that she had stolen from her disapproving parents.

Initially, she revels in luxurious - hotel stay, clothing, wine, dine and the likes. But eventually, the money runs out and she resorts to high end conning and prostitution, till it lasts.

Herein, the protagonist is kind of amoral but child like and gleeful and continuously experiments with everything fashionable and luxurious, which makes for an interesting watch.

4. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (17 Mar 2017, 5 Dec 2018, 6 Dec 2019)
Genre: Comedy Period Drama
Country of Origin: United States
Seasons: 1, 2, 3
No. of Episodes: 8, 10, 18
Running Time: 43-76 minutes

Short Review: Mrs. Miriam "Midge" Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan), is a beautiful, poised, witty and Jewish housewife of the late 1950s and early 1960s, in New York City, who out of the blue realises that she has the talent and urge to be a stand-up comedian and goes on to pursue a career in it with full force and focus. This includes separating from Joel Maisel (Michael Zegen) her loving, gentleman but cheating husband and leaving her two children under her mother's care, while she goes out or travels for work.

Most of Miriam's bold and brazen standup-comedy acts are funny and interesting.

The series also gives a sneak peek of the then inferior treatment meated out to women in the work arena.

Binge Watch Suggestion List - Part I -
http://jaimaadurga.blogspot.com/2020/03/binge-watch-suggestion-list-part-i.html?m=1

Binge Watch Suggestion List - Part II -
http://jaimaadurga.blogspot.com/2020/03/binge-watch-suggestion-list-part-ii.html?m=1

Binge Watch Suggestion List - Part III -
http://angrezipicture.blogspot.com/2020/04/binge-watch-suggestion-list-part-iii.html?m=1

Binge Watch Suggestion List - Part V -
http://jaimaadurga.blogspot.com/2020/05/binge-watch-suggestion-list-part-vl.html?m=1

Binge Watch Suggestion List - Part VI -
http://jaimaadurga.blogspot.com/2020/05/binge-watch-suggestion-list-part-vi.html?m=1

Binge Watch Suggestion List - Part III 🙂

I am sharing below my pick list with short reviews of 7 international Netflix web series showcasing strong, well groomed, talented and entertaining lady protagonist(s) -

1. Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (24 Feb 2012, 6 Sep 2013, 8 May 2015)
Genre: Crime, Mystery Costume Drama
Country of Origin: Australia
Seasons: 1, 2, 3
No. of Episodes: 13, 13, 8
Running Time: 60 minutes

Short Review: Miss Phryne Fisher (Essie Davis) is a well groomed, glamorous, stylish but bold and risk loving lady detective, often found snooping around jazz clubs and dubious people's properties. The time period is of 1920s.

She is extremely observant and loves good life and never shares her woes or weaknesses in public.

The series is simple and clean with old vintage charm.

2. Cable Girls (28 Apr 2017, 25 Dec 2017, 7 Sep pop2018, 9 Aug 2019, 14 Feb 2020)
Genre: Thriller, Period Drama
Country of Origin: Spain
Season: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
No. of Episodes: 8, 8, 8, 8, 10
Running Time: 41-63 minutes

Short Review: Originally titled as 'Las chicas del cable' in Spanish, the series is about the personal and professional lives of the four cable operator ladies, who got employment in the first national telephone company of Spain, in the 1920s.

It's interesting to watch the working mechanism of the then telephone company, including the pride, politics and crisis around it. The series also depicts the dawn of the times when the society started considering women equal to men and women started taking their life decisions and complex matters into their own hands.

The series in totality is an engaging watch and much more than just the cable operating system.

3. Locked Up (20 Apr 2015, 31 Mar 2016, 23 Apr 2018, 3 Dec 2018)
Genre: Crime, Thriller, Serial Drama
Country of Origin: Spain
Season: 1, 2, 3, 4
No. of Episodes: 11, 13, 8, 8
Running Time: 70 minutes

Short Review: Originally titled as 'Vis A Vis' in Spanish, the series starts with the admittance of Macarena Ferreiro (Maggie Civantos), a victim of corporate fraud and lover's betrayal, into high security women's prison and follows up with the mechanism of the prison system and Macarena's life amongst the medley of both caring friends and ruthless enemies.

