I watched the movie twice, once in 2D and once in 3D (imo, the 3D experience is fantastic). And I enjoyed the movie, as a whole. Some critics rip this movie apart for its poor script, but one must bear in mind the target audience is essentially kids so the plot is simple and straight-forward. Some has also criticize the use of low comedy (the groin-thingy, the airport officer ogling over G.One's piercings) but from what I noticed, the audience takes no offense and just laugh it off, even the kids (although the significance of the airport scene might not dawn on them). As for the sci-fi bit as to how the game characters can come alive, yes, it might be flawed but hey, if we can accept the fact that a bite from a radioactive spider can turn one into Spiderman, or that exposure to a gamma bomb could turn one into The Hulk, why the need to nitpick?The thing is, the makers of Ra.One didn't set out to make this into an intelligent, gritty flick. It is meant to be an entertainer, and most importantly, to showcase the technology that was once regarded to be a Hollywood exclusive feature. With Ra.One, the aim is to create a superhero that would appeal to Indian children and to show the world stunning visual effects could be achieved at a fraction of the Hollywood price tag. I'd say the team is successful on those two fronts.
The plot is simple. A dad, eager to win his son's affection, creates a game where the villain (Ra.One) is stronger than the hero (G.One). Son is happy and gets to play the game, but when he stops the game at Level 2, Ra.One is angry because no one is supposed to defeat him. So he vows to track the boy down and comes to life. The boy and his mum are forced to flee, but not before G.One is also brought to life to defend them.
Shah Rukh Khan (SRK) plays dual roles, that of the dad, Shekhar Subramaniam, and the superhero, G.One. As the dad, SRK plays Shekhar the way the script demands perfectly clumsy, endearing, an embarrassment to the son, but when the situation calls for it, is perfectly responsible and heroic. Some say SRK is over-acting as Shekhar but personally, I feel to bring Shekhar to life and to make him a stark contrast to the stoic G.One, SRK had to be ridiculously funny and silly, and in that aspect, he succeeds brilliantly, imo. As the superhero G.One, SRK manages to be mostly stoic with monotous speech pattern, and his posture is impeccable (straight back, restrained gait/movements) though I have to admit it is a little jarring to see G.One smile and groove in one of the song items, Chammak Challo.
Kareena Kapoor as Shekhar's wife is beautiful, and though there isn't much scope for her to display her histrionic, she is absolutely brilliant in the scenes following her husband's death and when she is Ra.One is disguise.
And the little boy who plays the son, Prateek a.k.a Lucifer (his game handle) is truly a wonderful child actor who displays ease and confidence in all of his scenes.
The action scenes are brilliantly shot and look almost flawless, and the visual effects are really quite top-notch quality (nothing as epic as Transformers, of course). I seriously love the train sequence where SRK as G.One flies/runs from/across carriage door to carriage door. Look at the way SRK brilliantly holds his posture in which the action looks real that you forget he is aided by wires.
If I need to complaint about one thing, it is the number of scantily-clad dancers in the song items Criminal and Chammak Challo. Why the need to show so much skin?
All in all, this movie is massively entertaining. You have drama, action, comedy, bit of romance all rolled into one. It is also a game changer for Hindi cinema due to the visual effects and technology employed proof that Hindi films can retain its desi core and still stand on an international platform.
The reviews in America, especially "Hollywood" were very good. But something is very wrong with the "Bollywood Movie System" this movie was treated very unfairly by the Indian press, I feel very sorry for the Indian public who did not see this film. Not only have they missed a wonderful film but they have missed Hindi film history in the making. The people who have written bad reviews on here never saw this film "Period" I have watched 100s of Bollywood films, and this one ranks in the top, for story, acting and special effects.
If you are an International film buff, you must see it. If you have kids you all must see it. If you just love a good time, fun and want to see a new super hero you must see. I know you will enjoy it!
