Monkey Man (2024)

This is a more in depth review. The trailers made this film look like the Bollywood John Wick. I think that this film is Bollywood John Wick but that isn’t a bad thing. The plot sees Dev Patel plays Kid who loses his mother who is killed by an army guy who wants to turn the land that Kid and his mother are on into some holy ground which is basically a scam as its really more of a cult. 

The film sees Kid take part in fights wearing a monkey mask. The thing that works for John Wick are th fight scenes and this film manages the fight scenes really well. I would say that the fight scenes are on par with what i saw in ‘The Iron Claw’. I also like that Kid isn’t the perfect fighter from the very beginning, he starts off ok but as the film progresses his skills get better and he becomes a better fighter so come the final scene you feel he’s earned the right to be that good. It’s good character development which a lot of characters in movies don’t seem to go through. 

This is a classic example of Army of One where its Kid against the people responsible for his mother’s death. I don’t think that Kid says that much in the film but then he doesnt need to. His fighting does the talking and Patel is believable as a tough guy. I hadn’t seen Patel in a film since ‘The Personal History of David Copperfield’ and that is a very different performance but shows that he can do very different characters very well. 

The film isn’t perfect and one problem there is with the film is perhaps the most important. The shaky cam shots are distracting and there was at least two instances where it was shaking so much that I actually could see what was going on. Shaky cam has its purpose but if you can’t see what’s going on then how are you suppose to be emotionally connected with what’s happening. Another issue that the close ups are bad. Literally the first shot of the film is of Kid’s mother and all we see are her eyes, nose and face. It was too close and there more instances where the camera work let the film down. I’m not sure whether this was because they didn’t have time to set things up better or whether they chose to do it like this but i think this was definitely in the minus column. 

Monkey Man is a good film that’s only let down by technical issues. I think the performances are all really good and it clear from start to finish that Dev Patel cares about the film and also about the story. Hopefully he continues to direct because I think that he has a good eye for this sort of thing. He just needs to control the shaky cam shots and learn that cameras have zooms on them.