Air Force: The Movie - Selagi Bernyawa

Look man, I tried to gave my best to pay my time watching this movie, but no I don't recommend, it's too flat and too obvious copycat, it's almost like watching a Tamil version of a Hindi movie, everything just a copy catalogue. I don't know what they're trying to show here, heroic that based of from Hollywood movie? Hell naw. The script? Not formal enough... I rather waste my time watching actual top gun than this copy movie, I should say this one is just a parody of the whole thing, anyone who's defending that thus movie is good y'all know nothing of the meaning real masterpiece. Nope best avoided, 2.8/10.

The Malaysian film opens in a war-torn fictional Pacific island nation. Members of PASKAU, the Special Forces branch of the Royal Malaysian Air Force, are attempting to evacuate humanitarian workers. They manage to take off but their A-400M transport aircraft is hit by enemy fire and crashes. The nine survivors, led by Major Adnan Zaid 'Lejen' Rahmat, must make their way through enemy territory till a rescue mission can be arranged. Key to the rescue mission will be Major Zafran 'Mantis' Abd Rahman, a SU-30 'Flanker' pilot who is currently suspended due to his low flying antics.

The plot of this film is fairly simple but that isn't too much of a problem as there is plenty of action from start to finish. Given the title I expected much of that action to take place in the air; some of it does but most is firmly on the ground as the survivors try to evade but frequently end up fighting overwhelming enemy forces. This action is exciting and there is a real sense of danger for the characters, it becomes clear early on that they won't all survive. The aerial action is somewhat mixed; the long shots look great but some of the close-ups are obvious special effects, as are the explosions. The cast do a solid enough job and the near relentless action help one overlook most of the flaws. Overall a solid enough war film that should entertain both fans of ground based and aerial action.

These comments are based on watching the film in Malay with English subtitles.

I want to say that this is the best foreign movie I have seen in a long time. The cameras and cinematography deserve an award for accuracy of an account of what they exposed and it's nothing more than a perfection of quality, but it is very accurate to the narrative of what happened to these people. All the emotions are surfaced into the situation of killed or be killed in this civil war, if freedom or tyranny result. The camera continues to collect the heroism of what the peasants are fighting for and consistently expands on the fight of truth or Democracy versus subjugation. The actors were great in portraying their contributions to the drama between their acting and the cameras were able to make sense of a civil war destroying a country of non-violent people who only want live and give the same respect to their children or die in vain. The acting met the moments, and the cameras were too perfect to catch the moments, and the direction was extremely excellent. I equate this movie to a higher Hollywood standard.

Lots of action, but also lots of melodrama. The special effects are actually not that bad and the units and equipment in this tale in a fictitious country are pretty on accurate for the Malaysian side.

Problem is the story is flat. There's the humanitarian doctor. The "critical of the military" reporter. The token Whiney character. The stoic commander and his band of hyper emotional commandos.

Of course there's a fairly chaste love story and the rivalry between brother in law and brother in said chaste relationship.

I will admit I had to fast forward a bunch of parts since there was a lot of excessive emotional outbursts superfluous to the story at hand.

The movie reminded me of the worst of modern Chinese and Indian cinema with it's kind of campy hyper patriotism, cardboard characters and boring "mission accomplished"-"roger that" type dialogue coupled with a lot of sentimentality.

What's up with that 5.7 rating on IMDb?

I'll give an 8.3. Great effort from the entire production team and casts. Proud to watch it at the big screen. Much better than Paskal.

Negative comments aside, I think Nas-T and Adi Putra did a great job being the two characters with the most time on camera. Aiman Hakim this time around, showed his serious side and commendable acting for his character. The movie reminds me of "Behind Enemy Lines".

A good film to be watched, even with young kids. So that they can know and appreciate the role of our frontliners of defence.

Ignore the unfair rating. Go watch!