Eventually, the series focuses on different individual stories, leading to prison escape by few hardened criminals and their re-capture by the concerned authorities.

It's an extremely well researched and filmed series with apt casting and excellent direction and acting. There is more than required nudity in the garb of body searching and the likes.

4. House of Flowers (10 Aug 2018, 18 Oct 2019, 1 Nov 2019)
Genre: Satire, Comedy, Drama
Country of Origin: Mexico
Season: 1, 2, Special Episode
No. of Episodes: 13, 9, 1
Running Time: 27-37 minutes

Short Review: Originally titled as 'La Casa de las Flores' in Spanish, the series is about a dysfunctional family with a prestigious flower business front but a problematic and full of secrets reality.

The first season is exclusively filmed in Mexico, while the second one's filming shifts between Mexico and Spain and the Special Episode is filmed on the Texas-Mexico border.

The series has a modern and liberal approach on LGBT lifestyle and consists of enough scenes constituting the LGBT characters.

It's a non-serious, funny and full of drama series.

5. Three Days of Christmas (6 Dec 2019)
Genre: Classic Drama
Country of Origin: Spain
Season: 1
No. of Episodes: 3
Running Time: 53-66 minutes

Short Review: Large, well built, secluded and surrounded by beautiful snow capped mountains - this is the family home where four sisters joined by a childhood secret, celebrate Christmas at three distinct phases of their lives i.e. during their - teens as daughters, adulthood as mothers and elderly age as grandmothers.

It's a well made classic series, showing the conservative and anticipatory atmosphere post World War II. Interpersonal relationship and antics of the kid sisters is a gleeful watch.

6. Queen Sono (28 Feb 2020)
Genre: Crime Action Thriller Drama
Country of Origin: South Africa, Congo, Nigeria, Zimbabwe
Season: 1
No. of Episodes: 6
Running Time: 32-47 minutes

Short Review: It is Netflix's first African original series. It is about a young but extremely well trained African spy, who has a knack for successfully completing her missions but no policy of adhering to any rule. Alongside working for her nation, she is also on the continuous look out of finding her mother's assassins.

It's quite educative to watch an African series with an African protagonist in her local backdrop. Usually, we as the international audience are used to see Africa as a visiting or migrated location from other developed countries' protagonist's point of view.

It's also refreshing to hear dialogues in Zulu and Swahili. It's an interesting series.

7. Self Made (20 Mar 2020)
Genre: Classic Drama Biography
Season: 1
Country of Origin: United States
No. of Episodes: 4
Running Time: 45-49 minutes

Short Review: Based on Madam C. J. Walker's biography 'On Her Own Ground' by A'Lelia Bundles, the series depicts the strugglesome and inspiring life of the aforesaid great lady, the first African American self-made millionaire, who made her empire out of hair care products and salons.

The short and voluptuous but beautiful and talented Octavia Spencer is a treat to watch as Madam C. J. Walker.

The well made rags to riches story along with it's vintage charm will keep you hooked till the end.

Binge Watch Suggestion List - Part I -
http://jaimaadurga.blogspot.com/2020/03/binge-watch-suggestion-list-part-i.html?m=1

Binge Watch Suggestion List - Part II -
http://jaimaadurga.blogspot.com/2020/03/binge-watch-suggestion-list-part-ii.html?m=1

Binge Watch Suggestion List - Part IV -
http://angrezipicture.blogspot.com/2020/04/binge-watch-suggestion-list-part-iv.html?m=1

Binge Watch Suggestion List - Part V -
http://jaimaadurga.blogspot.com/2020/05/binge-watch-suggestion-list-part-vl.html?m=1

Binge Watch Suggestion List - Part VI -
http://jaimaadurga.blogspot.com/2020/05/binge-watch-suggestion-list-part-vi.html?m=1

Netflix TV Series: Wanted - Seasons 1, 2 and 3

Genre: Crime Thriller, Mystery
Language: English

No. Of Seasons: 3
No. Of Episodes In Each Season: 6

Original Network: Seven Network in Australia
Original Release Dates Of 3 Seasons: 9 Feb 2016, 5 Jun 2017, 15 Oct 2018

Director: Peter Templeman, Jennifer Leacey and Rob Sarkies
Cast: Rebecca Gibney, Geraldine Hakewill, Stephen Peacocke, Ryan Corr, Nicholas Bell

Introduction:

Made somewhat on the lines of 'Thelma and Louise' and 'Fugitive', 'Wanted' is a chase based TV series, filled with twists and travels.

