L2: Empuraan

Rather than concentrating on the narrative and expanding the 'Lucifer' universe, it seems the creators prioritised showcasing the impressive scale and opulence they achieved, particularly striking for an industry that rarely ventured into such lavish and extravagant realms.

This emphasis is evident at frequent intervals, especially when they lead the protagonist to exotic locations, make him do sleek, slo-mo action, all while maintaining an air of sophistication and grandeur.

Now do not get me wrong, I am not opposing the ambition to go grand and embrace flamboyance, particularly when the film's budget allows for such creative freedom. However, that should not compromise the quality of the writing or the development of the characters. When one strips away all the glitz & glamour and assesses the feature purely from a story point of view, shortcomings become apparent.

FYI, I appreciated the original 'Lucifer' for its intent to weave a compelling political thriller, and I was captivated by the character of 'Stephan', I was eager to delve deeper into his story in this continuation.

Even when the trailers for the sequel promised an entirely new experience, I held onto my hopes for something deserving of my wait & anticipation, but unfortunately, none of those were fulfilled, it did not meet my expectations.

As we all know malyalam movies are renowned for the gripping story line which is majorly lacking in this, director did a pretty good job by combining two major story lines to build up for one more part but diluting a master piece has its own consequences.

As far as visuals speaks for themselves but those are most common nowadays in movie perspective, as being the most hyped malyalam movie of this year does it really upto the mark is questionable .

Final verdict is one time watchable for movie lovers as the movie has quite an action sequences and depth of selection in locations making it no less than a hollywood level movie .

While it is a movie from lucifer franchise but empuran doesnt meet the expectations and lack of story telling is the major issue. 2nd half is just ok overall beliw average movie. The main positives are the location and casting. Bgm was totally disappointing, and lady characters also doest meet expectations. Story was little lagging. Director failed in making the emotional attachment and the songs also not giving a fresh feel. The major negative is the duration of the movie and over expectations by the filim crew. New technics was brilliantly used and climax is just ok. Overall its not a decent watch one.

Rating - 3.5/5

A socio-political mass action thriller executed with brilliant technicality giving an edge of the seat experience.

The story introduces us to the world of the Alpha lord Khureshi Abr'am who controls the Gold Diamond nexus globally through his dual identity. The story further explores whether this fallen angel will survive his war against the Jihadi groups, International Crime Nexus & Drug cartels from swallowing God's own Country and on how he exert influence on the political landscape of Kerala.

Murali Gopi has scripted the story well enough to accommodate and intertwine the story in the international terrains while being rooted to God's own Country. Prithviraj has excelled in bringing out Mohanlal in the most epic and stylish avatar like never before with slow motion and good BGM's. This can be termed as the best tribute a fanboy director can give to his idol on the reels. Prithviraj has brilliantly portrayed some sequences on screen in a way better than when it is was put into words. The first half stands superior storywise where as the latter half of the movie lost traction and felt like a usual revenge drama towards the end. Topnotch making but the final music felt like a medium to appeal and attract Bollywood audience.

Mohanlal made a subtle performance just by his looks and stance. Abhimanyu Singh,Sukant Goel,Manju Warrier,Nandu,Karthikeya Dev,Eriq Ebouaney,Andrea Tivadar,Jerome Flynn and Kishore made impressive performances.

Exceptional Cinematography by Sujith Vasudev especially the night visuals and wide angle shots in the foreign landscape. Deepak Dev's BGM's in the intro portions were stunning. Hats off to the Production designer Mohandas in precisely putting the director's vision onto the screen.

A larger than life visual marvel in Malayalam pulled off in a grandeur scale with epic performances and top-notch production quality makes it a must watch on big screens.

With all the budget and solid starcast, if only they had a good screenplay.

Fire Murali gopy and get someone new to write Lucifer 3 .

All the layers and symbolisms from Lucifer is missing in empuraan and is replaced with flashy pointless scenes . Movie was going good in the first act then maybe the makers thought screw this and let's throw random bs.

Manju warrier was the only saving grace. Except her makeover saree in one key scene. That was off putting .

Tovinos character arc and his big political decision doesn't make any sense.

Prithviraj as Zayed is really good but has placed himself as an equal or even better than the titular protagonist. Ahem, conflict of interest. By the third act, KA becomes like a secondary character in his own film.

Deepak Devs score is crap. Antony Perumbavoor and his son doing glorified cameos sums up the essence of this movie.

Mohanlal is at his best and does what he can do with his enigmatic - more than life character in this wasted multi million opportunity of a promising sequel. Still he is nowhere close to the amazing Stephen Nedumpally we saw in Lucifer.

His attire looks like an unintentional parody. Wonder who is the fasion terrorist for his costumes as KA.

In short KA nexus and its dealings feel like written by a 11 year old who is fascinated by newly found conspiracy theories.

Haven't been let down by any other movie in recent times like this.