Review of Kites (2010) by William B — 26 Oct 2010

One needs to go into Kites like they would a generic action movie, just shut your brain off and enjoy the ride. Unfortunately, that is exactly what I did and it still didn't save this movie. I am quite capable of looking past one major flaw in plot or a poor performance or questionable dialogue if the rest is exhilarating enough, Kites just has so many flaws that they pile onto one another until the entire film becomes a mess.

Kites follows the story of Jay (Hrithik Roshan), a young man living in Las Vegas, getting by however he can. From conning bartenders to teaching dance lessons to even getting married so immigrants can receive their green-cards, Jay is just looking to make a buck. One day, a dance student of his professes her love for him and while he initially rejects her, he soon realizes that she is the daughter of a casino owner in Vegas, heir to a fortune. With this knowledge he accepts her feelings and begins to live the high life until he meets her brother's fiance, Natasha (Barbara Mori). He has a special connection with this woman and they risk their extremely comfortable new lifestyles, and their lives, to be with one another.

The biggest flaw of the film has to come from the central romance. The two leads perform their roles well enough and seem to have good chemistry, it is just how the romance is written. It was nonsensical. Before they run off together, barely any words get been exchanged between them. Many thoughtful glances at one another while in reveling outfits, but expressions of their love at first sight are non-existent. This could mostly be because it wasn't love at first site, lust and mystery maybe, but not love. This fact along with has been established about Jay's character makes the reasons behind their whole escapade puzzling.

We are told that they have this great love by what they do for it, but there is never any lead-up to these moments. This carries on to almost every other scene in the film, the director gives us choreography, dialogue, and settings that suggest something much grander than what is actually occurring. The grandiose nature of the film turns it into something ridiculous. I enjoyed movies like Piranha and Machete because they were very self-aware movies, Kites is not and without poking fun at itself every so often the ridiculous scenes and action are just that, ridiculous.

The director seemed to not know what kind of movie he had, he did not know when is should temper the over-the-top scenes but most glaringly is how the movie is constructed. Kites has a non-linear storyline, meaning it starts near the end and through "flashbacks" we slowly catch up. There is only one purpose of a constructing a movie like that, to give the audience information at the beginning they (nor the characters) would know otherwise. Kites starts before the climax, so no conclusions in the movie have been made. The viewer is slightly intrigued but after the first half hour, we can piece together how the opening scene came to be, we are just waiting to get there which dulls the action in between since what know the end. Kites also switched between the past and real time more than once, this actually causes the viewer to attempt to use their brain to know what and why things are happening. If you remember the first sentence of this review it was that the viewer needed to use as little of their mind as possible. This again, leads me to believe the director was trying to make a different kind of movie than what came out. This disconnect is at the heart of Kites' flaws.

I will give credit where credit is due, the leads work in this film and there is some great cinematography, but very poor acting in the supporting roles, over-the-top scenes, and mediocre dialogue turn something that could have been a fun thrill-ride into a boring, inconsequential mess.

4/10 - poor.