Reviews

I went to watch without any big expectations because I heard about the issues behind the scenes and the early negative reviews that dampened my enthusiasm a bit. Since this is a continuation of Mat Kilau with Awang taking the lead, I feel the storyline is the same as Mat Kilau's, just with different characters.

The attempt to recreate the scene of Ellie Suriaty with Dian P Ramlee is fail. Before, I was moved by Ellie, but now it feels too rushed and lacking character development. My mom and sister cried watching Dian's scene, but this time it just didn't have the same impact for me.

It's a real waste not to fully utilize Amerul Affendi's character; I think he played the coolest villain. Wak Ruzaidi, even though he's old, still stands tall like Sylvester Stallone.

I feel that in the history of Malaysian cinema, this film has the most scenes of people saying "takbir" (praise to God), which is good. They get blessings. However, sometimes it feels out of place.

Due to the fans/haters' feedback about shaky cameras, there is no shaky camera this time. The fight scenes are still as engaging as the first.

Many criticize Fattah Amin's acting. I agree; he lacks the aura that Adi Putra has. His acting is okay, but that X-factor that Adi Putra has is missing.

My mom and sister like the film because it has a female warrior character; they feel proud (feminist power, hehe).

I feel sorry for John Bear's character getting beaten badly; he does not even have any dialogue at all.

Some extras have modern looks, all clean-shaven, which doesn't feel right. To find extras, they should look for true Malay faces like Namron, Wan Hanafi Su, Amerul Affendi - explore a bit throughout Malaysia I suggest.

The first Mat Kilau was good because of Syamsul Yusof's experienced direction in making box office films and knowing what the audience wants. Kembara Studios already has a template, but they couldn't find the right director for Awang. It's a waste of budget when the job can't be executed properly, with continuity issues, lack of dramatic scene, and suspense (like Adi Putra closing Beto's mouth). For the next film, they should consider Syamsul, Syafiq or Ghaz as the director. There are plenty who can do it, I believe.

I love the live action adaptation, except Chika. She just wanna be like the anime version, when it is animated, it looks okay, but when they did the similar thing in live action. Wow, I feel it sounds really weird because it is surely does not exist in real life. Maybe because I am not japanese so I cannot withstand this, I really love Chika's character in anime version, but its totally not working when the did the exact same thing. Its like, where is the humanity? Live action need human touch, maybe not 100% because it is a fiction but at least tone it down it can be a little bit better. Poor Chika, I guess it will be better if they dont use the formula of beautiful main actress with average looking supporting character. By the way, Hayasaka & Kashiwagi is prettier in live action.

They are confused, whether they want to make story about documentary team issue, marriage issue, ship mystery issue or creature feature? They have a lot of idea in their mind but they cant connected it well. The poster looks like a typical killer shark movie, but they want to add a lot of stuff to create drama and everything it became kind of confusing. Looks like the shark is only some uninteresting subplot. They should stick to one direction, if you want to make movie about killer shark, just focus to killer shark from the start. This egyptian film maker need to watch a ton of creature feature movie from hollywood to learn something. Its like watching a soap opera drama where 2 woman want the same man, but suddenly shark attack them all, the shark are just side character. Like during filming, they thought "Why dont we add some shark?".

I think the first and second one is better, this third one looks too simple and childish. I mean they do not even explain why the betrayal happen. It just happen. The antagonist character by malaysian popular comedian Johan Raja Lawak looks too childish, he is the one who is giving a lot of punchline but a lot of miss than hit. He is too over-acting I guess, trying too hard to make us laugh and I think it is only works on children. I understand this is comedy movie, but they forget that this is an action comedy, so situational comedy in combat or fighting scene I think will works out better than verbal comedy. You know what, the funniest character is AC Mizal, he plays his character well with funny body manner and everything. Abang Long Fadil 4 is gonna be a sequel no one needed. You are talented Mr Syafiq (I love SAM, Desolasi & Misteri Delaila), you should make new original thriller movie. Keep up the good work.