Dev Patel’s upcoming action movie Monkey Man looks like one of the wildest action flicks of 2024, and it could also give Patel some genre redemption after 2010’s The Last Airbender. Monkey Man was first announced in 2018, with Patel both portraying the movie’s protagonist and making his directorial debut. Described as a “John Wick in Mumbai” action film, the new trailer for Monkey Man gives a peak at what looks like some absolutely incredible stunts and martial arts fights that indeed could be worthy of John Wick or The Raid movies. What makes that even better is that Dev Patel is getting the chance to show what he can really do as the leading man (and director) of a martial arts film in a way that The Last Airbender completely failed to do.
Based upon the acclaimed Nickelodeon animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender is one of the most infamous big-screen adaptations of all time. Attempting to encapsulate the first season (or Book One) of Avatar in 103 minutes, The Last Airbender is rife with clunky dialogue that is almost entirely exposition, visual effects that fail to capture the true magic of “bending” in the Avatar universe, and action scenes that are a shadow at best of the amazing bending-based action in Avatar. Patel portrays Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation in The Last Airbender, and his performance – fresh off his breakout role in 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire – is one of The Last Airbender’s few elements (no pun intended) to receive any level of praise, but Monkey Man could be the complete inverse of The Last Airbender on every level.
While Patel’s performance as Zuko is indeed one of the few positives of The Last Airbender, the bending action of the movie sold both Avatar and Patel’s own skillset short. In the Avatar franchise, the elements of water, earth, fire, and air each correspond to a different form of Chinese martial arts (Tai Chi, Hung Gar, Northern Shaolin, and Baquazhang, specifically), with Avatar able to showcase the beauty and power of each in its epic action scenes. None of that would be seen in The Last Airbender’s bending battles, which feature none of the finesse and coordination of Avatar’s fight scenes and instead are little more than just elongated dances of flailing limbs.
Patel is a Tae Kwon Do black belt who competed in his native U.K. prior to beginning his film career, and with The Last Airbender being his first action-heavy role, his real-life martial arts skills never shine through like they could have in fight scenes more of Avatar’s original calibre. Patel himself seems acutely aware of this in Monkey Man, with the fight scenes seen in the movie’s trailer a constant barrage of “Wow!” moments. Monkey Man also enlisted the services of veteran stuntman and martial artist Brahim Chab as fight choreographer, Chab having worked with such martial arts stars as Jackie Chan, Scott Adkins, Tiger Chen, and Jean-Claude Van Damme. With Patel having such a clear mandate to deliver the goods in what is his first martial arts movie role after The Last Airbender, Monkey Man seems to have all but accomplished that goal already, even before the movie’s April 5 release.
The Avatar franchise itself is rising from the live-action ashes of The Last Airbender with Netflix’s highly anticipated Avatar: The Last Airbender series, so it’s both ironic and fitting that Dev Patel should be making a martial arts movie comeback of his own at virtually the same time. The Last Airbender might have failed both Avatar fans and its cast with its flimsy script and terrible action scenes, but if Monkey Man has anything to say about it, Dev Patel might finally have a shot at becoming the Next Action Hero.
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How excited are you about Monkey Man?
Monkey Man |
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An anonymous young man unleashes a campaign of vengeance against the corrupt leaders who murdered his mother and continue to systemically victimize the poor and powerless. |
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| Studio: Bron Studios, Thunder Road Films, Monkeypaw Productions, Minor Realm, S'Ya Concept, Creative Wealth Media |
| Running Time: 1h 53m |
| Release Date: April 5, 2024 |
| Cast: Dev Patel, Sharlto Copley, Pitobash, Sobhita Dhulipala, Sikandar Kher, Vipin Sharma, Ashwini Kalsekar, Adithi Kalkunte, Makarand Deshpande |
| Director: Dev Patel |
| Writers: Dev Patel, Paul Angunawela, John Collee |
| Genre: Action, Thriller |
| Box Office: N/A |
