Monkey Man First Reviews Name Dev Patel’s Action Movie A Worthy John Wick Successor

Monkey Man‘s first reviews have arrived, and critics are mostly praising the new action movie. Marking Dev Patel’s directorial debut, Monkey Man stars Patel as Kid, a mysterious figure who embarks on a quest for revenge against corrupt rulers who are responsible for the death of his mother. The fight-heavy first trailer resulted in the flick being compared to John Wick, the stylish action franchise starring Keanu Reeves, though it has also highlighted Patel as a possible James Bond contender.

Following Monkey Man‘s SXSW premiere, reviews for the film are now making their way online, and they’re mostly positive. In her review for Deadline, Valerie Complex praises the intersection of hard-hitting action and powerful themes, writing that the movie is “reminiscent of Bruce Lee’s narratives that often paralleled martial arts prowess against colonial and imperialist aggression.” The Playlist‘s review from Matthew Monagle highlights the uniqueness of Patel’s hero, saying “this is a character that belongs to Patel alone, not just the latest in a long line of John Wick imitators.”

What Else The Monkey Man Reviews Are Saying

Patel’s Directorial Debut Isn’t Actually That Much Like John Wick

For RogerEbert.com, Brian Tallerico warns that there aren’t as many fight sequences as one might have expected. When the action does happen, however, Tallerico writes that “Bones break, blood spurts, and you feel the connection in ways you don’t often in action lately.” Jacob Hall’s review for SlashFilm also touches on Monkey Man‘s action, claiming that it’s intentionally not as slick as the action in the John Wick franchise because Patel’s protagonist is more “desperate” and “furious,” and that the film uses a “fast-paced, scrappy style of shooting that emphasizes desperation and chaos over anything else.”

While many reviews praise the action, the script and story do come under fire in others. In her review for THR, Lovia Gyarkye writes that “Monkey Man’s attempt to connect mythology, politics and the personal results in a movie that only does each element, at best, half-justice.” Chase Hutchinson’s review for TheWrap shares high praise for the action scenes and the third act’s intensity, but admits that a slow portion in the second act “could lose some people who were hoping for more consistent action as it starts to feel like the film is spinning its wheels a bit.”

In her review for The Guardian, Adrian Horton largely celebrates Monkey Man, but also highlights a “confusing” second act, calling the film as a whole an “at times bumpy, steamrolling ride, punctuated with some truly impressive visual flexes.” Although there are some complaints about how the movie’s elements all come together, a common through line in the reviews is that it marks an exciting directorial debut for Patel. As Coleman Spilde writes for The Daily Beast, “Monkey Man finds novelty in its imperfections, and those blemishes suggest that Patel is only just starting down a road to something genuinely special.“