Today's Review: Alias Maria

The number of reviews written for FilmTotaal still grows:

Alias Maria - recensie

Director José Luis Rugeles has nothing but the best intentions with Alias Maria, but he tries a little too hard to show the full horror of being a young girl growing up in the FARC guerrilla movement. Of course there's little joy to be had and mostly despair to feel, but ninety minutes of watching nothing but misery without offering the tiniest shred of hope makes the audience equally miserable. We can do nothing but sit back and cry injustice about the horrors inflicted upon both women and children in the Colombian jungle, so we end up numb to the entire issue by the time the credits start rolling.

Part of our inability to feel for the plight of Maria, the young female protagonist who ends up pregnant in a society where babies are forbidden save for those of the man in charge, is first time actress' Karen Torres own inability to properly emote. It's laudable Rugeles opted for realism by using people who have lived through some of the same ordeals as their characters, but in terms of acting, it simply backfires. Torres' continuing stoic gaze and the few lines bestowed on her character throughout the piece, don't aid us in rooting for her or her unborn child. Like ourselves when watching this film, she simply undergoes everything that happens with little hope of changing her situation for the better. She and the other FARC guerrillas are like the ants Rugeles highlights throughout the piece: little soldiers with no discernible will of their own who fight and die for the only thing they know. In what few moments of reflecting upon their life Rugeles offers Maria and her fellow drones, contemplating a life outside the terrorist movement never seems to be considered a realistic option.

And their lives doesn't count for much as it is. Children are not allowed to be children here. If they can carry a gun, they are soldiers and so they fight. Same rules apply to them as to their older brothers/sisters in arms. Whoever refuses is shot on the spot, no matter their age. Needless to say, we witness quite a lot of death in Alias Maria. Rugeles doesn't go for excessive gore and violence, but there's still a few moments that show or at least suggest enough to make our stomachs turn. Children are obviously not spared. You'd think an organization that sees its losses mount on a daily basis would be happy with whatever new recruits babies eventually offer. But that's not the case, as baby noise proves to great a risk, even in the dense jungle. Rugeles' point that the FARC has no future, and nor do those who grow up in it, is hammered home quite adequately for his purposes, but at the end, we have simply grown as tired of all the suffering as Maria must be. But lucky us, we can simply leave all her misery behind us and go home...

The Lost World Series 1: Junior T-Rex

Year of release: 1997

Accessories:

-One piece of capture gear

-Healing leg cast

Description: this juvenile Tyrannosaurus has rather long slender legs, tiny teeth and a small head compared to adult Rexes. It does have the odd little two fingered arms one finds with larger Rexes though. The animal stands in a neutral pose except for its tail, which is bent to the left somewhat. Its lower right leg hangs loose (though still attached) and can be twisted around, as if it’s broken or damaged in some way. The leg cast can be applied on the leg by sticking the pin on its inside in the little hole in the figure’s upper right leg. That way the twisted leg will “switch” back and the animal’s leg is healed; at least, that is the general idea. The Rex’s mouth can also be opened and closed by hand. This animal comes with one piece of capture gear which can cover its head, like a muzzle. It’s coloured slightly shiny grey. The leg cast sports the same colour.

The Rex itself sports a light brown colour for the most part, which can be found on the tail, flanks, head and limbs of the figure. On the underside of the creature (belly, underside of the tail, throat, lower jaw, parts of the arms and legs) the colour changes from brown to beige in a very gradual way. The back of the figure is painted in a dark brownish purple colouring, running all the way from the snout to the tip of the tail. Stripes and spots in the same dark colour can be found on the flanks, tail, legs and head. The Rex has small black claws and bright yellow eyes with black pupils. On his upper right leg (above the dino damage feature) he has a yellow JP Site B logo with the number .42 next to it.

Analysis: this is a good and realistic Young Tyrannosaurus figure. It’s pretty cute (especially the adorable little head and arms), and quite movie accurate. His paint job also isn’t bad, and reminiscent of the paint jobs of earlier Rex models (though none of this toy line). His long legs do look somewhat unusual, but aren’t too ridiculous considering this animal is only a juvenile.

The dino damage feature – that’s what it basically is, though unlike with other dino damage features this figure sports no removable body parts – isn’t really impressive. It’s nice the leg can be switched around, but the leg cast just looks silly: it only covers half the leg for one thing. Another issue: the leg switches back by itself on many occasions. When you bend the leg back far enough to make sure this doesn’t happen, covering the leg with the leg cast doesn’t do anything. Also, the pin sticking out of the leg cast breaks off easily, rendering the cast rather useless. It’s an original and interesting damage feature, but it just doesn’t really work. The additional single piece of capture gear isn’t very special either, but covers the head well. There’s no dinosaur-breaks-free-of-restraint-gear action for this figure.

Playability: quite high. The limbs are all fully poseable, and the right leg even more so because of the twistable lower leg. The neutral pose also helps. The mouth movement is a good extra feature, which most other dinosaur figures unfortunately lack. The leg cast and capture gear don’t add all that much options, but are a welcome extra feature.

Realism: this dinosaur looks a lot like the little Rex seen in the TLW movie. It has a very similar design with its cute little head and long legs. However, this figure is considerably taller compared to the human figures. The juvenile Rex in the movie was about half the size of this baby. The paint job is also a tad different, but not all that much. The leg cast is a bit different because it only covers one side of the leg, but considering the Rex in the movie also had a broken leg it’s clear the designers of this toy watched the movie closely. Unfortunately they didn’t come up with a more realistic muzzle, but this piece of capture gear does the trick just as easy. All in all, this figure is one of the most movie accurate dinosaurs of this toy line, if not JP toys in general.

Repaint: no. However, this figure would be repainted several times: twice for JP Dinosaurs 1, and a third time for JP Dinosaurs 2. The leg cast and capture gear would be featured with all three repaints too.

Overall rating: 8/10. Though the dino damage action isn’t really great, this figure is well done, very similar to its movie counterpart and just extremely cute. It’s not hard to find and can probably be acquired at not too great a cost, so I recommend you get one yourself.

Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend

Rating: ***/*****, or 6/10

Charming but cheesy family adventure film about a scientist couple (William Katt and Sean Young) setting out in search for the legendary 'Mokele Mbembe' in the African jungle, and stumbling upon a overly cute family of Brontosaurus (or Apatosaurus, depending on how much you actually know about dinosaurs), including an extremely cuddly infant. Unfortunately a rival scientist in league with the Congolese army also finds the animals and roughly disturbs the harmony by killing the father and taking the baby, after which the couple aims to free the hatchling and return it to its mother. Old school flick, with heroic protagonists, stereotypically sinister bad guys, and a surprising amount of nudity (tribal, but still) and violence for a PG rated film. The dinosaurs look kinda goofy, but are convincing enough for a younger audience.

Starring: Sean Young, William Katt, Patrick McGoohan

Directed by Bill L. Norton

USA: Touchstone Pictures, 1985