Zguin Reviews

Gundala (2019)

Lackluster

[3/10 · 2 September 2019]

Joko Anwar, one of the most prominent filmmakers in Indonesia, delivers luwarm blockbuster that is full of cliches and unnecessary setups for its doomed universe.

Incoherent storytelling and series of action set pieces that serve no purpose in the plot except to showcase some fine stunt work. Its mash of random scenes. For example there is a scene of protagonist fighting the thugs then at the end of fight the scene switches to different group discussing. Then again, the scene switches to protagonist fighting a different group of thigs at different location. The film does not explain why or how the protagonist got there and why is he fighting.

Again because producers want to build "universe" they insert several random scenes that average audience will say "What just happened?"

Some production designs and cinematographies are quite decent. The vibe of the 1st act had mixed horror vibe with Dark Knight-ish tone. However, overall horrible script with terrible pacing combined with choppy edits made this film to become Daredevil instead of the Dark Knight.

I mean Ben Affleck's Daredevil

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019)

Tango & Cash on Steroid

[5/10 · 4 August 2019]

This is reincarnation of 80s action movie in modern cinema

Dumbass plot with cheesy dialogues with spectacular set pieces after another.

The Rock and Statham (previously under-utilized in Furious 7) brings much chemistry in nowadays missing 'buddy cop' genre.

Idris Elba does his best as Black Superman ... I mean Brixton Lore. The script doesnt do justice but Elba really tried hard. He deserves more than this...

The 3rd act is the unnecessary plot which serves no purpose in the plot except forcing the family theme that this franchise is infamously known for. They should have stick with the spy espionage genre what the movie tried the 2/3 way. The whole 3rd act seem like a whole different movie.

Captain Marvel (2019)

Generic. Just another episode of MCU. Nothing more.

[6/10 · 7 March 2019]

Marvel movies can never be taken seriously as a standalone movie. I dont remember when it was but I just started to feel that I should watch MCU movies because I dont want to miss the episode.

As usual this is just another episodic movie that fits right in the never-ending MCU.

Still Marvel does fine job on delievering fun story with right jokes to hit at the right time.

Ben Mendelsohn as Talos is a great villain. Same goes with other supporting characters including Jude Law and Gemma Chan. Scene stealer of the movie is obviously Sam L Jackson. Jackson portrays younger Fury more energetic and rookier than his current character. Every scenes with Jackson were a blast!

Sadly... I strongly beleieve Brie Larson is a miscast. She is extremely dull and boring. Marvel should have hired more energetic and fun actress to portray Carol Denvers.

Hope she does better in future films but in this movie Brie Larson is not quite right.

Foxtrot Six (2019)

Missed opportunity

[2/10 · 22 February 2019]

I was hoping this movie will open up its doors to new era for Indonesian action movies.

Boy I was so wrong.

The incoherent storytelling continuously distract viewers from immersing into the narrative. There were so many scenes which I didnt understand the reason its happening or some scenes are just way too incoherent that made me laugh due to script's absurdity.

At the same time the horrendous dialogues and one liners, seems it was written by a 7th grade action movie fanatic who just copied and pasted all those cliched dialogues from 80s action movies.

At one point one character expresses his emption in three random words 'How?' 'Why?' and 'Nevermind!'. That terrible line made the actor to perform worst acting in his career.

At least I was expecting some decent action set pieces. But then again what I got was uninspired action set pieces one after another. Just few scenes with anime wanna be actions with terrible stunt choreographies.

And then there is this SOUND MIXING...

The sound in this movie is just unbearable for your ears. From awkward dialogues I mentioned earlier to terrible voice over. The worst part of sound mixing is during action scenes where sound engineers just amped up the volume so high as if the pistol is firing a canon. The sound effects just scream in your ear over and over again til your eardrum gets numb.

If this movie was released on Youtube instead, as "Fan Made Call of Duty Movie! " it might've caught high school fanboys' attention.

Sorry Indonesia, this is not the future of your cinema