The Plot:

Lola Buckley (Rebecca Gibney), a bold, no-nonsense and fiesty supermarket teller and Chelsea Babbage (Geraldine Hakewill), a hard-working plain Jane styled senior accountant, share the same bus spot during the late night hours for returning back home post the working hours.

During on such late night, while waiting for their respective buses, they happen to witness the murder of a car driver, which was the result of a drug and money exchange gone wrong between him and two masked goons. Lola shoots one of the two goons in defence, in order to save Chelsea's life and both of them end up getting abducted by the other goon, who is eventually assassinated by Ray Stanton (Nicholas Bell), a high ranking police officer.

Though caught innocently in the wave of crime, they unwillingly sink deeper and deeper into it, as they happen to possess both the drugs and it's price money, all of it belonging to someone extremely powerful and well connected. They cannot report or return it to the police as they are tainted even at the highest level and they cannot destroy or lose the same, as they would be as good as dead without them.

What follows is a series of chase sequences woven intrinsically with slices of Lola's and Chelsea's pasts and presents. While the duo come across a series of bad and threatening guys, they also encounter a few good and helping ones. Bullets miss them by a hair's breadth and they also learn to shoot and throw a mean punch when necessary. Even their family members are caught and tortured.

This continues for the first two seasons of the TV series.

By the end of it all, they successfully dodge all of their enemies and take care of the matter at the highest level, thereby putting an end to the anti social activities on a national level!

The third season of the TV series opens with both of them behind the bars, anticipating to be released soon guilt-free and that too with accolades, as promised by the higher authorities.

They soon realise that the concerned authorities plan to keep the accolades to themselves and make them the escape goats!

This makes the duo strike a deal with a hardened and seasoned inmate, who assists them in their escape from the prison in lieu of information about her daughter who seems to be incommunicando and missing, suspectibly on the account of her overpowering and dangerous boyfriend.

Once outside the prison, Lola and Chelse embark on an altogether different chase, wherein they shield themselves from getting arrested, track down the concerned daughter and her boyfriend along with a human trafficking racket and with great effort and risk end up freeing the girls caught up in the aforesaid racket!

Series Analysis:

'Wanted' is quite well scripted and directed. Both the protagonists are brilliant in their acting. They are extremely natural, always in continuity and never over-the-top. The TV series is filled with surprises. But everything happens in a flow without any major thud or bang. Thankfully, there is no nudity.

The cinematography is extensive and quite good. The first two seasons cover Sydney, Queensland, Thailand and New Zealand. The third season covers the vast expanse of South Australia including Flinders Ranges and Adelaide Hills.

Conclusion:

It's an engaging and tension-free watch.

Palm Trees In The Snow (25 Dec 2015)

Genre: Drama/Romance
Language: Spanish, Bube, Pichinglis and Benasquese (Patués)
Duration: 163 minutes

Writer: Sergio G. Sánchez
Producer: Nostromo Pictures, Dynamo Producciones, Atresmedia Cine and Warner Bros.
Director: Fernando González Molina

Cast: Berta Vázquez, Mario Casa, Celso Bugallo, Adriana Ugarte, Macarena García, Slain Hernández, Emilio Gutiérrez Caba

Music: Lucas Vidal
Editing: Irene Blecua and Verónica Callón
Cinematography: Xavi Giménez

Introduction:

Palm Trees In The Snow is the english translation of Palmeras En La Nieve, a critically acclaimed Spanish movie based on the novel of the same name, by Luz Gabás.

The movie is about the journey and discoveries of a young Spanish woman who visits Bioko, the island region of Equatorial Guinea to uncover some secrets and search for some important people who hugely effected the lives of her grandfather, father and uncle, when they were posted there as Spanish colonists, to administer the local cocoa plantations.

