Cicakman, A New Hope......NOT!
It's been more than 20 days since I last updated my blog. Not that I don't want to, I was busy with work. Plus, the last four days, I was struggling to log into my blog account! Somehow or rather, I had problems with the password or something. Niways, I'm back!
These past weeks, I've been getting rave reviews on this movie called Cicakman. Entertainment editors, reporters just can't stop talking about it. It has hit RM4million, thus far. Last week, when I was in Kuala Terengganu, my colleagues, who have watched the movie, were laughing by themselves just because they remembered a scene from the movie. It really got me thinking.
"Maybe this is it...the movie that will break the pathetic mould that has been gripping our local movie standard...Finally, I can be proud of another Malaysian product (Nicole David is the other one)"
So, last Sunday, I did the unthinkable. I went to watch Cicakman. Went with my girlfriend. Tickets were free anyway, in case you were wondering. So, had my popcorn, chacos and a large coke with me, anxiously waiting for the reel to roll. I noticed a lot of parents were duped by their kids to join the bandwagon, as well. 99% Malay and 1% dan lain-lain category. After a few movie trailers, a couple of lousy ads and 20 minutes past the actual movie time, the movie actually started.
Opening was okay. Tiru spiderman movie. I'm still okay with it. As long as you improvise with what you're copying. Then, Apek (Hairi), Yusry (Danny) and Fasha's (Tania) characters were introduced. Hairi@Cicakman was the gelabah character, Danny was the cool one and Tania was the supposedly nice and innocent girl character. All of them works with Klon Technology Corp. owns by Prof. Klon. Both the guys work in the lab and Tania as the secretary. I don't know why but, Metrofulus (it's name of the city in the movie) was not based on KL, but New York cum London. Winter la konon. I guess the producer was not proud of our own city, I don't know la. Fine. 10 minutes have passed, the same characters were still on the screen! Believe it or not, in the same period, we know how Hairi becomes Cicakman, already!
"What happen to other characters la?" I was beginning to feel uneasy. The story flow was bad already.
Suddenly, Aznil (Prof. Klon), AC Mizal and Adlin Aman Ramly (Ginger Boys) came into the picture. Prof. Klon character was a combination of Harvey Two Face and The Riddler of Batman. And the Ginger Boys was obviously copied from the twin character of the Matrix movie. Prof. Klon was obviously the villain of the movie and the Ginger Boys were his henchmen. As usual, the villain wants to take control of the city/country. In this movie, it was via clonning (duh!?) By replacing all the ministers with his clones, he could take control of the city. I guess Prof. Klon has never heard of the word 'BRIBERY'. Simple plot actually.
Earlier, our two boys were working in their lab on an antidote called Virus 266. They suspected their boss were into something mischievious when they saw the news on TV. Out of the blue, Hairi and Danny wanted to get behind the action. A few days later, Hairi found out that he had superpowers. And become Cicakman. Also, they got to know that Hairi's body cells were slowly turning into cicak cells. And in a matter of time, he will become a cicak fully! At the same time, Cicakman must stop Prof. Klon, save Metrofulus and his friends who later became hostages.
Can he do it? I didn't really care. We actually left after about an hour in the theatre. I just couldn't take it anymore as the screenplay was really bad. And my blood was boiling to the max. Clearly, I was too disappointed with the whole thing that I couldn't wait any longer. No point of wanting to watch the ending coz it might make things worse for me.
Another local movie that didn't even meet the BASIC REQUIREMENTS OF A MOVIE.
1) 5 minutes = Opening
2) 10-15 minutes = Introduce all characters and a bit of background (FAILED)
3) Next 15 minutes = connect all the characters into the story (SO-SO)
4) Next 30 minutes = storyline (FAILED)
5) 15-20 minutes = problems/issues (SIMPLE)
6) 15 minutes = solve problem/issues (SIMPLE)
7) 5-10 minutes = The End (THANK GOD!)
All in all, I have to say that the idea of the movie was not bad. Eventough, it was another clone of the Spiderman movie. The CGI was okay. the cinematography was good, though. However, the screenplay was t e r r i b l e. The acting was bad. Directing was bad, too. Aznil was overacting throughout the movie. Jokes were not really funny. That happens when Apek had to follow scripts.
The problem with our filming industry is the screenplay. We suck at it, big time. We have to admit that WE ARE BAD AT TELLING STORIES. We might have the ideas but we're poor at putting them on screen. Ever since the P. Ramlee era, there is still no light at the end of the tunnel. Is there still hope out there? I don't know, I really hope so. For the time being, we're dangling our hopes with Cicakman.
VERDICT : 4.5 out of 10
CATEGORY : A "must-not-see-and-if-you-did-you're-a-dumbass" movie.
