Perhaps the burden of being the foundation for a cinematic universe is the drive that makes "Sri Asih" scattered, unfocused, and rushed near the end. Although lacking several reasoning, the build-up for Alana's arc is promising, until the focus totally shifted toward the villain and explanatory sequence for the BCU. This automatically puts the main protagonist on the bench, by rushing her superhero transformation into a mere tool to advance the villain's reveal.
While the marketed synopsis described Alana as someone who struggles with her identity and inner storm, it's baffling to see that there is no single scene that depicts how she copes with it. She never mentioned her parent or any curiosity thereof, she doesn't work on her anger issues, she's not questioning whether the strangers that bring a sudden life-changing turn in her life are actually legit, she even miraculously mastered her newfound "power" just because the villain is in front of her.
What's more painful is the half-baked script, that drastically downgrades everyone's performance. Every single character, except Ario Bayu & Reza Rahardian, sounds awkward and doesn't fit in. You know it's disastrous when the ever-marvelous Christine Hakim is helplessly boring when delivering her lines. Many parts sound too explanatory and unnatural, not to mention the inconsistency of the language style that makes some lines seem out of the blue.
For a postponed project, I was expecting the crew to dive deeper into the research in shaping the whole art direction for this film. As it turns out, the wardrobe looks out of place, the color palette is pretty much an eyesore, the scoring doesn't help the ambiance, and the heritage touch felt forced.
Hats off to Pevita Pearce for putting so much effort into shaping herself into Sri Asih, to Upi Avianto for putting her foot to making a foundation film for BCU, and to the visual effect team for putting the extra mile in making the CGI aspect of this film slightly elevated than average Indonesian films, but for me personally, it could've been so much better than this.
While the marketed synopsis described Alana as someone who struggles with her identity and inner storm, it's baffling to see that there is no single scene that depicts how she copes with it. She never mentioned her parent or any curiosity thereof, she doesn't work on her anger issues, she's not questioning whether the strangers that bring a sudden life-changing turn in her life are actually legit, she even miraculously mastered her newfound "power" just because the villain is in front of her.
What's more painful is the half-baked script, that drastically downgrades everyone's performance. Every single character, except Ario Bayu & Reza Rahardian, sounds awkward and doesn't fit in. You know it's disastrous when the ever-marvelous Christine Hakim is helplessly boring when delivering her lines. Many parts sound too explanatory and unnatural, not to mention the inconsistency of the language style that makes some lines seem out of the blue.
For a postponed project, I was expecting the crew to dive deeper into the research in shaping the whole art direction for this film. As it turns out, the wardrobe looks out of place, the color palette is pretty much an eyesore, the scoring doesn't help the ambiance, and the heritage touch felt forced.
Hats off to Pevita Pearce for putting so much effort into shaping herself into Sri Asih, to Upi Avianto for putting her foot to making a foundation film for BCU, and to the visual effect team for putting the extra mile in making the CGI aspect of this film slightly elevated than average Indonesian films, but for me personally, it could've been so much better than this.