The GOAT is entertaining, fast-paced, and energetic. It’s an out and out Vijay film – something we’ve been missing in the last few films of his. There’s Vijay everywhere – he smiles, he laughs, he dances, he makes jokes, he fights, he cries and he’s himself with the cast members.
But that seems to be the only element that Venkat Prabhu has worked on. The pizzazz and the sauce that the film offers isn’t complimented well with the technical parts of it. The cinematography isn’t notable, nor is the editing which could’ve made the film more well-rounded. The music works only in bits and those bits are the remixed Ilayaraja songs or old tracks of Yuvan that have been repurposed.
Venkat Prabhu has made emotions work well – Vijay’s scenes as a father and a husband is believable and wholesome. The staging of all the conflicts are natural too but what seems lost is the question – what exactly does the squad do? There are anecdotes of different missions played out but they’re all incomplete – what is the mission? does he fulfill his job at Moscow? What is he rescuing in Thailand? There’s no backstory to the villain either. But the squad is badass – they’re stylish, dynamic and zesty. Prashant-Prabhu Deva-Ajmal-Vijay have a good chemistry going on too.
Venkat Prabhu wins at comedy. The references are meta and throughout! He names his characters after their celebrity parents and children (a dig at everyone who calls him a nepo kid?), he makes Prashanth enter from the top because he’s the Top Star, he makes references to Vijay’s political party, someone in the crowd has a Kanguva wallpaper, the young Vijay calls the older Vijay a boomer, and multiple references to CSK. The de-aging technology is brilliant but the flashback portion with extreme de-aging technology looks coarse and the Vijaykanth AI is rather shoddy.
Meenakshi Choudhary plays an extended cameo only – a song, and a couple of romantic scenes but the real heroine is Sneha. It’s so refreshing and lively to see the Vaseegara pair once again, to see Vijay being cast against someone age-appropriate for a change. Sneha’s character is quite notable. She plays an atypical wife in the sense, someone who holds her husband accountable. It’s also nice to see her play a single mother role with strong ideals in a mainstream movie.
What was displeasing and unnecessary was Trisha appearing for a sexualized dance number. Neither did the story demand it nor did it add any value to the plot. It’s concerning and quite problematic that we’re still resorting to hypersexualized dance cameos to rope audience to films.
The GOAT works only as moments but they are extremely noteworthy. The songs are ill-fitted; Spark is placed in the most random sequence following a more random and vague staging. The writing feels rather lethargic – especially with the cameos and references which seems like an easy way out but the movie does a phenomenal job in keeping you hooked onto the screen. Especially, the final 30 minutes of the film is power-packed with twists and turns and cameos and references – a banger that’s sure to be memorable.
Rating – 2.75/5
