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denny_ajah
Reviews
Prometheus (2012)
A different approach of thriller by Ridley Scott.
First of all, my English is not that good, so cut me some slack, okay? When i hear Ridley Scott is directing a new film called Prometheus, i rushed forward to Youtube and search the Trailer, boy did i not disappointed, the Trailer is the perfect reminder of how good is Scott when he make Alien in 1979. The Science fiction genre mixed with the Thriller is a very powerful formula even to this day. And once again Ridley Scott bring us this genre in perfection.
The opening showed us a world where the nature is as beautiful as its danger. Lush Savannah, massive river ended in a towering waterfall, then the scene shows us a humanoid form roaming this wild nature alone. Drinking a black fluid which harms it body, detaching its body, and then dissolving its body into something familiar like human DNA. what is the meaning of this scene? that is this movie all about. The Origins of human life.
The film fast forwarded to the Prometheus, the advanced technology Space ship. Inside it, the crew members stand hibernating while David (Michael Fassbender) the protocol droid who can learn everything and doing everything including learning an alien language doing its job taking care of the ship until they reaches their destination. Which is earth-sized planet in a galaxy. This galaxy is suspected to be related to every prehistoric human drawing in the cave, explains the duo scientist Elizabeth Shaw (noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) despite their different belief of the origins of humans. Shaw believe that the humans originated by a divine purpose while Charlie despise it and believe its more of an explainable one than just the word "divine". The crew are working under the supervising of Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron), a representative of the corporation that privately financed the Prometheus expedition, who treated them just like a standard employee.
Upon the arrival of the planet, they immediately found a straight line which they believe (and we do) is not the work of nature, but the work of intelligent life. The line leads them into somekind of a dome. And so, with Janek (Idris Elba) the pilot of the Prometheus work his way with the ship, they began their mission and landing into the barren dust unbreathable and harsh planet and entering that dome which strangely, have a breathable air. Soon, what they found in there shock them beyond their Imagination.
Ridley Scott brings the first hour of Prometheus into a Human Drama. A little conflict between them ended in a fascinating and horror experience of alien life they found. It may seems boring, but sets the story into a solid one. The next hour turns into the horror and thriller. How they found out piece by piece about this alien life turns out to be not what they expected, how its dangerous to them, and how they must survive against it. Scott is pretty serious with this movies. Attention to detail, property, and cast is superb. And if you are a fan of Alien 1979 movie, you will have a clue about this movie. And if you not a fan, the ending will explain you what it all about. While the alien shocked the audience with fear, dark, gory, shadows, and surprise, Prometheus is messing with your brain with its main puzzle, the origins of human life, with a thriller on it act as an icing of the cake. Its a good perspective by Scott, but not enough for us to be runs out from theatre like what Alien did to us. So if you looking for horror and scary stuff, its not what you are looking for.
The premises of this movie is good, and Scott has put a solid start into a possibly a sequel or another franchise. with an open ending, i'm guessing a Sequel and a spin off will be possible.
Serbuan maut (2011)
Overrated by the Hype, but eventually earns its place in a very High Position.
When The Raid : Redemption hits the cinema in Indonesia on 23rd March 2012, the movie goers gone wild, the hype that has been build from last December really really help, the media also help to promote the movie with a various praise and extensive buzz, but the most helping part is.. the internet. The Raid gets the Most anticipated Indonesian movies ever since the Director made a blog about the upcoming project of his movie called the raid, then it goes to a local forum in Indonesia called Kaskus (which also happens to be the biggest forum in Indonesia), and before long, the attention come to this project until eventually this movie proved itself in a premiere in a local festival called INAFFF (Short for: Indonesia Internasional Fantastic Films Festival). The Raid gets a Massive praise from the early review, and went abroad to a foreign festival where it too get a critical acclaimed and won the Midnight Madness Award in TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival), and This, is the Beginning of the successful story of The Raid.. But enough with the wikipedia..
