From the very start to the middle of the story where we are brought throughout the harsh life Sancaka has to endure at a very young age until he was mature enough to take care of himself (and anybody else who needs help), I was ready to give it a 9 out of 10, a rarity for a superhero movie, especially local superheroes (as there weren't so much of Indonesian comicbook movies before): great character build up, better than most superhero origin story, without having to impose so much of Marvel-style forced jokes, that reflects the condition of the real life of low class Indonesian citizens.
But alas, "wasted potential" was the common theme that would, I think, perfectly describe the execution of the third act, where our hero was faced by his hardest test of strength and faith: it was so rushed that almost none of the interesting, strong bad guys (and girls) has any value at all. why not make the movie a little (or much, depends) longer then, to make space for the development of these badass bad people that would automatically lift the movie to the same world-class level of "The Raid" and "The Raid 2"? Well, maybe it's the matter of the budget or the family friendly rating, I don't know for sure, the point is, for a director as hard-working and dedicated as Joko Anwar, it's pretty disappointing.
The CGI isn't so great by Hollywood standard. Fighting scenes kind of remind you of action movies like "The Raid" instead of a comicbook movie (without so much of lightning power, Gundala's iconic attribute), maybe it's the impact of the budget problem, but I think it was intentional as the great director himself has declared that in this movie, Sancaka hasn't even realized about his true potential, his true identity.
But still, it's a good start for local heroes to rise up in their own cinematic universe against the hagemony that is the MCU and DCEU among local movie-goers. Something that probably only my country is confident enough to do so.
