Film / Garuda Superhero

Starring: Yusuf Mansur.

Garuda Superhero is Putaar Film's 2015 Tokusatsu directed by X Jo, with Yoyok Budi Santoso as cinematographer and produced by Dhoni Ramadhan. Created for Indonesian Tokusatsu market following the success of Bima Satria Garuda, this movie is an absolute contrast to The Raid for it's non-grounded action scenes and extremely full-blown usage of bluescreen CGI.

The story opens with the titular superhero defeating an army of nameless aliens, then it jumped back few years earlier when a destructively large asteroid is about hitting earth, things get worse when MAC, the asteroid destroyer device is hijacked by a terrorist group leaded by a man named King, and a young man named Bara (Played by Rizal Al Idrus) is genetically modified by Dr. Cipta (Wiwing Dirgantara) to become the titular superhero to against Durja him and his gang.

Planned to have sequel and the movie wasn't released internationally (yet), but the trailer is available on youtube.

Compare Cicak Man, a Malaysian movie released in the same year which has been argued by Rangga Adithia for having better special effect quality than Garuda and caused a slight flame war between Indonesian and Malaysian netizen, and Putaar film is accused by Robi Baskoro for the movie's laughable amount of plagiarism

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This film provides examples of:

• 11th-Hour Ranger: A scorch-faced man suddenly came to neutralize Zyu's superpower just few scenes before the final battle ends.
• Anachronic Order: The prequel is set a few years before the main story - with so little explanation that casual viewers might find it very confusing.
• Affably Evil: King is, actually, not evil at all - he's being a Decoy Leader on Durja's only to protect his son.
• The Ace: Garuda, he's good-looking, relatively smart and can take an entire army of aliens and mutants alone.
• Ax-Crazy: Durja, the bullet that stuck on his head has turn him so mad par with The Joker.
• America Saves the Day: Completely averted this trope, not surprising at all considering this is a non-american superhero movie.
• Apocalypse How: The asteroid might cause a class 6 destruction though Garuda Saves the day, so it didn't happen and there is a chance for a sequel to be made.
• Alliterative Name: "B"ara "D"erma.
• Artistic License – Biology: Dr. Cipta's explaination about his Super Serum is full of myths that contradict actual biology facts.
• Artistic License – Chemistry: How Dr. Cipta creates the Super Serum is full of method unpractical in Real Life chemistry.
• Artistic License – Economics: Any scene about the share market is blatantly full of meaningless economic babble.
• Artistic License – Law: Criminal in caliber of Durja king will be executed according to present day Indonesian law.
• Artistic License – Martial Arts: Contrast to The Raid, Garuda martial art scenes is basically martial gesture babbles since it not contains any in-depth martial skill from any arts yet claims the fighters as "expert martial artists"
• Anti-Air: Loco use one of it to destroy a DAT chopper.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Durja shown suffers deeply with the bullet that stuck in his head.
• All Monks Know Kung-Fu: A variation on this played by Bara learning Kung-Fu from Tibetan Monks.
• Aliens Speaking English: The aliens can speak Indonesian, and it's never explained why. Probably because they came from planet Bekasi.
• Attack Drone: Included in Loco's Arsenal, it alternatively functions as a Surveillance Drone.
• Animal-Themed Superbeing: Garuda is bird themed, obviously.
• Anti-Villain: King is filling the Decoy Leader position only because Durja threatens to kill his son.
• Badass Normal: Bara was pretty skillful even before he became a superhero.
• Bald of Evil: King, Double subverted when he's revealed to be a harmless Decoy Leader, the real leader Durja is wearing a wig all along and he's the true bald villain.
• Brains and Brawn: Dr. Cipta is the brain to Bara's brawn, although Bara is relatively intelligent.
• Black Comedy: The scene where children give Garuda peanuts to aliens is an allusion of Indonesian past where hungry peasant kids gave Dutch soldiers their harvest for attention.
• Badass Normal: The titular superhero is already a badass even before Dr. Cipta genetically mutate him.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: King and Durja are implied to lead in command at first, subverted when King is revealed to be a Decoy Leader.
• Big Good: The scorch-faced man, with his ability to neutralize villain superpower, is implied to be this.

