Dollar Tree Cinema: Valentine

“Valentine” (2017)
Starring Estelle Linden, Arie Dagienkz, Matthew Settle, Ahmad Affandy
Directed by Agus Hermansyah Mawardy
Screenplay by Beby Hasibuan, story by Sarjono Sutrisno, based on characters created by Aswin Siregar and Sutrisno
Rated TV-14 (numerous fight scenes, gun deaths)

It's almost impossible to go into a movie without any preconceptions. You like the actors or are intrigued by the story, or maybe you're watching someone else's choice and you're not sure about it. I try to be open-minded and not let those preconceptions dictate my assessment of the movie, especially if I'm going to write about it.

But when the movie in question is a superhero flick you've never heard of, about a character you've never heard of, that invokes the word “avenger” in a way you suspect is less for story purposes and more for perceived Marvel adjacency, those preconceptions are going to include a not-insignificant dose of skepticism.

And in the case of “Valentine,” subtitled “The Dark Avenger,” that skepticism was fairly earned... but not entirely deserved.

The filmmakers didn't just hope folks would see “avenger” in the subtitle and mistake this for a Marvel movie; they do their own spin on the Marvel Cinematic Universe intro with comic book images – and cap the film off with a couple of mid-credit scenes.

The movie itself kicks off with a party where folks are vaping a glowing substance I assumed would be a key part of the story. But it's never seen again after a guy in a black costume and his trio of lady enforcers abduct a dude from the party, then execute him, in his underwear, in front of his dad's house.

From there we learn the man in black is known as the Shadow, and he knows what evil lurks in the hearts of... Sorry. Wrong Shadow. This one's got Batavia City in the grip of a relentless crime wave.

Although I'm sure it's supposed to be a fictional everywhere a la Metropolis or Gotham, I presume Batavia City is in Indonesia based on the source material being published by Skylar Comics, an Indonesian company, and the internet referring to this as an Indonesian movie.*

The following synopsis includes a whole lot of spoilers. Check out the trailer to see if you want to watch it first before reading the rest,

A guy named Bono (Settle, and pronounced like Sonny, not the U2 frontman) has an idea on how to fight back: Inspire people with a movie about a heroine named Valentine. He can't get anybody to greenlight the film so he decides to make a sizzle reel by hiring a martial arts-trained actress to fight actual crime. He's not having much luck until he discovers Sri (Linden), a waitress who has disappointed her mother with her apparent lack of ambition in the wake of her father's death but still has her very understanding brother (Affandy) in her corner. Sri really wants to act, but she's stuck waiting tables until she uses the silat martial arts in which her father trained her to take down a pervy customer and his boorish buddies in a cafe where Bono is looking over resumes of potential stars.

With the help of the flamboyant designer/producer Wawan (Dagienkz), Bono comes up with a costume for Sri and sics her on a couple of would-be convenience store robbers. Soon she's training with her signature weapons – handcuffs – as Wawan keeps upgrading her costume and the mysterious Valentine builds buzz on YouTube.

In one encounter, she chases some thieves into a warehouse filled with... what appear to be random enemies from a Valentine video game? Like, there's a woman fighting off a man, but she then has a martial arts showdown with Valentine for... reasons, I guess? Then Valentine meets the boss, who seems to be putting himself through college by running a gang, in a UFC-style cage, where she debuts her new weapon: handcuff nunchuks. Oh, and a shirtless guy comes in while she's fighting that guy but she beats them both.

When the Shadow and his gang take hostages at a bank, Valentine is on the scene... watching, as the Shadow insists on negotiating with a particular officer, Lukman (Marcell Domits). Then the cops burst in, only to find the timers on the hostages' bomb vests were connected to explosives outside. Seems the Shadow's real targets were the police all along.

And Valentine continues watching, because, despite Bono's guerilla marketing strategy, she's still an aspiring actress who's good at martial arts and this situation is several orders of magnitude above her skill set. Eventually they join the chase, leading to a rolling fight with her and Shadow's lieutenants leaping and falling between three vehicles. Bono's mentorship consists of telling her to jump to one of the other cars, “like Batman.”

