Cast: Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Richard Madden, Stanley Tucci, Lesley Manville, and ensemble.
Creator: Russo Brothers and Bryan Oh.
Director: Russo Brothers, Newton Thomas Sigel, and Jessica Yu.
Streaming On: Amazon Prime Video.
Language: English (with subtitles).
Runtime: 2 Episodes Around 30 Minutes Each (6 Episodes In Total).
I mean, what could be wrong with seeing Priyanka Chopra Jonas (PCJ) kick some ass while displaying sass? A common concern was whether Citadel would just succeed in that area and fall short in the other fields. Citadel, starring PCJ and Richard Madden, has just released its first two episodes, and I got the opportunity to watch them early. Here is what I thought of it:
Action Promised vs. Action Delivered
The scope of this extraordinarily ambitious series was never in doubt because Citadel is not only a massive undertaking but also exhibits it most finely. The program has already delivered some of the best action sequences you can imagine in just two episodes. The amount of work put into making each of these pieces impactful and believable yet superhuman and fancy is fantastic, from the quick exchange of blows and guns in the train to PCJ’s character Nadia Sinh going one-on-one in a house after a specific timeline and the action-packed chase sequence involving Richard Madden’s Mason Kane. With their skill in these sequences, Madden and Chopra Jonas are equally wow.
As is the case with most extravaganzas, the corresponding tale neglects to have a central emotional connection to maintain the scale as grand as possible and concentrate on the action. Citadel, though, takes care to maintain that element. Even if the story of memory loss and retrieving old memories may not be as original as you may imagine, it succeeds thanks to the actors’ performances.
You can relate to Madden’s sense of helplessness after learning how he was a secret agent before losing all of his memories, and his new family, which comprises a wife and a daughter, even though they are only briefly shown. On the other hand, PCJ plays Nadia Sinh, who likewise lost her memory as a result of a specific incident, but her problems are far more difficult because she must battle goon after goon by herself while trying to lead a regular life. Blake and Sinh’s past banter during their time as covert agents together to their current attempts to reunite while comprehending what’s happening is effectively performed, so it connects.
The Humor & Chemistry
When you watch the episode and in context, the one scene in the trailer and special clip where PCJ and Madden are in a kitchen and the latter throws a knife at her might seem like such a simple moment in isolation, but it turns out to be a brilliantly hilarious sequence where we would chuckle at every dialogue exchange. Bernard Orlick, who is the ideal combination of a hilarious taskmaster and a key to Mason and Sinh completely, is played by the legendary Stanley Tucci. His scenes with Mason attempting to comprehend his prior life are hilarious.
Citadel raises the bar in this regard because, despite being a slick action extravaganza, it avoids taking itself too seriously when it’s not necessary, keeping things lighthearted and self-aware.
Apart from anything else, the relationship between Madden and PCJ is what functions best. In the numerous promotional tours, it seemed to be fairly obvious off-screen, but it has miraculously happened on-screen as well. The pair is at their finest virtually the entire time, from being colleagues who appear to be seeing each other to later being colleagues who are reuniting after maybe not knowing each other.
The pacing is the area in which I believe the show most seriously falters. The pacing of Citadel does seem a bit off, not necessarily justifying the scenes in question while making jump cuts to another. However, it is not about being slow or fast. The initial few minutes of the first episode serve as an indication of how quickly the action moves from one location to another, making it nearly impossible to follow. From Italy to Virginia to Zurich to Chicago and so on, the pace frequently veers off course and eventually becomes challenging to follow.
The Finding
Citadel is still a fantastic action film that fulfills its potential, and there is hardly anything wrong with seeing Priyanka Chopra Jonas experience both classic “heroic” moments and breath-taking action sequences in the same movie.