• Bat Signal: Soared to the sky at the end, not to call the hero but to honor his sacrifice.
• Becoming the Mask: Averted with king, he's not turned evil after being a Decoy Leader for a long time.
• Big Bad: The prologue has the alien leader, the actual story has king, subverted when it's reveled that Durja is the real king, thus making him the real Big Bad.
• Chest Insignia: The Garuda symbol.
• Captain Patriotic: Garuda's name taken from Indonesia's national symbol, which is ironically taken from Indian mythology.
• Car Fu: Zacky and Bara's car is strong enough to break a concrete wall - for some reason.
• Classical Elements Ensemble: The Bad Guys, in a metaphorical sense. Zyu is Wind, she's the fastest and nimblest of the team. Gull is Earth, he has a hard-as-rock body earthquake-esque techniques. Loco is Fire, the most aggressive member, even worse than Gull. King is water; he's the most passive member of the team and... he's actually not as evil as we might think. Durja is the fifth element, void, since his heart is so dark that he cares about nothing but world destruction.
• Cringe Comedy: The type of humor sense this movie have.
• The Chosen One: Dr.Cipta says Bara got all the ideal aspect to be a hero.

• The Cameo:
  • Julia Perez as a random Bystander.
  • Agus Salim As Jusuf Kalla.
  • Yusuf Mansur as religion minister.
• Code of Honour: The aliens got one - bow down to anyone who defeat their leader.
• Car Bomb: Used by Loco to destroy Captain Dipo's surveillance van - Dipo survives thanks to Plot Armor.
• The Commissioner Gordon: Captain Dipo is this to Garuda.
• Cruel Mercy: Zyu let Captain Dipo live after their first battle because she wanted to see him suffer the loss.
• Dark Action Girl: Zyu, complete with tons of action girl stereotypes. She remains bad until her death on Captain Dipo's hand, no High-Heel–Face Turn indeed.
• Dark Is Evil: Zigzagged. Nearly all the villains wear dark-themed clothing, but the the titular hero also wears a dark costume.
• Decoy Leader: King was never a bad guy, he just acting as a terrorist leader to keep Durja away from hurting his son.
• Double Weapon: Loco's twinblade is originally able to be fused into one, but the actor refused such idea because the wielding practice is relatively complicated.
• Deutragonist: Arguably its can be Dr. Cipta, who provides Bara's need or Captain Dipo who 2nd most action screentime as a non-villain.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Little kids may consider the alien leader to be this, but technically it's Durja since the prologue battle against the aliens is set after the Asteroid incident.
• Dumb Muscle: Compared to Durja, or Zyu nor Loco, Gull's fighting skill is barely tactical.
• Decapitated Army: The aliens bow down and retread after Garuda defeats their commander.
• Deus ex Machina: In the final battle, a scorch-faced man came from nowhere to neutralize Zyu and Durja's superpower with a serum-gun.
• Expy: Just like Sri Asih being a Wonder Woman Wannabe and Kapten Indonesia being a Captain America expy, Garuda is an expy to an american superhero (you know who) but the Expyholic feast doesn't end there, see Fountain of Expies down below.
• Evil Cripple: Durja got bullet stuck on his head just like Renard.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: At his imprisonement, Durja says that he miss Zyu (who has already been killed by captain Dipo at that moment.
• Enemy Mine: Bara goes on meditation in Tibet because he feel betrayed knowing that the scientists hide the fact about his childhood, until Bara's got personal revenge on Durja while Dr. Cipta is hunted by his men - one reason for them to work toghether.
• Embarassing Nickname: Rizal Al Idrus name is parodied to Rizal Alaydrus by the crew - hell, the name even make it to the opening credits!
• Elite Mook: Essentialy, the alien commander doesn't have any notable difference compared to his mooks - he's only a bit stronger.
• Everybody Owns a Ford: Bara owns a Ferrari on his Garudacave, and both Flo and Lena drive one.

