About Me
On Saturday 12 September 2015
This, to me, is a fascinating movie. Not because of the story but because of it's commercial value. It seems that local producers are beginning to adapt to modern commercialization. Instead of making short ads, why not a whole movie?! No, no, no, it's premise didn't turned me off, it really did intrigued me. Besides, I enjoyed Google's The Internship and that movie has been labeled as a huge Sell Out by most American critics. Hey, it starred Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn so of course it would be a simple fun movie. Thus, with tons of sponsorship from big companies, let's review Jejak Warriors.
KELANTAN AT HEART
Coming from a Kelantan family, the dialect really hit me; it was very engaging and natural. The rhythm and poetic lingo of Kelantan dialect put me in a good mood and I wished I could've watched it with my family (Alas, I was watching it alone). We're straight away introduced to the Red Warrior's history through a Dikir Barat (A traditional singing performance from Kelantan). Of course, that is expected and it didn't bothered me much.
...AND THEN IT WENT DOWNHILL
We're introduced to a young boy with a deceased mother and a conservative father. The father detest his fandom of football by forcing him to burn his posters and magazines. Whoa, harsh. A few minutes later, his father died.
WHAT?! ...why?
There were just a lot of sudden dramatic beats in this film.
PRODUCT PLACEMENTS
Sigh. It's a simple movie. A boy travels across states to meet his dream football team. How could you screw that up? Then again, how could you not? It's an absurd corporate movie so expect them to screw it up. The product placement definitely drives the Plot and story. In every turn where the product highlights aren't needed, they put it there anyway. They've build up to such a simple, good and engaging character. I'd assume that they, at least the cast and crew, would know better. There was also this absurd JDT and Red Warriors rivalry backstory that's ridiculously shallow; as if it was written by an angry RD fan that haven't been outside of Kelantan his entire life.
COMMERCIAL VALUE
Alright, so I can poke fun at this movie scene by scene but let's cut to the chase. So, does this movie, at least, lived up to it's hype as a 1 hour ad for RD, Hotlink, Air Asia, UniKL..etc? Well, it didn't performed well in the box office nor did it made an impact at their niche audience (Yes, I do count it as a niche based film). How could they? Kelantan doesn't even allow cinemas in their state. But to be honest though, film marketing in Malaysia is confusing and sad (With all of the shallow mainstream media and all). So, to a certain extent, I think it's unfair to blame it's marketing. I hoped that this movie could have made a big commercial impact (Since that's what it's going for) but it didn't. It's mind boggling, if you ask me. With such a simple premise, how could some Malaysians not be all over this? Well, it did made JDT hire Ahmad Idham to make their own movie. Wonder how that would turn out? -_-
VERDICT
Yep, I'm being optimistic in this review. But no matter how much sympathy I give, it all comes down to the story. Maybe if the story had actually been written passionately about Malaysia's football then it could've made a good impression; critically. Fret not though, next year, we're gonna get Ola Bola! Directed by Chiu Keng Guan, the guy who brought us The Journey! And his pairing up with Astro Shaw again. Yeah! Moneyh! :p
I, with much weariness, give Jejak Warriors a sad 2/5. But I'm not giving up on it just yet. I still feel like I should watch it with my family. Again, Salam and thanks for reading!
