I decided to give it a try. I am in general, not really fond of local films. However that evening I was suddenly in need of killing some time, and at that moment none of Korean or Japanese films available for watching, thus I opted instead for one of the most recent local film released which has received so much hype in social media, titled Malbatt: Misi Bakara.
Overall, if there is a 10-star rating, I will give only two stars for this movie. In summary, the storytelling and character emphasis is weak, although there is much effort to make the movie more realistic.
Weak storytelling and character emphasis
The storytelling is weak. My impression after one hour and a half into the movie was that, Malaysian forces are murdering Somalians! This is due to fact that the premises are weakly explained. There is no script or if there is any, they are lost in the multitude of other conversations.
There is almost no emphasis on why the Malaysian armies are fighting there. What I can catch is that, because of instructions, they need to kill some Somalians and retrieved the hostages. That is for the first 20-minute. The rest, one hour and ten minutes was filled with another fighting, to kill some Somalians and retrieved another hostage. There is none explaining why the Somalians are holding those hostage, which is very important. There must be reasons for holding hostage, for example, they might be upset by how the interference by Malaysians and other UN-backed forces murdered their people. Remember, people must have reasons to act and not all of them should be viewed as evil, especially when you are in their country.
I do not really fond of how the communication between the Malaysian army and the US army was done. For example, when a Malaysian army (I do not remember the name though I think he is one of the main characters due to prominent actor casted for it, Hairul Azreen) insisted to the US army in his tank (APC) that they need to came out of the APC to face the Somalians, and the US army insisted on staying due to overwhelming shootings outside, he explained the logic (that they are really trapped and the only way is to get out of the APC) but he then followed by curt cursing the US army 'bangang' which fortunately, the US officer did not understand the Malay word meaning. I lost respect here on the Malaysian army character. In such a trying situation, I know the movie tried to emphasised that the army is emotionally strained, but if they can hold themselves from cursing and respecting each other, that is more dignified and more respectable, as you are bringing with you the Malaysian flag.
Awkward conversation
There is one scene whereby one of the Malaysian armies approached his two friends who are eating, and congratulating one of the eaters on their recent successful mission. However he vented his jealousy (in a humourous and friendly manner) as his team is always entasked to do reconnaisance and not battling. He wanted to feel the heat and difficulties of real war so he can brought back the story and boasting in front of his fellow townspeople. The conversation to me is awkward, because war and any other forms of life-threatening mission (like 'peacekeeping' mission they are in) is not an enjoyable, 'fun' mission to boast to your folks. This conversation is also in contrast to the 'traumatic' eyes of one of the characters as the movie transitioned from the send-away scene at airport to the battlefield in the beginning of the movie. I expected after the 'transition' scene, the situation will be much bloody and traumatic, but see now, the character is eating in peace and some even playing sepak takraw.
Disruption of the storytelling
The introduction of characters are not being emphasized. The names are shown in writing at the bottom, however it was written in small font and too lengthy (as you know those ranked officers must have their rank written too accompanying their names) and appeared very briefly (like in a glimpse of seconds) which I did not manage to read it and imprint into my head. As an audience who are watching this movie afresh, I struggled to find which character should I focus on as from the plethora of characters the movie bombarded into my face, none has the impressions that they are the main characters of the story. What I think the movie should improve is that, to focus only on the main character then slowly introduce the others as the movie run. This is more audience-friendly and enables the audience to focus on the storyline, as storyline becomes much simpler and less complicated (and less disruption to audience's focus) as the storyline is anchored to the main character. The few characters I managed to remember are because they are the familiar faces in the local film industry, not I think because they are the main characters of the movie. For example, I managed to caught upon the faces of Shaheizy Sam, Hairil Azreen, Dafi, Adlin Aman Ramli and Fauzi Nawawi, but hell I did not know what their character names are! (or those characters' names have been mentioned, but like I said before, those associated problems hindered me from remembering it)
The jargon-dense conversation between the Malaysian armies are also not understandable. No additional explanation is given on the jargons used. Its like the movie is expecting the audience to have a pre-conceived knowledge about military communication jargons beforehand. During the movie I kept questioning myself who is 21? Who is 19? Who is 17? What is meant by jargon 'ganti' and 'habis'? I was extremely perplexed and annoyed. The 'Who is who' and 'what is what' questions kept disrupting my focus on the story and alast, I lost much interest and decided to leave the movie after one hour and a half watching it. When the storyline is infested with those questions and making understanding it harder, it really annoyed me. This film is one of those movies I did not manage to finish due to poor storytelling.
Overall, if the movie is intended to be a patriotism-theme, I do not think so. I think the Somalian side is more patriotic if they are producing a similar film from their point of view. They are defending their land you know? They should have legit explanation why they abduct people, and I am more interested to know about the reasons behind the action. That must be something really worth telling.
Nevertheless, the film has incorporated so much effort which for me, a quite impressive achievement for a local movie. For example, the movie features many Somalian actors to render the story more realistic. Managing artists that are not from the local film scene must be quite a challenging task, not mentioning the part of the script that has to be written in foreign language.
To be honest, I am more interested in watching (if there is any) the Somalian point-of-view film, whereby the Somalian rebels are fighting against the Malbatt and US armies in order to defend their cities and countries. I think that is more patriotism-inducing.
P/s: I miss the patriotism-theme movies like Bukit Kepong, Leftenen Adnan... the story is much more easier to digest, less complicated, more thrilling moments. The premises they offered are really solid, the armies in those movies are simply defending their area to the last breath. I mean, it is just so simple yet so engraving in your mind, and I am still in love with those movies till this day.
