Josephina
Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.
Migx Unknown
From the beginning of the movie some of the details are not accurate such as the ammunition used for their revolver during the introduction scene, it displayed a .45 ACP (not existed during that period) instead of .45 LC.Some of the scenes uses slow motion effects kinda like the Matrix stuff which really ruins the movie, the selection of actors are also not matching their character.Their fictional characters such as "Inang bayan" also makes the movie more Sci-Fi or Paranormal, they could have shown the love for the mother land in a different way.There are a lot more unless you are interested on the negative comments about this movie then watch.
bejtenorio-254-163197
Terrible movie. It is historical fiction which copied battle scenes from Robin Hood, Braveheart, and Asiong Salonga... and portrayed Andres Bonifacio as ego-centric, heartless and a traitor- the worst you can do to a national hero. They said they based the story on Aguinaldo's memoir?? But who provided the details?? I don't know if Ambeth Ocampo said something about this movie, I doubt he did. Even the acting was terrible. Anyway, what will you expect when the actors in the movie are also involved in politics.Too bad, I read that Prof. Randy David did not see the lies and intentional errors in the movie. Watching this movie was like allowing The Bonifacio brothers to be murdered over and over again, and be silent about it.
kevinguiam
I enjoyed watching the movie.. i cant believe that this movie didn't become the best film, but at least they become 2nd runner up, that means most of the people here in the Philippines enjoyed this film because it's about Emilio Aguinaldo (the first president here in the Philippines), i cannot say anymore about this film but I'm gonna tell this that this movie is worth watching and you will learn more about the life history of Emilio Aguinaldo and how he became a president. I rate this movie 7.2/10 because this film means something rather than the other films in the 38th Metro Manila Film Festival.This movie is awesome/great! and i recommend it to people who haven't watched this film yet! El Presidente!!
Ivan6655321
After last year's surprisingly good period gangster film that is "Manila Kingpin: The Asiong Salonga Story", here is E.R. Ejercito again with an Emilio Aguinaldo biopic entitled "El Presidente", an infinitely trickier film to pull off, scope and exposition-wise. If E.R.'s previous film focuses mainly on gangland altruism, "El Presidente" is all about patriotic resilience amidst imperialism, and it definitely shows on the film's abundant dose of sentimentalism. And if E.R. seems tailor-made for the role of Asiong Salonga (after all, he has already played Asiong in the '90s film "Asiong Salonga: Hari ng Tondo"), he seems feverishly out of place in this whole historical drama, especially when he's surrounded by character actors that are ten times more talented than him. Now do not get me wrong, when I think of a more suitable and relatively bankable actor to play Aguinaldo, I can't really think of anyone save for Ejercito himself (as of the moment, that is). Except for his bulldog-ish cheeks, Ejercito nicely fits the title role specifically because of his relative mass appeal and sense of authority. But then, somebody has seemingly forgotten to remind him that "El Presidente" is, after all, a film and not a theatrical play. With his repetitively oratorical hand gestures and monotonous line deliveries, despite of the stature of the person he's playing, E.R. is easily dwarfed by his co-actors in the film, specifically Cesar Montano, whose brief but strong turn as Andres Bonifacio is a mild cause for celebration. Except for his hair that's anachronistically gelled upwards, Cesar Montano's Bonifacio is so well-portrayed that I wouldn't bother for him to have more screen time than Aguinaldo himself. Granted, "El Presidente" is quite sophisticated with its cinematography and action sequences, but its whole narrative seems fairly derivative and very 'Philippine History 101' that the film's human aspect was left terribly wanting.Complete with cursive texts beneath every establishing scene that continuously remind us that the film is more of a crash course on the history of pre-republic Philippines rather than a fairly humanizing story of a great man (this, of course, depends on who's seeing the film), "El Presidente" never quite connects on the emotional level. Instead, and this is quite saddening, it merely gives out the occasional 'wow' factor with its action set pieces, mammoth scope and nothing more. And although I also liked Baron Geisler's intense performance as a Spanish captain, the film's supporting cast was fairly uninspired and a tad too unconvincing; indeed, a bunch of artificially mustachioed lads sputtering things about independence and going slow-motion on simulated battles is not enough. Well, maybe that is the ultimate downside of a historical drama: the scope is almost always so big that the characters are rendered as nothing but glorified plot details. In a way, "El Presidente" is "Jose Rizal's" (the film, not the man) campy and overly sentimental half-brother who gets into too much unjustified scuffles. If Cesar Montano's portrayal of Jose Rizal is one founded upon complexity, dedication and utter intensity, E.R. Ejercito's Emilio Aguinaldo is founded upon monotony, misplaced emotions and uncalled-for action star-ism. In one action scene when he has suddenly pulled out a very gangster-looking boot knife, I even expected E.R. to suddenly show his ever-wriggling tongue and shout "Ako si Boy Sputnik!" His performance is just so all over the place that at the end of the day, "El Presidente" has made me root more for Andres Bonifacio. Now I have this sudden craving to watch Richard Somes' Bonifacio biopic "Supremo". But in all fairness, the film's final 15 minutes or so is quite powerful. In a way, it reminds me of the final moments of Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Last Emperor" in how both finely convey the elegy of time in the lives of the most powerful and seemingly immortal leaders. The appearance of Nora Aunor as Emilio Aguinaldo's second wife though, who was cast just so she can be put into the posters as a potential crowd-drawer, is a complete non-event. In my opinion, they could have put Lilia Cuntapay in the role and it wouldn't really even make a strand of difference. "El Presidente", although admittedly a grand, sweeping production, is a very clunky film that offers little to nothing that our history text books have not taught us yet. Perhaps showing some of Aguinaldo's trivial humanity wouldn't hurt. And yes, "Manila Kingpin" is better.
