Movie Name: The G.O.A.T
Rating: 3/5
Cast: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Ajmal Ameer, Jayram, Mohan, Meenkashi Chaudhary, Yogi Babu, Vaibhav Reddy, Premgi Amaren
Director: Venkat Prabhu
Produced By: Kalpathi S Suresh, Kalpathi S Ganesh
Release Date: September 5th, 2024
Vijay’s penultimate film The G.O.A.T. is in front of the audience worldwide. The G.O.A.T. is one of the most anticipated movies of the year. Factors such as the Vijay-Venkat Prabhu combo, the de-aged looks, surprise cameos, and an intense trailer have created great expectations for the film. Let’s find out if this special mission of Venkat Prabhu and Vijay succeeds or not.
Story:
Gandhi (Vijay) is a hostage negotiator, field agent, and spy working for the Special Anti-Terrorist Squad (SATS). After years of service, he is called back for a critical mission that sets him on a dangerous collision course with his own past. What’s this disturbed past and how Gandhi encounters the challenges in his way is what The G.O.A.T. follows.
Performances:
Vijay has done a phenomenal job and has aced both his roles and played Gandhi as well as Jeevan with great ease. The movie has also showcased the ‘actor’ Vijay to the audience and the emotional scenes featuring him have come out well. The other SATS team members Prabhu Deva, Prashanth, and Ajmal Ameer led by their boss Nazeer (Jayram) have done a great job with adding both humour as well as action to Vijay’s SATS team. Sneha has a bigger portion whereas Meenakshi Chaudhary’s (Sreenidhi) is a big miss with not much scope for her character arc. Her appearance in G.O.A.T. is merely for songs with no acting scope. The surprise cameos right from the beginning to end are major USPs of the film with theatre erupting with each appearance. On the flip side, the villain Rajiv Menon (Mohan) is completely under-utilised and wasted.
Analysis:
The movie starts with a major action set-piece in Kenya on a moving train followed by a banger title card for Vijay that few actors can just dream of. From there, the movie goes on a flat note being fun at one moment and sad at another. The pre-interval to interval sequence works out very well with a good set-up for a cat-and-mouse thriller and Venkat Prabhu’s writing kicks right at that spot. He excels in not just elevating Vijay but also extracting great acting from Thalapathy. From the interval sequence to the climax of the movie, Venkat Prabhu’s screenplay goes into sixth gear with each scene featuring younger Vijay being extremely enjoyable.
The writing is clever with several meta references and comic scenes involving various surprise cameo. Despite all this, one thing that plagues the movie is its runtime. The duration could have been trimmed a bit and a crispier second half would have made The G.O.A.T a much more immersive experience. Overall, G.O.A.T. is a fun movie with young Vijay being menacing and the de-aging working out well. The action sequences while well choreographed are let down by shabby VFX.
Positives:
- Vijay
- Screenplay
- Premji’s rap BGM
- Cameos
- Meta References
Negatives:
- Too much Tamil flavour in the first half
- Dragged second half
- Songs and BGM
- VFX
Verdict:
Venkat Prabhu’s G.O.A.T is a near-perfect commercial pot-boiler where the film is powered by some amazing writing choices and driven by Vijay’s menacing performance. Well, The G.O.A.T title card might seem out of sync but it refers to the achievements of Vijay through his 68 films journey. The film would have been far more enjoyable if only Venkat Prabhu and team had taken care of VFX and music.
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