When I walked into the theater for this movie, I expected an average Bollywood action movie. Nothing special, nothing awful- just lots of action, decent songs, and a semi-coherent plot. Thankfully, I was in for a pleasant surprise. Thought Siddharth Anand’s action-thriller, War, doesn’t break the mold or innovate the action story-line we’re all so familiar with, it keeps things interesting enough and I was never bored with what was going on. The plot follows a military agent, Khalid (Tiger Shroff) , desperately trying to catch and understand his supposedly traitorous, former mentor, Kabir (Hrithik Roshan).
The acting between the two leads is stellar. They play naturally off each other. Though they initially start the film antagonistically, they eventually warm up to each other and it feels a lot like a “bromance.” The body and facial language really sell and underscore how important the two characters are to each other which made me actually care for their respective well-beings. Tiger Shroff in particular really shines and comes through in a lot of different situations. His character “arc” is really well demonstrated.
Fight choreography in this movie is amazing. The camera is constantly following the action, which makes every impact feel more dynamic. We constantly follow the fights as they move through the environment and set pieces are constantly involved. In particular, observational awareness is highlighted a lot in fights and make some of the battles feel really tactical. It definitely made the “cool” factor more prominent. On top of this, the hand-to-hand combat is crisp and precise. It’s not John Wick level, but it’s definitely better than something you’d see in an average movie. Every punch and kick feels like it has an impact, even if characters get up despite the pummeling they receive. Dance choreography was also energetic and crisp. It made watching the songs more fun, even if I didn’t care much for the songs themselves.
The problems with the movie are standard. The plot is fairly generic. A lot of twists can be seen if you’re familiar with the action genre even a moderate amount. As such, if you’re looking for huge innovation, you might be disappointed. Some of the twists are heavy handed which hurts the replay value of the movie.
Finally, the movie uses a series of shots that just caused me to feel disoriented or out of place with the movie. There are a lot of circular shots where the camera keeps going in a circle. It doesn’t really add a lot to the mood or the plot when used and just feels out of place. There’s also an excessive amount of slow-motion shots. It’s used well sometimes, but overuse makes it feel more boring as the movie went on.
Rating
TLDR: War is a fun action movie with great fight scenes and phenomenal chemistry between its leads. The plot feels fairly generic, but it never once feels boring
Final Rating: 7.3/10. If you like cool choreography, like action, or enjoy good bromances check out this movie.
Go to Page 2 for my spoiler-full thoughts!