Gagamboy

When the hero wears a mask that looks more like a rejected Ninja Turtle design from Jim Henson's Creature Shop, and the villain is clad in enough rubber latex and foam to make Ultraman and all his heroic sentai brethren quiver in fear, you absolutely cannot go wrong with Gagamboy.

And let me stress that with its enthusiastic influences from Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns and triumphant brass numbers that echo snizbits from the 60s Spider-Man theme song, the soundtrack to Gagamboy is definitely the one to get.

It's inevitable to make comparisons between Spider-Man and Gagamboy, but that's like comparing Ping Lacson and Daryl F. Gates. The similarities are superficial at best, and any correlation is a sign of complete misunderstanding. Unlike most other Pinoy superheroes, Gagamboy is a film with an identity and dichotomy all its own, and stands out as one of the none rip-offs.

Gagamboy is not about power and responsibility, nor is it about father figures. And most of all, Gagamboy is not about an isolated geek's transformation into a Friendly Neighborhood hero who "swings with it". Rather, it's about a boy who discovers that having powers and a secret identity doesn't make you any more substantial than the fabric that makes your costume and how your alter ego can never be more than the person who inhabits it. And most of all, it's about how escaping your "self" is not all it's cracked up to be.