'Monkey Man' Review: Wait, Did Dev Patel Remake Kung Fu Panda 2?
Damn, who knew Dev Patel had that beast in him? All those years of starring in dramas had him wanting to unleash that director dog within him. Leave it to Jordan Peele to let him out of the cage. When actors graduate into filmmaking, they take either the comedic or the dramatic route. Sometimes they meet right in the middle. And it's a case-by-case study because you have people like Greta Gerwig and Jordan Peele, whose works elevate the entire art form. Then, you have the George Clooney type, whose recent losing streak keeps me from covering his directorial efforts. But Patel decided to gear shift onto an entirely separate highway via action. He essentially made his Indian political version of Kung Fu Panda 2 mixed with The Raid. See, I can draw a non-John Wick comparison, unlike every other critic who decides to reference it for every action movie.
R: strong bloody violence throughout, rape, language throughout, sexual content/nudity and drug use.
Runtime: 2 Hrs
Production Companies: Bron Studios, Thunder Road Films, Monkeypaw Productions, Lost Winds Entertainment, Lucky Elephant Media, Minor Realm, S'Ya Concept, WME Independent, Creative Wealth Media Finance
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Director: Dev Patel
Writers: Dev Patel, Paul Angunawela, John Collee
Cast: Dev Patel, Sharlto Copley, Pitobash, Vipin Sharma, Sikandar Kher, Sobhita Dhulipala, Ashwini Kalsekar, Adithi Kalkunte,, Makarand Deshpande
Release Date: April 5, 2024
In Theaters Only
Inspired by the legend of Hanuman, an icon embodying strength and courage, Monkey Man stars Patel as Kid, an anonymous young man who ekes out a meager living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he is beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash. After years of suppressed rage, Kid discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city’s sinister elite. As his childhood trauma boils over, his mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him.
Everybody wants to be John Wick, which crafted its own identity of sleek neon-infused colors and precision, complementary to the character's ace marksmanship. Dev Patel pursues its antithesis, imbuing his portrait of an urbanized India with transparent class divides and a brutal primitive style in both direction and character fighting techniques. Action aside, Patel maintains a stylish kinetic energy and mayhem within his direction long before the bloodbath begins. In a world of slum lords and gangsters, it’s only fitting that the camerawork shares the same greasiness.
Once the action takes off, it's a stellar showcase of Patel pumping his chest, emitting all the nerdy action film bro energy he absorbed from global action cinema like The Raid, Oldboy, and even Hardcore Henry. Patel makes every battle arena as interactive as if they were a tertiary combatant – a significant detail lacking in other action movies. Patel goes beyond the usual Western-filmmaking action requirements, weaponizing whatever item can be found, lending to excellent money-shot fatalities. Monkey Man features significant DIY handheld, GoPro, and steady cam usage. With the composition variety and phenomenally tight editing, it's awe-inspiring that this is – out of all people – Dev goddamn Patel's first foray into action filmmaking. Monkey Man might feature the best use of a POV shot in a long time, aligned with remarkable sound mixing quality. His direction and composition prove his proficiency in the action visual language, evoking the styles from his inspirations while showing Western filmmakers how you fucking do it.
While I don't understand the sociopolitical commentary on the current state of Indian politics, nor is it my place to speak on it, I will draw my comparison to other stories whenever I deem it fit. That said, thematically and structurally, the story is eerily similar to Kung Fu Panda 2. For starters, Kid (Patel) and Po undergo a traumatic upbringing where ruthless, tyrannical beings burn down their villages. For Kid, it’s Rana Singh (Sikandar Kher) and Baba's false prophet conducting the massacre, declaring it a holy site/politically charged movement. For Po, it’s a paranoid goose hellbent on eradicating pandas because of a prophecy. Both practically saw their momma saving their lives and then getting killed, though Kid had it worse. As they age, experiences and images that remind them of their childhood trauma paralyze them. It keeps the character's significance front and center.
On a storytelling front, Monkey Man features an extensive three-wheeled vehicle chase scene through a city. The "all is lost” beat involves our leads getting blasted into an ocean and drifting down a river to their home village, where a wise woman hospitalizes them. Kid's saviors are awesome trans warriors, the Hijra, which is so damn based. Dev Patel said “trans rights”! Po's is a sheep voiced by Michelle Yeoh – best known for playing warriors – that tells them to remember their past and let their trauma heal them. Po's sequence is brief, silent, and poetic. Kid's is an extensive flashback that significantly derails the pacing. Both wise women convince our leads to let the past flow through them but not define who they are and to fight with purpose. They legit say, "Remember who you are," and our warrior protagonists heal as they find new reasons to fight outside of sheer vengeance. Watch these two films back-to-back and tell me I'm wrong. I'll be waiting.
Pacing issues aside, the parallel made between Kid and Sita (Sobhita Dhulipala), a sex worker he emotionally connected with, isn't as thematically resonant as it wants to be. There's a subtlety to their understanding and the conversation about sex work in India, one that's more vocal once the Hijra community is introduced. However, there's not enough weight to her character, and his solemn, quiet attitude doesn't help either.
Eerily similar to Kung Fu Panda 2 in all the best ways and incorporating the most exhilarating action direction in years, Monkey Man is an amazingly crafted action flick that bodes a strong filmmaker calling card for Dev Patel.
Rating: 3.5/5 | 77%
