Leo Review - LCU's "Lamest Cinematic Update" Yet

Leo Review Movie Talkies

Leo Review: Lokesh Kanagraj's exciting LCU (Lokesh Cinematic Universe) has a new update, "Leo," starring Vijay, Trisha, and Sanjay Dutt in the lead roles. Kaithi was a fine watch, but the Tamil audience overhyped it, and then came a better one, Vikram. Since Tamil audiences have already overhyped Kaithi, they had no option but to overhype Vikram because it was a better film. Vikram's power-packed trio and Suriya's introduction gave them that chance; otherwise, the film has nothing extraordinary. Naturally, the hype around LCU went sky high, and then came the announcement of Leo. The Master Duo fought the pandemic despite mediocre content and won it. Leo didn't have to struggle at all. It had pre-release hype of the Master duo coming together in LCU, so things were easy. Maybe that's why Lokesh didn't work hard. Certainly not hard enough to deliver the expected content. Leo is easily the "Lamest Cinematic Update" (L. C. U.) we have in the Lokesh Cinematic Universe. Why did Lokesh have to copy a Hollywood movie (A History of Violence) to make such a hyped film after all?Since many of you have already seen A History of Violence (2005), you must be aware of the plot and also that there is nothing great about it. Parthiban (Vijay) is living with his wife, Satya (Trisha), and two children in Shimla. Professionally an animal rescuer, Parthi owns a cafe and earns his livelihood from it. In a fight with gangsters, he kills them to save his daughter, but that brings him more trouble. The gangsters he killed were very dangerous people, so obviously their people were coming for Parthi and his family. The same attack is linked to a big gangster, Antony (Sanjay Dutt). Antony sees Parthi's picture and recalls his dead son, Leo (Vijay), who was once his biggest strength. While Parthi denies being Leo, Antony and his gang members commit every dirty and violent trick to get Parthi to admit that he is Leo. Will Parthi be able to save his family?Leo is an ordinary script with a bad screenplay. It starts boring you from the first scene. That Hyena's attack scene will remind you of those outdated 80s films when a wild animal used to attack the village and a hero used to save them. The same happens here, but it takes longer than in the 1980s. They just forgot that it's 2023, and today's audience has come far ahead of such heroic stunts. Leo keeps adding more to your boredom with such scenes after every 15 minutes. From police's uncooperative behaviour, wife's suspicion, open market fights, attacks, villain's entry, backstory, and the same old identity crisis to the known trick at the end—Leo serves you with everything that other thousands of mass action films have fed you for decades. But why does it take so long? I was like, "Bhai, khatam hi nahi ho Rahi yeh toh". The problematic conflicts start annoying you after a while. The man had a court case for killing two people in a private place, but no police case or even arrest for riotous violence in a public place? To hell with whoever thought that we didn't know who Leo was. Bro, we all know he is Leo. The film wouldn't even start if he wasn't. You can't put your entire bet on such a weak segment. Grow up.Vijay doesn't really have those bulky physics, then I don't understand why he has to lose his shirt at the end. Is it a mandatory process, the way Salman does in Hindi movies? If so, then may God keep their fans happy with it. Let's forget "cinema" for a while. Vijay's star appeal is visible in Leo. He did well enough in those emotional scenes. It's the writing of the character that puts him down. Trisha has a typical wife's role and is so typical that I can't find anything more typical than to write 'typical' here. That kissing scene with Vijay was a pleasant surprise, though. Sanjay Dutt continues his substandard run with Leo. Baba, you need to work on dialogue delivery seriously. Don't let the prosthetics expose you like this. We want you back. Madonna Sebastian is too gorgeous to fit in the role of a female gangster, so it was definitely a bad choice. Arjun was scary enough, Priya Anand had nothing much to do, George Maryan didn't suit, and Gautham Vasudev Menon was decent. The other supporting cast was pass and go.Lokesh and Vijay's Master was popular for its music, but Leo has no match for it. Anirudh fails to create the Vaathi kind of magic again. The cinematography is average and too bad in the car chase sequences. Leo's VFX team made sure that I went back to my video game days from the late 90s. Those car chase scenes and explosions looked like three-decade-old Formula 1 video games. The production value may be rich, but the outcome is poor. One or two experimental top views by the director and cameraman did not make any difference. And where were those whistle-worthy dialogues? Did they forget to add them to the film, or did they forget to write them in the first place? Master has such intriguing conversions between Vijay and Vijay Sethupathi. Why didn't we get that in Leo? Lokesh Kanagraj's direction is clueless and below par. He is yet to master his classy work, Maanagaram, and it seems that he's not even trying. He's more interested in building a commercial universe that can pass through without quality. If that's the case, Leo is the perfect product that has no quality and is all mass. Let's say Mess! Lokesh needs to revisit Maanagaram again to revoke his forgotten talent, and then we can hope for better films in the future. A dip is fine, but Leo is beyond repair. Such a big drop in quality is worrisome for LCU. Better cure it before it's too late.