Movie Review : Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa

MOVIE REVIEW : HIKAYAT MERONG MAHAWANGSA
By: Nur Anisah Binti Che Yusof

Movie Poster : Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa

Movie Trailer of Hikayat Merong Mahwangsa

Talk about local films, Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa is one of the films that had always crossed my mind. Released in 2011, it was a major hit in any debates forum by the locals. Some gave good comments, some gave the negative ones and some agree on both. As for myself, I admit that I rarely watch local movies, but what makes me watched Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa is the movie’s trailer where it impresses me and makes me saying that this could be something epic from the KRU Studios. I must admit, by watching the trailer and the full movie, I can see two different perspectives that I can conclude. I can see that the trailer seems as good as other international movie trailers but it all leads to disappointment when I watched the whole movie.

One of the fighting scenes in Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa

Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa is about a Roman prince named Marcus (Gavin Stenhouse), who has to travel to Langkasuka to marry a Chinese princess, Meng Li (Jing Lusi). Marcus came across Merong (Stephen Rahman-Hughes) at Goa where he thinks that Merong could help him get to Langkasuka safely due to Merong’s knowledge that has better and wider experience in the seas. It all became a chaos and panicked when they got attacked by a tribe called Geruda. At this point, there are a few elements in the movie that caught my attention and they are the props and costumes. The props are quite well-organized in the movie I would say but I am quite impressed with the costumes that they are wearing. It looks bold, strong and high-class type of materials. It is not easy to put on or create costumes as good as what they did. The sets especially the scenes at the palace and beaches are quite spectacular too. The beach looks stunning with the crystal clear water and the palace looks real too. Move on about the CGI effects, I am quite disappointed with what they have done in the movie. What I can is they kind of ever used the CGI effects and the colour editing is a bit too much for me. I know that they are trying to create an old before century feeling kind of scenes by put on an old, deep and contrast colour in the film, but over doing it is kind of ruin the quality of the cinematography.

The character Embok played by Ummi Nazeera

Despite the sets and the costumes, from all of the characters in the movie, I would say that the character Embok (Ummi Nazeera) is my favourite one and I think she nailed it in the movie. For me, she was the best actress in the movie and I have no doubt about it. What makes me fall in love with her character in the movie is when she plays as Embok who have a mysterious character. She delivers her lines perfectly with her best mood in the movie. Although she appeared briefly in the movie, I think that she made her only few appearances memorable. Besides, I think that she is really beautiful with her look of a true Malay women’s face and her decent way of sayings in the movie.

Moving on to the scripts and storytelling of the movie, I thought that the movie could improve more on the scripts because it was pretty decent I would say. Some of the humour and jokes that they are trying to create are just not right for the movie I guess. But there is one scene that I think it does not even make sense at all is when Marcus (Gavin Stenhouse) got stabbed in the stomach by Kamawas (Khir Rahman) with a big gigantic sword. According to a logic mother nature, the stabbing is surely enough to make one person dies but in the movie, moving slightly towards the end, he show up and barely still alive. Yes, there are scars and a bandage wrapped around his body but still, it is not a logic thing that he could still be alive. That is the one part that I just think it does not make sense at all.

Regardless all that, I think Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa still have its own place in the hearts of the viewers. The movie has its own strength and weaknesses which I think it is a good movie to make a review about especially among us, the young generations. For a local movie, I think KRU Studios made a great effort in bringing our movie internationally and we, as the generations Y should have taken this as a guidance for us in producing a well-rated movie one day.