As you may know, I'm a superhero movie fan. As a matter of fact, for these past couple of years the only thing I've been watching (in the cinemas) is either an Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) or DC Extended Universe (DCEU) movies, save for a couple odds ones. But, today, the superhero movie I'm going to review is different. Because its origin was from my own country: Indonesia!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you know me in real life, you could say I'm one of those whose side-eyeing the fuck of Indonesia's film industry due to its predictable themes and cheesiness of said movies. Most of the times the films that got released here were horrors, romantic comedies or an inspiring stories set in a foreign land. I don't know about you, but there is only so much drama I can take on my life lmao
Anyway, Gundala is an original superhero film directed by one of the best director in Indonesia this decade, Joko Anwar (whom I really trust to create a quality Indonesian movie) based the comics character Gundala created by Harya “Hasmi” Suraminata in 1969. It is set to be the first installment of Jagat Sinema BumiLangit or BumiLangit Cinematic Universe (BLCU). Think of it as a localized version of MCU.
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| Gundala (2019) Theatrical Poster. Taken from Gundala Wikipedia Page |
Despite being an Indonesian born and raised, I do not know a single thing about the universe or its comic origins lol but I feel still excited regardless. We Indonesians were used to looked down on whatever local products that reassemble or inspired by foreign cultures (specifically, the west). While I admit I was one of the culprit, I realized that it also a good thing. Being inspired to do something that has been proven successful and trying to do it locally means that our people will be using or at least acquiring the same set of skills and knowledge of doing those that inspired them in the first place. So, win for us, in the end!
IN ANOTHER WORDS, I was freaking excited for this movie and could not wait to have a superhero universe I can call my own!! I was already imagining things like: green screen! powers! BOOM sounds!!! costumes!! fight!!!! DEATH!!!!
..... no, I'm not excited about the 'death' but you know what I mean... right.
Then since today I'm having an off day from work I decided to just went and watched the damn thing and filled up my expectation!
But I was WRONG. Dead wrong.
Even with those expectation, I honestly surprised by what I was getting (in a good way!) instead.
Sancaka has lived on the streets since his parents left him. Living a hard life, Sancaka survives by thinking about his own safety. When the condition of the city gets worse and injustice rages throughout the country, Sancaka must decide whether he continues to live to look after himself or rise to become hero for the oppressed.
The film starts with a flashback on Sancaka's childhood and it took about 30 minutes to be told. I think Muzakki Ramdhan, who play young Sancaka, gave the role justice. I could sense the desperation on the first act and I'm honestly surprised on how frustated I was on his condition. I did think that these flashback was a waste of time, thought. But I revised that thought later on.
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| Abimana Aryasatya (left) who potrayed Sancaka/Gundala and Muzakki Ramdhan (right). Taken from Jakarta Globe. |
I was not even sure at what kind of... genre Joko was going at the start lol like it honestly felt like a horror, thriller and political movie at times So much that I found my self waiting for Ibu to came out from the dark (from Joko's horror debut, Pengabdi Setan (2017)). The closest thing I can compare to is to Captan America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and its sequel, Civil War, mainly because of the plot.
Speaking of plot, the movie has soooo many stories it want to tell that I got overwhelmed during screening. There were times I wonder 'is this even the same movie?' like... have you watched Batman v. Superman or Aquaman? So many points they want to make in the short period of time. I did not even sure how they will connect Sancaka to the main (I said main because lemme tell you there are so many villains in this film that I am still not sure how to find their name even hours after watching it) villain, Pengkor.
Imagine my surprise when I found out that it got rated for PG-13. The lack of blood notwithstanding, the first act was violent as fuck! Like, children are acting in it in such a gory/grotesque way! Not to mention Pengkor's flashback scene like, omg, the kid was E V I L.
The more I think about it, I would be fine if Joko Anwar decides to make a prequel for Pengkor. He seems like to have a nice, interesting story to tell and it would be cool to have some backstory on the 'Anak Yatim' team. Also it was kinda funny how I expecting a mini supers team up at the end of the film. Instead, I got a Suicide Squad mini reunion.
Turns out she is not and that was Asmara Abigail omg I love her
With how packed the story lines are, the move should lasted as long as, if not longer, than Avengers: Endgame. THAT would be hella long, but at least we will get some nice answers.
(Then I revised my earlier opinion about the length of Sancaka's backstory lol like it was enough but the rest of the movie is not enough)
Oh I gotta talk about the cinematography. The fact that this movie was shot without green screen AND minimal CGI is beyond me. The actors and cameramen did a very good job on making it appeared powerful on screen. It's nice to see an action movie that instead of seeing a computer generated actions, we got an actual person doing the works. Kudos!
All in all, I think Gundala is a solid debut for BLCU, and a movie we can be proud of, as Indonesians. A complete package, dare I say: It has a dark undertone people like a la DCEU, some one-liner jokes a la MCU without it being cheesy or stupid and ruining the mood (hi, Tony Stark's line!), gorgeous cinematography, a star-studded casts assemble (Nicholas Saputra!!! Dian Sastro!!!!! even Zara from JKT48 omg) the most important thing: a substance, which we locals always demanded in our movie *rolling eyes*. A newbie, who has no reconciliation of who Gundala is or what BumiLangit are can be rest assured that you can watch (and survive) watching this movie like I did.
Jagat Sinema BumiLangit is off to a good start. Hopefully the studios and team will not fuck it up (side eyeing DCEU).
Looking forward to the rest of the universe!
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| Source: Tribunnews |
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p.s. there is ONE mid-credit scene so do wait for that!
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