WIRO SABLENG (PENDEKAR KAPAK MAUT NAGA GENI 212): A Flawed, but Otherwise Fun, Technically Epic Martial Arts Fantasy Worth the Theatrical Viewing

Genre: Action, Comedy, Fantasy

Produced by: Sheila Timothy

Directed by: Angga Dwimas Sasongko

Written by: Sheila Timothy, Tumpal Tampubolon, Seno Gumira Ajidarma

Production Company: Lifelike Pictures, 20^th Century Fox

Starring: Vino G. Bastian, Ruth Marini, Sherina Munaf, Fariz Alfarizi, Aghniny Haque, Marsha Timothy, Lukman Sardi, Dwi Sasono, Happy Salma, Marcella Zalianty, Yayan Ruhian, Yayu Unru, Dian Sidik, Cecep Arif Rahman, Teuku Rifnu Wikana

Runtime: 123 minutes                     

SYNOPSIS: 

Wiro Sableng (Vino G. Bastian), an orphaned warrior in-training, wants to seek revenge for his parents’ death. This sets Wiro on a personal adventure that sees him get mixed up with royalty runaways, vicious gang leader Mahesha Birawa (Yayan Ruhian)’s business and premeditated government coup-de-tat while also making friends with fellow skilled fighters Anggini (Sherina Munaf) and Bujang Tapak Sakti (Fariz Alfarizi). Every step of the way is inherent in the transformation of the axe-wielding hero into the legend we know. 



 

REVIEW: 

Wiro Sableng serves as Indonesia’s first real exposure to the idea of a local superhero. And some might argue for it or against it, but Wiro remains the country’s most popular superhero. Based on a novel series written by the late Bastian Tito, the character has been adapted into various mediums since then, one of the most notable being a television series starring Herning Sukendro a.k.a. Ken Ken which was aired on RCTI in the 90’s. 

Unlike its source material and television adaptation though, Angga Dwimas Sasongko’s motion picture take on the character comes at the most challenging time when the high fantasy genre isn’t in season anymore. Riri Riza and Mira Lesmana from Miles Films tried to revitalize the genre with the Golden Cane Warrior/Pendekar Tongkat Emas (2014), but the fact that there hasn’t been any afterwards proves that it hasn’t caught wave yet. Wiro Sableng: Pendekar Kapak Maut Naga Geni 212 is the industry’s second crack at popularizing the genre, this time with a far more well-known intellectual property. 

No one is probably more qualified to bring the literary icon to cinematic life than actor Vino G. Bastian, who here plays the titular character. He’s also the son of the books’ author. So, in a way, it means more to the actor emotionally than just the everyday big-budget blockbuster project. Just when it could not get any bigger, Wiro Sableng is also a joint production between local distributor Lifelike Pictures and Hollywood mega-giant 20^th Century Fox. It almost feels like a historical, once-in-a-lifetime moment in Indonesian cinema when the 20^th Century Fox logo appears before a fully Indonesian-language film. 

On a technical standpoint, Wiro Sableng shows why Fox isn’t wasting any money investing on this film. Every scene is simply wall-to-wall spectacle, thanks to the top-tier set designs. Angga Dwimas Sasongko and his team make use of the narrative’s high concept and the production’s big budget to run wild with their imagination. The film rarely misses a beat with the finest of details when it comes to maintaining its fantasy world illusion. It is clear that the visuals are partially inspired by real-life settings, in particular olden-day Indonesia. Yet, this is not the same Indonesia as the ones in typical historical features. It takes apart everything that’s familiar about olden-day Indonesia and reconstructs them in the most heightened fashion. 

After all, this is a world where people can create all the five elements with their bare hands, and where people can just fly in and out like a bird and no one questions it. So, it only makes sense that the way natural landscape looks here has such an ethereal, dream-like sheen to it. It only makes sense that the villagers’ homestead and a coffee stall here appear like huge Hollywood movie sets. And it only makes sense that this world reinvents the architectural style of Javanese kingdom in such a larger-than-life way, this time encrusted with outrageous amount of golden tapestries.  

