I Want to Talk About Monkey Man

The Ape Man is a movie that definitely piqued my curiosity from its first trailer for a couple of reasons, one of which is obvious: I'm a fan of Revenge movies and this one looked really good and had a lot of potential. Two, I'm a big fan. of Dev Patel's work and this is his directorial debut and three, the name

monkey

man, is what my mom used to call me when I misbehaved as a child, she called me

monkey

man or cuty dumb mcgilla, so the name had a smile. in my face and also this movie has a pretty interesting story behind its production to some extent so apparently this was going to go straight to streaming services and according to a couple of headlines he was dead which I think is very hype and doom and gloom for no other reason than a couple clicks of curiosity, but until Jordan Peele came on board, this wasn't even going to be released in theaters, but Jordan Peele apparently liked the movie so much that he pushed hard for it to be made and It actually got a big deal and then I released it in theaters and I think it's great.

I think that's a big W, so I just got back from watching the movie and first of all, I have a lot of thoughts about it. I know. people go into this movie expecting it to be a John Wick type movie and to some extent it's like it definitely has some John Wick DNA in it and is aware that there's even a line in the movie that says a little meta that points out a John Wick reference but it's not like that, it's definitely a little different and tries to stand on its own with its own unique identity and for the most part it hits more than it misses, the action is extraordinary.

It's gory, it's over the top, it's exciting Dev Patel does a great job as the lead role here It's also a fun story that I thought was quite creative and overall I really think it's a great movie, but it's held back by its biggest mistake. big mistake here a clumsy ape man unfortunately commits the unforgivable sin of shaky cam and shaky cam doesn't even adequately describe how shaky the camera is when it comes to his action sequences in this movie its brutal its disorienting its what i imagine What you will get A concussion must feel like when you first come to your senses and re-acclimatize to the world around you, it's like all the camera operators are on drugs while at the same time having a sugar rush drinking coke and drinking Jolly Ranchers, the camera is as always doing this. it's like in an invisible washing machine, like perpetually caught in a tornado or something, it just takes all the impact out of the action sequences, completely disrupts the flow of the action, derails that train and makes it very difficult for you to even process.

What you are doing. We're watching because the camera is everywhere, the choreography of all the action is extremely well done, it's a shame the camera didn't have a chance to sit there and show us what the camera felt like. The operators are the ones who were getting beat up because the camera moves all over the place all the time, it's just an outrageous amount of shaky cam that really takes away a lot from otherwise incredible action sequences. This is something I don't do. Normally I do it when I watch a movie, but I actually wrote notes on this, at least one important note because the camera work was really infuriating because they did a great job with all these action scenes, the choreography is stellar, they really had a passion . for delivering some really cool action moments, but then they filmed it really poorly, like it was framed badly, so I wrote that the ape man has too many close-ups and cuts, which makes it hard to see what's going on, along with the shaky cam makes it feel like you're playing a video game with motion blur on maximum and that's exactly what it feels like because not only is it shaky cam but this movie has so many close ups it's like you're looking at it from behind. through a damn microscope in anatomy and physiology class like that.

I looked at a couple more reviews to make sure I wasn't just drinking the stupid juice, make sure you're not some crazy person who escaped from Arkham Asylum here and some of the other reviews say the same thing that it actually feels claustrophobic because of the amount of close-ups there are and they are 100% correct, it makes it so that you can't even make out the environment they are in and the size as if the scale is completely lost because everything is a close-up and everything cuts away so quickly during these sequences of action and then cuts directly to another close-up while shaking.

It's very difficult to process what exactly is happening most of the time. The first half of the movie is definitely the worst. When it comes to that part, the second half, I don't know what happened, but they filmed the last 30 minutes of action in a quite different way, almost completely different, it's like they had a completely different camera crew to film those sequences. and they are much better, I think the last 30 minutes are spectacular. They finally have camera operators who can stay still. In fact, they have some wide shots where you can digest the action that is happening here.

He's fighting hordes of enemies doing something really cool. Mortal Kombat level kills in them, they even have a really good soundtrack to go with it that I think was heavily inspired by Doom. You get those fat snorts, some big snorts, you even get some screams with the music, which is cool too, they have some growls. there and it's really incredible to watch him annihilate all these guys in his hand and combat is eye-catching, they're over the top improvised weapons, he's stabbing them with forks, stabbing them with little tiny knives, gouging out their eyes using a tray to cut off someone's thumb. like a real dinner tray, it somehow cuts off someone's thumb because they swing it so hard, all accompanied by this great music, oh it was fire and there was no shaky cam for those parts, like a trail camera if the They continue around the room, much better. the way they did the action at the end is much better than the way they did it during the first half.

I don't know what changed, maybe someone out there said: Hey guys, maybe we'll mix things up for this and me. I'm really glad they did it because I really appreciated it and I still appreciate the movie. I still think it's a very good movie overall, but man, I just have to point out that the camera work for the action sequences was a huge disappointment. I really thought we were throughout this era of shaky cams that were prevalent for a while, everyone hated them, so over the last few years we hadn't seen a ton of action movies with shaky cams and then this one really brings them back to the big thing, unfortunately, but even despite that, it's still really good and the main reason is that this movie is not just action like I said, it's more than just a Revenge movie, it's very much an emotional movie that is very much deeper than that, like it's not just Start to finish, full speed non-stop action where he's just going through horde mode here with waves of enemies chasing him that he outruns, that happens a lot, but there's a lot story that is woven throughout the movie and there's also a whole middle section of the movie that's dedicated to just

talk

ing and going over our main character and how he got to this point, why he's fighting, why, how he's going.

To do it. I don't

want

to get into spoilers or anything, but there's more world building and story than just action and revenge and I appreciate that because I think it was done well, but yeah, it's still pretty annoying that the shaky cam was here in such a way. great because without the shaky camera I think this movie is finished. up there with some of the best revenge movies ever, I think I really think it had the potential to be as good and I think in the future, if Dev Patel continues to direct and make movies in this St style, I think it's only better to starting from here. and he will continue to perfect this craft, he clearly has a great talent for it, so I am very excited to see what else he does in the future.

This is an incredible start to his directing career and I'm excited to see where he goes. So if I were to plug Monkey Man into the humidity meter, I would give it a comfortable 80%. I enjoyed it overall. I'm not even going to say I was disappointed or anything because I had a lot of fun. watching it, I think it's cool, but man, just get rid of the shaky cam ASAP, like throw it away forever, like I don't know how that came about. Shaky cam has the worst reputation in all of cinema, so let's keep it that way.

Just remove the shaky cam forever and we'll all be happier for it, so yeah, that's it, good movie, see ya.