It's difficult when a filmmaker comes out an impressive debut film, in this case Ato's Sa Aking Pagkakagising mula sa Kamulatan. I was perhaps one of the very first to have seen it when it was shown at the NCCA, and immediately, after the credits rolled, I was speechless and got blown away. A subsequent viewing slightly altered my perception of the film but, nervertheless, I still felt that Ato was off to a very, very good start and was clearly a director to watch out for. So when I got word that Blackout was set to be shown here, I waited with baited breath and excitement, wondering how his next work will turn out.
Alas, with all my pent-up excitement and anticipation, I wasn't quite bowled over. It wasn't at all a bad film, mind you, but I felt that it began very slugishly, almost draggingly, before the story began to pick-up pace and heat up. Call me nit picky, but I was constantly bothered by little details, particularly Robin Padilla's use of an old rotary telephone, a relic from PLDT's past. I thought at first it had a period setting--sometime in the eighties perhaps--but it was clearly contemporary. And Robin's performance, well...
Over all though, I think Blackout was a honest, well-crafted attempt at doing a psycho theater. Compared to his first work, however, this one pales in comparison.
