THE RAID

Directed by: Gareth Huw Evans
Run time: 101 min

Most of the reviews for this film is positive, they use every superlatives found to describe how awesome this film is. Packed with punches and fighting choreography that can makes your jaws drop (but not mine), this one is a star vehicle for Indonesia's new action star; Iko Uwais and another film to prove that Gareth Evans, the director of Merantau, is a master in this genre. As for me, I will not resort to such superlatives and try to see it in my own way.

It is hard to make a comparison with other Indonesian movies since action genre is very rare nowadays in Indonesia. However one does not simply judge a film by one element only. Although it is good with actions; the story felt stale and very predictable. Story and acting is also important.

The acting skill from Iko Uwais needs more polish and some plot holes are just too big. I cannot ignore those holes, such as how come the SWAT team doesn't even have any sort of badge on their uniform? And I just cannot feel that this is Indonesian film, apart from the language they use.

This film is about violence and glorification of it. No space left for redemption, moral ambiguities or trying to criticize socio political condition in Indonesia, it is just some violent so-called SWAT team trying to take out a drug lord apartment block floor by floor while the main character, Rama (Iko Uwais) is the one being left and must face each thug bare handed.

It could have been more, since I remember Trope de Elite that has a scene where a Brazilian SWAT team invade a favela but the film manages to dive more into the problems of the society. Or perhaps I expect too much and this one is just a film about violence, that's it. I have nothing against violence in movies, as long as it is accompanied by good story. Check Oldboy for instance, there isn't much fighting scenes but one scene where the main character must face so many thug armed with only a hammer is much more satisfying as a brawl scene since the scene also shows desperation.

As a matter of fact, martial art genre is one of my favorite genre. But this one lacks depth or even if it doesn't have depth, a good story to tell and I find myself not really awed by the action itself. Sure it is cool but not jaw dropping in my opinion.

For Indonesian film this is a milestone since we rarely see a film with good production value. But let's not just be satisfied easily since it still take a very long mile for an Indonesian film to be recognized, more than just a fact that this film is being released limited in the US.

I do really hope that for the sequel Gareth could pay more attention on characterization and story to make the film more interesting. So far he has done a good job entertaining us, I am sure he can do more than that.

NEGERI 5 MENARA

Directed by: Affandi Abdul Rachman
Run Time: 120 min

I have to say that the book, literary-wise, is quite boring. There's nothing much going on except for the daily activities inside the pesantren (Islamic boarding school), no shocking conflicts and doesn't leave much for imagination since it is a straightforward story telling, which is kinda 'normal' from a journalist who tries to write a fiction.

With that I embrace myself going to the cinema to watch the film, since I like Indonesian films and to support it, one does simply watch it at the nearest cinema [insert Sean Bean meme here].

After seeing the film I can say that this is a rare case where the film is better than the book where some improvisation really adds to the ups and downs of a story and it is not as boring as the novel. It is nice to see a film which is not too preachy and not overly melodramatic.

The production value is something of a kind where we can see that the filmmaker is really serious to make things convincing, especially all the tidbits about the 80s era, from money that only available at that time into papers for writing mail that reminds me of my own paper mail at home.

However if you pay attention closely, especially for those native from Bandung (just like me) and familiar with the places in the scenes featuring Bandung you can tell that some locations aren't actually as what it seems in the 80s, for example the Asian African Conference museum has pavement tiles that only has been installed in 2005 not in 1989 and Salman mosque in the 80s aren't as colorful as of today. But the filmmaker has tried their best to make it as if it happened in 1989. For non Bandung native it doesn't even matter at all. It is just some small things that I notice.

The chemistry between  Alif (Gaza Zubizareta), Baso (Billy Sandy), Atang (Rizki Ramdani), Said (Ernest Samudra), Raja (Jiofani Lubis), and Dulmajid (Aris Putra) is a nice thing to watch. As newcomers they really show their strength in action. To make it better, they are of age of portraying teenagers and this is a good choice since if the director chose some well known face and older that the character, it might ruin the mood.

These six teenagers are students at Pondok Madani, a modern Islamic boarding school (the setting is the real Gontor boarding school in Ponorogo, East Java) and the film follows their struggle to study and adapt to the discipline of the boarding school, also with their personal problems. 

The gang of six then gathers regularly under the mosque tower, thus the name Sahibul Menara (friends of the tower) surfaced, they promised to each other that one day they will be successful and have each picture of them with different famous towers in the world.

The ending is a bit choppy and people can be confused, why all the sudden the adult version of Alif is in Trafalgar square, London? Well that's the way it is in the book.

As of this review being published, this film has been watched by half a million viewers, something of a kind for an Indonesian film. I know it sounds weird, but I do like the establishing shot in this film, except for that aerial view of Trafalgar Square which I think it's a bit too much.

Having inserted Sean Bean into this review, I also wanted to say this, 9gag wise; I don't always watch Indonesian movies at the cinemas, but when I do I make sure it is good.