Formerly, Maria (Cristine Reyes) was the top assassin of the Black Rose cartel, but eventually she grew tired of killing and wanted out. And when at one hit she was supposed to kill a mother and child, she instead killed one of her partners and immobilized the other - who just happened to be her boyfriend, Kaleb (Germaine De Leon). But that's all in the past now, she has since faked her own death and now is a happily married housewife and mother. But then, when Maria's husband (Guji Lorenzana) organizes a re-election rallye for a politician (Johnny Revilla) Kaleb's supposed to spy on to eventually take out, Kaleb spots Maria in the crowd. He sends his goons after Maria, but she's skilled enough to evade them - only for Kaleb and company to show up at her house and kill her husband and daughter (Johanna Rish Tongcua), and they would kill her as well, but she makes good an escape, and manages to hide out at her old mentor Greg (Ronnie Lazaro). And from there she plans revenge, going not only against Kaleb but the whole Black Rose cartel run by mighty kingpin De la Vega (Freddie Webb). At first she only takes out small units of the cartel, like their drug kitchen, and she deliberately draws attention to herself, so much so that Kaleb is able to track her and send his best assassin (Jennifer Lee) after Maria - suffice to say Maria prevails, having anticipated that move. And this helps creating unrest in De la Vega's cartel, as his right hand man Victor (KC Montero) has long vied with Kaleb for the attention of their boss, and now that Kaleb starts sliding, he sees his chance and is willing to go to the last. Eventually though, Maria decides to hit the cartel full force. But however trained and armed she might be, there's the distinct chance that she might be outnumbered and out-armed ...

Maria isn't the re-invention of the wheel, especially storywise, but that said it's a really solid action flick, one that's well-structured, briskly paced, and full of nice action setpieces. Plus, even for someone who doesn't subscribe to the concept of vengeance (like me), the story is very relatable. On top of that, the thing is kept at a small enough scale to not just veer off into action overkill but letting story, action and characters support one another.

Pretty decent genre entertainment, actually.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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