Inaasahan ni Yam Laranas na may mga babatikos sa The Echo. Alam niya na hindi lahat ay magugustuhan ang kanyang unang Hollywood movie.
Nonetheless, nanamnamin muna ni Yam ang good reviews na natanggap niya nang ipalabas ang The Echo noong July 17 sa Hall Theater, Montreal, Canada.
Pinilahan ang premiere showing sa Montreal ng The Echo at ebidensya ang litrato ng mahabang pila ng mga tao sa labas ng Hall Theater.
Ang review ni Johnny Butane ng DreadCentral ang isa sa mga nakapagpasaya kay Yam:
“It’s always strange when I hear of a filmmaker being given the chance to remake his or her film with more money.
“I’m sure there are some out there who would jump at the chance to improve what they thought was wrong with their feature the first time, but why make the same film over again?
“Yam Laranas understood that for an American remake of his Filipino shocker Sigaw to work, there would need to be some changes.
“Having never seen the original, I’m not sure how much is changed, but I can say that The Echo never suffers from what the worst of those other Asian remakes do: that feeling that you’re watching an Asian film with an English-speaking cast.
“The Echo is very much its own movie with its own style and pacing, and for that reason alone I’m glad Laranas was able to have a second chance.
“First and foremost, The Echo is a beautiful film. You can tell Yam, a cinematographer himself though he didn’t shoot this, put a lot of thought into every shot,
every interior, every creeping, crawling camera movement; it all comes together wonderfully to add a thick tension to the proceedings, which in a film that is as deliberately paced as The Echo is incredibly important to keep the audience.
“Which brings me to my first issue with The Echo: the pacing. To be frank, sometimes it is excruciatingly slow. As I stated, Laranas had a plan, and overall the pace works very well, but there are just some scenes that, while not necessarily in need of a trim, could have at least been sped up.
“This is a Vertigo-produced remake, so all the standard Asian ghost movie remake staples are firmly in place: the musically timed scares, creepy little girl, ominous hallways, jump-cut movement of ghosts.
“It’s all stuff you’ve seen before, and while it didn’t necessarily detract from my enjoyment of The Echo, it did serve to cheapen it by a degree.
“I got the feeling that with a little more creative freedom, Laranas would have twisted some of the concepts to make them work better.
“The Echo is beautifully shot with amazing production design, dripping with atmosphere and tension like I’ve not seen in the Asian remakes since the trend first started. While the story and its resolution do have some issues, The Echo is deeper than just the plot, thanks to the way it was designed and executed.
“The deliberate pacing will likely turn off the ADD viewers among us and the standard ghost elements may turn off the more snobbish among us, but as an entire package The Echo is a very solid movie and hopefully only the beginning of what Mr. Laranas has to show us.”
JOJO GABINETE
Abante Online
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