Brahmastra Part 1: Shiva (2022) [No 3D Blu-ray]

[Dubstar]

while it never reaches the craziness of 'RRR' which wasn't in 3D, this in IMAX 3D was insanely entertaining. The IMAX audio was set at a nosebleed '11'. The first musical number was utterly exhilterating

[RitwikKN2002]

Originally Posted by Dubstar

while it never reaches the craziness of 'RRR' which wasn't in 3D, this in IMAX 3D was insanely entertaining. The IMAX audio was set at a nosebleed '11'. The first musical number was utterly exhilterating

RRR was released in 3D. There is an IMAX 3D version (1.90:1) of the film out there waiting to be mastered for home video, it’s just that someone is yet to take the initiative to do so and therefore release it on 3D Blu-ray.
Glad to hear you enjoyed Brahmāstra in IMAX 3D though.

[WaverBoy]

When the hell is Random Space Media gonna do a mega licensing deal and put out a shit-ton of 3D Indian films on Blu?

[BleedOrange11]

I saw this alone in an empty IMAX 3D auditorium today. The 3D CGI VFX by DNEG/Prime Focus India are the star of the show. The movie itself is like a lesser, overlong Hindi version of Eternals with a greater focus on destiny, romance, and musicality. The screenplay has a lot of heart, but is inherently cheesy and overstays its welcome, needing to be edited down by 30-45min. It would have helped if my theater had paused at the intermission, but I can't really blame them for not wanting to allot more screen time to this 3hr marathon. The subtitles were majorly vertically misaligned too. I really could have used a bathroom and snack break and just a few minutes of quiet to reset and process the sound and sensory overload.

The dazzling colorful 3D effects and constantly circling camera keep the picture entertaining though, and the booming surround mix matches them. The level of cinematic showmanship is far above most films, creating a genuine feeling of "movie magic". It seems like Hollywood directors constantly reign in the VFX to keep them from distracting from "the story", even in cookie-cutter action blockbusters, but this movie goes all out for spectacle to entertain the viewer, similar to Tsui Hark's aesthetic.

Like you would expect from previous DNEG conversions, the 3D depth looks good. As Zivouhr noted, it's peppered with a handful of flat shots. And it did not outshine the shape of Avatar 2's 3D trailer that played beforehand. But the delight of the 3D VFX cannot be understated and are the reason to see this in cinema. There are a lot (and I mean a lot) of particle pop-outs and slow-motion effects, and even some weapons thrown right at the audience. It's nothing you haven't seen before but almost never this generous. Catch this in 3D cinema before its gone and pray to Shiva for a Blu-ray 3D miracle.

Movie - 3.5/5
3D - 4.5/5

[WaverBoy]

Can’t agree about the trailer for Avatar 2 having better 3D than Brahmastra. Brahmastra blew it away effortlessly. This conversion is extraordinary and looks native all the way.

[Just_Discovered_3D]

Originally Posted by BleedOrange11

I saw this alone in an empty IMAX 3D auditorium today. The 3D CGI VFX by DNEG/Prime Focus India are the star of the show. The movie itself is like a lesser, overlong Hindi version of Eternals with a greater focus on destiny, romance, and musicality. The screenplay has a lot of heart, but is inherently cheesy and overstays its welcome, needing to be edited down by 30-45min. It would have helped if my theater had paused at the intermission, but I can't really blame them for not wanting to allot more screen time to this 3hr marathon. The subtitles were majorly vertically misaligned too. I really could have used a bathroom and snack break and just a few minutes of quiet to reset and process the sound and sensory overload.

The dazzling colorful 3D effects and constantly circling camera keep the picture entertaining though, and the booming surround mix matches them. The level of cinematic showmanship is far above most films, creating a genuine feeling of "movie magic". It seems like Hollywood directors constantly reign in the VFX to keep them from distracting from "the story", even in cookie-cutter action blockbusters, but this movie goes all out for spectacle to entertain the viewer, similar to Tsui Hark's aesthetic.

