Monkey Man (2024)

 

Genre: Action/ Thriller

Time: 2 hours 

Director: Dev Patel

Quick Summary: An anonymous young man unleashes a campaign of vengeance against the corrupt leaders who murdered his mother and continue to systemically victimize the poor and powerless.

Smash- 

Sorry, what was the question?

This is high intensity all the way through, thrilling every second, and jam-packed full of action. Each fight is so brutal, specialising in hand-to-hand combat. You feel each thud and wack. Honestly, it's such a brilliant show of energy and I was glued to it the whole way. It’s impossible to look away or know what’s coming next.

Dev Patel, this being my first proper time watching him, is brilliant. He plays a man who is full of emotional turmoil and is on a mission to fix that, and he will stop at nothing. The guy is literally impossible to slow down, and every single second you route for him. The street rat boiling with rage and ready to act out his revenge. You can see the fearless drive in his body language and learn so much just from his eyes, which I realise now how much this film focused on and I do like that as you can tell a lot of emotions just from shots like that. 

The fight scenes, especially as our Monkey Man improves, are dynamic and kinetic, the camera never stops moving. But there are enough quiet, still, thoughtful moments that really make you think about things. While still full of rage and anger, generosity and kindness are shown throughout. I never found this to be slow either, though I do remember getting a bit annoyed at how the backstory was being shown to start with as I found it hard to piece it together but that was quickly solved. 

This is bloody and intense. Bones break, blood spurts and fingers are removed, so keep that in mind. I honestly quite liked that as it felt unapologetic. It shows the violence these people are subjected to.

However, one thing I will note is that there are a lot of political subtext and Indian folk stories that not everyone will be familiar with, so some things might be hard to understand or follow at times. Even though I wasn't familiar, I didn't find it distracting at all and I didn't feel like I was missing anything. Lots of things are blended together in this which can be possibly a bit overwhelming to follow, like, equal rights, politics, religion, and mythology; but all of it is pretty digestible still for such a frantic action film. 

The score I fell in love with. Each song hits hard with the beats, which usually I found to match up with the fighting choreography. It's a mix of traditional Indian music, hip-hop/Rap, techno and electro-dance-styled music. It's all very pleasing to listen to and really helps with what was going on on screen.

There is a bit to this film, but it manages to spread everything evenly, and most importantly it's really enjoyable to watch. Thrown in the mix is actually some small sprinkles of humour too, like when Dev goes to jump out of a window but it's unbreakable plastic and he simply bounces right off of it with a loud thud. It likes to keep you on the edge of your seat, and that's when you know it's a good action film. It's brutal and every minute of this film is worth it.

10/10 

"Blessings from my mother."