‘Game Over’ Critics’ Review: A Thrilling But Confusing Ride

‘Game Over’ stars Taapsee Pannu in the lead.

Film: Game Over

Director: Ashwin Saravanan

Here’s what the critics have to say about Game Over, starring Taapsee Pannu.

Leanness is the name of the game here: the characters number a handful; jump scares are judiciously deployed; the dialogue is minimal to the point of being functional (Game Over was originally made in Tamil and has been dubbed in Hindi). A detour into sentimentality is so jarring that it is a relief when it ends.

Nandini Ramnath, Scroll

Taapsee powers through the sloppiness of this material. So does her co-star Vinodhini Vaidyanathan, whose maternal disposition works like a calming balm on all the screaming and slicing. To steal a line from Shakespeare, Game Over is a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. These two deserved a better film.  

Anupama Chopra, Film Companion

The writing is flabby, key sequences get repetitive, the threads which are woven in the plot are weakly dealt with. Worse, the reveal comes too early, and the suspense leaches out. There are a couple of genuinely scary moments, but the rest of it is too stretched: even the 102 minute run time feels too long, with not enough thrills or chills.

Shubhra Gupta, The Indian Express

Game Over is as crisp and to-the-point as a thriller can get. It wastes no time on song and dance or back stories for each character. And Pannu and Vaidyanathan are terrific throughout, their performances as perfectly pared down as the tone of the film. The beauty of Game Over is that even after it is over, what was going on in the film remains anybody’s guess.

Anna MM Vetticad, Firstpost

Game Over reaches its triple-header final act swiftly, then devolves into a witless muddle, with filmmakers ramping up sudden thrills but not seeding in the problem-solving elements the film needed.

Raja Sen, Hindustan Times

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