Iko Uwais is an excellent martial artist. And it makes sense for him to be ambitious when it comes to his films and filmmaking in general. But not going to sugarcoat it. He still has a lot to learn.
Timur, which is based on a real incident, the 1996 Mapenduma hostage rescue in Papua, does a poor job of giving some necessary background on the terrorists and the hostages. Why are they there? What are the motives? What are their demands? I mean, I can guess, but sometimes you need to make it clear, since now they appear as a group of disorganized hoodlums and thugs. I don't mind the simplification, but it would have enhanced the subplot concerning Timur, Apolo, and Sila. It would have given some insight into the struggle Apolo is going through. The pacing is awful. It took a while for the film to really get going, and even when it did, it would stop the momentum too many times. As if it were waiting for something grand to happen, which it didn't.
The highlights of the film are the action sequences, but unfortunately, I need to be critical of those as well. The choreography is good. But for whatever reason, Iko opted for a camera operator suffering from high anxiety. It was too jittery for my taste. Towards the end, it looked like Iko had found his rhythm. It's here where he also hits us hard emotionally speaking. Sadly, he undercut himself by giving us a generic climax I didn't care for.
Overall, the viewing experience was disappointing and didn't deliver on the high-octane action you would expect from Iko Uwais. Hopefully, he will learn from his mistakes and give us something better in the future!
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