Like you would expect from previous DNEG conversions, the 3D depth looks good. As Zivouhr noted, it's peppered with a handful of flat shots. And it did not outshine the shape of Avatar 2's 3D trailer that played beforehand. But the delight of the 3D VFX cannot be understated and are the reason to see this in cinema. There are a lot (and I mean a lot) of particle pop-outs and slow-motion effects, and even some weapons thrown right at the audience. It's nothing you haven't seen before but almost never this generous. Catch this in 3D cinema before its gone and pray to Shiva for a Blu-ray 3D miracle.

Movie - 3.5/5
3D - 4.5/5

This film has an intermission? The trailers made it look like The Eternals to me as well, nice to know that was the proper impression. I can't agree more on the need to trim the runtime as the main reason I haven't seen it yet is because it is just too dang long for when the theaters have it scheduled here.

It's wild how varying 3D reviews are, as the Avatar 2 trailer IMO was the exact same strength as the Thor 4 trailer.

Do these weapons that are thrown right out at the audience come out into the audience for you? So much popout that I see in RealD only seems to come "halfway" out of the screen.

[WaverBoy]

Can’t agree that it’s inherently cheesy or overlong either — Bollywood films are their own animal; they wear their heart on their sleeve, they’re usually three hours long, they have musical numbers, and the good ones are entertaining as all hell. This is the best Bollywood film I’ve ever seen, and I wouldn’t want to lose a single frame. I’ll take it any day over most MCU films I’ve seen.

[BleedOrange11]

At my theater, the intermission card came up 90min into the film, was on screen for 2 seconds, and then immediately proceeded into the second half of the film. They just played right through it.

Avatar: The Way of Water's 3D trailer in IMAX has better looking 3D depth and shape than anything "live-action" that's been released in my local cinemas since Tsui Hark's Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back in 2017. I'll argue that, and it's fine if you disagree.

Regarding the weapon pop-outs, a bad guy goon throws ~4 blades in a row at the protagonist, and he dodges them so they fly right at the camera instead. They are thrown pretty fast, so not super lingering or gratuitous, but they made me blink. Halfway out of the screen in an IMAX theater is a pretty far distance. There was nothing close enough to reach out and touch, like I can occasionally do at home (Sammy's Adventures). The viewing distance vs. pop-out percentage math for that is not as favorable in theaters as it is at home.

[WaverBoy]

The Avatar 2 trailer’s 3D is good, but better than Brahmastra…I just don’t see it.

[Just_Discovered_3D]

Originally Posted by BleedOrange11

At my theater, the intermission card came up 90min into the film, was on screen for 2 seconds, and then immediately proceeded into the second half of the film. They just played right through it.

Avatar: The Way of Water's 3D trailer in IMAX has better looking 3D depth and shape than anything "live-action" that's been released in my local cinemas since Tsui Hark's Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back in 2017. I'll argue that, and it's fine if you disagree.

Regarding the weapon pop-outs, a bad guy goon throws ~4 blades in a row at the protagonist, and he dodges them so they fly right at the camera instead. They are thrown pretty fast, so not super lingering or gratuitous, but they made me blink. Halfway out of the screen in an IMAX theater is a pretty far distance. There was nothing close enough to reach out and touch, like I can occasionally do at home (Sammy's Adventures). The viewing distance vs. pop-out percentage math for that is not as favorable in theaters as it is at home.

I should say "halfway to popping out of the screen", as a lot of popout to me looks like it is visibly in front of everything else in the scene, but it does not look like it is exiting the screen. To use the old window analogy, it's like it is pressing right up against the glass, but not breaking through to my side.

Shang Chi's rope dart can make me blink, but when I pause it, it's not popping out into "my side" of the screen. I find a lot of popout is like that.

I would like to see the intermission return to American theaters. Heck, they (well, Cinemark) give you a free drink refill but no time to use it, unless you dip out of the film

Thanks for the additional detail.

[BleedOrange11]

Originally Posted by WaverBoy

Can’t agree that it’s inherently cheesy or overlong either — Bollywood films are their own animal; they wear their heart on their sleeve, they’re usually three hours long, they have musical numbers, and the good ones are entertaining as all hell. This is the best Bollywood film I’ve ever seen, and I wouldn’t want to lose a single frame. I’ll take it any day over most MCU films I’ve seen.

I understand the length is a cultural thing, and I liked the Dussehra festival dance number at the beginning. I would have enjoyed this film more if I could have paused it at my leisure, or at least actually taken the planned intermission. 3 hours is just a long time to sit still, stay alert, not be able to adjust the thermostat, not grab a snack, hold your bodily functions, etc.