• Fate Worse than Death: Zyu considers the prison as this, so she resists arrest and is killed by Captain Dipo.
• Failure Hero: Captain Dipo spent most of his screentime getting ass-kicked by his foes - the only battle he win is his last battle against Zyu when he managed to kill her.
• Foregone Conclusion: The prologue is set after the main story - we already knew Garuda is going to survive the asteroid blast.
• Fanservice: For the girls, Bara shows his nice muscular body on some occasion.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Villains:
  • Durja is extremely Melancholic
  • Gull is Choleric
  • Loco is Sanguine with sides of chloleric
  • Zyu is Leukine
  • King is Phlegmatic and actually not a bad guy
• The Faceless: None of the aliens shown their face, probably because rendering alien face is hard for X-Jo team.
• The Gimmick: Full-blown Bluescreen CGI is what distinguish this movie from other Indonesian flick - too bad it's poorly executed.
• Gas Mask Mooks: Everyone under the alien commander is this, the commander is masked as well.
• Gratuitous English: Mostly spoken by Loco and Zyu.
  "*Put glasses on ground* takut pecah, pemberian istri (Im afraid to broke my wife's gift)."
• Gun Nut: Loco loves guns more than anything else in the world.
• Guns Akimbo: Loco did this with two machine gun to assasinate King and Bara's dad at once - Bara's dad survives though.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Garuda voluntarily take the MAC bomb to destroy the meteor with very little chance to survive the blast - he survives.
• Healing Shiv: Used by Dr.Cipta to heal Bara's dad at the hospital.
• How Do I Shot Web?: Averted, after empowered by Dr.Cipta, Garuda got Instant Mastery of his flight and super strength ability with ease.
• Heroic Build: Bara's body is this.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Afterthe Gathotkacha rocket destroyed by Durja's gang, Garuda flies straight to the asteroid to destroy it with the MAC - he survives though.
• Hulk Speak: Gull, he's The Brute anyway.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Durja may scream loud with furious anger anytime.
• Historical Domain Character: Ir. Soekarno appears in one portrait.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Inverted, only two character shown to use sword (Loco with twinblade and Durja with a beam saber) and both are bad guys.
• Handguns: Captain Dipo's and Zyu's weapon of choiche - thus make them a destined match.
• Irony: Garuda is dubbed as Indonesia's first sueprhero movie, while Garuda symbol is actually taken from Indian mythology, and there's a rocket named Gathotkacha which taken from actual Indonesian mythology - they should switch name instead.
• I Call It "Vera": Loco's call his rocket launcher "Baby".
• I Hate You, Vampire Dad: King's son hate him for having a really bad reputation and turn him into a hated street kid - until Captain Dipo sent his last message that his father is actually a good guy and remember him until his last breath
• I Lied: Durja never intended to let Bara's dad go, as he order Loco to ambush him after the transaction - thankfully, he survived such fatal wounds.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: The assasins trio can't even land a single bullet on Dr.Cipta - even at very close range.
• I Surrender, Suckers: Zyu tries to pull this at Dipo and fails mortally.
• It's Personal: Bara's motivation to became superhero - at first.
• Kick Them While They're Down: Averted, Zyu commands Gull to not finish Captain Dipo at his weak state for pleasure.
• Kick the Dog: When Durja tortures the leaders with poison gas.
• Laser Blade: Durja use this to kill his failed henchmen - he never lose it so it's a plot hole that he wasn't use his beam saber ability on his fight against Garuda.
• Ms. Fanservice: Zyu's bodysuit is quite arousing, considering this is marked as "All age" movie in Indonesia.
• Mythology Gag: The Gathotkacha rocket is named after titular mythology character.
• Most Common Super Power: Garuda's super power consists of flying and super strength...err, how many times we see it before? thank you based Super Man.
• Meaningful Name: Cipta means "create" in Indonesian and he's the one who create the superserum.
• The Man Behind the Man: Durja is this to King's Decoy Leader status.
• Multi-Ranged Master: Loco's specialty, also able to use twin blades as well.
• Machete Mayhem: Loco's Twinblade is essentialy machetes.
• Muggle Best Friend: Zacky is this to Bara.
• Made of Iron: The mutants is obviously this, but captain Dipo deserves a special mention since he's a normal human and can somehow survive Gull's megaton punches without any fatal fractures.
• MST: Some Indonesian movie critics planned to to this to Garuda superhero when the dvd is out.
• No-Sell: Captain Dipo's punches won't tickle Gull at all thanks to his Brute Stereotypes.
• Non-Action Guy: Dr. Cipta, he spent most of his screentime running from three assasins Durja sent to kill him and may not survive it without Bara's help.
• My Parents Are Dead: Every Batman ripoff needs a Batman trope.
• Non-Indicative Name: Gull does not posses any seagull traits.
• Outlaw Couple: Zyu is implied to be this with Durja, since Durja mention that he miss her on prison - but perhaps it just his insanity.
• Omni Glot: the nameless alien force is implied to be this since they can speak Indonesian.
• Parental Abandonment: Bara's mom handed him to Derma family after her husband got killed by a robber - she dies of illness few moments later.
• Plot Armor: Captain Dipo is a normal human who can dodge a barrage of alien lasers and surviving an earth-shattering brute punch without any mortal damage for some reason.
