Common Sense Media Review
By Brian Costello
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Violence, suicide in Egyptian sci-fi action movie.
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Mousa
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
In MOUSA, Yehia (Kareem Mahmoud Abdel Aziz) is a shy but intelligent college student who studies engineering. One night, gangsters break into the house he shares with his father, and as Yehia watches and does nothing, the gangsters pistol-whip his father then set the house on fire, resulting in his father's death. Filled with shame for his cowardice, Yehia encounters the ghost of his father, who tells Yehia to "Avenge me!" Yehia decides to create a giant crime-fighting robot named Mousa to not only take on the gangsters who killed his father, but also to rid the streets of Cairo of crime. But the corrupt authorities, and the pompous professor who kicked Yehia out of his class, are looking for ways to stop Mousa as they try to find the person who controls Mousa through VR glasses.
Is It Any Good?
This is a decent if uneven Egyptian sci-fi action movie. Mousa is about a vigilante robot controlled by a shy but brilliant engineering student named Yehia who's trying to learn courage after being too stricken with fear to rescue his father from gangsters who break into their home, set the home on fire, and kill the father. In response, Yehia creates Mousa, a giant robot who fights crime all over Cairo, much to the chagrin of the corrupt officials in the pay of the crime bosses who pay them.
There are some side stories involving a love interest and a soul mate, and this melodrama gets in the way of the action instead of heightening the story. As the story goes on, it gets to be more and more uneven, and the only real thread worth hanging on to concerns whether or not Yehia will learn what it means to be brave without the help of VR headgear and giant vigilante robots. It's enough to get to the end, but just barely.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about sci-fi action movies like Mousa. How is this similar to and different from other sci-fi action movies you've seen?
Was the violence necessary to the story, or was it excessive? Why?
This is an Egyptian sci-fi action movie. How do the setting and the culture make it different from other movies with similar stories?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : January 1, 2023
- Cast : Kareem Mahmoud Abdel Aziz , Eyad Nassar , Asma Abul-Yazid
- Director : Peter Mimi
- Studio : Netflix
- Genre : Action/Adventure
- Topics : Robots
- Run time : 105 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : September 29, 2025
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