This story was epic in length only though and really could have been judiciously trimmed by 30min and still retained almost all the same scenes and been sweeter for it. They even could have kept the same runtime and trimmed the scenes better and had time to "show not tell" the

[Show spoiler]parents' backstory

too although I suppose that is planned for the sequels. It did give much better spectacle than all Marvel movies, and I am tremendously grateful for that.

The story revolves around

[Show spoiler]"love at first sight" and a protagonist without a selfish or insecure bone in his body who derives the source of his power from love

. It's pure and heartfelt but the sort of simplistic emotional arcs that only happen in fairy tales. I did enjoy the story for what it was, even rated it higher than what I think it logically deserves, but the quality of cinematic presentation sticks with me more than the story.

[IMAXNick]

I just had the pleasure of watching Brahmastra: part one in 3D last night. Knew absolutely nothing about it going in. The only reason I even decided to watch it was the fact that it had a 3D presentation and aside from a couple of random 2D shots throughout the film, especially in the second half of the film which makes me think that they didn't finish the 3D conversion, the shots that were 3D looked incredible! A lot of 3D moments really popped out of the screen! This counts as my first official Bollywood film experience and I really enjoyed it! I can't wait to see the next two films and I really hope that they release it on 3D blu-ray!

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by Just_Discovered_3D

This film has an intermission? The trailers made it look like The Eternals to me as well, nice to know that was the proper impression.

Pretty much every Indian film has an intermission, even if it’s only 2 hours long. In the UK, ODEON always does intermissions (around 7 minutes or so I think) - a lot of people use this time to go to the bathroom, or buy food or drinks, or even kids running around the screen or people going on their phone. Vue never does intermissions which is a shame because sometimes you need a breather and time to decompress, build up excitement for what happens next and make sure your body doesn’t start to ache. Sometimes I get that feeling with blockbuster films like LOTR too, if there was a break I would be able to come into the rest of the film with a fresh mind, than feeling like I can’t take everything in and exhaustion hitting me.

Unfortunately India has mostly abandoned BDs relying instead of TV and streaming rights, even though Disney have released this there’s not much hope for a disc.

Unfortunately this wasn’t showing in 3D or IMAX near me, due to the rerelease of Jaws the same week - I don’t think Vikrant Rona or RRR got much of a 3D or IMAX release in the UK either.

Also if they’re still playing near you, I can recommend the Malayam films Nna Thaan Case Kodu and Pathonpatham Noottandu and the Tamil film Thiruchitrambalam.

[ryudoadema]

Caught this last night in IMAX 3d. I can tell you that even the digital xenon-based smaller Imax theaters are much better than most real-d theaters (all that I've seen). The sound as usual was too high and the seats are still outdated, but the image and bass were both great.

This was probably my favorite cinema experience since Avatar 3d and might top that! 3d was excellent and the movie was so visually appealing that the subs and sometimes corny story/acting/music didn't bother me. I really enjoyed most of the music. Trying to talk people into seeing it, the best I could do to describe it was a neon-soaked Bollywood Shang-chi/Eternals but better imo and better 3d than either one too.

[Zivouhr]

The film has a lot of competition in theaters at the moment, so considering that, it did pretty well for the box office so far.

Brahmastra 1 3D:
Grosses
Domestic (20.2%)
$4,838,806
International (79.8%)
$19,068,271
Worldwide
$23,907,077


A 9/10 for the 3D, with lots of strong 3D shots whenever there were special effects happening, which was a large percentage of this action/adventure film. Then toning down to medium layers for a number of the dialog scenes.

I also liked how they went to quite a few different locations to keep things exciting.

[Just_Discovered_3D]

Originally Posted by Zivouhr

The film has a lot of competition in theaters at the moment, so considering that, it did pretty well for the box office so far.

Brahmastra 1 3D:
Grosses
Domestic (20.2%)
$4,838,806
International (79.8%)
$19,068,271
Worldwide
$23,907,077


A 9/10 for the 3D, with lots of strong 3D shots whenever there were special effects happening, which was a large percentage of this action/adventure film. Then toning down to medium layers for a number of the dialog scenes.

