Krystala

... And that's exactly what the executives of the parent network said when they realized they lost the rights to the country's most popular comic book character. They immediately began working on a super-heroine series immediately before their rival network even began filming the original. Afterwards, the network claims they started the superhero series fad on TV. Shallow, huh?

'Krystala' is, a poor clone of the 'Darna' storyline: poor girl discovers superpowers and helps mankind, sacrificing life and family in the process. The network's superstar Judy Ann Santos stars as Krystala/Tala (Darna/Narda?), the fully-clothed super-heroine with amazing powers. Senior actors include Cherie Gil as one of the enemies that resemble Darna's arch enemy Valentina. Later in the series, a mysterious hooded dark lord (who is a dead-ringer for Star Wars' Emperor Palpatine) appears as the main enemy of Krystala.

And the shallowness ends there. The storyline is decent enough; think peter parker's dilemmas in the 'Spider-Man' movies where the hero/heroine struggles to balance real life and hero life. Again, audiences have seen this scene before... in various superhero movies. The only thing good that ever came out of 'Krystala' is that it became a sort of 'pre-programming appetizer' of Darna.

Audiences, i included, can only say, "Thanks for warming us up, Krystala! Now move your huge butt out of here and we're ready for Darna, the real super-heroine!"

I can hardly wait for Darna to finally come out.

I guess, Krystala is not as Bad as some of the TV series that we had way back before, although it is not as expensive series as what we always expect. Still, it shows and yes they gave some memorable values and exciting scenes that we did not expect to happen.

Krystala is a new adventure of a new-made super heroine of Philippines, and that we should be grateful for having an additional inspiration for our future children.

It shouldn't be compared to Darna, because we may find it competing not into our superheroes but the makers itself.

It is not a copy-cut version of Darna, since it doesn't shoes any similarity of the original Darna context (if you have read it(?)), but it was made a 100 percent original, from costumes, story, and to villains.

The only problem is that, the Effects are not so nice but you can see the effort that they have done, from one scene execution to another, showing the action and yet the values still there's, afterward.

Krystala, may not be as famous as what other heroes that we have, but later on, she might be known by one, two, or three other children who've watched the entire show and soon to have a movie, another TV series and who knows, a famous icon too...someday...

Let's just cross our finger and support not only Krystala but the up coming heroes that we will be having in future.