Angel Aquino as Darna or Hippolyta?

by Julius Roden

Posted on INQUIRER.net Cybervision

September 02, 2009

Without a doubt, some viewers who had seen the pilot episode of Darna on GMA wonder how Angel Aquino would look like if she wore the superheroine’s red costume.

A village attacked by four female monsters seemed old school for a scenario since the writers wanted to base it on the story from the comic book. Francine Prieto, Nadine Samonte, Maggie Wilson and Ehra Madrigal were the beautiful actresses to play the villains. This was the first part of the pilot episode.

Caught in the middle, Angel Aquino had transformed to Darna even if it was in the open air. Her enemies witnessed everything but viewers never got a glimpse of Angel wearing the sexy red outfit.

As the story goes on, I’m not sure if many of us have noticed Angel’s new outfit. Well, she is somewhat the caretaker of the magical white stone. I don’t know if her dress is meant to make her look like a white lighter or if I’m not mistaken, she is Queen Hippolyta’s rip-off.

By the way, to those who are not familiar with DC superheroes, Hippolyta is the queen of the amazons and the mother of Diana Prince (Wonder Woman).

Darna, now played by Marian Rivera, will have to regain all the white stone’s powers stolen by her four enemies. Like Diana Prince in Wonder Woman, unable to fly but was later on given the powers of it by the gods. The writers of Darna just changed some tidbits.

We can also sense a touch of Spider-Man in the show. It’s funny how Raymart Santiago (a Filipino actor) tries on making himself effective for his role, obviously a Jonah Jameson rip-off.

As most of us know, Darna is a copycat of Wonder Woman with a little bit of “Thor” and “Captain America” ingredient. However, I don’t want to dwell so much on that since there’s nothing we can do about it anymore. Darna is already Darna.

The show is undeniably impressive not only because of its 24P TV mode format, upgraded special effects; specifically, when Darna flies up, up, up and away, and of course, the director of photography whose lighting technique brandishes more drama. Cool.

Personally, I love some of its visual presentation like the scenes wherein audience gets to see the actor’s silhouette, camera shots making you feel like you’re lurking or eavesdropping. The rest is still improving.

Finally, GMA 7 is now keeping its promise unlike those deceptive teasers past shows had before.

One of the worst nightmarish TV series on GMA 7 back in year 2007 was “Zaido”—a Filipino Hikari Sentai wannabe loaded with pathetic drama provided by yours truly; Lorna Tolentino and Dexter Doria.

Angel Locsin’s Darna was a mess with freaking aliens invading third world countries. Unbelievable.

Now, Marian Rivera’s Darna is earthly and many still hope that the writers will keep it that way. Please don’t ever come up with amazons, gladiators and gods later on.

Actress/model Angel Aquino is also busy doing independent films these days.

Check out her movie “Only God Knows” on YouTube.

She also starred in the movie “Crying Ladies” with Hilda Koronel.