Le Reviews Oct 2015

Science fiction stories that make us interested in science? Sign me up.

In the simplest sense, The Martian is a story of survival. Mark Watney, our protagonist, is marooned on the surface of our titular barren planet. He must survive against all odds until the collective efforts of Earth can somehow manage to rescue him. 

While there is a certain element of danger to Watney's predicament, there is a certain feeling of safety to his situation, especially when he manages to contact his colleagues on Earth. Instead, most of the fun (especially in the first half of the movie) is in how Watney manages to get out of every dire situation he finds himself in. The Martian reminds me most of Apollo 13, where a crew of people both inside the titular space vehicle and on mission control use their ingenuity, scientific knowledge and skills to solve problems.

The film is buoyed by a script that mixes humor and drama in just the right amounts; Matt Damon's performance as Watney is one to remember.

The science of the science fiction in this film is for the most part, based mostly on current or emerging technologies, aside from a few artistic liberties. The movie immerses us in a near future that feels tangible and reachable, should we go down this path of renewed space exploration.

The second half of the film sees the lone survivor story arc giving way to a larger tale, where Earth coordinates its resources to bring Watney home. There's a certain feeling of exhilaration and hope, in seeing people cooperating through a shared passion for the final frontier, a kinship forged through science and the desire to elevate ourselves to something greater.

There's no denying the ambition of Felix Manalo when it opened in theaters this week, breaking records during its premiere night at the huge Philippine Arena, and during its opening day in mainstream theaters.

To be fair, compared to his other films in the past twenty or so years, this is one of Joel Lamangan's better films. It's helped immensely by its expansive production, its orchestral soundtrack and its usage of sets and extras.

The movie tries (and here I emphasize, 'tries') to document the life of the founder of the Iglesia ni Cristo movement from cradle to grave. The three hour film can be divided into three parts: his creation of the movement, its growing pains and its persecution by the Japanese during WWII, and the movement's later years and Manalo's death in 1963. 

However, a man's life is so expansive a story that it is hard to distill everything down into three hours of film. Biographies are inherently difficult to translate into film. They tend to focus on a specific aspect or period of one's life, or at least, the historically relevant events. It needs a narrative structure that can support this story, either through flashbacks, clever storytelling devices such as a non-linear narrative (e.g. Nixon (1995)), or certain motifs (e.g. the baseball in W. (2008)).

Here is where the film stumbles: it does little of what I described above. This movie is a barebones outline of Manalo's life, so much so that certain parts rush on by - for example, Manalo's first wife meets our main character, gets married to him, and dies within the space of fifteen minutes (maybe less.) Years flash by, people get older (and transform into Gabby Concepcion) in the span of a few minutes, eras pass. There is little time to process anything as many characters save for the protagonist and his family appear once or twice and are never seen again.

The film's conventional filmmaking hurts the overall effect; most of the film is composed of shot-reverse shot conversations between two characters. It's awash in sepia and muted tones which soften up the overall image. Also, there are some details that could not be justified given the movie's considerable budget: some obvious composited backgrounds in the America scenes, bad CGI smoke and airplane effects, the sepia filter disappearing for a few seconds in between transitions, and the fact that they could only hire two decent Japanese actors. There are some interesting ideas and scenes, such as the 'testimonials' of those persecuted by the Japanese, but they end up being the exception to the rule.

The acting is ok. Dennis Trillo deserves accolades as he, for the most part, carries the film and gives a great performance as Felix Manalo. However the verbose script does make him stumble on a few lines early on in the film (one wonders why they didn't just do another take.) The plethora of other actors and actresses tend to oversaturate the film as we barely get to know them or their characters.

Since the film is made by members of the church, it's no surprise that the film reveres its subject, and is made primarily for its own constituents. However, in choosing the items for its cinematic outline, there's a side effect of baffling non-constituents in which choices it deems to be relevant. The registration of the church with the government is given much pomp in both soundtrack and image. This baffled me, and only through digging did I find out that to the church this is a really big deal; to them, it more or less serves as evidence of their legitimacy. An early schism within the church comes up some time during the middle of the film. I was looking forward to Manalo skillfully debating them out of the church (as previous scenes had established his oratory and debating skill), but all we get are a few (bad) slow motion shots and some text. Felix Manalo the movie clearly has its constituents in mind, but to the effect of confusing everyone else without proper context.

Manalo's life, especially his early life, is by far the most interesting part of the film; he flits from one religious sect to another trying to find the one true way to salvation. When he finds that none of the sects he's joined seem legit, he decides to establish one himself. Regardless of how I feel about his church now, I can say that he has an interesting story to tell. Unfortunately this film, in my opinion, barely scratches the surface of that interesting life.