‘War 2’ (2025) Movie Review - Ayan Mukerji Turns You Into A Zombie

What's the definition of a star? Is he someone who can pull in the crowd? Is he someone who can set the box office on fire? Let's look at Shah Rukh Khan. Why is he a star, no scratch that, a superstar? For me, the most special thing about Khan is his ability to effortlessly navigate the terrains of both arthouse cinema and mass/masala territory. Here is that rare talent who slips into the world of a Hey Ram or a Dil Se and also a Pathaan or a Jawan (I am not a fan of SRK the action hero, but he manages to not completely embarrass himself in an area which doesn't thoroughly do justice to his talents. That, I guess, is something). So, can we establish that to be a star, you first need to be a great actor? Yes, of course. By that yardstick, how should we consider Hrithik Roshan and N. T. Rama Rao Jr.? They are celebrities with a massive number of followers, but what about their star power and acting skills? Siddharth Anand and Vikas Bahl gave us Roshan, the star performer in War and Super 30, respectively. In War 2, Ayan Mukerji, though, only offers a glimpse of the actor that had been revealed in War and Super 30. Roshan is fantastic in the scene where he finally pulls the trigger and (there will be spoilers in the review) kills Colonel Sunil Luthra (Ashutosh Rana) to infiltrate a cartel that calls itself Kali. His first reaction is shock, followed by pain and then acceptance. Roshan charts these emotions at lightning speed without rendering any of them indistinct.

This same precision, this same fervor, is, alas, missing during the action scenes. When the skins are pierced and the bullets fly in different directions, Roshan's Kabir looks too cool, too detached from the surroundings. Mukerji perhaps wants to convey that the brawls have become a mundane routine for Kabir. He has seen all kinds of fights and knows how to achieve victory. But Roshan's performance indicates something else entirely. The actor seems to be assuring his fans that everything is just fake or CGI. That punch? It's choreographed. That bullet? It's not real. That explosion? It's generated with the help of computers. "I am not in any mortal peril," Roshan says to the audience. On top of that, the graphics appear so artificial that we are further distanced from any palpable feelings of violence or danger. The green screen might as well be the third or fourth lead — it's always visible to our eyes. Add to this Mukerji's ineptness in handling action scenes. He relies too much on unimaginative quick cuts and close-ups to generate a sense of speed. He is able to get a momentum all right, but there is no excitement, no thrill. The action choreography in this action thriller film is truly abysmal — why not spend time and money on something crucial to the genre of choice? Mukerji undoubtedly has some good ideas; he throws a boat amidst F1 cars and converts the surface of an airplane into a slide. These crazy ideas, however, are not matched by crazy and well-rendered images. Everything looks amateurish. All the money apparently went to Roshan, NTR Jr., and Kiara Advani. Meaning: The money was wasted as far as you can see. 

Devara: Part 1 already proved that NTR Jr. is not very good in action mode. Roshan merely feels detached during the action scenes. NTR Jr. feels detached throughout the film's runtime. His plain face struggles to convey basic emotions convincingly; you need a microscope to read him. Roshan and NTR Jr. start an amateur acting club here. Poor Advani, on the other hand, gets almost nothing to do in this forced bromance. War 2 ideally should have been about her. Advani's Wing Commander Kavya Luthra should have received more spotlight, considering her father, Sunil, dies near the beginning. But the filmmakers are so high on male hormonal energy that Kavya is reduced to a mere love interest in the war between Vikram (NTR Jr.) and Kabir. As a consolation prize for doing her "duty" quietly, she gets to kick some butts and shoot some bad guys. It's funny, then, that the post-credit scene hypes up a film that claims to make female characters a top priority. Anyway, for now, I am more concerned about Shridhar Raghavan. Whatever happened to him behind the scenes! That's the real mystery. Then again, this is the issue with cinematic universes: Free will becomes a myth as your hands are tied to fulfill the demands of a franchise. This is why so many Marvel movies are shit, and the spy universe also seems to be heading towards the same woeful pit. Another problem is that not all deaths turn out to be permanent or consequential. The main characters are revived for future installments. So, why, pray tell, did the filmmakers decide to bore us to death with the so-called emotional exchange between Vikram and Kabir? War 2, with its almost three-hour runtime, is running on a treadmill. It refuses to say farewell and goes on and on for what feels like an eternity. The loud music and the fast, relentless editing numbs your brain and transforms you into a zombie. Things happen on the screen, and you watch them passively. The real war, one might say, occurs between our brain and the expensive brain rot we are saddled with.

Final Score- [1.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times