Captain movie review: A misfire on many levels

1/5

Plot: Duh! I'm interested in how Shakti Soundar Rajan would have told Arya the Captain story. He must not have understood heads or tails, I swear!

Review: In 2016, Shakti Soundar Rajan directed "Tamil cinema's first zombie film", Miruthan. In 2018, the same guy directed "Tamil cinema's first space adventure", Tik Tik Tik. Then, came, Teddy in 2021, which was promoted as the "second Tamil film to use motion-capture technology", which brought to life a teddy bear. The just-released Captain features a Minotaur! So, Shakti Soundar Rajan does only "different films". You get what I'm trying to say, right?

The director (thinks) he knows what it is to have a vision. He (thinks) he knows what he wants his films to look like and feel like.

The film introduces us to Arya's character, Vetriselvan, an army captain, by having him explain "the five steps in a military operation." We get a song that describes his five-person team, which includes a woman. (These portions reminded me of Kaadhal Cricket-u in Thani Oruvan, considering both the films feature Harish Uthaman.)

Sector 42, a restricted forest area, is where Vetri and his crew are instructed to enter to investigate some mysterious fatalities. The creature known as the Minotaur, which must be killed for safe civilian movement, is described to them by a scientist (played by Simran), who is somewhat more knowledgeable about it, than the military organisation. While defending their lives, Vetri and his squad learn about the origins of the Minotaur and figure out how to get rid of the alien danger.

The actual story of Captain begins only in the second half. This one experiences the same issues with the writing style as Miruthan, Tik Tik Tik, and Teddy. 

There aren't many things in Captain that might be considered "entertaining components." The film lacks inspiration and is laughably shallow. Shakti Soundar Rajan, unfortunately, makes the error of prioritising the extravagant over the fundamental necessities, which compromises his writing, as evidenced by the film's poor premise and flat characters. It's a disgrace to create a Minotaur-themed movie without even including dialogues that can frighten viewers! This is how writing is compromised because the story is neither set in the real world nor an imaginary one.

Captain wants to do more than just make you laugh, and scream. It wants to tell some kind of story, desperately. I get the intention. I really do! But, Shakti Soundar Rajan, again, doesn't know how to. I don't know why he ALWAYS feels the need to explore intricate ideas and "Hollywood-driven" topics, but instead reduces them to the level of producing a dreadful piece of work.

I'm sure Captain 'read' or 'sounded' fantastic on paper. A predator-like creature makes its way to Earth to hunt down people, because... (I'm not revealing more). The equation works. Where? in writing! On the screen; no! There is a little surprise that we can infer even as the character in question is introduced, and then there is a large revelation that is supposed to be thrilling but feels completely ridiculous and leaves you unimpressed and uninterested.

Additionally, in Captain, the shoddy CG work makes it worse. Even the pretence of mystery that the entire construction might have had is gone. Speaking of actors, Arya's body language looks equally animated as the minotaur. Regarding the one-dimensional roles that Simran and Aishwarya Lekshmi both played, nothing significant can be said.

Captain is NOT a strictly military movie. It has everything in bits and pieces, like romance, sentiments, action and so on. As a result, it is unable to remain faithful to any of the strands, be it the theme of loss, the backdrop of the issue — or even as a regular thriller with a Minotaur.

Verdict: What good is a film if it doesn’t take you to the edge of the seat and hold you there? The cast and crew try their best, but nothing saves Captain from drowning!