Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa - The Movie

*In Malay*

My gang & I, we were really looking forward to this movie. We've made a plan to go & watch it as soon as it hits the cinema. And we did just that :)

So, 6 of us... really excited. We met up after work, have enough dinner to get us in the right mood and give us enough energy to enjoy this movie. Heheheee... why were we so excited? OMG! Didn't you guys see the trailer? It was just WOW. It's like an epic movie... complete with warriors, battles, warships, pirates, black magic, the mythical bird 'Garuda' and not to forget, love. Auuuwwwww...

How was the movie?

Mixed feelings *Sigh*

Perhaps I shouldn't have put my expectations so high... but that would be so wrong. I've been waiting for Malaysian movie to start picking up and try to be on the same level with Hollywood movies. KRU Productions did just that. The movie effects were really excellent. It just need a little bit more tuning up & a little bit more experience. So, for effort and an attempt to bring Malaysian movie industry to the next level, I give this movie 10/10. Bravo KRU! I've always respected your vision & talent.

BUT... other than that, there are a lot of improvements needed. I'm not a professional movie critic, so I wouldn't know the aspects that I should consider when judging a movie. In this case, I'm only able to judge based on my overall feelings after I watched this movie and my feelings tell me that a lot of things were off. I came out of the cinema thinking 'what????' and confirmed that this is not the movie that I want to watch for the second time. Once was enough...

The movie wasn't all bad. Some of the parts were good:

• The fight scenes were good even though I think the fights were too fast and I couldn't see the fighting movements, therefore couldn't really appreciate it.
• I like the scenes between the Roman Prince & the China Princess. Good chemistry there *wink*
• Kamawas was really a bad a**. Convincing character. Same goes to the China's Admiral.
• The Princess's maid was a good character. She colored the movie :)
• The scene where we can see Rome's & China's battle ship came to their aid was great. Great CGI at work :)
• And the China Admiral's last dialog was really touching... "Princess, let this life be your wedding present". Wahhhhh... really made me want to cry!

I wrote the good news first. Now, the not so good ones... the list is longer... eikkssssss....  

• I hate the dialogs. Inconsistent and some are really ridiculous. When they speak Malay, I was sure that ancient Malay do not speak that way.
• What's up with the narrator's weird sore throat voice? Are you guys trying to out do Bruce Wayne's voice in Batman Begins?
• The fight scene... what kind of martial art was used in that movie? Not Silat... not Tomoi... although I can see a bit of KungFu. But, there was hardly art in the fighting. Only actions... I think...
• What's up with Embok? That woman seems cuckoo to me... looks like she's having PMS all throughout the movie. Really unstable hormones...
• Poor Rahim Razali... that wig was horrible! And don't get me started on the tiger wig that the bad guy was wearing... worst Halloween costume ever! :P
• Merong Mahawangsa speech before they go into battle with the pirates... could it be any longer? I wasn't inspired nor motivated... it made me sleepy. I rolled my eyes thinking, this Merong really 'syok sendiri'. *yawn*
• "Kami ini bangsa yang banyak parut..." I think I remember that line correctly. I figured it was meant to be implicit... but that sentence was a joke... it made me laugh.
• Somehow, I feel that Stephen Rahman was not the right person to be Merong Mahawangsa. I don't know what is it... but something's off...
• And lastly... I hate the script. It made me lose interest in history. I don't think Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa is that bad... eeeikkkssss...

At the end of the movie, there were people clapping, so I guess there are people who will disagree with what I just wrote :) As for me, I wasn't expecting to laugh at this movie... but I did. To defend myself, I wasn't the only one laughing. I could hear people on the last four rows laugh as if we were watching a comedy. We can't help it. It was ridiculously funny!

I don't mean to condemn Malaysian movies... I admit there are good ones. Hollywood movies are not all good as well. 'Into the Blue' for example. But I didn't blog about that movie.

I blog about 'Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa' because I care. I hope KRU will be extra careful next time, especially when the movie is about history. If the movie is fiction, you are allowed to go crazy as far as your imagination can go.

So... one last question.. is this movie going international??? Oh no...

'Selamat malam, sayang...'

OMG Kamawas... you tickled me! *Sigh*

'Movie critic not for hire' signing out.