PhantomKnight
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Post by PhantomKnight on Apr 10, 2024 18:50:41 GMT -5
So, the first question to answer here is, is Dev Patel's directorial debut Monkey Man the unexpected gamechanger that the hype has been building it up as? No, not really. Not even close, in fact. On top of its action movie roots, it aspires to tackle certain political issues within its India setting, and the results on that front are pretty mixed. Plus, the fact that the movie is as much about that as it is its advertised revenge tale angle creates a story progression that, while I never found the film boring or badly-paced, does make it feel kind of unnecessarily protracted. I chalk that up to this being Patel's directorial debut, thus he may have been hesitant to kill some of his darlings. That being said, make no mistake -- this is still pretty good. Because there's a conviction underlying everything here that the movie definitely benefits from. Patel shows clear passion in the storytelling, but it's also in his direction where he shows promise. He absolutely has a cinematic eye and manages to make most of everything here look great...barring some questionable use of shaky cam in some of the fight sequences. But those action scenes do work, particularly one around the middle, where the sense of escalation in everything is well-rendered and the big climax, where the film truly embraces its John Wickian inspiration. Patel himself works as the stoic, man-of-few-words kind of action hero and carries the movie solidly. Again, there's promise evident in his skillset on display here, and while Monkey Man ultimately works, there's still room for him to hone his craft, and I'm looking forward to what he does next if he chooses to do so.
***/****
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Dracula
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Post by Dracula on Apr 10, 2024 19:14:52 GMT -5
Monkey Man(4/4/2024)
Dev Patel’s directorial debut, Monkey Man, came with a lot of preliminary buzz despite kind of looking like a John Wick clone set in India. The movie both is and isn’t what it looks like. The most interesting thing about the film, by far, is that Indian setting. Dev Patel shoots Mumbai in a gritty fashion and also seems to be speaking to some of the class dynamics in the country, though he’s perhaps a bit vague on this front. You get some notion that he’s calling out the right wing Hindu nationalism that’s sweeping the country but the exact issues he’s subtweeting feel a bit evasive. The film’s villain seems to be some sort of right wing spiritualist but we don’t hear much about Islamophobia or caste-ism and the film instead makes the ultimate motivation here revenge for a death caused by some standard movie villain land grab. The film also takes its sweet time telling you this and goes a pretty long time without telling you what this guy is up to and why you should root for him, which is a problem because he doesn’t have a lot of personality beyond being this stoic revenge seeker in typical action movie fashion. As to that action, during the film’s first half it seemed like the John Wick comparisons were perhaps unfounded as the main character felt less like a super assassin and more of a sloppy revenge seeker like the guy from Jeremy Saulnier’s Blue Ruin or something, but then he goes through a training montage and suddenly does become something of a master combatant in time for the film’s climax. That climax is fairly satisfying as an action sequence but doesn’t necessarily set itself apart from “the field” the much as modern action flicks go. On the positive side, I did mostly dig Dev Patel as an actor here and there are some cool scenes to be found in the movie. Had I seen it in a festival or something I might have found it to be a refreshing surprise but I came into it having heard it was a pretty big deal and in that context I was a bit disappointed.
*** out of Five
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frankyt
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Post by frankyt on Jun 18, 2024 8:42:41 GMT -5
I liked this didn't love it. Thought the fighting was well shot and exciting with a few things that helped it stand out (mouth to knife to neck anyone?) but I'm not sure it was completely successful in what it set out to do. The flashbacks were all kinda jarring and took me outta the world.
But I'd come back for more dev action flicks for sure. Thought the colors were on point.
6.5/10
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