Monkey Man first reactions: Critics hail Dev Patel’s talent as a storyteller and call him an ‘action star’

Social media is now abuzz with reviews of Monkey Man, with many praising Dev Patel’s talent as a storyteller. “Monkey Man is brutally violent, against the villains, but also against the hypocrisy of religion, the tyranny of caste, and the oppression of a corrupt government. Dev Patel nailed it, bloody as hell and intense as f**k,” Screen Anarchy’s J Hurtado wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Mentioning that Patel’s ambition behind the camera is second only to his talent, AwardsWatch’s Daniel noted, “Monkey Man is an insanely ambitious first feature, the constantly escalating action setpieces strengthened by the story’s strong emotional core. Prepare yourselves for action star Dev Patel.”

Watch Monkey Man trailer here:

Strange Harbors’ Jeff Zhang stated that Dev Patel has got rocket fuel in his veins as an action director and an action star. “One of the most assured, kinetic debuts I’ve seen: gorgeous, crunchy, and relentless. What a blast,” he added.

Tomatometer-approved critic Kevin L Lee noted that Monkey Man “is more than just a bloody good time. Dev Patel takes his time with the storytelling, weaving personal tragedy with inner strength, mythology with modern political revolutions. It’s an action tour de force, full of talent and f**king passion in every frame.”

Though Monkey Man was initially launched as a Netflix project, its trailer, released in January, revealed that the project has been taken over by producer Jordan Peele, and will be released theatrically by Universal.

At the SXSW premiere, Peele said, “This is a film that simply demands to be seen in a theatre with a huge rockstar audience.”

“I’ve never seen someone pour his heart, soul, body, mind and energy into a film, into a story more than this man (Dev Patel),” he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Dev Patel said, “I put everything into this, I shot this film in the biggest slum in India, Covid hit, and the film went down. Everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. And then Jordan came along in the end, he picked up from the ground, he brushed the dust off and put it on the mantel piece.”

“I think the action genre has sometimes been abused by the system. I wanted to give it real soul, real trauma, real pain and you guys deserve that. And I wanted to infuse it with a little bit of culture,” he added.

Inspired by the legend of the Hindu deity Hanuman, the film’s official synopsis reads, “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 meagre 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.”

Also starring Sharlto Copley, Pitobash, Vipin Sharma and Sobhita Dhulipala, Monkey Man will hit screens worldwide on April 5, 2024.

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