The Raid tell us a story about a group of a local SWAT-look-alike Police Squad, consist of 18 man including a rookie member Rama (Iko Kuwais), trying to Raid a 15 floor height Apartment Block that shelter the most wanted bad ass criminal led by a Crime Lord called Tama Riyadi (Ray Sahetapy) and two of his most trusted man, the brutal Hit-man 'Mad Dog' (Yayan Ruhian) and Tama's right hand man 'Andi'. The SWAT Team, led by Sergeant Jaka (Joe Taslim) and supervised by Liutenant Wahyu (Pierre Bruno), then got trapped by the alarmed resident, and must fight for they survival. a very recycle bin plot. But sometimes, when the other part of the movies is so shining, the plot doesn't matter anymore.
"Please, enjoy yourself.." said Tama the Crimelord while he instructing all the criminal to find and kill all of the SWAT Group with the intercom that broadcasts in the whole apartment. And soon, The massive Horde of criminal are raiding them back with guns and knife and machete and a martial art skill that they have. This movie promises us action and blood, and thats what it delivers, A gunfight scene and a martial art called 'Silat' with a fatal move featuring of bone crunching, blood spilling, neck breaking in about 3/4 duration of the movie. Its soo brutal and violent that the foley artist must be having a hard time finding correct sound to fill the brutally martial arts scene. Speaking of that, the results of that fighting sound effect is actually great, a mandarin martial art films great, and the fact that this movie is from Indonesia, i think the foley artist should get an award for his work in the local awarding festival.
The fighting itself is absolutely mesmerizing. The beautiful 'Silat' Martial Art choreographed by Yayan Ruhian and Iko Kuwais, and with the mix use of quick cut, editing, and camera angle are creative enough to refresh the genre and entertain the viewers, the fatal move is so brutal and yet realistic that will keep you glued to your seat for the entire movie. You may know how the character is gonna be dead, but what you don't know is how. And with a great background music composed by Fajar Yuskemal and Ario Prayugi (in Indonesian Version), The Raid is really delivering the action with a guaranteed satisfaction.
One thing that The Raid lack of is, the dialogue. it is so corny if you understand Indonesian. But, if you don't speak BAHASA, you might find it okay. The cast are okay, but not so good. the veteran Ray Sahetapy is just brilliant. His deep voice, his gesture, and his sometimes innocent words are the living breath of Tama the Crime Lord. While Iko Kuwais is not convincing enough for me as a SWAT team. But its only a minor flaws that are forgettable when you see this movie.
This is a new level of Indonesian Cinema. It may look just awesome in Hollywood industry, but it means a lot for the Indonesian film Industry. its not just the action that made us, the indonesians, watch it and praise it, its the production value of the film. The value that we hope will be followed by all Indonesian movies afterwards.
------------------sorry for the grammar.. i know its bad, but i think you know what i mean :)
Darah Garuda (2010)
Better in term of everything from 'Merah Putih'
Amir, Thomas, Dayan, and Marius return in the most expensive movie project Indonesia's ever seen.
After the successful raid on Dutch Army's Supply Convoy, Amir, Thomas, Dayan, and Marius immediately found the General Soedirman's Headquarter deep in the forest. And with the experienced the got, they've been recruited into the elite unit under command of the explosive yet wise soldier, Sergeant Yanto (Ario Bayu). Captain Amir then replace Yanto's position as the unit leader. Their first mission, to crippled the the dutch army's airfield construction. Whatever the cost, whatever the risk. sounds pretty Hollywood to me.
and indeed the dialogue are still the same, still influenced by 'hollywood', and therefore, failed to impressed me. acting aren't so good either, only Rudy Wowor acted so good as Major Van Gaartner, other actor/actress seems not doing their best.
the plot in this movie are much better than the prequel. so does the character development. in term of story, the film are good enough. looks like every character has its own problem, its own story, and they have to work it out together to solved their problem. but it doesn't mean the story are good though, its not. still looks like a B class storywrite for me.
the action scene are perform well and better than the first film, we can see a larger portion of action scene here, building blew up, bullets flying arround, blood splattering all over, people shot over, guns fire endlessly, knives stabbing into the body, the action are much BETTER than the first one. I can say that in this movie, the budget threw in a good hands. it is an expensive movies.
well it has rejuvenated my excitement to the trilogy, with still many flaws, i find this movie entertained enough. i'm not satisfied, but i'm looking forward for the finale.
7 out of 10 is an adequate score.
sorry for my English.