Attack Movie Review: This John Abraham super soldier flick is adorned with extravagant visuals but a shoddy execution

The team of Attack deserves praise for exploring a unique concept of a cybertronic humanoid super-soldier on the big screen. The thought was lavish but if only that lavishness was also spent on curating a decent screenplay and execution. John Abraham 's Attack appears to be jarringly flat, especially in its second half and not even the extravagant action and visuals can compensate for it.

Attack revolves around an Indian army veteran (Arjun Shergill) whose world comes crashing down after a terror attack causing a personal loss and tragedy leaving him paralyzed by the spine. Just when he looms in his helplessness and trauma, he's chosen to transform into a super soldier to nab a leader of a terrorist organization named Hamid (Elham Ehsaas) as part of the government's newly proposed plan of action. It is how Arjun delves deep into his new role and fulfills his duty that forms the main crux of the story.

For starters, Attack gets chaotic and jaded in many parts. While the build-up of the plot was looking decent, all hell breaks loose in the second half of the film. A caricaturish verbal disagreement between the Home Minister ( Rajat Kapoor ) and the main operational minister (Prakash Raj) overlaps with a super-soldier John Abraham breaking some bones excessively with the Indian Parliament as the battleground. One fails to understand how could a government body that is leaving no stone unturned to regulate the security and defense in the nation to the extent of using artificial intelligence on a human, can be so easily terrorized by a terrorist organization, and that too in the Parliament of India. 

The mastermind behind the super soldier operation, Saba ( Rakul Preet Singh ) suddenly has an ample time to reboot super soldier John Abraham's battery despite being a hostage and tortured by one of the terrorists a while ago. The motive of the antagonist to plant two bombs at the Parliament does not get established at any point. The protagonist furthermore has a lot of time to dream about his dead ladylove Aisha (Jacqueline Fernandez) with while he's rebooting and has a gunpoint over his head. 

Not only the climax but the introduction of John Abraham's Arjun with Jacqueline Fernandez's Aisha cannot get more cringy. In the process of saving her from falling off the stairs, the guy ends up having a chance liplock with the girl and we just have one question 'Why?' and the entire subplot of the love story in the movie just floats by flatly. The events in the movie is aided by too many blaring background scores which though catchy, becomes repetitive after a point. 

The writing however has its light moments in terms of a reference from Uri that says 'Aaj Kal Army Walon Ka Josh Kuch Zyada Hi High Rehta Hai' or the line which referred to the Home Minister being in love with the Prime Minister. But apart from that, Attack becomes a repetitive, caricaturish, and chaotic mess that only offers the VFX, bg score (only some catchy ones), and the stylized action sequences as the validating factors. The performance of the movie also has its own hits and misses. 

John Abraham again deserves attention due to his hard work to get into the nuances of a super-soldier. He shines in the scenes where he has to showcase his trauma of being a physically disabled person. However, the actor is rather inconsistent in the romantic scenes or the ones where he's interacting with his very own instructional device in his brain called Ira. But the actor, fortunately, shows the right amount of restraint in his performance which was lacking in Satyameva Jayate 2 .

Jacqueline Fernandez is just reduced to be the doomed love interest and only makes occasional glimpses in the flashback sequences. Rakul Preet Singh tries to do justice to her part but there is a lack of variation in her act too. Ratna Pathak Shah tries to do full justice to her part but is underutilized. Prakash Raj and Rajat Kapoor shine in their respective parts but some of their dialogues and mannerisms appear to be a little too melodramatic. Elhaam Ehsaas does a satisfying job as the antagonist but could've done off with the accent. A special shoutout to Serena Walia who has voiced Ira, the protagonist's very own Siri/Alexa, she has some of the fun dialogues hands down. 

The music by Shashwat Sachdev more or less hits the right chords and is catchy. The songs 'Ik Tu Hai', 'Chal Hatt', 'La La La' especially stand out, more so with the picturization. The action and stunt sequences choreographed by Armando De Leca, Matt Esof, Warren Germishuys and others win big. The super soldier concept is complemented by these well stylized action scenes which only makes you wish the film had a better execution. The VFX by Shailesh Gautam, Dhiraj Chaudhuri, Amit S Jadhav and others also deserve a sound applause by curating the artificial intelligence universe in such a nuanced manner. Moral is the technical aspects of the movie is largely the saving grace.

Lastly, we would say that Attack can be a decent watch for the hogger of all things action, science, and VFX. But the movie does not escape the chaos, illogical aspects, and inconsistent performances due to a shoddy execution. However, give it a try if you've always loved John Abraham kicking out some punches and beatings, there it will not disappoint.