Reviews

The first 40 minutes are done well leading to a glorious fight sequence. After that, the film's pace halts. We get an unexplained rescue by this community leader. There is a whole sequence of training and spiritual awakening that could have been energising and done well but after the explosive action sequence, all this was structured poorly. The energy evaporated during this part of the film and it could never be recaptured.

I'm not going to comment on the political messaging since I'm not versed in that area. We get another action sequence in the same building as the first leading to the climax and there should have been anticipation, energy and dread coming for revenge but it all played out too safe and predictable. That would be fine if this film was filled with fantastic action that it can provide but we hardly get any. With this film being marketed as an action film, I was expecting more.

All the BTS stories coming out about how devoted Dev Patel is got me excited to see what he cooked up. He did indeed cook but the film focused way too much on the other boring aspects that weren't done as well as the action.

I was severely disappointed with Monkey Man after watching. The journey of revenge didn't feel satisfying becaused it was cluttered with too many extra and elongated scenes. The flashbacks were constantly spoon-fed to the audience to a point it got annoying instead of experiencing the emotional impact desired. I have no doubt Dev Patel will have another go around directing and I hope he centres it around the action more because he definitely excels there.

The film started off decent. The first moments in the fictional world with Henry Cavill, Dua Lipa & John Cena is more entertaining than the rest of the film. Despite that, the visual effects are blatantly obvious to the audience and the over the top skate boarding truck took me out it at the jump. I thought this is happening because it's the fictional bit from the book but fast forward a little and I was wrong.

The premise is original and interesting combined with the fact it's directed by Matthew Vaugh who has shown us he can do action well in Kingsman. I was hoping for some good action and a decent story. Disappointed on both fronts.

There is a blinking effect that is used many times through out the film, it's used in the train sequence when switching between Rockwell and Cavill and some others moments. It was giving me a slight headache. The amount of times it kept on happening too...

The plot is heavy convoluted. There are so many twists and not enough time given for any of them to have any real emotional impact. Towards the 3rd act, I just became numb and was generating any kind of twist in my head while watching because I knew the writers couldn't help themselves. With no surprise, they did keep coming. I'll give credit where it's due and the Brian Cranston character is her dad reveal caught me off guard and was decent but then thinking about it more, the whole plan is to capture her, he's already got her trust as her dad, so lure her some place to capture and mission complete.

The marketing team got one over on us. Advertising all the actors that are barely in it at the front and the main characters to the side. When constructing an action adventure film, I wouldn't think Howard & Rockwell to be the front runners. Even if they did learn the fight choreography and gunplay properly, it's all smothered in CGI which downgrades it.

The other actors are wasted. Samuel L. Jackson and John Cena give a cameo. Bryan Cranston puts on his best but the screenplay gives him nothing great to do.

Towards the 3rd act, it's revealed both our leads were romantic partners before the incident. This completely threw me off guard. Rockwell's character has no reason to not treat her like he knew her from before. The whole memories line they insert is not good enough. Even after the reveal, there is zero chemistry between them, it's not believable or convincing that they are lovers.

The two action sequences, the oil skating and coloured smoke canisters plummented the film score down even more. It's asking for too much suspension of disbelief. Especially the skating scene, it's insane how over the top it gets and at the end, hardly any oil on her.

I can suspend disbelief if the story is worth it and the action set pieces are put together with care and craftmanship but it's too much for me. If you enjoyed it then I'm happy for you.

I had no clue what the post credit scene was about. From the Wiki, it's franchise bait which, if it's on this level of quality, I'm not going near it.

Closing thoughts, it's way too long for this type of story. Thanks to the convoluted plot, it needed so much time to unravel it that I wasn't invested anymore. Oh yeah, and the CGI cat that was in the trailer wasn't that big of a deal either. Rockwell's character was allergic to the cat at one point, then they forgot about it then it appears he's allergic again at the end. I thought it was gonna be some sort of twist because he stopped sneezing but nope, they must have forgotten about the little detail while writing the next twist.

Pros: Arnold Schwarzenegger's Mr Freeze and those top tier puns. Michael Gough's Alfred. The pacing is fine.

Robin: checking out the Batmobile I want a car. Chicks dig the car. Batman: This is why Superman works alone.

The fact this killed Batman for awhile then Nolan had the opportunity to revitalised the franchise with Batman Begins, then following made one of the greatest films of all time, The Dark Knight. The score, pretty much the same as Forever.

Cons: Love Clooney but he's not good here, the writing doesn't help. O'Donnell was alright in Forever but here, he made Robin insufferable. Uma Thurman's overacting was funny. Writing failed here again, her only ability is to blow mist conveniently going towards characters at a point. Her plan makes no sense either.

Can't believe this is the only live action Batgirl right now. This isn't Batgirl, this is some Alfred's niece that just happens to have the same name. Did Alfred know she would look at that disc even though it was for someone else? If she listened to him, she wouldn't have found the batcave and from what happened without her inclusion, Batman & Robin fail in the end. Probably would have made the film better and unpredictable.

This interpretation of Gordon has never been good but here it's so funny, it's almost good... & the action...

Don't think you can fault anyone here directly for this failure of a film. Joel Schumacher is a decent director. The cinema landscape at the time was only just getting into the superhero genre so duds like this were inevitable. As time has gone on, what has come from it makes up for it.

I respect the dedication to the craft and the insane stunts pulled off to film such action set pieces but the story needed tightening here or at least written down so they could see how many times entity or key is mentioned and explained. I'm so disappointed the story was so lucklustre since it brings down the action with it. The emotion isn't as strong as it could be. They did Ilsa wrong which was the biggest misstep in the entire film, using AI as the villain felt cheap and the character that was the face of the AI wasn't great.

I felt the runtime and just wanted to see the train action set piece which I've never thought in another MI film and then started to realise it's at the end. I wish the CGI was used better since in some frames it's obvious breaking the immersion and then making all the effort that went into doing it practically to waste. Each action segment was good but they did them better in previous installments. They needed to keep some set pieces away from the marketing, I feel they pushed hard with the stunts because they knew the story wasn't great.

Tom Cruise is great as always, the supporting cast is great too with what they get to do, the new introductions are good but they felt underdeveloped, this will most likely get remedied in part 2. Same with the villain that hopefully gets more depth going forward.

I read Tom Cruise wanted this one to have a satisfying ending so they didn't do a cliffhanger but I feel the story structure needed revising and perhaps a good cliffhanger would have worked well in the MI franchise. Personally I wasn't satisfied and was slightly confused. In a part 1, the feeling of "I gotta see the next one NOW" needs to be prevalent and I did not feel it. I will still be there for part 2 to see how it all wraps up and hopefully it's a stronger outing. The gravitas of part 2 has disappeared now since it's not going to be the finale to the MI franchise (not surprising) but who wants to see Tom Cruise stop putting his life on the line to provide insane action.

Overall, it's a decent film but combined with the lacklustre story, mediocre pacing, and long runtime I don't see myself revising this one for awhile.