RA.ONE - REVIEW


You ever wonder what would happen if your idiot dad died and was somehow reborn as some magical super being?

And I don't mean any of that Jack Frost snowman bullshit.

No, I'm talking Ra.One which, now that I think about it, owes more to Jack Frost than I originally thought.

Shahrukh Khan plays a games developer who creates a new virtual reality game in which you fight an indestructible villain known as Ra.One. But that shit literally becomes real when the game villain transcends the virtual world into our own and wreaks havoc upon it. How this happens I'm not quite sure but lets just say that suspension of disbelief doesn't even begin to cover it. Cue big action sequences, most of them shot in London, a delicious Endhiran (The Robot) cameo appearance and lots of robot hijinks and tomfooleries.

Oh and an entire scene dedicated to a "smoking kills" message.

Just like The Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog.

That takes me back...

Anyway, it turns out that the only way to beat Ra.One is (of course?) to release the good guy from the game, G.One (also Khan), into our world as well and get them to fight it out Matrix-style. There are songs along the way, a mostly expositional first half (that's two hours right there!) and a scene in which Shahrukh Khan becomes a ceiling fan.

I swear that happens.

It's a mixed bag: on the one hand it does a good job of staying consistently entertaining throughout and has plenty of ridiculous kick-ass moments, on the other it lacks the all-out madness that made The Robot so amazing and it also could have done with a memorable song or two. For all its wackiness, Ra.One feels strangely restrained and after such a mind-blowingly genius opening sequence involving Khan driving a bike on a different planet it's a little disappointing.

Yes.

On ANOTHER planet.

Khan is doomed to not give a sound performance here as he's stuck between the goofy, kinda stupid man-child dad and the vacant, robotic, mostly Keanu Reeves-like Ra.One. It's like you're watching two different guys making fun of Khan except they're actually both him. It's messed-up.

Like I said, it's a mixed bag. But when shit goes down and the CGI finally gets out of control it's all good. There's definitely a lot to enjoy here and you'll have fun regardless, just don't except to soil your trousers with glee the way The Robot made it happen.

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