The Plot:

In 2003, post the demise of her estranged father Jacobo (Macarena García) at Pasolobino in Spain, Clarence (Celso Bugallo) comes across an old letter, which propels her to journey to Fernando Poo (now called Bioko) in Guinea (now Equatorial Guinea) to uncover some strong links mentioned in the letter.

As her journey unfolds, it is revealed that her uncle Kilian (Mario Casas) along with his elder brother Jacobo i.e. Clarence's father, left the snow-capped mountains of Huesca in northern Spain in 1954 to join his father Antón (Slain Hernández) and his employer company that managed the local cocoa plantations of Bioko.

Upon his arrival to Bioko, Kilian gets amused and baffled by the entirely new style of life, tropical climate and racism. He slowly and gradually learns the rope of the administration, hardens up as per the need of the times and evolves into a hard-working, problem solving and compassionate human, rather than an abusive and dominating colonist.

Post his father's demise, Kilian returns back to Pasolobino for 3 years. Upon returning back, he finds his brother turned into an insane drinker and womaniser and send him back home to Pasolobino. Personally, he stays in Bioko till 1964, visits his home only for a few months and then travels back to Bioko. His final exit from the African island takes place in 1968, when a new president is elected for the Republic of Equatorial Guinea and the Spanish colonists are forced to leave.

Amidst all his travels and stays in Bioko, he comes across Bisila (Berta Vázquez) - firstly as a girl in 1954, silently crying and singing a song to a waterfall in a forest and vanishing in a split second, secondly during her marriage weeks later, when he gets enchanted by her, thirdly post his return in 1957, with her first born and realizing that the feeling is mutual and fourthly while helping her to smuggle her politician friend Gustavo the very next day, to cross military checkpoints which leads to their first kiss and eventually to their first night of love making.

Their affair is lined with true love and their love makings are passionate. Since Bisila happens to be a nurse at the cocoa estate, it's convenient for them to sneak in moments of privacy.

After his last tour to Spain, when Kilian arrives at Bioko, he is shattered to find that during his absence, when Jacobo had returned back to the island, one fateful night in a drunken state, Jacobo and two of his friends had beaten and violated Bisila!

Shortly, both of Jacobo's friends are found hanging on a tree. Bisila's grieving and revengeful husband tries to kill Jacobo, but is instead shot dead by him, due to timely intervention of Kilian, who had already reprimanded and beaten Jacobo for his heinous act.

As per her tribe's rituals, Bisila goes into a year long mourning of her husband, wherein she forbids Kilian to meet her. During this mourning period, she gives birth to her second son Laha, who happens to be sired by Kilian.

In 1968, when there is extreme political turmoil and threat to colonists' lives, Kilian tries to leave Bioko with Bisilia and her sons, but her sons are not allowed to cross the check point because they are Guinean by birth!

Resultantly, all of them return back to the estate and try to leave together happily as a family. But eventually, Kilian is forced to bid final goodbye to Bioko forever.

Movie Analysis:

Palm Trees In The Snow is an extremely well made classic, wherein true love and passion of the central characters has been carefully woven around the last 10-15 years of Spanish colonisation of Bioko in Equatorial Guinea.

It also showcases the selfless and relentless search of the main protagonist, in an absolutely foreign and unfriendly terrain, so that she can deliver justice and bring closure to her departed father and dementia suffering uncle.

The movie shows you both good and evil sides of the colonization; relationships between different family members, lovers and people of different races; and last but not least the bond and power of true love.

The movie constantly shifts between past and present but this doesn't hamper it's visual appeal or makes it difficult to understand.

In the movie, there are multiple scenic references to turtles travelling thousands of miles in the ocean to their homes, which is quite symbolic and quite in-tune with the movie's storyline.

Cinematography by Xavi Giménez is excellent. The soundtrack, Palmeras en la nieve is quite good. All the actors have worked very well. But Berta Vázquez as Bisilia simply stands out. She has displayed a myriad range of emotions with equal ease and conviction.

For those who don't know, she also stood out for her excellent portrayal of Estefanía Kabila "Rizos", in the Spanish TV series Vis A Vis (Locked Up) that aired from 2015 to 2019. 

