The movie was about the life, triumphs, and success of the former president Emilio Aguinaldo.

Far from what we have witnessed from the previous movie about Heneral Antonio Luna,
Gregorio Del Pilar and Andres Bonifacio, the character of President Aguinaldo has more in
depth explanation on this movie compared to the previous ones.

Most of the people, especially after watching historical movies or reading articles about the
Philippine history, tend to believe that President Aguinaldo was indeed a traitor and a shame of
the country during his time. The movie had successfully given emphasis to the positive and
remarkable traits of the late president, unlike of what the usual history textbooks used to teach
us. The way they describe and portrayed the character of Emilio Aguinaldo is remarkably not as
exaggerated as what the other biographical movies do. They made use of extravagant
decorations and setting that truly resembling the ambiance during that time. The use of proper
lightings and costumes were also accorded to the theme that they were trying to portray. It was
quite hard to see how the epic fight scenes could have happened the way they did because of
some of the awkward speeds during fights scenes. They made use of sudden speed and slow
motion effects, which I think is not appropriate. They used the same technique in Asiong
Salonga movie and it was properly executed, but not for El Presidente.

There were also scenes where Aguinaldo saw some unusual creatures and the scene about
fortune-telling, which somewhat dictated the flow of the story of the movie. It started when
President Emilio Aguinaldo is captured by the Americans in Palanan. The film then transitioned
in 1886, as a young Emilio Aguinaldo is foretold his life by an old lady whom they were trying to
get the required tax. Failing to give any money to Aguinaldo, the old lady gave him a medallion
and a piece of cloth from the statue of Christ. He was told that he will love three women in his
life and one of which he will never marry. His friend Candido will be killed by a bullet and the
lady said, Aguinaldo will become king of a kingdom he will never rule.

However, the epic battle scenes that are were never felt real because of the dull facial
expressions that don't seem to come out right for the appropriate scene. Another thing is the
long duration of the movie which reached almost three hours. The opening credits were too
long. It took almost three to four minutes of flashing the names of almost all the cast and
production, which is not necessary at the beginning of the movie. We can also notice that
almost all of the cats were also present in the Asiong Salonga movie, and there were other
Estrada actors in it. The actor who portrayed the role of Aguinaldo was also using excessive
hand gestures that are quite distracting to the viewers. A considerable factor may be is the
costume worn by the actor it made him uncomfortable. Aside from the hand gestures, the body
posture was also so stiff but the tone of the voice does not clearly match it.

In one of the first scenes of El Presidente, young Emilio meets an old lady who happened to be
a fortune teller. What was so noticeable in the old lady is that the makeup was badly done.
Prosthetics used were not perfectly done that it became too obvious for the viewers to see that
a younger actress was portraying the role, who eventually reappeared at the latter part of the
movie. There were so many good old actresses in the industry whom they could have just used
in portraying the character.
Since the duration of the movie lasted for almost two hours, the viewers were expecting that the
long life of Emilio Aguinaldo, like what the old lady said, will be justified in the movie. Of course,
the movie focused based on the story-line that might have been derived from the collection of
articles, journals and textbooks about our history. But the movie was supposed to be more of
explaining the part, the reasons, the agendas of Emilio Aguinaldo most particularly in joining
Katipunan, the issue of being involved from Heneral Luna’s death, his admitted statement of
having Andres Bonifacio executed, his clear explanation of collaborating with the Japanese
conquerors, and his feud with Manuel Quezon during the Commonwealth era. Those things
were not sufficiently shown in the movie. Also, the character of his wife there was not given so
much emphasis.

If there were not so good reviews about the movie, of course there were still good points that
the viewers might actually have noticed. The topic itself was good because we all k now that
aside from the books that we used as reference, there were not enough source of information,
or either documentaries that we can watch about the life the President Aguinaldo. Most of the
young people nowadays only knew the fact that he was the first president of the republic of the
Philippines and other than that, no more. The center of attention of some of the film-makers was
focused on the famous heroes like Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio. Having this movie
produced, it will widen the understanding of the young people about the credibility and life of our
late president. The theme of the movie about nationalism is also relevant to the common Filipino
lives. Filipinos should at least take the time to know more about our culture and history by
reading enough sources and not just listening to hearsays. Having a deeper understanding
about our historical background will somehow give us a strong perspective on certain things.
The use of original soundtrack also made the movie more epic maybe because the orchestra
has a job well done on giving the appropriate epic theme for the movie. The use of proper
lightings can also be observed. It looks retro that it nearly resembles the ambiance during that
specific era. For the purpose of educating the students, it will give them more in-depth
knowledge about our late president, apart from what have learned in our history subject.

El Presidente is probably not the best hero film, but it was worth watching not because it
explains the life of our heroes, but also because it has morals there that we can learn and apply
in our daily lives. It also taught us that heroism is not purely just being brave and patriotic. Our
heroes also commit mistakes and these flaws also became the reason of their downfall. These
people are no different from us common people. We aren’t perfect, but we tend to do better at
the end of the day.