Greetings
valued Dan's Movie Report & Action-Flix.com readers, across my
desk today comes a radical new flick out of Indonesia called Gundala.
Gundala is a superhero type flick, but rooted in strong, stylized
Indonesian action. The movie, which has a running time of over two
hours looks to set up a multiple film story line about this a
superhero, whos name translates to the word thunder. His powers seem
to be derived of lighting and he does harness the lightning for
power.
Rather
than spoiling the film I will point my readers to this link on Wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gundala_(film)
this DOES spoil the plot line, so only read after you have watched
it, will clear up things about the movie. Essentially, a young boy
who is orphaned due to his father being killed and his mother being
sick, has to find his calling, Many forces are telling him not to get
involved when he sees injustice, but as he gets older he realizes
that not only must he fight for good, but he needs to awaken his
superpowers to fight.
Usually
Asian films do not have the longer run times beyond an hour an forty
minutes or so, but this is an origin story and I appreciated the time
taken to learn about the character prior to getting his powers. In
addition the people in his life including Wulan played by Tara Basro,
who plays not only the love interest, but she has to impress upon
Gundala how important it is to take up the fight.
The
story line is a bit detailed and may be a trifle confusing, thus
warranting a second viewing. The action fans here are really in it
for the fights, and here is where Gundala shines like a lighting
bolt! With a story line behind them, the detailed fights partially
coordinated by Cecep from The Raid, are really amazing, and creative.
Here we have multiple one vs many fights, in which Gundala has to
avoid and react. The fights are longer and often not completely
resolved, IE people come back to fight after being seemingly down for
the count. In a superhero type film though this is not an issue as it
happens.
There
is a gang style fight on various levels of railings and stairs at an
industrial factory that is a bit interested as some of the thugs are
deposited down what appears to be a deep opening, only to re-appear
later in the fight. Suspend belief, as this is downright comical
level violence, with a middling level of blood, it is not deadpool,
but not Avengers. The subject matter though is mostly for adults and
people over 15 or so. I discuss this, as although the film is no
where near as violent as the raid it is close and has some very
somber tones.
Though
I enjoyed most of the cinematography most of the film is shot in a
bland sepia tone, that said it looked dark and dreary outside for
much of the movie anyway. The nighttime scenes were not as well lit
as they should be, but actually in this case it gives the movie more
of a mysterious feel, and you still could see what was going on.
Director
and writer Joko Anwar handles the adaptation well and keeps the story
flowing, never getting bogged down in unecessary filler. Dialogue is
important in superhero origin stories to learn about the character
and their flaws and strengths. Gundala is a slow build, and his
original suit is made up of common household items including a
woman's handbag! A man of the people and Anwar makes sure we see
this, there is no fortress of solitude here, Gundala is a humble
often reluctant warrior. Once though he realizes his power, there is
no stopping him and even a powerful villain like Kelly Tandiono's
character of Mutiara is ultimately no match for his strength and
harnessing of lightning!
Speaking about Kelly, Thanks to her for telling me about this movie last year, or else I may never have heard about it, even though it will be out in the US on Well Go USA on July 28th. Kelly plays a very bad girl in the film and is hot and hell bent on killing Gundala, and she shows off some cool moves, I like her lines and style in action, and hope she gets in on some US film asap as we here need less tiny fragile girls in action and more taller rougher ones!
Look for a new interview with Kelly, in the meantime check out our 2018 interview where she talks about working on the project: http://dansmoviereport.blogspot.com/2018/12/actressmodel-kelly-tandiono-interview.html
Overall,
I really enjoyed Gundala, and am of course looking forward to either
a sequel or even better perhaps would be an 8 or 10 episode Netflix
or HBO series, with the characters even more fleshed out so to speak.
I rate Gundala a buy and 7 out of 10!
For
further information please go to the Well Go USA site @
https://www.wellgousa.com/films/gundala
Full
Trailer @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1Oxxyc7o0c
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