Movie Review: Pathaan

 

Michael's Movie Grade: C+

An enjoyable dumb-fun action film from India. 

This is not the type of movie; you want to stop and think about the storyline while watching but if you come to it with the right mindset, you will enjoy yourself. This is about as over-the-top and silly as an action movie can get, but to complain about the over-the-top action scenes here is like complaining about the ones in the Fast and the Furious movies, they are exactly what the filmmakers intended them to be. Not only are these scenes quite a bit of silly fun, but they are also well staged and paced. The storyline is nothing special, but it does its job. It moves at a quick pace and keeps the viewers' interest from start to finish. Also for a film with such a simple storyline that runs nearly 2 and a half hours, it somehow doesn't feel padded. The characters, while not exactly deep are quite likable and easy to root for. This is helped by really good chemistry between Shah Rukh Khan (this is intended as a bit of a comeback film for him as he hasn't played a major movie role in four years) and Deepika Padukone, who play off each other very well. Naturally all the sexy costumes that the beautiful Deepika Padukone wears here definitely helps keep the viewers' attention and fits this type of spy action movie perfectly. This film also had a really fun villain. It is becoming rarer that we get movie villains that simply enjoy being evil this movie serves as a great reminder why these types of villains are so much fun, especially as John Abraham Though there are not as many musical numbers as in many other Bollywood films, the ones that are here are a lot of fun. 

This film's sense of humor definitely is not its strong suit. Nearly every comedic moment falls completely flat and some of them are just embarrassing. There is also some really fake looking CGI throughout this movie. When compared to how real the CGI looks in many mainstream movies today, this feels all the more apparent. There is also some awkward and clumsy dialogue here. However, the biggest fault of this movie is just how much it feels exactly like so many other movies, much of the time. Many scenes here will immediately remind moviegoers of scenes from other movies, which often times are not as great as they are in the other movies. If one is familiar with the James Bond, Marvel and Fast and Furious films, these scenes will be all too familiar and you can't watch them without automatically comparing them to those movies. 

This is by no means a great movie, but if you just want to turn your mind off and have a nice trip to the movies, this film will provide you with that.