And the costume and make-up work lend a lot to the overall visual look. Every character’s style of clothing is a fashion statement, whether they’re well-dressed or choppily-dressed, clean-looking or dirty-looking, beautiful or ugly. Like how it approaches the production design, it borrows some elements from real-life period clothing, shifts them around and exaggerates them to the point that they can only exist in this far, far away land. 

Virtually every female character here is given stunning dresses. And it does help identify character’s personality during the absence of dialogues. Marcella Zalianty plays a Queen here, and even without words (that is for most parts of the movie), judging by her clothes’ overblown version of a Javanese royalty dress, it is enough to sell the larger-than-life aspect of the character. By far, the fashion standout goes to Marsha Timothy’s character Bidadari Angin Timur, with her sparkling, ice-blue dress.  It’s not just something to behold for the camera, but it typifies her role in the story as well as the state of her relationship with Wiro as this guardian-angel like figure. 

Even what the make-up artists can do with prosthetics and prop hairs to transform Ruth Marini into the old hermit Sinto Gendeng is similarly impressive to look at in its great attention to detail. She’s almost unrecognizable here with the witch-like make-up, which, in addition to Ruth’s excellent performance, allows the audience to forget for a second that this old woman is portrayed by a young actress. 

Besides playing the big bad, Yayan Ruhian also serves as the fight choreographer. In a film heavy with martial arts action, he is tailor-made for the role. While the fight sequences are undoubtedly less hard-hitting and violent compared to Yayan’s previous work with the two Raid films, one thing’s for sure, they remain as manic and as stylish. It’s not just people beating each other up for the sake of fighting, but there are artistic values behind each hit. At times, watching the fighters fight here resembles watching ballerina dance, as every punch thrown looks as graceful as a balletic twirl. It’s the grace that makes the fight sequences look visually breathtaking. It also adds extra layers to the comedic element, especially in Wiro’s fight sequences. 

Angga Dwimas Sasongko manages to find inventive ways to capture fight sequences. Here, he often employs match cuts as scene transitions. There is this one cool montage depicting both the child and adult years of Wiro training under Sinto Gendeng, where the camera spins around in a 360 degree, panoramic manner, and every time it glides past the shadowy outline of a tree, comes a new scene to highlight the time lapse. The match cuts are there for pure technical gimmick, but they give the film the comic book-esque imagery its superhero-like main character deserves. 

Angga also understands that minimal cuts result in maximum impact action-wise. There is a bar brawl-like sequence that’s impressive in the way the director displays multiple fights set in a coffee stall. On the one hand, some might say it’s impressive because of one scene-stealing cameo. On the other, it is also impressive because it is shot in a way that makes the scene feel less overwhelming and crowded. Besides a few cuts here and there, most of that scene is one long, unbroken take, shot handheld-like. Refreshingly, it does not only focus on Wiro’s fight scenes, but also with the other fighters, which give them room to show off their martial art skills.  

Wiro Sableng isn’t without flaws. While the production design is mesmerizing to look at, the CGI is a bit distracting. There are some CGI that’s pretty well-integrated to the real world setting, but for most parts, the CGI is still at its roughest phase. Unfortunately, the film is way too reliant on CGI. So often, the use of CGI in several scenes looks so blatant to the point that it takes the audience away from the practical sets’ well-built fantasy.    

Also, Wiro Sableng’s overabundance of characters comes at the expense of a more focused plot. It’s like two or three different stories are compressed into one film, in the hopes that they form a cohesive whole. On the one hand, colossal films are no stranger to multiple-arc storytelling, but on the other, the overarching style just doesn’t fit in a story about the titular character’s personal journey. Instead, it strangely puts the character in the backseat. 

Basically, any sense of character development given to Wiro Sableng is restricted to the opening scenes. Everything the audience knows about him, his fighting skills, his odd sense of humor, and his trauma from parental loss are briefly explored in the beginning. Not much about him is explored beyond that as the film is much more concerned with its supporting acts’ character arcs. So many characters are introduced to the narrative at once that it’s hard to keep track on who is who and why they are there. Even in its second act, another new character suddenly shows up for no particular reason. It even took the end credit to finally figure out the name of Marsha Timothy’s character!