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A truly lovely and entertaining film.Though set firmly in the traditions of Bollywood with colour, heart-warming relationships and wonderful music, it stretches into new territory with brilliant VFX and the exploration of a new genre, namely the superhero movie.
See it for the smile it will bring to your face. As the tag-line says 'A Superhero with HART'.
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I saw this in the theater recently and I look forward to owning it. Before seeing this film, I had never even heard of SRK, so the intricacies of Bollywood pop culture were irrelevent as I sat and enjoyed this outstanding film.I should begin by saying that Hollywood superhero films like The Dark Knight have nothing to worry about from this film. Ra.One doesn't try to be gritty or dark or realistic. It is a family film, closer to the Christopher Reeve Superman films, in that it tries to be both sweet and thrilling. As a result it comes across as simultaneously modest and, because of its technological aspects, incredibly ambitious. Compared to the family fare churned out by Hollywood, it is never calculated and unlike Hollywood superhero films, it is never pretentious. From beginning to end, it simply wants to be the most entertaining film it could possibly be. Remarkably it succeeds far more frequently than it fails.
The highlights are the two extended action sequences. The first is a car chase through London that ends in a spectacular parking lot battle. The other, an even more astounding sequence, involves a runaway train and some remarkable stunt work and trick photography. Almost as good are the musical numbers, particularly Chammak Challo and Criminal. In a lesser film these interludes might have dragged the story to a halt, but in this film, they are made integral to the plot (and besides, are filled with such delight and affection for the characters that they can be forgiven almost anything).
As for the plot itself, it borrows freely from films like Terminator 2 and The Matrix. The hero, G.One (played by Sharukh Khan) is a video game character come to life, his mission to protect the son of his creator (also played by Mr. Khan in a very funny role). The film sets up its rules on how G.One and his nemesis, the evil Ra.One operate in the opening sequences and remarkably sticks to these rules for the most part. The story is just believable enough to work, though if I wanted to nitpick, I would have had a field day. However, if I did that, I would've missed out on entertaining scene after entertaining scene.
There were some problems, but overall they didn't really bother me. There were a couple of scenes where I had to ask myself, "Why is this happening?" There is an extended fight scene outside an airport that might have fit well in a Jackie Chan film from the seventies, but doesn't do much but show off some inventive fight choreography. Another sequence involving G.One being controlled by a video game controller might have set up an interesting possibility for the final battle, but is instead played just for laughs. Finally, a scene set up to sell an anti-smoking message is admirable, but hardly necessary.
Despite its few issues, this film was overflowing with invention and ideas and hopefully Bollywood can top it. If they can do this with a $30 million dollar budget, just imagine what they could do with even more. Though to be honest, I almost hope we never find out. Huge-budget "family" films like Transformers are so overblown, and so calculated to appeal to the lowest common denominator that they completely lack in heart or inspiration. Ra.One has both of these to spare.
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RA-ONE's rep for being the most expensive Indian movie to date could get a shellacking should PRINCE VAALI ever see the light of day. Both RA-ONE and PRINCE VAALI are superhero films, but until PRINCE VAALI actually hits the theater, I'm espousing Krrish as THE best Indian superhero film, of which upcoming sequel I cannot wait. RA-ONE? It's okay. It's not as awful as, say, that short film FIREMAN (which you can check out on YouTube, except why would you?). Heck, Mr. India, a 1987 film about a guy who can turn invisible, was more entertaining (and MR. INDIA is supposed to be getting a sequel, too).RA-ONE, at its heart, centers around a father-son relationship. International superstar Shah Rukh Khan takes on three roles: as the nerdy but kind-hearted (and ridiculously goofy haired) Shekhar, as the dream sequence hero Lucifer, and as G-One. Shekhar is a video game designer toiling for the massive London-based Barron Industries. In an effort to connect with his bratty son Prateek and because Prateek believes that villains are cool Shekhar creates a virtual reality game in which the super-villain, Ra-One (for "Random Access, Version One"), never loses.
