Vikingdom: Thrown Around the Valhalla
During the weekend, Dahlia & myself had the day to ourselves at Jusco Tebrau since Haziq wanted to stay with his Atok & would rather play 'Ultraman & The Tiger' with Atok than followed us. I needed to send my car for the last polishing job before my Cars card expired & Dahlia wanted to look around for clothes.
It was then I suggested to her to go watch any movie available at the cineplex. Since that plan was ad-hoc, we can't be choosy with the movie that we want to watch. At early 11.30am, there was not much option available to us so we chose the new film from the KRU Production - Vikingdom.
The problem with Malaysian is that we love to bash out our own product. We are so paranoid with it we worshiped foreign product even though Malaysia had grown in the last 56 years. So it is not without surprise that this movie also have been met with cynicism even from the start, especially with the tagline 'The First Malaysian International Movie' brought by KRU Production.
That said, let me go through the bad stuff about the film first. I had read the reviews from Cinema Online & the Star, and unfortunately both gave lukewarm reviews about the film. And my experience with the previous KRU Production films such as Magika, Cicakman, and My Spy didn't gave me much confidence their latest film. But, anyway I want to give it another try so off I went & picked the tickets for 2 for Vikingdom.
So, most of what the negative reviews & comments were true:
1) Some of the costumes were a joke
2) Some of the wigs were hilarious
3) The main protagonist acting was unbelievably stiff
4) Some part of the CGI looks cartoonish
But I just want to say this one thing about the movie. Wow! Even though with all the shortcomings that I had listed above, I never really thought that a Malaysian production company could managed to produce such a film.
Let me get something straight. Even though some of the CGI might need some improvements especially during the time at the Hell Gate (the dog guarding the gate looks funny) & at the last act of the film (there the druid descend from his trees), most of the time it was really good enough. It was miles better than their previous effort in the Cicakman & Magika installments. It is so good that it surely so much better than all the B-grade movies that Astro kept dishing out to their customers. And get this - I think this is the best Malaysian film that had incorporated CGI into their production, hands down.
What really bring the movie down was the story though. I hate to say this but KRU Production really suck at picking the right writers for their movies (ironically, my high school senior was one of their writers in Magika & My Spy). Vikingdom story feel flat. The viewers doesn't really feel engaged with the story or the protagonist in the whole two hours.
Here is a tip for any writers out there if you want to make a great action movie. One-Please make a solid reason why we need to root for the hero. Two-Please make a reason why the villain is bad. Show us that the villain is so bad that we personally want smack the hell out of him. For reference you can read One Piece manga. All of the villains in the earlier arcs were so bad that they were so great. That is how you sell your story.
It doesn't helped either that Purcell as Eirich didn't play out the character as good as we hope so. With acting as deadly as a stiff dead wood, some of his lines along the film sometimes come out hilarious. In one of the act, the main antagonist, the thunder god Thor declared that he will destroy the fabric existence of the world & his reply was a lazy:
"I will stop you from doing that"
It was as if he didn't have any care for the world that he intended to protect. In fact in the whole film, Purcell seems to be dragged against his own will to act as Eirich. For me, it is not really a surprise since Purcell's popular drama 'Prison Break', he was not the actual draw in it. Even in the drama, he was not known as someone that know how to project his feelings. It was his little brother's genius character that engaged the watchers to the story.
But hats off to Yusri KRU because he didn't treat it as a handicap for his movie. Instead of trying to be the best in everything but failing in all, he already focusing his direction for the movie to be an action movie first. And the action really didn't disappoint. It can even be compared to the Hollywood standard with the slow-mo, the pacing of the kicks & punch, plus the inclusion of a Chinese guy in a Viking myth does add a different angle to the story. Yusri had chose the correct direction with Purcell acting stiffness by playing it out like the 80's action movie heroes. Movies like Conan the Barbarian & Rambo hadn't being etched in the memories of the movie watchers because of the character, but because of the action & bluntness of the story.
I also think KRU Production had taken a good bet in doing the movie. Even though there was a lot of negative feedback reviews in the net, I personally think in the financial angle it is the right direction. In my opinion, the movie producers in Malaysia didn't have much option for them to continue doing what they do. They only have two options to survive. One-make a lot of movies that clicked with the Malaysian audience. Think ghosts, mat rempit, gangsterism, slapstick comedy comes to mind. Or option number two-make exceptional movies that other people didn't quite brave to venture & market it internationally. Except KRU, the other production that had taken this step is Upin & Ipin.
It was reported that the cost of the movie is RM20mil. KRU had half of their burden lifted off after they managed to distributed the movie to several market & get RM10mil for that. Personally, I think that they can get away with a cool profit quite easily.
There was also apparently an issue about the story is more fiction than history. Hisssh, kamonlaaa.... Hollywood had even produced a movie about their president that once was a vampire killer. No one really cares about all that. If you really interested in history, go watch History Channel la. Ironically, even that channel currently producing a lot of shows that bordering on fantasy & fiction.
