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Gundala Movie Review

Gundala is a 2019 Indonesian superhero film directed by Joko Anwar and starring Abimana Aryasatya. The movie has its strong moments, but it’s overall flawed and uneven.

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“I’m ashamed to be Indonesian“

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A man who grew up on the streets takes it upon himself to save people from injustice and crime that brew within the city. This story was based on the famous comic-book series from this country and supposedly they are making an entire cinematic universe like the MCU based on this property. I am all up for it, but I want better sequels.

I find this flick not all that great. Coming from the great Joko Anwar whom I really love, I’d expected fantastic things from Gundala, but what I got was just a solid flick that is never great unfortunately. There is some nice humor to be had here that pokes fun on the premise and the suit in particular, but the tone is overly dark otherwise and too crime-oriented.

Gundala is at its best when focusing on the action scenes. Indonesia is famous for amazing stunts and fight choreography, and both can be witnessed here in their full glory. The fights are superb throughout with the highlight being that fight in the first act between the boys on the street. That was absolutely fantastic and thrilling to behold.

I liked Abimana Aryasatya in the main role. He was quite good, likable and competent. The character himself needed better development, but the actor did a lot to make him memorable. Other characters also aren’t great and that is the main issue here – the movie needed stronger personalities and more memorable villains. They are fine as a whole, but individually none of these gangsters stuck the landing in my opinion.

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Gundala is overly dark in cinematography too. I personally do not like this way of filming. But the costume being silly and used for comedy fodder was great and the score is also pretty good. The editing, directing and dialogue are all solid, but the script needed to have been better as the movie has too many plot points going on, thus a couple of them were underdeveloped.

Joko Anwar’s Gundala is a solid, but flawed superhero flick. It is great seeing Indonesia get on board the superhero train, but the overall movie needed to have been stronger. The humor that is present is solid, the acting is good and the fight choreography is particularly terrific, resulting in some amazing action scenes. But the script is overstuffed with too many underdeveloped plot points and the characterization left a lot to be desired.

My Rating – 3.5