Valentine The Dark Avenger (2017) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2017
Running Time	97:21 (Case: 112)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Agus Hermansyah Mawardy
Studio Distributor	Umbrella Entertainment	Starring	Estelle Linden Matthew Settle Arie Dagienkz Ahmad Affandy Sasky Aisyawara Nabila Putri Aliza Putri
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	Izzal Peterson

Video (NTSC)		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (320Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	480i (NTSC)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     The city of Batavia is being overrun by crime, mostly organised by the mysterious, masked Shadow (Ahmad Affandy) and his three female martial arts companions (Sasky Aisyawara, Nabila Putri, Aliza Putri). The police seem powerless to take back control of the city and ordinary citizens are scared. Bono (Matthew Settle) wants to make a Superhero movie but cannot get any producers interested. Then, in a café, he watches entranced as waitress Sri (Estelle Linden) effortlessly defeats a number of attackers and he realises that he has found his star. But they still need to raise awareness and money. With Bono’s friend Wan (Arie Dagienkz) making the costumes and holding the camera Sri becomes the purple clad Valentine, the masked avenger, and they go onto the streets of Batavia to defeat, for real, robbers and other villains. The publicity works and news reporting makes a real life hero of Sri / Valentine, giving the people of the city hope again. But a tragedy puts Valentine onto a path that leads to a showdown with Shadow and his minions. She is no longer a pretend comic book superhero, but the real thing.

     The character of Valentine was created by Sarjono Sutrisno and Aswin Mc Siregar in Skylar Comics in Indonesia. Valentine: The Dark Avenger is a direct spin-off from the comic; it is made in Indonesia, in Indonesian, although this DVD from Umbrella is the English dub. The first half of the film has very little plot but is instead a succession of exciting fights as Sri takes down the bad guys. Her fighting style is based on the Indonesian martial arts called ‘silat”; this is a close combat technique using fists, hands, forearms, jumps and kicks. The IMDb states that Valentine: The Dark Avenger is the first martial arts / superhero film to feature silat which is untrue; first superhero film to do so it may be, but the silat technique was used to good effect by Iko Uwais well before Valentine: The Dark Avenger in Merantau (2009) and The Raid films (2011 / 2014).

     That aside, the regular fights in the film are varied and frenetic. There is, as is common in many martial arts films these days, a lot of rapid editing, cutting the fights into small sections, although we can see enough of Linden to see that she is athletic, moves well and can certainly take care of herself. Valentine: The Dark Avenger also includes a nice strand of humour, such as issues with early versions of Valentine’s purple costume which, unlike other female superheroes around in films at the moment, is rather practical and does not pander to males by showing glimpses of the heroine’s cleavage or bare legs.

     The main storyline of Valentine: The Dark Avenger kicks in about half way when Shadow and his females return to the plot. There is a sequence with hostages in a bank, a car chase and martial arts action plenty (although the police have their guns out they never seem to use then when they are attacked). The acting generally throughout Valentine: The Dark Avenger is wooden, the dialogue stilted (which may be the English dub voice acting) but it the action that is what is important in a film like Valentine: The Dark Avenger and here it delivers. The climax is terrific, especially the combat between Valentine and the three female martial artists, and while the identity of Shadow is no surprise when it is revealed it really doesn’t matter.

Video

     Valentine: The Dark Avenger is presented in the original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, NTSC and 16x9 enhanced.

     This is a nice looking print. The night scenes showing the city, including flyovers, are sharp with solid blacks and very good shadow detail. Other night scenes when Sri chases villains into buildings or along alleys are also crisp. Daylight colours are bright but natural, such as the yellow of Sri’s jacket on her moped. Skin tones are natural, brightness and contrast consistent. I did not notice any marks or artefacts and motion blur is not evident, even in the swiftly edited fight sequences. Indeed, the print is detailed enough to notice the less than stellar CGI work, including the enhanced fire effects during explosions.

     No subtitles are provided.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is English Dolby Digital 5.1 at 320 Kbps.

     Dialogue is always clear. From the opening scenes in the club the rears and surrounds are full of sounds such as voices, ambient weather and the music. During the car chase there are lots of panning effects as the vehicles race around and during the hand to hand fights there are plenty of the impacts as fists and kicks connect plus the thud of bodies hitting the floor. Other effects, such as explosions or cars crashing, are loud. The subwoofer supported the impacts and explosions as well as adding an atonal boom effect to the music.

     The score by Izzal Peterson is loud and rather bombastic, thus suiting the material.

    This is the English dub of an Indonesian language film; some of the lip synchronisation is OK but a lot is indifferent.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     Nothing. The feature starts when the DVD loads.

     I cannot find any reviews of the US Region 1 DVD of Valentine: The Dark Avenger. The Region A Blu-ray contains a short image gallery (2:12) and a trailer (1:51) so I doubt a DVD would have any more. I don’t think this is significant so call it a draw.

     Valentine: The Dark Avenger is an Asian Batman type superhero, in that the hero does not have special superpowers but relies on their abilities, fighting skills and a few gadgets to defeat the villains. While obviously not having the budget of Hollywood films, Valentine: The Dark Avenger is a fun, entertaining action film with Estelle Linden a fine hero.

     The video and audio are good for DVD. Zero extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall