Transmutators (2007)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Pretty Good

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This Filipino Sci-Fi blockbuster uses the template set out by Hollywood. It's great to see so many elements employed in later films such as Avatar/District 9, used here on a small budget, but NOT small scale. The film is entertaining and had me gripped for the most part. It would seem that flawed CGI with a lot of effort is more interesting than flawless CGI. We get giant robot/mech-suit battles, aliens, and even a bicycle chase. That bicycle chase was more exciting that flying alien-raptor- birds. It mixes a bit of comedy/romance/emotion and is pretty successful. Sure, the dialogue and effects are at the same level as Power Ranger episodes, but if you like cheap and campy sci-fi, then Resiklo ain't too shoddy.

One wonders why a Filipino movie piles up all the Hollywood clichés so thoroughly? Having an eye on the guys who get piles of money out from their work is not necessarily a bad thing, but come on. It is a sad thing that Hollywood's "superiority" is regarded as this vast that even all the errors are mirrored. Or maybe Mark A. Reyes just couldn't come up with a good idea?Whatever, the stuff goes like this:In the year 2021 Earth is down and out as the Balang (evil aliens, you know) have come 'round and kicked ass. The whole plot revolves around the town of Paraiso – which looks like every other bombed-out ruin, but what the heck. At the start, some kids are of course out of the safe perimeters on their own (sounds familiar?), but no fear, they not only meet the soon-to-be love-interest of the hero and her mute sister (gone mute because of the terrible experience to see her parents die or whatnot – I think it's cliché No. 3) but also are rescued by Crisval.There are also some Mutanos (mutated human collaborators, who'd thought), shooting people but getting their asses handed by some guys on BMX bicycles (reminiscent of "BMX Bandits" – ergo very inane in this context). Also, as this is a post-apocalyptic movie, the warrior of the future has to wear some put-together armour of plastic, at best in glaring yellow, red or blue – Power Rangers go! So far so totally daft. The aliens of course want to destroy Paraiso and so we get some "jealous guy blows the whistle on Paraiso, Mutano guy defects his alien masters, people run around aimlessly, annoying children are allowed to have speaking parts, etc. I confess that I skipped some parts – couldn't stand it.In the end, Crisval has of course build several trash-robots and kaput's the Balang's battle droids. Hurray!But to come back to the cliché – the hero crew: – ex-military men with dead family – good-looking wanna-be rebel with father-issues (with a hairstyle that time-warps scenes featuring him back to the 1990s) – goofy technician – blind girl which of course has visions of imminent doom – little girl who is able to teleport (explanation for this one? Nah.) – love-interest girl who truly evil overlord's daughterNeat? Yeah. Also they have this children-do-totally-cool-things scenes like: Annoying kid A puts grenade into mouth of Balang soldier; Balang soldier being a total moron does not get it out, falls down, lands on gas bottles; grenade explodes, gas bottles explode, take off and hit Balang spaceship over town, which explodes. What? Sorry, my brain just went "pop" and I thought I saw a cartoon-show for 6-years old and not a movie aimed at adults ...Also a very low point of the movie is the totally inability of the Balang: They come from space with a vast ship. They kick Earth's ass – BUT! before the counter-attack at the end we hear that they were defeated in the USA, Europe, China, etc. Seems like they were defeated anywhere than around Paraiso. Also, while they have vast spaceships, they have no soldiers. They like to create the Mutanos to do all the fighting. Typically superior alien-things them, eh? Also, the Balang themselves look not unlike any enemy from the Power Rangers series – like plastic and all. And if they show up in a fight at all (happens twice in the whole movie) they are shitty. One gets handled by Crisval's fist robot (which moves with the speed of a dead slug), while the other ... read above. All the inability to be really frightening, let alone believable invaders from outta space is peaked by the introductino of the Balang overlord – who happens to be a slimy thingy that cannot talk or do anything else than sit around in its hibernation chamber and die while fighting crap-robot A. Makes these. An alien species which relies on the "leadership" of a slimy thing that goes "hiss, spit, grow" all the time ... All their idiocy and inaptness accumulate in the end-fight, when they show up to vanquish their enemies with about fifty men. Right, if I was a big space-invader I would also send fifty mutated slaves to deal with a whole city of ... ah, whatever. And their war-mechs are of course that badly build that they can be trashed by some robots made from scrap. Meh.So the Mutanos do the whole evil-villaining, and they are as clichéd as you want them. Their leader is named Hades (dunno what's his name in the Filipino version) and he is the "roll eyes in a threatening way", pale, hidden under cowl guy. Like a D-class Palpatine. The rest are the usual blowtorch goggle wearing henchmen (these goggles made a career as SciFi accessory, no?), peaked by the evil-ponytail-guy, who gets a cyberhand in the course of the movie and in the hilarious showdown does the "try to fight cool but for naught" fight with the mayor's son – after they of course have jumped out of their big fighting robots. The Mutano super-strength, etc. seems lacking against some not-so-good-looking Capoeira-moves. Not that one notices by then, 'cause the whole flick is full of silly, manga-style fights which go nowhere but show that one guy in a yellow plastic-armour can gun down about 150 Mutano-henchmen. (They just enter the fight and go down – again, and again ... yawn).All in all a very enjoyable movie about some Mecha, inapt storytelling, lousy characters, lousy actors, totally lousy aliens and so on. It might have worked as a low-grade "be sure to switch brain off" anime. So it is just painful to watch.Oh, and they have an open ending ... part two?