  • Oh, and Dr. Cipta, despite his sickness and being a normal human, can somehow survive falling from a hotel 4th floor without any serious injuries
• Gratuitous Product Placements: Suffers a pitiful amount of this, justified by the old saying that sci-fi movies need a huge amount of money to be produced especially in a third-world nation like Indonesia, sponsors includes:
  • Casablanca bodyspray◊
  • Pepsodent Sensitive Expert◊
  • Gunadarma◊
  • Not pictured: Garuda peanuts and Yamaha though, trust me, you'll be seeing both product A LOT throughout the movies especially Garuda penuts for... punny reasons..
• Power Nullifier: The scorch-faced man serum gun is this.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: The assasins who hunt Dr.Cipta.
• Running Gag: Though might not intended to be a gag, the Garuda peanut product palacement count as this due to the pun effect.
• Red Shirt: Nearly every single DAT personnel on this movie have no other purpose other than to be killed by the Aliens and Durja's gang. Redshirt Army indeed.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: The Introduction of Mac, Gathotchacha rocket and it's security system is full of this.
• Shout-Out: It looks like X-Jo is trying so frickin hard to be Indonesian Quentin Tarantino of sci-fi movies.
  • Asteroid that might wipes out our entire planet, Armageddon◊ Much?
  • The Nameless alien mothership looks "borrowed" from Wachowski Starship◊
  • Loco is probably a Deadpool◊ clone.
  • Bara's workout method is based on similar method used by two other superheroes◊.
  • Nearly all of Zyu fighting montage is blatantly ripped from Black Widow◊, bonus point by the obvious fact that Zyu is Black Widow's Expy.
  • Durja king's appearance is basically The Mandarin◊ minus hair.
  • Not just that X-Jo "borrowed" Iron man 3's Mandarin and Iron Man 2's Black Widow, he made an exact copy of a scene◊ from the first movie as well.
  • Yet another◊ Iron Man "homage".
  • Also the jet vs fleet Curb-Stomp Battle looks directly ripped from Independence Day◊.
  • The annihilation scene◊ counts as well.
  • Bara's Shadow boxing training is basically Real Steel◊ minus Atom.
  • Garuda's costume and the death of Bara's real parents is absolutely Batman-esque - scroll down for more Batman references.
  • Bara's push up is basically Bruce Wayne's push up from TDKR that slightly improved◊ for the Rule of Cool.
  • Wayne's stepfather (Up) VS Bara's stepfather (Bottom)◊ - close enough indeed.
  • Is that Wayne's private jet?◊
  • X-Jo is a gamer◊ as well, yaay!
  • A superhero movie won't look cool without borrowing some aspect from The Avenger◊.
  • And it's sequel◊
  • And just like Tarantino, no feast is complete without some Japanese◊ dishes◊ on the table.
  • Don't forget to credit Coloumbia Pictures for this◊, X-Jo!
  • Probably in the future, X-Jo will have his own Tv.Trope shout out page just like QT, amen.
• Signature Headgear: Dr.Ciptas hat is quite fancy - it's his signature accessory.
• Steven Ulysses Perhero: Bara Derma is an adoption name, his real name is Garuda Nusantara.
• Super Serum: Is what turning Bara Derma and the villains into mutants.
• The Smurfette Principle: Zyu is the only girl on her team.
• Split Personality: Considering the insanity caused by the bullet inside his head, Durja might have this.
• Strong as They Need to Be: Garuda despite lack experience on using his superhero powers is suddenly strong enough to defeat Durja's power-expierienced gang.
• Sdrawkcab Name: "Loco" here is not merely mexican for crazy, it's also intended to be the anagram for "Cool".
• Sword and Gun: Loco's fighting style.
• Stay in the Kitchen: The male characters discourage Flo from the action at some point of the story.
• Stock Ninja Weaponry: Bara uses shuriken as his weapon at Tibet.
• Standardized Leader: The characterization of the nameless Indonesian president is barely one-dimensional.
• Swat Team: Yep, just like ESWAT, Anti-skill and such, DAT is just another SWAT knockoff.
• Small Name, Big Ego: X-Jo is accused for this - trying to be the first Indonesian superhero movie director yet fails miserably in so many vital aspect.
• Trigger-Happy: oh Loco...
• Terrible Trio: Both Gull + Zyu + Loco and the nameless assasins trio counts.
• Two Guys and a Girl: Zyu-Loco-Gull Terrible Trio.
• Too Dumb to Live: After Zyu is downpowered by the scorch-faced man, she's still thinking she's powerful enough to defeat a group of full armed DAT officers alone - resulting her death at the hand of captain Dipo.
• Techno Babble: Everytime the cast talks about Mutants, Super Serums, Aliens, MAC and the Gathotkacha Rocket, Expect this.
• Unskilled, but Strong: See above.
• Villains Act, Heroes React: Both the prologue and the main story has this plot.
• Villainous Breakdown: Durja is devastated in the prison.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Played on Durja's grayish wig - fascinating variation.

• Wolverine Claws: Gull is planned to have this - rejected since it's considered to violent for the target demographic.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Averted on Zyu.
• Women Drivers: Flo and Lena.
• Walking Spoiler: Any tropes connected to King might spoil his true identity as a Decoy Leader.
• White Shirt of Death: Subverted then completely averted - even though all the scientists on the lab raid scene wears white and poisoned by Durja, Durja insanity make him give those poor scientists antidote and leave them alive.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Loco immediate kill King after the mutants thinks they don't need a Decoy Leader anymore.
• You Have Failed Me: Durja executes his hencmen by a beam saber for failing.

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