Marco Review: NEXT-LEVEL Violence in Indian Cinema With Stupid Writing

RATING - ⭐ ⭐ ✨ 2.5/5

Marco Review Movie Talkies:

The latest Malayalam action flick Marco takes Indian cinema to a new level with its action graph—something even better than John Wick 4 or Nobody. These two are the most recent action films that have received high acclaim for their action sequences. In India, we saw Animal and Kill. The former hardly has two action blocks and focuses more on the director's artistic vision, while the latter is centered on real-time and extremely realistic action. Marco surpasses all four of these movies in terms of action and violence, emerging as the most brutal and violent action film in India. This single point is enough to make it a cult action film among the masses in the future. However, it suffers from such stupid writing that I cannot overlook it for anyone's sake.

Victor D’Peter (Ishaan Shoukat), Marco's (Unni Mukundan) foster younger brother, who is blind, is killed by Russell (Abhimanyu S Thilakan). Marco shares a special bond with him, so he is ready to kill and slash everyone to seek his revenge, but problems arise with his family and its members. Russell is the son of one of the gang leaders working for Marco's father, so he is tasked with finding Victor's killer and joining Marco (you may find this borrowed from many movies). Regardless, Victor learns the truth, but is it that easy to confront Russell, his father, and brother when Marco's family is at stake?

First, I’d like to address all the flaws in the movie, and that means many spoilers. Marco makes a deal with Russell's father and lets Russell go easily. But then he takes the father hostage to strike a deal with Russell. How stupid is that? He could have made the same deal with the father when he had Russell under his chainsaw. Had he killed Russell at that moment, none of what followed would have happened. I don’t really understand how our writers can craft action scenes with axes and swords when guns are easily available for use. If someone can easily shoot another from a distance, why would they engage in hand-to-hand combat or excessive slashing? It’s not just Marco; almost all of our action movies suffer from the same poor writing. Marco is about to be killed and is left alive twice; why? And then regenerates himself as if he was a robot, not a human. That's so outdated. Marco's story loops around the same topic and eventually returns to its starting point. It feels like an extended version of a short 30-minute story that has been stretched four or five times to fill a 2-hour movie. Marco's girlfriend and the other female characters in the family are as useless as traffic lights in a car racing video game. Why were they included, just to add more boredom and stupidity to the story? This narrative would have been much better without those silly characters, especially when they are featured for about 30 minutes, including a pointless song.

The storyline of Marco is so weak that it doesn't deserve to be made into a film. But wait, what a presentation this crap story got! It's a lesson to every filmmaker on how to turn a dustbin (on-paper story) into a flowerpot (the film). I mean, this kind of action set pieces and violence is not even found in Hollywood. You get to see many references, though. "Why so serious?" comes from your universal masterpiece "The Dark Knight," but with a brutally violent twist. "Oldboy" had that epic action sequence of a hero fighting many men in a narrow lane, and Marco uses it, rather, extends it to new limits, but by dividing them into different shots. It has peak HEROISM. It has NERVE-CRACKING action. It has ASTOUNDING violence. It has everything that you expect from an action movie, but just more than what you can ever imagine! That's the whole fukking point here, and you are SOLD on this one point alone at a double price!

Unni Mukundan will be remembered for being more heroic than Allu Arjun in Pushpa 2, Yash in KGF 2, or any other action hero you can name. What a remarkable elevation of a heroic character—truly, new heights for Indian cinema. Abhimanyu Thilakan has to be the second-best, while Siddique goes flat for most of the time but unleashes action mode in the last quarter. Jagadish as the father figure was good, and Kabir Duhan Singh and Anson Paul have done decently in their roles. The rest of the supporting cast hardly performs enough to be noticed, and their roles aren't noticeable either.

Marco is high on action and low on story, and that's why the technical aspects play a major role in making it a worthy cinematic experience. The background score and sound design are fantastic, even though a couple of scenes misfit with the pace of the tunes. The cinematography and editing are fine. The biggest USP of Marco is its action design, and it's just MARVELOUS, UNHEARD, INSANE! This is one of those rare films that I would call more of an action director's movie than the film's director. Haneef Adeni fails as a writer and has done strictly okay as a director, but he must be glad to lose to the action director of the film. This will crack your nerves for sure, so prepare yourself for an unforgettable bloodbath. The story and screenplay are weaker than a malaria patient, but they just don't matter here! Enjoy the MOST BRUTAL ACTION FILM OF INDIA and have no mercy on yourself.