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As long as our gold standard of filmmaking and sensibilities is Hollywood, there is no scope for original thought. There’s not a single idea in Weapon that doesn’t have its origin in Hollywood superhero films. Weapon, which is essentially a bunch of people sitting and narrating your stories, starts with a narration about an alternative fictional history of a superhuman serum made by Nazis ending up in India when Subhash Chandra Bose visits Germany during the Second World War. The idea is just an Indianisation of many such superhero links to Nazis in the Marvel universe. This is the pinnacle of creativity director Guhan Senniappan manages to attain in the colossal mess of a screenplay, where it is hard to make sense of what’s going on. Mind you, it is not a complex film. It is just poorly edited and executed in the hope of coming across as layered and non-linear.
As far as the plot goes, the serum is brought to India without the knowledge of Netaji by his fellow soldier. When the Nazi force comes hunting for him, he injects it into his son, who turns out to be a monster with superhuman powers that are not just strength and endurance. He seems to be telekinetic, telepathic, and whatnot. The villain DK (Rajiv Menon) is the head of what’s called Black Society Division 9. He is also a scientist with advanced nanobots, holograms, a serum that grows a limb back, and whatnot. Everything is in excess in this film except for fun, entertainment, and craftsmanship. The movie follows a YouTuber named Agni, who follows supernatural humans for his channel.
Agni, also an environmentalist, is on a hunt for the superhuman, who seems to be now living in exile. Agni’s mission is to use the powers of the superhuman to save the environment from the crony capitalists. Meanwhile, he is awarded the best YouTuber award, but we don’t get to see a single video from his channel. Everything needs to be accepted at face value, as the film is more concerned with telling you a lot than showing you anything.
Oh boy! It tells a lot. The movie is one plot point after another. I understand the idea is to introduce as many characters and elements for worldbuilding. For reasons unknown, the director calls a deceased bunch of goons ‘Skull Gang’. For the viewer, the bunch are just random goons who are like cows for slaughter in action movies. We are introduced to the secret society, but they do nothing except for getting killed. Then again, the idea is worldbuilding. Guhan might have envisioned a universe of many such characters, but we don’t see them. Watching Weapon was like reading Wikipedia pages of Marvel superheroes and going on a rabbit hole clicking the hyperlinks. All of these characters are written with the hope that they will be useful for the sequels. However, the director, who seems to be fixated on the future, forgets the film at hand must work. No one pays for a vision when he can’t see it.
Weapon movie cast: Sathyaraj, Vasanth Ravi, Tanya Hope
Weapon movie director: Guhan Senniappan
Weapon movie rating: 1 star
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