Major Grom: Plague Doctor – Netflix Review (3/5)

MAJOR GROM: PLAGUE DOCTOR on Netflix is a new action-adventure movie from Russia. If you haven’t watched any Russian movies yet, then this could be a good place to start. The production quality is certainly impressive. Read our Major Grom: Plague Doctor movie review here!

MAJOR GROM: PLAGUE DOCTOR is a new Netflix addition from Russia (org. title Mayor Grom: Chumnoy Doktor). Before I say anything else, I do want to comment on the fact that the characters are pretty damn interesting. However, I also have to mention that it is definitely too long. Still, the production quality is gorgeous and the story has many interesting elements.

OTHER RUSSIAN MOVIES TO CHECK OUT

If you want to watch an amazing movie from Russian, be sure to check out the sci-fi horror movie Sputnik >

If you’re not familiar with Russian movies, then don’t worry about it. This has a very universal appeal with the comic book approach.

Also, while there are amazing movies coming out of Russian (as the above-mentioned Sputnik), there are also some rather subpar productions coming out. An example of this is the recently released Superdeep which is mostly in English to have an international appeal. They should have focused on the story instead!

Continue reading our Major Grom: Plague Doctor movie review below.

A lot of story to cover

While Major Grom: Plague Doctor does have a lot of story to tell, the runtime is definitely too long. You’ll be watching this movie for 2 hours and 16 minutes. Of course, The Tomorrow War was around the same, but it just worked better.

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Our review of The Tomorrow War which is out on Amazon Prime Video now >

The storyline in Major Grom: Plague Doctor is both simple and quite complicated. Or rather, it is very simple but made into something complicated. Not necessarily in a bad way, but since the runtime is so long, it could’ve done with some trimming. This movie should have been under 2 hours and the result would have been much stronger.

For the record, Plague Doctor is one character (the Batman vigilante type) while Major Grom is another character (the good guy hero type). Also, Major Grom has a way of thinking through scenarios that result in us seeing versions of what could happen – as we saw in Hulu’s Boss Level with Frank Grillo. Except, in Major Grom: Plague Doctor, it only happens in his mind.

“Batman never kills. I’m cooler”

Major Grom: Plague Doctor wins a lot of points by never taking itself too seriously. Also, many fans of Marvel and DC comics will feel right at home because many characters are quite familiar in basic ways.

A man dressed in black who uses tech to deliver justice Batman-style. A scrawny and brilliant young man with red hair in the vein of Lex Luthor. A street-smart and quick-thinking woman who can take care of herself and is both selfish and loyal like Black Widow. And, of course, the good-natured hero, who wants to do things the right way and is strong, but also weirdly clumsy.

The latter would be “Major Grom” and he pulls everything off with charm and loyalty like Superman or Captain America. Overall, this is a classic comic book-style story of good versus evil. Or the rich and powerful people who get away with everything while the underdog fights for justice.

And, of course, there are the characters that will surprise along the way – including major plot twists!

Watch Major Grom: Plague Doctor on Netflix now!

Major Grom: Plague Doctor (org. title Mayor Grom: Chumnoy Doktor) was directed by Oleg Trofim who previously directed the musical romance drama Ice (org. title Lyod) about an ice skater. In other words, this new Netflix addition is something very different from that previous project.

Oleg Trofim also co-wrote the screenplay along with quite a few others. The total list of writers is Vladimir Besedin, Evgeny Eronin, Artyom Gabrelyanov, Aleksandr Kim, Roman Kotkov, Nikolay Titov, Valentina Tronova, and Oleg Trofim. According to IMDb, Vladimir Besedin, Artyom Gabrelyanov, and Roman Kotkov all worked on the Major Grom short film from 2017.

I’d give this movie a solid 3½ out of 5, but due to the long runtime (which does end up feeling a bit long), I am rounding down for this one. Make no mistake though, I would definitely recommend watching Major Grom: Plague Doctor on Netflix.

Furthermore, I hope more movies are in the making. Something the end credit scene clearly indicates will happen. So yeah, as with many comic book adaptions, this one also includes end-credit scenes, so make sure you stick around for it!

Major Grom: Plague Doctor on Netflix from July 7, 2021.

Details

Director: Oleg Trofim
Writers: Vladimir Besedin, Evgeny Eronin, Artyom Gabrelyanov
Stars: Tikhon Zhiznevskiy, Alexander Seteykin, Lyubov Aksyonova