Darna (1991) User Reviews (2)

Darna......the superhero of choice?!?!?!

[nuwan_wel · 6/10 · 24 June 2010]

One thing I find difficult with these movies is to review them with a certain amount of objectivity. As a rule I really like superhero/action movies and I normally have a certain amount of grace towards them even if they are considered bad by the general population. For me as long as the actor\actress in the lead role brings to the real a certain amount of gravitas or believability I can tend to look over glaring plot holes or bad dialogue.

There have been only a handful of actors who you could actually say fitted the role to a tee.....Christopher Reeve (Superman), Lynda Carter (Wonder Woman), Christian Bale (Batman), Helen Slater (Supergirl), Robert Downey Jr (Ironman), Tobey MacGuire (Spiderman).

With the Darna series there have been many actresses over the years that have fitted into the red boots and costume. Almost all people would say that Vilma Santos was the quintessential Darna. However, looking at the movies made in the 90's both Nanette Medved and Anjanette Abeyari both did a very good job of the role.

Sure the stories weren't going to win an academy award but both girls in their respective movies tried to give Darna a certain amount of respect.

In this outing...an origin story of some description...Nanette gets to don the red boots and tights in which she looks very good. As a movie the production values were actually quite good. The setup of Edu Manzano as the villain of the piece was very well done at the beginning and you actually believe that he is very dangerous. Nanette receiving the stone and transforming was also excellently done.

I won't go into many details of the story but suffice to say it wasn't spectacular but it wasn't bad. If anything it was a little more serious than the sequel with Anjanette and didn't have any of the camp quality. The action set pieces were well done for Fillipino standards and Nanette actually looks like she could crack a few heads. I think she even did a few of her own stunts.

Overall, the Nanette, Darna turns out to be OK. A little serious for me but still resonating with what Darna is about.

Fun superhero film

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 28 April 2022]

I wrote about Bruka: Queen of Evil, which this movie is related to. For example, one of Darna's villains is her former friend Valentina, who becomes the snake-haired Serpina. That character inspired Bruka.

But who is Darna?

Darna is a Filipino superheroine created by writer Mars Ravelo and artist Nestor Redondo. It's tempting, with her costume, to call her a Wonder Woman clone. She's really a deceased extraterrestrial warrior who uses the body of an Earth woman named Narda to rescue those who can't fend for themselves.

Fourteen different actresses have played her over 21 movies and TV shows, starting with Rosa del Rosario. The character is so famous that she's even appeared in several ballet performances.

The 1991 version of the character was directed by Joel Lamangan and written by Frank Rivera. Darna is played by Nanette Medved. The origin is changed here so that Narda is granted a magical stone by an angel that can transform her into Darna. The enemy takes the form of a satanic conspiracy created by philanthropist Domino Lipolico and his henchwomen, the aforementioned snake goddess Valentina and the batwoman Impakta.

Where the world looks at Darna and sees Wonder Woman, you may watch this movie and see a lot of the plot of Superman with Narda leaving her small town to become a big city reporter, glasses as a disguise and all.

Valentina is over the top, which is great, as she's played by Pilar Pilapil and seems to be a high fashion disco villainess with an anthropomorphic snake named Vibora that must be seen to be believed. As for Impakta (Bing Loyzaga), she uses a teddy bear to lure a child to her doom and kills the kid. Filipino superhero action has no idea how to pull a punch.

In How the World Remade Hollywood, author Ed Glaser suggests something pretty incredible: while in the 70s, 80s and 90s Darna looked to Diana Prince for inspiration, our Wonder Woman started to seemingly look to her Filipino sister for costume advice and finally decided to leave behind the invisible plane and learn how to fly on her own.