Sri is understandably distressed by this, especially since Bono has never gotten around to actually shooting anything resembling a movie. You'd almost think he was more interested in creating a hero than a multimedia franchise...

Which of course he is. We learn that Bono's wife and daughter – whose name was Valentine, finally explaining the moniker of this lady Phantom-looking heroine – died in a crash caused by fleeing thieves. Sri learns of this while from Wawan while wearing what appears to be a sweater from the Big Bird collection. But she doesn't get to reconcile with Bono before he's killed protecting a woman and her daughter from an armed robber.

Sri is determined to do the good Bono wanted her to, setting up a showdown with the Shadow and his forces, while Lukman keeps doing stuff. We find out that Sri's killed himself, Lukman is her brother's friend. and her brother works for a private company called Safety First. Hmm, a connection with the Shadow's handpicked police negotiator and a potential conflict of interest with the city's under-fire police force? Somebody's got to be under that Shadow mask that we recognize, right?

As the Shadow takes a prince hostage, Valentine faces off against his trio of lady killers, one of whom apparently includes copyright infringement in her criminal repertoire, having appeared dressed a lot like Olaf from “Frozen,” a Minion and in a dress with a straight-up Batman logo in the final battle. She defeats them, setting up a rooftop showdown with the big bad himself. After gaining the upper hand-to-hand against Valentine, Shadow pulls off his mask and reveals himself to be... her brother, who I guess was named Umbra?

Turns out, their dad; Syusama, the Commissioner Gordon-type leading the police force; and Bumantara, the dude I almost forgot whose son was killed in the opening, were – their words – “delinquents who (joined) the police so we could control our destiny.” But at some point, Syusama and Buma did some shady stuff and Sri and Umbra's dad wouldn't stand for it. So the other two killed him and made it look like a suicide. Umbra found out and took on the Shadow identity, starting a crime wave to make the police look bad and kill a lot of them.

Umbra trades the prince for Syusama, then kills him, even though Lukman has the evidence to prove his father's innocence. Then a police sniper kills Umbra, while Valentine just kind of stands there.

Summarizing it like this a few days later, the flaws in the story are magnified. I won't try to tell you this is a great or even good movie, but I will say it is significantly better than I expected. The budget clearly isn't huge, but they make the most of what they have. The action is exciting and looks good to me, although I also didn't get why everybody was down on Finn Jones in “Iron Fist,” so a fight choreography expert I am not. Suffice it to say, there was genuine effort put into this and not halfhearted attempts. Some of the handcuff stuff borders on parody, but I give them points for not just sticking her with batons like Black Widow.

There are plot holes but the foundation is solid. Valentine is kind of like a reverse Booster Gold, using fame as a stepping stone to heroism, rather than vice versa. Bono's true motivations aren't told, but they aren't clearly shown either. It's less a revelation and more a realization that, oh, he didn't plan to make a movie at all. Or maybe he did, but found out Sri really was hero material.

The acting isn't spectacular, but it's also not just a bunch of people sitting around saying words. Perhaps the most striking element is the first mid-credit scene, where a flying superhuman – I presume Volt, based on Skylar's website – intercepts a meteor in a sequence where the effects may not be top of the line but certainly don't look cheap.

Back in the days when I was so starved for superhero content that I kept re-renting the Captain America movie starring J.D. Salinger's son and Ned Beatty and “Return of Swamp Thing,” “Valentine” would have been a memorable offering. Today we have the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a DC extended universe and a rebooted DC universe. “Valentine” obviously can't compete with those, but to dismiss this movie as nothing more than a forgettable direct-to-video dud is unfair. I don't know if Valentine will return in any capacity,** but I wouldn't be heartbroken if she did.

* - Waiting for animated Ra's al-Ghul to call me “Detective.”

** - In “Avengers: Doomsday,” perhaps?