Review - HAQ

I saw the trailer for this movie when watching one of the Malay movies earlier this year... or was it in December... looked promising and nice... definitely something different...

Unfortunately, when watching this movie in the first 10 minutes, I got this foreboding feeling that it was not gonna be as promising as it was made out to be in the trailer... but then again, trailers are cut to make even the most horrible movie looks somewhat intriguing...

So the story goes like this... Haq is a superpowered human, something that was passed down to him from his father... shown in the flashback as telekinesis... Bad (a Malay name and not the english word) is like a brother to Haq, they grew up together but I think Bad wasn't blessed with the power that Haq has and he was jealous. His spitefulness grew exponentially when his father died and he blamed Haq's father. Bad's mother also shows affection for Haq, which drove a wedge between them. Cut to a few years later, when both of them had grown up. Bad has acquired some sort of power and using it for his own evil schemes. One of the schemes is revenge against Haq and his father.

Not bad. On paper. Execution kinda lacking. The stylish shots ie fast forward-slow motion thingy that was employed throughout the movie cheapened the effect. Once or twice should be okay... and it was used mostly to make Adi Putra seemed cool... what is this? America's Next Top Model? He kept prancing about the movie like he was sexy as hell... and what's up with the whole evil laugh thing? Is this the 70's? Reminded me, annoyingly as it may, of Austin Powers' evil nemesis, the appropriately named Dr Evil.

Take a cue from Inglourious Basterds. Or any other movie these days. Villains need not be too campy or cheesy. Quiet seething is dark and delicious enough. Unfortunately, Malay movies tend to be a bit preachy when it comes to making a villain or pointing out an evil person ie show them clubbing, boozing, doing drugs and womanizing (is there such a thing as manizing for female villains?)

And Adiputra does it all in this movie. He was boozing it up and womanizing it up like there was an expiration date on his pecker. Don't even get me started on the 'adegan ranjang' with Nanu. She's hot and all but that scene? There was nothing much going there. Guess this would be one more case of a PR gone hyper ala Dr Rozmey's 2 Alam.

Acting-wise, the girls fared much better than the boys. Raja Farah... not much was required of her but she did some subtle work though which was nice. Nanu has the meatier role, so to speak. And she did it quite well. So did Fatimah Abu Bakar.

Some things I don't get from the movie, which either was not explained in the script... or I just missed it due to the fact the dialogue was too wooden and not real. Hmm...

Raja Farah's Aina was not related to anyone I think coz she has the hots for Haq and she calls Fatimah Abu Bakar Mak Lang or something. So she's not related to Bad as well. Or at least I hope not coz then it would be weird that Bad was seducing her.

How did Haq's family get the powers? How did Bad get his for that matter? Haq's was not really a big deal but it would be nice if we get a bit of a flashback to show how they got it or even what his actual powers are. Telekinesis sure, but then, there were those blue flashes... and then he can run really fast, jump really high and have a predilection for martial arts... so maybe his powers are more than simple TK... but it was never delved into...

Bad's powers are obviously evil but how did he get it? Made a deal with the devil? What's up with him waking up from his dreams of talking to himself in the mirror with a demonic voice? Is he a pawn or someone/something? If he had masterminded the revenge, why would he wake up looking afraid? Like he was not in control of his cackling evil alter ego or something... and why did he take too long in his revenge? I mean the final fight of course... he should have gone after Haq somewhere in the middle of the movie, just to gauge how strong Haq is... but he never did, he just assumed he was stronger... and what's with the glowing balls? Is that like symbolism for something or just a blatant rip-off from Dragonball? If that is his source of power then why is he leaving it everywhere all willy-nilly?

How did Haq track down Aina when she was captured by Bad? Zahra made sense coz she called him and he could track the GPS on her expensive car I guess.

And that final battle? All that work. All that plotting. That was how it came down to? Apart from the effects, it was a bit anticlimatic. Could've benefited from a longer, drawn out fisticuff I think.

Oh, almost forgot. Haq was made out to be such a patient and good guy. Ugh. If I was him and I found out that Bad had a hand in the death of my father, I would have used my powers, tracked him down and snuff his cackling ass immediately. But that's just me...

Anyway, the movie was not all bad though... it's definitely one of those 'gray' movies... not black nor white, not good nor bad... the fight scenes were not bad, some were choreographed quite nicely actually... I get it, the actors are not martial artists but with proper training, they could easily pull it off... Adi Putra sometimes can be seen a bit faster than the choreography but other than that it was not bad...

It's a much better movie, especially elevated by the ladies' performances and the fight scenes...

I heard that there's a couple of sequels/prequels coming up. Maybe we'd get a better picture of what was happening. It's a shame something promising like this just gets flushed down the toilet like it was yesterday's poop.

http://www.haqthemovie.com/