'The Greatest of All Time' movie review: An overdose of Vijay and nothing else

A Vijay’s movie promises drama, sentiments, action, occasional giggles, heroism and countless stylish entry sequences. People know this and his fans love it. Despite being mediocre, they are enjoyable.

However, The Greatest of All Time’aka Vijay’s The GOAT is nothing but passable and boring. Venkat Prabhu who has consistently entertained the audience with funny storylines and quirky twists in his previous films, hits the wrong balls in this pointlessly cricket-themed entertainer.

The movie is very ambitious putting in a deliberate effort to make the audience happy. For instance, the de-ageing of Vijay’s son’s character who plays an important role. Or, the final action sequence that tries to bring in the CSK sentiments along with a special cameo. The film tries very hard. The result, however, feels very forced and jarring to watch. 

A long list of audience-favourite actors too couldn’t save the movie from boredom. Actors Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Sneha, Jayaram, Mohan, Laila and even an item song by the beautiful Trisha were all stuffed into the movie.

The movie seems driven solely by marketing ideas and not by genuine storytelling attempts.

However, the biggest of all issues is that the character graph of the protagonist who is portrayed to be a super-intelligent SAT agent is poorly written. This makes the characters seem dumb and know-it-all rather than making decisions and moves that are clever or intelligent. 

The puzzles that the SAT agent Gandhi struggles in the film can be compared to something that even a small-time policeman could solve within a few days.

Moreover, the movie does make it sound like the protagonist’s personal problem is India’s biggest problem, for which even the government resources are utilised without any proper explanation.

(The movie has been released in Tamil across theatres)