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2013/09/20/a-thor-ny-vikingdom/
So for the rst of you that want to take a glimpse of Malaysian future movie scene, go watch Vikingdom from our own KRU Production. For myself, I gave this movie 3.5 stars out of 5. 1 star just for the massive step that this once boy band group took that no one else dare.
It was then I suggested to her to go watch any movie available at the cineplex. Since that plan was ad-hoc, we can't be choosy with the movie that we want to watch. At early 11.30am, there was not much option available to us so we chose the new film from the KRU Production - Vikingdom.
The problem with Malaysian is that we love to bash out our own product. We are so paranoid with it we worshiped foreign product even though Malaysia had grown in the last 56 years. So it is not without surprise that this movie also have been met with cynicism even from the start, especially with the tagline 'The First Malaysian International Movie' brought by KRU Production.
That said, let me go through the bad stuff about the film first. I had read the reviews from Cinema Online & the Star, and unfortunately both gave lukewarm reviews about the film. And my experience with the previous KRU Production films such as Magika, Cicakman, and My Spy didn't gave me much confidence their latest film. But, anyway I want to give it another try so off I went & picked the tickets for 2 for Vikingdom.
So, most of what the negative reviews & comments were true:
1) Some of the costumes were a joke
2) Some of the wigs were hilarious
3) The main protagonist acting was unbelievably stiff
4) Some part of the CGI looks cartoonish
But I just want to say this one thing about the movie. Wow! Even though with all the shortcomings that I had listed above, I never really thought that a Malaysian production company could managed to produce such a film.
Let me get something straight. Even though some of the CGI might need some improvements especially during the time at the Hell Gate (the dog guarding the gate looks funny) & at the last act of the film (there the druid descend from his trees), most of the time it was really good enough. It was miles better than their previous effort in the Cicakman & Magika installments. It is so good that it surely so much better than all the B-grade movies that Astro kept dishing out to their customers. And get this - I think this is the best Malaysian film that had incorporated CGI into their production, hands down.
What really bring the movie down was the story though. I hate to say this but KRU Production really suck at picking the right writers for their movies (ironically, my high school senior was one of their writers in Magika & My Spy). Vikingdom story feel flat. The viewers doesn't really feel engaged with the story or the protagonist in the whole two hours.
Here is a tip for any writers out there if you want to make a great action movie. One-Please make a solid reason why we need to root for the hero. Two-Please make a reason why the villain is bad. Show us that the villain is so bad that we personally want smack the hell out of him. For reference you can read One Piece manga. All of the villains in the earlier arcs were so bad that they were so great. That is how you sell your story.
It doesn't helped either that Purcell as Eirich didn't play out the character as good as we hope so. With acting as deadly as a stiff dead wood, some of his lines along the film sometimes come out hilarious. In one of the act, the main antagonist, the thunder god Thor declared that he will destroy the fabric existence of the world & his reply was a lazy:
"I will stop you from doing that"
It was as if he didn't have any care for the world that he intended to protect. In fact in the whole film, Purcell seems to be dragged against his own will to act as Eirich. For me, it is not really a surprise since Purcell's popular drama 'Prison Break', he was not the actual draw in it. Even in the drama, he was not known as someone that know how to project his feelings. It was his little brother's genius character that engaged the watchers to the story.
But hats off to Yusri KRU because he didn't treat it as a handicap for his movie. Instead of trying to be the best in everything but failing in all, he already focusing his direction for the movie to be an action movie first. And the action really didn't disappoint. It can even be compared to the Hollywood standard with the slow-mo, the pacing of the kicks & punch, plus the inclusion of a Chinese guy in a Viking myth does add a different angle to the story. Yusri had chose the correct direction with Purcell acting stiffness by playing it out like the 80's action movie heroes. Movies like Conan the Barbarian & Rambo hadn't being etched in the memories of the movie watchers because of the character, but because of the action & bluntness of the story.
I also think KRU Production had taken a good bet in doing the movie. Even though there was a lot of negative feedback reviews in the net, I personally think in the financial angle it is the right direction. In my opinion, the movie producers in Malaysia didn't have much option for them to continue doing what they do. They only have two options to survive. One-make a lot of movies that clicked with the Malaysian audience. Think ghosts, mat rempit, gangsterism, slapstick comedy comes to mind. Or option number two-make exceptional movies that other people didn't quite brave to venture & market it internationally. Except KRU, the other production that had taken this step is Upin & Ipin.
It was reported that the cost of the movie is RM20mil. KRU had half of their burden lifted off after they managed to distributed the movie to several market & get RM10mil for that. Personally, I think that they can get away with a cool profit quite easily.
There was also apparently an issue about the story is more fiction than history. Hisssh, kamonlaaa.... Hollywood had even produced a movie about their president that once was a vampire killer. No one really cares about all that. If you really interested in history, go watch History Channel la. Ironically, even that channel currently producing a lot of shows that bordering on fantasy & fiction.
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2013/09/20/a-thor-ny-vikingdom/
So for the rst of you that want to take a glimpse of Malaysian future movie scene, go watch Vikingdom from our own KRU Production. For myself, I gave this movie 3.5 stars out of 5. 1 star just for the massive step that this once boy band group took that no one else dare.
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