I also liked how they went to quite a few different locations to keep things exciting.

Saw it, enjoyed it. Some have said this is what The Eternals and Shang Chi should have been. I think they're right.

Popout: mostly was just "made you blink", so it wasn't as strong as TMNT2 for a post conversion. But I give them an A for effort with popout shot construction: knife toss was fun, spinning aerial gun reload was neat, arrow at the camera had potential, and the raindrop was just a skosh shy of greatness.



Needs to be 16:9 for part 2, I saw this in a "scope" theater with no masking. Also native 3D please, going forward. Oh, and "hardcode" in a 10 minute timer'd intermission; I did get a laugh out of the 5 second intermission that we did get.

Speaking of part 2, this really packed a lot of Part 2 material into part 1. If anyone saw Dune 2021 and felt slighted by the film ending where it did, this film rights that wrong.

Also, would this director be interested in taking a go at The Last Airbender? This film more or less had an Aang in it, possible homage?

[3disciple]

Great to see India keeping the 3d flame alive.

I was the only person to turn up at the last (ever?) showing on a lowly RealD screen. It looked very good even there so I’d imagine it’d be pretty special in IMAX. I wouldn’t quite place it among the best of the best as I think strong native from the likes of Tsui Hark, Journey or Viy still has even very good conversions beat, but it’s the best 3d I’ve seen since Captain Marvel.

The ‘wow’ moments are limited to the CG with lots of tendrils snaking through the screen and objects tossed towards you, nothing too crazy but enough to trouble the second row. The VFX work is a little shonky but the 3d lends it real magic.

The theme of light worked very well to give the film a distinctive look, not just the neon transformations and powers but they bathed all the (many) night scenes in strong primaries. I’d love to watch this again at home on an Oled screen - if by some miracle this gets a disc.

I wasn’t sold on the story. The tri-force macguffin is such a tired plot device but the characters did a decent job and the focus on local culture made it feel fresh. The central love story frequently veers into cringe; I could have done with losing chunks of that for more action. Not a fan of musicals at all but I thought the songs were integrated well, the first one at least was catchy and large scale, the second not so much.

The pacing held up well for the 3 hours although it did seem to slow right down once they got to the mountain retreat. The early location work in Delhi and the temple felt much more alive. Looking forward to Deva 3d.

[Zivouhr]

Originally Posted by Just_Discovered_3D

Saw it, enjoyed it. Some have said this is what The Eternals and Shang Chi should have been. I think they're right.

Popout: mostly was just "made you blink", so it wasn't as strong as TMNT2 for a post conversion. But I give them an A for effort with popout shot construction: knife toss was fun, spinning aerial gun reload was neat, arrow at the camera had potential, and the raindrop was just a skosh shy of greatness.



Needs to be 16:9 for part 2, I saw this in a "scope" theater with no masking. Also native 3D please, going forward. Oh, and "hardcode" in a 10 minute timer'd intermission; I did get a laugh out of the 5 second intermission that we did get.

Speaking of part 2, this really packed a lot of Part 2 material into part 1. If anyone saw Dune 2021 and felt slighted by the film ending where it did, this film rights that wrong.

Also, would this director be interested in taking a go at The Last Airbender? This film more or less had an Aang in it, possible homage?

Cool, yes, a solid 3D effort overall and worth seeing in 3D for certain. Good to hear you got to see it.

I avoided Eternals, but I can imagine the theme of protecting the earth being similar. I can also imagine that show Heroes, where random people throughout the world, unite against evil with their unique powers combined with their spirit helpers.

[randomletterboxd]

Went for the 3rd and likely last viewing tonight this time with my younger brother. Took him a bit to get into the movie but he really loved the action especially at the end. Really wish this could get a 3d blu ray somehow. Looking forward to the sequel and other future 3d movies from India.

[Just_Discovered_3D]

What's up with this supposed push to boycott this film? I see many news reports on it when I searched for information about Part 2: Dev, but none really explain what the aim of the boycott is. Best I've found is that some consider the film to be blasphemous?

I wonder if that could explain why the showings for it here have been so underpopulated.

Darn shame if it's a movement with traction, as the VFX in this are punching so far above their weight and JCam will really have to step it up if he wants a shot at the coveted Best 3D of 2022 award