Caught the first showing of Joko Anwar's 10th movie this morning, and it was a bit of a head-scratcher. Going in, I had high hopes - it's Joko Anwar, after all. But coming out, I felt like I had missed a couple of episodes in a series. The story was all over the place, jumping from one plot point to another without much to tie them together.
There was this bit with a guy with the cassette and the reason why he did THAT activity, which just ended in a way that made me go, "Huh?". The guy's motive was counterintuitive to the whole concept of "Grave Torture". Then it leaped forward in time, showing two of the characters all grown up with little explanation of how they got there. The exposition was done only through dialogue. Perhaps some parts of the movie got chopped (thanks, KPI?), leaving us with the skeleton of what could've been a decent story.
Some scenes felt totally random, adding nothing to the story or character development. Like, there was a random "zombie" attack, and I just sat there wondering when we were going to circle back to that (spoiler: we didn't). It tried to get all deep and twisty with a dream-within-a-dream vibe, hinting that maybe everything was a hallucination, but it fell flat. Especially with a bizarre satanic ritual thrown in that countered the whole Islamic ritual to prevent grave torture.
The whole thing could've used a clear visual marker, something to show us what's real or not - kinda like the totem in Nolan's Inception. Without it, the movie was just one big, confusing trip that didn't feel as smart as it thinks it is.
In short, it was Joko Anwar trying something new with twisty psychedelic layers. But it didn't quite hit the mark this time. I left the cinema feeling more puzzled than entertained as my wife and I discussed it throughout our lunchtime and our drive back home.
There was this bit with a guy with the cassette and the reason why he did THAT activity, which just ended in a way that made me go, "Huh?". The guy's motive was counterintuitive to the whole concept of "Grave Torture". Then it leaped forward in time, showing two of the characters all grown up with little explanation of how they got there. The exposition was done only through dialogue. Perhaps some parts of the movie got chopped (thanks, KPI?), leaving us with the skeleton of what could've been a decent story.
Some scenes felt totally random, adding nothing to the story or character development. Like, there was a random "zombie" attack, and I just sat there wondering when we were going to circle back to that (spoiler: we didn't). It tried to get all deep and twisty with a dream-within-a-dream vibe, hinting that maybe everything was a hallucination, but it fell flat. Especially with a bizarre satanic ritual thrown in that countered the whole Islamic ritual to prevent grave torture.
The whole thing could've used a clear visual marker, something to show us what's real or not - kinda like the totem in Nolan's Inception. Without it, the movie was just one big, confusing trip that didn't feel as smart as it thinks it is.
In short, it was Joko Anwar trying something new with twisty psychedelic layers. But it didn't quite hit the mark this time. I left the cinema feeling more puzzled than entertained as my wife and I discussed it throughout our lunchtime and our drive back home.