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No one really had high expectations coming into Anak ng Kumander. At most, people probably thought that they’d be getting a pretty standard old school Filipino action film, with hat-wearing bad guys and automatic rifles that don’t run out on ammo. But even with lowered expectations, Anak ng Kumander just doesn’t hold up.

Idel is the son of the leader of a group of rebels in Basilan. After his father is betrayed by some of his men, Idel takes up the mantle of his father, taking the fight to corrupt government officials, drug dealers, jueteng lords, and anybody else who oppresses the good, honest people of Basilan. Along the ways, he gains the enmity of the very people who betrayed his father, and facing tremendous odds, Idel is forced to choose between his ethics and his survival.

It is to the film’s extreme detriment that the script is unable to convey such a simple plot. This shouldn’t have been very complicated: rebel leader fights bad guys. But what we get is a sprawling mess of tenuously connected sequences, with almost zero character development and sub-plots that lead absolutely nowhere. There is a romantic sub-plot in here that is just unbelievably underdeveloped and unrealistic, and all it does is provide a pretty ridiculous character moment between Idel and his paramour.

The filmmaking doesn’t hold up either. Again, no one was expecting much, but it’s reasonable to believe that people were at least expecting the shots to be in focus. Or for shots to not crop out heads. Or to see the character’s faces when they’re talking. Or for characters to have consistent hair between scenes. Or for scenes to not suddenly switch between night and day. There are actually a few cool effects littered here and there, but the very basic rules of filmmaking seem to have been ignored.

And this may have still been forgiveable if the action was any good. But it’s not. It just feels tremendously clumsy, with people mostly standing still on open terrain, shooting their firearms or taking fire. It isn’t very interesting, and even the oldest of our action films have more creative action than this.

And then we get to Manny Pacquiao. There are times when Pacquiao delivers lines like a fourth grader orating in front of the class. One can appreciate the effort, but Pacquiao just isn’t a compelling actor. He doesn’t have a lot of facial expressions, and he doesn’t have much on-screen chemistry with any of his co-actors. The rest of the cast does well enough, but this film is carried on the back of its hero. And Pacquiao just doesn’t have the chops to do that.

So all in all, Anak ng Kumander feels like a disaster. It gives us all the worst parts of old action films without any of the good. There is also room in Philippine cinema for a good old fashioned action film, but we can do a lot better than this.