VALENTINE: THE DARK AVENGER (2019)
Tagline: From the Ashes a Hero Rises...
(Action, Crime, Indonesian Super Hero) [PG-13]
Note: This movie wasn’t given an MPAA rating, but was given a TV-14 rating which is about the equivalent of a PG-13 film it had been given a rating.
Even if it feels like everything around you if falling apart, it doesn’t mean you have to fall apart too.
In this one, we are taken to Batavia City which is being ravaged by crime. A masked man who calls himself the “Shadow” both plagues and protects the city with a few girl fighters at his side. Shadow has his own methods and only promises safety to those that obey him. Meanwhile, a man named Bono recruits a café waitress named Srimaya for a part in a movie he says he’s producing after seeing her beat a few guys in the café. Srimaya really wants to be an actress, but it becomes clear that Bono only wants her to be an icon vigilante that kids can look up to. She takes on the name of Valentine and starts to win over the citizens of the city in spite of the fact that she operates outside of the law. Over time Shadow's antics become more and more dangerous for the citizens of Batavia as he attempts to dismantle the police force.
The story of this movie is a lot different from what we got in KICK-ASS, but it does remind me of that movie because KICK-ASS and Valentine are both characters that rose to vigilantism in unexpected manners. I will say that Valentine did already have a really skilled martial arts background. In fact, pretty much every teen girl in this movie seems to just magically have a ton of martial arts expertise. The style that Valentine uses is Silat. Apparently, this was the first Indonesian superhero movie to feature that martial arts style. As a heads up this is an Indonesian film so if you are watching the English version, it’s all dubbed. I have to commend the team that worked on this because they do a pretty good job.
VALENTINE is based on a comic book character so I am guessing this budget only got them so far. While most scenes rely on practical effects, some of the cars flipping around and other effects are pretty janky looking. Definitely, not the worst I have seen, but don’t expect BLACK PANTHER quality here. We also get a few stylized comic-book-movie-looking shots that reminded me a bit of ULTRAVIOLET, but the photography work is largely straight-up no-frills stuff. Acting wise I thought this was a good effort from Estelle Linden who hasn’t been in anything else I have seen but is getting quite a few roles these days. Matthew Settle takes on the role of Bono and does a pretty decent job, but he’s been better in other roles. He is most known for I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER.
The strong points in this movie are the score and the cast. I thought the pick for Valentine was pretty solid. I also liked that they gave backstories to a few of the characters to make the film a little less one-dimensional. We also get a lot of practical effects in this which is a relief for a comic book movie where throwing too many effects in would have just made it look cheaper than it was going to anyway.
The weak points are the janky editing and a script that is fairly weak when it comes to dialog. I actually thought the story was fine, but might have been better off just watching this on mute for some of these scenes. I don’t mind the CW network like a lot of people do for comic book shows, but this definitely has a CW quality to it. It also seems like it might be Skylar Comics “SPAWN”, where we don’t get another live-action installment for an indefinite number of years. I hope that isn’t the case, but I don’t see a second installment in the works at least for now.
Ultimately this is kind of like an Indonesian BATWOMAN flick with no bat stuff and not as many epic gadgets. So in that sense, I can’t say we really got anything new or innovative here. Because of that the best I can do is give this a 4 out of 7. I enjoyed this one, but I don’t want to set expectations higher than a mid-episode of ARROW. I also kind of want to buy Srimaya a new MoPed or whatever kind of bike she has, because that thing she’s got is not going to pass emissions.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF SKYLAR COMICS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
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