This is not a review of the movie. This is a review of why we heart the movie.
Boy Bawang, Lipps candy, Gran Matador Brandy.
These took center stage the same way the "Aswang" and "Tiktik" ghouls did in Erik Matti's written and directed movie Tiktik: The Aswang Chronicles.
The unabashed product placements were just as entertaining as the movie.
Wait a minute, was the movie entertaining?
If you like to see a Filipino film version of the popular video game Left for Dead and the US TV series Walking Dead, yes it was.
We could literally give Hollywood a run for its money.
But is the movie trying to be too Hollywood? And because we have been conditioned to like hamburgers, milk shakes, popcorn; do we like the movie because it is like a Hollywood movie? Not because it is a good movie?
What does a "good movie" mean anyway?
When I was working as a Training staff at an accounting firm (no I am not an accountant) eons ago, Erik Matti delivered a talk to the CPAs - because sometimes CPAs need to be exposed to stuff other than numbers and ledgers too. He asked everyone in the room: "What kind of movie do you want to see?"
To which everyone's answer was hushed silence.
No one knew what or how to answer Matti's question - which Matti asked after hearing complaints from the CPA audience that Filipino movies are easier to dislike than like.
But the fact was, no one knew what they wanted to see.
You do not even know what you want to see, how could we know what kind of movies you would want to see?, Matti asked.
But it seems Matti now knows what Pinoys want and he fulfills everyone's expectations to a T -- at least everyone who has been exposed to the loud shebang of Hollywood products.
Content-wise, Tiktik the movie is juvenile.
It even gives out a comic book vibe with its multiple panels and grittily as-if-drawn backgrounds. The story-telling was similarly forced thanks to the contrived dialogue and action.
But that is what the audience wants. They're all lining up to see it. Literally because no one has seen a Filipino-made-special effects-film like this before.
Matti has given us cake. And us the Pinoy audience is eating it all up.
If the movie was Lipps Candy, it was yummy - albeit too fruity.
If the movie was Boy Bawang, it was crunchily good but too unhealthily salty.
If the movie was Gran Matador Brandy, it will make you tipsy but not enough to make you want to get deliciously drunk.
Tiktik the movie is flashy. But the looong lines to the movie indicate we like flash; we like pomp; we like pageantry. And Erik Matti & Co. knows this. That is why the movie is a hit.
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