Overall, if there is a 10-star rating, I will give only two stars for this movie. In summary, the storytelling and character emphasis is weak, although there is much effort to make the movie more realistic.
Weak storytelling and character emphasis
The storytelling is weak. My impression after one hour and a half into the movie was that, Malaysian forces are murdering Somalians! This is due to fact that the premises are weakly explained. There is no script or if there is any, they are lost in the multitude of other conversations.
There is almost no emphasis on why the Malaysian armies are fighting there. What I can catch is that, because of instructions, they need to kill some Somalians and retrieved the hostages. That is for the first 20-minute. The rest, one hour and ten minutes was filled with another fighting, to kill some Somalians and retrieved another hostage. There is none explaining why the Somalians are holding those hostage, which is very important. There must be reasons for holding hostage, for example, they might be upset by how the interference by Malaysians and other UN-backed forces murdered their people. Remember, people must have reasons to act and not all of them should be viewed as evil, especially when you are in their country.
I do not really fond of how the communication between the Malaysian army and the US army was done. For example, when a Malaysian army (I do not remember the name though I think he is one of the main characters due to prominent actor casted for it, Hairul Azreen) insisted to the US army in his tank (APC) that they need to came out of the APC to face the Somalians, and the US army insisted on staying due to overwhelming shootings outside, he explained the logic (that they are really trapped and the only way is to get out of the APC) but he then followed by curt cursing the US army 'bangang' which fortunately, the US officer did not understand the Malay word meaning. I lost respect here on the Malaysian army character. In such a trying situation, I know the movie tried to emphasised that the army is emotionally strained, but if they can hold themselves from cursing and respecting each other, that is more dignified and more respectable, as you are bringing with you the Malaysian flag.
Awkward conversation
There is one scene whereby one of the Malaysian armies approached his two friends who are eating, and congratulating one of the eaters on their recent successful mission. However he vented his jealousy (in a humourous and friendly manner) as his team is always entasked to do reconnaisance and not battling. He wanted to feel the heat and difficulties of real war so he can brought back the story and boasting in front of his fellow townspeople. The conversation to me is awkward, because war and any other forms of life-threatening mission (like 'peacekeeping' mission they are in) is not an enjoyable, 'fun' mission to boast to your folks. This conversation is also in contrast to the 'traumatic' eyes of one of the characters as the movie transitioned from the send-away scene at airport to the battlefield in the beginning of the movie. I expected after the 'transition' scene, the situation will be much bloody and traumatic, but see now, the character is eating in peace and some even playing sepak takraw.
Disruption of the storytelling
The introduction of characters are not being emphasized. The names are shown in writing at the bottom, however it was written in small font and too lengthy (as you know those ranked officers must have their rank written too accompanying their names) and appeared very briefly (like in a glimpse of seconds) which I did not manage to read it and imprint into my head. As an audience who are watching this movie afresh, I struggled to find which character should I focus on as from the plethora of characters the movie bombarded into my face, none has the impressions that they are the main characters of the story. What I think the movie should improve is that, to focus only on the main character then slowly introduce the others as the movie run. This is more audience-friendly and enables the audience to focus on the storyline, as storyline becomes much simpler and less complicated (and less disruption to audience's focus) as the storyline is anchored to the main character. The few characters I managed to remember are because they are the familiar faces in the local film industry, not I think because they are the main characters of the movie. For example, I managed to caught upon the faces of Shaheizy Sam, Hairil Azreen, Dafi, Adlin Aman Ramli and Fauzi Nawawi, but hell I did not know what their character names are! (or those characters' names have been mentioned, but like I said before, those associated problems hindered me from remembering it)
The jargon-dense conversation between the Malaysian armies are also not understandable. No additional explanation is given on the jargons used. Its like the movie is expecting the audience to have a pre-conceived knowledge about military communication jargons beforehand. During the movie I kept questioning myself who is 21? Who is 19? Who is 17? What is meant by jargon 'ganti' and 'habis'? I was extremely perplexed and annoyed. The 'Who is who' and 'what is what' questions kept disrupting my focus on the story and alast, I lost much interest and decided to leave the movie after one hour and a half watching it. When the storyline is infested with those questions and making understanding it harder, it really annoyed me. This film is one of those movies I did not manage to finish due to poor storytelling.
Overall, if the movie is intended to be a patriotism-theme, I do not think so. I think the Somalian side is more patriotic if they are producing a similar film from their point of view. They are defending their land you know? They should have legit explanation why they abduct people, and I am more interested to know about the reasons behind the action. That must be something really worth telling.
Nevertheless, the film has incorporated so much effort which for me, a quite impressive achievement for a local movie. For example, the movie features many Somalian actors to render the story more realistic. Managing artists that are not from the local film scene must be quite a challenging task, not mentioning the part of the script that has to be written in foreign language.
To be honest, I am more interested in watching (if there is any) the Somalian point-of-view film, whereby the Somalian rebels are fighting against the Malbatt and US armies in order to defend their cities and countries. I think that is more patriotism-inducing.
P/s: I miss the patriotism-theme movies like Bukit Kepong, Leftenen Adnan... the story is much more easier to digest, less complicated, more thrilling moments. The premises they offered are really solid, the armies in those movies are simply defending their area to the last breath. I mean, it is just so simple yet so engraving in your mind, and I am still in love with those movies till this day.