Oh well, what can I say, as someone who is involved in movie production, I keep a certain level of lenience when it comes to films that dares to be different with regards to how the story is told. If you strip a particular movie to its core, basically, its no different to any other movie out there, good or bad, Oscar winner or Razzie winner, its, like I said, how its told and that's the main thing that separates the good from the bad ones.Going back to Resiklo, I must say it started out OK, the opening sequences were fine, though, that huge meteor looked so animated, but the succeeding sequences were good, especially the explosions on earth viewed from outer space. The whole movie starts to falter when we meet the protagonist, good ole' Sen. Bong Revilla, oh man, he's too old to be playing roles like this. So, we see him walking in this huge wasteland, supposedly caused by the alien invasion (which Im also assuming has happened a while back) and we see him in this weird attire yet his face looked like he just stepped out from the Senate. I mean, where is characterization here? Should you look at least, say, filthy, unshaven, haggard and stinking if your world was devastated? I'm sorry, but from the moment I saw him, it all went downhill for me. And as more as we get to know him, the less we feel empathy for him. The screenplay and direction was, pardon me for the word, inept. It was so conscious in making scenes stand out and polished that the director forgot how to organically weave all these scenes.The supporting cast were lousy, especially his sons. Their acting was cliché and never really served any purpose to the movie. The only interesting character that came pretty close to convincing was Empress Schuck, but sadly hers was poorly developed. The only thing consistent was making the antagonist as less interesting and boring as the protagonist, at least in that regard, both were balanced.The screenplay was laughable, and I had my loudest cackle when Sen. Bong says' "over-staying na kayo, dapat na kayong ideport!" What a line! The Christmas sub plot wasn't organically weaved into the story, Mark Reyes should've stayed on this subject, and it would've made the whole story interesting and relatable. That whole "singing/praying" montage was just for show and it felt an MTV that didn't belong to the movie.As for the dull climax, well, there's nothing much to say, except that you know what will happen. I mean, there's a certain level of predictability in every movie, but how it takes its course is where the ingenuity of the storyteller comes into play.

Pros: The CG is quite decent and very good for Philippine movie standards. The designs are good and production value is quite high (again, going by Philippine movie standards). Although, the anime-style (exagerrated form over function) costume for the humans looks too tacky and doesn't work very well on the big screen. The robot fight scene was fun and looked great.Cons: EXPOSITION, EXPOSITION, EXPOSITION. The director is a horrible storyteller and everything is done through exposition. The dialogue and acting will make you roll your eyes and cringe multiple times throughout. Poor character development, in fact a lot of the characters are unnecessary. Motivations for most characters aren't even expressed at all. Inconsistent tone. Comic relief scenes are scattered everywhere, all of them very corny.