PremiumWeapon Movie Review: A blunt narrative with convoluted ideas disarms a potential concept
Weapon Movie Review: Being one of the firsts, the film had the potential to roll out an extensive world, but becomes a blunt film sans any experience to remember by
Last Updated: 09.37 AM, Jun 07, 2024
Weapon Story
Agni (Vasanth Ravi) along with his team of YouTubers make videos on superhumans. Once they get to know that an incident in Theni revolved around a young boy getting miraculously saved from being hit by a truck, the team begin to investigate the region in search of the superhuman. Meanwhile, DK (Rajiv Menon), the head of Dark Society, a group of wealthy people notoriously known to exploit power within their realms, are also after the superhuman race for their own gains.
Weapon Review
In the beginning of Weapon, we are introduced to a prelude set in pre-Independence era when Netaji Subash Chandra Bose along with another freedom fighter reached Germany to gather support and strength for the independence movement, from Hitler. We are also told how after the latter offered them a serum to develop super soldiers, Netaji turned them down citing its dangerous implications. However, the other one brings the serum back with him to India which somehow gets passed to his son, who has consumed and developed into a superhuman with extraordinary abilities. While this narrative helps us to get to know of the premise, Weapon begins to use voiceover narratives and explanations in multiples, rather than building a world which can be experienced by the viewers.
In Weapon, which paints a dark and gritty world where fantasy elements might be present, there is an inherent missing of building a narrative that doesn’t involve convoluted explanations. Given it is a sci-fi action film and delves into the fantasy aspect as its core element, Weapon takes a roundabout way to get to the point and introduce its new elements. We are tried to familiarise with concepts after concepts, and sub-plots that eat up each other, that after a point you don’t know which is the path the film is threading on. For example, Agni who is shown as a celebrated YouTuber, gives a speech about environmental conservation. But at the same time is also projected as a character who has been working on knowing about superhumans. What were his past researches and how does he get to this place? These questions remain unanswered. When the film tries to introduce the concept, it skips the beginning and delves straight into the middle, assuming the audience are aware of the entity its speaking with just one prelude.
Nature also seems to be a running theme in Weapon. Sathyaraj, who plays a superhuman, is shown being affectionate with an elephant calf and residing amid the woods in nature’s bliss. Even as the film constantly reminds the opposing themes of nature versus artificial inventions, it only fails to capitalise on its genre-specific features. The film feels like its heart is all over the place and has set its ambitious heart high. But unfortunately, it bites more than it can chew, resulting in a confusing space.
Weapon also seems to be forgetting its responsibilities and benefits that comes from first mover’s advantage. Having been one of the first of its kind films in Tamil cinema, Weapon could have explored in depth the race of humans it is addressing. We are seldom given more to watch, than more to hear. Explanations and concepts are rolled out in form of dialogues, that they barely register as a coherent narrative. When Weapon introduces us with a bunch of people of Dark Society, the brief only seems to make us aware they are the antagonists and not even slightly more on who and what they are doing to make them so. With such instances Weapon breaks down to shallow concepts and relies heavily on the making to convey the narrative.
Weapon Verdict
Weapon, being one of the firsts, had the potential to roll out an extensive world built for the audience to experience. But with too much being cooked together, Weapon becomes a blunt film sans any experience to remember by.