Review of 1521: Messy Mission to Mactan

July 5, 2024

6 weeks before the Battle of Mactan, Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan (Danny Trejo) and his men were welcomed in Cebu by the Datu Humabon (Floyd Tena) and his queen Humanai (Larissa Buendia). Among the visitors were the Datu of Mactan Lapu-Lapu (Michael Copon), who was vocal about his resistance to ally himself with the Spanish, seeing them not as traders, but as enemies who want to enslave the islanders. 

At the welcome party, Magellan's slave translator Enrique (Hector David Jr.) spotted the young babaylan (or shaman) of Mactan Diwata (Bea Alonzo) and was instantly attracted to her.  Magellan assigned Enrique to Mactan to gather information about them, as well as to convince them to accept Spain's offer to convert them into Catholicism. Enrique and Diwata fall in love with each other despite the animosity growing between their two camps. 

This film about the historically-significant Battle of Mactan is a Fil-American production. According to IMDb and Wikipedia, it was directed, shot and edited by an American Michael Barder. However, in the local poster, publicity materials and official website, direction was credited to Fil-Am actor Michael Copon, who played Lapu-Lapu. The story was by Francis B. Lara Ho, a Filipino-American born in Iloilo City, who also produced this film. However, the screenplay was written by American Mary Krell-Oishi. While the actors playing the Spaniards (Trejo, Mandylor, David) were not from Spain, Filipino characters were notably all portrayed by Filipinos.

Historically accurate or not, Michael Copon and his chiseled pecs and torso made for an imposing Lapu-Lapu. Being too girlish and careless, Bea Alonzo did not act like the wise respected babaylan Diwata was supposed to be. Vic Romano made full use of his big eyes to express Udong's displeasure over Enrique's closeness to his sister Diwata. Maricel Laxa was Udong loyal wife Ahmani, who was also supportive of Diwata's dangerous crush.

The Spanish officers were portrayed to be one-dimensional villains -- European colonialists who thought everyone else in the world were beasts they have to subjugate. . With a face like Danny Trejo, this version of Ferdinand Magellan certainly did not look trustworthy. As military leader Lorenzo, Costas Mandylor played the typical bully, who did not think twice about beating down those he considered inferior in stature and spitting on them.

The main exception was Enrique. He was born in Malacca and raised as a slave. He had interactions with traders from Cebu which made him familiar with the language. For this ability, he was brought along to be the translator. Personally, he advocated for peaceful cooperation between the Filipinos and Spain. However, as a slave, he was forced to toe the line and obey his master's wishes. His secret romance with Diwata was yet another problem. 

There was one very powerful scene that made the Spaniards look like opportunistic monsters -- the scene depicting the first Catholic baprism and Mass held in Cebu. This was supposed to be a religious occasion, however it ended up being a potent political manifesto of Spain's superiority. Everything started out calmly and solemnly, building up to the demand that the natives kneel before Catholic icons and renounce their own. Floyd Tena's Raja Humabon a.k.a. Carlos stood out here.

It was unfortunate that for the rest of the film, certain aspects of the cinematography and editing, production design, costumes and hair and makeup were haphazard and amateur-looking, making some scenes unintentionally funny. The Filipinos and the Spaniards were delivering lines English, yet they still needed a translator, making everything look and sound more contrived than it already was. Using Filipino and Spanish would have been much better.  

The historical scenes were bookended by present-day scenes of Alonzo and David at a beach party. We do not know who they were or how they were related, as we only hear a female voice-over talking about the idylls of being in love. As Alonzo's character fell asleep at the hotel, she suddenly (and inexplicably) had a dream about herself back in 1521 Mactan. She would then wake up from this dream at the end. Reincarnation, really?? Groan. 4/10.