A Remarkable Tale (12 Jul 2019)

Genre: Comedy
Language: Spanish
Duration: 93 minutes

Director: Marina Seresesky
Cast: Carmen Machi, Pepón Nieto, Kiti Mánver, Jimmy Castro, Ricardo Nkosi, Montse Pla, Malcolm Treviño-Sitté

Music: Fernando Velázquez
Editing: Marta Velasco

Introduction:

I just stumbled upon this movie while browsing Netflix, wherein it was added on 1 Nov 2019.

This simple sweet comedy with subtle imparting of a couple of deep messages reminded me a lot of an old movie named The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980).

Both the movies bring to the forefront the fact that mankind in general is ruled by fixed perspectives and mindset. We find beauty, safety and usefulness in only shapes, sizes, colors, tastes, flavors, noises and patterns that we are accustomed with or are aware of. For this reason, anything out of the ordinary or from a far off land or civilization seems ugly, threatening and useless to us!

'A Remarkable Tale' brings to our notice an addictional fact that more we are secured in a setting, more rigid we are prone to change it's dynamics. But in the event of scarcity or threat of extinction, we embrace just anything and anyone to be able to stay afloat comfortably.

The Plot:

The remote mountain village of Fuentejuela de Arriba, Spain is at the risk of disappearing forever. It's villager count is not even a score, out of which 80% are old people.

The village needs to have a head count of at least 16 people, or else the concerned visiting authorities would declare it extinct, stop the facilities of visiting priest, sweeper etc. and remove it from the map. The fact that later on they plan to use this opportunity to ensure some big commercial gains is a different story altogether.

Though old and clad in funny hand knitted sweaters (which seemed cute to me), the village residents are patriotic about their place of stay and proud of their famous egg custard tarts, which they make in abundance for selling outside the village.

They wait in anticipation with a lot of welcome preparations for the tourist buses to make a stop over at their village in vain. Even when an old man dies, his wife never tells anyone or cremates him due to the fear of bringing to everyone's notice that the village count has decreased by one!

When a dance group of three men and one woman arrive unexpectedly from Africa, the whole village goes into a tizzy because of the sheer culture shock.

Both the original Spanish residents and visiting African dancers find each other's appearance, clothes, food and dance steps funny. They also have trust issues with each other.

While the villagers are worried sick and feeling helpless about ever decreasing village count and ever looming danger of identity crisis, the visiting dancers find the villagers' lives quite blissful as they have comfortable homes to stay and enough food on the table, something that they don't have back home. Also, if caught by the authorities, they would be deported back to the life of hunger and misery.

Using their arrival as a blessing in disguise, the mayor's wife comes up with a shocking plan, which eventually proves to be a rather dramatic and unusual but still a win-win situation for all concerned.

Movie Analysis:

It's a well made movie with apt casting and good - acting, background score and editing. It's light hearted and flows in a singular rhythm. Neither it bores you for a second, nor it accelerates your heartbeat or pumps your adrenaline at any point of time.

Message:

Amongst all it's comedies and mash up of two distinct cultures i.e. of European whites and African blacks, the movie teaches you the virtue of cultural integration and tolerance and depicts the fact that such a mammoth task is actually quite natural and easy if we are ready to see the things from all the possible perspectives.

The movie is a big slap on the mindset that stereotypes communities and races.

Also, it beautifully portrays the fact that, for the humans, post food and oxygen, nothing can surpasses the need of human companionship and two individuals can feel compatible irrespective of differences in their age, race, color, nationality, social status, literacy level and the likes.

Edge Of Tomorrow (3D) (6 Jun 2014)

'Edge Of Tomorrow’ is a sci-fi thriller. In short, it is military science fiction combined with time travel (read time loop) and alien attack! It is based on the book ‘All You Need Is Kill’ by Hiroshi Sakurazaka.

Major William Cage (Tom Cruise), who is kind of a figurehead with no combat experience, is forcibly thrown into a doomed-to-die warfare with an alien race called ‘The Mimic’. As expected, soon upon entering the battlefield along with his peers, he faces death. But shockingly, from there itself, he enters into an infinite loop of death and resurrection.

