The villains of Lastikman

Viva Films’ Captain Barbell, the top-grosser in last year’s Metro Manila Film Festival (with now-Sen. Bong Revilla in the title role), featured the most number of special effects done organically (shot first and then later enhanced in the laboratory).

This year, Viva Films’ entry, Lastikman, will go down in movie history as the action-romance-fantasy film with the most number of 3-D computer graphic effects, calculated to thrill not only the kids but also the kids-at-heart.

Mark Bautista gets promoted to stardom reprising the role of a stretching superman first played years ago by the late Von Serna and recently by Vic Sotto. It’s directed by Mac Alejandre who megged Captain Barbell.

Besides the eye-popping special effects, Lastikman features perhaps two of the country’s most glamorous stars in the roles of villains, John Estrada and Cherie Gil, along with Danilo Barrios.

Direk Mac describes John’s character, Taong-Aso, as "very comfortable with his life as a villain," which can’t be said about Danilo, playing the son of the Taong-Aso, who hates being a villain but cannot do anything about it.

"The Taong-Aso (John) kills people, mostly women and children, and brings them home to Danilo," said direk Mac. "John is perfect for the role. It‘s a different John Estrada moviegoers will see in this movie."

Cherie plays Lastika, initially more powerful than Lastikman who got his powers from the same tree which granted Lastika her own powers.

"The fight scenes between Lastikman and Lastika are something else," said direk Mac. "Very exciting because they are both powerful. I won’t tell you who wins in the end."

It’s direk Mac’s first time to direct Mark Bautista whom he finds "naive and endearing, lovable like a typical probinsyano. He’s just right for the role of the boy who turns into Lastikman when the need arises. I did a workshop with Mark before the shooting and he’s good."

Playing Mark’s love interest is Sarah Geronimo whom direk Mac first directed in Captain Barbell (where Sarah plays Bong’s little sister).

"Sarah has improved a lot this past year," said direk Mac. "Dapat lang naman, because she had all of one year as a crash course in life."

Asked how different Lastikman is from Captain Barbell, direk Mac added, "Very different. Lastikman is very young and very hip, comprising of young characters."