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billygerrardus
Reviews
Penyalin Cahaya (2021)
Very promising, terrible ending.
(Spoilers ahead)
I heard about this movie many times, and I loved Wregas' award winning short movies before so I thought this is going to be very interesting.
The first 3/4 part of the movie really was a superb drama. The search of what was really happening in that night and the one behind that was very compelling and nicely wrapped. However the last quarter of the film is just simply unrealistic.
The dramatization resolved around everyday technology, rational thinking, and the bitter facts of how society treat the victim of sexual harassment. Until a young and rich psychopath dancing while reading a Greek myth inspired poem, in a costume, as his way to destroy the evidence.
The last 1/4 of the film are just full of not well thought scenes. How the hell, someone who can craft a very careful, evil master plan do not know that someone is taking pictures of his creepy behavior? How did Tariq opened the gallery inside the driver's phone? Why did the driver even saved the videos in the first place? How did Rama knew about the drawer under the fish is the place to save the stolen photos?
The ending is also too damn forced, only to show an artistic way of making viral tweets. It's a shame really, and I hope all the movie makers will do better next time because all the ideas and premises are just unique and special.
Rick and Morty: Rickdependence Spray (2021)
I dont get the hate
Why are everyone booing this episode? If I watch rick and morty, this one is what I'm looking for. I think this one is hilarious as always.
The Mandalorian: Chapter 4: Sanctuary (2019)
Good visual, mediocre story
The classic seven samurai plot is kinda overused by now; and have too many cliche.
Gundala (2019)
Promising, with A LOT OF HOMEWORKS
An honest no-spoiler-review, from someone who love marvel superheroesc and only knows Gundala by its name.
If I l'm going to watch a superhero movie, I want to see action, for sure, but a believable one.
The cinematography was amazing, and I think Indonesian moviemakers are starting to catch up with Hollywood. There are so many cool shots! Love to take them as still images. The fighting scenes were taken beautifully, with many long shots. I don't think even marvel do this. Many fighting scenes brought me back to Jackie Chan's films, and the legendary Old Boy corridor-fighting scene.
The story writing, regretfully, was poorly written. I expected much from big name like Joko Anwar, but I have to be honest that it's just a poorly written story. For an origin story, a background of a superhero must be established with enough clarity. Until the very end, I still don't catch what is Gundala's superpowers. Super strength? Super fast? Thunder? It's not even clear whether Gundala himself know his power or not. The pacing was awful and I can barely sympathize with any character. They're either introduced too fast or not introduced at all.
The world building was interesting, but it lacks of screen time. Every demonstration or political scenes are held with close ups. Let the audience know the city, let them feel familiar with its architecture or urban elements, let them be there.
The dialogues and monologues are cheesy and pretentious. The lines were just awful and far from inspiring. And why all the character speaks proper Bahasa while living in a slum-ish urban settings? The audience couldn't relate to it because nobody talk like that real life.
Also it's an action film, and Indo movie makers always forget how they got the good names. We should learn from the Raid 1 and 2 again. It's not the actor, it's how the fights are choreographed and presented. The actors in the movie can be seen seeing where the hits will come from, and the punches are just too shallow.
And last, I know it's hard to make a movie that will be compared to MCU. But it can't be helped. These guys make BLU and supposed to ready for the comparison. But please make a movie that is clear, and just believable. I hope a lot from these movie makers, please don't just throwing all the good actors. MCU started with less known actors for a reason, and you guy should learn from it. Cheers.
The Night Comes for Us (2018)
Unnecessarily graphic (from a fan of The Raid)
Yeah I have to say it out. The beginning of the movie is quite promising with such classic premise of redemption. But at how the story unfold, meh, not so much. The cinematography was great, make ups were great, but the writing was awful.
The Raid was amazing but neither did this movie makers nor Headshot (2016) movie makers got the note from Gareth Evans. The Raid was successful NOT ONLY because of its brutal and graphic fighting scenes. The plot was simple, and make sense. In this movie and Headshot? Not so much.
Somehow the powerful Southeast-Asian triad cant even buy their crews enough guns. The battle before Iko vs Joe was just ridiculous. Joe was fighting 20+ men bare hands, and not one of the enemies have guns.
Julie Estelle's character's affiliations and motivations were not clear, and why on earth they have to keep hiding the girl? Just put her in an orphanage or something. And in the end the same character let the girl alone with dying Joe's character, and that's it.
And finally the graphic scenes are just not fun anymore. Ripping cheek, thumbtack mines, intestines out, and the main characters still alive unless their heads are shot or cut off. Sigh, I dont even understand why all these thugs are master of martial arts. The power scaling was off. The timing and pacing were off.
Netflix's budget was all in for make up and decorations, I guess. And honestly, I think Timo Tjahjanto and Kimo Stamboel still dont learn from this and Headshot, they should've put their hands off action movies and back to horror/slasher movies like Macabre.
Wiro Sableng 212 (2018)
A good start
Exciting experimentation on action movie by Indonesian movie makers. The frames are astounding, and the special effects are great. The biggest mistake should be the fight scenes. People tend to forget of what makes The Raid so successful: it was because of how well the movie makers captured the fight scenes. The actors were fantastic too, but not just that. Wiro Sableng follows the easy trend just to hire the actors from The Raid (Yayan Ruhiyan), not the movie makers.
Other than that, the character developments were too shallow. It's difficult to root for anyone beside the main hero.
It's a good start, but there are so many things to learn. Good job for the movie makers!