DesiPundit

And evoking empathy was always Kamal’s strength. Or just evoking some damn strong emotion. The trouble is that Kamal isn’t able to get any expression on the “latex face”. The faces don’t move. They feel like puppets. Like caricatures. Which is a departure from the Kamal we know. The one who emotes, the one who knows how to weep, the one whose face crumples with disappointment. He seems to be so fascinated by his ability to become someone else, almost a metamorphosis of sorts. That the story, the plot and most of all, the need to evoke some support for the protagonist vanish.

Neha did not like Dasavathaaram and she says Kamal Haasan’s obsession with physical transformation has led to characters which are not well etched.(hat tip: Patrix).

Balaji agrees

In fact, the make-up ends up being a distraction in many cases. Some faces in particular have too many layers and make his face look stiff, inexpressive and disproportionate to the rest of his body(though the screenplay is designed such that the roles that have the most makeup, like the American killing machine and the Japanese kung-fu expert, don’t need to be expressive). Its telling that the best character is Brahma Naidu, one of the few roles with little make-up.