The storyline is about child-trafficking, where it begins with the relationship between a teacher (Walid) and a child "immigrant" (Aisha); then later how the teacher saves the child from human traffickers. Quite a predictable one!
The pace is uneven. It's slow in the first half, but it turns fast with non-stop action in the second half.
The focus of this movie appears to be mainly on the ACTIONS, and the initial drama is just a setting to trigger the explosion of a series of actions!!! In short, once the action starts, all the character-driven drama is IGNORED and THROWN AWAY, making it a pure action movie.
In fact, it's more like TWO separate movies made by TWO different directors and joined together into a single movie! The rhythm and tempo are not aligned and synced. Thus, it loses the balance of everything, especially the human-touch and sentimental values that were built at the beginning!
In terms of actions, I am impressed by the first fight by Aisha's mother with her laundry! BUT, coming to the fighting scenes in the 2nd half, with the HOUR-LONG fights, I started to get bored! It's like a never-ending fight! When you think that the movie is about to end.. Gosh.. another villain appears! The same scenario repeats again and again! Excuse me! Can anyone put a STOP on that? Ha!
I enjoyed watching the Malay martial art - Silat - in the movie very much! BUT with almost the same repetitive actions, I started to get visually exhausted after a while. Also, the shaky camera causes visual disturbances at times!
The character development is questionable, especially Walid, which can be made more interesting and relatable. However, we do not see much! There is a less than 2-second scene showing that he was once a secret agent? SWAT? NOT sure!! Also, out of nowhere, there appear two secret agents which are not well addressed in the movie.
After the movie, I could only remember my complaint about the hour-long repetitive action sequences, and that's all!
I love the message conveyed through the National Principles (Rukun Negara) in the movie. BUT, it requires more effort to round up everything, making the movie carry more depth + sentimental values, instead of being filled with violence and brutal action sequences.
