I’ve Watched It So You Don’t Have To

This movie… I don’t know… irritates? Exasperates? I can’t find the right word so I’ll just go with ‘pisses me off’. I can’t decide whether this movie is too smart for me or just pretending to be smart. I mean, it’s good to keep your audiences in mystery so your movie is not predictable and when it hits the end, bang! They get out of the studio with stunned look on their face. But it’s definitely not good when you keep them in a mystery that’s so confusing they don’t even know what you’re trying to say and not even care to solve. Then the conclusion they have when they get out of studio is, ‘How can I be so stupid, spending Rp 10.000 just to waste my 2 hours worth of living?’ Please, if you can’t do the homework don’t make the audiences do it for you! That’s cheating!

Or maybe I’m just too stupid or tasteless or ga nyeni or whatever! Point is, I don’t enjoy this movie.

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Shoot! I Forgot To Review This!

Last weekend, I watched the movie after hastily finished the book. My final words for the movie version is: it’s good, but different.

It’s not better, not worse, not the same. It’s just different from the book. But not in a bad way because the movie complements the book, not substitutes it. The book is definitely for adults regarding the diction, the tone, and the problems that the characters deal with. But, the movie is more in family movies tone. Simpler, fun, and more comical. So I think Andrea Hirata still can expect good sales from the book because the movie doesn’t make people say, “I don’t need to read the book, I’ve seen the movie.” Instead, it kind of encourages people to read the book in order to get more complete story.

For some people, this movie may not be as good as they expected. You know, not ‘by-the-book’. But, come on… support it! Don’t you see what kind of Indonesian movies are playing in theaters now? This is considerably a must-watch movie compare to others. Natural acting from Belitong children (Mahar is the best!), touching story, excellent moral content, beautiful scenes… who can resist this movie?

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