Mat Kilau

After I watched this movie, I needs more happiness. I FEEL THERE'S LESS FACTOR TO CHEERS!

Some people like this movie, but others criticised the tone and its presentation. To me, I felt the movies have many things that make me leap into the cliff. But I don't blame the director and audience, but I blame myself for watching this action flick. The story is okay, and the action sequences are exemplary yet cool, but those need some improvement like music, camera angle, dialogues and casting. Before I watched this flick, I wonder how the majority of Malay friends flock to the cinema, maybe eagerly supporting the movie industry to thrive to the highest standards. My point is, why this flick is the currently highest Malaysian film of all time? Oh, perhaps it's the message, the history, the Malays pride, and some religion's messages. Maybe I was wrong, by the way.

Malaysian films like Ola Bola, Sepet, movies of P. Ramlee etc, give me hope and excitement, on the other hand, this film feels weird and kind of out of place. The film is pretty good actually, but when it comes to the message and the target audiences, the director needs to consider himself to unite the nation.

Mat Kilau: Kebangkitan Pahlawan is surely a milestone for local creators, but I hope I could watch some more creative and cheerful films to deal with the problemata. To those people who want to try, I'd say: Frater et Sorrores, quidam veritas verba sanat.

Don't get me wrong. I love the spirit and I know what kind of message that SY has been trying to deliver. But man... it is badly made.

1. Script

• One guy throw a line and not even a 0.01s, another guy throws his line almost cutting the first line. No momentum, no space to feel anything. Give them some time. You're not rushing. Though the pronunciations are clear, I already forgot the first guy's line 3 seconds ago.

2. Action Scenes.

• Love the superb choreography. But the camera work? It's not helping. Yes, we can see them punching and yes, we can see them flying but does the camera work helps? Oh I kid you not, it does not work. The intention of shaky cameras is to make the audience feel like you're there in a fight. Not in a 4x4 back seat heading towards Sabah rural school.

3. Editing Sequence.

• Jump cuts, here and there. Cutting the screen time for the sake of intensity? This is no KL Gangster.

4. Background Music.

• Oh my God, loud here and there. Over 95% of the film are filled with soundtracks. This is a Malay epic film and how come there's no Malay-feel soundtracks? Rembat Hollywood's soundtrack is it? At least go full silence on 'supposedly intense' fight scene. Make people feel engaged to the fight.

5. Ending.

• Believe there are 5 stages in storytelling structures, no? Bla bla bla, silat this and that, Adi Putra gave his speech after a fight and it ends. That's it? Even iklans by agency have an ending, man.

Overall, I'd say this is a good try la. Take this comment as a feedback into account and consider.

This is literally the worst film from the Director, his previous films were watchable and enjoyable. This one fails so badly till you legit have to force yourself to watch till the end. Could've improved a lot of things but they've decided to leave it that day!

Overall watch at your own risk, skip this if you want to.

This movie is shallow, peppered with preachy scripts and cliches.

It needs a better writer... Character building is almost non-existent. The protagonist appeared out of nowhere, was thrown into a leadership role and started preaching about nationalism and religion. This is followed by a cliche drama where another character is envious of the chosen leader.

The preaching doesn't end there. It kept reminding you that the British were evil and tried to convince the viewers how important nationalism & religion were to them. This was done over and over again

This makes the protagonist one dimensional and they wasted such a good talent on this. Some of the minor characters have better development than the protagonist.

It needs breathing room... Some of the scenes jump around too fast, it seems as though they were rushing it in the editing room. Perhaps to include more preaching into the scenes?

Need some realism.... The costumes are inaccurate. Modern clothing and clothing items were used and its so obvious, it will throw historians & anthropologist into a fit.

The British soldiers are filled with entirely 'Punjabis'. Obviously, this wasn't the case in reality.

To create epic fight scenes, they have Yayan Ruhian. But it seems they wrote his character as an after thought.

Conclusion... If you don't care about good storytelling, character development, screenplay and accuracy, you will most likely like this movie.

If you appreciate good filmmaking and who goes to film festivals, you will want to skip this.

All the weaknesses have been mentioned here by other reviews. Screenwriting, jump cuts, camera works etc etc.

My main complaint is how SY ended his film. It just end abruptly, like TOO abrupt. I'm all for film that ended on cliffhanger but there's literally certain style and technique to leave an impact to the viewer not just fade to black just after nothing remarkable happened before that. When the credits kicks in I'm just like "That's it?". Poor way to end a film that supposed to be an historical epic.