He realizes that the best way to end this in his favour, is to demolish ‘Omega’ i.e. the brain of the Mimic. Apart from him, only two other people aware of this death and resurrection phenomenon are – Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), a Special Force Warrior and her scientist associate. In true blue Tom Cruise style, Cage along with the two aforesaid military people, uses his each new life to further strategize his mind and train his physique, so as to decrease the distance between him and Omega by at least a few steps, before he meets his new death!

Like a video game in play, with every death, Cage is required to restart his life from the same time stamp (or level). And like a video gamer, with every new life, though he is required to play the same set of scenarios with pre destined (or planned) succession, he is wiser and better equipped to play the game a tad bit further. So, throughout the movie, he is mostly plotting and preparing for the next day battle, with as many variations as possible. Hence, the movie is titled ‘Edge Of Tomorrow’ and it’s tag line reads ‘Live.Die.Repeat’.

In the world of movies, this plot is rather new and tricky to handle. Director, screenwriters, cast and other crew members deserve full marks for pulling this off in as much audience friendly manner as possible. A noteworthy scene is the one wherein, just prior to one of her deaths, Rita divulges her middle name to Cage. This scene has a subtle tenderness which is aptly absent throughout the movie. In most parts, the film looks like a gothic mesh of bulky metal combat gear, metallic octopus-like high powered aliens, advanced weaponry and repeat upon repeat!

Approximately, twenty years back, Tom Cruise successfully carried off the internationally acclaimed sci-fi thriller, Mission Impossible (1996). And even today, he is carrying such a film with great aplomb. The kind of distinct continuity he has maintained in the film, is no mean feat. Emily Blunt looks extremely athletic and agile. It is impossible to compare this avatar of hers from her stint in ‘The Devil Wears Prada’. Herein, she is referred as ‘Full Metal Bitch’. But the significance of the same is lost in the book-to-film translation. Others have performed good as well.

This movie successfully entwines you to the psychology of the protagonist. Alongside him, you will experience the same time frame and level of confusion, mirth, determination, fear, boredom and frustration.  And just because, it already has so many repeat scenes, it is impossible to see it more than once.

The Amazing Spider Man 2 (3D) (1 May 2014)

Cast: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan, Sally Field, Colm Feore

Director: Marc Webb

Though quite a few independent Spider Man movies have released in the past, this one is a sequel of ‘The Amazing Spider Man’ (released in 2012). Wherein, it takes the story forward, it also leaves ample room for the upcoming sequel. Like the search about the disappearance of Spider Man’s parents that started in the prequel, is given a closure here. But out of the three new villains, only two are destroyed.

Undoubtedly, it’s an international class movie, but it lacks the required symmetry and purpose. In many a places, intense scene build up is done in vain i.e. it leads to nowhere poignant. Also, the chemistry between the protagonist (Andrew Garfield) and his love interest (Emma Stone) seem straight out of a Bollywood flick i.e. a tad bit too melodramatic! It seems that Peter Parker aka Spider Man’s primary course of action is following and wooing his beloved, dangle and mount on the skyscrapers in his gear and help the en route citizens in an easy and funny manner. Out of sheer responsibility he has to work towards destructing the big time villains i.e. the abnormal beings capable of mass destruction. Given a choice, he may opt out of it! The makers have justified this by presenting him as a lad who has just finished his graduation. Like it’s prequel, here too the villains are created via accident or robotic gear at Oscorp i.e. the corporate giant where Peter Parker’s father used to work as a scientist.

As expected, the computer gimmicks in the movie are top class. Also the 3D experience is good. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone look endearing together. The way he longingly looks at her and fears for her safety at his close range, you do wish to release him from his superhero duties for once and for all! And she manages to light up each scene with her luminescent face and sparkling teeth. But it is Jamie Foxx who steals the show as Electro. The seasoned actor beautifully acts his way from being a Spider Man worshipping, gawky and lonely Oscorp engineer to a Spider Man despising super villain Electro. Sally Field (Aunt May) and others have also acted well. Compared to the prequel, in fact she looks little younger.

The movie is 2 hours and 22 minutes long, and still it ends rather abruptly!