For the past few years, Lionsgate has dominated the stylish, hyper-choreographed, bullet-hole-ridden action-thriller genre with a steady stream of John Wick movies as well as a spinoff series. But the first trailer for Universal and Blumhouse’s Monkey Man from director Dev Patel makes it seem like a glorious challenge to viewers to understand how much bigger, wilder, and more visually inspired these kinds of movies can be.
Set on the streets of modern-day Mumbai, Monkey Man tells the story of a man named Kid (Patel), an ex-con whose return to society is a brutal reminder of how India’s caste system keeps poor, vulnerable people trapped in cycles of violence and systemic poverty. Kid has fond memories of an idyllic childhood being raised...