Legend of Gatotkaca - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Legend of Gatotkaca



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
Not going to lie here, I have been intrigued by the Indonesian super hero films I’ve seen so far. They’re usually low budget and filled with martial arts at the forefront (oh dang), but I’ve really enjoyed the ones I’ve seen so far. Gundala was a blast, and does a decent job of setting up an Indonesian MCU (with several films out in the shared universe so far, with a half dozen more on the way), and Valentine (while rought) was a decent vigilante super hero flick. So color me a bit curious when I saw Legend of Gatotkaca hit my door step from Well Go USA and figured “why not, I haven’t seen one of these for a while”. Well, this is the first time I think I’ve been genuinely disappointed in one of them so far, and it’s not even close.

Legend of Gatotkaca is another “golden child” style film, with a short backstory of hidden powers, and mystical artifacts that lead up to the present day. Our main hero Yuda (Rizky Nazar) watches at a young age as his mother is stripped of her memories by a mask wearing man with super powers, and is subsequently saved by the glowing light of an amulet that his mother is hiding. Fast forward 10 years (ish) and Yuda is living in poverty with said mother who is basically a brain dead invalid. When one of his high school friends is murdered by a super powered being ala the man who stripped his mother of her mind, he is forced to come to grips with the hidden truth of two warring faction of genetically super powered beings. On one hand with have the “good” Pandavas, and on the second hand we have the “evil” Kouvaras, who both have their own variation on a mutated gene that supes them up.

It seems the world used to know about these mythical beings thousands of years ago, but the remaining survivors have covered their existence to survive. The Pandavas have basically turned into bureaucrats and healers, while the Kouvaras have shrunk into the background after their leader Aswatama (Fedi Nuril) was trapped in another dimensions. However, the Kourvaras are now out in force, as they are following the orders of their long thought vanquished leader as they search for enough souls to resurrect their entrapped master. HOWEVER (ominous music playing), Yuda finds out that he’s the Gatotkaca, a Pandava that is basically the chosen one of his race. The one who carries a mystical artifact capable of imbuing him with the power unheard of before, and with the sacred duty of protecting his race.

Legend of Gatotkaca is a silly affair, and not in a good way. It’s got some decent fighting, and even has both Yayan Ruhian and Cecep Arif Rahman in the film for several battles (both in The Raid series and the two Silat fighters in John Wick 3), but the two Silat masters can’t make up for some incredibly poor editing, sloppy quick cuts, and general poor camera angles. Not to mention the fact that if you’re not up to snuff with Hinu mythology, you’re going to be scratching your head quite a bit. In fact, even though I’m a decent study of Hindu mythology, this was a bit much to take in. I had to pull up the good old interwebs and research the back story to some of the characters and their place in Hindu lore to really grasp a lot of the film. Not exactly a deal breaker for the intended Indonesian audience, but as an American it DOES take some work.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

Legend of Gatotkaca is presented on Blu-ray with a solid looking 2.39:1 AVC encode. Like usual, I haven’t been able to find out what resolution master was struck, nor the cameras used for the production, but the end result is generally very pleasing to the eye. It’s a competently done digital looking shoot with solid colors (leaning a bit towards the purples and teal), and a fairly neutral looking color grading. Faces tend to be a bit more mahogany in tone, but overall it’s still a very neutral look for the most part. Colors are bright and vivid (especially in the other dimension) and blacks are solid. THOUGH, there is some definite color banding in the dark and you do notice some obvious crush in the shadows along with a weird “smeary” look to the deepest shadows when lots of motion is involved.









Audio:

On to the dialog, and there’s some hit or miss here. The track itself is downright excellent. Lots of high flying action, whistling arrows from the surrounds, and a pulsating hip-hop/rock score that comes from all directions. Dialog is right up front in the center where you would expect and I can find no major faults with the track’s dynamic range. Now for the bad. The English dub is just downright AWFUL. I’m a purist at heart so I naturally lean towards the native Indonesian track, but I’m willing to accept well done dubs. This, is not one of them. But the other frustration is that the subtitle track for the Indonesian dialog mix is just pure engrish at times. I was literally laughing at the screen because the translation would get so choppy and bad. It’s not 1990s Anime fansubs level bad, but wowza. This was not a great translation from one language to another in text.












Extras:

• Trailer
• Well go USA Previews

Final Score: ​

I’ve kept every single review copy of Indonesian super hero films to date as I’ve enjoyed them for what they are, but Legend of Gatotkaca is the first one that I’ve decided to get rid of. The flick has some interesting potential at first with the mix of mythology and modern super heroes, but it gets lost amidst a backdrop of bad acting, cheesy dialog, and fight choreography that is a huge let down (especially considering it has BOTH Yayan Ruhian and Cecep Arif Rahman involved). The Blu-ray looks and sounds very good, but minimal extras and a weak story makes this a hard sell. Personally I’d skip it or check it out on Well Go USA’s Hi-Yaa streaming channel.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Rizky Nazar, Yasmin Napper, Omar Daniel, Yayan Ruhian, Cecep Arif Rahman
Directed by: Hanung Bramantyo
Written by: Rahabi Mandra, Hanung Bramantyo, Tesedesada Ryza
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: Indonesian: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 5.1, Indonesian, English DD 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Well Go USA
Rated: NR
Runtime: 130 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: March 21st, 2023

Recommendation: Skip It