Perhaps I went into viewing this film with too many expectations based upon what I had heard about it, but Endhiran just left me bemused.
On the plus side, yes it was marginally different to most Indian films but ultimately once you removed the very good veneer not that much different. That veneer was some of the glossiest and best effects seen in an Indian film ever, although even those at times were by no means a good as has been claimed (think low definition in an otherwise high definition presentation).
But the negative side? Whoa were there lots here. I don't think the writers actually knew where they wanted to take this film after they got into the meat of it and in the end it feels like a compromise that ended up going a well trodden path. Rather than being truly original they tried to seek inspiration from way too many robot sci-fi films which really destroyed where they were heading. Did they really need to go the robot runs amok route for instance? Jealous, bumbling lab techs? Been done to death by many a B-grade sci-fi film and I don't think it added much to the film other than a lot of length and poor attempts at humor.
Sorry to all the Rajnikanth fans out there but his recent work has not been of high standard to me (and that includes the woefully overrated Sivaji) and again his "acting" lets this film down badly. He does not have the emotional range that his character needed. Some of that perhaps lies in the casting. Whilst Aishwarya is undoubtedly a very beautiful woman, I cannot help but feel that this film needed perhaps less beauty and more substance that an older, better actor could have provided. The age difference of the actors here simply did not convince at all, for all Aishwarya's efforts, and the chemistry just did not seem to be there - and that relationship was crucial to the film.
The editing could have been a lot better too but in some respects I guess that they wanted to emphasize the technical aspects of the film which absorbed a large chunk of the budget no doubt. Indeed, too much seemed to be compromised to allow the effects to take center stage. Never a good idea, whether you are James Cameron or Shankar.
The effects themselves were never as smooth and realistic as those found in Hollywood. That in itself would not be a concern except there was a such a huge emphasis on the effects that every little issue with them became clear. If you are going to do an effects-laden film then you need to get the effects 100% spot on, something that a great director knows. Failure to do so can take the audience out of the illusion very easily as it does here on occasions.
Whilst I understand that the Indian viewing public expects and demands songs in their films, there really was no easy way to include them in this film without it being a huge distraction. Had this truly been a groundbreaking Indian film, they should have had the guts to cut the songs out. They added nothing to the film and took the viewer out of the storyline too much.
Maybe its just me and Shankar films but this was a disappointment of the highest order.
On the plus side, yes it was marginally different to most Indian films but ultimately once you removed the very good veneer not that much different. That veneer was some of the glossiest and best effects seen in an Indian film ever, although even those at times were by no means a good as has been claimed (think low definition in an otherwise high definition presentation).
But the negative side? Whoa were there lots here. I don't think the writers actually knew where they wanted to take this film after they got into the meat of it and in the end it feels like a compromise that ended up going a well trodden path. Rather than being truly original they tried to seek inspiration from way too many robot sci-fi films which really destroyed where they were heading. Did they really need to go the robot runs amok route for instance? Jealous, bumbling lab techs? Been done to death by many a B-grade sci-fi film and I don't think it added much to the film other than a lot of length and poor attempts at humor.
Sorry to all the Rajnikanth fans out there but his recent work has not been of high standard to me (and that includes the woefully overrated Sivaji) and again his "acting" lets this film down badly. He does not have the emotional range that his character needed. Some of that perhaps lies in the casting. Whilst Aishwarya is undoubtedly a very beautiful woman, I cannot help but feel that this film needed perhaps less beauty and more substance that an older, better actor could have provided. The age difference of the actors here simply did not convince at all, for all Aishwarya's efforts, and the chemistry just did not seem to be there - and that relationship was crucial to the film.
The editing could have been a lot better too but in some respects I guess that they wanted to emphasize the technical aspects of the film which absorbed a large chunk of the budget no doubt. Indeed, too much seemed to be compromised to allow the effects to take center stage. Never a good idea, whether you are James Cameron or Shankar.
The effects themselves were never as smooth and realistic as those found in Hollywood. That in itself would not be a concern except there was a such a huge emphasis on the effects that every little issue with them became clear. If you are going to do an effects-laden film then you need to get the effects 100% spot on, something that a great director knows. Failure to do so can take the audience out of the illusion very easily as it does here on occasions.
Whilst I understand that the Indian viewing public expects and demands songs in their films, there really was no easy way to include them in this film without it being a huge distraction. Had this truly been a groundbreaking Indian film, they should have had the guts to cut the songs out. They added nothing to the film and took the viewer out of the storyline too much.
Maybe its just me and Shankar films but this was a disappointment of the highest order.