The storyline is very straightforward and thin, without much depth. It is about the exploitation of British colonisers, and how the people stand up to fight for their land.
The pacing is weak. It moves too fast from one scene to another (jumping scenes), making the story hard to breathe or digest at times.
There are plenty of action scenes. BUT they are mostly "repetitive", e.g. Fighting with the soldiers and the same "villain" again and again, making the actions flat. Perhaps a real super-villain shall be saved for the very END, so that audiences could be impressed by the REAL FIGHT! However, it's just made fights for the sake of fighting!
Besides, the camera movement is just too shaky that I give up on the action scenes, or rather feel uncomfy towards the action scenes (headache and dizzy). It's alright to have "shaky camera" technique at times, like some Hollywood movies, BUT NOT overdone throughout the entire movie from the beginning to the end.
The character development is seriously weak. There is NOTHING about Mat Kilau, other than he is a leader and good in silat. Also, we could hardly understand much about the characters of the FIVE 'brother fighters'. The emotional and sentimental value is just NOT there enough to touch anyone. As such, I could hardly feel anything, even though TWO of them died or anyone died in the movie.
There is a scene whereby the villagers (at last) came to defend the land and fight against the British. I supposed the director wanted to make an "Avengers Assemble" kind of goose-bump scene, BUT it failed badly. And perhaps due to budget constraints, everything just ended abruptly.
It leaves room for improvement in many aspects, as said above. Oh ya, it's kind of violent with slaughtering and bloody scenes, so pls beware if you were to bring children to the movie.
