The Big 4

Nothing new in terms of storyline, we've seen a lot of this kind of story in Hollywood movies, but I have to admit that the CGI and the martial choreography is good and nice to watch.

Abimana and Putri Marino are the main casts that really standout, well done...!!

The other casts seem to be occupied with the script that makes them unable to develop characters.

Honestly, I do like the harsh words used in this movie, although a little cultural shock for me, but it relevant to the characters and the kind of life they are in.

The comedy in the scripts are quite good, it do tickles and make me smile and laugh.

I'd count the director's THE NIGHT COMES FOR US as one of my all-time favourite movies, an absolutely blistering attack on the senses and all-out martial arts hit. This follow-up adopts an action comedy template and has more of that top action direction, but at the same time it somehow misses the mark. At two and a half hours in length, the action hits but only occupies a third of that running time. The rest is made up of inane comedy and no story. The characters are very limited here, the actors unknown and lacking gravitas, and some of them cross over into being annoying. The gory FX and fight choreography are as great as ever, but I wish the rest wasn't such a drag.

The Big 4 are the adopted children of Petrus, who has trained them to be perfect assassins well atleast 3 of them as the youngest one mostly is a bait. Petrus is murdered leading to the big 4 to go on hiding while his actual daughter becomes a police officer and is obsessed to solve his murder. How the daughter teams up with the 4 to take revenge on their father's killer, forms rest of the story.

The tone never gets serious with constant funny lines thrown around. Many jokes don't land correctly, but the loud comedy somehow carries the story forward while the bloody action set pieces take care of the rest. Much of the jokes fall under the silly category but the action set pieces gets more fun whenever they get silly which should be credited for the innovativeness. The story is built up for a sequel so the main reason for the conflict is still kept unrevealed.

Solid movie with action, gore CGI, good humor, but it doesn't have gun recoil whatsoever in the movie. Everyone knows that when you fire a gun, it will kick back, it is called recoil, but this movie fails to show that simple detail, even when the skinny girl fires the bazooka, no kick back whatsoever, it is a freaking bazooka!!

Sometimes, good attention to details will make it a great movie, I dont know why am I so bothered about this "receh" detail. But overall this is a good movie, story is simple, comedy is good, cinematography is top notch. Putri Marino character is angry all the time I dont know why tho...

The Big 4 doesn't quite have the storytelling finesse of Timo's earlier works, yet it's a fun little action romp. The plot is just an excuse for the lead characters (retired assassins and a cop) to go after a rival gang and find their mentor's murderer, cooking up some fantastic set-pieces along the way. The humor works when it's not trying to be too goofy. One instance of it not working is that "possessed" scene, which almost looks like a badly done parody of Timo's own May the Devil Take You. That said, I loved how Timo attributed some quirks to each of his leads. Topan (Abimana Aryasatya) has a crush on his mentor's daughter Dina (Putri Marino), Jenggo (Arie Kriting) is high on his sniper rifle (which he refers to as his girlfriend), Alpha (Lutesha) comes up with an explosive gas cylinder known as Lucifer's Fart 3000 (LOL!), and Pelor (Kristo Immanuel) is always the "bait" whenever the gang infiltrates a baddie hideout.

All of this plays into the film's screenplay and character decisions. But, who can look past the fun action choreography? Every time a set-piece breaks out, you know it's going to surprise you in more ways than one. That's the beauty of watching a Timo Tjahjanto actioner. It's deranged and atmospheric, with Batara Goempar's camera constantly on the move, either capturing gory kills or exciting knife/gun/fist fights. The cast make most of the emotional bits work, and while you wouldn't consider anything here as deeply moving, it's good enough to make you care for their happy ending. Timo leaves room for a sequel, and although The Big 4 is no The Night Comes for Us, it offers exactly what it says it does.