Monkey Man is much more interesting than the John Wick knockoff its trailer promised us. For one thing, that embarrassing voice-over line spoken by protagonist Dev Patel (“Every day I’ve prayed for a way to protect the weak”) is never actually spoken in the film — or if it was, I blocked it out.

If you’re an action fan headed to the theater with a certain amount of trepidation, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by Monkey Man, the directorial debut of its star, Dev Patel. And if you’re not an action fan, you’re reading the wrong review. Isn’t there some art film or prestige TV series on Max you should be watching right now?

Monkey Man is about a skinny, downtrodden nonentity called Kid, played by Patel, who fights in a sleazy underground boxing den called Tiger’s Temple. He does so as a despised character called Monkey Man, wearing a simian mask to protect his identity. Tiger is the fiercely grinning Afrikaner owner/impresario of the club — played by the great Sharlto Copley of District 9 fame — and he pays Kid to get beat up as gorily as possible, losing to more popular fighters for the entertainment of the bloodthirsty mobs who patronize his place.