Motel Melati (2023) User Reviews

Good premise, not good enough execution

[elmiragifta · 3/10 · 16 August 2023]

(for reference I watch the netflix cut, if even there's a difference than the theater cut) Good things first, this movie looks stunning. Cinematography looks great, so great it took a minute to realize this is NOT horror-comedy ala disney. The style is out of place, doesn't evoke fear in the slightest. Add this style with the surprising gore, its confusing on wether or not it's evoking haunted mansion style of horror (aka for kids) or for adult audiences. I like the back & forth story line, but the pacing of the kills is off, one kill super quick, the other stretch out for way too long- it gets boring. So many information fed to us by the narration, like spoon feeding us with so many plot points, yet nothing is answered, some don't even get brought up again it's almost pointless. Why would you bring information up for the audience only for all of it to not be answered or have any conclusion whatsoever? If this was made to get people to watch the series, it failed. This is not an established universe, Losmen Melati doesn't yet have the name or the fame to pull an audience based on teasers, yes i consider this movie an overly long drawn out teasers. You need to make the audience crave for more by giving them a compelling story line and conclusions that evoke more mystery that the audience will crave the answer to, not plot points with no climax, no point, no conclusion that we must watch another mini series just to get some semblance of an idea of what we are watching the last 1.5 hour. This was shown as a stand-alone movie, not a pilot for a series, yet that's what it is, a glorified pilot filled with too many introduction of characters with no significance, and the fact that this was shown in actual cinemas? What was the expectation, for the audience to leave the theater to go and do their homework of watching another 10 episode to find out what happen in a movie they just watch?. Let's get to the acting, some good, some are not. Dialogue is choppy, some are clearly an overexposition, yet again that bit of extra information is useless when there is no conclusion. Nothing is answered, at all. Not even why they do what they do, not how the Losmen is established, what the curse is beside some vague statement of danger, nothing. If this is a way to tease a series, it's not working. Should've put this as a pilot. As a movie, this doesn't work in the slightest, and i will be putting blame on the distributors, because audience shouldn't have to find out if a movie marketed as movie playing in the cinemas, is in fact a stand-alone movie, or a glorified pilot that we need to sign up and pay more to get the whole point of the plot. The 3 stars is for the cinematography, set design, and narration by Alexandra Gottardo.