Magellan

The real definition of every frame being a painting, it’s truly that beautiful.

Magellan is one of the best historical biopic films I’ve ever seen. Shot entirely with static frames, minimal scoring, calm and quiet vibes, and cinematography that’s beautifully serene and soothing to look at. Lav Diaz also boldly portrays the dark side of colonialism and the deceit of European explorers in the past even though, as far as I know (CMIIW), the film is supported by institutions from Portugal and Spain and he conveys all of that with extraordinary beauty.

This film isn’t just about recounting the past, but serves as a reminder, showing us how European explorers once tortured, colonized, plundered, and pitted Southeast Asian nations against one another. With this film, we are given a silent witness to how cruelty and human greed can destroy norms and morality.

I have never assigned a rating of 1/10 to any film until this one. For all those that have been taken by the cinematography, you have been taken for a ride. The use of a 4:3 ratio, dark, smudgy static wide shot series of 2-4 minutes takes, minimal dialog and acting does not make a great film, especially when it is slow for no reason and lasts almost 3 hours. You couldn't even see the main protagonist's face for the first 70 minutes. The net result is a ludicrous film masquerading as art, a talentless, lazy imitation of Werner Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God.

I just got finished watching this turkey, and I would have to say that it was a humongous piece of junk. Considering how significant a story it is from a historical point of view, they just didn't do much with the story or the concept. And it was totally devoid of any sort of Maritime theme, nor did they take advantage of the possibility of showing the spirit of adventure and ocean crossings that they should have and could have shown. And what about the cartographic aspect, that was completely left out. I don't know what the production team, the writers and the director thought they were accomplishing with this film, but I do not think they could have made it more dull, if they had been trying to achieve that.

The other abject failure of this movie was the editing, they had scenes the lasted 6 minutes that should have been 40 seconds where there was absolutely nothing going on. It made the film feel disjointed and like a hot mess. It was also poorly written, and the direction was completely off.

I feel like this film failed on just about every level other than some of the production values and a couple of the performances. It was mind numbingly dull.