Metro Manila Film Festival

‘Magikland’ review: Lacking polish, but still endearing

Oggs Cruz

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‘Magikland’ review: Lacking polish, but still endearing

MAGIKLAND. Migs Cuaderno leads the cast in the movie directed by Christian Acuna.

Screenshot from Upstream YouTube

'Magikland' can be confusing in its messaging

Christian Acuna’s Magikland is rough around the edges, but what it lacks in polish, it makes up with earnestness that gives way to ample charm.

Latest in the line

Magikland is the latest in a line of Filipino children’s movies where its prepubescent protagonists are brought to a fantasy land both as an escape from their real life problems and as a test for them to realize what is really important in their lives. 

It clearly draws inspiration from Peque Gallaga and Lore Reyes’ Magic Temple (1996), where 3 teenagers are spirited away from the streets of Manila to become the saviors of an embattled land. Screenwriters Pat Apura and Rod Marmol update the genre template by incorporating into the familiar trope not just the addictive appeal but also the impersonal mechanics of mobile gaming. 

The balancing acts Acuna has to commit to are not exactly easy feats. 

He needs to mold a movie that echoes the awe and wonder of a magical land but without abandoning the motive for instantaneous rewards and pleasures that mobile gaming has preconditioned its players for. He needs to stand by traditional virtues that are part and parcel of the moralistic endeavors of the genre and admonish the repercussions of the gaming vice that is his film’s unique selling point.

Lacking breathing space

Acuna isn’t always successful. 

Magikland can be confusing in its messaging. 

It opens with its most of its protagonists at odds with their respective families and retreating to their mobile games to escape from the adults’ incessant nagging which in turn, causes the adults to pester them more. The film ends in a celebratory note, with the protagonists accomplishing their aim of saving a mythical land from an evil despot, but without a feeling that they’ve had their young lives changed for the better. There is still that impression that if their lives go awry, they’d still go for the escapism provided by the digital wonderland than the bittersweet comforts of real life.

Perhaps the film’s goal is to patronize escapism, to regard it as inherent if not important to the experience of childhood. 

If taken that way, Magikland is an endearing trifle. It has lovely moments, such as that poignant scene where the guilt one of the film’s leads about his mother’s cancer internal struggles is turned into the core of his fight with the film’s villain. Sadly, the film is a tad too preoccupied in too many storylines and resolutions. It feels hurried, with very little breathing space both for essential world building and for any of the emotions it seeks to project to resound. 

‘Magikland’ review: Lacking polish, but still endearing
Lacking real convictions

Still, Magikland is lovely when it is focused.

It is far from the wonder it probably intends to be but its clear attempts to upgrade the genre and to make it current in a world where children are connected through digital worlds and adventures are laudable. – Rappler.com

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