Badang: A male college student is often bullied by friends because of his gentle nature but actually has extraordinary power. His mother died due to being hit by a criminals who came to ask money for protection. With his extraordinary power, the young man was looking for a mastermind in charge of his mother's death.
My rating: 0.1/5 star
Badang is the latest Malaysian superhero film directed by Datuk Profesor Dr. A. Razak Mohaideen, set to be released in February 2018. I was given the privilege to watch the premier of the film during the FiTA’s KaryaOne Week in Dewan Agung Tuanku Canselor, UiTM Shah Alam. I had expected a film that will surpass the standard of previous superhero films, but I am regretful to say that the whole plot is unreasonably cliché.
In my opinion, a superhero film’s main genre should be action. Romance is acceptable, if it is only a side story from the main events circulating the plot. Badang’s genre seems to centre around drama instead, and romance plays a large part in the whole film. Realistically, I do not think that a superhero should even need a typical costume anymore. The fact that Fasha Sandha’s character suddenly offered to make a suit for Badang seems absurd. Furthermore, the element of comedy is overdone, making it difficult to take any parts of the film seriously. The CGI and the visual effects are fairly acceptable, taking into account that they were made solely by Yusry Abdul Hamid from KRU.
I do appreciate the fact that Badang’s power is rather unique, but as we get further into the story, his power starts to lose its shine too. The origin of his power seems to be ridiculous; both his parents cut off bamboos and out of nowhere, they were given a son with special powers. The writer of the story may be trying to blend a traditional legend such as “Anak Buluh Betong” into the film, but it fell flat. The parents neither did anything noble to receive a child from a forest spirit nor paid a price after receiving one. It makes the story to be look nonprofessional, as if the writer and director did not do enough research to produce a superhero film.
The casts did an “okay” job, but all of those were drowned because of the script. The script was unforgivably cringe-worthy, particularly on the supposedly “romantic” scenes. The pace of the relationship bloomed between Aliff Syukri’s and Fasha Sandha’s characters were too fast, making it irrelevant.
On a scale from zero to ten, I would give this film a two. I think that the plot can be improvised to become more unique and non-cliché. Malaysian directors should refrain from focusing too much on creating romance films. A film can be marvellous even without the element of romance in it. The amount of comedy should also be toned down to allow more seriousness in a film. Our country needs to escape the mentality that extreme comedies are needed to make the film become “fun”.
P.S: I swear the costume was the worst. I'm sorry to whoever that designed it, but please, just stop. I could not even put up the poster in this post, it made me cringe just thinking about it.
P.P.S: This review was written on 21/12/2017 for a subject in uni. I tried my best to be "academic" enough and not to write trashy reviews even though I was absolutely disappointed with this film.
Till next time ♡ Love, Maira
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