Over the last couple of weeks, this movie,
Maria, has been building up a respectable hype, largely because of its very inviting trailer featuring the talented actress Cristine Reyes as the titular role. Added to the interest was its premise — an ex-cartel gunman, or gunwoman, who now turned a new leaf and becomes a loving wife and a responsible mother, completely abandoning her brutal past.
The film was directed and written by the veritable Pedring Lopez, who is also the producer under his own BlackOps Studios Asia. Judging from
Binhi and
Nilalang as his most famous feat, it's quite clear that Lopez's films were by and large inspired by a very pronounced aestheticization of violence.
One can also say that he's very Quentin Tarantino-ish in terms of visual style, especially when you compare
Kill Bill and
Maria on both the action and plot department.
Femme Fatale
An important thing to note is that this film is very progressive when it comes to combating the norms when it comes to pushing a female-lead movie without conforming into the typical damsel-in-distress trope which normally exists in the mainstream Pinoy action movies.
Cristine Reyes' acting performance is admiring and believable. She told
Rappler on an interview that she underwent rigorous training in preparation for the role and she also stated that doing the action stunts herself was very enjoyable.
As Reyes' first breakout picture, I thought she was really well-suited for the job and her commitment to it was also commendable and was very evident as seen through her work in the film.
Reyes genuinely imbibes a femme fatale badassery. Some of her actions sequences are well-choreographed and I applaud Pedring Lopez for being bold about it and for giving the boost on her character's empowerment rather than playing it safe.
Utter Disappointment
Sadly, the film is very notorious for its horrendous dialogue and nonsensical torture-fest scenes. The main problem was not the fact that it was brutal but the fact that the narrative itself is unfocused and all over the place.
It also doesn't help that the villain Kaleb, played by Germaine De Leon, was very one-dimensional. His stimulus doesn't make any sense and it heavily ruined the flow of the film, especially because he is very pivotal to Maria's actions and the overall flow of the film. Kaleb's motivations was to eliminate Maria after she left the group years ago, compromising the mission and potentially losing a ton of money as a result.
He then tracked her down and murdered Maria's family to even out his suffering, his loss with her. What suffering is he talking about though? He never lost a family member and Maria definitely did not kill anyone of his loved ones. So when the movie repeatedly implied throughout the film that this is what motivates him, it not only ruined the emotional connection but also cheapens the whole experience.
This film was also too on-the-nose when it comes to being dark. Literally everything is dark. Costume designs looked so obvious with the choice of black leather jackets for the guys and cheap-looking cropped tops for the girls that the
X-Men from the year 2000 was shaking in their black leather overalls.
As I mentioned earlier, nonsense torture scenes. Yes, it seems like Lopez dwell too much on his bloody spectacle that he forgot to bring in interesting interrogation on the table. You see the likes of Germaine and KC Montero doing the deed, mindlessly breaking bones, extracting body parts and whatnot in an attempt to get answers from their captives.
Adding to the confusion was none of those torturing scenes was directly involving the hunt for Maria, but rather for the Governor, another character for an another haphazard side plot which they never really pushed through and left in the writer's bin to rot.
The problem is, they never asked a question and went straight to the masochistic task. It seems like the film was overstuffed with too much shock value in exchange of its lack of substance. The film was also infested with vapid and bland side characters who only exist to show-off but never really contributed to anything but to become a parody of themselves.
The only character other than Maria that has personality is Greg (Ronnie Lazaro), weapons supplier and the one who trained Maria her combat skills, mostly because of Lazaro's timed humorous antics — a welcomed comedic relief to the otherwise monotonous interactions that this movie had.
Let's Be Reel
This movie proves that Pedring Lopez is a visionary, not a storyteller. I admire the idea, the efforts to be a quality film, but honestly,
Maria is outclassed by its own blunders that the movie itself became nothing but an exhausting beat-em-up without any muscle to back it up.
Please, support the film, but we deserve better.
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