"Adarna Gang" would have and could have been great if more time was spent on developing its characters and its story. But sadly, the film turned out to be very raw and extremely half-baked in most of its aspects. Outside the stellar comeback performance from Coleen Garcia, there are very few positives to take from the film.
When her father is murdered in his last job for his gang, his daughter Adriana (Coleen Garcia) vows to seek unrelenting vengeance on those who caused his demise. Specifically the head of the family and his three trusted right hand men Juan (JC Santos), Diego (Diego Loyzaga), and Pedro (Mark Anthony Fernandez).
We must admit that it has been almost two decades since we read "Ibong Adarna" - the Filipino epic poem in which the movie was based on so a heavy disclaimer that our review won't take this into account. But here's the thing, we don't think that the biggest issues within "Adarna Gang" are related to "Ibong Adarna". Admittedly, the performances used spoken word was distracting and awkward at times but most of it at least had good context and connection with what was happening on-screen. What's unforgivable was the lack of any character development. Outside of JC Santos' Juan and Coleen Garcia's Adriana, no one in the film was given much time or effort to be fully fleshed out. Worse, these characters were stereotyped like Mark Anthony Fernandez's Pedro as the bad guy or Diego Loyzaga's Diego as the playboy to put in some unnecessary sex scenes as expected from VivaMax. There were no deep connections between the characters or nuance to its story that it felt like a wasted opportunity given what it was gunning for in the first place. Another thing to nitpick were the action scenes that came off as cheap and could have easily been one from a local TV show. Overall, don't let its epic goal fool you into thinking "Adarna Gang" will be epic because as it is, it's a cheap knockoff not worthy of your time.
Rating: 1 and a half reels
Why you should watch it:
- Coleen Garcia's comeback film performance was outstanding
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