I was on the fence about Brahmastra Part 1: Shiva because it was yet another nearly three hour long Indian film of unknown quality, origin, and actors. But it showed up on IMAX 3D so I figured there must be a reason to get the royal treatment (other than a limited selection of home-grown films to put on the IMAX).

The film is a lot of stuff going on with very little plot. Basically, a DJ falls in love-at-first-sight with a rich woman and she with him. On their first date, he gets a very flashy vision of a trio of killers hunting down random people across India. He doesn’t know what it means or why he’s got this power, but they pack up and head out to rescue the strangers from this mystical trio of assassins. Plus… song and dance numbers!

This movie is, if nothing else, totally earnest. I’ve said this about the few other Indian films I’ve seen, but they never once wink at the audience to assure us they know how silly this all is. They are committed to the spectacle, to the crazy story, and to the over-the-top romance. And I respect that. I like a good jibe too… but sometimes playing it straight works just as well.

And it works for quite a bit of this almost three hour movie that’s only part 1 of a longer story. I was engaged even though, sure, the movie never even sees the top that it’s going over. The action scenes are fun and loud and shiny… the dialog moves the pieces across the game board, and the puppy love romance is ridiculously sudden in the best way.

But this movie doesn’t have enough story to justify that run-time… but, for awhile, I was ok with that. Until the final hour and the final mess of a light show that they called an action finale. It was just visual noise with no sense of geography or pacing. And they kept trying to make us care for extras they barely introduced. It really dragged the film down.

But… I still enjoyed enough of it to give it a solid review. I wanted to go to go higher but I just can’t justify that conclusion. Pretty good flick otherwise with vary charismatic actors (even if the lead reminded me unsettling of Patrick Dempsey).

Score: 83