And the extra baggage influences the film’s ever-changing plot. At one point, it is a straightforward revenge story about a hero who is trying to find his parents’ killer. Suddenly, it becomes this rescue mission story where the hero must save the damsels-in-distresses from the bad guys. To make up the numbers, let’s throw in the whole kingdom coup-de-tat subplot. It’s like Wiro Sableng wants to be so many things, but cannot make up its mind on what to focus on. 

As the plot keeps changing at every turn, so does the character’s motivation. Wiro Sableng’s motivation is inconsistent to what is set up in the first act. Every time Wiro interacts with another character, his mission always changes. For awhile, he just wants to find his parent’s killer, and seconds later, when he’s attracted to runaway princess Rara Murni (Aghniny Haque), avenging his parent’s death is no longer his priority. As a result, the journey’s initial emotional weight diminishes due to the hero’s alternating motivation. Even the villains are constantly shifting.  For a moment, Mahesha Birawa is the obvious big bad. But no, he’s just a small part in a bigger picture filled with multiple villains, which kind of belittles Mahesha’s big bad status.

Vino G. Bastian successfully embodies his father’s vision of the character.  No one can argue that Wiro Sableng is a cultural icon, but at the same time, he’s basically a cartoon character due to his flaky persona and over-the-top fighting skills. Vino’s experience playing a similarly flaky, over-the-top character before as Kasino in the Warkop DKI Reborn movies somehow helps prepare him for this role. He’s effortlessly funny here with the quips and rubbery mannerisms. He even offered one of the rarest, most hilarious moments in cinema when Wiro says modern-day slang like “blusukan” and “Syahrini”. 

Yet, his comedic talent, and to a certain extent the film’s brand of comedy, truly comes into life through his interaction with the other actors/characters. During the rest periods between the actions or even within the action, it is entertaining just to see Wiro’s back-and-forth, often slapsticky interplay between Bujang Tapak Sakti and even early on with Sinto Gendeng, which so often draws the biggest laughs out of the many comedic moments. 

Beyond the comedic aspect, Vino also proves himself to be capable of coping with the physical demands of the role. He’s clearly committed to the stunt work, and it is easy to buy into the idea of him as a skillful fighter, through every display of agility, finesse and swagger. It further helps when the actor has a presence like real-life martial artist Yayan Ruhian as his sparring partner. Yayan’s character Mahesha belongs in the same breed as the many Mad Dog-type of character he had played in the past, only this time with an ancient twist. He’s just an uncompromisingly evil guy with deadly fighting skills, and not much more under the surface. Yet, it’s safe to say he’s good at it. 

Some of the female characters here though are a bit underwritten, save for Aghniny Haque’s character Rara Murni. She is by far the most fleshed-out female character in the narrative. Unsurprising to the actress’ real-life talent as a taekwondo athlete, she excels during the martial art sequences. Yet, it’s the character’s added emotional arc that distinguishes her from the rest. In contrast to the other royalties, she sees herself as a populist, the only royalty figure who is willing to go to the slums and fight for the poor people’s plight. Her presence gives the film that much-needed humanity amongst the many inhuman things surrounding it, to which the actress conveys subtly yet beautifully in the dramatic moments. So often, such depth within the noble aspiration makes her a character worth rooting for. 

Sherina Munaf plays Wiro’s ally Anggini, and while she is a badass during the fight sequences, the same cannot be said about character‘s weak motivation. She barely has an emotional reason behind joining Wiro’s adventure apart from her low-stake desire to pass her master’s exam. Even Marsha Timothy’s character Bidadari Angin Timur here is restricted to being glorified cameo, just there to coolly fight bad guys in the last second to little narrative impact.  

CONCLUSION: 

Wiro Sableng: Pendekar Maut Naga Geni 212 might struggle with a more focused storytelling and convincing CGI, but its epic scale itself demands theatrical viewing, thanks to its larger-than-life production design, artistic choreography in its wall-to-wall action and Vino G. Bastian’s versatility with the comedic and physical aspect of the titular character. 

Score: 7.5/10.