‘Fantasy’ has to be played for real, for believability and empathy’s sake

BONG Revilla and Marian Rivera in “Panday 2”

In “Panday 2”, Bong Revilla makes for a physically trim but psychologically flabby Flavio, the revived film franchise’s resident hero and avenger of the oppressed populace of a fabled, mythic land that looks vaguely like our own, albeit transported to an inchoate, derivative past.

The film is loaded with special effects, wondrous lands and creatures of the digitized imagination, and enough villains of the super- and supra-natural sort to people hell itself.

But, because the central character of the movie’s ostensible hero lacks genuine courage and visionary resolve, many of its hyped-up encounters between good and evil fall flat.

To make the proceedings even more disaffecting, the movie’s main villain is played in characteristic over-the-top fashion by Phillip Salvador, who is given free rein to come up with his most surreal portrayal – and accepts the blanket invitation with great relish.

The contrast between the psychologically wan and listless Flavio and the wanton villain is too extreme for the film’s thematic balance and climactic rising action to take, so the production ends up irreparably out of whack.

“Panday 2” can still be enjoyed for some effective visualizations, like its flying dragon sequences, but that’s about it.

Also off-putting is the excessively pa-cute or porma participation of a number of child actors in the movie, including a couple who’ve done much better in past productions.

Here, they’re made to act as sassy as all get-out, and they’re a sorry sight to behold. We know that frisky kiddie sidekicks are par for the folk-hero adventure course, but this is something else.

The movie’s resident “comic relief” artists also do badly, especially the actor who plays the former guardia civil officer who becomes one of Flavio’s most ardent but least courageous loyalists.

As for Flavio’s two romantic interests, the fairy played by Iza Calzado and the dragona portrayed by Marian Rivera, they are lovely to behold – but similarly fail to galvanize the movie’s dramatic proceedings with their proficient but merely decorative characterizations.
Fantasticating types

Perhaps these actors generally fall short because they think that, since they’re in a “fantasy” action-drama, they should be playing fantasticating types, instead of blood-and-guts people.

So, they’re content to “approximate” their assigned characters, instead of being them. They’re so obedient to and dependent on the story’s heroic parameters and “mission statements” that they don’t try hard enough to vivify and actualize their roles’ stated objectives.

So, parts of the movie may sometimes work on the fantasy and “message” levels, but not deeply enough to summon up a genuinely emotional and emphatic response in viewers.

Since it’s been announced that there will be a “Panday 3” movie two years from now, we hope that star-producer Revilla pushes his production team to come up with a second sequel that’s more genuinely heroic and involving than this one.

Yes, the film franchise’s material is fantasy, but it should be played for real, so the desired believability and empathy can be achieved. Don’t rely so much on visual magic and spectacle, make Flavio more truly heroic and visionary, and “Panday 3” should do much better (fingers crossed).