Kidlat flies high

We have a confession to make. Whenever a teleserye is announced to start airing, we practically skip the first few episodes because we know these will ultimately consist of the backstory to the main event, and show the leads as children. However, due to the presence of Christopher de Leon, Spanky Manikan and Assunta de Rossi, we decided to watch the airing of TV5’s much vaunted, highly expensive fantaserye Kidlat and we’re glad we did.

Watching the story unfold dramatically through a lightning storm, we were happy to see Assunta once again as a mother willing to undergo everything for her son who will grow up to be Derek Ramsay, the superhero. Although both mom and son were hit by lightning, mom dies and son Voltaire grows up, forced to live a double life. We hope this short appearance of Assunta will lead to more substantial roles in the future.

Of course, we always look forward to Spanky however short his part. As caretaker of Assunta’s son while she is having herself de-frogged of the electricity that she emits, Spanky gives meat to what could have been a complete none-role.

We love Christopher as the mad scientist with a special participation billing. It is a difficult one since there is always the threat of one overdoing it. But Boyet has a purpose. He needs electric power to save his son from dying. The son, played by Baron Geisler, survives, but he lives confined to a wheelchair that makes him hate Voltaire forever. We look forward to this battle of the Good and the Bad, which both actors Derek and Baron could do so well. 

It had already been stated during the controversial transfer of Derek from ABS-CBN to TV5 that apart from the sports aspect of the shows dangled before him was the promise of being given something unexpected. And this was Kidlat, a Pinoy Superman-Spiderman combined that would make attractive early-evening viewing for both children and adults. Kidlat tells the story of a costumed Pinoy superhero, whose other persona is that of an ordinary car mechanic.

The launch of the series was similarly different, done a few weeks before Christmas via the unveiling of a giant billboard in Guadalupe with Derek himself flying over the billboard in full display of his Kidlat costume.

The costume itself has been an attraction in itself — a royal blue and yellow costume designed by a Hollywood-based designer whose past assignments included X-Men and Daredevil. To guarantee a tight fit, we are told that Derek had to go through eight grueling hours of fitting his body and face in a cast. The designer himself stayed in Manila for two weeks during the fitting of the costume.

Of course, we can expect the love angle to be pursued with Ritz Azul who falls in love with Kidlat, and Nadine Samonte as the other love interest. For most of his appearances, Derek has been known for his sexy love triangles that require him to bare and have love scenes with his leading ladies as in the two blockbusters, No Other Woman (2011) and A Secret Affair (2012).

Combining steamy love scenes and action might be a problem, however, depending on the audience one would want to hit. Judging from the press launch of the series where the TV5 PR department requested guests to bring children as audience, that means a GP rating for Kidlat. Which would mean he could follow the career path of action icon Fernando Poe Jr., attracted and attractive to women without romping around in bed.

We understand from Lolit Solis that it was the dream of Derek to appear in the FPJ movie Totoy Bato. If he is truly serious about this, he should ask TV5 to start getting the rights to this film soon.

Directed by Mike Tuviera, Kidlat airs weeknights at 6:45, and also stars Wendell Ramos as Graba Man, one of the many villains Kidlat will have to face. Also in the cast are Jay Manalo, Gerard Pizarras, Nanette Inventor, Lou Veloso, Andrea del Rosario, Erika Padilla, Rainier del Castillo, Juliana Mendoza, Solomon de Guzman, Jerald Napoles, Lian Valentin, Joy Viado, Koko De Santos, Junyka Santarin, BJ Forbes and Chanda Romero.

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