Leo - Tamil - Action /Drama
Lokesh Kanagaraj is one of the most exciting film makers in Tamil cinema over the last 7/8 years . a student of world / popular cinema , you always look forward to how he is able to adapt , bring in Easter eggs and his inspiration references into his main screenplay - plenty of that ! For instance , The Kamal Haasan effect - two key characters in the movie bear names from KH classics . There are other references as well , which his fanboys will piece together .
Kaithi was a one of kind movie , followed by a middling Master ( his first brush with Thalapathy Vijay ) , the superb Vikram ( a fanboy tribute to Kamal Hassan which gave hiz career another wing !) - i naturally had tremendous expectation on “Leo” .
The last Vijay movie I saw in theatres was Thupakki , that was because of AR Murugadoss , I saw this in the theatres because am a Loki fanboy😃
The movie overall is definitely a one time watch . There is a lovely Marvelesque Title montage for Vijay , hopefully which filmmaker’s will use going forward .
The first half setup is very good , inspite of some very long winded scenes ( and plenty of unnecessary ones - !) - A stunning sequence in the café , with Loki’s trademark - using soundtrack from the past - absolutely a clear high in the film.
There is also another “mass” / montage which leads into the pre interval with the punchy score which is nice . The scenes with Vijay and his children are nice as well.
But again ( as has been the trend with many other good Tamil movies this year ) - the second half is very much a WTF - the reason for the conflict between the key characters is quite frankly bizzare ! - and it just peters down to the “ expected” climax which becomes fan service thereafter . Sanjay Dutt walks and growls and with his dubbed voice which dumbs down impact significantly (his voice is huge part of persona). Arjun looks smashing but barely registers( I was actually looking forward to his evil turn , but was let down ) - as do so many established actors - you ask why they even signed up for 2 scene acts !
As Baradwaj Ranjan ( my fav reviewer says) movies probably are now measured by many such “ audience scream moments” il( Jailer was another great example ). I am ok with that , but I think it is a delicate balance and not a “jump on the trend must have “ and this movie for me misses that part ( just like Sanjay Dutts cameo in Jawan). Trisha gets good screen time ( a rarity for a female lead in a Vijay movie ) . Goutham Vasudev Menon does his one expression English speaking cop / public servant act , yet again . Vijay looks the part , owns the screen and does a good job. His emotional scenes - some may love it, many may not! - but he definitely brings his A game.
Anirudhs score is fairly quite repetitive- we have seen and heard too much from him in the last 12/14 months . The one recurring badass theme which eventually integrates into the another score is good . Surprisingly for all the hooplah - the VFX swings from very good ( the animal sequence ) to very poor ( car chase sequence ) . Manoj Paramahamsa - the cinematographer is absolutely top class with wide angles / drone shots / Mocabot swings - lighting is terrific as well . There are couple of single take shots which are absolutely high quality in execution .
Loki says ( like Tarantino ) that he will sign off from making movies aftter he does 10 - this is his 5th . With great power comes great responsibility, with great responsibility comes even greater expectations , on to the next one Loki, but tighten up , edit better and don’t rush !
