Mat Kilau: Kebangkitan Pahlawan

Don't get me wrong. I love the spirit and I know what kind of message that SY has been trying to deliver. But man... it is badly made.

1. Script

• One guy throw a line and not even a 0.01s, another guy throws his line almost cutting the first line. No momentum, no space to feel anything. Give them some time. You're not rushing. Though the pronunciations are clear, I already forgot the first guy's line 3 seconds ago.

2. Action Scenes.

• Love the superb choreography. But the camera work? It's not helping. Yes, we can see them punching and yes, we can see them flying but does the camera work helps? Oh I kid you not, it does not work. The intention of shaky cameras is to make the audience feel like you're there in a fight. Not in a 4x4 back seat heading towards Sabah rural school.

3. Editing Sequence.

• Jump cuts, here and there. Cutting the screen time for the sake of intensity? This is no KL Gangster.

4. Background Music.

• Oh my God, loud here and there. Over 95% of the film are filled with soundtracks. This is a Malay epic film and how come there's no Malay-feel soundtracks? Rembat Hollywood's soundtrack is it? At least go full silence on 'supposedly intense' fight scene. Make people feel engaged to the fight.

5. Ending.

• Believe there are 5 stages in storytelling structures, no? Bla bla bla, silat this and that, Adi Putra gave his speech after a fight and it ends. That's it? Even iklans by agency have an ending, man.

Overall, I'd say this is a good try la. Take this comment as a feedback into account and consider.

This is literally the worst film from the Director, his previous films were watchable and enjoyable. This one fails so badly till you legit have to force yourself to watch till the end. Could've improved a lot of things but they've decided to leave it that day!

Overall watch at your own risk, skip this if you want to.

Theres a whole debate in a movie fan group over this film. Believe or not you can't give any negative opinion over this film because people regarded this as a sort of masterpiece and people will tell you in the face that you have to make your own movie before you can give any criticism for Mat Kilau.

Tbh im never a fan of SY's works. He's like Zack Snyder except that he is way worse than him. He's all about style no substance but he got lot of fans that backed him up.

I still paid the tickets to see this. Hoping that Syamsul will surprise me because the trailer and the hype is kind of promising. But no. This is like KL Gangster except that now Jai is Mat Kilau. I wouldn't call Mat Kilau as a historical film or biography. It's more like Syamsul only use the name to deliver his own ideology or message just like he did in his movies before. The formula doesn't work here, it really doesnt. The actors kept shouting motivational quotes to your ear from beginning to end. Are there even real script here? This is the best he can do? I heard that the writers wrote the script with the messsage comes to their mind first. This is where the problem begins. The writers didnt even bother to create something that normal person would say.

Did any of the cast and crew watch the movie before release it on cinema? Did any of them even realise how disjointed the movie feels? The transition is freakin awful. It felt like some kind of rough cut that supposed to sit in editing room.

I decided to give it a go and try watching this movie with my family...and i just don't understand why people making a fuss about this movie... first of all screenwriting can do better... should hire someone who is actually good in doing scriptwriting ... Shamsul Yusuf should just stick to directing... you don't need to show that you can do everything but the outcome is like those tv malay drama series.......

the transition between scenes is just mediocre... its like you watching a snippet of scenes and end up gluing it together... there is no continuity on the entire movie .... jumping all over here and there....

The shaky camera works should be less.. you should learn by watching from the experts like steven spielberg's "private ryan" or any from paul. Greengrass films...oh and the kicking and puching sound during the martial arts silat sequence should be more realistic...not some recycle sound from your old KL gangster film.... lousy sound.

Should hire a proper sound designer and a good foley artist....

oh and the set designer should do more proper study on the surroundings... for example there is a scene where the landscape is showing the people doing the. Gold panning and it shows the tent is all so clean and so white.... bear in mind that scenes is at a gold mining area with all the muds etc but yet the tent is so clean.... and even the villagers costume as well as the Mat kilau crew is using a well clean , iron straight from the boutique quality..... does not feel that the villagers are living in poverty.....

the ending scene is like you suddenly realize that you are running out of money and just simply cut short the film.. there is no proper ending/ summary to this film.... even the character of Captain Syers by Geoff Andre Feyaerts during the final retreat scene is not properly develop...should develop showing the frustration / or the vengeance feeling towards the rebels and showing his vows to come again if there is any plan to do a sequel.........

i left the cinema with WTF!!! Why people say it is an awesome movie... i have seen better malay films......

if there is a sequel shamsul yusof should and.studio kembara should do more proper study and not some so so film like this.

The thing about Syamsul is he's a visionary directory, talented but he clearly needs to focus more on the writing department or just get someone who's better at this.

Mat Kilau has its moment that you can truely feels its sheer epic scale and heightened your spirit of nationalism. The fight sequences were fairly good and really embodied the greatness of Silat. To summarize, Mat Kilau is fast, action packed and straightforward formulaic biography that able to cater most Malaysians taste.

Now the writing... The script is just lackluster and have Syamsul's trademark all over it. It's very preachy and loud telling you "Get up and fight for your country and religion!". Is that bad? No, not at all. I understand the intention of sending some messages to the viewer (and it clearly worked). But the gripe of having this kind of script is that it makes the character seems unnatural and very one dimensional.

The pacing problem . It moves from scene to scene way too fast that makes me lost the sense of time. And leaves the story unable to breath on its own. This is likely a screenplay issue than editing.

Mat Kilau, the titular role is very one dimensional and there isn't any interesting arcs to this character even though Adi Putra nails the character well enough. Even the character played by Beto Kusyairi has more depth to it.

Some side plots and minor characters are hugely underdeveloped that they suddenly appeared near the end of the film. I don't understand if Syamsul intended it to be a surprise or something but the outcome are meh without any of those build up.

Overall, its a decent watch. Good effort by the team. Go watch and support Mat Kilau at the theatres.