Ra-One (the name is pronounced like the demon "Raavan") is a synthesis of history's ten most evil men. Opposing him in the game is the superhero G-One, and it's reputed that Ra-One is so mighty and invincible that G-One's chances of besting him stand at a mere 0.01%. Those who've seen the techno-thriller VIRTUOSITY can already suss out what comes next. In a world in which video game designers play god and weird science is introduced, reality and fantasy sometimes get to blurring and sentience is implausibly achieved. When a kid plays the game and threatens to beat Ra-One, is it a real stretch that Ra-One becomes so incensed that he pursues the kid out into the real world? And Ra-One out in the real world is as homicidal as Sid 6.7. "Jackie Chan" doesn't stand a chance.
RA-ONE, running at two and a half hours, borrows, begs, and steals from previous Hollywood films. It's a mash-up of TERMINATOR 2 and THE MATRIX and VIRTUOSITY and who knows what else. It even lifts that old martial arts move in which the hero uses the girl as a fight prop. Also regurgitated is the bit in which a gouged-out eyeball is employed to gain access thru a retinal-scanned security portal. I will say that I enjoyed the big-budget action sequences, even when they bear a striking familiarity and you can see where the wire work went in. I love the runaway train sequence! G-One and Ra-One look very cool visually, both Shah Rukh and Arjun Rampal obviously having done their reps in the gym. Shah Rukh's blue contacts are pretty effective.
There's a jarring element here, in that the film tends to shift from a cornball, comic family film to a more intense action thriller. It's hard to reconcile a goofball scene like Shekhar's getting mugged by a midget or Shah Rukh's Michael Jackson impression with Ra-One's casually brutal elimination of that old Chinese woman. I know this is the sort of masala that Bollywood tends to offer its audience. But, given its budget and its ambitions, RA-ONE should've maybe toned down the silly. KRRISH did, and was all the better for it.
What else? If you're a fan of Bollywood cinema, you may get a kick out of the opening sequence which features cameos by Priyanka Chopra (as Desi Girl) and Sanjay Dutt as the dream villain. The musical numbers are catchy and work to advance the plot. There are three really catchy tunes: "Dildaara (Stand By Me)," "Criminal," and "Chammak Challo." The startling thing is that Akon worked on the last two songs. In a bit of awesome, in the irresistible, percussion-heavy "Chammak Challo," Akon sings in flawless Hindi, having picked up the words phonetically. If you can spare two and a half hours, RA-ONE is worth a peek, if only to see how Indian cinema is striving to catch up to Hollywood. RA-ONE exhibits pretty decent f/x and nice performances by Shah Rukh, Kareena Kapoor (as Shekhar's understanding wife Sonia), and Arjun Rampal (who is properly sinister and gleefully takes on those villainy poses). Man, if only the filmmakers had managed to calm down those cheesy Bollywood excesses. Wherever Hrithik Roshan is right now, I don't think he feels at all threatened, especially since the KRRISH sequel is almost here. 3 stars out of 5 for RA-ONE. Maybe an extra half-star for the sheer effort and energy expended by the cast & crew in this project. Shah Rukh said RA-ONE took up several years of his life.
Disc 1 has the feature presentation with the option of an English or Arabic sub-title and the option to listen either in the Hindi, Telugu, or Tamil language. There is also an option for song selection so you can click on the banging "Chmmak Challo" joint. Disc 2 contains the following bonus stuff (with no English sub-titles, although people speak often enough in English that you can sort of follow along):
5 Deleted Scenes (totaling 00:05:30 minutes)
Making of the Film (00:32:10 minutes)
Making of Songs Behind the Scenes of the musical numbers "Chammak Challo" and "Criminal," interspersed with Akon in the recording studio collaborating with the music composing/directing duo Vishal and Shekhar (00:19:08)
RA-ONE London Premiere focusing mostly on the cast's red carpet walks (00:07:51)
RA-ONE Trailer Launch (00:04:26)
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