Spyder

Let's first acknowledge the few things that 'Spyder' gets right: 'Heroism' in all its cinematic sense, is pretty dumbed down in the flick - the protagonist Shiva (Mahesh Babu) enjoys a desk-job where he operates as a peeping tom in people's lives (by tapping into their phones). Borrowing a cue from Spielberg's 'Minority Report', he uses an application he has developed on his own, to serve as a (relatively unknown) vigilante by bringing criminal deeds to a standstill. It's the kind of story befitting Tier-II (or aging) stars of Indian cinema, where the punchlines are practically non-existent, public acceptance of the hero is negligible and the fight scenes aren't marred by excessive slow-motion. Kudos to Mahesh Babu (a superstar in Telugu) for taking up such a role in the prime of his career. His superb Tamil diction might even put industry A-listers to shame.

Unarguably the best thing about the film is the pre-interval stretch where the evolution of the antagonist is disclosed. Sudalai spends a good part of his childhood in a graveyard lending ears to the screams and cries of the dead's kindred. As time progresses, it slowly grows into a fiendish 'addiction' of sorts for him. When the number of visitors start to dwindle, he commits murders just to listen to people weeping - a form of perverse delight ascribed to 'Sadistic Personality Disorder'. The evil aura surrounding this character is further accentuated by the elucidation of his present exploits: people are chopped into pieces and their limbs mixed up. Reason? There is NO freaking reason! Touché Mr. Murugadoss. Thanks for not adding Sudalai to the overdone 'killing for vengeance' list.

Now, the drawbacks: The visual effects are appalling. For a film with a whopping 120 Crore budget, one would have hoped to see better work done on that front. It also doesn't help that the director is vainly attempting to outdo each set-piece fiasco with another. The settings must have sounded like aesthetic marvels during early discussions: one at a theme- park involving a roller-coaster, one involving a massive boulder crushing everything in its path, and one set in a collapsing hospital. The ideas are somewhat poorly construed - even with seasoned technicians such as Santhosh Sivan, Sreekar Prasad and Harris Jeyaraj on board, the outcome is astonishingly subpar.

Not to forget the weakest element in most star vehicles these days: the heroine. While it's quite unconventional (in South Indian cinema) to see Shalini (Rakul Preet) wanting to pair up with Shiva on a friends-with-benefits kind of relationship, this isn't the film where the topic gets fully tapped into. What we get are ho-hum song & dance routines that only act as 'pee-breaks' (why do directors consider stuffing songs in a thriller when their contribution is just to prolong the run-time?). Murugadoss in fact, wants to appease both rural and urban viewers - so on one hand, we have porn-watching women ready to experiment, and on the other, soap-watching housewives ready to save innocent lives and kick some baddie-arse.

'Spyder' is yet another case of teasers giving the wrong impression. What someone would naturally expect (by just seeing the teaser) is an international espionage thriller that makes good use of technology and advanced gadgetry (like the rather slick-looking CGI spider) to nab a villain à la Blofield from the Bond series or Thomas Gabriel from 'Live Free or Die Hard'. Which is also why I must insist on the character of Sudalai being used in a different film altogether (one with a more ghastly tone preferably on the lines of a 'Raman Raghav 2.0'.). The Chanwook Park ('I Saw The Devil') or Christopher Nolan (Batman trilogy) style of pitting 'flawed-hero against menacing-villain' doesn't translate effectively on screen here, even though Suryah's act is remarkable.

Verdict: At best, 'Spyder' is an okay watch for the rendering of the near-mythical antagonist. The second half has 'exaggeration' written all over it, and surely won't go down well with most viewers!

Its unbelievable that AR Murugadoss has made this movie and Mahesh has acted!!

Such a poor storyline, script, screenplay!! Worst CGI. Immature performance. Not a single positive thing to state.

Complete waste of time and money.

Spyder (2017): Who wouldn't have high expectations on the most unexpected and stylish combo in recent times, Muragadoss - Mahesh Babu combo.Even though the teaser and trailer have disappointed,expectations didn't flutter as Muragadoss rarely disappoints (Except in Stalin and 7th Sense). So how is it? Plot: Shiva (Mahesh Babu) is an Intelligence Bureau officer who works in Call Tapping department. He hears everyone's problem and helps them. His life turns upside down when a psychopath named Bhairavudu (SJ Suryah) enters his life. How he captures Bhairavudu and stops all the evil plans is what the film is all about.

My Review: AR Murugadoss is without any doubt an excellent storyteller. His talent lies in inducing social message perfectly within the commercial movie terrain. It is the reason why he is a brand in his own right, and people develop certain expectation when a film comes from him and to an extent he never disappoints.In his career,just Stalin and Seventh Sense are his weakest works and now unfortunately Spyder joins the list.

First half of the films takes lot of time to get into thrilling track.Till then an unnecessary but mandatory romantic track tests our patience.Even the placement of songs is so bad.But the film gains pace with the murder of a girl and female constable and the scenes where hero investigates about Bhairavudu and especially Bhairavudu's flashback is spine chilling.The entire sequence of Mahesh Babu going to the village of Bhairavudu and getting to know the childhood story of Bhairavudu is told in highly engaging manner. This is stamp of Murugadoss.That flashback episode has a touch of horror to it and raises the hopes on the film.The interval scene and the conflict between hero and villain are all well done.

However, the film kind of goes downhill after the interval. Scenes start to become far-fetched (an episode involving Shiva using women to save a family held captive by villain) and after a point, totally implausible (Shiva trying to stop a massive boulder from wrecking havoc).The boulder scene, roller-coaster fight, the hospital climax these all appear like specially designed items on a big scale to divert the audience from the distinct lack of story.The problem with second half is the screenplay jumps from one block to other, and one can feel the jump.

Even technically this movie has nothing new to offer.Except for cinematography,rest of the departments fell flat.Editing is messy and music is one the biggest disaster in recent times.Even the background score reminds us of Harris's previous work.

Undoubtedly, Mahesh is the biggest asset for the film. His screen presence and intense acting will impress the audience completely. Mahesh's dedication and determination are clearly visible on screen through his fights and performance. He has carried the entire film on his shoulders.SJ Surya gave a good performance as psycho and the kid who played villain's child episode role deserves applause.

So,Spyder may have all qualities to be qualified as a perfect action thriller but weak narration destroyed the chances miserably.

When Tollywood has lack of potential concepts,it severely disappoints when the movies like this wastes what they have.

My Rating 6.25/10

It's a good movie. But the story is inspired and some scenes are the exact copy of Christopher Nolan's batman movie THE DARK KNIGHT. But S.J.Surya nailed it

When you have 125 crore movie,you have really high expectations from this movie but i watched this movie with not much expectations and i would say i am satisfied with the movie even though there were certain things which were not so good,it had some good visuals and some not so good visuals and in some parts,certain things were not believable but overall,they tried to do something new and almost succeeded