- With a duration of 1 hour 53 minutes, it doesn't feel like 1 hour 53 minutes. It felt shorter, much shorter. You will be intrigued with the story. Yes, the gist of the overall plot has been done before countless of times with buddy cop-themed movies but what impressed us is that there's an actual weight to the story. There's a strong substance along the way that just works with the story. It's apparent that Syafiq Yusof (director) made this film with heart. So many times we get to see sincere and heartfelt moments that Syafiq would include in the story and they all work. Something that viewers would get out of it. The film isn't pretentious and it doesn't try hard to do what it does. 👏🏻
- Was it action-packed enough? Well, not really. I felt that the first two had more action sequences compared to this one. This one is more story-centric than action-centric. It does feature some but if we can count, this has the least number of action scenes. Even the climax scene taking place at Bukit Bintang, KL where we thought would have a big action scene is minimized with heavy dialogues and substituted with an attempt of an intense scene (that is actually moderate). So don't go in thinking this is a non-stop melee combat and gun-fighting film. It's not. It's a balanced of both.
- What we do appreciate with this film is that the skills, the tactical movements and the choreographies are all done based on the official police training programme. We salute the efforts of them mirroring our national police force combats and skills.
- Shaheizy Sam & Zizan Razak's chemistry is off the charts! You know they're comfortable with each other. You know that they're having so much fun on the set. You know toxic relationship is non-existent. It feels they're really brothers even in real life. In PE3, we get to see that their friendship is tested to the limit which is a great element to wrap up a trilogy. All the bonding from the previous two are brought again here and continued with an opening that will surely make you laugh. If you enjoy brotherhood films, then go have a watch. You will appreciate it.
- We're surprised to see that Reza's character, played by Sharnaaz Ahmad was fleshed out and told very well. He has an interesting backstory which is linked to the main character and has a strong motive that deals with morality and justice. His motive is well-established to the point that we understand his characters & emotions. It makes you think that if you're in his shoes, would you have done the same thing? Because we're telling you, most of you would say 'yes' to it discreetly without admitting it. And Sharnaaz did a great job at portraying Reza. His portrayal might not land him an award, but Sharnaaz is great.
- There's this one particular scene involving a car chase that we thought could have been done a lot better. Syafiq Yusof (and Syamsul Yusof) has always cleared the roads/streets for the stunts of every of their movie, showing only cars and actors mainly involved in the car chase scene. But it's time to change the scenery. Make it more realistic. Have a bunch of extras driving regular cars as regular citizens, having to stop the car or go through everything, maybe even casualties as icing on the cake. Clearing the roads like there are no regular drivers takes us out of the experience. Like a gimmick that feels unrealistic.
- Syafiq Kyle, Farali Khan, Douglas Lim & Fauzi Nawawi all play as supporting characters helping the two leads fight over the the bad guy. We're okay with that. But it's difficult to root for these characters when we barely know about them nor they add any colors to the story. Yes, they had opportunities to shine as they were given time to breathe but there was nothing really interesting about them that we could say it warrants a spin-off.
- We have a problem with the tone. Opening scene was filled with jokes and humours followed by the whole of first act, like Polis Evo 1. Halfway through, it was a mixture of comedy, action and drama. And then the third act came along and it had a very serious tone, even dark maybe. We understood if they were trying to elevate the atmosphere that Reza brought with him as a demented, psychotic guy but... the tone left a bad taste in our mouth, we felt confused and dazed. It shifted drastically without a proper graph.
Verdict: Carefully structured, Polis Evo 3 showcases a compelling plot carried by two powerful leads with chemistry as strong as a covalent bond. While not as action-packed as the previous installments, the character-driven element adds an emotional weight to the story that makes the film worth watching. Overall, Polis Evo 3 is speeding miles better than Fast X.
