RRR
RRReally good
For just shy of a year I had mostly given up on live action, between late March 2022 and a couple of days ago, I had only watched a handful of live action stuff; this is largely down to the fact that all too many modern live action movies are dull, soulless rubbish that are either too afraid to have any fun or pick completely the wrong times to have it; a description that does not in any way fit this absolute gem, in fact, this is quite possibly the best live action film I have seen since literally when the first Iron Man film came out all the way back in 2008.
First off it's worth noting that I have never seen an Indian film before so this film does have the first film advantage, just as... prepare for it... Sword Art Online had the first anime advantage for me, only now I am far more jaded than I was when I watched that old chestnut so I have a lot more confidence that this one will stand my test of time for numerous reasons.
First off, one of the things that is really living in my head and paying it's rent in full is the soundtrack, it absolutely slaps, I can't think of any bad tracks in this film, a far cry from modern western live action productions, the tone of these tracks range from upbeat and jolly to dark and somber, all while maintaining a great melody to them which, in my opinion, is the most important part of any soundtrack; in fact, this may be the best use of music since Shrek 2, it's not quite on that level but it's pretty close.
Then there's the fight choreography, it's honestly some of the best I've seen, and I've seen Kung Fu Panda (fun fact, acording to what I've read on Wikipedia, Kung Fu Panda is one of S. S. Rajamouli's favourite films as listed in a Sight and Sound poll, no wonder the choreography is so good).
The action here is over the top in a really good way, there's always something new in every set piece, there is an energy to all the action set pieces that go far beyond the explosions are cool mentality, though there's plenty of explosions as well here, there's also a narrative drive to the action; it manages to both be absolutely epic and tell a story at the exact same time.
Speaking of the story, it's really good, it largely centers around two protagonists who are seemingly at opposite ends of society, one being an officer for the British and one being a guardian of the Gond tribe who is on a mission to rescue a girl who the British had abducted, going into too much detail will likely spoil what happens so I won't mention where the story goes but let's just say it was not what I was expecting.
Also I counted what appeared to be no less than 3 climax worthy scenes, one really cool scene I saw in a review, I literally thought was near the end but it turned out to be in the middle of the film.
It's not entirely perfect though, the English performances are not great, personally I didn't mind it myself as I vastly prefer how the English actors perform here to the hushed whisper acting of western movies but your mileage may vary; also some of the scenes are a fair bit slower than others, these are still more interesting than most western flicks but the best scenes set up a really high standard for this movie that, to be fair, cannot be reached at all times; with that said the issues this film has are either not enough of a issue for me or just don't bother me personally though it will vary from person to person.
Despite a few hiccups, I genuinely think this is one of the best live action movies I've seen, vastly superior to all too many of them, a great film that manages to impress me despite my jadedness at 99% of media, it has managed to wow me in ways that I have not seen in too long, while the art of great filmmaking seems to be lost on all too many western studios, this film proves that it is as robust as ever in India.
Score 10/10
